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C1078 19%

Up above, even Heira's gaze narrowed. Leonel had very clearly seen her, but his reaction was actually so nonchalant. Was her survival really not that surprising to him? How could that be possible?

"Even up until now, you still don't get what's going on?" Leonel looked toward Avarone. Though his gaze was hidden behind his visor, his mockery was practically palpable. It hung in the air like a venomous snake, making Avarone, who had always felt supremely confident in himself, feel his skin slowly become prickly and uncomfortable.

At that moment, the forward momentum of the second junior starship came to a slow halt. The speed it had been building up to shatter the artificial atmosphere Leonel had built here dropped to zero, stunning Avarone and the others.

"I'm not entirely sure why you think yourself to be so clever," Leonel continued. "Did you think that just because one of you two protected her initially that I would forget that you were mortal enemies? Even now you don't understand that I could kill her whenever I want, so why do you think that she's still alive?"

Avarone's gaze narrowed.

He had forgotten one very important thing. From the beginning, the reason why they were forced to fight Leonel all at once instead of spreading out to support the rest of the battlefield was that they felt he was too dangerous. If one of them turned their backs away, they would most definitely die. And yet to this point, Leonel had yet to use that ability.

On top of that, with Belize's current state, she would have been the easiest target to get rid of. So why was it that Leonel had hounded Deloris so much?

At that moment, Belize, who no longer had the leisure to split her mind and her focus screeched. Her voice was like that of a banshee, making all those who heard it feel as though their very blood was vibrating as their ears threatened to burst.

"I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME!"

The leech-like carnivorous plant attached to Belize's back suddenly pulsed as the spider lily on her forehead sprouted and bloomed. The roots of the spider lily double in size, wiggling beneath Belize's skin as it sucked her completely dry.

In one moment, she had been a morbidly obese woman. In the next, she was nothing more than skin and bone, what remained of her face actually carrying some of the charm a beauty would have. Unfortunately, that beauty was warped by a twisted expression and a leeching spider lily that made it difficult to appreciate.

Belize's naked form appeared before them all, but there were no curves or healthy, glossy skin. Her body had been completely drained of its blood and its fat. Being too weak even to walk on her own two feet, the vines of the carnivorous planet attached to her back propped her up, raising her into the air.

With another vicious screech, a vine whipped outward, slamming into Siris. The devastation made Deloris' whip look like nothing more than child's play.

The air split, the space cracked and Siris' ribs caved in as though a god had drawn a finger across his chest. In just a single attack, he was put in a half dead state, shards of his own ribcage tearing into his lungs and heart as he coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.

Belize lost her rationality, chasing after Siris like a madman.

"See that?" Leonel spoke casually as though he was watching theater.

"You…" Avarone's pupils constricted.

"Do you know how many battles between your Radix and her Florer family are recounted in your records?" Leonel continued to passively observe without a word. "The answer is just 10 706. Of course, these aren't all of the battles, just the ones of note.

"Of those battles, about 2 803 of them are between experts of your families. These can be considered small scale battles with between two to five people participating at once. Regardless, it's usually less than ten.

"Do you know how many of those battles your family won? Don't worry, it's a bit embarrassing, so you don't need to answer. The percentage is about 24%. As for how many the Florer outright won, that would be about 57%. So, what do you think happened with the remaining 19%?"

Siris lost his arm to pure blunt trauma. Without relying on the slightest sharpness, it was ripped from his in terrible fashion, his blood pooling out to the ground.

"Fascinating, don't you think?" Leonel asked. "Of that remaining 19%, all of them were counted as draws. These weren't any normal draw, but rather they were draws where all parties died."

Leonel looked away from the battlefield and back toward Avarone.

"Now, if you're like me, you'd find this statistic to be weird. A situation where everyone dies is too odd, especially since your records didn't seem to have an explanation for it. And, after reading through all the techniques and abilities of your Radix and Midas families, you most definitely didn't have what was necessary to force such a draw in a fifth of cases.

"The only logical answer, then, is that it wasn't you forcing the draw. It was, rather, the Florer family forcing it. And, lo and behold, in 93% of the cases where the battle ended in a draw, it had been an ambush by your Radix family, meaning the Florer had been forced into a desparate situation and left without a choice but to use their hidden trump card."

Avarone's breathing was no longer as steady as it was before.

This Leonel wanted him to believe that just by reading the outcomes of battles, he was able to deduce that the Florer family had a hidden ability that even they hadn't been aware of?! Not only did he deduce this ability, but he was able to grasp the nature and even the timing of it to the point he could make use of it in his plans?!

Just what kind of monster was standing before him now? Just who was this Prince Leonel and how could he possibly out calculate his Radix family?

Avarone took several deep breaths. This wasn't the end of it, so what if the Florer had such an ability. The fact that Leonel dared to stand here meant that Belize had lost her rationality. She would likely burn herself out fighting Siris and when she was dead, everything would go as planned regardless. This was all meaningless!

So why did he still feel like Leonel was smiling?

To be continued