Chapter 352: 352

Standing opposite Alexander, Michelle started forming more autonomous bows of Living Shadow outside the net surrounding her and Alexander while also lunging at him.

Forced to focus on dodging, it took Alexander a bit longer than it would normally have to notice that Michelle was also pulling as much shadow essence from the surroundings as possible, pushing it into the net through her feet.

But it was a bit slowed down because Michelle’s shoes weren’t designed to let energies through.

Noticing this massive flaw slowing her down, Michelle’s eyes narrowed in annoyance.

For a moment, she tightened the muscles in her feet, pushing hard against the net beneath her.

From the pressure, the thin threads sliced through the soles of her shoes and stopped at Michelle’s skin, digging into it a tiny bit.

With that, when Michelle lunged at Alexander again, the soles of her shoes got shredded off, leaving her barefoot.

Walking lightly, the threads didn’t cut into Michelle’s feet, but that meant she couldn’t stop moving.

If she did and all her weight remained at one spot, the threads would slice into her flesh.

Seeing the drastic measures Michelle was taking, Alexander narrowed his eyes, understanding her plan would be complex.

The constant barrage of arrows at him was already annoying him.

Also, because they were under Michelle’s control, better said, created by bows of Michelle’s Living Shadows, there was completely no need for her to dodge.

When an arrow struck her, it wouldn’t hurt her in any way.

It would just dissipate into shadow essence under her control and Michelle would channel it through her feet down into the net.

When Michelle felt that there was enough shadow essence in the net, she was prepared to proceed with the second and last stage of the plan.

She was finally going to put an end to the fight.

Moving all the shadow essence in the net at once, Michelle had it shrink in a split second, closing in around her and Alexander.

Knowing how the net worked, Michelle didn’t get hurt as it pushed her against Alexander.

But Alexander, on the other hand, felt searing pain all over his back as the threads tore into his flesh.

After closing in around Michelle and Alexander, the net pushed them against each other.

And in that state, it kept tightening; all under Michelle’s control.

At that point even Michelle couldn’t avoid being cut, but she was in a much better state than Alexander.

“So? Did I win?” she asked with a grin, tilting her head up to look at Alexander.

Because of the pressure from the net, she was pressed up against Alexander’s chest, forcing her to look up if she wanted to see his face.

“What makes you think you won?” Alexander’s eyes gleamed with something dark and twisted.

That man wouldn’t give up easily, even if he was being cut from the back and sides.

Michelle’s eyes narrowed, but her smile remained.

“If I let things go on like this, the net will cut through you. It’s already deeper into your flesh than into mine, so you will die earlier.” She beamed as she spoke.

Alexander couldn’t hold back a chuckle, his shoulders shaking from it a bit.

He didn’t even mind that that slight shaking made the threads cut deeper into his flesh.

“But… you can’t forget that my body is bigger. It will take longer to cut through it than your thin frame…”

Michelle hadn’t overlooked that.

“My bones are reinforced by the Life Stones I absorbed. The threads will cut through my bones slower than yours.”

Alexander’s smile widened. “Or your threads will snap… your net will collapse…”

Michelle highly doubted that.

She had never before used that net against anyone, especially herself, since she had just come up with it, but she knew how strong it was; it wouldn’t snap against bones, whether reinforced or not.

But, since Alexander doubted that, she would prove him wrong. “Then let’s bet on it!”

Alexander lifted a brow.

“And how exactly?” he asked with a tilt of his head, which pressed his ear into a few threads, drawing blood.

“What are we betting on?” he added.

Michelle, ignoring the threads cutting her, lifted her arms alongside the net, wrapping her fingers, already bleeding, around Alexander’s neck.

“If the net snaps, I’ll discard the identity of Ana Ostrich making everyone believe I died. But if it doesn’t snap and continues slicing into my bones, you will grant me a wish.”

Alexander stared down at Michelle, feeling her blood wetting his neck.

Asking for something like a wish was extremely abstract.

If he lost the bet, she could ask for something extremely simple, or quite the opposite and make things difficult for him.

Or she could just make him owe her a debt.

The brat was scheming.

Knowing that, Alexander was still tempted to accept.

He wanted to know what she would ask for.

“Tell me the wish before I agree to the bet,” he finally said carelessly.

Michelle shook her head.

“That would destroy the whole point of the wish.”

Alexander wanted to say that then Michelle could ask for something unreasonable, but she spoke faster.

“Faking my death is a big deal, so I am allowed to ask unreasonable things.”

Hearing that, Alexander nearly burst out laughing.

And, finally, he agreed.

While talking to Michelle, he noticed that the net wasn’t tightening.

Michelle had stopped it so the threads wouldn’t reach her bones.

Because that would show the result before the bet was finalized.

After Alexander agreed, Michelle instantly controlled the net to start tightening again.

Sitting nearby, Noctis and Unlucien couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

“Do you think she forgot the smell of her blood stimulates beasts and monsters?” Noctis asked.

Both he and Unlucien were monsters, so they knew what the smell of Michelle’s blood was doing to nearby creatures.

Unlucien shrugged. “Our Lord is no better. He seems to have forgotten too.”

Noctis couldn’t help but nod.

Neither Michelle nor Alexander seemed to have noticed that the scent of Michelle’s blood was spreading all around, making the surroundings go still.

Monsters and beasts were holding back, rejecting the scent.

So it seemed that the two would only react if a monster let its presence be known.

Who knew, maybe another incident like with the Silent Bastards would happen.

Or another wave of infrasound.

Though both Noctis and Unlucien were monsters, they weren’t that much affected by the scent.

With their level of power, a scent couldn’t cloud their minds.

That was actually a good thing, because if Michelle ever went to the Dark Palace, which she probably would, she wouldn’t have to be worried about the shadow guards going crazy if she got hurt, since all those under Alexander’s command were monsters.

But she didn’t know that yet.

And she didn’t even yet have plans to go to the Dark Palace.

While all that was happening outside the academy, the academy was in a bit of a turmoil.

Most of the students didn’t even know it.

Gossip had spread that something grotesque and horrid had happened in the dorms, but the lives of students remained the same.

But the teachers had a different view of things.

Ana Ostrich was still nowhere to be found and the culprit who caused the gore in the bathroom made sure to not leave any track behind.

No spirit remnants. No footsteps in the blood. No fingerprints or handprints.

Just the disgusting gore scene.

And the worst thing about it all was that Ana was the disciple of the Julian brothers who were extremely protective of their students.

So they were angry that she was nowhere to be found.

Marcus, being much more active than his brother Antony, at one point decided that he would go look for his disciple on his own while Antony continued the investigation.

But there was a problem with that.

Specifically that the annual tournament would soon start, and Marcus had to be present.

It had been decided before that he would be needed.

But Marcus didn’t care about the tournament in the first place, so he disregarded everyone and said that if his disciple wasn’t found in a day, he would go searching for her, even if he needed to leave the academy.

And he was hellishly stubborn, so if that moment ever came, no one would ever be able to stop him.

Not his brother, not other teachers, not the council, not the headmaster.

To take care of that, Francis decided to write to Vincent.

Originally, he didn’t want to tell him that his daughter had disappeared at the same time as a grotesque scene appeared in her dorm room.

Vincent would be devastated if he found out.

But, as Ana’s father, Vincent was the only one who could stop Marcus, so Francis took up a pen to write his brother a letter.

Then, he prepared to send it with a heavy heart.

He didn’t want to imagine what Vincent would look like when he got the news.

Back in the Ostrich family residence, when Vincent opened the letter, his eyes narrowed.

“I warned her. They still got to her?” he frowned deeply.

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