“...What’s going on? Where did he go?”
The people following Leonardo suddenly became flustered. The target who had slipped behind a tree had vanished without a trace.
“Did he use teleport?”
It had happened in just a few seconds.
“What are you talking about? There wasn’t any sign at all.”
“Quit making a fuss—spread out and search!”
The leader barked in a low voice, frustration seeping through.
The pursuers, dumbfounded for a moment, quickly dispersed at the order. One who had been tailing from the front kept circling the tree, unable to believe it. He had maintained a fifteen-meter distance from the target the whole time. If the guy had used teleport, he would have felt the mana for sure.
‘But I didn’t feel anything...’
Muttering curses under their breath, the pursuers split off and began searching for any sign. Because of the barrier, most of the three-kilometer radius around the gate was under ability restrictions equivalent to mana control zone 1. So even if the target had used teleport in secret, he couldn’t have gone far. They had to believe that.
They had come this far chasing him, and if they lost him now, they’d have to stake out in front of the gate all night again.
‘Damn it... when did he notice?’
Given who the target was, it wasn’t even certain they could recognize him as the target if they got lucky and ran into him. The pursuit leader, who had moved about fifty meters in one breath, gripped a dagger with both hands and began parting the bushes.
Experienced in pursuit, they moved without hesitation even through shaded areas where the light didn’t reach. Sometimes they were even mistaken for swift mountain beasts.
That was the problem.
“Aagh~!”
A short scream rang out from somewhere. Those who had spread out wide immediately froze.
“What was that?”
Tense eyes scanned the pitch-black scenery left and right. Then, from another direction, came a dull impact, followed by a scraping sound like someone dragging a sack.
At first they thought it might be a monster or beast, but that was the sound of someone being taken down in a single blow—and dragged away. Sensing something moving in the darkness, the pursuers lowered their bodies and drew throwing knives and daggers.
They’d been ordered never to attack or injure the target, but faced with primal fear, self-preservation came first.
“Aargh!”
No sooner had they taken their stance than another pain-filled scream tore through from beyond the undergrowth. It was already the fifth person. The pursuit leader, watching the situation, understood what it meant and shouted loudly:
“Everyone, gather! We’re vulnerable if we’re dispersed!”
At that moment, an eerie shadow dropped in behind him. As he turned, a pale hand filled his vision.
Thud—after a heavy collision, the undergrowth shook violently with the intensity of a physical struggle. Even small grunts of exertion sounded painfully loud in the quiet forest.
The scattered pursuers, sensing something wrong, hurried toward the area. Seven or eight approached step by step toward the undergrowth where a fierce fight seemed to be underway, holding blue-tinged weapons.
They exchanged glances, counted to three, and just as they were about to rush in—
“Wait!”
A familiar voice halted them, and the pursuit team hesitated, faces pale.
Their leader was on his knees, his face pressed against a tree, letting out strangled groans. Behind him, a golden-haired man stood with a boot on his back, pinning both his arms as if he could break them at any moment.
Leonardo, expressionless, eyes glowing, swept his gaze over the rat-like pursuers who had rushed in with momentum and muttered:
“If any of you move, his arms become useless.”
His tone was calm, but it was enough to root them in place. Watching their eyes flick rapidly, he added:
“Put those down.”
He meant their weapons. As if to show what would happen if they resisted, his blood-smeared hand twisted the two arms he held—just a little.
Muscle fibers tore around the shoulder, and the sensation of dislocation set in. A hoarse gurgle spilled from the man’s mouth. The pursuers’ eyes filled with agitation.
“P-put me down! Put me down—!!”
The leader shouted, voice near a scream, spittle flying. Leonardo furrowed his brow and planted his foot more firmly on the trapezius muscle connected to the man’s scapula.
Against the sunken tree bark, the orbital bone was driven in deep, crushing the tissues within. The man’s neck turned bright red as if he couldn’t breathe, and he screamed soundlessly through the crumpled gap.
As his convulsing limbs thrashed on the edge between life and death, the group—fearing someone would die at this rate—lowered their weapons with ashen faces.
“Step back, raise your hands, and stand still. I’ll ask you why you were tailing me, step by step.”
Just as Leonardo gave them a chance, he sensed a presence behind him.
“Uwaaa!”
Five people who had been hiding rushed in with blades. Leonardo immediately seized the leader by the nape and flipped him over, using his body as a shield.
Before they could hesitate, he drove forward with his shoulder the same way. Two blades, unable to stop from inertia, sank into the leader’s outstretched arms and legs with a slicing sound.
“Kuk, kuuk, aaagh—!”
He had deliberately avoided vital points, but the man still floundered like a fish dying on land.
‘What a drama queen.’
As the men forced back by the leader’s body stood stunned, Leonardo tossed his shield aside and slipped behind them.
He snapped one man’s arm to make him drop his weapon and twisted his neck with his whole forearm. He hurled him into another rushing in from the left, their skulls colliding as they sprawled like corpses. He kicked the solar plexus of the one trying to stab his side from the right, leaving him gasping, and drove his elbow into the nose of the one trying to choke him from behind, using the turn of his body.
He crushed the jaw of the one dropping from above, then yanked his arm and gifted him to the men in front with a throw. Soon, resentful voices roared through the dark.
“Hey, you bastard!”
