Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 211 - 9 Interteam Conflict

"You!" Peggy was somewhat embarrassed and pursed her lips, unable to speak for a moment.

"Still pretending?" Aske looked at the five girls and assessed, "Your disguises are mostly fine, but there are still some subtle flaws."

"Peggy and Thira are not that close; she is unlikely to speak up for her, let alone question my judgment."

"Speaking of which, from the very beginning, you’ve been leading us to explore that direction. Even after being overruled by me, you persistently insisted... I don’t recall my authority in the team being so low that I’d be opposed by half the members at the same time."

"That’s not the case," Nora explained stiffly, "Aske, we really thought that figure was very suspicious..."

"If so, why didn’t you go explore?" Aske asked with a slightly mocking tone, "Don’t dare to go without the Squad Leader?"

The five girls did not speak, their eyes filled with the injustice of being wronged.

"Of course, the most obvious flaw is the North Wind Axe at Sigrdrifa’s waist," Aske chuckled, "All the runes on the handle of the North Wind Axe are engraved incorrectly... This can’t be blamed on you, though, as the real runes themselves contain Extraordinary Power. To replicate them perfectly would be like making another North Wind Axe, and that would be too costly for you, wouldn’t it?"

The five girls’ expressions finally became blank, then the light in their eyes faded, as if they turned into soulless puppets.

"Did everyone remember that?" Aske said to the four girls of Team B standing behind him, "On the battlefield, details determine victory or defeat. Sometimes it’s the tiniest detail that can contain the most important information."

Eleanor and the others were completely speechless... Who would bother to remember the patterns on someone else’s weapon!

"It’s impressive that you noticed," Medea said incredulously, "When I first met them, I used ’Mind Reading’ casually and didn’t notice anything unusual."

"Mind Reading is not omnipotent," Aske said calmly, "Your Mind Reading Ability can only read superficial thoughts in a short time. And when facing a High Rank mind or someone with Sequential Ability, the superficial thoughts you see are likely what they’ve purposely prepared for you to see."

"These puppets are probably creations of a similar ability."

"It’s not just creations, though." "Thira" suddenly lifted her head, her hollow face wearing a sinister smile, "Apart from that troublesome axe, the quality and abilities in all other aspects are exactly the same."

"Why don’t you try it out? Interesting human?"

"This does pique my interest," Aske said with a smile, "Let’s treat it like a real and serious sparring match; there’s no need to hold back."

The girls of Team B looked at the eerie "teammates" in front of them. They were still a bit frightened and tense, but upon hearing Aske’s words, they fought back the urge to laugh.

They knew from their usual sparring matches that even the real deal, when teamed up, would still be thrashed by Aske alone. What base do these imposters have to say they’re "exactly the same"?

Wouldn’t they still be fancily beaten up by the Squad Leader?

"So, I’ll leave it to the three of you," Aske nodded and stepped back.

"Eh? Aske, you’re not taking part this time?" Mia said in astonishment.

"I said before, this time I’m only responsible for long-range support," Aske explained, somewhat surprised, "For you, this is a valuable training opportunity!"

"After all, we must hold back during our usual sparring sessions, and this time we can launch our attacks to the fullest, can’t we?"

The three girls were instantly overwhelmed with silent tears. Clearly, you alone could crush the opposition, so why must we engage in this fierce combat?

They really don’t miss any opportunity to train us!

The five puppet girls opposite initiated the attack.

Leading the charge was "Sigrdrifa," her expressionless face swinging twin axes and launching a Tornado Slash straight at the three girls.

However, Eleanor was well acquainted with this move. She had sparred with Sigrdrifa hundreds of times already, if not a thousand, and she instinctively retreated half a step to buy time to avoid the Tornado Slash, then caught the rhythm of "Sigrdrifa’s" axes and thrust her long spear forward like a dragon.

Dragon Continuous Attack!

The long spear pierced through the gaps between the battle axes, "Sigrdrifa" instantly struck, her body lifted into the air, then heavily smashed to the ground. The pain twisted her features as she spat out blood involuntarily.

In the next second, Eleanor’s Cloud Piercing shot straight up, one, two, three successive strikes, the Fine Gold Spear tearing through the false Meteorite Armor and piercing "Sigrdrifa’s" body.

The final move was an Iron Cutting horizontal slash that used her body as a projectile, fiercely smashing it toward the enemy opposite.

"Sigrdrifa’s" body flew through the air toward Thira and Nora, then eerily slowed down—"Thira" extended her right hand towards "Sigrdrifa’s" body, fingers rotating, and the altered gravity immediately intercepted her, then sent her speeding back towards Aske and company.

Everyone hastily side-stepped to dodge. Mia had just jumped to the right to avoid the attack and had not yet landed when a figure appeared in front of her.

It was "Peggy!" Her Short Sword lunged forward with a straight stab at the helpless Mia in mid-air. The latter hastily crisscrossed her Daggers, blocking the incoming stab, only to be pushed even further by the force on Peggy’s weapon.

Before Mia could stabilize herself in mid-air, "Peggy" once again lunged forward, her explosive power propelling her even faster as she launched a Rapid Stab towards Mia’s body.

A gunshot rang out.

Aske’s support timely arrived, a bullet whooshed from the muzzle of the Imperial Eagle, hitting "Peggy" in the right knee just as she was about to stab Mia.

"Peggy’s" right leg was severed into two pieces, only a small portion of flesh and skin held it together. However, the Flesh at the wound writhed, quickly covering and reconnecting the broken bone.

Miel was already lifting her rifle, snagging the moment Aske moved his muzzle away, and using her scope’s crosshairs to target his head.

The gun roared, and Aske miraculously tilted his head in the blink of an eye, evading the sniper bullet that was meant for his brow.

He quickly turned back around, holding the Aphrodite Burst Fire handgun in his left hand and the Imperial Eagle in his right hand, both guns firing rapidly at Miel.

Miel hastily rolled to evade, with the roaring bullets chasing her rolls, she continued to tumble until she reached the cover of a barricade at the corner of the back alley.

"Heh." Aske let out a brief laugh, keeping the Imperial Eagle aimed at the cover to suppress Miel, while the Aphrodite shifted to target the spell-casting Thira, a Burst Fire forcing her to stop gathering her "Stone Bomb" and dodge the incoming bullets.

Her spellcasting interrupted here, while over there Medea had already conjured high-temperature Flames, flinging them powerfully towards the opposite side.

Thira wanted to use her Ability, exploiting highly compressed layers of air to block the flames, yet every time she paused, Aske’s bullets would follow, forcing her to interrupt her spellcasting and dodge.

Left with no choice, she could only scream out, "Peggy!"