By Zephyria “Damn it, that’s too bad―.”
Andreas slammed his fist on the armrest of his seat and stomped his feet along with the announcers’ voices. Hugo, maintaining a perfect posture next to him, watched the front in silence, excited. However, Loren in the next seat knew that his fingertips had twitched slightly a moment ago.
With her arms crossed, she glanced at the two uncles who were over-immersed in the preliminary rounds and showing contrasting reactions.
In Hugo’s right hand was the betting ticket that he had confiscated from Andreas. It was so crumpled that it had already lost its function, but Asher and Ryan, written in the top two slots, were still clear. Leaving aside the high batting average, the fact that he hadn’t frozen it and turned it into powder showed how focused the commander was on the game.
His upper body was leaning forward slightly, and the way he was rubbing his forehead was also quite serious. As if there was someone he was cheering for there.
“Wow, why did they suddenly avoid it? It’s good that it’s exciting, but….”
“…….”
Hugo tried to maintain a calm expression and looked back at Andreas, who was muttering. A transparent auxiliary barrier for safety was spread out between the arena and the audience seats. Thanks to this, this guy didn’t seem to know who the owner of the leaked Magic Power was yet. But it was only a matter of time before he realized….
Around that time, Hugo felt a gaze on the side of his face and turned to his left. His eyes met Loren’s.
She was the only person who was with Flynn when he brought the news of Leonardo’s participation in the league. Hugo turned away with an embarrassed cough, as Loren’s thoughts towards him were clearly revealed in her eyes.
Gillian and Beastris, who had been shaking the participant’s neck, felt a familiar Magic Power and turned their heads at the same time. Gillian’s expression crumpled when she saw Leonardo and Ero.
“That guy messed up. He shouldn’t be doing that already.”
“What does it matter, he’s going to win anyway?”
“Not that. He can’t get attached to a weird guy and run away already.”
Orca, who had been pushed back by the Divine Beast to create distance, also climbed onto a safe foothold. Even so, his eyes did not leave Leonardo.
“Hot.”
He stroked his face and hair, which had been hit by the hot wind just before he made contact with his opponent. The dry, straw-like texture crumbled at his fingertips. When he grabbed the broken hair and looked down, it smelled strongly of scorched protein. He had clearly dodged before touching it.
Orca muttered with a dazed expression.
“…He’s a real lion.”
The participants scattered around also watched one place and whispered. It was the moment when the name Ryan was engraved in the consciousness of the strong players who had been hiding their presence while aiming to advance to the finals.
Leonardo, who was guarding the surroundings with his eyes wide open, lowered his upper body as it was. Then, he reached down and firmly twisted Ero’s wrist, shook it a few times, and then pulled him up using the recoil.
Ero, who was pulled up in one go, landed on the Floating Stone with his face flushed red. However, he soon plopped down, sitting on his butt. His arms and legs, which had been to the brink of elimination, were shaking unsightly.
Leonardo listened to Ero’s rough breathing and muttered in a low voice.
“Hey, you ruined it for me.”
“…Huh?”
“I’ve become the number one target for elimination.”
Even as Gold Eyes said that, he didn’t take his eyes off the competitors who were confronting him. Ero looked around and answered dazedly.
“I’m, I’m sorry….”
“Forget it, now that it’s come to this, I’ll draw attention―.”
In that instant, Leonardo, sensing something, moved first.
“Survive somehow!”
He stood at the edge of the Floating Stone and kicked the Floating Stone Ero was on with all his might in the air.
Ero, pushed to the corner like a sailboat drifting away, sat like the protagonist of a tragic story, reaching out his hand and shouting.
“Bro―!”
But a heavy Boulder blocked the space between the two people moving away. Leonardo twisted his body and used the momentary rotational force to kick the Boulder. A clear sound rang out. The dented Boulder shattered in an instant. But that wasn’t the end of it.
Beyond the cleared view, countless Boulders were flying.
“Shit.”
