"Aurora! Straight ahead to your 10!"
Atticus's scream was immediately followed by him dashing through the forest in another direction.
Aurora had long since gotten a grip on herself. Despite the wave of water enveloping her whole body, there was not a single inch of her that was wet.
With one knee and hand on the ground, Aurora's mind spun, her head snapping towards the direction that Atticus had pointed out. Mana coalesced in Aurora's legs, the earth buckling as she shot forward.
The long and massive form of a black sniper like gun trembled as the hands of its wielder shook with intensity.
The wielder, a boy with all the features of the Alverian family member, took his gaze away from the scope, his eyes trembling as his teeth clattered.
With his shaky body, he placed his hands on the earpiece on his right ear and spoke frantically,
"Luther! I fucking told you I told you we should have just ignored the target!! We failed and now he fucking found me!" The boy spoke while simultaneously jumping down from the tree he had been situated on.
"Stop whining like a baby! I'm also being chased! I really thought we could get him. Just think about it, he had his powers restricted just like us!" An exasperated voice responded from the other end of the call, followed by the bang sounds of gunshots.
"I'm whining like a baby!? I'm whining like a baby! You can only run your mouth because you don't have the fucking white haired monster chasing you! Ahhh I shouldn't have listened to you! I should have just listened to my instincts instead, fuck!" He kept on ranting while frantically running through the forest at his fastest speed, his gun fixed tightly at his back.
"Wait, why am I not hearing the sound of gunfire… are you running away!?" Luther suddenly exclaimed.
"Are you fucking deaf or do you have nothing in your brains?! I just literally said the white haired monster, the same one who defeated the entirety of the second year top 100 rankers in a second, is coming after me!"
"So wh-"
"Shut the fuck up! I should have been the leader instead of you! If I was, I wouldn't have made this idiotic decision!" Zack turned his gaze backwards trying to see the distance between him and Atticus and was shocked to see that there was no one behind him.
But he wasn't fooled; his steps never once paused as he increased his pace even more, his whole body straining.
His heart pounding in his chest like a drum, he continued,
"Luther! I swear to God if he catches me and gives me a painful death, I will make you pay when we get back to the division-"
"Where are you going?"
Zack's brain seemed to freeze, his earlier rapidly beating heart coming to an abrupt stop. His mouth was left wide open, his gaze frozen and fixed at his front.
Ironically, despite all of this happening simultaneously, his steps never once stopped. He still kept on running at full speed.
The words sounded cold, as chilling as ice. Many of the students, especially the ones from the non-leaders section, haven't heard Atticus speak in real life before, only through the recording.
Zack had always thought Atticus sounded like the devil, but he had been thoroughly wrong. He didn't sound like the devil; the devil would sound persuasive, trying to convince and lure you into doing something terrible.
But hearing him in reality now, zack realized, he sounded like a reaper. Every single word sounded as though he was asking, nay, demanding for his life.
Zack didn't want to turn backwards, but he knew he had to, though the thought of seeing the piercing blue eyes of Atticus was frightening, to say the least.
Fortunately for him, he didn't have to. Before he could formulate his next move, a kick hit the left side of his face.
Zack barely had the time to register the break in his left cheekbone, the crack that followed in his teeth, and the way the left side of his face deformed beneath the weight of the strike before his figure shot sideways, breaking through the sturdy trees in brutal thuds.
But his torment wasn't over.
A large body of water suddenly enveloped Zack's figure, which had been stopped by a large tree. Its edges were so smooth and firm it was clear that nothing was getting in and out of it easily.
Parts of the water started turning crimson as the blood streaming out of Zack's mouth mixed in with the water. He opened his gaze shakily to see Atticus standing directly in front of him, staring at him with an icy gaze.
'I swear I'll get you for this, Luther,' Zack's gaze became teary as he thought.
That was the only thing he had time to think about before he used up the air he had left, both his arms gravitating to his neck as he started drowning.
Atticus watched this scene play out with a cold gaze without uttering a word. 'This is the perfect time to confirm if the artifact will still protect us from death,'
Atticus had witnessed the academy's cruelty multiple times already. They were literally using another race of people as live targets to train their youths; it was cruelty of the highest order.
Atticus wouldn't be too surprised if they treated this completely as reality. He had to check to make sure.
Moments passed and Zack had stopped struggling, his whole body having turned completely limp as he floated in the bubble of water, looking lifeless.
His artifact suddenly lit up in a golden glow, enveloping Zack's form, and then he disappeared from the ball of water.
'Looks like we're still safe,'
Reaching this conclusion, Atticus quickly found and picked up the gun Zack had used to attack him and then turned and started heading back towards where he had sent Aurora.