The upcoming stretch would be the final challenge.

  Theo and Liam stopped for one last rest. While Theo rechecked supplies, Liam especially stretched his body once more, loosening each muscle fiber. He knew the more supple the body, the more Shadow Step and Remnant Wind techniques would maximize, turning him into a true phantom.

  When everything was ready, a decisive whistle sounded from Theo's mouth. Al understood, it took flight high, quickly entering the Eyes of God tactic. Theo and Liam continued forward, caution apparent in every step.

  Plan Step One: Determine enemy position.

  With its excellent vision, Al didn't take too much time to discover Vesper's Team. Theo continuously watched the little Pidgey's flight trajectory and vision. After just a few minutes, he'd roughly confirmed enemy position: not too far anymore, about 2 km East-Southeast leaning South.

  Running another stretch, the distance had shortened considerably. Theo signaled Liam. Liam nodded, unleashing full power executing Remnant Wind and Shadow Step, charging swiftly toward the enemy.

  Watching Liam's silhouette gradually fade into twilight oak trunks, Theo whispered:

  "Success or failure all lies with you, Liam. Maximize your talent. This is your stage."

  Plan Step Two: Diversion.

  Yes, Liam would be the spear attacking directly into the storm center, advancing straight to where pressure was greatest.

  As for Theo, he signaled Al. The little Pidgey dove toward their target—Vesper's Team—again the old tactic: it attacked unexpectedly, continuously using Growl to reduce Night Hawks' physical attack power, sometimes even using Gust to kick up dust, creating conditions for Liam to raid.

  As the only aerial unit here, Al absolutely maintained safe distance, only attacking with two long-range skills. Anyway, the purpose was just diversion.

  While Al began the mission, the Sound Sensor tactic activated. System G immediately displayed 3D images and Vesper Team's position.

  In just an instant, G analyzed:

  Target position: Vesper's Team on ground, 270 meters away.

  Wind direction: 15.3° East-Southeast direction.

  Wind speed: slightly increased to 3.1 m/s.

  Theo's eyes shot out bright light. Heaven's timing had arrived.

  Using "lob shot" technique and exerting full force, Theo drew the Sylvanius bow fully taut. Swoosh! A light whistling sound rang out, the arrow shot forth, flying into the sky toward Vesper's Team.

  The arrow's light whistle immediately made Night Hawks group alert. Boris immediately assumed position, the large shield swung up protecting the three behind from the arrow diving from the sky.

  Vesper, with sword and shield, also became serious, protecting Rowan and Finn retreating to the side. Very clearly, this team's center was Rowan—the female mage.

  Theo continuously shot diversion arrows. Due to using lob shot technique with wind direction and complex shooting angle, it was extremely difficult to determine his position. Moreover, Al's harassment kicking up dust with Gust made Vesper's Team fall into a passive position even more.

  And this was the best opportunity for Liam to appear.

  Like a genuine assassin, with Zaravand short spear already coated with paralytic essence, he appeared completely unexpectedly in Vesper Team's blind spot.

  Target: Finn—the crossbow user.

  Yes, neutralizing the crossbowman was the best target, not Rowan who was protected tightly without gaps. Intelligence was very clear: Finn had more support tendencies, so his success rate was very high.

  Instinct had told Liam that, and he trusted his instinct absolutely.

  Liam attacked with terrible speed, the Zaravand short spear aimed straight at Finn, but Vesper's reaction was even more terrifying. He didn't bother thinking, throwing his round shield to cover Finn.

  The shield flashed with a bit of silver light—that was precisely Vesper's Gear Enhance/Shock Reduction magic.

  Direct contact with Liam's spear, the shield had absorbed and greatly reduced the strike's power.

  This strike from Liam didn't wound Finn or make him lose combat capability through paralytic essence, but it was enough to make him stagger from the powerful collision of shield and spear.

  Liam reflexed incredibly quickly. He continued using recoil from the strike, creating powerful centrifugal force from his waist, pulling his body to spin into Vesper's blind spot a second time.

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  Then Remnant Wind technique unleashed power—once again he hid deep into the forest.

  The entire action from appearance to disappearance—clean and nimble—occurred within only 1.4 seconds.

  Meanwhile, Theo was still shooting while moving very fast.

  His purpose had never been to take down Vesper's Team.

  The real purpose was Plan Step Three: Reach Destination—a tactic built entirely on opponent psychological reasoning.

  The entire plan was simply to create a false truth: Theo exploited the time difference to force Vesper to realize they had definitely escaped the pursuit group (seven hours passing was irrefutable proof).

  What would Vesper deduce?

  He would guess that the two knew there was an ambush at the destination. And for two talented but belligerent youths, breaking through the encirclement would be a direct fiery confrontation, aimed at proving strength and seeking the most brilliant victory—wasn't that obvious?

  Exactly so.

  Theo wanted to exploit precisely that analysis from Vesper.

  The entire tactical division—from Liam playing the attacking spear, Al creating disruption, to Theo's unpunished arrows—were all to create a perfect play, keeping Vesper in place, keeping him lost in the maze he himself created.

  When Night Hawks Team was distracted, Theo would quietly hide and move toward the Golden Oak—the real destination.

  When Theo had passed the safe zone, Liam, with speed and powerful concealment ability, would quickly chase after.

