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."

it comes down to

isn't stubbornness, just efficiency. There's no amount of stealth that will help

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

just think it's still better if

"You aren't explaining."

"It's hard to explain."

one, you don't want to put Blackstar in danger. And, secondly, you trust in your ability to react to unforeseen circumstances

respond but suddenly found that he had

the two 'argued', if it could even be called that. He seemed very curious about

he always took into consideration. The first was what the situation was at face value, and the second

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

their adaptation ability—Emna Beiceran from Crimson Hall—was a woman he almost immediately invited to become one of his generals.

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

possible, even way back to the final game he

his eyes and took a breath. When

"Ready, little guy?"