Chapter 104 : Witch Blacksmith (5)
Chapter 104: Witch Blacksmith (5)
A chilling sensation swept through his entire body, making every hair stand on end.
There was no mistake.
This was the aura of a Demon Beast.
Leon looked at Circe with a serious expression.
“Circe, I can sense the presence of Demon Beasts nearby.”
“Hohoho. I know. That's why I said a moment ago that this was an investment.”
“……Ha.”
Leon let out a quiet chuckle.
This old woman had known from the very beginning.
Circe had most likely foreseen the Demon Beasts' intrusion through her power of Future Observation.
‘I'd been wondering why she gave me such an incredible gift. So this was the reason.’
Now everything made sense.
‘She's a sly old fox. She has a far more cunning side than her appearance suggests.’
Leon stared at Circe through narrowed eyes.
Yet even beneath Leon's gaze, the smile never left Circe's face.
As though she already knew exactly what would happen next.
A gentle smile rested on her lips.
Leon unconsciously chuckled.
He wasn't someone who enjoyed being manipulated.
Still, he had received an excellent sword.
Just this once, Leon decided to play along with her little game.
At that moment—
Swoooosh-!!!
The aura of the Demon Beasts approaching from afar steadily drew closer.
Ten thousand paces.
Five thousand.
One thousand.
Little by little, they closed the distance until they finally came into view.
Leon's eyes widened in surprise.
‘Humans?’
Surprisingly, the beings approaching while radiating the aura of Demon Beasts all possessed human forms.
Humans wielding the power of Demon Beasts.
There was only one group like that on this continent.
“Flower?”
At Leon's mutter, the approaching figures came to a halt.
Then the man leading them looked at Leon and spoke.
“So... you're Leon.”
“You know me?”
“How could I not know the one who killed one of our executives? Of course I know you.”
The man's eyes flickered ominously as he spoke.
They were horrifying eyes that no longer resembled those of a human.
Staring into those monstrous eyes, Leon said,
“You've already abandoned your humanity.”
“Heh... You can tell?”
“With eyes that hideous, how could I not?”
“…Your taunts are laughable.”
“Laughable? You don't look nearly as amused as you claim.”
At Leon's mocking tone, the man's expression darkened.
Fixing Leon with a savage glare, he spoke.
“I won't waste words. Hand over the Witches behind you. If you comply peacefully, I'll spare your life.”
“I can't do that. I owe them a debt of gratitude.”
“I see. Then die.”
Fiiiing-!!
At that instant, accompanied by the sound of splitting air, an arrow appeared directly before Leon's forehead.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Pak-!!
However, Leon was not someone who would fall to such an attack.
He casually caught the incoming arrow with one hand before speaking.
“So you're relying on cheap tricks. Did you really think something like this could kill me?”
“……”
The man's face immediately stiffened.
Watching the obvious shock on his face, Leon sneered.
“What is it? Judging by your expression, you really thought that attack would be enough.”
“……”
“Did I hit the mark? You're awfully quiet.”
The man, Gailan, stared at Leon as a thought crossed his mind.
‘This brat isn't weak like the reports claimed.’
The arrow Leon had caught wasn't an ordinary arrow.
It had been fired by someone at the level of a Quasi-Knight.
Based on everything Gailan knew, Leon's strength shouldn't have been enough to stop it.
Yet that young man had caught it effortlessly.
‘Looks like the intelligence officer made a mistake.’
Gailan clicked his tongue in irritation.
He had never interfered before because the reports had always been accurate.
But once this mission was over, he intended to discipline them properly.
‘No one in their right mind would record someone like this as weak.’
He could feel it.
The oppressive pressure scraping against his skin.
The savage nature hidden beneath Leon's calm exterior.
Gailan swallowed hard.
Leon was no longer some inexperienced brat.
He had already become someone whose name would spread throughout the world.
How could someone like that still be called a brat?
Gailan forced himself to calm down.
As his excitement subsided, he became acutely aware that a true powerhouse stood before him.
Without letting Leon notice, he discreetly signaled his companions.
“What are you whispering about?”
The next instant, Leon appeared directly before Gailan at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
Gailan let out a silent scream.
‘Fast!’
No.
Calling it merely fast wasn't enough.
Just what kind of movement was this?
Even while signaling his companions, Gailan had never once taken his eyes off Leon.
Yet all that vigilance had been meaningless.
Leon had already stepped into a position where he could take Gailan's life at any moment.
Cold sweat ran down Gailan's back.
He unconsciously swallowed from sheer tension.
Seeing Gailan's expression, Leon smiled.
“What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
Gailan opened his mouth.
But all that came out was ragged breathing.
He was so shocked that he couldn't even form words.
After finally regaining his composure, Gailan slowly opened his mouth.
Slash-!!
At that instant, a chilling cold brushed against his neck.
Then all he saw was the blue sky.
A puzzled thought crossed Gailan's mind.
‘Did... I tilt my head upward?’
The thought lasted only an instant.
The next moment, his vision returned to normal.
Yet what he saw left him completely dumbfounded.
‘Why... am I over there...?’
