By Zephyria Leonardo, completely freed from the last shackle, began to move at a speed that was incomparable to what he had been doing so far.
His ankles stung a little, so it seemed he had been slightly grazed by the spear, but fortunately, they were properly attached without being cut off.
After checking his leg condition once again, he rushed towards Andreas on the ice wall without hesitation.
Andreas saw Leonardo approaching him at an incredible speed and tried to gather the vines on the ice wall to bind him again. But his speed was twice as fast as before, and the firmly woven tree trunks were seen burning helplessly in the flames, so he was extremely embarrassed.
After a loud noise from below earlier, it seemed something had happened in the skirmish with Hugo, as a powerful magic energy was constantly being emitted.
Judging that he could no longer hold him back with this alone, Andreas wrapped the tree trunks around his hands, unfolded a green magic circle, and chanted a spell.
“Wooden Puppet.”
Then, the vines surrounding the wall grew thickly and began to clump together in one place, soon forming a lump the size of a person and wriggling.
The vines tangled in several places in the same way formed a total of six lumps, and inside, they bent and pressed the stems against each other, making a grotesque sound.
They crushed the soft inner parts of the stems revealed by bending, compressing them as if kneading them. Soon, arms and legs were formed in the kneaded mass like a human shape, and a head came up, and a complexion like real human skin began to circulate.
As they gradually took on human form, they wore the same face as Andreas, the caster of the magic, and the same white Council uniform. Then, they stared intently at a figure quickly rising from below.
What came into Leonardo’s eyes, who had reached the top after struggling with the vines, was the sight of seven people, all looking exactly like the guy next to Hugo earlier, all looking at him.
Leonardo paused at the bizarre scene, and the clones, including the main body, all smiled at him and chanted spells at the same time.
“Marionette.”
Immediately, the seven Andreases all drew their swords at once and rushed towards Leonardo in an instant.
Leonardo, who was momentarily flustered by the sudden situation, created a blazing flaming sword in one hand and a lightning sword with high-voltage current flowing in the other. Then, he received the swords of the two guys approaching first from the front, one in each hand.
Clang―!
As the swords collided strongly and the two clones pushed Leonardo, he alternated his gaze between the two guys on each side and gauged their strength.
Clones are usually less powerful than the main body, but these guys were commander-level casters, so even if they were clones, their abilities were extraordinary. Trying to deal with one person each with one arm made his whole arm tremble.
At that time, a cold current rushed in rapidly from below again, and Leonardo, who immediately put strength in his shoulders, pushed the two guys he was confronting away at once.
No sooner had he retreated using the recoil than Hugo’s ice spear soared vertically between him and the clones. It was a hair’s breadth away that made his heart clench.
Leonardo felt a chill as the ice spear went up, grazing the end of his chin. The spear hit the barrier that the elites were hitting, and with a loud noise that shook the surroundings, the barrier rippled, and the ice spear pierced through it and went straight into the sky.
Just as Leonardo was about to lower his head again to look at the person who had thrown that ridiculously powerful spear, Hugo, holding a long sword, had already come right below him.
The fierce sword energy that flew in an instant slightly grazed the ends of his fluttering golden hair. Leonardo bent his back in one breath to avoid it, and at the same time, he swung his sword down at Hugo. In response, Hugo also swung his long sword and fiercely blocked the attack.
Despite defying gravity, the sword blade was heavier than Andreas’s beyond comparison. Leonardo stared at the blue eyes staring at him without giving in, but he couldn’t hold on any longer and parried his sword as if repelling it.
Maybe it was because he used his ice spear to unlock the shackles, but somehow he seemed a little angry.
‘Damn it, it’s too much.’
He somehow managed to block the other commander’s two clones with one hand, but it was difficult to block Agrizendro’s sword with both hands. The weight of that thin and long sword somehow felt heavier than the greatsword he wielded in the previous battle.
The weight of the sword didn’t seem to be greater in appearance, but the pressure that came over him was much more severe than before, so Leonardo felt that something was wrong.
