Chapter 306: Causing Drama

"Hm...?"

Kai frowned in confusion.

He was quite sure that the next step after establishing his presence within the Null Gem was for him to start constructing the actual connection to his Primordial Lock. But he couldn’t pull his mana out of the Null Gem.

Like something was holding it back.

"What’s wrong?" Henry asked, noticing something was wrong. "Did you finish?"

"No." Kai glanced over his shoulder and then looked back at the raven again. "I already marked my presence inside the Null Gem, but for some reason, I can’t pull my mana out and complete the connection."

"Sigh..."

"What? What’s wrong?"

Kai glanced over his shoulder again at Henry’s rough exhale.

It seemed like he had made a mistake.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you didn’t. Just that the raven hadn’t accepted you yet."

"What?" Kai looked up at the bird, and his brows furrowed seeing it tilting its head, mocking him for even thinking that it would succumb after merely being given one grape. "Then do I make it accept me?"

"Quite easy." Henry shrugged. "You’ll have to fight it."

"You’re kidding, righ—?!"

Swoosh—!

Clang—!

Out of nowhere, the raven burst with a dark energy.

As a Star Beast, its body contained a different kind of energy, not mana, but the full brunt was exactly the same. It detonated from the raven’s body, shattering the cage that was already bent from the initial shockwave.

Iron bars snapped, twisted, and hurtled outward in a spray of deadly shrapnel.

Henry reacted in time, throwing himself flat against the floor, and rolled as debris whistled over his head. Kai wasn’t so lucky. He was right before the raven, so the blast caught him directly— and hurled him across the massive factory building, stopping only when he slammed into the wall hard.

His teeth rattled.

And cracks spread from the point of impact as the air in his lungs was forced out.

Other than the two, the other Star Beasts also got hit by the blast.

All of them went wild, roaring and thrashing in anger as they tried to also break free and get the raven, paying it for the blast tenfold. But unfortunately, their cages held. None had enough brute force to break the cages as the raven did.

Completely undisturbed, the raven unfurled at its freedom.

It stood in the wreckage of its prison, feathers flared, and wings spread wide to their full and terrible span. Its size was monstrous, and its wingspan seemed to swallow the entire room in darkness.

Each feather gleamed like obsidian.

Feeling liberated after a long time being caged, it threw back its head and let out a rapid, deep, gurgling croak. Almost like excited laughter. The heart-shaking sound echoed off the walls—capable of striking fear into any students who heard it.

And then, the raven wasted no time and launched skyward.

Swoosh—!

Just one flap from its massive wings was enough to create a powerful gush of wind.

It shot toward the high windows; a black missile aimed at freedom.

Despite its size, one flap was enough to make its form blur with surprising speed.

"Don’t let it get away!" Henry shouted from the side.

But Kai was already moving.

He pushed off the wall and ran, ignoring the gale stirred up by the massive wings above him. Straight to the center of the room. He planted himself directly beneath the raven’s flight path—then, with a calculated gamble, launched himself high into the air.

Considering his newfound physical stats, his leap was incredible.

Even without putting much power into it, his leap easily covered forty feet high.

Kai’s body contained so much power now that even the concrete ground cracked a little.

His hand closed around the raven’s trailing leg.

"Where are you going?!" Kai roared—and then his lips curled into a smirk. "We’ve only met, and you’re already leaving? That’s not nice, now. Don’t be like that. I even already thought of a name for you."

Croak—!

Out of pure annoyance, the raven shrieked and beat its wings harder.

Kai had no leverage. Nothing to hold on to. He was simply dead weight, so he was hauled up without resistance. Both burst through the ceiling together. Even the factory building’s strong materials crumbled like brittle stone, no match for the raven’s raw strength.

Big chunks of concrete exploded outward, and the sun greeted them instantly.

Hovering in the sky, the raven let out another roar as Kai dangled beneath it like a caught fish.

He looked down and realized how high he was.

O-Oh... I didn’t bring anything with me.

Meanwhile, outside the academy’s territory.

As always, the students were deep into their morning exercises. Many of them were still half-lidded, but at this point, they were used to waking up this early. The years were separated as usual—Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

Each followed a different regimen suited to their level.

And today, the Freshmen were hauling weights as they jogged in a circle.

By now, all of them were already far stronger than when they first arrived.

However, with the weights strapped to their ankles and wrists, the exercises remained hard.

Like a man with the eyes of a hawk, the bald professor made sure to always increase the sheer intensity of the morning exercises to match the average of the freshmen. He wouldn’t allow those who were stronger to stagnate, and those who were weaker to feel less pressured.

A perfect balance optimized to keep them growing.