Just as his vision stabilized, Gailan saw his own headless body...
And the horrified expressions of his companions standing behind it.
Splaash-!!
Blood sprayed high into the sky.
Lightly shaking the blood from his hair, Leon fixed his gaze ahead and thought,
‘I'm no longer sensing the one who fired the arrows.’
There were still two enemies standing before him.
Yet Leon paid them no attention whatsoever.
By killing the man before him, he had already gauged their level.
They weren't worth worrying about.
Even Circe, despite her frail condition, could deal with them.
Leaving the stunned enemies behind, Leon pushed his senses to their absolute limit.
Uuuuuung-!!
His heightened senses once again began gathering information from the world around him.
Soon, Leon detected the presence of a single person.
‘Three hundred paces ahead. He's widening the distance.’
A clever one.
Even after witnessing his comrade's death, he remained perfectly calm and was already planning his next move.
‘Just as I thought.’
The moment Leon sensed the Internal Energy contained within that arrow earlier, he had concluded that their leader was an archer.
The Internal Energy infused into that arrow had been anything but ordinary.
At the very least, the archer had reached the middle stage of the Transcendent Master Realm.
He might even have reached full mastery.
‘Troublesome. This is my first time fighting an archer.’
Moreover, the difference in their realms was considerable.
Even within the same Transcendent Master Realm, the gap between the initial stage and full mastery was as vast as heaven and earth.
The only thing Leon could truly rely on now was his body, which transcended his realm.
Still...
What choice did he have?
‘I'll just have to fight.’
At that instant, the muscles in Leon's thighs swelled tremendously.
With an explosive roar, his body shot forward.
Flaaash-!!
Charging with lightning-like speed, Leon appeared directly behind the archer.
“…!!!”
The archer stared at Leon in utter disbelief.
His expression seemed to ask,
How had Leon caught up to him in such a short time?
Leon could have answered that question with a single sentence.
“This is the difference between someone who has a Body Movement Technique... and someone who doesn't.”
At the same time, Leon's sword swept in a broad half-circle toward the archer's back.
The archer blocked it with his bow and hurriedly shouted,
“W-Wait!”
“How pathetic. Stop chattering and die.”
Naturally, the archer didn't die so easily.
Even without learning martial arts, he had still reached full mastery within the Transcendent Master Realm.
Now that he was even using Force to resist...
Even Leon couldn't kill him in a single strike.
Papapapang-!!
The arrows the archer released tore through the air toward Leon.
Changing trajectories repeatedly, they flew like ghosts controlling them from the shadows.
‘So what?’
Boom-!!
With a single swing of his sword, Leon deflected every arrow.
Wearing a mocking smile, he spoke.
“Is that all you've got?”
“……”
The archer stared at Leon in complete disbelief.
After all, he had just fired ten arrows.
Every single one of them had been infused with Force.
He wasn't a true Knight.
Merely a Quasi-Knight.
Although he could wield Force, he couldn't control it perfectly.
Every time he used it, tremendous strain accumulated within his body.
If he repeated such techniques only twice more, he would suffer severe internal injuries.
Yet without using Force, he couldn't even hope to challenge Leon.
Ordinary mana-infused arrows simply couldn't pierce Leon's body.
Perhaps because Leon possessed extraordinary sensitivity to energy, he could perfectly distinguish between arrows infused with Force and those containing only ordinary mana.
He simply tanked the ordinary arrows with his body...
And only deflected those infused with Force.
To the archer, it was enough to drive him insane.
Ordinary mana couldn't leave even a scratch on Leon.
Yet relying solely on Force would destroy his Mana Heart.
Forced into an impossible dilemma, the archer continued resisting until...
He suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed.
He had overused Force and suffered catastrophic internal injuries.
Looking down at the fallen archer, Leon said,
“What a weakling. You should've endured that much through sheer willpower.”
Had the archer heard those words, he would have burst into tears.
After severing the archer's head, Leon returned to where Circe was waiting.
Just as expected, Circe had already dealt with the remaining two enemies.
“So, how did the sword perform?”
Circe asked as Leon returned.
An eager smile rested upon her wrinkled face.
Leon answered honestly.
“It was perfect. I couldn't even tell whether I was swinging a feather... or a sword.”
“Hohoho. Exactly the answer I expected.”
“By the way... did you know these people would come here?”
Leon asked while looking at the cold corpses.
His expression remained completely indifferent.
As though he were looking at discarded objects rather than people who had once been alive.
“I know you cannot reveal details of the future, so I'll keep my question brief. Did Flower come here because of you?”
“Yes.”
“Because of your power to observe the future?”
“No. They were after Bestie more than they were after me.”
“……”
Leon turned a questioning gaze toward Bestie.
Receiving that look, Bestie herself appeared equally confused.
Bestie was a powerless woman who could use neither swordsmanship nor magic.
Granted, she had reached the level of a master in pharmacology and metallurgy...
Still, Leon doubted that alone would be enough to attract Flower's interest.
Then Circe slowly spoke.
“This child possesses the qualifications to become the Demon King. That is why Flower came after her.”