Only I Am A Reader

Crunch!

Being constantly on the move, almost no Dragonoid had actually locked on to Leo, allowing him to pierce and run without having to get held up in another exchange.

Aside from a couple of half-dragons who suddenly chose to hit him instead of the barrier mid-attack, Leo’s Enigma-saving maneuvering had proven to be successful for the most part.

The lack of constant speed was made up for by, once again, exploiting the attackers’ puppet-like mindset!

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Unfortunately, however, the exhilarating chain of close-range assassinations could no longer continue as the two other less impatient bodies of the wave had arrived.

As such...

’One more!’

Leo decided to momentarily wrap everything up for now. That being said, he didn’t immediately retreat before taking down one more Dragonoid on his way out!

Crunch!

’Let’s see.’

Reappearing behind the double-layered shield consisting of the Trial’s Innate Barrier as well as Kara’s, Leo scanned the battlefield so he could more accurately set up his next performance.

’Not too bad.’

Looking at things on Aurora’s end, Leo was pleased to see that her problem had been cut in half, leaving exactly a dozen Dragonoids for her to systematically demolish.

As for the Dragonoids still trying to drill a hole through Kara’s barrier, there were no more than nine... Eight, the ninth one had just burst into a bubble of light, having been the target of Leo’s last assassination.

All in all, in such a short time, the enthusiastic Dragonoid army had been reduced to an even twenty. At this point, their scattered members no longer looked as intimidating.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Once Leo’s split-second analysis was done, the Hellhound pack dove headfirst into Kara’s barrier, savagely biting at it with their sword-like fangs.

’I wonder what kind of species these dogs belong to.’

Looking curiously at all 66 Hellhounds vomiting buckets of lava upon the shaking barrier, Leo carefully studied their pattern of attack.

The name ’Hellhounds’ was just a descriptor that he borrowed from another novel for these gigantic, flaming dogs. The City of Villains’ text had only referred to them using the vague words of ’Fiery Beasts’.

Even among the various belligerent species inhabiting the Multiversal Arena, these Hellhounds were the most aggressive.

During his first encounter with these species on Level 71, that one mad dog had simply been too rowdy to the point that Leo had to immediately behead rather than study their movement pattern in preparation.

’These ones aren’t easy either.’

Despite looking more like canines, their bodies weren’t just covered with fur.

Not unlike their Dragonoid counterparts, their vital points were adorned with vicious anomalous scales that appeared to have been crystallized from the output of volcanic eruptions.

With such weaponized armor that threatened to harm any unskilled fighter who got close, and no obvious weak points to target, this made the Hellhounds only slightly less challenging to engage in a melee than a Dragonoid.

Squeak!

At the same time, up in the skies, the vampires flying using their humanoid bat form possessed claws of obsidian, if their air raid was to make its way to the castle...

"Focus it on the leeches up top."

With a plan taking form in Leo’s head, he reappeared beyond the barrier once again as the starry night curtain rose up like a protective dome.

As the stars up top shone brighter and grew in numbers, even a normie could tell that the dome’s peak was more stable.

’I can’t screw this up.’

As beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, Kara fully controlled the curtain with all her senses.

Just erecting the barrier itself wasn’t tough; however, the damage about to befall it promised constant drainage of Enigma.

That being said, Enigma Cost Efficiency was something that Kara was confident in. When focusing on nothing but defense, the durability of the night curtain was simply terrifying.

The real reason Kara was starting to get nervous was...

"Go on."

The simple act of keeping the barrier up and running wasn’t Kara’s only role on this board.

"Divide and conquer."

She was meant to assist Leo in performing his bold surgical melee on this higher stage of difficulty!

’I really can’t screw this up!’

Had this been any other situation, Kara would have been extremely calm, no matter the stakes.

However, with her actions directly influencing her Master’s performance in this manner, the pressure that Kara was under was over the roof!

Kara couldn’t handle the consequences of any sort of failure in this situation; even a simple look of disappointment would be enough to make her crumble into pieces.

’Just do it!’

Yet, not doing anything out of fear would undeniably be ten times worse!

In such a situation, curbing her imagination’s prophecy of catastrophe and just going for it was the only solution!

Swish!

All of a sudden, timed exactly at Leo’s appearance beyond the barrier, various forms and shapes appeared to emerge randomly on the battlefield, scattering and confusing the unintelligent enemy units!

Crunch!

Right next to Leo, an isolated Dragonoid had their heart hacked in half.

Just then, a Hellhound that had been flipped to the side opposing them caught sight of Leo as a result.

Roa- Crunch!

Yet, before its signature attack roar fully emerged from its throat, Leo’s greatsword was already in its esophagus.

Going through the fine lines in between its crystalline armor, Leo sliced the hound’s neck off all the same!

"Great! Keep it going!"

Off to a good start, Leo instinctively praised Kara as he moved on to his next target.

This kind of maneuver of turning the wide battlefield into an illusory maze through minimal starry armament manifestation was something that Leo actively practiced with Kara before, and that practice seemed to be immediately paying off!

Just like Leo’s surgical melee, this was a process that required an immense amount of fine control.

The manifested obstacles could only appear random, but each and every single one of them had to have an intention.

Even their disappearance had to be timely as well. It couldn’t disappear too soon before it could disrupt the enemies’ movement and placement, but it couldn’t stay manifested for too long either. Otherwise, the Enigma consumption would be too much to bear...

Crunch!

’Just like this-’

Wandering around in a playfield of his own making, Leo was filled with confidence.

However, just then...

Shiiing.

The battlefield suddenly started shining bright, all the way from the numerous stars in the sky and down to the stars in Kara’s eyes... Everything was flashing with unprecedented brightness.

’What’s that?’

This... Definitely wasn’t part of the script.