The attack itself seemed to have been far stronger than Leo had anticipated. When practising the blood slash before, he had never performed it as a quick slash while enforcing his Qi, and this was the result.
The original plan was just to create a force that was equal to James’s attack. He would run and follow close behind and have cut him personally down with his katana blade.
‘I didn’t want to kill him…There were questions to ask and answers I still needed.’ Leo thought as he walked over to the body. There was still hope that there might have been something on him that would be of use.
On his way there, he noticed the white pebble flooring had a huge grove that had been created all along the floor. He still didn’t know his own power and had a lot to learn. However, something else was happening; as he got closer to the blood and the torn body, the pain in his body was increasing exponentially.
The fight had taken quite a bit of Qi out of him, and he had performed a blood attack. Right now, he didn’t have enough Qi to suppress his hunger. The veins on his arms started to bulge out; he could see the purple flames in his body rapidly going into the centre of his body.
Now the body was only a few feet away, but he could feel his conscious slipping.
‘Is this what Quinn warned me about? If I don’t consume blood, I’ll turn into a monster. I..just..need..to make it.’
Erin had successfully brought Taz to the nearby medical centre. There were travellers there who had healing abilities and doctors, so they were equipped more than enough. Due to there not being many cases of people getting hurt, she was able to see someone straight away.
The staff immediately knew who it was when they saw Taz on her back and didn’t ask for payment of any type, directly getting to work. After a few moments, a staff member had come out to inform Erin that he would be okay. Although the wounds on his body looked terrible and he had lost quite a lot of blood, his life was actually in no immediate danger.
A good overnights rest would be enough.
‘As I would expect from a Pure agent.’ Erin thought. The torture had gone on for longer than a normal case would have gone for, especially for someone who wasn’t trained against this type of thing. James wouldn’t kill his biggest lead and continue to chip away until he got his answer.
After hearing Taz was okay, she was happy to leave him be and started heading back to the Dojo as fast as possible.
‘I know Leo’s strong, but the number 6 to number 20 are on a different level, and he had his King Tier beast gear on. If I’m right, I don’t remember seeing Leo wearing any protective gear. I hope Leo can hold on, I won’t be much help, but maybe with the two of us we can take him on together.’
The red doors were just up ahead, and she was too focused to even notice that there wasn’t a single sound. As she walked in through the doors, finally, she had noticed that she couldn’t hear anything, at least not the sound of fighting. Looking at the destruction and devastation, several pebbles were moved, and large cuts could be seen all over the different buildings. It looked like a fight between two strong beasts had taken place here, not two humans.
Then following one of the bigger cuts with her eyes across the floor, it eventually led her to the wall just by her side. There she could see Leo’s back standing in front of James’ body that had been split diagonally in half.
‘He killed him! But how. I know Leo was strong due to the rumours surrounding him during the war, but I never knew he was this strong.’ She started to inspect the bloody body closely. By now, she had seen a few dead bodies, and the training video that Pure had made them watch had allowed her to become desensitised to such a sight. She could see that a cut had been made so clean that it was able to tear right through the armour.
‘Still, I don’t understand. I’m sure I checked his weapon, and it was only at the King Tier? A King Tier weapon and armour should mostly be even unless there is a huge amount of difference in strength. It can’t be at the legendary level, can it?’
Having realised that James, the agent who was tasked with looking after her was dead, she realised she had bigger things to worry about than whether or not Leo’s weapon was legendary or King Tier.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
At that moment, Leo turned around, and seeing his face, she took two steps back.
“Don’t be scared; it’s me,” Leo said, sensing the change in her heartbeat.
“Your mouth!” She pointed.
Around Leo’s mouth, there was the blood of his victim painted all over. As Leo went to wipe it away with his sleeve, he only managed to smudge it more. “Sorry, when one can not see clearly, sometimes it gets a little messy.”
Hearing this, something just clicked inside her head. The thing around Leo’s mouth had to be blood, and after leaving the base, she had thought about them many times with Quinn along with Peter’s situation.
“Leo, are you a…vampire.” She asked.
A little surprised himself that Erin had said these words, but not entirely since she used to belong to Quinn’s little group.
“A lot has happened, young lady in the time you were away. Care to lend a hand?” Leo said, pointing at James’s body on the floor.
The two of them got to work, with Erin first closing the doors to the Dojo; shortly after, she went inside to grab some large bin bags. When she returned, she noticed that Leo, using his blade, was able to cut through James with ease and had made his body almost unrecognisable, as it looked a little similar to minced meat.
Although she was desensitised towards such scenes due to the countless videos she had watched, the videos couldn’t correctly emulate everything, such as the smell and the feeling. It was starting to hit her a little as she felt nauseous. After placing the body in a few bags, they went to an old fashioned blacksmithing area inside the Dojo’s grounds. It was quite large, and the weapons that Leo had before were now placed here. The body parts were then thrown into the hot furnace until it would burn to ashes.
“What happens if people find out? Aren’t you going to get in trouble for this?” Erin asked, looking at the flames and smelling the body.
“From who? I own this place. Unless I report myself or lock myself up, nothing will happen. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
The two of them left the furnace to allow it to carry on burning while heading back to the main Dojo hall. It didn’t look the same as before, and there were still traces of Taz’s blood and a large hole in the side from when James was hit. Grabbing a few towels and such, Erin started to clean up a little while also cleaning up the remaining blood on Leo’s face.
She had offered, and Leo had accepted. He could see wireframes using his ability, but he couldn’t see specific details.
“You’re quite good at this,” Leo said as he sat down on the floor.
“My parents used to own a dojo like this a while ago. It brought back some memories for me.” Erin replied as she sat down opposite.
While the two of them were cleaning up, Leo had explained to her what had happened. He gathered that she already knew Quinn’s truth from what she had asked, so it was safe to tell her.
After that, Erin had a few of her own questions she wanted to ask.
“Do you know what happened to Layla?” Erin asked.
“When I was still at the base, she was still there. I didn’t even know she was a part of Pure. I don’t believe anything will have happened to her in such a short amount of time.”
It was a relief for Erin to hear that, but still, she couldn’t be completely satisfied with that answer.
“Thank you for looking after Taz, but I’m afraid I went a little too far in my scuffle and killed your friend.”
“He’s not my friend…” Erin replied instantly. “But I do think we have a bigger problem. Pure members are to report back to the base every week. Every agent has a different device they use to report back. I don’t know about James. Perhaps he was even meant to report back even more. They might send someone else here, looking for me.”
“About that, do you know anything about James’s power or the skills he used?” Leo asked.
“Power… I’m not quite sure what you mean. He never really displayed his full power in front of us. None of the higher numbered do. Although, what I do know is once you reach the ranks of 20 and above, they get sent off for some special type of training.”
‘Is he with Pure?’ Leo thought. ‘Maybe that’s why they were so interested in the Dojo I built. I did so to bring attention, and it looked like it worked, but why not come himself then? Why go so far? Do you still hold a grudge against me for what happened on that day, master?’
*****
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