The Blades around who have hidden their presence, couldn't help but clench their fists in an attempt not to disobey their Master's commands.
They have long wanted to shout about Hasta appearing out of nowhere but they tried their best not to. Because doing so would actually show their lack of faith towards Leon's abilities.
Such a sneak attack would not even pose a threat on their master.
But this time, their master was surrounded by countless blades in every direction. Even if he managed to deflect the majority of these daggers, he would still be injured.
They remembered the order they received from Leon's words earlier. At all costs, do not get wounded by the weapon.
After observing for a long time, the Blades had long recognized that Hasta's weapon was similar to Igor's. As such, getting wounded by them would also be as dangerous as what Leon implied from his orders.
But how about their master? How was he going to deflect each and every dagger coming mercilessly in his way?
They have long wanted to rush to help their master deflect these attacks, but they gritted their teeth and stayed on their respective spots.
Going there would only burden their master.
Going there would also disobey him.
Going there would mean that they do not believe that he can overcome this attack from a sinister enemy.
With bloodshot eyes, they looked at Leon with determination. Their hearts were all praying that the Creator would protect their leader.
Leon on the other hand, didn't waste any second and swished his sword with all his might, creating a strong gale around his body. He also didn't forget to embed a wind spell to make it grow stronger.
The gale made the snow arround dance along with the gale and make the surroundings blurry.
This way, they daggers whom Hasta was sure would wound Leon all flew in disarray. Losing their target they all stuck on the ground.
However, how could such failure discourage the desperate Hasta?
He called the daggers again, but this time he increased the number of the daggers under his control.
Now that Leon was able to guard against the daggers, he was now able to analyze how his opponent was able to use the daggers. With his eyes he could see thin lines of purple threads attached to Hasta's hands and connected to the daggers.
His intuition said that this wasn't mana strings, the strings that a puppet summoner uses to control his medium.
Could it be curse power? He asked himself.
However, seeing that Hasta could freely use the attack again, Leon decided to surrender to the fact that he now had to reveal his other powers other than his devourer abilities to the Blades.
With his caster abilities, he could easily end this battle after all.
Besides, Eli was waiting with worry in the cottage. He didn't want his future wife to become sleep deprived just because he was holding back and dragging the fight long. He had to come back right away to ease her worries.
Oblivious to Leon's nonchalance, Hasta maneuvered the daggers once again and this time the attack was meant to be much fiercer and faster.
The daggers were placed strategically, there were also a few daggers arranged on Leon's blind spots. Hasta also pumped some of his life essence to stabilize his control of the daggers.
He let out a sinister smile, with only one wound, all the essence he would spend from controlling the dagger would be replenished by the opponent's body!
What's more, the stronger the other party was, the more essence he could extract!
Realizing this, Hasta looked at Leon as if he was the main dish served on a feast. Without hesitating any further, Hasta ordered the daggers to mercilessly approach Leon.
His excitement peaked when the daggers penetrated the wind gale made by Leon.
"This is it! Hahahaha!!! You can no longer evade!" Hasta shouted in triumph as soon as he saw his dagger continued to enter into the wind gale as if it was nothing.
Thump!!
The sound of the dagger penetrating on a surface rang in the deep forest.
To Hasta's ears this was the sound of triumph. The sound of a large supply of life essence coming in his way.
To the Blades, this was a sound of despair. The sound of not being able to be powerful enough to stand alongside their master as a reliable subordinate, not a bunch of people to protect.
Deep remorse invaded their shaken hearts. They realized how powerless they were right now facing just a single person from a sinister organization.
How pathetic!
They were the Blades!
They swore to fight alongside their master and get revenge on the Spectre!
Yet they couldn't even share the burden with their master in facing an opponent who could not even be considered a member of the Spectre but only a potential accomplice!
Now they were feeling nothing but mockery on their names, what Blades?
They were dull powerless blades that could not even be used to apprehend a puny accomplice.
Hasta was staring towards Leon's side with greedy anticipation in his eyes. 'Once he is wounded he will gradually be weakened. Everything will be easier.' He thought in his heart.
