Chapter 168 The Qualities Of A Leader

"A human? Are you sure that isn't something else?" Leonard asked.

"No, I'm sure. The teeth are slightly different at these tow point but otherwise there isn't any difference between this and a typical human bite." The healer said while pointing at two points of the bite.

"Is it true that a human bite can cause more infections than an animals? I heard that somewhere once." Leonard asked.

"It is, mostly. Obviously there would be worse things if we include monsters..." The healer replied.

"Naturally. Alright then." Leonard knelt down next to the young boy "What's your name?" He asked.

" William..." The boy replied.

"Okay William, I'm sure you were listening to our conversation just now, did a person bite your mom?" Leonard asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't with her... She rushed into the house and told me we...we had to leave. She started to get sick and...and..."

"That's enough." Leonard placed his hand on the boys shoulder "We will do what we can to help your mother."

"Are you finally done?" The squad leader asked. "We need to get going and I don't appreciate you wasting time."

The squad leader was about 1.7 meters tall, putting him on the shorter side compared to most men. He didn't have any hair and was a plumpish man in his early forties.

To say that he wasn't capable of much during combat would be an understatement. His contribution to the squad was to give orders from the back and blame everyone else when something went wrong.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I waste you time by helping civilians? I wasn't aware that you had forgotten what your job entailed." Leonard replies while looking up at the squad leader on his horse.

"How dare you! I am in command here you brat, whatever I say goes regardless of anything else! Just because you have these so called 'amazing abilities' doesn't make you better than the rest of us! If I say you're wasting time then you're wasting time!" The squad leader shouted in anger.

" Oh please, you couldn't accomplish anything without my help. You're only leading this squad because you're a noble. If it weren't for your family name you would be a beggar on the streets or a Private in the military.

We might have already won this war by now if useless bastards like you weren't put in high positions to satisfy their egos." Leonard replied while angrily glaring at the squad leader.

The squad leaders face turned red from anger and he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted before he could.

" There's something coming!" A soldier shouted while pointing at the end of the street.

Everyone directed their attention in the same direction and noticed a large figure approaching them. As it got closer, they were able to ore clearly see what it was.

It had the body of a bull but was covered in brown fur and was three times as large. It had two large horns that protruded out the side of its head and curved around the front, pointing forwards. It was clearly a monster of some kind.

"Use you bows!" The squad leader shouted.

Each soldier within the squad brought out a bow and fired arrows at the bull like monster. The arrows bounced off its skin and fell to the ground beside it as it continued to charge towards the group.

"Damn!" The squad leader looked around, trying to think of something. He noticed Leonard was completely unfazed, standing as though nothing was even happening.

"Do something!" The squad leader shouted.

"Hmm? No it seems you've got things handled. You're an almighty leader than doesn't need my help, right?" Leonard replied with a smile.

"You bastard...im going to report you to the General!" The squad leader shouted. He noticed the monster was getting closer by the second and his nerves got the better of him.

"Fine, what do you want!?" He asked with a frustrated tone.

"Admit that you shouldn't be in charge and that you are nothing without my help." Leonard replied immediately.

"What! No, I'll never do that..." The squad leader replied. For a few seconds he watched as the monster approached, now within fifty meters of himself.

"F-Fine! I shouldn't be in charge and I can't do this without you! Are you happy now!?"

"Not really but it's good enough." Leonard said with a shrug. Every member of the squad watched as he slowly walked forward toward the monster.

His skin and uniform turned into a silver metal as he walked with confidence. He stopped about ten meters in front of the squad and waited.

As the monster charged towards him, having seemingly chosen him to be it's first target, Leonard simply raised his hands in front of him.

As the monster reached him, it dropped its head and brought it up suddenly in an attempt to bask its head and horns into Leonard.

Leonard used his outstretched arms to grab onto the monsters horns with his bare hands. His legs dug into the ground as the monster continued to charge forwards.

With each step the monster would slow down and eventually it came to a complete stop. There was a line of destruction visible in the ground where Leonard tried to gain some leverage with his legs.

Leonard pulled his head back and swung it forward, performing a headbutt between the monsters horns. There was a loud boom heard as his head made impact and the monsters head was pushed back.

Leonard then twisted his hands and a loud snapping sound was heard as he pulled the monsters horns out of its head. He spun the horns in his hands and used them like daggers, shoving them into the monsters eyes.

The monster collapsed to the ground with blood pouring out of its eyes. Leonard had managed to stop the monsters charge within five meters of grabbing onto its horns, meaning they were roughly four or five meters from the squad leaders position.

Leonard walked back to the squad leader with blood all over his hands, allowing his ability to deactivate as he did.

He stopped right beside the squad leader, who was still on his horse, and without looking at him Leonard spoke.

"You probably think your words didn't have meaning but if you can't even handle a Common tier monster then you can't refute them. You don't need an ability to kill one of those, you just have no idea how to lead your squad to victory."

Leonards tone was very serious and his face was stern. After saying his piece, he continued walking and went back to where the woman and William were.

The squad leader had no idea what to do or say but one thing was clear. When looking at the faces of the soldiers in this squad, it was obvious they held no respect for him. All their admiration was directed to Leonard.

He grit his teeth in frustration for a moment as he he dropped his head. He took a deep breath and shouted out his orders.

"We're leaving, get on your horses and bring the cart!"

"We need to get these people to safety." Leonard said, referring to William and his mother.

"We have one more Town to investigate before we head back to the city, they'll have to come with us then. They will be your responsibility." The squad leader said.

"No, they are all of our responsibility." Leonard replied with a stern voice as he picked up the woman and walked towards the cart.

There was no reply from the squad leader as he placed the woman in the cart and helped William into it as well.

The squad leader had his horse start walking down the street but none of the squad members followed. They all waited for Leonard to climb onto his horse and start moving, only then did they follow.

The squad leader didn't say anything to this either. His pride had been crushed and he felt utterly humiliated. He rode his horse silently with his head held low.

The healer wasn't given a horse and would ride in the carriage when they traveled. This was for situations like this when an injured person was present in the cart.

He wasn't able to do anything to help the woman so he just sat quietly and waited to reach their destination.

William was sitting next to his mother, holding her hand. He had been unable to focus on anything other than her for a while, only looking away when Leonard had killed the monster.

Because of this focus, he noticed that his mother was whispering something. It was incredibly faint but he had still noticed.

He leaned forward and turned his head, putting his ear next to his mother's mouth so he could hear better. She mumbled for a while and William was starting to think she wasn't actually saying words.

But underneath all that mumbling he managed to hear something. There were two words that he could hear consistently.

"Red man."