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Bermuda Chapter 89
🕑 Added 2024-05-07 11:11:20 +0000 UTCChapter 89
After that, Leonardo became noticeably less talkative. As if the tail of the procession was his place, he quietly followed at the very back. However, when facing a swarm of monsters, he fought more fiercely than anyone else. His fighting was so brutal that no one dared to approach him recklessly, fearing the sparks that might fly.
And ironically, unlike when he had fought while worrying about someone getting hurt, now that he was using mana without hesitation, he was gradually regaining that astonishingly sharp control ability he had before.
Feeling that himself, Leonardo felt a self-mocking sentiment. It was because he felt extremely empty, wondering why he had felt such a burden and made such efforts.
The route the procession had initially chosen was a path that directly crossed the active volcanic zone, but due to the suffocatingly hot temperature, some of the members complained of respiratory distress or dizziness.
Because of that, they changed direction to a dense forest path where tropical plants were overgrown and could block the heat, rather than an open path. Such places posed the risk of hidden monsters launching surprise attacks, but there was no other way as it was better than being directly exposed to the heat of the volcanic zone.
The 8th Platoon leader and some members went ahead at a certain distance, cutting through the grass with their swords to make a path at the vanguard.
The rest were following the path that had been cleared, when suddenly, a cry of something was heard from the front, followed by a loud impact sound as if attacking it, so everyone was on alert and watched the front.
Hugo was in the center of the procession to keep an eye on Leonardo, who was at the very back, so he immediately asked the 8th Platoon leader about the situation that had occurred at the front through the radio.
"What's going on?"
-A monster suddenly attacked, so we dealt with it for now. It's a mutant individual.
At that news, Hugo flew up and increased his speed, and the others closely followed him. Leonardo also quickly flew to the front, following behind.
When they caught up with the vanguard to some extent, they saw the 8th Platoon leader and three members at the end of a cliff where the path was cut off, and in front of them, an unidentified monster was lying down.
The back was just a misty void, and from there, a hissing sound was heard periodically, and steam was spewing out from somewhere.
The size of the monster was roughly 5 meters, and it had a very long neck and wings like a bird. Hugo approached it closely, grabbed the wing, and lifted it up. The spread wings were quite large in size, so it seemed to be an individual capable of flying. As he examined it, Hugo asked the 8th Platoon leader,
"Was it flying when discovered?"
"It was flapping its wings but not flying."
"Hmm, it's the first time I've seen one with wings on the peninsula..."
Having said that, Hugo turned his gaze to Leonardo, who had followed behind. Leonardo had come close to the corpse of the dead monster and was touching the elongated neck area. Judging from his expression, it seemed to be an individual he was seeing for the first time as well.
"If it can fly, wouldn't it have been seen from the border zone of the peninsula rather than here?"
"Conventionally thinking, yes. If it has wings, it would be able to go far in a short time to find food."
While Hugo and the 8th Platoon leader were conversing, Leonardo slowly felt the monster and gradually approached the trunk.
'The neck is long but relatively light, and there are traces of bending. The center of gravity is in the chest area, and the wings are also relatively large. It's a creature that can fly.'
Having determined that it was an individual capable of flying, Leonardo frowned and got up from his spot, quietly looking down at the monster.
'But if this guy can really fly, why isn't it going outside the peninsula and staying here?'
He took a few more steps and moved to the area where the monster's belly was located. The others just watched what Leonardo was doing. He knelt down in front of the monster, pulled out a dagger from his waist, and immediately stabbed the creature's belly with the blade.
The 8th Platoon leader tried to say something about his action of handling the monster's corpse as he pleased without permission, but Hugo stretched out his arm in front of her, silently conveying the meaning to leave him be.
As Leonardo gripped the sparsely embedded feathers and completely split the creature's belly, organs spilled out from the split abdomen.
Flynn made a face at that nauseating scene. However, Leonardo lifted the belly skin without hesitation, examined the inside of the monster's body, and further split open what was presumed to be the stomach to inspect the inside.