Leonardo, who let out a sigh, quickly threw his body in the opposite direction of Ero. In the 0.1 seconds after he stepped on the Floating Stone and leaped, the pouring Boulders collided mercilessly with the foothold. The tangled Boulders, emitting a hazy smoke like a sunken warship, fell out of orbit.
Leonardo, while moving without a break, also watched Asher’s movements, who was rampaging on the opposite side. Her pure jumping power was amazing, and she had already jumped up to the top of the arena and taken her place.
As befitting the ruler of this game, she looked down from above and seemed to be trying to guess his escape route. She stuck her fingers into the floating rocks, pulled them towards her, and threw the weapons, whose actual weight could not be estimated, mercilessly. Then, she kicked continuously, sending fragments flying like a machine gun. It looked like an indiscriminate attack, but there was only one target.
The situation was not good. Leonardo rolled his eyes and checked the crystal board. Just in time, it was seen that the number of survivors had dropped to the low 300s.
There were about 100 people left. Leonardo, who was dodging the pouring bombardment with light movements, jumped into a place where participants were standing still. The terrified people scattered quickly like cockroaches.
Kwaaaang―!
Another giant Boulder was buried in the spot where Leonardo landed. A blue barrier spread over the heads of the participants who had not been able to avoid it. The band on his wrist, sensing the possibility of instant death, activated the barrier. He could save his life, but the participant protected by it would be immediately eliminated.
The plan worked, and a large number of eliminated people occurred at once. Leonardo, who had turned his direction in an instant, rushed towards the Floating Stone where the sand grains were concentrated. He was planning to use the attacks flying towards him to destroy the Sand Barrier where the survivors were hiding.
The audience’s heads moved busily from side to side at the movements of the beast, moving like light, fluttering its cloak. Just as he was about to step on the sand dune containing dozens of people and leap, his foot sank deep into the sand and got stuck.
“Damn it―.”
Leonardo, who bit his lip, looked down. The sand that had twisted his legs solidified like hard plaster and shackled his ankles. He struggled to get out, but instead it stretched out like sticky mucus and sucked him back into the swamp. It was just sand in appearance, but it was definitely a chain.
While he was being held for a moment, a shadow fell over his head. When he raised his head, two sharp fragments like bars were flying quickly with the momentum to be embedded in his Gold Eyes.
As he was struggling, a strange wave that could not be seen shook Leonardo’s cloak. At the same time, the whale’s cry he had heard earlier brushed past his ears.
‘…?’
Ultrasound, which has good compatibility with Ether, pushed back the fragments that were flying in a straight line, temporarily slowing down their speed. There was no time to grasp the intention. Leonardo pulled his arms and legs with all his might in time. The two plunging tips were immediately embedded in the sand chain that was holding him.
The sand grains, whose bonds had been broken, scattered, and several screams erupted from inside the sand dune roof. Leonardo, freed from the shackles, disappeared immediately.
Asher, who had stopped attacking when the target disappeared from her sight, frowned. She scanned the surroundings for signs of movement, her nerves on edge. Even if he knew how to use Teleport, his location would be revealed quickly in the arena anyway, but she couldn’t feel any energy at all.
Sensing something strange, she rolled her eyes busily from side to side.
In that instant, her gray eyes widened greatly.
Instinct moved first. Reacting to the threat, she lowered her posture and turned her body halfway to kick the opponent. But even with the tremendous speed, her toes only stirred the air, failing to inflict any damage on anything.
Only the train of her bandages fluttering in the clear sky could be seen. Her white eyebrows, which had missed the target, were raised upwards.
In an instant, the hot wind that had been blowing earlier brushed past her from behind. The seething air, so suffocating that it felt like it was being stuffed into her lungs.
‘Intent to kill.’
Her pupils contracted in an instant. Hiding her panic, she turned around, and a dark shadow, obscured by the backlight, was already close at hand. Asher stopped breathing. Her vision was completely dyed with darkness.
But only the Gold Eyes shining within it were clear.