The Blades clenched their teeth, they looked at each other to get ready in case they needed to intervene to rescue their master.
They didn't know what would be the exact effect of the dagger, but they knew that it would put their Master in great danger and disadvantage.
Slowly, the strong gale was starting to weaken and the blurry scene covering Leon was starting to come clear.
Everyone looked with their breaths held back when they finally saw the man behind the turbulent gale.
A man with silver hair unscathed and not even disheveled.
He survived!!! Their master survived! He was even uninjured.
But the next moment, their hearts leaped in the air and the hairs on their bodies stood when they finally realized what surrounded their Master.
Each and every dagger was stuck on a piece of earth shield.
Their eyes were widened as they realized that no mage could do this kind of feat - deploying scattered pieces of shield to deflect each and every attack coming his way.
Who could predict multiple trajectories and put on protection against each of those in a split second?
Wait, earth shields? Since when was our master able to use this kind of spell? The Blades were caught in a daze because of confusion.
But Leon didn't give them time to think of things and so was Hasta.
As soon as the surroundings cleared up, Leon charged Hasta to apprehend him once and for all.
Hasta on the other hand was driven into grave panic! All along his opponent was a strong mage, he thought that he was just a slightly stronger devourer.
"Not good!" He cried and ran away in panic. Without thinking further, he reached out to his space pouch and took an item that would give him a little bit of hope.
As Leon charged towards the fleeing Hasta, he clearly saw his actions.
His face darkened as he realized the item that he took out from his space pouch, a Flare!
"Biggie!!!" He shouted and immediately a giant golem that was as tall as two fully grown men suddenly emerged in front of the running Hasta.
Because the giant golem appeared too fast, Hasta was not able to stop his momentum and violently crashed at the giant earth creature.
Growl!
Biggie, the giant golem with two glowing eyes, did not seem to mind that a human crashed his body.
He looked cluelessly towards Hasta who was grunting in extreme pain all over his body. Remembering Leon's order, he used his giant hands to take away the flare in Hasta's hands.
"Who are you!!" Hasta tried to squeeze out the words as he was unwilling to believe what he was actually seeing at this moment.
A man with strong devourer powers, with extraordinary prowess in controlling casting abilities and with a terrifying contracted familiar!
Just who is this man? Why did they never hear of someone with great abilities like him? He couldn't understand.
"You have no right to know who I am." Leon coldy said.
To Hasta the man's voice was like the guardian of hell telling him that he had reached the end of the road, the next thing he knew was everything in his world turned dark.
Now that Hasta lost his consciousness. Leon told Biggie to drag Hasta's body to the entrapment spell after disarming his body.
Biggie's eyes glowed in an adorable manner. To express his understanding, he nodded fiercely with his round head.
Then, he quickly shrunk into a size as little as a kid and cutely dragged the unconsious Hasta towards the entrapment spell without any signs of struggle.
His eyes looked at the Blades who all stood stiffly in shock.
What did they just witnessed? Where am I? Who am I?
Leon was not surprised at their expression. Instead, he used his authoritative voice to command, "Clean up the area, collect all the cursed weapons and remember not to get yourself hurt, not a single cut!"
"We have to wrap up within five minutes and bring the captives stealthily to the base! As for your questions, I will explain it to you once we secure these two in the dungeon." He continued.
The Blades were all jolted awake by his instructions. Since their master issued his commands, they set aside the questions they have on their minds and immediately got into action.
The clean up didn't take very long, they left the forest without a single trace. No one would suspect that a fight happened in the area at all!
While Leon and Blades proceeded to secure in the dungeon, Eli on the other hand, was nervously pacing around the living room with Kayden who was also equally nervous.
Little Han had long been put to sleep, but Eli couldn't get a wink of sleep knowing the tricky operations Leon had to carry out.
Soon Eli noticed her communication stone ring, without even waiting for a second she answered with a shaking voice clearly anxious, "Leon... how are you? Are you safe? Is everything fine?"