A lot of people were amazed by Leon’s sudden flare in his fashion sense. The intimidating look he had displayed upon stepping out of the portal had a lot of people going wild on the streets and in their homes.
“Hahaha! That’s what I call an entrance!”
“Now, that’s a man!”
“How flashy!”
Different people had different reactions. Some spat in distaste while others cheered Leon on.
Meanwhile, Leon had put aside the moment. He instead looked around the place that they had spawned in. Jet hurried him to move forward so they could catch up with those that had gone ahead. They had wasted a bit of time in the forty eighth floor as they cleared out the place so surely some people would be ahead of them by now.
The two of them set off down the hall with a hint of hurry in their steps. The halls resembled that of the Knight’s Abode, on the second floor. But the outside that could be seen through the large windows was dark. Bright torches on either side of the walls lit up the hallways for them to see.
With a wave of his hand, Fenrir came over to Leon and shrank his size until he was roughly twice the size of a horse. Jet also summoned a Torch Tiger and mounted it. Then the two of them took off down the hallway. Leon’s summons were already scouting the way up ahead in search of any one. The hallways were branched and split up so they also had to split up to cover more ground.
“Up ahead!” Leon called out to Jet as the two sped on. Some of his summons had come across a group of monsters that were already in the middle of battle with several other competitors. In less than a minute, they turned down the hallway that his summons had encountered the fighting group. The people also spotted them speeding straight at them and a few of them parted from the main battle to slow Leon and Jet.
“Stay back!” A burly man that wielded a greatsword in each hand yelled. He swung his swords in an arc, cutting the air apart as he sent a barrage of wind blades straight for Fenrir. As the larger mount, he naturally drew more attention to himself.
Grrrrr…
Fenrir growled deeply and summoned a wall of ice to block the barrage. Deep grooves were left in the wall when the attack had passed, showing that the man was a Peak B rank fighter. A giant shadow swirled beside Fenrir, and Aristodemus took form, greatsword in hand. The plain, featureless face had morphed to reveal two eye holes and a grim mouthpart. The armored giant was going all out.
With a grunt, Aristodemus’ body blurred, carried by an immense strength and agility that caused the air to explode around him. In a moment’s notice, he had appeared beside them man who had sent forth the wind blades. A host of shadows flickered ominously around Leon as he summoned his faithful servants from the Abyss of the Undead.
Nero and Grokus dropped down to their feet beside Fenrir with a thump, while Kaladin, through magic, floated up in the air. His robes sparked with blue lightning, and his eyes shone brightly. His arms were held up as he seemed to be calling down a hail of lightning to smite his enemies.
Boom!
A loud explosion of rock and dust bloomed in the distance. Aristodemus was fighting against the two mages that had come up earlier, and he had the upper hand. The sword wielding man was the damage dealer, while his companion, a lanky man, was the defender. Walls of earth would rise up to block Aristodemus’ attacks while blades of wind would be sent out to batter at his armor. But the attacks were almost always useless. Even when they managed to damage Aristodemus’ armor, a blaze of black smoke would be all it took to repair all the damage.
By now, their comrades that were fighting against the monsters had noticed what was going on. It was already difficult enough to fight against the monsters with their formation already broken in order to hold off the competitors, but seeing as they were been beaten back on both sides, they saw no hope of winning. They could only barely hold back the monsters while waiting for the earth mage and wind mage to defeat the competitors.
“Fall back!” Someone yelled. The rest of the fighters began a tactical retreat.
“Nope!” A loud voice laughed in their heads. The one that had called for the retreat felt a creeping feeling wash down his spine but it was too late. Two sickle-like claws swooped down behind him, harvesting his head from his shoulders like it was wheat.
“NO!” One of the man’s comrades screamed, but there was nothing they could do. A blast of mental pain assaulted everyone in the group as a giant, white millipede appeared from nowhere. The millipede’s white claws were red with blood, and its eyes glinted with barely restrained power.
Like a wolf among sheep, Nedra dove forward, front claws raised up high. While her power was technically weaker than those she was fighting, she was able to use her unique strengths, namely her mental powers, to mess up the coordination of her opponents. It seemed like these people had not come up against an opponent that excelled in mental battles because they were faring quite poorly against Nedra.
A small nudge in their minds went them reeling. While a couple of them managed to cope better, she was still able to mess with their coordination a bit. She would make their vision waver, making them think the was a couple steps to the right, when she was in fact a couple steps to the left. These little things threw their aim off widely, allowing her to deliver heavy, debilitating strikes with relative ease.
All through this, Nedra cackled widely in her mind. She had taken the backseat through this tower saga, but now, she was back!