Malahk tried to resist, but Leon quickly added more earth to his body and then turned it into steel. The angel had superhuman strength, but it couldn't do much when Leon's mana was also involved in the equation. Besides, to muster all his strength, Malahk had to move several parts of his body, which he currently couldn't. So, his power to resist decreased a lot.
After noticing that brute strength wouldn't help him, Malahk turned into a sphere of light, but before he could even move on that form, Leon compressed the steel and enveloped all the sphere. Although the metal was under his command, Leon had a hard time controlling it. Malahk wouldn't be able to return to his standard form like that, so he tried to escape to his friends.
"Tsk..." Leon clicked his tongue. "Just give up already!"
Leon couldn't control the sphere of steel covering Malahk's body for long, so he decided to use his remaining mana to create a small pool of plasma. Once he finished it, he opened the steel sphere and let Malahk's escape... toward the pool of plasma. The entire sphere of light got hit by it, so Leon thought a lot of damage had been caused. Ten seconds later, Malahk's body fell on the ground creating a massive wave of dust to spread... Unfortunately, he landed a bit far away from where the harvesters were fighting, so they wouldn't be able to finish him off. Meanwhile, Leon used Mana-Eater to recover his mana from the damaged mithril shield.
Congratulations! The skill Mana-Eater has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
"I should have finished him off... but I'm not powerful enough. Things will get difficult now..."
After recovering his mana, Leon couldn't help but frown while he was waiting for Malahk to return. It was hard to be sure, but it looked like he didn't leave the crater his fall caused. Leon couldn't see his body from such a distance, but it was clear that he was plotting something.
"I don't have all the time in the world, but I will certainly not fall for that trick."
Instead of approaching, Leon shot several Plasma Bullets, but since using that would be impossible to know if he was hitting anything, he decided to use Earth Needles. Leon's accuracy from so far away would be laughable, but by firing severals, he was bound to hit at least a few times and receive the notifications for level up... that didn't happen.
"Is hiding underground trying to hide, or is he trying to attack me by surprise?"
That certainly was a silly way to act considering how old that angel was supposed to be, while Leon was thinking about that kind of thing, a massive energy beam left the crater at an astounding speed and flew toward Leon. Blocking that wasn't an option, so Leon used Transfer. Although Leon increased his speed and was using a ring that increased his speed too, and Haste was active, he barely reacted on time. The pressure and the speed of the attack made Leon's ears vibrate even thought the reappeared one kilometer away from there.
Two seconds later, the attack hit the red barrier around the planet. The energy dispersed, but the atmosphere itself started to tremble… the scope and the power of that attack had been far more significant than anything Leon had seen so far.
"The hell was that…" Leon frowned.
Much to his surprise, another attack of the same magnitude flew toward him, and then Leon understood what was happening. That was Malahk's most potent attack, it probably used all his mana, but he was consuming the mana of the magic circle to recover his own mana.
"Shit… he can use Mana-Eater too."
If all the angels could use such a devastating attack, they could wipe out Leon and the other harvesters rather quickly. Even their equipment made of mithril wouldn't save them for that. Perhaps it couldn't withstand two or three attacks, but if they also could use Mana-Eater, then enduring a few attacks was useless.
Another attack came from the crater, but Leon was already prepared for it and escaped before it could even get close. Still... it would be much easier to hit Leon if the angel tried to get a little close. So, Leon started to wonder why Malahk wasn't leaving the crater.
"I had to check why he isn't leaving the crater... but getting close would be suicide."
Just keep thinking wouldn't help Leon, so he decided to attack using Ice Beam and Thunder Ray. Before he could even freeze a small part of the crater, another massive beam flew toward him. Leon escaped yet again, but it was getting tiresome, avoiding such an attack every ten seconds.
Congratulations! The skill Fear Resistance has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Fear Resistance has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! The skill Fear Resistance has leveled up.
You obtained 01 status points.
...
"Ha-ha, that is very funny..."
Malahk only managed to fire that massive beam of energy two more times, the crater was frozen, but despite that, Leon didn't notice his coins increasing. It was risky, but Leon had to check if he was dead or unconscious. Using Transfer, Leon approached.
The crater was one kilometer wide, so it wouldn't surprise Leon that Malahk's fall caused a massive tremor. Regardless, Malahk was there on the center of the crater covered in ice... all his limbs were missing, even his wings had disappeared. Somehow, his sword was still intact and near his body.
There were some runes of the magic circle nearby, but it looked like the impact cut the link between those and the rest of the magic circle. The mana Malahk absorbed to fire those shots, was the mana he managed to absorb from those runes. His mouth was open as if he had shot those energy beams through his mouth, and his eyes were still alive, but he couldn't move an inch. Leon didn't know why his friends didn't come to check his condition, but he wouldn't lose that chance. After using his spear to suck all his mana, Leon used Malahk's spirit to create a magic weapon.