Chapter 650: A Wounded Pride Thirteen supported Shana's body and helped her drink a Rejuvenation Potion. A minute later, the young lady finally regained some color on her face. "Thank you, Zion," Shana said softly. "Mmm," Thirteen hummed. "Can you stand?" "I think so," Shana replied as she propped herself up and stood on her own two feet. She then summoned her silver banner and used it as support to hold herself steady. After taking a deep breath, Shana channeled her aether on her artifact and cast an area-of- effect healing spell. Thirteen nodded and walked toward his sister, Shasha, to help her drink a Rejuvenation Potion as well. He did the same for Mikhail, Erica, and Rianna before proceeding to Cristopher, Colbert, and Alcapone. The three Squad Captains then helped their comrades, who had also suffered serious injuries during the previous battle. Erica helped Mildred drink a potion, while Diana helped Derek. Derek in turn helped Roland and Joshua drink their potions. A few minutes later, everyone had recovered enough to stand up properly. Thirteen then clapped his hands to get their attention, forcing everyone to look at him. "I'm sure that all of you are wondering why I made you fight the Centipede King on your first day of training," Thirteen said in a serious tone. The young men and the young ladies all nodded their heads. It was indeed something that had been bugging them right from the start. Seeing that he had their full and undivided attention, Thirteen smirked and told them the reason for letting them experience a battle that seemed impossible to win. "In less than two years, we will be facing a Jinn Invasion in the Cygni Continent," Thirteen replied. "In fact, the real reason why the Antares Continent and the Rigel Continent fell is not because there were too many Jinns that invaded their lands. "No. The real reason why the Jinns succeeded was not only because of their overwhelming numbers but also because they had Higher-Ranked fighters, like Rank 8 and Rank 9 Monsters. "The moment they appear on the battlefield, even the Monarchs and the Thrones will hesitate before fighting them. The moment the strongest warriors of humanity retreat is the moment that the battle is lost. "By then, the Cygni Continent will fall just like what happened to the Antares and Rigel Continent. After that, there will only be two continents where humans can live. The Sirius Continent and the Aldebaran Continent. "The Sirius Continent is facing a small-scale Jinn Invasion in their northern regions. The strongest monsters that appear on those battlefields are Rank 7 Sovereigns, which is something that the Monarchs can deal with." Thirteen paused for a bit as he scanned the faces of everyone in his surroundings. "But it is only a matter of time before another Genocide-Rank Gate appears," Thirteen declared. "Next time, it might appear in the Sirius Continent. That means it can also appear in the Aldebaran Continent. "The worst case scenario is that a Genocide-Level Gate has already appeared, and we still have no idea that it is actually there." Truth be told, Thirteen had already discovered two Tier-9 Gates in the Sirius Continent using Athena's powerful satellite images. However, he had no intention of sharing this information until the Jinn Invasion in the Rigel Continent had been dealt with. If the news were to spread right now, it would only cause mass panic, making the defensive plans for the Cygni Continent to fall. Thirteen had also made Athena analyze these two Tier-9 Gates, and according to his calculation, there were still six to seven years before these gates opened. That was more than enough time for Thirteen to make his preparations. He was actually planning to use the Cygni Invasion to test his Trump Cards, which he had painstakingly developed over the years. Project Athena and Project Nautilus were among the Trump Cards that he had prepared to combat the Jinn Invasions. "Simply put, I will train all of you until you gain the power to seriously injure or even kill a Rank 8 Monster," Thirteen said. "If you guys are able to injure it and make it retreat, then you can consider it your win." "Master, are you sure that we can pass just by giving the Rank 8 Monster a serious injury?" Derek asked. "I think killing it is better." The members of the Hero Party also nodded their heads in agreement. There were times when they would hear Thirteen say stuff like "It's only a Rank 8 or Rank 9 Sovereign. What's the big deal?" The teenage boy's words actually made them want to defeat a Rank 8 Sovereign as well, which would make them feel that they were one step closer to catching up to him. Thirteen smirked. "Do you really think that killing a Rank 8 Sovereign is easy? Have you forgotten? Even Monarchs and Thrones have a hard time fighting them. The Bird Man, Zed, whom we faced in the Rigel Continent was a very powerful existence. "Even with the help of Thrones, Wendell Elrod, a Monarch, wasn't able to deal it a decisive blow." Of course, the main reason why they weren't able to deal a decisive blow to Zed was due to the fact that the Bird Man moves very fast, almost making it impossible to land a blow on his body. If not for the fact that Zed had lowered his guard when he tried to approach Zion, the teenage boy wouldn't have been able to capture him with his Capture Sphere. But Thirteen had no intention of telling these to the teenagers because he wanted to make them understand that killing a Rank 8 Monster wasn't a simple thing to accomplish. Even so, seeing their unyielding determination, Thirteen could only nod his head in admiration because those whom he had brought to train in the Rigel Continent were seeds whom he planned to sow in the lands of Pangea. These seeds would then bloom to become trees, which would shelter the people from the wind and the rain, protecting them from harm. "I will kill it," Roland declared. "Before the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament starts, I will kill that Rank 8 Sovereign." "I will kill it too!" Derek stated. "I will not be able to sit still until I win!" The others also said similar things, which made Thirteen wonder if the Centipede King had hit them too much, making them go crazy. But in order to not rain on their parade, he decided to just give them some encouragement. "Very well, how about this?" Thirteen raised a finger. "If all of you worked together and managed to kill the Centipede King, I will grant one of your requests. Of course, the request must be limited to something that I can do. So, do your best to kill the Centipede King." Roland narrowed his eyes as he looked at the teenage boy in front of him. He only had one wish, and that was to fight Thirteen in the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament. The Hero of the Hero Party felt relieved when he heard that Zion wouldn't be joining the tournament. However, a minute later, he felt disgusted with himself because he thought of such a thing. Right now, he wanted to defeat the person whom he had considered his rival. Since Zion promised to grant his request if he and the others were able to kill the Centipede King, the request that he would ask for him was to join the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament. That way, Roland could fight him seriously with everything he had. Regardless of the results, he would accept it! Although there were many powerful individuals who would be joining the tournament, Roland was confident that after his training, only a handful of people could threaten him. With this thought in his mind, he decided to take his training under Zion seriously. Even if the teenage boy sent him to hell, he would do his best to crawl back up, all for the sake of recovering his pride that had been wounded many times as of late.