Tukwang-!
Leonardo's fist sank into the mother body's firmly hardened hide. The smooth surface, compressed by high temperature and pressure, cracked and caved in.
The massive body, unable to withstand the force, instantly flew backward, and as the shockwave spread, it momentarily suppressed the flames on the ground. Just then, Nero, who had sprung out from the subsiding fire, cleared the ash and caught up with the creature in one breath.
Nero rotated one and a half times in the air and kicked the monster's back hide the other way. Along with a clear, ringing rupture, a tingling pain followed, as if his ligaments had been jolted.
"Ow, my leg."
He grimaced and let out a small groan, wrapping his smarting leg with both hands. But when he saw a bright light approaching the body as it traced a parabola in the distance, he came to his senses, realizing it wasn't the time to be dramatic.
Eventually, Nero lowered his leg and sprang forward. He ran, folding space wherever his eyes fell, chaining teleports.
Leonardo, who had been waiting for the mother body to fly in, also tilted his body forty-five degrees and planted his left foot in the air. As soon as the creature came within range, he drove power into his lower body and timed his right foot to strike.
His heated toe dug deep into a gap in the hide where the creature hadn't been able to harden its entire body. For a moment, the hide undulated like waves, then made a bizarre sound, as if bones were being crushed, and bounced off in the opposite direction again.
Once, during a mission, while on standby, they had encountered a monster that curled its body into a ball in times of crisis. Back then, they'd just played ball with it to pass the time with Nero, never imagining that experience would prove useful like this.
Of course, it was an incomparably heavier ball than back then, causing significant damage with each kick, but to control the agile monster fleeing around, frantically rolling it was indeed the answer.
Soon after, a reddish shadow appeared behind the monster as it passed through the air and swung its fist. Once again, a dull impact echoed, and the rotating massive body flew off diagonally.
After passing the giant ball back and forth a few times like this, the two soon entered an area covered in thick fog. As their vision turned a hazy white, Leonardo, sensing they were nearing the target point, kept shifting his position while keeping his eyes fixed that way.
Beyond the clouds hanging thickly between the mountain ranges, magma undulated in various shades of red and orange. The moment the ultra-high heat that could steal one's breath brushed past, his airway stung as if he'd swallowed sand. Along with it, the acrid smoke made it hard to even open his eyes. Volcanic ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ gas.
He wanted to immediately make wind to blow away the gas and ash that had settled on his shoulders, but he sensed the presence of the Council's battalion commanders who had been lying in ambush nearby for who knew how long.
As for how to hide Nero's identity, about half of it was left to luck, so he had to hope these thick clouds and gases would conceal his appearance well. Because of that, instead of blowing the gas away, Leonardo emitted flames and light from his entire body. He exposed his position as much as possible to draw attention to himself in the pale fog.
A moment later, when they had almost reached the target point, Leonardo sent a signal by releasing mana into the sky. Sensing his mana in the darkness, Nero increased his speed and launched the monster's body high into the air. Then, as if it were the finishing blow, he raised his legs high and struck down without holding back.
Tukwang-!
It felt as if his heel and Achilles tendon were breaking, but Nero, blood vessels bulging on his forehead, used all his strength to hurl the monster toward where the captain was. Following the trajectory of the massive body cutting through the toxic gas, the thick fog spread wide to the left and right.
As a blurry shadow flew through the smoke screen, Leonardo once again grasped lightning in his hand. Then, preparing to signal the battalion commanders who would be holding their breath, he raised his right arm, spark in hand, high.
'Focus, just need to strike properly once.'
Hypnotizing himself that he felt no pain, Leonardo steadied his pounding heart. Still, he widened his eyes, clenched his fist, and drove blood through his body. He planned to strike the creature into the air above the crater, then rise directly above it to deliver a blow.
Finally, when the distance between him and the mother body narrowed to about ten meters, Leonardo drew out his mana output to the maximum.
Wrapped in high-voltage current surging through his entire body, he stepped into the air, using his left foot as the axis of rotation. As he twisted his shoulder blades and chest to line up the target and was about to swing lightning imbued with intense power,
"You can't do it."
