With just one bad item drop Letisia and the Clarentum inquisitors lost control of the box. Once the treasure has vanished the rest of the participants that weren’t incapacitated retreated, dragging their downed teammates with them.

However, Letisia herself had other plans.

Feeling humiliated over the fact she lost the advantage she could not help but vent on the person that caused her to fail; William Wright. Blinded by her anger, she decided that the best course of action was to attack him head on.

“You damn worm!” Letisia screamed as she prepared to cast a spell, but before she could gather enough mana to do so, Frieda stopped her.

“What is the meaning of this Frieda? Get out of my way!” Letisia insisted.

“My Lady, we must not waste any more time with these people. Fighting them now will only be a wasted effort.” Frieda explained as Josef and Ronald hold back and defend them from William’s friends.

Letisia’s face twisted in anger, she wanted to berate Frieda for daring to talk back, but ultimately, reason took over and she realized that Frieda was right.

Letting out a huge sigh, Letisia managed to calm herself down and regain her composure. She looked to Frieda and gave her a nod.

“I understand. Thank you Frieda.”

“You are welcome my lady.” Frieda then bowed. Letisia then raised her head and immediately gave out orders to the rest of her group.

“Sir Ronald and Josef, let us retreat and regroup. We need not deal with these pests right now.” She declared.

“Yes my lady!” The two men immediately replied with vigor in their voice.

“Oh look so you’re all just going to run away like a bunch of scaredy cats!” Julia shouted as she fired off a spell in their direction that was easily blocked by Letisia’s prism barrier.

“Who asked for your opinion scum?” Josef fired back. “You’re simply not worth our time, now get lost!” he continued.

“That’s some tough talk for people who just “lost” to mere worms.” Mary replied, her voice filled with sarcasm.

“Ignore them.” Letisia commanded. “Are you ready Frieda?” She asked

“Yes my lady, leave it to me.” She then cocked her left hand backward as if preparing for a big swing. “Rushing gale!” Frieda shouted as she swung her hand forward.

True to the name of the spell, it simply created a strong torrent of wind in front of Letisia’s group. The wind then caused the sand all around to rise up in the air and obscure all vision.

William and his group stepped back in order to avoid getting swept up in the relatively strong wind current, and by the time the sand had subsided, Letisia and the rest had disappeared.

“Welp, they’re gone now.” William said as he kicked the sand in front of him.

“Honestly things went better than I expected.” Sharn interjected. “At the very least, their disappearance has also given us some ample time to think about our next moves.”

William then let out a loud sigh and shook his head.

“I feel like all the time we used planning ahead for this festival went to waste.” he complained. “The moment we got here everything fell apart.”

“We did one of the things we planned though.” Mary replied.

“We managed to distract them long enough for the item time limit to be used up, and causing it to slip out of their hands.” Mary explained. “So cheer up! we actually did something you know.”

“I guess you’re right.” William agreed. He then took out his ID from his pocket and opened the map once more only to find that the box hasn’t shown up anywhere yet.

“Huh I expected that thing to pop up instantly.” He said as he turned off the map again and returned his ID. “It seems that making the box disappear can also waste our time.”

“One more thing to worry about.” Julia then hung her head in resignation. “Why must the headmaster make things so full of randomness?” She complained.

“He and the rest of the student body are probably enjoying our struggle.” Sharn pointed out.

“Yeah, it would be boring for him if he made things too easy.” William agreed while shaking his head. He was thinking that this festival is starting to feel more and more of a pain.

He then held his chin up and slapped his face with both his hands, trying to make him regain focus and motivation.

“Alright!” He yelled. “For now let’s go towards the middle of the map” He suggested.

“That way we can be closest to wherever the treasure box appears next.” He explained. The girls then unanimously agreed.

“Aye aye captain!” Julia replied in a loud voice while saluting playfully. As they prepared to head out William suddenly felt like looking back and staring at an empty space behind him.

“What’s wrong William?” Mary asked, slightly perplexed by William’s strange action.

“No nothing.” He paused. “I just felt like we were being watched or something.” he explained and for some reason Julia started shrieking.

“NO!” She yelled. “STOP IT!” She continued. “Don’t make scary statements like that!” She complained.

“Why are you screaming like a child?” Mary replied. “You’re a mage for crying out loud. Why are you scared of something so vague like a feeling?”

“I just hate creepy things okay! The way William said it made me think of ghosts!” She explained.

“Why are you blaming me now?” William interjected.

“Oh quit it you guys!” Sharn yelled. “We’re wasting time here! Let’s go!” She said as she gestured to them to come closer.

William laughed and started moving forward.

“Come on girls, let’s go.” He said as the rest of his group followed.

As their figures moved away, getting smaller and smaller as the distance grew, A faint almost unnoticeable layer of mist drifted ominously on the spot where they once stood.

---

Skirmishes continued over the course of the next hour or so, the cube kept moving to a different hand repeatedly. Only for the group to lose possession over the box due to a very unlucky item drop.

Soon the almost never ending battles began to take a toll, as a rather large fraction of the participants started to feel fatigue from the constant skirmishes.

Most of them did not expect the fights would be so drawn out and instead opted to go all out at the start acting like an average dude who joins a 10 kilometer marathon to show off and then and decides to sprint as fast as he could for 50 meters, panting like an asthmatic child once their folly has caught up.

As the cube kept eluding their grasp, all they could do was to let out a loud groan and resign to their fate.

But not everyone had the same idea. Some had expected most of the participants would start fighting immediately and through the passage of time, only the strongest would remain. Naturally these would be from the Clarentum Inquisitors and the guardians of truth.

Knowing full well they won’t be able to fight head on, they opted to hide just on the outskirts preparing to strike. The objective is to gain possession of the cube, trying to fight for it at the last minute not only reduces the risk of a random item drop but also has the added benefit of fighting exhausted foes.

The cube then revealed itself on the map once again this time in the forest area and as expected, a massive skirmish once again broke out increasing in intensity as the desperation and frustrations started to mount.

The opportunity to strike was almost near.

Hidden amongst the trees were a group of students that belonged to a relatively lesser organization.

“Leader Lorien!” A man with blonde hair and medium build called out to their so called leader as they hid inside four separate trees.

“Yes what is it, soldier Fritz?” A skinny man with dark hair and brown eyes peeked out of his hiding spot.

“I think it’s about time we head out and try our luck!” He replied.

“Yes, at this point everyone should start feeling tired and restless. Once they start thinking that their victory is assured, we swoop in and take it for ourselves!” Lorien declared.

“You are such a genius Leader Lorien!” The man called Fritz declared.

“Quick! Call out the others, we will now make our move!” He commanded. Soon two more people went out hiding from their trees. One was a stubby and fat man with red hair fashioned into a bowl cut, while the other had a medium build and was shining bald.

“Soldier Carlson?” Lorien exclaimed.

“Here!” The stubby man replied.

“Soldier Lom?” Lorien asked another name.

“Here sir!” The bald man replied.

“Good, looks like everyone is here! Move out boys. Time to take the prize!” Lorien exclaimed as the group of four started running towards the location of the box which was shown to be near the clock at the middle of the quadrant.

Lorien led the way as Carlson struggled to follow due to his plump nature. As they continued to run Lorien found it strange that Carlson was quiet. Normally he would be complaining about being out of breath since they have been running straight for a good amount of time.

Sensing something was wrong he decided to look back, and to his horror, their fourth member was gone.