After Leo had gone past Erin and the mysterious man, he wanted to give enough time for them to do what they wanted to do. He had no business with Pure, or at least he thought he had no business with Pure. So he gathered that perhaps they were just curious about the newly built Dojo or who was running the shelter.
Maybe, they were even going to Taz to try to recruit him over to the Pure’s side. Still, just in case, Leo decided he would circle around and come from a different direction and would do some spying of his own. Doing a short wrap around in a circle back around to his place wouldn’t take long.
But when he started to walk from the other side, a sweet smell had entered his nose, a scent so strong that it felt like a strongly scented flower was placed right in front of his nose. He had never smelt such a thing before. Then, the pains in his stomach had returned. These were enough clues for him to figure out what it was. It was blood…
He immediately started to dash forward, and the smell had grown stronger as he got closer. When he stood in front of the red doors, he instantly knew where it was coming from. He didn’t even need to use his ability to see, as the strong smell was leading him all the way there.
As he quickly kicked open the doors, he heard Erin crying, but didn’t care for that right now.
Erin, one second suddenly saw Leo in front of her through her watery eyes, then the next it felt like a gust of wind had passed her face as her hair flicked back. When she looked in front, no one was there.
From outside, Erin had heard a loud crash that sounded like an explosion had gone off, and then shortly after, there was another one. Turning her head, all she could see was a large hole had been made in the Dojo, and further down the line, dust and debris could be seen from the outer wall.
When Leo had entered the Dojo, he was focused on one thing only. Not even allowing a single millisecond to pass, Leo didn’t draw the sword from his scabbard and just hit the large man in front of him with his full strength.
Quickly rushing into the Dojo room, Erin could see Leo standing above a man who laid there on the floor. His teeth were missing, his fingernails were bloody, and one of his ears had been cut off.
The man slowly opened up his swollen eyes to see Leo standing above him.
“Sir…r.r.r” Taz said in a shaky voice. His mouth and lips were busted and swollen, making it hard for him to speak. He went to try to grab onto Leo to pull himself up, but then realizing his hands were covered in blood, he refused to ruin Leo’s clothes. He quickly pulled his hand away and tried to push himself off the floor, but it was useless.
“I…I..I. Promise..” Taz stuttered. “I..I.. did…did..not tell..them ..anything.” With that, Taz had finally collapsed onto the floor.
“ERIN!” Leo shouted, “Take this man to the medical centre, quickly.” Leo then drew his blade from his sheath, the wave-like pattern shined in the sunlgiht.
“You wanted me to help you correct. Then I will get rid of the problem.”
Erin was frozen for a second; she didn’t know what to do and never thought things would escalate so quickly.
‘If it’s a choice out of believing in Leo, or believing in Pure.’ She thought as she clenched her fist.
“Then, I will believe in you, Leo!” She shouted as she quickly picked up Taz from the ground with all her strength and ran out of the place.
“Now, the distraction is out of the way. I can deal with you.” Leo said.
There were two reasons Leo had asked for Erin to leave with Taz; the first was even though Taz looked severely injured and was passed out, he still wasn’t dead as a heartbeat could still be heard. The second reason was that it took a lot of energy to fight the urge he had inside him. Something was pulling him towards Taz’s body, and it wasn’t his usual self.
Leo hated not being in control and would have to consider this for the future if he would go for a prolonged amount of time without blood.
James started to lift himself from the debris; part of the Dojo wall and the outer wall had fallen on him. It was a strong blow, and it felt like a cannonball had come out and hit him from his side, but his strong King Tier levelled armour had protected him well, as there wasn’t a mark on him.
“Who the hell are you?” James said as he started to lift the sword from his back, but he could see a broad line of blue aura coming out towards him. Quickly, using all of his strength, he channelled it, lifting out his sword and managed to knock the strike away.
Soon after, more started to come his way, and James needed to concentrate, using every bit of his power in knocking them away.
‘Isn’t this…but how does he know…?’ James thought.
He knew blocking them wasn’t going to be enough, and he would have to strike back. Stepping to the side and running along the edge, he decided to block some and allow his opponent to hit him. He had strong armour so he could rely on it and go on like this for some time. But then, one of the strikes had hit him in the chest. Once again the force form the blow had sent him back, crashing into the wall.
When looking down at his chest, a large dent could be seen. Something that had never happened before. His King Tier armour had been damaged.
‘Who is this guy…He is also using that…’ James had made a miscalculation. He was unaware that Leo had actually attacked him with the first attack while the blade was still in its scabbard. Now that it was out, it was a lot sharper than before.
‘If I were to meet his sword head-on, I would be dead right now.’
With nothing else to lose, he had no choice. The air blade strikes continued to come forward. Instead of blocking them, he started to charge up the energy inside him.
Of course, through Leo’s ability, he could see everything that was happening inside James’s body. The energy was rising from his belly and was being transferred out sword to the sword. Then when James went for a swing of his own, a blade of blue aura, a bit larger, had come out and had utterly destroyed all of his.
As he left the Dojo, a strange feeling overcame over Leo. It was the first time James was seeing his attacker clearly.
‘That’s the blind man from before, is he the attacker?’
“Tell me!” Leo shouted. “Tell me now, how do you know how to use Qi?”
The words spoken by the blind man had only confirmed Jame’s own thoughts. He had been using Qi this whole time. This was a skill that was taught to all the agents that went from Rank 6 to 20. A secret that was not to be passed on, and at the same time, a reward for those who were trusted enough.
But this blind man in front of him, James had never seen before. Instead of answering his questions, James decided to respond with another large slash of his own.
The Qi attack was more powerful than Leo’s due to the extra support from his weapon. His weapon was larger and focused more on power, while Leo’s focused on speed and sharpness. Against well-armoured beasts, he would find it difficult, whereas Leo would have an easier time.
But Leo was a little unprepared, for he had none of his gear on, he had never expected an attack this soon while at home, and had only his blade was with him.
Seeing the large slash coming towards him, Leo didn’t want to run away. The sight of Taz was still fresh in his mind. He placed his sword back in the sheath and started to concentrate his Qi, but not only this, he was adding something a little special to this attack this time.
As the attack drew close, he still hadn’t moved. James was carefully keeping his eyes on the blind man, waiting for him to move or throw his next attack, knowing he needed to keep his distance.
Just as the large Qi strike was upon him, Leo unleashed his sword from his sheath at an amazing speed, and a Qi attack of his own came out. Still the same size as the previous ones, only this one was different. It was dyed in the red-blooded colour. As soon as it touched the large Qi source, it completely destroyed the attack, but something unexpected had happened after.
When James tried to look to dodge the Qi attack, he could see nothing, then slowly, his vision started to slant, until he could finally see the floor. Blood began to soak the floor where he stood, as his body was clearly cut in half.
The blooded slash was more powerful and faster than Leo had thought, like a lightning bolt as soon as it left its sheath, it had killed James.
****
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