"Fighting? Robbery?" Lina and the other students reacted with stunned disbelief. "Brother, what exactly did you do?"
"It's nothing. I actually came here to tell you about it," Levi said, his face full of helplessness as he prepared to explain.
But the Enforcers clearly had no intention of giving him time to chat with his family and friends.
"Levi, this is your final warning—put your hands up and do not resist!"
"Otherwise, we will open fire right now!"
The Enforcers slowly advanced with their weapons raised, their fingers resting lightly on the triggers, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
The air instantly grew tense.
It felt as though a gunshot would ring out in the next second, claiming a life.
"Brother!" Lina cried out in worry, but she didn't dare approach.
The other students were the same.
Because they were all Zaunites, they knew exactly how Enforcers usually treated people from Zaun.
Let alone being uncooperative during an arrest, even if they cooperated too slowly, didn't follow instructions perfectly, or made a slight movement that aroused suspicion, the Enforcers would not hesitate to shoot them dead.
As for whether they killed the right person, that wasn't something the Enforcers needed to consider.
There was no such thing as "Zaunite Lives Matter" in Runeterra; if they died, it was just considered their own bad luck.
"Mr. Levi, although I don't know what happened, please cooperate with the authorities for now. I will find a way to help you later," Viktor advised, seeing the urgency of the situation.
"Yeah, I understand." Seeing that these bastards were really about to pull their triggers, Levi had no choice but to cooperatively raise his hands.
"Stand in the corner!"
"Get away from those students!"
The Enforcers still didn't relax their guard, keeping their guns raised as they shouted coldly.
"Alright." Levi obediently complied, walking to the empty corner of the classroom to make it easier for them to aim.
This looked like a complete surrender.
And he truly had no intention of resisting.
This was the conclusion Levi had reached after careful consideration.
Being arrested for fighting, robbery, and possessing Shimmer sounded serious. But he had Seraphine covering his back. Even if Seraphine couldn't protect him, he had just befriended Viktor.
Viktor was the close friend of Piltover's superstar Jayce and the student of Councilor Professor Heimerdinger. Although he was relatively unknown, his influence was not small.
Furthermore, even if Viktor couldn't protect him, what did it matter? At worst, he would just go to prison.
As long as Janna's faith continued to spread outside and her power continued to grow, it probably wouldn't be more than a few days before no prison in Piltover could hold him.
How could a cage built of stone ever trap the wind?
Therefore, after weighing his options, Levi had absolutely no intention of fighting back.
Otherwise, losing meant going to the morgue, and winning would only invite an even more intense manhunt, potentially dragging the newly born Windguide Association into the Enforcers' crosshairs.
That would conflict with Levi's three-step strategy of "establishing a foothold in Piltover, accumulating strength, and returning to Zaun."
To ensure the success of their cause, he was willing to sit in a jail cell for a few days.
However, even though Levi had already raised his hands and cooperatively stood in the corner of the classroom, the Enforcers still pointed their guns at him as if facing a deadly enemy, refusing to lower them in the slightest.
"Levi! Are you carrying any weapons?"
"No," Levi answered honestly.
"What about Shimmer potions?"
"I do have that."
The Enforcers instantly grew even more vigilant.
A vial of Shimmer could turn a piece of Zaunite trash into a Zaunite superhuman at any moment; the danger it posed was no less than a gun.
"Take out the Shimmer potion and throw it away!"
They gestured at Levi with their guns, signaling him to obey.
"Alright," Levi said, keeping his hands high to show he meant no harm.
"I'll get it right now."
"Do it slowly, and keep your pockets visible!"
"Okay... watch closely, I'm just going to grab the vial."
Levi carefully demonstrated his compliance. Facing the Enforcers' gun barrels, he lowered his hands inch by inch in a ten-times slow-motion movement, then slowly reached toward his pocket.
But the very moment his fingers slowly slipped into his pocket...
Before he had even touched anything, a young Enforcer shouted in "terror":
"Everyone, watch out—"
"He—he's pulling a gun!"
"Huh?" Levi's expression instantly froze.
'Motherfucker, I knew it!'
'You Piltovan Enforcers use this trick too!'
Sure enough, right after that young Enforcer roared at the top of his lungs, he ruthlessly pulled the trigger.
In an instant, muzzle flashes bloomed, bullets erupted, and deafening sounds echoed.
