But instead of fighting, Xel gave a big smile, apologized, thanked them for the ice and ran off. Lin wanted to chase after him, but Kelf told her to keep in mind the goal.

‘Remember the goal. I can make the ice again. Also, you do know that taking him down may be a little hard. Although that was a surprise attack and we had not guarded ourselves properly, you could tell from the way he snatched the ice away that he is not a weakling on the streets. Making into the second round would mean he is of a certain standard.’

‘Whatever you say,’ Lin replied with a sour face.

She had not expected to be attacked so easily and not able to defend herself. One could say she was humiliated, although the intention was not there.

‘I will make you pay for it,’ Lin thought to herself.

Xel went back to the still running Xue and gave her the piece of ice.

She asked him, ‘Where did you get the ice from?

But he only said, ‘From someone.’

She gave him a suspicious look but kept quiet. It was definitely suspicious. This was a desert, and he got a piece of ice. From the way things looked, it would not be a very wrong guess to say he robbed or stole from someone.

Just as she was thinking this, Xel said, ‘There are some good people around. Be careful.’

He had said that because the two he met just now had discovered his arrow. More specifically, the man discovered him. Of course, it was perfectly possible to notice the arrow he shot out even when their back was facing him.

But that would be because they had discovered a change in the flow of wind around them, even though it was little. Even if the body discovered it, the brain might not register it.

Furthermore, he used to shoot arrows in a way people would not discover it, in a way which minimized the disturbance in the air, at a speed which most people should not be able to react to it in time even when they finally noticed it at the last moment.

And just now, his arrow was going with the flow of the wind, not against it. It meant that the disturbance in the air was further reduced. Given his skill, which Xel was confident of, he had not expected the stony-faced man to discover it.

Not that he was proud. His experiences told him a normal man would not be able to detect that arrow so fast, and still able to give warnings to his targeted partner. More so, the one who was targeted was not him.

Meanwhile the group of kids except the one in the race were also running around and scanning the people around them and those in front of them, taking note of their capabilities. They were also observing how the people in the race fought. They themselves only sent one person down.

In the competition, some decided to use their own powers to fly or run faster already. Others were attacking those around them. At this time, everyone of the kids were still wearing cloaks with their hoods on. Someone tried to attack the kid in the race but he just got beat up and defeated easily without much effort. What a kid, attracting so much attention, asking for trouble.

In the race there were some who wanted to lie low, while there were others who tried to attract as much attention as possible. Why? Just a difference in character, perhaps. Or maybe they had a different purpose.

One of the 3 soldiers in the race caught up with Kelf and tried to attack him. Of course, he had noticed him in the first round. They were there watching, but did not enter the first round of the event. They had noticed and were going to test out the potential of those whom their eyes caught. And so, in the second round, they had jumped in.

But Kelf defended with ice and ran off with Lin, and did not attack.

The soldier was stunned and exclaimed, ‘Ice? In the desert?’

‘Excellent. Looks like we might be able to get better people in this round,’ another one continued.

Lin asked why he did not fight, and Kelf told her he was not an ordinary person, but one he could not defeat if he did not go to primary mode of attack if he decided to play serious. The ice as secondary mode did not have much use against him.

How he knew, he did not really know the process. People often say, at the highest level, when two people fight, their thoughts get communicated to each other with each and every clash of their weapons. They might sound exaggerating.

But one thing he knew, was that when two people came together to fight, the level of the person’s ability could be relatively estimated with regards to one’s own power. It was just a rough estimate, not definitive, but still, could be used to roughly gauge where your opponent stood compared to oneself.

The best course of action was to run. There was no point trying to take them down when the objective was to get the box and return back to the original position.