By Zephyria “Squad leader, the demon beast is escaping!”
As the demon beast, having snatched up the wounded soldier, immediately plunged into the water, Squad Leader 8 gritted her teeth and reached out her hand toward it again.
“Air Expansion.”
The surrounding air rapidly expanded and burst like an explosion, creating a large splash. Leonardo, who had been watching their battle, widened his eyes slightly, surprised by the larger-than-expected scale.
Water splashed everywhere due to the aftermath of the magic, and several severed demon beast legs floated on the surface.
However, the demon beast had already escaped into the water with the soldier, and the other soldier who had been holding his arm was also dragged into the water.
Seeing the black shadow cast on the lake growing fainter, Squad Leader 8 shouted,
“Delta Team, enter the water with me! Sigma, remain in the air!”
“Yes, understood!”
Soon, about ten soldiers, including Squad Leader 8, simultaneously jumped into the water. The remaining personnel flew above the lake, ready to rotate in immediately.
As the situation became urgent, Flynn quickly called the commander on the radio, but he was out of range, and there was no connection.
Flynn, holding the radio with a worried expression, soon turned to look at Leonardo. He was still sitting on the rock, and when their eyes met, he merely raised an eyebrow slightly.
“What.”
Flynn thought that Leonardo would help if a problem arose. The soldiers of the 6th Battalion who had guarded the rear with him said that he wasn’t a very sociable person, but he had always saved them in crisis situations.
However, seeing him sitting there as if watching someone else’s business, Flynn couldn’t bring himself to ask for help.
Seeing Flynn hesitate, Leonardo seemed to realize what he wanted to say and simply crossed his legs and rested his chin on his hand.
“The 1st Battalion is all combat personnel, right? They’ll manage.”
“But…”
He seemed to have something he wanted to say, but Leonardo turned his gaze to the lake where the soldiers had entered with a cold expression.
“Let’s just watch for now.”
At his firm words, Flynn reluctantly nodded. Certainly, those who had entered the water were soldiers of the 1st Battalion, so his worries might be unfounded.
However, after hearing several loud noises from inside, some soldiers took turns coming to the surface to breathe and then going back down, but no one came out of the water completely.
That meant they hadn’t rescued him yet.
As time passed, Flynn became increasingly anxious and tried to contact the commander on the radio again. But there was still no response.
After a while, Leonardo, who had been resting his chin on his hand and gazing indifferently at the lake, slowly rose from his seat.
Flynn turned around at the sound of gravel crunching under his feet and looked at him with expectant eyes, but Leonardo’s gaze was directed at the ground, not the lake.
The sticky, viscous substance that the demon beast had sprayed earlier had fallen on the ground and was soaking into it. Leonardo quietly examined it, then knelt down in front of it and touched the sticky liquid with his hand.
The transparent viscous substance was highly viscous and had a strange odor. As Leonardo was about to bring the substance on his hand to his mouth, Flynn was startled and approached him, shouting,
“What are you doing!”
Undeterred by Flynn’s shout, Leonardo lightly touched the viscous substance to his tongue, then immediately spat it out and stood up, saying,
“I need some water.”
Flynn was horrified by his bizarre behavior, but at those words, he immediately took out a canteen from his pack and handed it to him. Leonardo took the canteen and asked Flynn,
“Is this water from the lake?”
“No?”
Only after hearing the answer did Leonardo take a mouthful of water, spit it out again, and wash off the viscous substance on his hand. Flynn frowned and asked,
“Why did you taste that, anyway?”
Leonardo handed the canteen back to Flynn and said,
“To figure out what it is. By the way, this viscous substance is poison.”
“Poison?”
Flynn’s eyes widened even more, and he looked at Leonardo, who had just put it in his mouth, with a worried expression.
“I didn’t swallow it and spat it out right away, so I’m fine. And it’s more like the viscous substance is diluted with the original poison, so it’s not a big problem even if it touches your skin. Just don’t let it get into any wounds.”
