Chapter 644: Menacing Villain
'Let's get to it.'
Seeing Aurora launch light bolts from her joined hand cannon from the corner of his eyes, Leo made his move.
Now that there were no Dragonoids left, dealing with the Hellhounds became far less complicated. After all, their feral nature made it much easier to predict their movements.
As for why Leo chose to handle the ground threat instead of the aerial one, the reason was really simple.
Crunch!
'Clean and free of charge.'
Yanking out the big head of a ferocious hound along with the rest of its spine using the curved protrusion at the tip of the blade, Leo was having the time of his life!
This Trial of Defense wasn't about making a show of strength; rather, extreme efficiency was still the main theme.
With the preparations that he already had in place, taking down the Fiery Beasts came at virtually no cost.
Aside from the little Enigma used to maintain his greatsword's manifestations as well as providing a moderate bump to his strength and speed, the only other cost was literally just stamina… And even that was being consumed at a very affordable rate.
'I can even gain a special form of combat experience in this way.'
Of course, considering his mastery of archery, Leo's speed in dealing with the vampires would have been superior, but the same couldn't be said about his Enigma consumption.
The amount of Enigma needed for the creation of a shadow arrow that could take down a vampire with a single hit wasn't that much, but making 77 such arrows would create a dent in his Enigma reserves!
'When it comes to efficiency, we are practically the same.'
The only way this could be handled efficiently was by using the same tactic that Aurora employed, but such a tactic didn't specifically require the accuracy and strength that Leo could produce using a bow and arrow.
In fact, Aurora's light had a much-desired 'stun' effect compared to Leo's raw force, perhaps enough to offset the slight speed advantage he would retain for reaching the third chapter of Advanced Bowmanship.
'It all falls into place.'
Quite the opposite, when it came to dealing with the Hellhounds, Leo believed that his speed would be superior to Aurora's.
As such, it only made sense for him to focus on finishing his scuffle with the fiery dogs as soon as possible so he could help Aurora with her more time-consuming task that much sooner.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch…
With much more singular focus than before, Leo's speed and creativity with chopping down the dogs rose sharply.
The various gruesome deaths that he inflicted on the Hellhounds reminded him of a certain combat series that emphasized the aspect of mortality.
'Almost there.'
After Leo's opening attack as well as Kara's Star Burst, the hound pack's total active force had already dropped down to fifty, and as Leo started the massacre in earnest…
Crunch!
That number had further dwindled all the way down to a single dog.
Squeeeeak…
And even that remaining hound already had half its face sliding down Leo's smooth blade.
'One more pest to go.'
Without any pause, Leo immediately looked up, shifting his focus onto the last participants of the third wave, the vampires!
'Ahh!'
Suddenly, Aurora felt a cold chill running over her entire body. In an instinctive response, light spilled out of her eyes even more vigorously as she turned around in defense…
'Ooppp!'
Only to realize that she had just been about to deal some friendly fire!
'Menacing!'
The actual cause of the fearsome chill actually turned out to be Leo.
With his face and body fully covered in blood and fleshly debris, the heavy killing intent accumulating on his being was further amplified by the death glare shot by his mystical shadowy pupils, causing anyone in his line of sight to feel their weight!
'No way!'
Seeing that even the mindless Vampire copies appeared to be shaking through her eyes, Aurora was sure that she was starting to see things. The mental disruption effect of Leo's stare was simply too severe!
'Focus.'
The rebellious part of her quickly shook off the effect, but it left a deep print in her mind.
Although the strength of this stray mental attack didn't directly equate to battle strength, it still made Aurora shudder for having had the thought of catching the Lord of Shadows when he meant business.
Such an encounter would be nothing like their first one, where he let her take him down for some reason, even if she could somehow take him down using what she had coined as a 'future implosion', Aurora found it unlikely to emerge from such a fight in one piece.
'Remember, he is an ally… For now, at least.'
While Aurora barely kept the aggro of the vampires she brought down while having self-existential doubts, Leo's focus was elsewhere, attaching the cleaver to his hip with a belt of shadows.
With his sword down, he immediately similarly raised his arms to Aurora. Only, he drew back his right arm as shadowy vapor rose from both hands, joining together to form a matchingly menacing longbow!
'So intense!'
Watching the whole thing from the back, Kara's eyes glowed as she repeatedly examined Leo's current state.
With shadowy vapor in the air, a pitch-black longbow in hand, and blood all over, all he lacked was a pitch-black cloak to complete the 'cool' look of a herald of death…
Or so Kara thought upon seeing the deathly arrow poking a hole through the miserable vampire's wings!
Thud!
Herald of death or not, Leo was deeply in focus. As if the first arrow was just a signal, several more followed, bringing down a dozen prey for Leo to devour.
Swish.
With proper hand coordination, things were reversed in an instant; the longbow was now hanging on Leo's back while the Greatsword was back in his hands.
Crunch!
As a mere prelude to the true Trial of Defense, the third wave was quickly coming to an end.