Chapter 686 - Ring

Aina turned away from the corpse, not making any attempts to hide it. Rather, she walked away and shook Hallis awake. 

Even though she didn't care much about killing, she knew that even in its current state, Valiant Heart Mountain had rules against murdering fellow students. Since she still needed Hallis and couldn't kill him as well, it was better if he didn't see anything, lest it be used against Leonel in the future. 

Aina was well aware that she was Leonel's only weakness in this place. If she thought about it, maybe the way Leonel had handled things up until now would have been completely different had she not been there and maybe they wouldn't have been pushed into a corner. 

If Leonel heard Aina's thoughts, he would probably laugh. He had terrible luck with organizations. In his opinion, this would happen regardless of whether she was here or not. After all, she hadn't even been with him during his adventures with the Slayer Legion or Camelot. 

Thankfully Camelot was now a good ally of Leonel's, but the Slayer Legion remained in a gray zone while even Leonel didn't know whether he would be friends or enemies with Valiant Heart in the future. 

Sometimes, Leonel felt that his falling out with organizations was inevitable. When someone as talented as him joined an organization seemingly from nowhere, without the same foundations as the geniuses that they home-grew, maybe his existence itself became contentious. 

"… Hm? … Ah, ah!"

Hallis was shocked awake, feeling his throat being clamped down upon. He tried to gasp, but only managed to suck in half the air he would normally. The sudden change made him feel as though he was suffocating. 

He looked down in horror, only to find that it was a petite young woman a half head shorter than him who held him up like this. The fact that she was a freshmen only made the feelings of humiliation all the worse. 

Hallis, though, had no choice but to swallow his pride. It only took Aina a single sentence for him to throw away any thoughts of subterfuge. 

"I hope you remember that the Oryx are coming after us right now. So, if you don't lead well, I can guarantee that you'll be the first to die."

If Aina had used petty tricks to subdue Hallis, he might be willing to pull some tricks anyway to find a means to escape. But, cold shivers traveled up his spine every time he remembered that bloody ax. He could only obediently do as he was told. 

It took Aina only a moment to catch up to the freshmen who were rushing down the tunnels aimlessly. 

Shaking her head, she shouted a few words about following her. As for those who went down wrong tunnels and would have to backtrack, they were on their own. If they were quick enough, they might still stand a chance. If not, it had nothing to do with Aina. She wasn't 100% certain on Leonel's plan. But, what she did know was that as long as half of them survived, it would be fine. She wouldn't go out of her way for such two-faced people. 

…

Leonel dashed down the tunnels. Despite seeing all the diverging paths, he didn't seem to hesitate in the slightest between which he chose. 

At that moment, though, he came to a grinding halt and sighed. 

'You left this here on purpose, didn't you?'

Leonel shook his head. Reaching out a palm, he sent a blaze of fire downward, incinerating Senior Lu's corpse to ash. 

After forming his Mage Core, all of Leonel's Elements fused with his body. A happy by-product of this was the Fire Element Leonel could cast gaining a very small Scarlet Star Force character. 

Something like incinerating a Fourth Dimensional entity's body to ash like this would have been impossible for him in the past without using his Scarlet Star Force. But now, it was just a casual wave of his palm. 

If Leonel's Mage Core progressed enough and his body became a better vessel for flames, he might even be able to make use of his Innate Force Node far ahead of time…

'Hm?'

Leonel was about to walk away when he suddenly found a ring lying on the ground. By its placement, Leonel deduced that it had likely been hanging around Senior Lu's neck. 

It shouldn't be surprising that a piece of refined metal survived an incineration, but Leonel had purposely put enough strength into his flame that this shouldn't have been possible. Even a Tier 6 treasure should have been melted completely through even if it wasn't turned to ash. 

Leonel bent down and picked up the ring, rolling it between his fingers. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to be a spatial ring. At the very least, Leonel's probes didn't find a hidden space within. 

However, what his Internal Sight did find were countless small etchings he couldn't perceive with his eyes nor his touch. 

The instant Leonel noticed this, he was reminded of his basement. His father had placed such small etchings on the door handle as a small test before he entered. This was only the second time Leonel was seeing such a method…

Was it just a coincidence? Or was this ring on the level of what his father would find fascinating?

Leonel definitely decided that he should ask the dictionary about this, but now obviously wasn't the time. He didn't think that this Senior Lu would ever have something so interesting on him. 

…

At that moment, the very face-off the seniors had wanted to avoid was occurring. 

Aina stood with an unconscious Hallis in one arm and her ax in the other. To her back, there were over 20 freshmen, and the number was still steadily growing. 

On the other side, the few seniors who had still not been able to decide what they should do stood. However, their numbers weren't small either. The four watching the cave entrance were just the tip of the iceberg, in the mining tunnels themselves, they had numbers approaching 30, and that didn't even include the addition of Jaelis, Henorin and Balthorn who had seemingly finally woken up. 

It was during this very face-off that Leonel finally caught up. His appearance, though, only made the seniors' expressions turn even more sour.. While for the freshmen, it was the exact opposite.