"The Blood Hand of the Hand of a Thousand Leaves!!! An S-rank wanted criminal of the City That Never Sleeps! I don't know why you helped us, but I still want to thank you!"
The leader of the Four Seasons Squad gave a slight bow, then swept his blood-red longsword toward Leilin.
"You've already been thanked. Now, put down the prisoner in your hands! In return, I'll let you leave this time..."
Leilin looked at the righteous-faced leader of the Four Seasons Squad and was briefly taken aback. "Are you an idiot, or do you think I'm easy to push around?"
He suddenly had a suspicion — this leader had an inflated sense of his own importance. But then again, this had a lot to do with Leilin concealing his true strength. Right now, the outside world only knew that the Blood Hand's power exceeded semi-elementalization, but they had no idea he had already advanced to the pinnacle of the first rank.
Sometimes, a lack of information was enough to get someone killed!
"Then! My apologies!" the leader said flatly. A torrent of razor-sharp phantom blades erupted from his longsword and surged toward Leilin like a waterfall.
"Activate it! Type-2 magical array!" the leader bellowed as he launched his attack.
His shout seemed to function as a command. Every Four Seasons Squad wizard present — except for the four guarding
Hiss! Rings of thorny vines crept endlessly from their armor.
The plant tendrils emerged from the armor and, as if possessed of their own will, merged together, coalescing into a green giant standing over five meters tall.
The green plant giant was covered in thorns. Grim black stripes coiled across its entire body, and where its eyes should have been were two bizarre purple flowers.
"ROAAAARR!!!" The giant roared continuously, spreading its massive palm and lunging to seize Leilin.
"Ignorance breeds fearlessness, does it?"
Leilin cast a pitying glance at the Four Seasons Squad leader across from him. Then, rings of black shadow surged from beneath his feet, creeping up from the hem of his robe until they wrapped around his body like a suit of black armor.
Clang! Clash! Bang!!!
The crimson sword-phantoms struck the black armor, sending sparks flying with the deafening sound of real metal blades crashing against plate.
The blood-red sword-phantoms shattered one after another, while the black armor on Leilin's body grew denser and denser, eventually spreading outward and sprouting countless fine black tentacles.
"No! This level of power..." The leader's pupils contracted sharply. He tried to warn his subordinates, but it was already too late.
Whoosh! The green giant's massive thorny palm hadn't even arrived yet, but the air around it was already churning. Powerful gusts rippled outward, tearing the office into chaos.
"You're asking for death." Facing the enormous green plant palm, Leilin raised his right hand — clad in black armor — and pressed it gently forward.
To any outside observer, the scene looked absurdly mismatched. Leilin's figure was like a child before the giant, yet he raised his slender arm to meet the titan's palm.
But the green giant seemed to sense some enormous threat and roared again, rings of green luminescence flickering around its hand as it accelerated by thirty percent!
BOOM!
Leilin's tiny fist collided with the giant's palm as vast as a water cistern, and a massive shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
The surrounding air seemed to freeze for an instant, then returned to normal.
Crack! Crack!
Thorn after thorn shattered and fell from the giant palm. The fractures spread rapidly up the entire arm, then into the green plant giant's enormous body.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thick plant roots and vines sloughed off the green giant as threads of black cracks widened into horrifying gashes that threatened to tear the titan apart!
CRACK! Finally, with a thunderous boom, the green giant's body shattered into countless pieces that sprayed in every direction.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The terrible wounds seemed to spread further still, transmitted through some mysterious channel to the Four Seasons Squad members who had surrounded Leilin.
Their blood-red armor shuddered violently, then instantly crumbled apart.
The Four Seasons Squad wizards on site turned pale in unison, stumbling backward several steps. Some spat mouthfuls of blood.
"Peak of the first rank!!! You've already reached the peak of the first rank!!!"
The Four Seasons Squad commander stared fixedly at Leilin's mask, as if trying to etch his appearance into memory.
With second-rank Wizards rarely making appearances, a first-rank pinnacle
At that moment, the commander's gaze toward Leilin was filled with wariness.
"Sigh... It seems some things can only be resolved through force."
Leilin still held the little boy in one hand, while his other hand formed a strange seal and pointed at the ground!
"Domain of Shadows!" A circle of pitch-black shadow spread from beneath his feet, rapidly forming a dense, circular ink-dark domain on the ground that expanded outward with frenzied speed.
