Chapter 62
“You’re a sharp one for a brat.”
With a sound like scraping metal, the Death Knight laughed and gripped his greatsword.
“My name is Kargor! A knight who serves the great King of the Dead!”
Aiming his greatsword at Leo, Kargor charged forward at incredible speed.
Leo swung his aura straight ahead.
“And I am the one who will lead you to death! Hahahahaha!”
Fwoosh—!
In an instant, Kargor dissolved into black smoke and reappeared behind Leo.
‘Phantomization!’
Clang—!
Leo barely managed to block Kargor’s greatsword as it swung for his waist.
He felt an incredible pressure in his hands.
Thwack—!
Leo’s body was launched at tremendous speed.
Crash! Thud! Rumble-rumble-rumble! Boom!
Leo’s body crashed into two trees.
As the shattered trees fell, Leo stood up and stretched his sore body.
“You managed to deploy an aura shield in that brief moment? Not bad.”
Kargor grinned as he charged again.
Leo blocked the sword aimed to split his head in two.
Clang! Crack!
Leo was crushed under the pressure that pressed down on his whole body.
His soles dug deep into the ground.
The crimson aura, shaped like a skull, raged wildly.
Leo frowned and mustered his strength to push away the greatsword.
“Pointless struggle!”
As Kargor pressed down harder, the pressure intensified, making Leo’s knees tremble.
“Hahahahaha! Go to the world of the dead!”
[Leo! I’ll help you!]
Kirran charged at Kargor’s opening at full speed.
“Annoying.”
Whack!
[Gah!]
As Kargor unleashed dark aura, Kirran was knocked away.
Even as the Fairy Prince, Kirran’s power was limited after losing his wings.
Seeing this, Leo spoke.
“In the name of the Oathbound.”
“Heh? Summoning a familiar now? You must be the Fairy’s Oathbound, but whatever you call forth, it won’t matter against me!”
“Answer my call!”
A summoning circle formed around Leo.
Fwoosh—!
Flames flared from the summoning circle, and they responded to Leo’s spirit power, burning even fiercer.
Kargor’s crimson eyes widened.
“This is—!”
Crimson wings spread out behind Leo.
A beautiful phoenix soared high above, then dove at Kargor.
“Phoenix!”
Fwoosh—!
Fiora pierced straight through Kargor’s chest.
Kargor’s body turned to dust and crumbled away.
With a graceful flap, Fiora landed on Leo’s shoulder.
[Leo, you’re a Phoenix’s contractor?]
“That’s right.”
[I—I can’t believe it!]
For Kirran, who wasn’t an elder fairy, Leo was his first contract partner.
And even that contract wasn’t by Kirran’s will, but forced by his father Silload’s oath.
So Kirran had secretly looked down on Leo and hadn’t fully acknowledged him.
But seeing Leo contract with a Phoenix as a mere teenager changed his mind.
[Well! My contractor should be at least this good! Now you finally fit as my contractor!]
“So up till now you didn’t think I was worthy to be your contractor?”
[Of course not! You’re a human! Your spirit power is terrible! Not to mention, you’re rude and violent—how could someone like you suit me as a partner? Kuhk?!]
As Kirran rattled on, Leo grabbed him by the scruff.
“Fiora, eat him.”
[Spare me!]
Just as Kirran turned pale and flailed—
Gooooooo—!
A wave of crimson energy surged.
“Hehehehehe.”
With a chilling laugh, Kargor reformed and glared at Leo.
“A Phoenix and a fairy! I can’t let brats like you live!”
Clang—!
Raising his greatsword, Kargor stabbed it into the ground.
Gush! Crimson blood spurted from the blade and soaked the earth.
Leo’s expression hardened.
‘Death Ground.’
A curse that summons endless undead within a set area.
Clack! Crack!
White bones burst from the snowy ground.
Skeletons began pouring out endlessly around them.
Clack-clack! Tap-tap-tap!
They knocked their joints together as if letting out a war cry.
“Army of the dead! Kill that brat!”
At Kargor’s command, the skeleton army charged at Leo.
Leo withdrew his sword and held it before his face.
The aura of flames dissipated.
“Are you humbly accepting death?”
Kargor jeered.
Leo looked bored.
“Do you think I am that crazy?”
Vmmm—!
Gray aura gathered on Leo’s sword.
Kargor’s eyes twitched.
‘A different type of aura?’
It wasn’t Zerdinger’s aura—it was Kyle’s.
‘The Zerdinger swordsmanship consumes too much aura.’
It was powerful and flashy, but too taxing to use for long.
‘It’s been a while since I used this.’
Leo lowered his stance.
He planted his left foot and kicked off the ground with his right.
Fwirrrrr—!
Using the power of aura, he began spinning in place.
“Has he gone mad with fear of death?”
Kargor sneered.
Anyone could see Leo’s spinning seemed pointless.
But Leo’s spinning grew stronger and stronger.
And then—
Kwagagagagak—!
A whirlwind erupted.
Like a spinning top, a vortex of aura swept forth.
Kyle-Style: Vortex.
Crash!
The vortex of aura tore through the skeleton army.
Bone dust scattered everywhere.