Or for some, optimized for torture.

Dorian and Bryan were running side by side. Some students came to approach them earlier— and normally, they would gladly accept the attention, but this early in the morning was vastly different.

Neither had the battery to socialize this early—so they got rid of those students with their bad attitudes.

Now, they were back to being a duo.

"I’m going to ask Kai for the special training chamber today."

"What happened to your favourite boulder in the Dead Range?"

"It broke..."

"Hah! Figured."

As a Supernal with the divine bloodline of a minotaur—the only way for Bryan to appease his bloodline was through ramming his horned head against something hard. And he has a good boulder that he used to do that.

Now, it broke, so he needed something more.

Considering the special training chamber was reserved only for Red Princes—he reckoned it would have something to help him with this. "I was about to ask Kai right now, but he skipped the morning exercise, it seemed. I don’t think Red Princes could skip this, so where is he?’

"Dunno," Dorian shrugged. "Something must’ve come up."

For the next five minutes, the morning exercise went on without any problem.

It was calm and silent, with students simply letting their bodies move automatically.

"So boring..." Dorian complained.

"Are you shitting me?" Bryan clicked his tongue in displeasure. "It’s good that it’s silent."

"I need a little spice, or else I’m going to fall asleep."

"Did you need to drink blood again? Is that why you’re grumpy?’

"Sstt—!" Dorian raised a finger as his eyes flashed the moment they landed on someone in the distance. He watched Bree jog with her circle of girlfriends, seemingly gossiping, then he shifted to Matilda far behind, who was jogging alone. "I think I know how to spice things up."

A mischievous smirk curled on Dorian’s lips.

Meanwhile, Bree’s face flushed.

"I moved into his house last night..." She muttered, confessing to her circle what she did.

"What?!" One of the girls, Tara, exclaimed. "Really? How did you do that?’

"I simply knocked on his door and brought my luggage."

"And he lets you in? He must’ve certainly been waiting for you to move in."

"It’s going to be pretty soon then," Another girl—Georgia smirked teasingly. "Soon enough, your first kiss and then your first bed fight. You have to tell us when those things happened. Don’t even try to hide it, as I can sniff it."

"What are you saying?" Bree waved her hand, trying to deny those thoughts, but her blushing face betrayed what she was really feeling inside. "Actually... I already did the first one. Kai already kissed me."

"What?! He kissed you?!"

"I never thought Kai would be the type to make the first move!"

"How was it? Just a smooch? Maybe with tongue? Come on, spill it!"

"Ladies..." A voice intervened in their gossip as Dorian came beside them.

"Can you not?" Georgia pushed Dorian away. "We’re in the middle of something important!"

Bree chuckled. "What is it, Dorian? If it’s about Kai, then I also don’t know where he went."

Earlier, after she’d cleaned herself up and finished her makeup—she had expected to find Kai waiting for her on the first floor. After what happened, she reckoned their relationship finally had progressed further.

And she was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself.

Bree wasn’t going to stop him.

In fact, she wanted him to make the first move again, but to her surprise, he was already gone.

Talitha told her that he had gone on first, and he was with someone.

She thought it was Matilda, but no, it was a man and didn’t seem from the academy.

"No, it’s not about Kai." Dorian shook his head—and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "I wanted to talk about her. About Matilda."

"Do you like Matilda?" Georgia chimed in, eyes sparkling at another drama. "Many guys are secretly talking about her, mainly because of her very athletic but supple build, but most don’t dare to get close, so you’d have a chance!’

"Not interested." Dorian raised his hand. "I was wondering if you knew whether something happened to her."

"What do you mean?" Bree tilted her head in confusion.

"I don’t know... She looked more charming out of nowhere, you know? Did you see it, too?"

"Hm?"

Bree glanced over her shoulder to look at Matilda, and she immediately realized what Dorian was talking about. Matilda looked more refreshed, and her face is sparkling somehow. "Huh, you’re right. But maybe she’s cleaner now that there was no need for us to mine anymore."

"It’s something else." Dorian shook his head. "To me, this charm looked like she had only got a new boyfriend or something. Look, she’s even walking funny like a penguin. And have you even seen her being overtaken by other students? She’s normally at the front."

A frown crept to Bree’s forehead.

Now that Dorian said it, she began to notice what he was talking about.

Something was going on for Matilda to be looking and acting odd like this.

"Who even dared to get close to Matilda?" Georgia asked, scanning the boys around.

"Must be someone bold and fearless," Tara shrugged. "Or someone already close to her."

Bree turned around and immediately headed towards Matilda.

Behind him, Dorian’s hand was already in his pocket, ready to take out his phone.

’This is going to be fun.’