“Catch that son of a bitch!”
As six people hit the ground in an instant, the seven who had been rooted in place surged in as a group.
Leonardo kicked up a rolling dagger and caught it in his hand. He flung sand into the nearest man’s eyes to blind him, then cut the tendons in his upper arm and Achilles to make him drop his weapon.
When someone swung a longsword down from behind, calling him a coward, he retorted, “Aren’t eighteen of you cowardly?” as he deflected the blade with his dagger, forcing the attacker to stab his own leg.
Then he lowered his body to avoid a heavy kick that made a woong sound, and, bracing a hand on the ground, shattered the attacker’s ankle bone with a spinning kick. Over the body pitching and losing balance, a sharp spear flew for his head. He snapped his neck back to avoid it, yanked the spear, and drove his knee into the head of the man who came with it.
“Shit... there are so many, really.”
After the brief complaint, he grabbed the arm of one of the remaining three wielding a butcher’s knife and bent it outward at the elbow.
“Uwaaagh!”
He shoved the back of the blade into the mouth that was about to scream, shattering teeth, then struck the back of his neck and knocked him out. He hurled the knife at the collar of the one who was slowly backing away, pinning him to a tree. When the man turned in confusion, Leonardo stomped down on the crown of his head with his heel, saying, “Is this what you call a head?”
The man collapsed without even managing a death cry, and now only one remained.
“Phew...”
He thought his condition had fully recovered, but his lung capacity seemed to have dropped—he was out of breath.
‘Armsilver is in a sorry state.’
Muttering inwardly, he used his forearm instead of his blood-soaked hand to wipe the sweat from his temple. He remembered His Excellency’s earnest advice to always be mindful of his health and take care of his body, even if he seemed fully recovered.
Maybe it was because he’d collapsed in front of that person so often. He understood, but still—His Excellency worried too much.
What he needed to worry about now wasn’t himself, but the man trembling in the undergrowth. The rustling of the rat who couldn’t even hide his footsteps properly in his urgency reached Leonardo’s ear easily.
“Hey. If you come out now, I won’t knock you out. Come on out.”
Leonardo tried to persuade him as gently as possible while catching his breath. At the same time, his wide golden eyes roamed, searching for that unsteady breathing.
“Just come out for a moment, will you? I want to ask you something. If you answer well, I won’t do anything—”
In that instant, a shadow darted from within the undergrowth. The man who had been waiting for the right timing bolted like an arrow.
What triggered Leonardo’s keen vision fled with only one goal: to survive.
‘If I’m caught, I’m dead.’
He had heard about the target, but watching those movements with his own eyes was on another level. It wasn’t something you could take on with half-baked skill. How could a mere pursuit team subdue a killing machine that had flown and crawled across the battlefield?
It took him less than two seconds per person to strike vital points and knock them out, with no wasted movement. This ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) was a brutally trained assassin.
‘I can never win one-on-one. I have to run.’
He had come to capture, but had become a fugitive. He kept running as he fumbled for a teleportation tool. He had to get out of range as fast as possible. Just as he set the coordinates with trembling fingers, something dropped onto his head with a thud.
“Uwagh!”
A sharp pain shot through him, and he instantly lost his balance. He crashed onto the dirt and rolled in the forest, clutching his leg.
The dagger the murderous demon had wielded earlier was embedded precisely in his kneecap.
Leonardo, who had dropped lightly from a tree, plucked up thick grass roots nearby and efficiently gagged the man’s mouth.
“You know what?”
After kindly pulling out the dagger, he flipped the body over to make it easier to handle. Like turning a shutdown lever, he lightly twisted the left shoulder of the wailing man.
“When prey moves, it’s more stimulating.”
“—!”
A savage crack rang out, like a wooden puppet breaking. Shock hit all at once, and the fugitive’s eyes rolled back as he fainted, his death throes fading with him.
Leonardo, who had cleanly dealt with eighteen pieces of prey, grabbed the man by the nape and massaged his carotid artery. Only after confirming he hadn’t died this time either did he roughly wipe his blood-stained hand on the clothes of a sprawled team member.
Even if they’d come at him first with weapons, it would be a big problem if they died by accident. After checking they were alive, he dusted off his palms in relief and stood.
Having been quietly held by the Council for so long, it seemed these people thought they could look down on him. Usually, sending a team like this was something a high-ranking person ignorant of the world did when trying to drag him into their business.
Even so, this was ridiculous. It was laughable that they thought to subdue him by force when they should have sent a neatly dressed negotiator. Still, it did feel refreshing to use his body after a long time.
“Hah...”
Leonardo, looking around with a satisfied expression, suddenly furrowed his brows.
“Ah.”
His gaze fell on the grass roots he had stuffed into the mouth of the last man to fall.
‘Am I an idiot?’
Leonardo hurriedly pulled out the tightly packed roots and slapped the unconscious man’s cheeks repeatedly.
“Hey. Hey, wake up.”
He needed to ask who had sent them, but somehow he had taken out the one person who could answer. After clearing the airway, Leonardo kept smacking his face and shaking his arm hard. But the body, shoulder dislocated, only dangled like a broken limb and went limp like a corpse.
“Shit... I messed up.”
Leonardo sprang up and scanned the area where the others lay sprawled. But unfortunately, it didn’t look much different from this one.
