Chapter 188 Re-Taking Zoren (Part 5)

"I'll take it from here." Leonard said as he walked towards the creature.

Duke Wesley backed away and walked down the side of the building until the gravity returned to normal and he fell to the ground.

He looked around at his soldiers, they appeared to be winning for the most part and only a few had been killed while even fewer were injured. Those who were injured were being treated by the two healers that had been brought along.

The cults forces had been reduced to 1/3 of their original size while the Venerian soldiers had lost less than a handful of soldiers.

The kingdoms soldiers tyoucall had better armour and weapons when compared to the cultists, this had been true for most of the war.

The only instances where the cult won a battle was when they attacked with more numbers and overwhelmed the soldiers, or they used an Imperium to tip the battle in their favour.

'This battle will end soon, then the only ones fighting will be the Infernai and the Imperiums. Hm? Whats that?' Duke Wesley noticed some movement in the darkness further up the road.

The crystals set up along the sides of the street only have off a small amount of light. There was a few meters between each crystal that remained in darkness and that's where this figure was.

Duke Wesley continued to watch the figure until it entered an area with some light, which didn't take long.

'A woman wearing Imperium attire...' Duke Wesley looked around, trying to see if there were any Infernai that were available.

'Leonard and the will be busy for a bit and Leo just fell out the sky with another creature, landing on the wall near Connor. I'll have to stall for time until one of them is ready.' Duke Wesley thought as he unsheathed his sword and made his way towards the female Imperium.

***

'And I thought I was big...' Leonard thought as he watched the creature stand to its feet. It's large figure looking down on Leonard at his 'measley' 2.4 meters of height.

Leonard's body was built, not as big as someone like Ray, Clay's father, but he was still quite large. Even so, this creature was so big it made him feel like a child in comparison.

"Alright big fella, let's go a few rounds." Leonard said as he dashed forwards and threw out a punch.

The creature had only just gotten to its feet when Leonard attacked. It lifted its hand and caught Leonard's first in its palm, closing its hand around his first and holding him.

Leonard felt as though his body lost some of its wieght, it was a strange feeling but he ignored it. The creature lifted its right arm and threw a punch of its own towards Leonard's face.

He leaned to the side, avoiding the punch, and delivered a full powered uppercut to the creatures chin.

Leonard's fist made contact and stopped. The creatures head didn't even title back, let alone get flung through the air as Leonard expected.

'Why did my punch feel so weak!?' Leonard shouted internally.

The creature pulled on Leonard's right arm, lifting him up into the air. He lifted his legs and tried to kick it in the face but the same situation occured as with his fist.

'Fuck...'

The creature suddenly jerked on Leonard's arm, pulling him up with speed and then slamming him into the ground.

The gravity around Leonard's body seemed to increase as he was being slammed downwards, causing his body to go flying through the wall and several more after that.

After he had gone through three walls, his body finally stopped as it hit the fourth. The wall cracked severely but it didn't break.

His body slumped to the ground and was seemingly unaffected by the gravity change anymore. Another difference he noticed was that his body didn't feel light anymore.

'That hurt so much more than it should have... What is this thing doing that I'm weaker than I should be.' Leonard thought as he spat blood onto the floor beside him.

The creature was slowly making its way towards Leonard, climbing through the holes his body created in the walls.

Leonard paced his hands on the floor and slowly started to stand up. His back was in the most pain out of anything, it felt as though his muscles had been sliced open from the inside and his spine was being gripped by an invisible hand.

It hurt like hell but he finally got to his feet as the creature entered reach the same room he was in. Some parts of Leonard's skin was exposed and longer had any metal covering it.

It took a few seconds but the skin was eventually covered once again, but not with the silver metal the rest of his body used. The parts that were exposed had been covered with a dark black metal, creating a sort of patchwork look to Leonard's skin in some places.

Leonard, now ready to continue fighting again, took a step towards the creature. Suddenly, his body started moving on its own, falling towards the creature.

***

"You're calling me a coward because I chose to live freely instead of rotting away in a prison cell?" John asked with a furious expression.

"No, of course you would try to escape, that's only natural." Leo walked towards John, stepping on the woman's corpse as he did.

"I'm talking about every other time you've been near me in combat. The time you created a barrier to help Trent and then ran away with him. The time you had our forces outnumbered two months ago but because I showed up you retreated."

As Leo continued to walk forwards while speaking, John began walking backwards, the sinister look on his face showing a hint of fear.

"It doesn't matter the situation, you always run away from me because you know you're too weak to even try and fight me."

John walked into the edge of the wall behind him and came to a stop. Leo took a few more steps forward before he stopped as well. The two of them were less than two meters away from each other now.

"I'm more powerful than I've ever been!" John shouted, his voice filled with anger and sadness.

"And it still isn't enough to beat me." Leo replied bluntly with a cold glare.

Leo suddenly felt something appear behind him, heading straight for his head. He titled his head to the side just in time to avoid being impaled by a red spike, receiving nothing more than a scratch on the cheek.

[You have been Poisoned]

[ - 1 Health every second]

[The effects of the skill (Regeneration) are negating the poison]

[The poison will be in effect for 1 minute]

As the spike extended passed Leo's head, John shouted something as loud as he could. "Come to me!"

"Tch!" Leo reach up and grabbed the red spike with his right hand and brought his left elbow down on it, snapping off a piece.

He tried to place some Energy inside the spike but it wouldn't work for some reason. 'I don't need it anyways.'

[Repel]

The spike shot from Leo's hand faster than an arrow from a bow and hit John in the stomach, slightly to the left of the center.

"Aargggh!!" John shouted as he stumbled to the back along the edge of the wall.

"I hope you're not immune to your own poison, I'd like to see you die to your own power." Leo said as he watched John fall over in pain.

~Splat~

There was a sudden splatter sound behind Leo, something that was too far for his Battle Aura to sense what it was.

He turned around to take a look, just in case it was a potential threat. Instead of a threat to himself, he saw Connor hunched over and coughing up blood.

"Mahaha... You didn't even bother to check on him when you arrived. Were you that angry to see me?" John chuckled.

"You poisoned him..." Leo said in understanding.

Something large and heavy landed next to John. Leo quickly turned around again, preparing to defend himself.

He saw the large humanoid creature with scaled armour and a human like face, but he was paying more attention to John who had been picked up by the creature.

"You can't chase us and save your friend at the same time. You'll have to pick one." John said as the creature turned and jumped over the wall and away from the city.

"Fuck!" Leo shouted as he ran towards Connor.

Connors skin had gone a bit pale and there were green veins visible through his skin. His eyes were bloodshot and his breathing was extremely slow.

"Le... Leo...?" Connor wheezed.

"Don't worry Connor, I'll get you to a healer. Just don't die before I can." Leo said as he began picking Connor up.

"No...look O...ver... Th... ere..." Connor strained to say as he pointed into the city.

Dozens of ice spikes suddenly erupted out from one of the buildings, making it look like a porcupine.

"Another Imperium..."