At the same time.
"【Charge】!"
Arno roared, the muscles in his right leg bulging as the soil beneath him exploded. He shot forward like a cannonball, his speed suddenly reaching a violent peak!
Beside him, Buman the lizardman flicked his tongue, lunging low to the ground with inhuman agility from the other side!
"Whoosh—!"
The shrill sound of tearing air forced Leo back from his brief moment of self-doubt.
The terrifying reaction speed he had honed reaching the top of the ladder season after season transformed into pure muscle memory at this moment, taking over his brain.
His body instinctively tilted its head and crouched!
"Squelch—!"
But he was still half a beat too slow after all.
A sharp axe blade scraped harshly across his left shoulder!
"Hiss!"
His coarse cloth shirt was easily shredded, and a searing, heart-piercing pain, mixed with the sensation of flesh being torn open, suddenly exploded from his shoulder!
Blood gushed out instantly, staining half his body with a wet heat.
This intense pain was like a bucket of ice water, dousing all the daze, confusion, and gaming mindset in Leo's heart.
It hurt.
It hurt like hell!
This wasn't some weightless '-150 HP' red number in a game.
This was nerves screaming, cells wailing, and life draining away!
It hurts...
I really can die!
Leo's pupils suddenly contracted into pinpricks. That arrogance and detachment hidden in the deepest depths of his consciousness—the feeling of a 'higher-dimensional being looking down on a lower-dimensional world'—was smashed to pieces by that axe in an instant.
This wasn't a game.
There was no respawn point if he died.
Once this realization was fully accepted, Leo's mindset underwent a strange transformation instead.
The crack that had formed from 'killing' did not expand; instead, it was filled by a deeper, colder, and more brutal instinct for survival belonging to a beast.
Since it wasn't a game, he had to play for keeps.
"Shut up! You idiot!"
Leo turned his head sharply. There wasn't a hint of gentleness left in his eyes, only the fierce cruelty of a wounded animal.
Lucrezia saw the gushing blood and the wound so deep the bone was visible.
All her questions and naive moral condemnations got stuck in her throat. She instinctively covered her mouth, tears welling in her eyes, but she didn't dare make another sound.
By now, Arno and the lizardman had rushed to within face-to-face distance!
Two heavy weapons slammed down, carrying the weight of the wind!
"Stay the hell down!!"
Leo gritted his teeth, enduring the agonizing pain in his left shoulder. He took the surge of anger along with the arcane mana gathering in his palm and slammed it outward with himself as the center, holding nothing back!
【Repulsion Fire Ring】!
"Boom—!"
A circle of searing, tangible orange-red flame ripples exploded outward from Leo's body!
Arno and the lizardman felt an irresistible, massive repulsive force slam into their chests, as if they had been hit head-on by a charging rhino!
"Ugh!"
The two let out muffled groans, unable to stabilize themselves at all. They were sent flying by the repulsive force, tumbling several times through the mud before crashing seven or eight meters away.
"Cough, cough..."
Arno spat out a mouthful of dirt-mixed saliva and quickly scrambled up from the ground, the shock in his eyes beyond words.
Another instant cast?! A spell of this level could be cast instantly too?!
His leather armor had turned charred and black under the impact of the fire ring, and his chest burned with pain.
Arno didn't dare get close again. He quickly pulled another throwing axe from his back and settled into a throwing stance.
On the other side, Buman the lizardman reacted even faster.
Using the momentum of his roll, he actually lunged to where Lily had been blown away and grabbed the large bow and quiver!
"Not good!"
Leo's heart sank.
He quickly glanced at his 'blue bar'.
Between that string of traps, the instant kills, and then that wide-range 【Repulsion Fire Ring】...
Plus that damn, funnel-like rate of natural dissipation.
His mana was hitting rock bottom.
Leo felt the depleted source within him, his brain completing a brutal calculation within 0.01 seconds.
The remaining mana was only enough to release two low-tier spells or one mid-tier spell.
There were two enemies. One with melee-range throwing, one with a long-range bow.
As long as the lizardman kept his distance and kited me, I'd become a sitting duck.
I have to take out the one with the bow instantly!
Whoosh—
Arno was experienced and gave Leo no chance to breathe. The throwing axe in his hand spun through the air, aimed straight for Leo's left leg!
He wanted to cripple the mage's mobility!
Instead of retreating, Leo advanced.
He threw himself into a desperate roll to the side, barely avoiding the edge of the throwing axe. Simultaneously, his left hand flicked out a palm-sized 【Wind Blade】, which struck the axe handle with extreme precision, knocking it off course.
And his gaze remained locked onto Buman the lizardman, who had already notched an arrow, from beginning to end.
"Die, mage!"
Buman the lizardman grinned wickedly as the bowstring snapped!
At such close range, there was no need to aim!
"Swoosh!"
The sharp arrow left the string, heading straight for Leo's heart!
At this moment, Leo no longer held anything back.
He gathered the last bit of mana remaining in his reserves into his right fingertip, his gaze as calm as if he were solving a math problem.
Predicting trajectory... wind speed correction... target's heart.
【Glacial Spike】!
"Crack—!"
The temperature in the air plummeted.
An ice spike—larger than the one used to kill Raz and radiating a deep blue, cold light—formed violently at his fingertip!
"Drop dead!"
Leo roared, and the ice spike shot out!
Traveling faster than the arrow, it collided precisely with the incoming projectile along that straight line!
"Snap!"
The wooden arrow shaft was as fragile as a toothpick before the hard magical ice spike, shattering instantly!
The ice spike didn't lose momentum. Carried by the spray of wood chips, it pierced through the lizardman's chest—right through his attempts to dodge—under his terrified, dilated vertical pupils!
"Pfft—!"
Buman the lizardman looked down, unable to believe the bowl-sized bloody hole in his chest; his heart had been completely shredded.
"Hiss..."
He let out one last meaningless hiss before falling backward stiffly like a log.
"Whew... whew..."
A wave of intense dizziness and emptiness instantly swept through Leo's body.
His mana bar was empty.
Not a single drop left.
But Leo did not fall.
He forced his swaying body to stay upright, his left hand clutching his bleeding shoulder while his right hand remained in a casting posture, pointing at the last person remaining on the field—Arno.
On that face, pale from blood loss and exhaustion, hung an inscrutable, cold, and cruel sneer.
"Next."
He spoke softly, as if he still held countless finishing moves in his hand.
"Buman!!"
Arno let out a desperate roar.
But as he looked at the two warm corpses on the ground, and then at Leo—who stood in the center of the camp like a demon god, covered in blood yet still wearing a mocking expression...
Fear overwhelmed his anger.
What rank is this monster exactly? crowned?! Or glorious?!
I can't gamble! He still has strength left!
The figure that had been halfway through a charge suddenly used the shadow of a tent to make an extremely rapid, unhesitating turn.
Escape!
Arno didn't even dare leave a parting threat, running headlong toward the deepest darkness on the outskirts of the camp without looking back!
Rate on N.U.
