It's been a month since Flora began her training. She makes flowers and shoots multiple projectiles at training dummies. Then she pulls and tosses big rocks using vines, and finally, she makes a wall of vines to push herself through. Flora closes her eyes and begins to focus, while slow, and while she got stuck halfway through, she made it with a stumble.
Crito and Leo on the porch watch her train while sipping coffee. Crito takes a big sip before lighting a cigarette with an orb of light. Leo looks over at him and shakes his head.
"Don't you think that's a waste of mana?" Leo asks, but Crito seems to ignore him.
"She has made great progress," "Perhaps in a week, she might be able to learn mana sense," Crito explains. The conversation is cut off after a knock on the door. He gets back up and hands his mug to Leo before answering it.
Crito opens the door, and in the door frame stands a bandaged man. Crito invites him inside and sits him down by the table. The man looks exhausted, with bags under his eyes. Leo, seeing this, decides to throw a block of ice toward Flora to catch her attention. It lands to Flora's left, and she looks over where she sees Leo gesturing her to come over.
"Stay quiet and listen," Leo whispers while pulling himself below the windowsill. Flora gets on all four's so she can crawl below the windowsill. She sits next to Leo, who shushes to make sure she stays quiet. Sitting next to each other, they can hear the discussion between Crito and the bandaged man.
The man was the one who ran from Kali. He explains that while he survived, Kali had thrown a needle into his neck as he ran. He had collapsed not long after escaping. The needle that was thrown turned out to be a relic that had created blood from mana that had pumped through his veins and burst his blood vessels.
"I wish I could have shown up earlier." "Unfortunately, I was stuck in the hospital." " I've told the Establishment, but they haven't answered yet." The bandaged man explains.
He explains that this isn't a one-time thing. The new gods have been attacking teams from the Max tournament. Twenty-four, in total, have been killed. The man feared for the safety of the others from the tournament and has been traveling, trying to warn them all.
Flora curls up. Leo, noticing Flora's reaction, grabs her hand and gives Flora a reassuring nod. "Those bastard NewGods are still at it." Leo thought. Leo takes a deep breath and tries to structure Flora to do so as well. Flora follows Leo's instructions and calms down enough to keep listening.
Crito takes a big huff from his smoke before blowing out the smoke through the open window. "So that woman was a blood enchanter." "Good to know," Crito comments seeming surprisingly calm at the news.
"How can you be so calm!" Do you have any idea what those monsters are capable of!" The bandaged man yelled in anger, not understanding his calm demeanor. His hands slammed into the table.
Crito Puts out his cigarette. "I lost a student during the last tournament," Crito said. The bandaged man calms down upon Hearing Crito's statement. Instead, he is sweating bullets. While not Clear to the naked eye, he could see something about Crito. He saw a wavy ring circling him, it spins faster and faster, and the edges of the ring turned spiky.
"I will take of it if the occasion comes," Crito said with a stern voice and eyes that could kill. The bandaged man apologized profusely. "I am so sorry, sir."
Leo is still holding Flora by the hand. He is shocked by Crito's sudden anger. He looks over at Flora, who is curled up with closed eyes. She seems to listen but is also zoned out to the point she can stop her panic attacks. Leo seeing this, calms down a bit more and returns to eavesdropping.
Crito is done talking with the bandaged man and bids him farewell. Flora takes a deep breath and breaths out. She squeezes Leo's hand harder. Her face is filled with worry and sadness. Leo feeling her hand squeeze harder, turn to say something to her but is cut off by a sudden knock on the windowsill.
"Did you idiots think I didn't notice you?" Crito says. Leo apologizes with a smirk, but since Crito seems tired from dealing with the bandaged man, he lets it go. Flora lets go of Leo's hand and looks up at Crito. "Will we be ok?" She asks in a timid voice. Crito averts his gaze and yawns.
"It will be fine." "I'm going to bed." He says, still not looking her in the eyes. I'm worried too, but I can't let her know Crito thought. Crito leaves with tired steps, leaving Leo and Flora alone.
"Let's get some sleep as well," Leo said while giving her a reassuring smile. Flora nods before picking him up to carry him to his room. Her steps are heavy, and as she pushes the door open with her shoulder and places Leo down on the bed, he grabs her arm.
"You alright," Leo asks. Flora nods again and forces a smile to stop his worries. With Leo in his room, Flora was now lying in her room, thinking of the news of the NewGods.
"Someone escaped?" "That doesn't sound right." "But why would they let them." "Why haven't the establishment caught them?" "Something just doesn't seem right." All of these thoughts jumbled in her head. Leo might be in danger once more. She can't take it if anything happens to him. Flora feels that she will have to do something. Something that might put her in danger and will, for the first time in a long while. She will be alone. But only for a couple of days, of course?