"That we have yet to see. We won't know until we have tried it out and failed."

Valerie snorted and spat her answer out in an utterly straightforward manner.

"Don't think that retaliation is the only course left open to you. You still have the chance. Why do you want to kill your other two students for one useless girl? If you continue to be stubborn, you will not only die yourselves but will also implicate the other students."

Kyouko was trying to convince the two of them to back out and handover Alissa of their own volition because that will save her a lot of trouble.

In fact, she was afraid of the revenge that would come once she took out both Valerie and Calista to complete her objective. The school would definitely not let her go if she laid a hand on the students so she would have them at her tail once the job was done. Another behemoth that she was afraid of offending was the Adam family.

Valerie being the genius of the Adam family was their precious one. If she wasted her in the course of bringing away Alissa, Kyouko knew that she would suffer from the mad retaliation of the Adam family until they had avenged her death.

"My plan is fool proof. Stop struggling and surrender if you want to avoid meaningless bloodshed."

Therefore, Kyouko kept suggesting to the two of them to stop wasting time and surrender in order to avoid certain death that awaited them if they tried to fight back.

"Why don't you stop going after our student then? Wouldn't that be the best method of stopping bloodshed?"

Once again it was Valerie who retorted verbally against her which irritated Kyouko even further.

"Stop being stubborn. Give up the girl and I will let you all leave. This is my final offer and is non-negotiable. You don't have the power to resist me anyway."

"Why don't you keep that offer to yourself? As it stands, there are only two ways this will go; either you will die at my hands or I at yours."

Kyouko was finally done. She knew that a falling out with the Adam family was inevitable at this point.

She snorted in anger and dissatisfaction initially since things hadn't gone as she had intended. But soon a terrifying smile appeared on her face that seemed to be hiding a terrifying demon underneath waiting to devour everything in its path. She nodded with a smile on her face like a prim lady from an elite household and dabbed her mouth with a napkin, indicating that the negotiations had come to an end.

The three women on the table got up at the same time as if by some previous arrangement and moved towards their respective camps.

Valerie and Calista stood in front of their students while Kyouko carefully packed her things up from the table and got the parasol out of the way.

No one could have imagined that this was only a prelude to the battle that was on the horizon.

"You three, don't even think of helping us. Stay away from us at all times. Do you understand?"

All three of the students nodded at the same time and moved themselves further towards the back so as to not stray closer to the battlefield unknowingly.

Surprisingly, Kyouko was not the first one to make a move. It was Valerie. She knew that only by seizing the initiative could the strong be brought to their knees.

Kyouko had already been stronger than the two of them combined and if she was allowed to control the rhythm of the battle as well, they might as well have offered themselves up on a silver platter to her.

But her attacks didn't garner any surprise from Kyouko as if she had expected it. She stood at her place and let Valerie attack all she wanted as if she was dealing with some random fly that was buzzing around her.

Valerie hadn't expected that her attacks would be so useless against an S-rank mage like her. She knew that she had to bring out the big guns if she wanted to take Kyouko out of the way.

She looked at Calista towards her side and motioned her with her eyes. They had been friends for a while and actually knew each other quite well and could understand the tiniest of signals.

"You take over and buy me some time to gather mana."

Just when Calista was about to make her move, there was an explosion in the vicinity. This was not the direction that the two S-rank mages had been fighting in which meant that somewhere along the way, another fight of the same level had begun.

It could have only meant that they had gotten another unexpected ally who was busy holding off another of Kyouko's S-rank mages.

Terrifying sounds kept ringing in the surroundings as if the entire forest was being ripped apart branch by branch. The terrifying might of S-rank mages pitted against each other wasn't just for show. This was something at the level of a natural disaster that upended anything in.

Zavier was the only one with enough spare time on his hand to notice the arrival of the new S-rank mage who had engaged the remaining opponent. Even then he had been unable to catch a look at the person. He had only sensed the energies clashing in the distance so he couldn't tell more about it.

One thing that he was sure about was that he was keeping the other teammate of Kyouko from coming back and wreaking havoc. Two S-rank mages would have torn through them in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, at the moment the competition wasn't as unfair.

Kyouko who was engrossed in the battle didn't even have the time to curse. She hadn't anticipated that there would be two S-rank mages protecting Alissa from behind the shadows. It looked like she had underestimated her importance.

Thinking everything was under her control, she had grown complacent beyond comprehension. She had previously anticipated that there would be only one S-rank mage guarding Alissa, since using two would have been overkill. But there she was, staring at the mess of her own making. Her calculations had gone wrong for the first time in forever. It took some time for the facts to sink in but her mind seemed unable to process it.

But she was not one to give up so readily and decided to put in her all to do her part first and stopped worrying about other things.

Of course, her part included getting rid of the two pestering nuisances blocking her path to Alissa. Although they were weaker, they were somehow keeping up with her by taking supporting each other.

Kyouko grew angrier that the two were dragging the fight, so she decided to turn it up a notch too since she had noticed that Valerie was going to make a big move. Valerie was the main offensive strength and she was busy casting while Calista protected her. Kyouko could tell that it had to be Valerie's trump card, given the circumstances. She too git in position to protect herself.

Kyouko pushed back the ground with her feet and rushed towards Calista who was standing in front of Valerie like her guardian.

Calista began to raise her hands in slow motion and as if following the same motion, some plants sprouted from the ground beside her, vines that grew longer and thicker with each passing second, moving endlessly all around her.

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