By looking at what was inside the stomach, one could roughly know the habits of what this monster ate and in which zone it mainly inhabited.
However, Leonardo narrowed his eyes after checking the split stomach.
'There are no traces of eating prey.'
'There are no traces of eating prey.'
Hugo also had the same thought. There were no traces of eating anything for a long time.
Leonardo fell into deep thought again.
'If it has wings, it should be easy to find prey. Why are there no traces of eating? Is it a degenerated individual?'
He shifted his gaze back to the monster's wings.
'No, in the first place, rather than constantly inhabiting this place, it would be more suitable for survival to go to another remote area... Since monsters are concentrated on the peninsula, if they go somewhere else, there would be less competition for food.'
'...Come to think of it, the other guys are also strange. Even if they can't go to the inland because of humans, they should be able to go out to the sea. Why aren't the ones that can move in the water going out and staying here?'
Hugo, who had been looking down at Leonardo lost in thought, called his name, thinking he might have figured something out, although he knew it was a bit premature.
"Leonardo."
Leonardo's golden eyes, who had been kneeling, lifted up and reached Hugo. Perhaps because he was looking up, his gaze was as cold as could be, but it wasn't covered with the furious emotion like before.
Just as Hugo was about to open his mouth, Leonardo suddenly stretched out his arm towards Hugo, and sparks flashed from his hand as a brutal beam was fired in a straight line. Hugo reflexively twisted his body and barely avoided it, and the beam passed right by his face and flew into the misty void behind.
"Commander-!"
At Leonardo's action, all the members of the 1st Battalion exclaimed and immediately drew their swords, pointing them at him.
The beam he had shot seemed to disappear into the thick mist, but then a sound of it hitting something and exploding was heard from an invisible place. And along with it, the death cry of what was presumed to be a monster echoed from afar.
Leonardo lowered his outstretched arm and curled up one corner of his mouth.
"What's there?"
Hugo, who had been looking in the direction the beam had flown with his upper body twisted, soon turned to look at him with cold eyes. Leonardo had a sneer on his lips and was looking at him with a very provocative gaze, as if to see how Hugo, who had tested him, would react.
The tips of the members' swords were all pointed at Leonardo, but he didn't seem startled or afraid at all.
Hugo stared at his face coldly for a moment, then began to draw up strong mana. At the chilly mana energy surging around him, Leonardo looked at him with a surprised expression and slowly stood up, straightening his bent knees. Then, he asked with a curious face,
"Shall we do it?"
Hugo replied with a deliberately gentle smile,
"As if."
Having said that, he signaled with a gesture to the members pointing their swords at Leonardo to lower them. The members glanced at each other and slowly lowered their sword-wielding arms.
At his leisurely smile, Leonardo erased the amusement from his face and frowned.
'He's rational to the end and leisurely to the end, really.'
After confirming that the swords had been lowered, Hugo turned around again and stared into the mist at the end of the cliff. Leonardo was puzzled by his action of suddenly showing his back to him.
Eventually, the mana that had been gently surging around Hugo strongly amplified and gathered together, and a transparent and small sphere was created in front. Leonardo raised one eyebrow at the mysterious sphere that was relatively still to be an attack. It was because he couldn't grasp his intentions.
At that moment, the sphere that had been still flew into the mist on its own without any gesture from Hugo and soon disappeared from sight. Leonardo watched the entire process, then took about two steps back and spread a barrier.
And Hugo also cast a huge barrier in front of the cliff where the procession was standing. Although he had seen it once before entering the peninsula, he didn't use his hands at all even when casting the barrier. As Leonardo was paying attention to that, suddenly a powerful bursting sound was heard, and a fierce gust of wind blew around.
Along with it, the mist that had been thick near them was blown away in an instant, revealing a cliff that rose even higher as if cut off across the ravine.
On that cliff where thin streams of lava flowed down little by little, there were monster nests located in between. Moreover, hundreds of individuals identical to the monster lying down next to them now were sitting in those nests. At the bottom of the ravine, the lava that had flowed down touched the water, creating steam and forming a thick mist.
