A tense silence filled the air between Leon and Jet as the latter stared Leon down with clear hostility. Leon was getting fed up with Jet’s unwelcoming attitude, but he kind of understood where the guy was coming from. After all, who would think a creepy looking undead was following them without ulterior motives?
All of a sudden, a dark, feline shadow began to take shape behind Jet, and Abyssus also spurred into action. He took a physical form beside Leon, turning into a pitch black fire made out of wispy, dark smoke. White light shone out of two spots on his ‘head’, which represented his eyes.
He stared down the azure, feline figure that took on the shape of a Torch Tiger. The feline figure was the dungeon consciousness of the dungeon that had just been conquered by Jet. Deep down within Abyssus’ heart, he knew that he would lose to the other if they fought, as his strength was still at the Peak of C rank, only just bordering on B rank, while the other was at Mid B rank. There was a wide gulf within their strengths that could not be crossed until Leon leveled up the dungeon.
Leon opened up his right palm, and a pitch black sword materialized in his grasp. A cold aura radiated from him and he summoned all his elite summons that had stepped into B rank. Kaladin, Nero, Grokus, and the five B rank millipedes all appeared a step behind Leon, ready to explode into battle.
“Wait.” Jet suddenly spoke, gesturing for them to stop. He had decided to take a step back. Leon remained silent to let the other man speak. He had already laid out his intentions, it was now up to Jet to make his own thoughts on the matter known.
“What do you plan to gain from us working together? It seems like you can hold your own well enough if you have conquered a dungeon.” Jet said.
“I can gain a lot. Things that normally would have been out of reach would be attainable. Not just for only myself, but also to you. Think about it. Even with that dungeon, will you be able to take down a team with four Peak B rank beings, and other weaker B rank beings? I don’t think so. But when both of us work together, then it might be possible.” Leon explained. He tried to give a picture of the fight that Marcus and the other humans had put up a fight against his forces. While it was not the same thing, it was similar in a way.
Jet seemed to be in thought for a few seconds before scowling. “Before I decide, let’s have a little fight. So I can know whether it will be worth it to put my lot in with you.” He said.
Leon tilted his head and laughed. “Sure.” He cracked his neck. This would be a good opportunity to test out his new strength. Something he had not done yet since he advanced. He turned around and walked back a few meters to put some space between the two. He did not know what Jet’s strength was, but he wanted to give him the chance to fight to the fullest of his abilities.
No words were said when Jet suddenly began the fight. The space around him rippled and warped, and he vanished into thin air, sending a wave of shock through Leon. Before Leon could react in kind, he felt a hard kick across his jaw, sending him careening to the side. Eyes wide, he barely felt the ripple of space on the other side of his body where Jet’s swords appeared, ready to shear off an arm.
Whoosh! BoooM!
A thin, concentrated jet of flame burst from Leon’s right side where Jet’s swords were, forcing him to a stop and pushing him away, before a heavy explosion set off by the flames shook the ground. He spun around, using high pressured jets of wind coming from his open hands to reorient himself, and his summons jumped to work.
Grokus’ tracking skill ran at full power as the Orc Shaman hunted for the slippery human. Meanwhile, Nero positioned himself right beside Leon, actively deciding to settle for a more defensive role this time. Kaladin had webs of lightning floating around the area, acting as a web to detect the slightest movement and strike in a moment’s notice.
‘Joseph, shed some light on this, would you?’ Leon consulted his mobile dictionary while keeping his eyes out for any sign of movement. Or maybe Jet had decided to give him a kick and run away?
‘I believe this should be Space magic, or something very similar. Because, no matter how fast one might be, he would surely leave signs. But instead, it seems like this man has manipulated space round here to a certain degree, which allowed him to be able to move instantaneously and strike you. Even now, he might have created a sort of pocket space around here, or layered the space in such a way that he can move in a sub layer without being detected by you.’ Joseph dutifully explained.
‘I see.’ Leon hummed. ‘How can I fish him out?’ He asked.
‘I see no feasible means to do so except destabilizing the space around here. Either through Space magic as well, or another means that can destabilize space in a similar manner.’
Just as Leon got to thinking of how he could do so, the ground beneath him crack, and a large block of earth appeared only about three meters above Leon.
“Crap!” He put strength in his feet to push him out of the way, but the moment that force was transferred into the ground, the earth gave way, exposing a large pit that was roughly the same size with the giant block of earth that was crashing down on Leon’s head.
A purple light wrapped up Leon’s body, and his fall instantly halted. He then summoned a platform made of wind underneath him and pushed, using it as a springboard that sent him hurtling out of the way.
All this happened in the span of a couple of seconds, and by this time, Leon had managed to put himself in the right state of mind to fight with such a slippery opponent. He quickly spun around, creating a massive pillar of fire around himself that stretched up high into the sky. As he spun, he activated his Curse Eyes skill, and a bright purple light flashed around the surroundings.
By the time Leon had made three full rotations, he realized that nothing had happened. Jet still had yet to appear, which either meant that the skill had no effect wherever he was, or that even with the cut in his strength, Jet still remained strong enough to keep up the effects of his skill.
The massive fire pillar attracted a lot of attention from not only the local inhabitants of this vast plain, but also many other participants of Divinity’s Bout that were going about their business.
“A fight. It seems rather heated.”
“Maybe we should intervene.”
“Maybe we can swoop in and be the real ones who benefit over whatever is being fought for.”
Many people had different ideas, but the majority leaned towards swooping in and stealing the bounty that the two parties were fighting for.
Meanwhile, Leon was still in a dilemma. He did not know how to destabilize the space around them well enough to force out Jet from his hiding place. He had a hunch that this had to do with how low his skill levels were.
On a factual basis, from what Leon had learnt from all those journals Michael had given him, just the act of using mana was enough to destabilize the space around a person. That was why mages were able to tell if someone around them was using magic, as the particle of ambient mana that lingered in the atmosphere would be forcibly moved and manipulated, causing a destabilization in the space around the location where magic was used.
But the ability to destabilize the space largely depended on how powerful the skill being used was. Leon’s skills were at a fairly low level compared to the scope of battle he was engaging in. What he lacked in skill strength, he made up for by burning up more mana than he ought to use if his skill level was low.
But even still, all his effort went for naught as Jet’s high skill level forcibly smoothened out the space around them. Leon’s irritation grew higher and higher as he tore down the earth around them with increasing ferocity, all to end up with no results.
“Joseph! Give me something!” Leon yelled out loud in anger as he quickly thought of what he could do to help with his predicament.
‘Dark magic! Use your Dark magic!’ The knowledgeable summon quickly replied.