And this shot acted like a starter pistol.
The young Enforcer's "flinch" immediately caused his highly tense colleagues to "flinch" as well.
With seven or eight people flinching in unison, a deadly hail of bullets was unleashed almost instantaneously. The bullets formed lines and wove into a net, hurtling mercilessly toward Levi.
Almost all the Enforcers opened fire.
Only the youngest and most inexperienced female Enforcer, who was being firmly shielded behind the others, managed to quickly steady her nerves after her subconscious panic and didn't join in the mindless shooting.
But that didn't change anything.
Would missing her single bullet mean the target wouldn't die?
In that split second, whether it was Lina, Viktor, Seraphine, or the students... they were all so shocked by this sudden turn of events that they didn't even have time to think.
Even many of the Enforcers who had subconsciously emptied their magazines couldn't react to what they had just done.
The speed of their thoughts couldn't keep up with the bullets.
But everyone knew one thing:
Levi was dead for sure!
However, in that exact moment...
The wind began to blow.
The instant the bullets left the chambers, Levi used his perception of air currents to instantly determine the direction of the incoming projectiles.
His divinely empowered body erupted with astonishing speed, allowing him to dodge the fatal shots aimed at his chest and head by heavily dropping his posture!
But it wasn't enough.
His speed wasn't enough to completely evade the bullets.
Then he would just have to make the bullets go around him!
A bluebird let out a soft cry, and a fierce gale subsequently spiraled upward.
"Updraft!"
A violent gust of wind materialized out of thin air in front of Levi.
The air current was chaotic yet condensed, rising from the ground and howling straight into the sky.
It was as if a towering wall of fierce wind had risen from the earth, invisibly guarding him!
Although this wind wall wasn't solid enough yet, far from being strong enough to stop bullets head-on...
When those incoming bullets met this powerful, surging updraft, they inevitably trembled along with the fierce wind, their trajectories shifting uncontrollably.
They narrowly grazed past the top of Levi's head, flying in erratic paths akin to Brownian motion, and shot wildly into the windows and walls behind him.
"W-What?!"
The Enforcers were all dumbfounded.
"By Janna..."
What had they just seen?
Levi, a Zaunite apprentice, had actually summoned a wall of wind out of thin air?
How the fuck could this be an ordinary Zaunite apprentice?
"There's a problem with the intel!"
The veteran officer leading the group turned green in the face.
"He's no ordinary person..."
"He's clearly a mage!"
At this moment, all the Enforcers felt they had been screwed over by their superiors.
A mage. What did it mean to be a mage?
That was a noble spellcaster!
And even though Levi had only displayed a small wind wall that didn't seem too powerful...
Did they dare gamble their lives on how many trump cards a mage had up his sleeve?
Not to mention, the terrifying thing about mages wasn't just their personal strength, but their social connections.
One had to know that genius mages who naturally awakened to magic were incredibly rare in this world. And even among those who did awaken to magic, very few could freely control it.
Just like Seraphine, who had naturally awakened to magic but still couldn't cast a single spell after more than a decade.
Therefore, most of the mages ordinary people encountered who could cast spells freely were mages who had undergone professional magical training.
Undergoing magical training meant having a lineage of masters.
Having a lineage meant this mage had a teacher, fellow disciples, martial uncles, martial aunts, grandmasters, and all sorts of messy relatives.
Provoking one mage was equivalent to provoking a whole gang of mages.
You beat the young one, and the old one comes out; they just keep coming stronger and stronger. Who wouldn't be terrified of that?
These Piltovan Enforcers were just ordinary people; they didn't want to inexplicably become mortal enemies with a mage.
At the very least, just the few of them definitely didn't dare to.
They had to call for backup!
"M-Mr. Levi..."
"I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding."
The Enforcers' attitudes instantly softened.
"A misunderstanding?" Levi pointed at the bullet holes above his head, where the smoke had yet to clear.
"You call this a misunderstanding?"
"I-It really is a misunderstanding..." The young Enforcer who had fired the first shot looked like he was about to cry. "I was just too nervous earlier, that's why I..."
"No!" Levi glared at him coldly.
At this point, he couldn't just not fight back even if he wanted to.
"I could sense it. Your breathing earlier was incredibly steady, as steady as a hunter's."
"You weren't nervous at all—"
"Someone ordered you to come here specifically to kill me!"
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