"Get up…we gotta go." Acht's gaze was drawn to Leon who was hiding in a corner of the corridor with his hands hugging his legs making him look like a human ball.
He then peeked from his shell like a scared turtle and then stood up with a sigh of relief. When he witnessed the Naga, he felt all of his body freeze and his mind went blank.
He felt extreme terror from it and immediately ran to hide. It was a pathetic move that made even Leon loath himself let alone the other two with him.
'I'm a hopeless coward.' He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. The frustration he felt at that moment greatly surpassed any other thing he ever felt.
His weakness was always something that bugged his head but he had always tried to cover it with measly excuses. But, deep down he knew that he was irredeemably weak mentally and physically.
He then looked at Acht and Tania with apprehensive eyes. Even though they barely met a few hours ago, he had already seen what they were capable of and he honestly admired their strength, their unyielding wills, and their strong personalities.
They looked like shining stars in his eyes, something that he might think it's easy to reach but when he extends his hand, he sees the difference between them.
'Why am I even walking with them?' He thought to himself as he chuckled sadly. It was almost a bad joke for him.
"I'm really an irredeemable and cowardly weak garbage. It's impossible for me to change so why do I even think about it?" He muttered.
" Yes, you are a coward and a weakling."
He suddenly heard the voice of Acht. He lifted his eyes to look at him. He was also gazing at Leon with calm eyes.
"You are indeed a coward who runs from anything that could remotely threaten him. You are also a naive idiot who relies on his father's influence to get it easy." Acht recited those harsh words as if he was reading a notebook.
Leon was shocked at first but soon smiled sadly and said,
"You are right….you are totally righ-"
"But, you aren't irredeemable. You could still fix yourself."
"....what?"
"The fact that you thought of yourself as 'irredeemable' shows that you are still not a lost cause."
The words that Acht said reached something deep in his heart. They weren't nice or even remotely helpful, but the honesty of Acht's words made him feel something click in his heart.
"You still don't understand what unfixable things could be, the regret you will live with because of those mistakes and those weaknesses, and the lack of self-reflection after such mistakes. You still have a long way to go before you could regret anything. So don't go around spouting such nonsense, you fucking weak bastard."
Then, the boy left Leon and walked away. Tania took a look at Leon once before she also followed Acht.
"Hehehe…." He laughed slightly.
Then, gradually, his laugh became stronger and stronger until he couldn't hold himself at all. He didn't know why, but he felt like laughing loudly at that particular moment.
At some point, two tear droplets fell down his cheek. He was indeed in a weird state that not many will get.
"He is…crazy?" Tania muttered quietly.
"No, he's just messing up his old self," Acht answered casually as he walked without looking back.
"Why…help him?" She asked Acht curiously.
The boy didn't answer immediately. He also didn't know why he said those words to him in the first place. He didn't have any kind of goodwill toward Leon and he honestly couldn't care less about his situation.
"Something in his words…reminded me of an idiot I know who fucked up a lot when he was young." He said with a complicated look plastered on his face.
Tania seemed to notice that as she kept looking at him while she closed up the distance between them. Then, she tucked his shirt with an adorable expression.
"Sad?"
Her cute puppy eyes made Acht flinch for a moment before chuckling slightly.
"It's ok…that idiot got punished plenty. He should be fine now."
Suddenly, as they were shaving this small chat, a hissing sound made them look ahead. It seemed to be a normal Naga from the sound of it.
Acht was about to pull his sword to deal with it. But, much to his surprise, a silhouette passed beside him running madly.
"HAAAAAAAAAA!!" He shouted like some heroic warrior as he charged at the Naga without any plan in mind.
Acht struck his head with a loud sigh.
"That fucking idiot."
Leon closed up the distance between him and the Naga. He then pulled out a small dagger that he had in his storage ring.
But, before he could even try to swing his dagger, the Naga had already attacked him with its spear and was almost close to piercing his head.
*Swish*
Suddenly, a dagger flew right beside Leon's head, cutting a few strands of his hair before penetrating the snake's eye, killing it on the spot.
"Scratch my words from before…You are irredeemably stupid." Acht said as he watched Leon breath heavily while he stared wide-eyed at the dead Naga.
"I didn't feel fear…" he muttered to himself in disbelief.
He didn't feel his body freeze or his mind going blank. Even though he almost got himself killed, he didn't feel disheartened but a surge of adrenaline filled his body and heightened his senses.
"This…is amazing! I didn't feel any fear…Hahahahah!!!! I didn't feel any fear!"
Leon started jumping left and right madly as he shouted the same words again and again.
Acht and Tania watched this with difficult expressions.
"You know…I think he did go crazy." Acht muttered to his companion as he didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the weird young man.
So, to not make things any more awkward than they really were. Both of them left him in his special moment and continued walking.
They spent a long time inside the dungeon so they reckoned they should complete it quickly and leave the place.
Finally, after a few more minutes, they found the place they were looking for…The dungeon boss room.
"The moment we enter…Be ready for any sneak attacks from the boss. Also, watch out for the ceiling." He gave her some advice.
"As for you…don't even think about entering if you value your life. I can't bother to keep saving you if you're going to be in danger."
Then, Acht opened the door and entered inside.
It was surprisingly easy to see since torches were burning inside and the room wasn't particularly big.
But, there was no trace of the boss around them. So, Acht immediately shifted his eyes to the ceiling. And he was indeed right, the Naga boss was stuck to the ceiling looking at them with its eerie red eyes.
"Be careful! It's above us."
The boss heard Acht's voice and immediately spat out a green liquid out of its mouth.
It seemed to be a poison so both of them jumped away from it. The moment the poison touched the ground, it started melting like a stick of butter.
Tania immediately conjured three crystals and darted them at the boss. But, the Naga was smart enough and it used its hands to slap away the crystals.
During that time, Acht had already jumped close to the Naga, then he used his gravity and pulled the Naga down with all of his power. He wanted to shift the fight to a close-combat rather than this disadvantage created by the difference of grounds, especially since this Naga could spit out the venom with a high speed.
"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS?!!!" The Naga was surprised so it couldn't react in time.
*Boom* *Thud*
The huge frame of the creature destroyed the ground beneath it.
Acht looked at it as he landed slowly. But, before the cloud of dust even settled, the Naga had already spat venom in his direction.
"Shit." Acht cursed as he looked at Tania who was already on the move.
She immediately created a square-shaped crystal the size of her body and sent it flying in Acht's direction too.
The crystal and the streak of venom met mid-air and collided violently.
Luckily, the crystal worked as a good shield to protect Acht from the dangerous liquid.
'Good job!' He complimented her in his head as he used that opportunity and Pulled out one of his knives.
"Take this, you fucking lizard!" He then applied all of his gravity manipulations to the knife.
Then, with a full swing of his arm, sent it flying.
In normal cases, such an attack would've broken the knife since the skin of the Naga was tough and hard to crack.
But, the gravity applied to it made it as strong, if not stronger, than a bazooka attack. The power of gravity was simply that strong.
The knife almost broke the sound barrier as it flew down like a missile.
*Baaaaang*
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