Rodrics stared at Aeren, who remained standing while the other two lay unconscious in his subordinates' hands. Confused by the situation, Rodrics looked at one of his subordinates with a cold voice.
"Why is he still on his feet?" Rodrics asked his subordinate.
The first subordinate stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and said, "Lord Rodrics, the poison fog didn't work on him. So we chained him and brought him here."
Without warning, Rodrics raised his voice and killed the other two subordinates, their heads rolling across the hall. The kneeling subordinate didn't understand what had happened and didn't have the courage to ask Rodrics.
"You could have at least knocked him unconscious, but instead you brought him here and revealed our hideout's location. If he somehow escapes and returns with reinforcements, then what will you do?"
Rodrics said coldly, looking at the kneeling subordinate with anger but choosing not to kill him.
The subordinate, sweating profusely, couldn't answer—he didn't know the answer either.
"Get lost," Rodrics said coldly. The subordinate stood, bowed his head, and ran from the hall.
Now only Aeren and Rodrics remained in the hall with the sleeping students and the severed head of the professor.
Rodrics threw the severed head at Aeren. It rolled to his feet, and Aeren looked down at it before ignoring it completely. Rodrics observed him and saw no trace of fear. As they stared at each other, they heard a hoarse voice echo through the hall.
"Ahh..." Ciya vomited, expelling all the poison from her system. She looked around and saw two people staring at her, along with the professor's head rolling nearby. "AHAHAHHAH!"
She recognized the professor who had been watching her, and tears began streaming down her face. She looked at Aeren, who was staring back at her, and asked through their mental link with a sobbing voice:
'What's the situation here?' Ciya was still crying over the professor's severed head, but she had to focus on survival. She had seen situations like this before where people betrayed each other to save their own lives, which was why she was checking whether Aeren was still on her side.
Aeren looked at her but didn't answer Ciya's question. Instead, he turned back to stare at Rodrics and spoke in a cold voice:
"You have quite an interesting skill."
Rodrics heard Aeren's cold tone and almost felt fear from his voice. Rodrics possessed a skill that could sense danger from others, even normal human beings, but he couldn't determine whether Aeren was dangerous or not. This made him increasingly uneasy, but he controlled himself and spoke:
"You're quite an interesting kid—the most interesting I've ever met." Rodrics looked at Aeren with a grin on his face.
Ciya watched both of them, unable to understand the situation at all. Before she could think further, an attack came out of nowhere aimed at Aeren. Both Rodrics and Ciya were surprised when Aeren didn't move at all, yet the attack didn't harm him—it seemed to pass right through his body without causing any damage. Rodrics saw this and was stunned by the display.
Rodrics looked at Aeren and said, "You have quite an interesting skill for a brat like you."
Unable to find any weakness in Aeren, and with his danger-sensing skill not working properly, Rodrics had no choice but to attack Ciya instead. He launched the same type of attack he had used on Aeren, but Ciya blocked it with her sword.
Ciya looked at Aeren and said through their mental connection, 'Let's fight together. I don't think I can defeat him alone.'
Aeren didn't answer. He looked back at her and simply let them fight each other.
Both Rodrics and Ciya were surprised by his reaction, but they couldn't back down now. They began attacking each other—Rodrics launching invisible sword slashes at Ciya, while she blocked every attack as if she could see them all coming.
Rodrics started feeling irritated about the situation. His senses told him she wasn't dangerous, yet she was blocking all his attacks. As for the other kid, his senses weren't working at all, which was why he couldn't let his guard down against Aeren.
Meanwhile, Ciya's strikes were becoming more precise—she was improving her sword skills through this fight and becoming more dangerous to Rodrics. One or two attacks even managed to hit him, though only minor cuts, but enough for him to sense real danger from her.
Aeren looked toward the throne and began walking up the stairs. He sat on the throne and watched the fight between Rodrics and Ciya with complete indifference.
Seeing this, both Rodrics and Ciya felt irritated. Rodrics screamed loudly at his subordinates, "Kill the kid! I'll handle this bitch!"
All the subordinates looked at the kid on the throne in surprise, then started running toward the stairs. However, not a single person managed to reach even the first step—their heads began rolling across the hall.
Some stopped far from the stairs, lacking the courage to move either forward or backward. So all of Rodrics' remaining subordinates stayed in place, doing nothing except watching the fight like spectators.
Ciya saw this and was confused about what had happened to those people. It didn't look like Aeren had killed them. Rodrics also witnessed this and began fighting seriously. Ciya started getting tired as Rodrics stopped holding back, making his attacks much harder and stronger than before.
One of Ciya's arms was severed, and she could no longer fight. Her sword lay far from her body as she collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood from her mouth. She heard footsteps approaching her when suddenly she heard a voice in her mind:
'Lady Ciya, just stay there. I'll sneak attack him from behind.' Denvar had been acting dead, but when Rodrics was about to reach Ciya, Denvar suddenly awakened and attacked. However, his entire body was instantly cut apart by Rodrics.
Rodrics had known about Denvar being awake for a while. As he reached the place where Ciya lay screaming and crying over her last hope being destroyed, she spoke through her tears:
"You bastard... sob... you will... pay... sob... for this..." Ciya said with cold eyes, glaring at Rodrics.
Aeren remained sitting on the throne, watching the entire scene unfold.