"Ah, Father. What did you say?"
Seeing his daughter looking troubled, Toma asked with concern:
"You were busy all day, and now you're staying up late with me. You must be exhausted.
If you cannot hold on, go back and sleep early."
"No, Father. I'm still young, this little hardship is nothing.
You should be the one resting earlier. Tomorrow night, when all the teams arrive, you'll still need to take charge of everything."
"You are right."
Toma stretched lazily and yawned, rubbing his slightly red eyes from staying up too late.
"In that case, I'll go sleep first. You should rest early too. Don't let it affect tomorrow's arrangements."
"Yes."
After standing up and seeing Toma off, Hisui looked back at the projection one last time.
She temporarily put her worries aside and returned to her own room.
A marathon, especially one lasting more than ten hours and covering hundreds of kilometers, was an extremely brutal challenge.
Even for physically gifted mages, it was still an incredibly difficult test.
But in Kabe's eyes, this level of challenge was nothing more than his usual daily routine when carrying out missions.
In the past, running alone had been rather boring. Now that he had several people accompanying him, at least it was a little less dull.
"That idiot Gray. If he keeps wasting his magic power like that, he will run out of magic soon.
If he gives up using this method, then with the physical strength of Yukino and Levy in their team, their speed will definitely slow down.
So we don't need to rush. Just let them clear the path ahead for us."
Looking at Kabe, who kept talking while analyzing various situations, Cana and Juvia, who had already started breathing heavily after running for five hours straight, could only admire his ridiculous stamina.
Even Mira and Ultear were already covered in sweat by this point and had no desire to speak.
Among the entire team, only Erza could still maintain a steady breathing rhythm and occasionally respond to him.
"This is only under normal circumstances. If we encounter other guild teams, their situation will only get worse."
The moment she finished speaking, a thunderous explosion sounded from far ahead.
"Ah, looks like they have already encountered someone.
But since Laxus made a move, it shouldn't be a problem."
Sure enough, after running for several more minutes, they saw more than ten blackened figures lying unconscious at a fork in the road.
At the same time, a medical team dressed as doctors and nurses was examining them.
As they passed by, Erza casually glanced over and recognized their identities.
"They are mages from the neighboring town's Flamingo Guild.
With the size of their guild, these should be their only two participating teams.
What a shame. Their guild members are actually quite friendly and easy to get along with."
"After all, it's Laxus. He is not exactly the type who cares about holding back."
Kabe laughed and casually mocked Laxus, causing Erza's lips to curve slightly.
After their first encounter with another guild's mages, they gradually began meeting more and more teams from other guilds.
All of these people had followed the routes provided by the judges, and under the organizers' intentional arrangements, they were eventually forced to cross paths.
Although the rules before the competition did not state that they had to defeat mages from other guilds, once the two sides met, they all made the same choice.
After all, everyone participating had a certain amount of confidence in their own strength.
Everyone wanted to eliminate as many competitors as possible before the official competition even began.
Kabe's group also encountered several teams from other guilds on the road.
For some intelligent teams who recognized his face and surrendered early, Kabe let them go out of consideration for them being members of official guilds.
But if they encountered the kind of people who charged in recklessly without even checking who their opponent was, he would not hold back.
He would simply finish the fight quickly and continue the race.
Regardless, because Laxus and the others had already cleared the path ahead, the troubles they encountered were greatly reduced.
Another hour passed.
As expected, Kabe saw Team B resting at one of the rest points prepared by the organizers.
"Yo, what a coincidence. We meet again."
Passing by the rest area, Kabe stopped and greeted them.
Laxus, drenched in sweat, snorted coldly and turned his head away without answering.
Natsu was also exhausted, but after seeing Kabe, he still had enough energy to provoke him.
"Don't get too proud, Kabe! We just let you run ahead for a while.
We'll catch up soon and overtake you again!"
"Who said we were leaving first? After running for this long, our people need to rest too."
Looking at Juvia and Cana, whose stamina was already reaching their limits, Kabe decisively sat down.
He then spoke to the person in charge of the rest point:
"Bring out all the water and food you have here.
I want the people behind us, with dry throats and empty stomachs, to understand what true despair feels like."