Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 529. He is worse in a fight than in a team

Rhevard was standing at the corner and when Theo found him, his eyes showed some emotion for a moment before they went away. He had that same blank face again.

"That was reckless," Varelya spoke the moment Theo came close.

Theo looked at her and then creased his eyebrows and smiled in curiosity.

Why was she interested?

"Which part?" he asked.

"All of it," she replied right away. "Jumping into the air toward a giant serpent, trying to strike it yourself. You don’t have any appreciation for your own life, Theo," she spoke in a cold voice.

Theo didn’t know what was happening.

Sometimes he got the feeling she just wanted to rip his head off and now she was showing concern for him?

But before Theo could say anything, he found his spatial sense kicking in again.

He looked back and saw Rhevard coming toward him.

When Rhevard was close enough, his lips opened a bit earlier than what he was about to say, as if thinking whether it was the right thing to say out loud.

"Good fight."

Even though Theo seemed to know his problem, his deep voice always made people think he was just too casual and arrogant about his own strength, which in turn was known as being normal in this world.

Theo smiled involuntarily.

"Thank you, Sir Rhevard."

"Here comes Osric too," Varelya spoke while looking to the end of the exit path where Clara and Elias were standing.

Theo was surprised to see him coming through an exit spot that was not his, which meant he traveled a long distance for it.

They all saw Osric walking beyond Clara and Elias, his serpent already gone back into the beast space.

The moment he came close to them, all four members of the prospective team looked at him.

Theo could feel it just by giving a slight peek at everyone’s face.

This was not a group of friends, it was just a group where each person was calculating their own value.

Osric looked at all of them and then let out a breath.

"What? Are you all going to stare at me as if I lost the kingdom itself?" he asked.

Varelya clicked her tongue.

"You conceded too early."

"No," Osric answered right away.

The way he said that made even Theo glance at him.

"I conceded at the right time," Osric spoke and his smile was gone now.

"If you people think I did it out of fear, then keep thinking that. But that fight had already crossed the point where continuing would have taught me nothing useful in that arena."

"And what did you learn then?" she asked.

Osric looked at Theo before replying.

"That he is worse in a team than he is alone," he said.

Theo’s eyes widened by a little.

Rhevard looked at Osric with actual interest for the first time.

Varelya frowned and spoke right away.

"Explain," she spoke.

"I came here just to tell you all this, we are going to represent the kingdom so we don’t need anything holding us back," he spoke and his gaze went to Varelya one time before continuing.

"In the forest and in our practices, Theo has been useful," he said.

"But in the arena, it became obvious. Once he finds a pattern, he becomes annoyingly hard to stop. If one of us on the team ends up against him in a real team objective one day, it will be a disaster."

Theo listened quietly.

The guy was not insulting him. He was seriously thinking ahead.

"So you are scared of him," Varelya said, making Theo almost want to laugh, but he stopped himself.

Osric looked at her as if she had said something childish.

"No. I am warning you all about him," he replied.

For one second, silence fell among the five.

But when Osric was about to continue his explanation, Theo quickly spoke out loud as if not wanting him to speak further.

"Sir Osric, if you praise me any more like that, people will start getting strange ideas."

A slight smile came to Rhevard’s face before it went away and Varelya looked away with a click of her tongue as if thinking Theo was being smug.

"You are all insufferable," she muttered.

But before any of them could continue, a uniformed academy worker came jogging toward them in a hurry.

"I am glad you all are together right now," he spoke within a second of stopping without even breathing properly. "Theo Merrick, Osric Calder, and the other prospective team members, the headmaster wants all five of you in the guest chamber right away. Please follow me," the man spoke while slightly out of breath.

Theo looked at the other four who were just staring at the man.

"Guest chamber?" Osric repeated.

"Yes, young master," the man answered while bowing his head a little too quickly.

’So it has started,’ Theo confirmed to himself.

’I need to use this opportunity to the fullest...’ he thought.

The five of them looked at each other once and then started moving without wasting time.

But Theo remembered something midway.

"Please wait for a moment, I will be back," he said and moved back inside the exit gate.

Everyone looked at him move toward the two people standing in wait, tell them something, and for them to start briskly following him.

As they walked through the corridor leading inside the coliseum, Theo could still hear the crowd from behind the walls.

The fight had really left a mark.

And he did not know whether that was a good thing or not.

When they entered the inner building, the atmosphere changed completely.

The noise from outside became faint and the corridor here was much wider with expensive lanterns on both sides and polished floors beneath their boots.

Theo had never come this deep into the official side of the coliseum before.

"You think a duke called us?" Osric asked lightly while walking.

Theo just shrugged his shoulders while Varelya spoke instantly.

"Fool, if it was a duke, this worker here would have bowed deeper toward us," she said, making Osric smile slyly.

"???"