Skeletons that neared Leo were ground to pieces at lightning speed.
In an instant, Leo broke through the encirclement, then canceled his technique and used an aura step to dash away at breakneck speed.
Kargor roared and started chasing after Leo.
The skeleton army also swiftly gave chase.
[That was amazing! With that skill, you could wipe out all the skeletons—so why are you retreating?]
Kirran, excited, asked with sparkling eyes.
To Kirran, the swordplay just now looked extremely cool.
Peep—peep—
Fiora also looked curious.
“That move has a fatal flaw.”
[What is it?]
“It’s a powerful skill, but if you use it too long, you get dizzy.”
At that lame reason, Kirran muttered,
[Take back what I said about it being cool.]
Peep—!
“They said the same thing, too.”
Leo laughed, recalling his past life.
“Stop! If you’re a knight, face me honorably!”
“You’re one to talk when you just summoned a whole army of minions!”
Leo looked exasperated at the furious shout from behind.
Vmmm—!
The aura of flames gathered at Leo’s toes and exploded outward.
This generated tremendous acceleration.
[So fasttttttt!]
Kirran, hanging onto Leo’s shoulder, shouted with glee.
Fiora, now back to her original form, chirped excitedly too.
Gwoooooo—!
Wails of the dead echoed from all around.
Watching the skeletons burst from the ground and close in, Leo began chanting.
At the rune words from Leo’s lips, Kirran was shocked.
[Wait! Leo! You can use magic too?]
“So?”
[You’re a knight and a summoner!]
“Never seen an all-class before?”
[All-class? Like the legendary Kyle?!]
As Silload’s son, Kirran knew all about the great heroes, including the forgotten hero Kyle.
Leo smiled at the amazed Kirran, finished chanting, and crouched as he ran.
“Earth Wave.”
The ground rippled out from Leo.
The skeleton army lost their footing and staggered.
Leo pushed into the middle of the skeleton horde and swung his sword.
Slice!
Even without aura, Leo’s sword shredded the skeletons mercilessly.
[They’re nothing, huh?]
“Skeletons are low-grade undead.”
Skeletons themselves aren’t a threat.
The problem comes if they’re paired with high-grade undead like a Death Knight.
After running for a while, Leo landed and took a deep breath.
He couldn’t sense Kargor’s presence anymore.
‘Looks like I lost him.’
“Fiora, return.”
After sending Fiora away, Leo exited the forest, lost in thought.
‘A Death Knight here?’
Death Knights are high-grade undead—rarely seen.
‘Is there something in the Fairy Forest that Tartarus wants?’
It surely wasn’t a coincidence that Silload sealed Kirran’s wings and triggered the previous Fairy King’s magic.
Whoosh—!
At that moment, something closed in on Leo at tremendous speed.
A silver blade, gleaming in the sunlight, was suddenly at Leo’s throat.
Leo glanced sideways at the elf boy holding a sword to his neck.
“What are you doing?”
“Human. What exactly are you doing in this forest?”
Leo replied nonchalantly to the expressionless elf.
“Gathering herbs.”
“Don’t lie! How did a human get in here? And there were evil undead found in this forest! I suspect you’re involved!”
As the elf’s voice rose, Leo furrowed his brow.
The elves of Velkia already knew the Lumene students had come.
But for him to be this suspicious—
‘An elf from outside? And these clothes…’
Leo carefully examined the design of the elf’s outfit.
‘It looks like Eiran’s uniform. A Seiren student?’
“How about calming down first?”
“Answer my question! Who are you, and what were you doing in this forest?”
As the Seiren student refused to listen, Leo let out a long sigh.
“I’m a Lumene student. The Velkia residents asked me to gather herbs for them, so that’s what I was doing.”
“Lumene?”
The Seiren student looked slightly surprised.
But then narrowed his eyes.
“That makes even less sense. Do you expect me to believe a Lumene student is here?”
“What’s so unbelievable about it?”
Leo grabbed the sword pointed at his neck.
“You!”
The Seiren student tried to swing his sword.
‘Huh…? It’s not even budging?’
He widened his eyes at the unyielding blade.
“If you take me to Velkia, you can find out if I’m lying or not.”
Leo pushed the sword away, and the Seiren student scowled.
“How dare you defy the command of a Seiren student?”
“What does that even mean?”
“Seiren students have the right to apprehend and detain criminals!”
“I’m not a criminal, though.”
“If someone is suspicious, I can detain them. As a proud Seiren student, I hereby designate you a dangerous individual.”
Leo put his hand on his hip and sighed.
“Impossible to talk to.”
[He’s got rocks in his head.]
‘Agreed.’
“And what if I’m designated as dangerous? Are you going to take me down?”
“That’s right!”
Leo looked coldly at the solemn-faced Seiren student.
“As a fellow Hero Academy student, I’ve been as polite as possible, you know?”
“Hmph. Do you really think you can defeat a Seiren student, even if you are from Lumene?!”
With arrogance, the Seiren student brandished his sword and charged.
Leo clenched his fist.
“Let’s see then.”
Fwoosh—! Boom—!
Leo’s fist, wreathed in aura flames, collided with the sword.
“Kh…?!”
“Let’s see what Seiren can do.”