Atticus and Aurora subtly turned, their gazes meeting. The man had just told them to go to separate places, which obviously meant that they were going to be separated.
Atticus gave Aurora a subtle nod, who nodded back. They both deepened their bows and stood up simultaneously before moving in separate directions.
Atticus went through the door into the building, while Aurora went around the back through another door and upstairs, just as the man had instructed.
The door slid to a close as Atticus entered the building. Just like the exterior, he was instantly met with a pristine white room. The room was packed with soldiers clad in purple suits without helmets.
There was absolutely nothing inside the room other than an open hole in the middle of the floor, but Atticus could Immediately notice the motion sensors around the room.
As Atticus entered the room, all eyes turned towards him in scrutiny.
'They're 24 in number, all Advanced- rank.'
One second was all he needed to find out everything. Atticus remained unfazed as he started walking towards the hole.
As he approached, one of the guards standing in front suddenly walked forward and stood in Atticus's way.
*"I was instructed to help secure the prisoners,"*
Atticus calmly spoke, his voice in clatters. He still felt weird, incredibly weird speaking like this. It was as though he wanted to speak the normal human language, but as his mouth moved, only clattering sounds kept coming out.
The man gazed at Atticus for a second, his gaze shifting to the gun in Atticus's hands, an intense frown marring his face.
"The boneless are just going to get in the way. You should go home and leave the fighting to the real warriors!"
The man's declaration was followed by him and each of the soldiers in the room hitting their arms on their chests in unison.
'What the heck is going on?' Atticus's expression under his helmet was the personification of confusion. He understood what the man had said but had no idea why. The boneless?
This confusion lasted for only a second. As Atticus's thoughts spun and he thought about everything he had seen regarding the bone race until now, a reasonable reason sprung up in his head.
'Could be a factional war or something. The ones without helmets use weapons and can fight with bones, but the ones with can only use guns,' Atticus deduced and concluded.
'Which means he's probably trying to provoke me since they can force me to leave. Alright then, ignore,'
And ignore Atticus did. It was the best and most effective way to deal with people like this.
Seeing that he wasn't able to get a single reaction from Atticus, the frown on the man's face deepened.
With a loud click of his tongue, he stepped out of the way.
"Boneless bastard."
Atticus walked past him, ignoring the rude remark he just made, and made his way downstairs.
As Atticus reached the bottom of the stairs, he was met with another small room, packed with more soldiers donned in purple suits. But this time around, each of the soldiers had their helmets on.
In the middle of the room was a large bone-made cage filled with chained students, exactly what Atticus had been searching for.
"I hope you didn't fall for their provocations upstairs,"
Atticus turned his gaze towards one of the soldiers who had just spoken. He simply shook his head in response, not saying anything.
"Good, never fall for it. They're fools who think they're better than everyone just because they were lucky enough to be able to manipulate bones."
"It's going to get better soon," the man placed his hand on Atticus's shoulder, and although he couldn't see it, Atticus could tell that he was smiling.
"Thank you for the advice," Atticus simply said, causing the man to nod.
"We have to look after each other. Just choose a random spot and stand guard,"
Atticus nodded and turned his gaze towards the prison in the middle of the room.
There were exactly 11 students, all chained inside the prison. Atticus could see some familiar faces among the captives.
The Enigmalnk youth of the first year, who hadn't been one of the important heirs but had been able to achieve a top 10 ranking. A tier one was still a tier one.
The first-year Nebulon youth that Atticus had enslaved was also present.
Among the second years, unsurprisingly, Dell Averian was present, along with some other second years whose names Atticus didn't care to know.
As Atticus approached the cage, the sounds of his footsteps resounded in the room, and the air around him suddenly started becoming humid.
'A total of 17,' The cage was surrounded from all sides by guards, with some standing closer to the wall.
Atticus took another step, simultaneously creating pipelines inside his body and instantly unleashing three bursts in rapid succession.
Every single guard in the room was expecting the sound of his next step, but it never came.
Before they could react, the room was filled with the sickening sounds of brutal thuds, each impact accompanied by a spray of blood.
The guards on the other side of the cage all shot their gazes towards the direction to witness a brutal scene that would be etched in their minds for life.
Every single one of the guards on the other side of the room lay on the ground, their bodies cut up into pieces, a staggering amount of crimson blood pooling around the room.
Before any one of them could comprehend the scene, they each felt a surreal disconnect, which was instantly followed by their heads getting separated from their bodies, their forms falling down lifeless.
Eleven balls of water shot through the air, landing on the faces of the captured students, stopping them from making any sounds.
Atticus swept his gaze around the room, noting that all the guards were dead.
Then he turned his gaze towards the students who were staring at him in horror.
Atticus was currently fully donned in armor with his face covered, but it was very obvious that he wasn't a member of the bone race. Amongst the participants, there was only one family who could use the water element.
And amongst them, there was only one student who could be this brutal and strong: Atticus Ravenstein!
As Atticus approached the students, each of them instinctively shifted backwards. But amongst them, there was no one who was as frightened as Dell.
Atticus ignored them and tapped on his artifact. He could see that his target was amongst those present but not who.
'It doesn't matter, I have no intention of letting anyone go in the first place,'