Chapter 19 - A-grade Invalid (1)

Leonel closed his eyes, a deep unwillingness sinking into his heart.

That day, when the virgin sacrifice almost strangled him to death, he really had resigned himself. He had even said goodbye to his father. Yet, he woke up.

How was he supposed to feel about that exactly? Was he supposed to think he was forgiven for the 1000 deaths that lay squarely on his shoulders?

Uncle Montez had said it clearly. Sub-Dimensional Zones were points in Earth's history where an event that connected to the Fourth Dimension occurred. In other words... They were real.

Every throat he pierced, every head he severed, every life that slipped away. They were all real.

Leonel had a hard time dealing with that. The reason he had smiled so brightly when he finally saw Aina again was because he thought that she was his light, the only pure thing remaining in his life. But she shattered that image barely a moment later.

In truth, Leonel didn't even know what he was fighting for anymore. He guessed it was just some primal instinct to survive, but he couldn't think of much else. Clearly his parents weren't that much of a motivating factor considering how easily he had given up in the temple.

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

Leonel might have just turned 18, but he was just a kid in the end. He knew that he didn't want to be a quarterback for the rest of his life, but he never really thought about what exactly he wanted to do outside of that.

Leonel chuckled to himself as seven A-grade Invalids converged. By now, it wasn't just them anymore, but numerous lower level Invalids who crept forward as well.

'The most important part of my identity all that time was just liking her, huh... I don't know whether I should be sad or laugh some more.'

The truth was that Leonel was trying his best to find a reason to fight back, to put his life on the line once again and bloody his hands once more.

For his parents? He had already tried that once before. For Aina? He didn't even know if he still felt the same way about her. For his friends...?

Leonel thought of James. His best friend for as long as he could remember. To this day, he still didn't know why James tried to throw the Championship Game. He didn't know why he hadn't just let him do it either. They had already won three times, and winning a fourth would have been meaningless.

"I know you too well. You don't like to lose, but you're too soft-hearted to call me out on my bullshit too. So, you'd find a way to protect our friendship and ignore it, all while winning the big game anyway. Am I right?"

James' words to him reverberated in Leonel's mind. He suddenly felt his hands moving of their own accord, sliding three silver bars out and screwing them together.

'I guess it'll just have to be that simple then...'

He didn't like to lose.

It was an immature thought. One you would expect from an 18 year old boy. If Leonel thought any more deeply about it, he too would find it ridiculous that he was trading what he thought was his moral code for a will to win. But the reality was that Leonel was looking for something, for anything, to give him a reason to keep going. The reason never mattered at all...

Leonel clicked the hidden button on his silver rod. The moment his bike fully formed, he jumped onto it, riding up the side of a massive slab of broken wall and jumping five meters into the air.

In that instant of time he spent in the air, his gaze captured everything.

'The other is already closing in. There's no way it won't sense them within fifty meters. But before that, it should be meandering on instinct... I need to intercept it.'

Leonel felt the motes of lights meld with his body, but he didn't have much of a reaction. His face held an expressionless visage to it, there was no joy, nor was there any anger.

He cut a tight corner, riding up the side of a collapsed building and hopping across to the roof of another.

He spun his bike to the side, dragging its tires along the ground to a searing halt that left a cloud of dust in his wake.

Leonel hopped off, eyeing his target in the distance.

He spread out his stance, his base becoming impeccably sturdy as he tightened his torso. A dart appeared in his hand, sliding perfectly into his atlatl.

Throwing a spear while on his bike was one matter. He couldn't rely on his legs for power, only his arm. However... When his feet were planted firmly on the ground... He was a completely different animal.

SHHHHHHHWOOOOO

Leonel's arm shot forward like a canon, his dark whistling through the air with a sharp sound. [Call of the Wind] could only be considered to have been mastered to the entry level by Leonel. Yet, he was already capable of throwing his darts at 250 kilometers per hour.

The target Invalid was almost like a miniature giant. In fact, it dragged its feet around completely in the nude. Obviously, whatever clothes its host had been wearing had been ripped to shreds. What remained was a bestial man that stood at over two meters tall. But what was exceptionally striking was its wide body. It was almost shaped like a box.

Leonel had already seen that its strength stat was at 0.95. It was one of the variant cases of a stat surpassing its grade. However, the reason it could only be of the A-grade is because... Its other stats were too low!

[Hulking Invalid]

[Strength: 0.95; Speed: 0.47; Agility: 0.15; Coordination: 0.56; Stamina: 0.89; Reactions: 0.51; Spirit: 0.00]

Aside its strength and stamina, its other stats could barely be considered of the F-grade, some not even that.

So, when Leonel attacked from just 30 meters away with a dart that looked no different from a shooting star across the night sky, the massive Invalid couldn't even blink before its eye was pierced and half its brain turned to mush.

[Leonel Morales]

[Strength: 0.73; Speed: 0.67 (+0.1); Agility: 0.75 (+0.1); Coordination: 0.99; Stamina: 0.78 (+0.05); Reactions: 0.99; Spirit: 0.10]

Leonel's strength stat ticked up by 0.01. This was the first substantial change he had ever run across after absorbing an Invalid's energy. There probably existed a technique that improved the efficiency... But he didn't think too much about it.

In truth, Leonel more so wished for increases to his stamina. He had only killed two A-grade Invalids, but he already felt it was eating into his reserve strength.

'... Five left...'

Leonel gritted his teeth, pedaling hard.