As I weaved in between trees, I thought back to my conversation with Anastasia.
She had realized that I could perceive what my reflections were perceiving in real time, but she didn’t yet know I could swap with them, and I’d like to keep it that way for the time being.
I wasn’t arrogant enough to think I could defeat either Alistair and Anastasia head on, hell even Rose, due to her recent breakthrough to the Eta+ rank. Which was why I’d like to keep at least this trump card hidden. Not that they could do much about it even if they knew.
But even though, I was one to be cautious. With this much prep time, defeating them should be very much feasible, at least that was what I thought.
Anyway, my reflections had spread outward in a 360 degrees away from the castle, thereby minimizing blind spots, and maximizing efficiency.
It’s been thirty minutes since I set out, and I had covered over five kilometers in almost all directions I had gone. By now, I was kind of expecting to have come across at least a single person from the enemy camps, but I hadn’t. Instead all I saw were trees, more. trees, and the increasingly thick forest.
Of course I had also encountered more beasts than I could count, but I simply evaded them, or quickly took care of them.
Still, there was almost something fishy about the situation. ’Surely the institute wouldn’t have spread us that far apart right?’
If the enemy camps had brains, they should have come to the same conclusions as we did; scouting. That was why I’d been expecting to have met someone by now.
But if they were thinking like our ’smartest mind’, then they were bound to fail.
You see, even though 1–Alpha had the most number of high ranking students, there had never been a competition of strength between us. They’d most probably be thinking they were mostly close to our class in strength. Especially since most top nobles were assigned in the two classes.
Our own class had a weird combination. Apart from Anastasia, Delilah, Rose, Fabian, and I, who were royals, then Alistair and that kid from House Forge who were from a tier two noble House, the rest were all either from tier four noble houses, or commoners.
All in all, the nobles and royals in our class amounted to only fifteen, while the rest were all commoners.
Just as I was lost in thoughts, my senses suddenly tingled, and all the hair on my body suddenly Rose.
Whoosh!
I heard the cause before I even saw it. It was a glowing arrow heading straight for my head. I could see it, and according to my perception, I should be able to dodge it. But I couldn’t quite dodge it, due to this body only having 20 percent of my stats.
All I managed to do, was slightly tilt my head to the side, but the arrow still grazed the side of my head. I thought that was all, but it immediately exploded after, taking my head with it, followed by the rest of my body that soon turned into motes of light.
-----------
Back at the castle.
"The fuck is that?" I muttered. I didn’t even see the bastard who shot the arrow.
"What happened?" Anastasia who had up and decided to leave all the organizing to Delilah turned to me.
"Someone just killed me." I replied, before a smirk appeared on my face. "But I think I’ve gotten a general direction of one of the camps."
"Oh." her head tilted in interest. "Which direction is it?"
"There." I pointed east of the castle, or at least where the sun suggested was east. "I was attacked, about five kilometers in that direction." I added.
She smiled.
"Knowing your pettiness, you’re probably going to head there yourself."
"No I’m no..." I began to protest, but then stopped. "You know what? on a second thought, I am." I nodded standing up.
I was going to see who was the bastard that attacked me. I already had two reflections racing there at the moment, but the outcome would most probably be the same. Plus, it wasn’t certain that the one who attacked me was the only one there.
"Fine, you can go." she drawled.
"I don’t need your permission." I scoffed.
"Whatever." she rolled her eyes. " Just don’t get eliminated, else I’ll have to do everything myself."
"Lazy bum." I scoffed as I went outside.
At the clearing before the castle, I saw Delilah already forming batches, and exasperatedly shouting orders at the crowd.
As I made way to enter the forest, all the students on my path hurriedly moved aside. ’Yes.’ I inwardly thought. ’This is how it should be.’
Unbeknownst to anyone, the moment I entered the forest, I swapped with one of the two reflections heading towards that area. The closest to the place specifically.
As soon as I did, I burst into a motion of afterimages. After mirage steps broke into the master mastery, the number of afterimages left in my wake had almost doubled, and had become increasingly confusing.
Not gonna lie, it sometimes confused even me.
Then it got me thinking, what if I mix a few reflections into these afterimages, during a fight? I had started working on it, but I hadn’t gotten any breakthrough. Still, I was quite certain that the end result would be remarkable.
It almost made me remember something from my previous life, but for some reason I couldn’t.
Anyway, I raced to the spot, without even trying to hide my presence. I wanted the archer to be baffled. The moment they see me, they’d be like; Didn’t I just eliminate him not too long ago?
That reaction, might or might not make the archer falter, and easily reveal their position. It was an old war tactic, seeing your enemy coming back from the dead.
Just as expected, the moment I reached there, an arrow came shooting at me, but it was completely off target.
Boom! It struck the ground in an explosion.
"I see." I muttered. Thanks to the arrow missing me, I saw the direction it was coming from.
------------------
Meanwhile, with Alistair.
Alistair hadn’t had things go his way many a time since entering the Astral Mystic Institute. He had arrived at the entrance exam with the goal of dominating everyone, showing them what a true prodigy with an Omega ranked physique could do.
But as fate would have it, the exam was a race, contrary to the battle he expected. He reached the end of the race, only to see a name already plastered in the first place of the leaderboard.
He didn’t recognize the name, but he recognized the surname, and her face. After all, she was the one who’s looks caused quite the commotion outside the island. Even he had to admit, she was regal.
Alistair consoled himself, vowing to prove himself when an opportunity came. But as if it was intentional, not once did he get paired with the girl during combat classes.
Then came the Spira city incident where he found out his childhood friend had become a heretic. After that was the time he kept feeling a strange sensation that he lost something that should have belonged to him.
He didn’t know why he felt as if all these things were targeted at him. But, "Soon." he promised himself. "I’ll make things go my way whether they like it or not." He just had to wait for the right opportunity. But for now, he had to scout out the locations of the enemy camps.
---------------
Meanwhile, somewhere unknown, far from the simulated environment.
In a luxurious room, a figure sat regally on a chair, his fingers lazily flicking the chessboard on the table before him.
"Wasn’t Anastasia Necron supposed to die in the Ashen Deadlands?" the figure mumbled. "She never lived past that time frame in the past iterations."
"Tsk, a variable, a particularly dangerous one." the figure clicked their tongue.
"And then there is Damon Darkfell, he was supposed to have died in Spira City, yet here he is, still alive." The figure continued, knocking over a pawn and taking it out of the game.
"Another variable." the figure said.
"What I wonder though, is why Damon went to the island of black sands. He usually always stays in kida city, until it was time for the institute." the figure took yet another piece off the chessboard. "So what changed in this iteration?"
"Not only that, he also went to that black market, and took the bands of Legom, hahaha." The figure couldn’t help but chuckle, their black hair glinting slightly in the light.
"But at the end, it matters not. Whatever it is you’re hiding, Damon, It’ll be known to me." Said the figure, their eyes reflecting the chessboard. "After all, everything eventually is."
Knock Knock!
Just as the figure finished speaking, a knock sounded on the door.
"Come in." the figure raised their head. A silver haired girl pushed the door open.
"Emmett, I’ve been looking all over for you." The girl sighed.
"Is it?" the Emmett’s striking grey eyes locked onto hers. "I was preoccupied."
*************
A/N: Here’s the Chapter for today. Also, what do you think of Emmett?
I’m Setting up a powerstone goal.
200 powerstones → 1 extra Chapter on next release.
500 powerstones → 2 extra Chapters on next release.