Chapter 712: Is This Really Luck?

But then Leo suddenly had a thought.

Wait… is it really luck?

He looked at the Ice-Viper corpse.

"Ice… then that panther…" Leo muttered.

He suddenly realised that both of these were useful to him. The Ice-Viper's core could be used to enhance Zelut, while the panther's core could be used to enhance Shyra.

What were the chances that both things Leo could utilise had appeared near him so conveniently?

Leo suddenly felt that something was wrong with this coincidence.

Meanwhile, at the stronghold's location…

Slice! Whhossh! Slice! Sweep! Swoom!

Suddenly, the rankers from Evergrove Academy, led by Aiden—the 1st-ranked student—started disappearing into white particles from behind.

Before Aiden could even realise that something was wrong, 5 rankers were already gone.

Clang! Clang!

"W-What?!"

The last 2 remaining rankers, the 2nd-ranked student and Aiden himself, barely managed to block Lily's stealthy sword strikes. Even then, their swords cracked in half at the point of impact, and they were thrown back.

"Oh… Shyra's skill is quite useful. I just need to practise it a bit," Lily muttered in astonishment.

She had been walking behind this elven group for a long time alongside Shyra, and nobody had noticed her, though part of it was thanks to the forest around her that created a lot of shadows. Even when she launched her attack, only the 1st- and 2nd-rankers sensed her. The rest vanished under her blade before they could even realise what was happening.

"W-Who are you?" Aiden asked, still struggling to believe what had just happened.

"You sure have the audacity to ask who I am after stepping into the region of our academy's stronghold," Lily calmly replied.

Aiden's rank was barely reaching the Pseudo 4-star, meaning he was no threat to her.

Aiden's eye contracted when Lily spoke. It was then that he noticed the dress Lily was wearing.

"A-Aurelius—"

Crackle—Crack!

The sky lit up, and what followed were multiple thick pillars of lightning. Aiden realised too late that what he had thought was a natural storm was actually an artificial one.

"Shit!"

Aiden tried summoning his beast, but the moment they appeared, the attack struck, and he was teleported away along with the remaining 2nd-ranked fellow.

Lily dealt with all 7 of them almost instantaneously, with most of them not even having the opportunity to summon their beasts or retaliate in any way.

As for the audience in the stadium, they didn't have a single word to say. Especially those elves who had previously been saying how arrogant Leo's words were.

But it turned out that Leo had simply been speaking the truth.

Meanwhile, in the Emperor's Chamber…

Cyrandel simply sighed at the scene of Evergrove's rankers being eliminated.

"This girl is quite strong for her age…" Aurex muttered as he looked towards Cyrandel.

"Do you think that if she were to join hands with you, and in case you really managed to awaken the elven blood in her, what would happen to the family that has been claiming they birthed the goddess?"

Hearing that, Cyrandel fell into contemplation.

"They will lose 70% of their supporters because the prophecy is their main driving factor, allowing them to try and go against me. If the supporters see that I have managed to secure the real deal, they will instantly turn or become neutral."

"But again, I will need his support for the best results." Cyrandel gestured towards Louis, who simply shrugged.

"I don't like that Vaeloria family head. He has been acting way above what he is worth. I am ready to be in if the whole family is erased."

Hearing that, Cyrandel's expression became complicated.

The Vaeloria family was her mother's sister's family, and she still couldn't bring herself to oppose them openly, much less have them erased.

Aurex and Louis simply looked at each other with bored expressions.

"If it were me, I would make sure to even have their souls erased so they never reincarnate to cause me trouble again."

"Like I said, you really need a capable man by your sid—"

Aurex stopped whatever he was saying when Cyrandel glared at him.

Though Louis didn't say anything, he would do exactly the same as Aurex, or even worse.

Seeing that he might end up in needless trouble, Aurex shifted the topic, while Louis simply gazed at the screen displaying Leo's figure, who patiently waiting for the 4-hour time limit to finish so the flag could be captured.

Louis narrowed his eyes.

Let's see how your talent works…

Louis would be the one handling the treasures for human candidates; in other words, he needed to understand Leo's abilities firsthand to know which rewards were best to give, so he had discreetly manipulated the appearance of certain flag zones through which Leo would most probably use his talent.

And just so Aurex and Cyrandel wouldn't suspect him of cheating after sensing him using his powers out of order, he had directly told them about it upfront.

But he twisted his words, saying he was going to change the position of certain flags to make things more interesting to watch. This way, he passed the clause of the mana contract because Louis was indeed interested in watching Leo's talent at work.

Back in the realm, Kaelion's Skyreaver had just dropped Shyra at their location, and they had re-entered the flag zone.

"Whoa… so this is the stealthy beast that Leo has," Aaron muttered as he watched Shyra walk alongside them until she finally decided to meld into the shadows after sensing a foreign beast nearby.

"Careful, though. Shyra's strength is lower than that of the beast we are fighting."

But they all knew the fight this time would be extremely easy compared to last time, when it had been difficult to determine where the panther was hiding. With Shyra sniffing it out every time, the surprise element would no longer be there.

Not to mention, according to Fruder, the beast was most probably a Voidfang Panther, which had very low defence compared to an Obsidian Panther. And even though that was compensated for with a better agility trait, they had almost killed the beast last time. There was no chance it would survive now.

And their plan worked the very next moment when Shyra and the panther started clashing in the shadows, making their forms flicker and become visible to the naked eye.

Surprisingly, Shyra's stealth skill seemed to be of a higher category than the Voidfang Panther's, evident from the fact that she was a lot less visible than the panther.

Though the others didn't know it, this was because her stealth had spatial properties from [Umbral Rift Pounce], which made her extremely difficult to detect.

When Uraan got a clear view of both beasts, he called his Midnight Raven.

"Midnight! Use [Moonsight] on that panther with violet markings!"