If this was the Imperial Palace, where there were many things to protect, and he was pushing himself harder than before, and that’s why his sword felt heavy. In effect, it meant that he could draw out more power than he had shown in the previous battle.
When the thought reached that point, Leonardo felt a humiliating suspicion creeping in that Agrizendro might have been lenient with him in the battle on the deserted island of frost territory.
His mood plummeted sharply at the unpleasant thought, and he strongly struck down Hugo’s long sword that was flying again, and at the same time, he stretched out his hand towards Andreas’s clone rushing towards him. Three red rays flew out from the end of his outstretched hand in an instant.
Then, two clones were hit by the flying rays, burst into flames, turned into tree trunks, and crumbled. One barely escaped. Leonardo, sensing something strange, narrowed his eyes and looked at his hand that had fired the rays.
‘2 seconds?’
But that was only for a moment. Hugo’s long sword was aimed at him, so he immediately braced himself and swung his sword again. The end of the ray that missed one clone flew straight towards the ice wall and exploded.
As a result, a part of the wall that was shocked was greatly split, and the ice chunks split by the recoil of the explosion flew towards the barrier that the elites were hitting.
Hugo, who witnessed the scene during the confrontation, immediately stopped in the air and clicked his tongue, strongly striking back Leonardo’s sword aimed at him. Leonardo, who staggered momentarily at the force, lost his balance and was pushed back as it was.
As soon as Hugo got rid of him, he immediately caught up with the flying ice chunks and broke them one by one with his sword. This was because if the barrier couldn’t withstand these large ice chunks and went backwards like the ice spear he had thrown earlier, the citizens could be in danger.
In the meantime, as Leonardo barely regained his posture after being pushed away, Andreas’s clones, who had been aiming for the gap, rushed towards him again.
Leonardo was now furious that Agrizendro had pushed him away with force as if abandoning him and had gone to break the ice chunks, and he was doubly annoyed that the clones, not even the main body, were rushing at him.
Thanks to this, the planned priority was changed, and he decided that he should deal with these annoying guys first, taking advantage of the gap where Agrizendro was far away.
He glared at the clones rushing towards him in turn, and then accurately cut off their necks with the flaming sword in his hand. The clones were beheaded without even having time to avoid it at that fast speed, and soon turned into dry vines and fell to the floor.
Following that, a lush green vine and two other clones rushed from both sides, but this time he did not deal with the clones and quickly passed between the two and headed to the back of the ice wall. Since the main body continued to create clones, he intended to find the main body first because there was no end to cutting them down.
When he turned half of the ice wall, he felt the magic of the main body getting closer and closer. At that time, the clones that suddenly popped out repeatedly rushed towards Leonardo.
“Annoying, really.”
Leonardo frowned as if he was annoyed. He tore apart the heart area of one clone with the flaming sword in his hand, then struck down another by hitting his face with his elbow, and kicked another in the solar plexus with his foot.
As the clone that was slammed into the ice wall by the strong kick turned into a tree trunk, other stems around him gathered and crushed and absorbed the remaining flesh as if taking it as nourishment. His expression was automatically frowned at the disgusting sight.
Eventually, Leonardo stretched out his hand towards the guy on the far left among the clones rushing towards him. The clone looked noticeably flustered, as if he was surprised by his actions, but before he could even manage to collect himself, Leonardo grabbed the guy’s neck with one hand and mercilessly bent it 90 degrees.
A chilling sound like breaking a real person’s neck was heard, and the eyes of the clone whose neck was bent rolled back white. A fairly vivid sensation of bones breaking and muscles rupturing flowed through his fingertips, but Leonardo did not waver and ignited a flame to burn it to a crisp. The tree trunks burned and fell to the floor with a thud.
And behind that, Andreas’s real figure, hanging on the vines with a pale face, was awkwardly smiling.
Leonardo stared intently at his soft purple eyes with eyes full of murderous intent. Then, he pointed at him with the fingertips that had broken the clone’s neck and said in a low voice, “You’re annoying.”
Andreas felt like the hairs on his whole body were standing on end.