Chapter 101: Before the Final Battlefield
The moment Silas heard Cher’s words, he recalled the brief encounter before leaving the academy. There had indeed been a red-haired student among the lot.
For some reason, the dragon’s humanoid form surfaced in his mind.
’It can’t be.’
’There’s no way.’
Silas immediately dismissed the absurd thought, yet a lingering sense of unease refused to leave him. Without warning, countless dark shadows flashed through his mind.
He watched them spread across the battlefield, occupying one position after another, until a certain possibility emerged. It was the Time Mind World kicking into action, showing him something that he never thought of.
Then the corners of his lips slowly rose.
"What are you doing?"
Cher frowned as she watched him raise his wristwatch. Instead of sending a message, he activated its camera.
"I need to take care of something," he said. "Keep going. I’ll catch up in a few minutes."
"Hey... you..."
Before she could object, Silas burnt a Mana Crystal and shot away with such explosive speed that made her freeze for a moment.
"Couldn’t you at least tell me what you’re planning?"
Left with no choice, Cher could only roll her eyes before continuing toward the mine alone. A few minutes later, Silas caught up to her with a mysterious smile on his face.
"You’re not going to tell me, are you?"
She already knew the answer.
"How about I leave it as a surprise?"
Instead of giving his usual evasive smile, he even winked. Cher’s face instantly flushed. She looked away, pretending to focus on the road ahead as she hid her embarrassment.
’Now... it’s all up to you, Darius.’
As they continued toward the mine, Silas glanced back over his shoulder at the distant fortress one last time.
***
Leopard could still taste bitterness in his mouth.
He had believed that once Chaz Avaron and the other powerful Enhancers joined the battle, securing the blood dragon would become inevitable. Instead, reality shattered that illusion the moment he stood before the creature. Never before had he felt so utterly hopeless, powerless, and consumed by despair.
It had barely been a battle; it had been a massacre.
Every time he recalled the dragon’s overwhelming might, a cold shiver ran down his spine.
Not only had he been crushed without the slightest chance to resist, but most of his faction had perished. Even the survivors had begun to resent his reckless decisions, whispering behind his back whenever they thought he could not hear them.
Leopard paid them no mind.
’My clan’s special squad will arrive within a day.’
His gaze settled on the tactical map projected before him. Everyone had scattered, leaving him alone with his shuttle. More than half of his personal team had survived, yet their confidence in him had clearly begun to waver.
Leopard had returned from the battle defeated, but not broken. He understood better than anyone that the people around him would no longer follow him into another reckless gamble.
’No matter what, I only need to hold on until my real force arrives.’
As he wrapped fresh bandages around his wounds, something on the tactical map caught his attention.
"Oh? Rachel tried to kill Silas and failed."
The report came from one of his spies within Rachel’s faction. It contained few details, but enough for him to piece together what had happened.
Rachel had ambushed Silas and Darius, only for Alfred to arrive in the middle of the fight. In the end, she had failed to kill any of them while suffering heavy losses herself.
The report went on to describe her fury before mentioning how strangely calm she had become afterwards.
’She’s planning something...’
’If Rachel has suddenly calmed down her rage, then reinforcements are the only explanation.’
Leopard’s thoughts drifted to the special squad he had been waiting for, and suddenly everything fell into place.
’So that’s your plan. Great minds truly think alike.’
A smile slowly spread across his face as he searched the map until he found the two figures he wanted: Cher and Silas.
’They’re heading toward the mine... Then that’s where I need to be as well.’
Although most of his faction had been wiped out, his remaining subordinates had lost faith in him, and even Montar had abandoned his side after barely escaping with his life, Leopard still ordered the shuttle toward the mine.
After all, every major force seemed to be converging there. Chaz Avaron, the scattered mine troops, the Dark Hunters, the dragon, and even Rachel were all moving in the same direction.
Whatever was about to happen at the mine would decide everything, and after sacrificing so much, Leopard had no intention of being absent.
***
"Do you even know where we’re going?"
Alfred leaned heavily against Darius as they continued forward. During the past three hours, they had advanced at a painfully slow pace, forced to avoid the scattered mine patrols while resting from time to time thanks to Alfred’s injured leg.
Yet during the last hour, both of them had noticed a subtle change.
The patrols had become noticeably thinner, as though a major incident had drawn everyone elsewhere. Neither of them needed to say it aloud to know Silas was almost certainly involved.
At first, Alfred had assumed they were heading directly for the mine to regroup with the others as planned. Gradually, however, he realised Darius was leading him somewhere else. Their destination was still near the mine, but they were no longer taking the most direct route.
"We need to deal with your leg first," Darius said with an exaggerated sigh. "There should be several large garrison posts around the mine. We’re heading to one of them. If we’re lucky, we’ll find a medic who can patch you up far better than I did."
Alfred remained silent. Rather than reassuring him, those words only made him more suspicious.
’I bet you’re plotting something.’
His gaze drifted toward his intact leg, silently hoping Darius was not leading him somewhere that would leave him with two crippled legs instead of one.
***
At one of the garrison posts closest to the mine, nearly a hundred Frontier Academy students had gathered atop the wall.
Though their numbers seemed considerable, they were merely the remnants of more than forty teams. Some teams still had several survivors, while others had been reduced to a single student.
Even so, despair no longer hung over them as heavily as it had only a few days earlier. Several of the academy’s highest-ranked students had found their way there, including those ranked fourth, sixth, seventh, and ninth. More importantly, word of Silas and his team’s actions had spread throughout the survivors like wildfire.
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