Chapter 34 - Thirty-Two

The thing coming our way was big, strong, and pissed. It had the body of an albino snake, eyes of the bloodiest red, skating around the street and bumping everything out of the way in the most brutal fashion possible.

At its back there were spider legs coming out of its column line, black and pointy, sometimes helping it move in a quick tap tap tap motion, others menacing opening like wings, making it look bigger and scarier.

Not that it needed that though.

Leonel was already standing there in the middle of the road, on top a big square vehicle, waiting for it to approach.

"Ah, little brat angel, there you are! You and that sssstupid mutt will regret disssobeying me!" She said, and only then I realize who she was.

The Queen in her mutated form.

How did she found eyes? I receive my answer when many mummies got out of the buildings, some the "normal looking" ones, others like the Clothed ones, and many, many others, looking from behind the windows, but most following her like little ants, crawling like bugs all around as if the ground itself was moving.

She stands with her white belly up as tall as the buildings, and when I thought it couldn't get worst her lower part cracks and opens like a big mouth, where many hairy lack spider legs, like teeth, are scattered about trying to poke with their sharp ends to bring a victim inside into the dark void beyond.

"You will come with me little angel, but not before I rip the houndssss throat!"

Her eyes then locked on me, making me feel directly all her killing intention, knowing that if I was to fight her now I wouldn't easily get away like before.

"Leonel! She is level 120, let's run!" He didn't answer, so I look at him, screaming: "Leo!"

Leonel, however, seems unfazed by it all and unsheathes his sword, evaluating his prey.

That calmness brought shivers down my spine. He looked tall as a mountain looking down at ants that crawled his hills. Mere nothings. So untouchable, far and unshaken, the Leonel I knew from before, the cold face, and yet far more than that, with the calmness and confidence of a warrior that went through thousands of battles before, the certainty of a tiger upon a deer.

Those golden eyes cut right through me with their intensity, and, even though I had all reasons to stop him, I didn't. With that one look I knew he wouldn't lose.

He simply wouldn't.

Still, I was surprised next. Like, he asked my help, but soon I knew it was just so to be polite, as I ended up watching the entire fight from the distance, entranced by it.

He stood tall as an object formed in his free hand, made of pure light, only making sense to me once he blew into it; a Blowing Horn, a huge one at that.

I expected a high deep sound to resonate through the city halls, but, instead, all the sound seems to be captured by it, an eerie silence falling upon the battle scene as if a bomb had exploded right beside my ear.

The instrument disappears as Leonel quickly rises up his sword, moving the blade in an arc as an arrow of light surges from the curve in part of the blade, shooting it up in the sky as the point the sword up. He keeps slicing the air as others arrows shot out of his sword, almost like a mechanic crossbow releasing its projectiles.

The snake didn't wait to see the result, pushing the mummies with her tail so they would start attacking; even if some were smashed by her movement.

The arrows flow right at them, however none hit as I expected; instead, they stick themselves in the ground, falling like rain and starting to form a very complex pattern; the first looked like four circles stretched in the shape of petals crossing like an X sine. Then, crossing over it in a ✮ sine, there was a straight 5 point star, ending up with an inner circle closing in all the creatures that now dashed in for battle.

All made in a blink of an eye, every swing of his wrist making more arrows fly that I could see.

Once the Mummies are close, enough that I could smell the stench on their breaths, Leonel, as if with all the time in the world, lowers his sword until the tip touches the ground, his lips moving as the ground shines a bright light, crisscrossing like little lightning between the arrows.

I have to close my eyes for a second as the light becomes too bright.

And poof.

All those Dark Mummies just… disappeared, like the one from the building from before, but this time in a much faster and on a bigger scale than before.

Only those outside the symbol remained, the Queen Snake been one of them, petrified in place as half of her army went down with only one attack.

A challenging glim passed Leonel eyes as he focuses on the Queen. Putting an arm behind his back and positioning the sword up with the other, he motions for the Queen to come closer with the cold metal.

The Queen hissed at the affront, a weird image since there is no sound.

She advances in a flash, a white blur zigzagging between the vehicles, while Leonel follows her movements with his eyes. She goes down in an entrance that leads beneath the earth, and with a shake the Queen pops out right behind Leonel, her huge mouth opened showing off her little but numbered razor-sharp teeth, and strikes like a string been pulled and let go.

Leonel sidesteps, dodging her attack while bringing the sword closer to his chest, at the same time turning completely and curving the sword up, using the momentum to bring more strength to his attack and cut down her in half.

Holy shit! That looked cool!

The head part starts to shake, convulsing, and like a fish out of the water she flops out of Leo's reach, opening her mouth and gobbling up one of the Mummies that stayed close by.

She eats a lot of them, and I can see her boding regrowing with dark smoke, the meat surging like bubbles of flesh popping up, her skin a pinkish white of a newborn.

Leonel doesn't wait up, and from where I'm I can see his sword shine, almost like melting metal, as it turns into a type of whip, the metal from the sword cut in pieces held together with a mass of light.

He swings it like a fishing rod on top of his head, letting it stretch, and hits her square in the face.

No permanent damage is made, but with blood covering one of her eyes she hisses, angered. With her full height up again she opens her belly, and from the darkness her humanoid hands stretch out, and hundreds of rags covered in dark mass come out, trying to bind Leo.

He steps sideways again, turning and moving his sword with smooth movements that reminded me of dancer steps with one of his hands on his back, leaving him with a straight up figure as he blocks her attacks, cutting the rags when they warped around the blade, and once he sees an opening he changes it to the whip form and attacks her inside the opening.

With that she closes it, recoiling her body in pain, but using the brute movements to attack with her tail, earning a cut and a roll from Leo.

She backs off then, smacking the tip of her tail on the floor, and many, many mummies come out from the streets, some that I already saw before, others with long limbs walking on four, others with the same mouth on the belly, the spider's paws moving like the legs of a centipede.

Leonel seemed unfazed, his lips stayed in a straight line as he swung the sword to the side, making a mirror image of it, as if many copies swung together, surging a fan made of blades.

He kept swinging the blade in circles, creating more clones of his blade, until the air was filled with swords flying beside him. They all pointed their sharp tips straight when he stops moving, rising the blade and making it shine with the green light of the mushrooms.

And then he strikes, an air slice that cut the first part of the army in half, as well as the buildings and constructions close enough, making smoke rise and obscure our view, not for long since Leo keeps slicing with his air attacks and pushing the smoke out of the way, while the swords make lines of protections, circling like saws and cutting anything that got to close.

It was a bloodshed.

The Queen started to get worried. Her army has always been her backup plan; for healing, for fighting, or even fleeing. Every creature here bowed to her; and those who didn't disappear, many of them been snakes and spiders monsters, the only one who manage to run from her talons where the annoying Teleporting Cats.

But now she watched all her effort, all her subjects fall down by one single man.

A child even!

That infuriated her in a way she didn't know too been even possible! Yet here she stood, watching her army fall, and looking up at the causer of it, not a single drop of blood had reached him, neither sweat came from his figure.

This was bad, really bad.

She underestimated him.

And now she was paying the price.