Leonel's feet stamped down hard again. The wall thickened by a factor, and closed tight. He was limited in how far he could control earth away from himself, so this was about the best he could do. But, this much should be enough.
Leonel leapt backward.
Reading his intention, Little Blackstar appeared on Leonel's head just as he casted [Float].
As expected, in a Fifth Dimensional world, the act was even more difficult. Unfortunately, Leonel didn't get a boost because he hadn't added wind to his Magic Core. So, the best he could do was try to slow his fall by a large measure as he continued to fire arrows.
Eventually, Leonel was no longer high enough in the air to fire his shots directly.
Aiming into the sky, Leonel mooned several shots in a single volley. Pulling out another set of six arrows, he nestled two between every finger, sniping his moon shots down from the air.
The 12 arrows rebounded off of each other, one set of six soaring higher into the air and another set of six plunging down like meteors.
Those who could still see Leonel's marksmanship from within the tunnel felt as though they were seeing the work of a magician. It felt like Leonel's marksmanship wasn't limited by anything but his imagination. Was there nothing he couldn't do with a bow?
PENG! PENG! PENG! PENG! PENG! PENG!
The Oryx blocked the first rain, only to find that the arrows that had soared further into the skies had arched back down to aim right for them. It was as though they were being controlled like puppets on the ends of Leonel's fingers.
Leonel landed on the ground, sliding back to the cave entrance.
His pupils moved rapidly scanning the Force Art Seith had left behind. It took him no more than a split second to understand it and point out several flaws. But, he simply didn't have the time to make it perfect.
BANG!
The walls began to quake. Despite being reinforced by Leonel, just a single strike from both Oryx from completely opposing sides caused a gale of cracks to sweep through the whole structure. It looked as though it was a wall of partially cracked eggs rather than one of rock, stone and earth.
Leonel didn't even look back.
He flipped his palm over, retrieving his favorite spear for these tasks. After all, it wasn't just useful for dissecting animal carcasses.
Leonel felt it was unfortunate that the cave entrance itself was too sturdy for an Elite Grenade to work on it, or else he wouldn't have to do all of this.
BANG!
The wall collapsed. If Leonel deemed to look back at this very moment, he would see that the gaze of the great sword wielding Oryx had a straight line of sight to his back. But, as though he couldn't sense a thing, Leonel's arm finished the last of the Force Art at warp speed.
At that moment, Leonel abruptly spun back, shooting another arrow aimed right for the Oryx's eye.
"Enjoy being blinded again!"
The words reached the Oryx's ears secretly. The moment he understood, his expression changed, his eyes closing and his great sword coming out to block.
Leonel grinned and jumped into the open pit.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
By the time the Oryx realized it was just a normal arrow, the cave entrance had collapsed completely.
Leonel sprinted down, a rain of rock and rubble collapsing around him and threatening his life.
While Seith had been cautious to not put too much power into the Force Art so as not to destroy the tunnel, Leonel did no such thing. In fact, he put enough power in to collapse at least half of this entire tunnel.
His reasoning was simple. He couldn't allow the Oryx to dig through with too much ease. With how simple it had been for them to break down his reinforced wall, digging through some rubble was child's play. Leonel didn't want to stop them, that was impossible. He just needed to delay them for five minutes, just five minutes would be enough.
Leonel shot down the tunnel, leaving a trail of gold in his wake.
Little Blackstar flashed to the side, skipping through the tunnel even faster than Leonel himself.
…
Much further within the underground network, Seith burst into the small clearing that could house about 50. Compared to the freshmen who had followed after him, especially since he had a few seconds of a head start, it was no surprise that he had gotten here so much sooner. Not only was he the only one of them familiar with the network, but he was a white belt.
Plus, his explosive ability helped him with far more than just attack, he could also apply it to his internal Force and his legs, boosting his speed to inhuman levels.
"Seith?"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Seith snapped, wheezing. "That Leonel bastard came back after the Oryx came. I don't know if the tunnel has collapsed by now or not, but we need to go. There's a bunch of freshmen on the way here."
Miya, Yako and the others frowned deeply.
"I left them all far behind, but that masked girl took Hallis hostage. They'll find their way here even without my guidance!"
The expressions of everyone changed. This was bad. They really hadn't expected things to develop this quickly.
Their original intention was to leave more than just Seith and Hallis behind, but who would have thought that the Oryx would come so quickly? Miya and Yako had barely gotten here to drop Jaelis and the others off when the commotion began.
What should they do?
…
In the tunnels, Senior Lu was running as fast as he could. But, the injury to his hip caused him to be far slower than he usually was. He had gone from being among the best of the freshmen, to lagging behind even the worst.
Though his bone hadn't been injured, the skin and muscles had been. The fact he was moving his leg at all was a testament to just how much he wanted to live.
At that moment, his thoughts weren't even filled with gratitude. And unlike most, he hadn't spared a single look back to Leonel. He just wanted to live.
Senior Lu stumbled and fell, a strong wince coming from him as he struggled to pull himself up, running forward again. But, not long later, he fell once more. This time, however, it wasn't a coincidence.
Senior Lu struggled to look up, only to find a masked and petite young lady standing over him with Hallis' neck being squeezed between her fingers.
"He's too nice to kill you over just a few words, especially since he's using you anyway. But I'm not." Aina said plainly.
"No! Please! I'm so--"
Aina's foot stamped down hard, squashing Senior Lu's head into meat paste.
Lu's fingers twitched, his body seemingly not believing he had fallen even after death.