At his answer, Flynn seemed relieved and let out a big sigh. Then, with a look of renewed admiration, he asked,
“Did you know as soon as you saw it?”
However, the words that came out of his mouth were different from what he expected.
“I knew after I tasted it?”
“What? What if it was a deadly poison…!”
Flynn was startled and raised his voice, but he didn’t finish his sentence and closed his mouth at his seemingly nonchalant expression.
It was because he felt somehow wronged that he seemed to be the only one getting surprised and angry every time. Leonardo chuckled at Flynn, who looked somehow upset, and said,
“Do you think I would have recklessly tasted a poison I’ve never seen before?”
“…So you’ve seen it before?”
As if he had guessed correctly, Leonardo nodded.
“Do you remember me telling you about the characteristics of demon beasts before we entered the peninsula?”
“Yeah.”
“There was one with poison, right?”
“…Illeaptor.”
Flynn answered, searching his memory. Then Leonardo said with a smile,
“This poison has the same properties as that one’s poison.”
At his explanation, Flynn let out a small exclamation of understanding and suddenly turned his gaze toward the lake. Then, with a worried expression again, he asked,
“Then, will the soldiers who went into the lake be okay?”
Leonardo also turned his head toward the lake and opened his mouth.
“It’s inevitable that they’ll drink some water while fighting, but in the first place, the viscous substance is diluted with poison, and the water in the lake is so vast that that little bit won’t affect their bodies.”
He was still uneasy, but hearing Leonardo’s words made him feel a little less worried. Meanwhile, Leonardo, even though he said that, was seriously considering whether or not he should get involved in this battle.
If the battle dragged on and they stayed in the water for too long, no one knew how even the diluted poison might act.
‘Underwater combat is unsettling….’
He narrowed his brows and shifted his gaze from the lake to look down at his hand. Underwater combat was one of the most unfavorable situations for him, who mainly used fire.
Water would constantly try to extinguish the flames. If he tried to maintain the flames by drawing out even stronger magic power, it would be even more difficult to control the scale.
He couldn’t use electricity, or the others would get electrocuted, and the only attack that might work was the wind-based attack that Squad Leader 8 had used.
The fact that the target was a demon beast he had never seen before was also troublesome. He knew that demon beasts could have overlapping properties, but the fact that it had the same poison as Illeaptor meant that it might also have the properties of another creature with acidic components.
Judging from when Squad Leader 8 attacked, there was no evidence yet that it had acidic components. However, if it did, there was a risk that they could all die in vain if they detonated its corpse in the water.
But apart from all that, what Leonardo was most concerned about right now was that there were more than one or two soldiers in the water, and he was most worried that he might accidentally kill the others with his unstable control while trying to catch the demon beast.
Thinking about this and that, he roughly ruffled the back of his head and scanned his surroundings.
‘If only one person who is best at manipulating water would come, but where is this guy and what is he doing that he’s not coming?’
This would be easily resolved if Hugo Agrizendro, a powerful water mage, came, but he, who had said he would look around, hadn’t shown up despite all this commotion, and where on earth had he gone?
He could occasionally feel his magic power brushing past, but judging from the fact that he couldn’t gauge its scale and it was quite faint, he seemed to be quite far away.
Because they had had a strange conversation last night, Leonardo was hesitant to judge and act on his own without him. However, it seemed like it would take time for Agrizendro to return, so Leonardo finally took a step forward and said to Flynn,
“I’ll go in, so you go find your commander.”
Flynn’s expression brightened, and he nodded. Then he immediately flew off somewhere to find the commander and the two soldiers. Leonardo, watching his receding figure, slowly walked toward the lake, turning his neck from side to side and rotating his shoulders back a few times.
He repeated to himself inwardly as if making a pledge.
‘Close range. Let’s only use close range.’
As he approached the lake, the soldiers floating in the air looked at him with puzzled eyes. Leonardo moved to the center of the lake in an instant. Then, without giving the soldiers a chance to stop him, he held his breath and immediately jumped into the water.