"Let''s go," utz whispered in a light tone.


    Their destination? The centre of the ind but utz couldn''t reach there before fighting some more weakened manticores along his way. If it was anyone else in ce of utz he probably would even dare to call these monsters ''fake''.


    Seeing his skills and the way he moved Verona could only look at him in awe and admiration but couldn''t voice it out cause she felt ashamed at being useless. Which was quite in contrast to what Selena had in mind.


    With half an hour of walking and finghting they reached the centre of the ind. There they found a dead manticore''s body with its wings severed. Unlike utz who had shed their wings apart with smooth cuts of his sword, this one seemed to have its wings pulled and uprooted from the shoulder bone itself using brute strength.


    "Hah," Steve yawned. After defeating the beast he had chosen to rest using the beast''s belly as his bed. After all, Steve desperately needed to recover his stamina.


    But once he perceived utz approaching he got down off the manticore''s dead body.


    "My, my... who do we have here," Steve smirked as he stretched his neck. Resting after so many battles had made his muscles stiff withctic acid.


    utz knitted his brows in annnoyance.


    "Do you wish to stand in my way as well?" He spoke while gritting his teeth. It was as if he was speaking through the teeth with forced restrain.


    But Steve shook his head to deny.


    "I am not. But you are not here to use the portal, are you? You are here to send them away anyway. If you don''t even n to use the portal how can I stand in your way?" Steve said as he raised his shoulders and his eyebrows to stress as if it was the most obvious thing to deduce.


    Steve''s eyes drifted to the girls behind him. He didn''t know much about these girls, one of them was probably at the safe zone back in the tutorial stage. But...


    utz was not the type of person to put himself in danger for others. If the girls were with utz there was only one meaning to it. utz was leading them, and now that they had realized that they cannot survive here anymore, they are nning to leave through the escape portal.


    The escape portals themselves weren''t much safe either. Not because of the functionality of the portal but because of the humans that may be around them. Back in the four inds of the bonus stage, participants would stay in wait around the green portals to ambush the pariticpants once they approached the portal to escape.


    But Steve had never done that. It was an inefficient method for him if anything. He could kill much more running around than lurking in the bushes. Not to mention there were no bushes at the desert!


    utz nodded.


    "You are right," he showed his agreement. utz had indeed came to drop the two girls at the portal.


    He walked past Steve and watched the two girls leave through the portal.


    "Take care," Verona said as she left.


    *swish*


    Her visage disappeared into the green light.


    "You go too," utz ordered Selena.


    But she had other ns. Selena pulled herself closer to utz as shended a peck on his lips. Having seen the show Steve could only blink in shock. utz sharing kisses? Why does that sound so impossible?


    ''I hadpletely misunderstood him till now,'' Steve thought. The image he had of utz was indeed the right one. But after a lot of experiences Selena''s love for him had made him ept her. but Steve didn''t know about that.


    "See you soon," she gave off a beaming smile as she left through the portal.


    *swish*


    utz nodded as he watched both of them leave. It was time to go back to his solo ways. He had so many manticores to hunt.


    But as he was about to leave…


    "Won''t you kill me? Don''t you want to win this?" Steve asked.


    utz didn''t turn back to respond but he did halt his steps.


    "Tell me one gain that I would have by killing you and I will think about it."


    Steveughed. Is it so hard to guess what gain utz would have by killing him?


    "Why? Won''t you be the Last Survivor after you kill me?" Steve asked trying hard to hold back hisughter. But the next words that utz spoke made him stop.


    "There is no need since you didn''te in my way. Soon you would realize that you cannot survive here any longer. Not with the state you are in. Once you are convinced of that. you will leave this stage through that portal yourself, making me the one clear victor."


    Steve was shocked. He couldn''t stop blinking. With just a nce at him utz was able to predict what state he was in. What kind of amazing deductive skill is this?


    It was clear to utz that all other participants had either died or escaped. And Steve wasn''t any better.


    ''The reason he didn''t move away from the portal is because he doesn''t wants to risk his life. As soon as he feels danger he would escape,'' utz concluded. There was no other reason as to why he would be looming around the portal if he was not intending to ambush others.


    utz saw no point in fighting Steve. After all, even if Steve died or escaped through the portal utz cannot be the victor without fighting thest wave. Being thest man standing is only the first criteria; one had to also clear the waves.


    "Then what if Ie in your way?" Steve asked as he held onto his chin.


    "Then I would kill you," utz said with an intense amount of killing intent leaving his body.


    ***


    Author:


    Creation is hard for authors. Cheer me up with your power stones!


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