Gon, who had been commentating on the unfolding event, gazed at Atticus's screen with a wide grin.
The students were all cheering deafeningly while screaming the name "Atticus."
From the very beginning, every single one of them had come for a good show, for something entertaining, and it went without saying that despite the fact that only an hour had passed since the beginning of the summit, the number of times the students' hearts had trembled was too high to count. And this was all because of one boy!
The chants showed no signs of stopping, the stomping intensifying. The current situation was thoroughly baffling because none of the students watching even knew the rules of the game! They had seen Atticus kill numerous aliens, and yet, no one cared!
It wasn't a secret that basically 99% of the students were scared of Atticus and, in turn, didn't like him.
But even they had to admit, he was strong.
…
Without a doubt, Jared's laughter was annoying. What made it even worse was the fact that he currently had his mouth filled to the brim with food.
But regardless, none of the instructors showed any signs of discomfort. It was as though they couldn't even hear him.
There was only one thing going through each one of their minds, even Isabella: how had he survived?
Isabella had been ready to fight for the respawning of Atticus immediately when she had seen the massive fireballs appear on screen.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
'Were they rebelling?' This had been exactly what popped into her head.
Before the war with the Zorvans, in Eldoralth, there were a multitude of races. Wars had been fought with lots of races being defeated, some wiped from existence.
Of these defeated races were some who had been enslaved. It went without saying that enslaving an entire race was brutality of the highest order, but despite that, the human domain and many others had still done it.
This was exactly how the Bone race had come to be inside the academy. It was the first time the academy was involving them in the leader's summit and, as per their agreement, they weren't supposed to attack the spawned students until only an agreed time had passed.
This had been what Isabella had planned to use to fight for Atticus. This single scene had caused a wave of different expressions amongst the instructors, with the higher years breaking into visible smiles.
But it didn't last long because after that, what happened next had shocked every single one of them to the core.
It wasn't the fact that he had been able to detect an air current and use it effectively. Nor was it even the fact that he had been able to escape that bombardment. What shocked each one of them was one fact: he engraved a grade 2 rune!!
Didn't that make him a grade 2 runesmith at 16 years old?? Just what was going on?
Many felt their head go numb, their hearts trembling. Just what truly was Atticus?
After that, they each went through another rollercoaster of emotions as Atticus defeated and killed an Advanced rank despite being restricted to the intermediate+. And this was without his bloodline!
His battle sense had been elite. It wasn't just about being powerful. He had been patient, waited for the right time while getting beaten up. And when that time came, there wasn't a shred of hesitation. He had beheaded him.
After that, Atticus's subsequent actions of going after Aurora, sneaking into the camp, rescuing Aurora, and escaping only added to the pool of shock.
Suddenly, restricting each of their powers to the same level wasn't a good idea anymore. It seemed that despite this, it didn't narrow the overwhelming gap between Atticus and the rest of the students.
Many of them even went as far as coming to a realization: if he was this strong and powerful even while being restricted, then he deserved to win.
They should try to hinder that, especially when it was a huge win for the human domain. But not all shared this sentiment.
'Their only way to win is to take advantage of the rules, and also, not all is lost,' the third year Enigmalnk instructor, who had been the one to suggest restricting their strength, suddenly smiled and spoke up slightly.
"He killed their prince, they wouldn't let it slide," he said succinctly. Despite the words being short and simple, each of the other higher year instructors sitting beside him also seemed to come to a realization. He was right. There was no way they would let it slide. They would go after him with more fevor.
Isabella had also come to the same realization, but instead of worrying, she decided to simply watch the show. He had surprised them many times already.
Meanwhile, Jared's laughter stopped after a few seconds. He suddenly grabbed a massive drumstick from the cart beside him and took a large bite from it, his gaze only focused on one screen: Atticus's. There was most definitely more to come, and he wasn't going to miss it.
The booth descended into silence as they each focused on the screen.
…
Inside a pristine white space, a multitude of guards were currently knelt down on one knee while facing the massive form of Ilia, who kept pacing to and fro.
The sound of loud chewing filled the space as Illia chewed on one of his fingers while occasionally staring at the body of Zekaron in front of him with a frightened expression.
Not only had he allowed Zekaron to be killed, but he had lost his killer! After he had veered off course to go after his body, Atticus had eventually been able to escape.
The men he brought along with him were far too few to search the whole forest; it would be like finding a single pin in an ocean. He needed to report this back at home.
At this point, Zekaron's head and body had already been joined together.
'What should I do? What should I do?'