Once Nero recovered his aether, he found that he had nothing else to do and they weren't being let out of the room yet. So, he turned to Vilhelm. He had also faced the panthers inside Lumina, so like him, he should have noticed their differences.
But first…
"How did you injure your back?" Nero asked in a low voice. He did not believe for a second that the academy's favourite prodigy had no idea how he got injured. The embarrassed grin he got a moment later more or less confirmed his guess.
"I blocked an attack from the panther head on. I guessed that with JV active and my own strength, it shouldn't be a problem to tank the attack on my shield. But… I guess not all panthers are made the same. The last one I fought was much stronger and, well, when I blocked the attack, the strain went straight to my lower back."
He almost expected Nero to make fun of him. Instead, Nero simply stood in front of him and got in a defensive pose.