The members were surprised by the sight that filled their eyes and immediately took a combat stance. However, Leonardo was a bit surprised to see something other than the swarming monsters.
'He doesn't use his hands at all. And...'
Seeing that precisely only the mist was blown away and the monsters didn't fly away startled by the mana, he thought,
'The control is precise.'
Leonardo had wanted to see Hugo using long-range attacks for a long time.
It was because he hadn't seen any long-range attacks except for creating ice walls or throwing spears. There seemed to be a moment when he had used it just once in the Frost, but at that time, he was locked up in a cell, so he couldn't see to what extent he used the attack.
What he had just done was more of pushing the air away to secure visibility rather than an attack, but Leonardo felt a very threatening sensation from it.
His mana was consistently delicate and precise, and unlike his own type that emitted, it was the type that subtly concealed it, making it impossible to know his inner thoughts. In other words, it meant that the depth couldn't be gauged. Feeling that sensation, Leonardo could confirm one of the things he had been thinking about for a long time.
'I still don't know this person's true abilities.'
The mana he had shown him was only superficial. It seemed no exaggeration to say that he hadn't seen his proper mana yet. Of course, he hadn't shown everything to him either.
Hugo turned around again and met Leonardo's gaze. Leonardo still stared at him with cold eyes.
Given his personality, it probably wasn't his intention, but it felt as if his gaze was saying that if he couldn't control to this extent, he would continue to watch over him. Looking at that face, Leonardo slowly started to get heated up again.
Just then, the ones sitting on the cliff flapped their wings and began to fly towards them as if they had discovered the humans on this side. As the fastest one flew forward, Leonardo used teleportation and immediately moved to the air, leaving the confrontation with Hugo behind.
After he disappeared from sight, Hugo calmly turned around and shifted his gaze back to where he would be.
Leonardo snatched the long neck of the monster flying closest to him. The monster caught in his fingers let out a choking sound as it suffocated. Leonardo showed no mercy and began swinging the monster's body like a mace.
Then the monster let out a roar, and the ones flying nearby were hit by the body of their kin that he was swinging and were thrown out.
The monster whose neck was caught struggled to escape from his hand, baring its claws, but Leonardo wedged the monster's neck between his arm and side and punched its head several times with his fist. Gradually, his fist was stained with blood, and the monster's head was completely caved in, disappearing without form.
The head was already gone, but he kept punching as if venting his anger. Blood splattered on his fierce face, and part of his ivory color mage robe was soaked red with blood.
Leonardo held the neck of the creature that could no longer make a sound with one hand and slung it over his shoulder. A perfect weapon was created.
At that brutal sight, the monsters that had been flying in unison hesitated in the air. Leonardo scanned them with his golden eyes that shone like a beast's and said brutally,
"I'm in a foul mood right now."
Monsters probably couldn't understand human language, but with the example being held in his hand, they seemed to have noticed that if they approached, they would die. The monsters that had been flapping their wings towards him suddenly changed direction and began to retreat backwards. Leonardo grabbed the back of his neck, moved it left and right with a cracking sound, and said,
"Let's end this quickly."
The moment he leaped into the monsters' nest, the cliff shattered, and the lava flowing through the cracks splattered everywhere. The 8th Platoon leader looked at the scene of slaughter unfolding before her eyes with a grim expression. Eventually, she turned her head with a slightly complicated face and asked the Commander, who was watching Leonardo,
"Shall we provide support?"
Hugo looked at the blood and lava exploding like fireworks, and the golden conflagration raging in the midst of it, and shook his head.
"For now, let's leave it to that guy. Right now, being nearby would rather be a hindrance. We'll focus on catching the ones escaping."
Comments
Jesse Gibson
Yea, Leo boo, just vent your anger and don’t give Hugo any reaction. Yes or no answers are all you need to communicate and go about yourself and get away asap.. maybe horrid Hugo will develop a better personality after