  And they would reach the destination.

  That was the entire plan.

  A false battle tactic, with the core being perfect escape.

  Vesper looked where Liam disappeared, he smiled softly, full of confidence.

  He only said one word: "Rowan."

  Mage Rowan smiled faintly, the smile concealing light self-satisfaction. She raised her right hand, the pink light of the gemstone on her ring flashed briefly, then performed a decisive finger snap.

  Instantly, a small Fireball, blazing with flame, shot forth, pursuing Liam's hiding position.

  Indeed, Rowan had silently placed a "Spiritual Sign" on Liam.

  For a master Mage, once she could plant a spiritual mark on an opponent, that person was no different from a Blazing Lighthouse in the dark night, turning them into a perfect living target for her to freely practice magic.

  Removal methods were countless: use stronger Mental Force to wipe the mark clean, use specialized Curse Removal spells, wait for the mark's Mental Force to dissolve itself, or most simply—eliminate the marker.

  However, in this moment, deep in the forest, for Liam—all removal methods became hopeless.

  After picking up his shield, Vesper focused weight on his legs.

  He explosively unleashed terrible speed, charging straight to Liam's position.

  Liam was startled dodging the fireball from Rowan—or more accurately, the fireball only shot toward the oak tree beside him as warning.

  Seeing Vesper aiming straight at him charging forward with shield in hand, Liam didn't hesitate.

  Blood-Burn activated.

  He used all his force, the Zaravand short spear thrusting straight toward Vesper's shield.

  He silently regretted having removed the hammer blade to maximize speed.

  "COOONG!"

  A very powerful collision sound between spear and shield rang out.

  The recoil force from the collision and the inertia of the full-force thrust caused Liam's hand to friction with Zaravand short spear until bleeding, but his hand still gripped the short spear tightly.

  His eyes didn't flinch at all.

  He had stopped Vesper's attack—or more accurately, only stopped a small part of the attack.

  Seeing Vesper still smiling, Liam immediately knew: even with Blood-Burn added, he was still far weaker than Vesper.

  The disparity was so great it was like two different species of creatures.

  Sighing, Liam thought to himself:

  "Theo, I disappointed you. He's too strong. I can't run."

  Liam stepped back two paces.

  Vesper didn't chase, only stood there observing.

  Liam pulled out the hammer blade behind Zaravand short spear, attaching it.

  Blood-Burn still had effect—he didn't want to give up at this moment.

  Taking a deep breath, Liam kicked off with Remnant Wind, beginning with a powerful slash.

  Vesper put away the sword on his back, only using the shield.

  The shield glinted with a bit of silver magical light.

  With the shield in hand, he blocked Liam's attack easily.

  Even though Liam used all the skills he had—Remnant Wind movement technique, exploiting centrifugal force from Shadow Step technique's body mechanics, plus the proudly trained spear skills from childhood—sometimes he even tried attacking Vesper's blind spots...

  But with the shield in hand, Vesper was an impregnable fortress.

  Liam's hands went numb from recoil force.

  Liam felt somewhat desperate before this solid citadel.

  Meanwhile, Theo had run near the Golden Oak.

  Just needed to wait for Liam.

  One minute.

  Two minutes.

  Five minutes...

  Liam still hadn't arrived.

  Theo understood the plan had failed.

  If he now grabbed the oak leaf, they would also win—but one saying appeared in Theo's head:

  "Victory without teammates is just garbage."

  He knew his past life memories were flaring up again, but now wasn't the time for that.

  Theo breathed deeply, bent to run back toward Team Vesper where his friend was fighting.

  Theo signaled Al to coordinate combat with him.

  Blood-Burn activated.

  Theo's Remnant Wind at this moment seemed transcendent.

  G silently analyzed—Theo's legs had completed mutation.

  He unleashed full speed running to catch up with the final battle.

  Theo used nearly 10 minutes to chase there.

  Each footstep now was like daggers tearing muscle fibers, but perseverance didn't change his determination.

  At this moment, Liam was still fighting Vesper.

  His face had turned pale white, hands bleeding from wounds and recoil.

  But the flame in his eyes hadn't extinguished—still burning fiercely; Blood-Burn had extended nearly 20 minutes.

  The remaining Night Hawks members were standing around watching.

  Theo kicked off with Remnant Wind, drawing bow to shoot arrow, movements fluid—aiming straight at Vesper hoping to distract him.

  Vesper also wasn't surprised; left hand drew the sword from his back, easily blocking.

  Theo also continuously attacked supporting, dividing pressure for Liam.

  Al also supported creating pressure from above with Growl and Gust.

  It even wanted to use Tackle—its strongest attack—but was stopped by Theo's gaze.

  At this moment, Vesper's smile finally faded for a moment.

  He showed some confusion—not from anger, but from being bothered having to hold back while blocking strikes from three attack directions.

  He shouted loudly:

  "Alright, test complete!"

  Liam panted, sitting flat on the ground in extreme exhaustion. The Zaravand short spear still lay in his hand, hammer blade sticky with blood and grip clenched until knuckles turned pale white. That feeling was no longer fear or exhaustion, but extreme anger and bitterness before his first defeat in life.

  Theo also panted—explosively unleashing full speed running with Remnant Wind and Blood-Burn was also his first time tasting. Truly, tired to the point legs had no feeling.