The black shadows descended upon the surviving wizards in the office in an instant...
Swish! Swish! Within the shadows came sounds of rapid movement — and faint, muffled human cries, like the last moans of the dying.
Enveloped by so much shadow that even Light Spells couldn't dispel it, the Four Seasons Squad wizards were as blind as if they'd lost their eyes.
Fortunately, the darkness lasted only a brief time. After a few minutes, the thick blackness dissipated from the office, revealing only a sparse handful of wizards. Leilin, who had been surrounded by them moments ago, had vanished without a trace.
"Chief! What do we do?"
A wizard struggled to his feet and walked over to the Four Seasons Squad leader to ask.
But it was then that he noticed the leader's expression was very strange — a mixture of fear and disbelief.
"Chief! Chief! What's wrong with you?" The wizard felt a sudden surge of fear. He reached out his right hand, intending to grab the leader's arm and shake him.
Pop! The instant the wizard's hand touched the leader's clothing, as if a soap bubble had been punctured, the leader's body burst apart into countless black ashes that scattered in every direction.
Pop! Pop! Pop! It seemed to trigger a chain reaction — several nearby Four Seasons Squad wizards also burst apart, dissolving into clouds of black mist.
The surviving wizards stared at the mist, and an overwhelming sense of terror seized their hearts.
……
Whoosh! Leilin, holding the little boy in one hand, seemed to transform into a black hurricane, moving ceaselessly through the
Moving so fast that the wizards on both sides of the battle could only catch a black shadow flashing past before losing all trace of him.
Slap!
Leilin found a deserted clearing far from the battlefield and tossed the little boy onto the ground.
"Blood Hand! What are you doing?" The little boy tumbled across the ground in a sorry state, covered in dirt. He seemed to have regained the ability to speak, and the moment he righted himself he fixed Leilin with a cold glare.
"Cut the crap! Call the Giant over here!!!"
Leilin said coldly.
"It's a critical moment right now — I can't reach him either..." A strange expression flickered across the little boy's face as he made his excuse.
But the next instant, Leilin kicked him flying.
Although Leilin had restored the boy's ability to speak, his sea of consciousness had clearly not been unsealed. His frail body spun through the air several times before hitting the ground.
Crack! The sound of bones snapping came from his body — several ribs must have broken.
Leilin, expression cold as ice, walked forward and seized the little boy by the neck, lifting him up like a duck.
"My patience is limited. You'd best not test my limits. And don't think I don't know about your connection to him!"
Though Leilin's tone was utterly flat, the little boy pinned beneath his gaze felt an eerie hollowness in his chest, as though every secret buried in the depths of his heart had been laid bare.
"No! That's impossible... I've always hidden it well..." A flurry of thoughts flashed through the little boy's mind before he relented. "Fine! Just don't do anything — I'll contact the Giant for you..."
"Make it fast." Leilin released his right hand, and the little boy dropped to the ground.
"Cough... cough..." The little boy sat on the ground, clutching the purple-brown handprints on his neck with both hands. "Madman! He's an absolute madman!!!"
He didn't ask Leilin to unseal his sea of consciousness or anything of the sort. He simply sat there in silence, staring into space.
This time, Leilin surprisingly waited off to the side.
He didn't wait long. After a few minutes, wisps of green mist began to permeate the clearing, gradually filling the entire area.
"What do you want with me? Don't you know our operation has entered a state of emergency? Leilin!!!"
The Giant's voice was as hoarse as ever, but this time Leilin detected fury hidden in his words — and... a hint of worry?
"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him now!"
At that moment, the little boy who had been sitting quietly in a daze suddenly erupted. A ring of green mist surrounded him, seemingly restoring a good deal of his confidence.
"It's all because of him that our plans have completely failed — and he actually dared to treat me like this!!! I want him dead!!!"
The little boy's gaze toward Leilin was filled with venomous hatred.
"I know." The Giant nodded impassively and turned to Leilin. "Your earlier failure, and now this interference — do you have any explanation?"
As the Giant spoke, the surrounding mist grew thicker and thicker. Even some shrubs and soil began to emit fine white smoke, melting away like blocks of ice.
"An explanation?"
Leilin smiled faintly and snapped his fingers!
Snap! The expression on the little boy's face froze, and then his head exploded like a watermelon.
"If you want an explanation, does this count?"
Leilin's smile was radiant.