"It's simple, really. I am the strongest."
As soon as Atticus uttered these words, total and utter silence engulfed the entire area, with only the slight trembling of the ground reminding every one of the seriousness of the situation.
Every youth in the area fell into a state of complete silence. They were all shell shocked.
Such bold words!
No one present doubted that Atticus was indeed the strongest among them after witnessing his display of power. They'd have to be truly brain dead to believe otherwise.
However, what none of them expected was for Atticus to be so bold and direct.
His words elicited various reactions from those present.
Lucas smiled slightly while looking at Atticus, thinking, 'Smart.'
He couldn't help but appreciate Atticus's thought process. He completely agreed with the way he handled this situation.
It was better to be completely direct with them now and deal with any issues that would arise swiftly instead of trying to coddle them and waste valuable time.
Nate smiled broadly. He had always preferred the direct approach in solving problems. He had no issue with issue with what Atticus had just said, it was the truth after all.
All of the Ravenstein youths didn't react adversely to his words. In the first place, they had already accepted Atticus as their leader.
Why would they join his division if they weren't ready to follow his lead? All of them ranked within the top 1000 and had the option of being a leader if they wished, but they didn't and instead chose to come under Atticus.
On the other hand, for the others, some of them who believed that the strong should always rule supported Atticus's words. It was the way of the world they lived in.
Unfortunately, not all the youths thought this way. Every one of them in the area was 15 years old, basically teenagers. And what is one of the prevailing feelings teenagers have? An inferiority complex.
Most, if not all, of the youths present were from ordinary families. They had grown up hearing that children from the tiered families were better and more talented than them. This feeling had been building up in many of them since childhood.
Those particular individuals, upon hearing Atticus's words, immediately got incensed. Many of them showed their dissatisfaction on their faces, frowning and subtly clicking their tongues.
But, of course, none of them had the guts to openly show their dissatisfaction. The strength Atticus had just displayed, coupled with the fact that the other Ravenstein youths didn't object to his words, was enough for them to understand that Atticus was in total control.
Atticus, of course, noticed some of their dissatisfaction. To them, it might have been subtle, but it was glaring to him.
Bur even so, Atticus didn't care. He truly didn't care about their feelings. Atticus wasn't heroic; he wasn't here to make friends and pretend to be nice to everyone, especially to the youths gathered in front of him.
It was hypocrisy at the highest level.
Why had they joined his division in the first place?
They knew nothing about him. He didn't ask them to join, so why did they all join? Simple: because of his strength.
They all wanted to benefit from being under him because he was the 2nd rank. They were all basically leeches.
They joined to use him, so why were they whining like little kids because he simply stated the complete truth?
Just as Atticus was about to continue speaking, his keen hearing suddenly picked up the sound of stifled laughter.
Atticus didn't have to turn to know who the person was. He immediately recognized her because he had heard it constantly for the past 5 years.
Turning his gaze to the side, Atticus saw the form of Aurora, who had one hand covering her mouth, trying her hardest to stop herself from bursting out into laughter.
Aurora was truly struggling not to laugh. If not for the seriousness of the situation, she would have already given in and started laughing.
What did she just hear!?
'I am the strongest,' Aurora thought in her head, trying to mimic Atticus's voice.
It was taking cringe to the highest level!
What made it even worse was Atticus's serious face during the speech!
Aurora's face turned red as a tomato as she tried to stop herself from laughing.
Looking at Aurora, Atticus's mouth twitched. 'This girl,' With a glance, he could immediately understand what was going through her head.
Atticus swiftly concentrated on the earth element, and in an instant, the ground beneath Aurora surged upward, wrapping around her form.
Before she could react, the earth enveloped her, pulling her into the ground. Her voice echoed, "Atticus, you bast-" as the earth swiftly closed, swallowing her words along with her.
The rest of the Ravenstein youths chuckled a little bit, seeing both of them at it again.
Atticus subtly cleared his throat, redirecting his gaze to the other youths, as if he hadn't just buried a human being.
"Good. I see there are no objections," Atticus's voice resonated once again, reaching every youth on the platform.
"Now," he muttered, his eyes fixed on the youths. With his perception operating at full speed, he meticulously scanned and assessed each individual on the platform.
His speed was so rapid that his eyes moved at a blur every few milliseconds.
Atticus had always relied on his vision as his dominant sense, complementing it with his heightened perception. Even after five years of training, his vision remained superior to his other senses.
With how high his perception had grown, scanning 1000 youths in 10 seconds was completely feasible.
After scanning each of them, Atticus came to one conclusion in his head, 'Weak.'
They were all weak!
'I guess this is to be expected,' Atticus pondered. He had honestly expected this when he saw how quickly they had all joined his division.
Considering the small number of tiered families in the human domain, the number of their youths joining the academy this year wasn't even up to 1000.
Given the natural talents of these youths, it was clear that they would each rank within the 1000th rank.
Adding to the fact that the first years didn't even witness Atticus's prowess when he was battling with Kael during the test, with how fast each of the youths gathered had joined Atticus's division, it was clear that many of them didn't even give it much thought before they joined.
They only wanted to stay under a powerful leader.
There was only one group of individuals who would do that: weaklings.
Atticus couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment seeing how weak they each were.
The majority of them were still at the intermediate- rank!
With only some of them being at the Intermediate rank.
Atticus truly couldn't fathom how he had ended up with a bunch of useless subordinates.
'What bad luck. To think they even had the guts to be dissatisfied when they were this weak,' Atticus pondered, his irritation palpable.
Then, he shook his head, clearing it of useless thoughts. 'There's nothing I can do about it now. They are all already under me.'
He continued, "Now, I want you all to separate into two groups. Step to the right if your specialty is focused on long range attacks and left if it's close combat," Atticus instructed.
Even though many of the youths were dissatisfied with Atticus's earlier words, none still had the guts to disobey him.
They all swiftly listened, and in under a few seconds, they formed two groups on the earthen platform.
Atticus nodded seeing this. From the youths, about 20% of them focused on long range attacks, with the rest being close combat oriented.
Atticus lowered the earth he was on, landing on the ground.
Lucas, Nate and the rest of the Ravenstein youths all walked toward him. "What's the plan?" Lucas asked while looking at Atticus.
He had also more or less come to the same conclusions as Atticus, with this situation being a test and all.
Honestly, fighting had never been Lucas's forte, even back at the Raven camp. He was more focused on rune engraving.
During the attack on the camp, Lucas had learned a very valuable lesson back then. It was a lesson that had helped him during the academy test; always be armed and prepared.
At the Raven camp, he had always kept his runes inside his space storage, but after that event when he had been unable to access them, Lucas started keeping most of them, especially the ones he would need to protect himself, on himself.
Nate confidently thumped his chest, "Don't worry, with me around, these beasts won't stand a chance," he declared.
Following his words was a subtle click of the tongue. Nate turned to see Eric, who was looking at him as if he were an idiot.
"What, Eric? You wanna go?" Nate said, challenging Eric, to which Eric simply averted his gaze, completely ignoring Nate.
***
A/N: Thank you @Tobias_Hess for the amazing new cover.