For a moment, an ominous voice dominated his mind. At the same time, something writhing caught his eye.
Leonardo, arm raised, hesitated.
The monster's dark red eyeballs, revealed between its wings, were clearly staring this way. The problem was that the place those eyeballs were attached wasn't its head, but a completely unexpected part.
'What is that?'
Moreover, the creature's hide, hidden by its wings, was bubbling and swelling as if thick mud were boiling. Noticing the ominous sign, Leonardo immediately furrowed his brow and leveled the lightning. Then he charged straight ahead as if to pierce through the creature's hide. Aiming for the writhing head-and-neck area, he thrust hard, driving strength into both arms.
Kwadeuk-
With the sound of muscles tearing, the sharp tip of the spark drove deep into the mother body's flesh. But at that moment, the creature's skull, which had released its hardening, split in half right before his eyes, avoiding the golden tip.
Three small monsters that emerged from within split into one on the left and two on the right. Then, as if the neck and body were being pulled apart on both sides, they tore open with a stretch—long tendons elongating, cells writhing to fill the gaps.
Leonardo, who had rushed forward trailing white steam and sparks, pierced the monster's body split in two in the blink of an eye. But by then, only one of the two completely separated entities was caught on the tip of the lightning he'd thrust.
The chunk of flesh torn in half hung limply like a shed skin left after molting. On the other hand, the other entity that had dodged aside flew independently through the sky, watching him as he passed.
Leonardo, instinctively looking back, met the red pupils tracing a parabola. The creature, regenerating the flesh it had cast off like a lizard cutting its tail, chuckled as if it found his expression amusing.
"You can't kill me. You couldn't kill me then either."
Seeing the monster now even multiplying, his mind went blank. As if to make him realize this wasn't a dream, the creature's clear voice drilled into both his ears. At the same time, the mother body, which had even regenerated its torn wings, increased the speed of its heavy wing beats as if trying to escape from this place.
"Damn it..."
Leonardo clenched his fist and immediately changed direction. He leaped toward the creature, steam venting from under his feet.
Thanks to that terrifyingly bizarre regenerative power, whenever the monster seemed cornered, it escaped crises in extraordinary ways. In battles that dragged on, every time Leonardo faced such scenes, he felt all the strength drain from his body, replaced by despair.
But with the place where he had promised to settle things right in front of him, he couldn't just let the creature get away like this.
Flames rose madly around the enraged Leonardo, and golden eyes glowed ominously between his wildly fluttering hair. Waves as heavy as his low curses engulfed the vicinity, and the monster's hide, pierced by sparks, instantly burst into flames, turning to powder and vanishing.
However, Leonardo, who had drawn out such tremendous power, hesitated as he lined up on the creature's back.
With ultra-high-temperature steam surging nearby and magma boiling right below, if he attacked carelessly and slipped up, the whole plan might go awry.
Right now, he was already overwhelmed just handling this power and wasn't in a situation where he could pay attention to minute control. Meanwhile, if the volcano erupted before he could catch and subdue the mother body, the aftermath would be too terrible to even imagine.
As if guessing Leonardo's anguish, the mother body rolled its eyes, glancing back briefly, and split its maw wide with a snicker. Then, just as it was about to rise vertically to escape the range, an inverted temperature and terrifying aura pressed heavily down on its head.
A chill that could freeze the lungs locked the dark red eyeballs that were about to roll.
"Well done, Leonardo."
A cold bass voice resonated in the sky, carried by fierce mana. Though not particularly loud, the vast power permeated every molecule in the air, sounding vividly as if it were resonating in the minds of both the mother body rising relentlessly and Leonardo following behind.
Leonardo's eyes, shifting beyond the monster's shadow, caught a bluish figure condensing clouds with a greatsword. The figure at the center didn't emit light, but to Leonardo's golden eyes, it was more brilliant than any other being.
Soon, small crystals—cooled and swirling—completely enveloped Hugo's blade. The mother body, trapped in the particles he'd frozen, was temporarily unable to move.
The ice reaper, both eyes shining like blue flashes, raised the greatsword in his grasp. Then, toward the mother body crawling up into the sky, he struck down its tip as if in contempt.
