Dimensional Descent

Leonel sighed.

"Alright. The exit is around the corner but there's nothing guarding it."

"And?" Aina asked.

She was smart enough to know that this was definitely not a good thing. Different species aside, the Rapax were clearly intelligent. They wouldn't make such a rudimentary mistake.

"There's nothing guarding it because they don't need to guard it, at least not this exit in particular. We're currently surrounded by three other identical entrances that lead to other hives identical to this one. In fact, we're in a field of nests right now and my Internal Sight doesn't spread far enough to tell if we're nearer the middle, an edge, or what direction we should go in."

The expressions of the three youths sunk when they heard this. They had thought that they were close to at least leaping over this first hurdle, but there was actually so much more to go? Who had set up this Selection? Did they want them all to die?!

"So you want to fly up and check which direction to go." Aina finished.

"There's no real other choice."

"Of course there's another choice. You could make an image probe to check for you. If that doesn't work, there's Blackstar. His stealth is much higher than any of our own. He could probably do it without risking being found out at all."

"An image probe would require materials and a Force Art that wouldn't be eroded by Anarchic Force, neither of which I have on hands right now. As for Blackstar, that is a more legitimate possibility, but I don't like it."

"So it comes down to you being stubborn again."

"It isn't stubbornness, just efficiency. There's no amount of stealth that will help Little Blackstar hide himself in the air."

"It's just relativity. Blackstar is far smaller than any one of us and also has the best evasive maneuvers. At the same time, the Rapax likely know that there's a bunch of humans running around in their territory by now, they might not be ready to spot a little mink. And, on top of that, can't Little Blackstar change form as well? If it comes down to it, it might be worth exploring the possibility of using that to our advantage."

"I just think it's still better if I go."

"You aren't explaining."

"It's hard to explain."

"It isn't. I know why you want to go. For one, you don't want to put Blackstar in danger. And, secondly, you trust in your ability to react to unforeseen circumstances far more than anyone else, you're just reluctant to say so because it proves my point."

Leonel opened his mouth to respond but suddenly found that he had nothing to say.

Little Blackstar's head bobbed back and forth between them as the two 'argued', if it could even be called that. He seemed very curious about how this would end and even seemed amused about how Aina had cornered Leonel.

Whenever Leonel made an assessment, there were two things he always took into consideration. The first was what the situation was at face value, and the second was what the situation had a chance of mutating and warping into.

The first was straight forward enough, however the more likely the second was to cause his analysis to veer off path, the more likely it was that he would rather take on the burden himself.

In Leonel's opinion, there was simply no one who could adapt to a change faster than he could. In fact, one of the only people to ever impress him with their adaptation ability—Emna Beiceran from Crimson Hall—was a woman he almost immediately invited to become one of his generals. To this day, she had still been the only person he had ever tried to recruit like that. Sometimes he still lamented that he didn't manage to win her over.

These were the two forces tugging at Leonel's mind. And, the truth was that even if Emna was here, he would still trust himself hundreds of times more. That was just how he was.

He liked to cut out variables as much as possible, even way back to the final game he and James had played together…

Thinking to this point, Leonel closed his eyes and took a breath. When he opened them again, he rubbed his thumb on Blackstar's small little head.

"Ready, little guy?"

"Yip! Yip!"

Blackstar excitedly bounded into the air, flipping and vanishing into the fog before appearing around the corner.

Aina smiled, but inwardly her heart was beating wildly. She felt that this was the right decision, but if things went poorly, it would become even more difficult for Leonel to make this choice again in the future.

In a lot of ways, Leonel was right. He was able to adapt faster and better than most. The reason he was so confident that he could defeat people as strong as Aina despite being weaker was because raw strength wasn't his greatest asset, his mind was.

Leonel had had no business defeating Sixth Dimensional experts as a mere Tier 1 existence, and yet he had done so. That kind of confidence, that kind of bone deep and unflappable poise in the face of terrible odds was all too rare.

However, Aina also knew that if Leonel didn't learn how to trust that others could accomplish good as well, even if they weren't as great as him, his dreams wouldn't be able to progress very far. There was only so much a single person could accomplish.

Aina looked toward Leonel's side profile, but he was already extremely focused. His gaze had frosted over, his expression had become unreadable, and an oppressive aura began to weigh down on the surroundings, suddenly making it difficult for the three youths behind them to breathe.

Little Blackstar shot out of the exit like a beam of black light then performed a sharp 90 degree turn upward, flying into the skies.

Leonel could feel his partner's excitement through their connection.