How To Survive A Calamity

The crater exploded into pure chaotic movement and Victor felt the stench of death loom closer with Danger sense.

Then his gold eyes flashed with similar intensity and deepened like entering a trance.

He bit down down ruthlessly on the blade in his mouth, shattering it in a single go with his teeth like a mad untamed beast.

The shards bit into Victor's lips, tongue, and gums, shredding the inside of his mouth. And filling it with the ironic taste of his blood

But Victor still retained the beast like insanity, unrelenting in his gaze and appearance as he forcefully clenched his left fist and forced his Ether to flow internally.

Victor flexed his vocal chords, his throat tensed as he bellowed a roar.

"That's enough!"

Victor's voice boomed and descended. Something surged forth like tsunami, expanding through the crater.

And every single soul froze under the oppression.

Internally, Victor heard a familiar chime but paid no attention to it.

•[Ding! Enchantment: «Ruler's Authority» has been forecefully activated]

Victor activated the Ruler's Authority Enchantment from the Ring of Solomon and filled the surroundings with a dominating and oppressive aura.

His presence which had always been restrained ever since for as long as he could remember instantly expanded and inflated.

The effect of Ruler's Authority's 'gaze' was undeniable within the area. Every single one of the cadets froze unwillingly, holding their bathed breaths.

It was enough to offset the twisted psychological effect of the mysterious attack that tore apart the mind and psyches of the victims.

Victor swept his dirtied sleeved hand across his face and wiped the blood that was flowing from his eyes down his cheeks while spitting out a mouthful of blood from the bleeding cuts inside.

"Nobody moves! Don't do anything and just stay calm!"

Victor couldn't keep the Enchantment active on forever, and as soon as he confirmed he had succeeded in suppressing the riot, he withdrew his presence and Aura in time.

At that moment, everyone had their bloodshot gaze on his figure, attracted by his words.

The cold, heavy and oppressive feeling of suffocating pressure they felt a moment ago had vanished, taking along with it all of their raging twisted emotions that caused them ro run mad and rage before.

Most of the cadets still felt disoriented and unstable. Some parts of the sinister thoughts and emotions still lingered, squirming unsettlingly at the back of their minds and deep in their hearts.

Instead, now , at that moment, they felt confusion, fear and loss.

Deandra stared at her blade. The grip she had on her sword was trembling, a testament to the remnants vestiges of whatever she was under the effect of before.

She blinked her red and bleeding eyes, her pale face slowly recovered parts of their usual colour. Her eyes regained semblance of clarity and reasoning once more. Her stomachs and insides churned.

What happened... Deandra thought, disoriented and recalled fragments of her memories of what had she just experienced that had happened.

Victor said they were under attack... Deandra's eyes sharpened and widened in realisation.

Then she felt cold and surrounded at the realisation.

Her mind and actions, her emotions it was like all of it were toyed around with and played with like game pieces.

She had no control over her actions or thoughts, drawn fully by her emotions stired like a jar of maggots.

Deandra was someone who prided herself on keeping a level head and maintaining composure even in some of the most dire situations.

There were only a few things, and people, that could force her to loose control and composure of her words or actions. For some her age, she was blessed with immense mental fortitude and perseverance.

But the young red haired girl had been completely led on blindly without even realising.

She had lost her head.

Her words had strayed.

Her actions and emotions eluded her.

The mere thought...the realisation made her shudder.

It was fiendish.

Deandra snapped her head around to look at Victor. He was somehow, by some chance, the only one to have noticed what was happening barely in time.

Deandra glanced at Victor, but then she froze on the spot. And her eyes lingered persistently against his figure which wasn't too far away.

Victor stood some distance away, leaning against a spear which he had summoned at some point. His face was pale and covered in sweat and dry blood, but his eyes still burned sharply with their usual piercing gold radiance.

If there was ever one thing truly remarkable about Victor's otherwise vague and iffy appearance to others at all, that would be his eyes.

A striking pair of golden eyes that shown even through the deceitful fog of the Crown's Veil Enchantment surrounding him like a shroud.

But for the first time strangely, Deandra felt like she could see it more clearly than ever before.

It wasn't just his eyes either.

Victor's entire appearance and features had never appeared more clearer and spot on like never before to Deandra. To het it felt like she was finally seeing Victor for the first time ever.

He had parted messy brown hair that was full and soft white skin that looked almost pale. A pair of slanted piercing gold eyes gazed and shone sharply like predators in the dark, and he had a face that was actually...not half bad looking.

His slanted gold eyes gave him a kind of cynical mocking delinquent and mischievous look, especially when he looked as beat up, covered in dirt, blood and sweat like he did at that moment, and his full messy brown hair complimented to a roguish charm he possessed.

Victor looked vulnerable. For the first time his appearance and features weren't iffy or vague, or hard to fully distinguish or notice.

It was a weird and strange experience. It felt like staring at an almost completely different and unfamiliar person.

It was like a mysterious obstruction, like a veil, had finally been lifted.

But Deandra stared at Victor briefly, short of words, not for his appearance, but for the presence he gave off into his surroundings.

In the same way it felt like a veil had been lifted over Victor's true appearance, so had something similar been for his aura.

Deandra stared at him with trembling wide eyes.

Something tremendous had changed in Victor's usually almost nonexistent presence and aura

Victor stood leaning against a spear struck into the ground next to him for support. His lips were partly shredded and covered in blood, next to him was the kneeling figure of the female cadet that had tried to attack him during the riot.

The low ranked talentless cadet without a presence now exuded a different kind of pressure from his being.

An aura that was unmistakable for Deandra to miss.

Cadet number 1499, Victor bright...

Deandra gulped feverishly in a small voice.

"Eta rank...?"

No longer seemed as unreliable as before.