Axel stood up in a slow but composed manner and simply walked forward with graceful steps, his blue and white clothes moved like the waves of the ocean, his hair fluttered slightly, and his sapphire like blue eyes dazzled the hearts of every women that ever glanced at them, those who ever glanced at those eyes could only get lost in the promise of peace and tranquility they offered.
Even Lumina, who always spent time with him, felt her heart flutter again at the sight of the blue prince walking like that. He was unbothered, unblemished, and unafraid of the mocking gazes of everyone. Even the impending wrath of the mighty valkyrie seems to be none of his concern, something not to be worried about.
Lumina tensed after a moment, breaking out of Axel’s ethereal and manly charm. She frowned and looked at the transpiring situation with worry. Just as she was about to go forward and diffuse the tense situation, and maybe understand why Axel had interrupted her. Lucien grabbed her hand and stopped her. Lumina looked at her brother and glared at him, and asked, "What are you doing?"
Lucien looked at her seriously and simply said, "Don’t interfere."
Just as she was about to rebuke, she saw the very serious look on her brother’s face and swallowed to herself. She lowered her head, backed off, and did not try to go there to interfere any further.
Axel, on the other hand, reached in front of her, while others moved away to give him a path. He said to her flatly, "I refuse, I am not interested in being a division leader."
A very uncomfortable silence permeated the air upon his statement, as everyone gasped. The Valkyrie’s eyes gleamed dangerously in scarlet radiance. She stated in a chilling voice, "What makes you think you have the right to refuse?"
Her overwhelming authority and power as the fortress commander are apparent in her voice. But Axel only sneered at her, "What makes you think that you can decide a role for me?"
The Valkyrie for a moment almost seemed taken aback at his arrogant and uncaring response, and everyone else simply gasped at his statement as they backed away from the two of them, even more. As if they were sure that the Valkyrie would kill him at any given moment now. Especially Ken, Luther, and various others also waited eagerly in amusement. Axel was as good as dead now. Even Lucien had a curious look on his face, waiting to see what would happen. He knew Axel was no fool, but just what was this bastard up to?
Her eyes turned into a predatory brilliance as she released her boundless killing intent onto him, the entire world surrounding Axel turned dark red for a moment, unlike the previous time, all the bloodlust was now focused solely on him. Not only that, its potency was much, much higher than before. She likely released 50% of her bloodlust at once. Axel outwardly remained expressionless.
But on the inside, his mind felt like shattering, as if a giant worm had dug a hole through his skull, and was now entering inside his brain and eating it. Making him lose his mind bit by bit. Axel looked at her viciously, his calm and tranquil ocean-like eyes surged violently like an impending tsunami. Promising cataclysmic destruction.
He released his own killing intent as a certain small rune on his clothes lit up in a golden hue. But his killing intent, being much weaker in potency compared to the valkyrie, did not directly clash with her bloodlust. Rather, it entered the shimmering rune on his attire, then transformed in a certain way and formed a protective shield-like structure, forming a red but transparent cocoon all around him, but not made of the familiar energy everyone uses, but made of his very bloodlust.
The moment that a blood red protective shield formed around Axel, the slight tension on Axel’s face vanished as he smiled towards the mighty Valkyrie mockingly, while the summoned heroine’s malice-filled bloodlust encountered an unbreakable resistance of sorts. She frowned to herself.
The clash of 2 different beings’ bloodlust is like a clash of desire, a clash of willpower and spirit in a way. But now suddenly her killing intent felt like it encountered something unmovable, something that did not resist but simply remained frozen. As if the bloodlust did not come from a living being itself. But that could not be the case. The nature of killing intent itself is that it is something that must originate and be directed from another strong-willed being.
Yet, the truth was right in front of her eyes. His killing intent was somehow entering into that rune on his attire, and it was being transformed and detached from him, turning into something akin to simply energy itself, but that which can shield against the killing intent of others. Despite the current tense situation, she could not help but truly marvel at the ingenuity of that unique creation.
While there are many ways to shield yourself from a powerful killing intent, making the bloodlust into something like that was likely something he was the first one to do. She had sufficient knowledge about almost everything in this world, so she was sure of it.
Everyone else, meanwhile, had their faces turn pale seeing Axel smiling despite the colossal killing intent of the valkyrie pressing onto him. Even those who were not affected by the bloodlust could sense the lingering malice of that bloodlust spread into the surrounding mana itself and making them tense.
Specially, Luther and his followers and Ken. Even Lucien had a frown on his face. Him being a talented forger himself, it did not take him too long to figure out what was happening. He was shocked? How is that even possible? That should not even be fundamentally possible, though?
Lumina was even more shocked, her being the 2nd most talented runecaster, excluding Taser, gave her even more insight into what was happening and what he was doing. To her, it seemed even more impossible and shocking.
But most of the students obviously did not understand what was happening, at least considering the situation it was, for them, it simply looked like Axel simply shaped his bloodlust into a protective cocoon-like thing. While Axel remained utterly unaffected by that malevolent bloodlust of the mighty summoned heroine.