CHAPTER 172: A VERY DANGEROUS ORGANIZATION

As Elliot was about to respond, he heard the bell inside the ring, indicating that he had only a few minutes left to get in.

"Mr. Steward, I’ll tell you about it later. For now, I need you to do me a favor," he said.

Steward stared at him for several seconds before nodding. "Okay, what is it?" he asked.

He then took out a small piece of paper with some detailed descriptions and a drawing of the dark, black clothing belonging to the organization that had been bothering him for quite some time, and handed it to him.

"Can I ask you to find out who the organization is that uses this type of clothing and that logo?"

Steward took the paper and read it. The more he read, the more he frowned. Suddenly, his eyes widened. Surprise struck his mind and body.

This gesture did not escape Louis. He knew that he knew something. But it was not the time to ask him questions.

He left shortly after, telling him to let him know if he found anything.

The whole group finally entered the ring. The members of the House of Fire were waiting for them, impatiently.

Meanwhile, Steward crumpled the small piece of paper in his hand and walked to the window to watch the fight. The second master had also seen what was on that paper, so he approached.

"Are you going to tell him who they are?" he asked.

Steward did not answer immediately. He looked at each of his boys preparing to fight, but his mind was in chaos.

His mind wandered, and he wondered what he should do. He thought about asking the Leader, but it was not a good idea. Although he is usually quite carefree, this time, he even sent Anna to train Elliot.

He valued him, and it wasn’t impossible that he would start a war just to defend him. Sending Anna to enemy territory without saying anything was already a declaration of war.

"What would you do?" he asked suddenly.

"Haha. I don’t know. I’m afraid only the Leader would know the answer. But if he knows about it, maybe it’s because they’re targeting him, right?"

"Yes. I recently heard rumors that there were sightings of their members in the city, but I didn’t want to believe it."

"Oh. They must have many allies among the local guilds then. They’ve managed to hide themselves very well."

"That’s what makes it problematic. Although now it makes sense that they’re stealing corpses and kidnapping people. With that background, anything is possible."

"That’s still a capital sin, you know? Should we report it?"

"Tsk." Steward felt angry just thinking about it. "Those bastards aren’t going to believe us. Even when we reported the sightings during the conflict with SkyDome, they turned a blind eye."

"Haha. Maybe it’s not that they don’t believe us," said the Second Master.

Steward glanced at him and smiled. "I’ve thought about that too. They’re in cahoots."

"Haha..."

"The thing is, I don’t understand it," said Steward. "Why would they collude with the former Owners of these Lands? Why betray their Heroes? When Ancestor Lee came to these lands, it still took him so much effort to get rid of those bastards, but now..."

Steward shook his head in frustration and didn’t want to finish his words.

The Second Master’s eyes flashed. "Wait, we don’t need to tell them explicitly," he said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Let’s just send him to the Ancestral Library. There, he can discover everything on his own. Wouldn’t that be easier for him to take in?"

Steward nodded gently, thoughtfully. "You mean we should hide what happened to his father, right? Although it’s just a suspicion we’ve had since then, it wouldn’t be wrong to think that those guys had something to do with his disappearance."

"We don’t need to hide anything from him; we just don’t tell him. He can connect the dots there when he realizes what kind of organization they are and what they’ve been doing."

"Hmm." He looked thoughtful as he listened. He hadn’t realized it, but it made sense.

Why would he need to tell him about it? It’s not a certainty, after all. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with seeing that logo again, and he hadn’t thought it through properly.

But sending him to the Library would also be a good idea, so he could study the history of the past. Besides, if he went with Jenna, he could take it all in more easily.

Thinking this, Steward’s mind cleared, and he smiled.

"All right. Then we’ll use the tickets to that place for the two of them. Get everything ready for this weekend."

"Very well."

After that, they focused on watching the fight.

--

Neither group had spoken when they entered the ring. The House of Fire had a lot to say, but they fell silent as soon as they saw the Thoran Twins.

Those twins commanded respect wherever they went.

They didn’t think Elliot was a match for them, as he had recently participated in a small, insignificant tournament. But those two... plus that woman, were dangerous.

But even though they remained silent, their menacing glances struck each member of the Angelic Wave Guild.

They had one pure swordsman and one lancer, whose attack power was astonishing, and a good ability to deal sustained damage per minute, thanks to the arts he had learned.

A Resistance Mage also had spectacular footwork with the two main attackers. The team was complemented by a Soul Mage and one considered special.

There aren’t many of them, but they belong to the "Skill System," a Hybrid Archer.

He can launch ranged magic attacks as well as physical attacks. They are not often used for these battles, but the House of Fire thought using him was a good idea this time.

And it made a lot of sense.

Louis’ group only had physical attackers.

In fact, it was the least balanced group in all the Leveled Leagues, along with the Broken Leaf group.

There were four swordsmen and one attacker with destructive power.

As such, both ranged attackers could be extremely useful in fighting them.

The problem for them was that the Angelic Wave group specialized in advancing. They exploited gaps in their opponents’ defenses to reach ranged attackers.

So it was difficult to say whether the House of Fire’s strategy would work.

And they were also overlooking one thing.

The Angelic Wave team was like that because they had a special player.

A very special one.

A summoner.

Elliot didn’t want to hold back too much this time.

He immediately summoned several of his summons.

The Mage, the Goblin Tank, and the rat.

Although they weren’t too powerful, they could cover the deficiencies of such an unbalanced team if necessary.

When they saw the summons appear, the battle finally began.

The Resistance Mage of the House of Fire roared at the front and activated his abilities.

"Attention, Fire Giant!"

He slammed his fists into the ground, causing it to shake and rumble with fire. The heat spread to everyone in front of him, which he used to attract the attention of all his rivals.

It looked like a control spell but belonged to the Resistance category because it struck the mind through heat.

The heat became irritating to those who felt it, and that irritability created anger, which made them want to remove the tank from the arena first, as it was too difficult to fight with so much irritability.

The swordsman and the spearman jumped to position themselves right behind him. They would attack the moment Angelic Wave did, taking advantage of the opportunity of such a good tank they had.

The other two were attacking from behind. This left the rival group with no choice but to attack.

They had to defend themselves. They had to do something about the heat and take down those attackers from behind.

Elliot’s tank was the first to move, jumping forward to face the rival tank while activating his ability. The huge shield he created soon collided with the tank and lost the first encounter, but it held firm at the front.

Still, it might not be for long.

The two attackers behind were prepared to attack and take it down in an instant, while the first arrow and the first spell from the ranged attacker finally came out.

That’s when Andrew and Jenna jumped forward. They couldn’t help but fall prey to the tank’s ability, but it wasn’t serious.

The attack on the tank was brutal.

"Now!" shouted the enemy tank as it covered its entire body in fire and attacked Andrew and Jenna, who were just arriving.

At that moment, the wizard and the archer fired at the two in front.

A huge fire arrow flew at high speed from a bow, and a huge fire "axe" fell from the sky, seeking Jenna’s body.

But then, something happened.

Four fire spells came from behind the group and collided with those powerful spells. Although Elliot’s mage was not as strong as those two, its spell was not meant to counteract it, but to explode on minimal contact.

So a huge explosion that slowed down the attacks and destroyed part of them occurred above everyone.

At the same time, the tank could see someone running past him and crossing without any problems.