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."

to you

stealth that will help Little Blackstar hide himself in the

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

just think it's still better

"You aren't explaining."

"It's hard to explain."

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

mouth to respond but suddenly found that

even be called that. He seemed very curious about how

was what the situation

first was straight forward enough, however the more likely the second was to cause his analysis to veer off

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

the two forces tugging at Leonel's mind. And, the truth was that even if Emna was here, he would still

possible, even way back to the final game he and

and took a breath. When he opened them again, he rubbed his thumb on Blackstar's

"Ready, little guy?"