The shockwave washed over the entire clearing, knocking away everyone daring enough to remain on their feet.
Then, the force struck the line of the forest before raising up and escaping into the air and in between the trees.
This was also the moment Leon picked to engage.
He tensed up his body and lept forward, kicking the ground beneath him.
"Shit!" the cloaked man uttered a short curse in the middle of Leon's jump. He had no visible injuries, most likely thanks to his dodge. Yet, the very evade that saved him from the shockwave, cost him his stability.
He attempted to regain it...
But it was too late.
Leon finished his jump right on top of the still-shaken adventurers.
"YOU FUCKER!" the elf-girl fixed her posture and raised her bow. She was ready to shoot in a single instant, regaining her footing even faster than her superior...
But she couldn't shoot as Leon was already in the middle of her team.
First, came the man who spoke second.
Leon infused a tiny bit of mana into his spear, using its bottom like some sort of a propulsion system and driving it into the man's arm.
It wasn't a vital point, but he had no time or space to maneuver himself to be picky about his target.
'First,' Leon thought when his spear pierced one of the men's shoulders. He then felt it kicking against something and changing directions slightly toward the ground.
'Fuck,' Leon cursed under his breath right as he raised his leg. He then placed his foot on the man's abdomen before kicking him away and freeing his weapon. 'It struck a damn bone!'
Only one of Leon's legs remained on the ground, prompting the other man to make use of this opening. He ignored the pained screams of his wounded companion, raising his one-handed axe for a quick downward strike.
'Avoid it!'
A powerful voice exploded in Leon's head, making him kick the air to the back and use the momentum of this seemingly pointless attack to swirl on his other leg around.
The blade of the axe scrapped Leon's shoulder, leaving a short, bloody trail over the upper part of his arm.
Yet, rather than attempting to regain his footing, Leon sent his elbow behind, striking the man to the side and bouncing off the man's body to swirl in the opposite side.
This time, however, rather than greeting the man's body with his own, he made sure to strike at his waist with his spear!
In this kind of brawl, there was no use for all the runes Leon imprinted on his weapon. There was no time for him to activate them either.
"FUCK IT!" the elven girl screamed out in fury. She cast her bow away, crossed her hands over her stomach, and reached to her belt, pulling out two elegant sabers that decorated her hips. "You are mine!"
The girl saw both of her companions getting injured in a span of a few seconds. And through all this time, she was unable to make even a single shot.
All in all, her call to switch to blades was correct.
But once again, it was way too little and way too late.
"Die!" the man whose shoulder Leon struck first pushed forth, sending his spear flying right toward Leon's right.
'I can't...' the bloodmancer gritted his teeth.
His instincts told me he had no means of avoiding the attack, courtesy of leaving someone still alive to his back.
He couldn't avoid the strike. He couldn't parry or knock it away either. But was that really the case?
Seeing no other option, Leon... kicked his left leg forward. The one caveat was... it meant depriving himself of the rest of his footing!
The momentum of the kick caused Leon to fall to the back, turning near parallel to the incoming spear's thrust.
Thanks to this reckless dodge, the angle of the spear's blade were too small to cut through Leon's thick clothing, allowing him to fall down on the spear and break it against the ground.
And not to make this motion only about depriving the enemy of his weapon, Leon swung his short spear in his fingers, changing the grip to reverse before blindly striking behind his back.
He only had the length of the enemy's spear pressed against his back to judge the distance and the direction...
But the dull feeling of the strike followed by the lack of reaction told him enough.
'That's two,' Leon thought, diverting his attention back to the elven girl rushing at him with her two sabers.
Her movements were insanely agile, making her look as if she was flowing through the air rather than simply running at him.
This time, however, Leon could afford a single second to prepare. It was way too little for him to stand up...
So he forced the spear out of whatever he struck it with, reversed its grip again, infused it with his mana, and activated one of the more complex runes on it.
He didn't aim for the girl, though.
Instead, he swung his arm in a nearly full circle, dropping the spear heavily into the ground!
BUZZZZ...
An extremely unpleasant noise filled the air in a small diameter around the bloodmancer. And the air through which the elven girl was rushing at him... turned into a strange, see-through jello.
'It worked,' Leon breathed out an inner sigh of relief.
The elven girl... ended up suspended in the air. And as the buzzing intensified...
Both of her elegant sabers shattered into a myriad of pieces along with several metal elements pins and combs all over her outfit. Yet, surprisingly enough for someone ignorant about this construct, not a single harm came to her flesh!
"Damn..." Leon muttered as he gathered himself up from the ground.
There was still the cloaked man who didn't bother to participate in the fighting so far... But with his barrier raised, Leon couldn't pay him much mind.
And just a single glance was enough to confirm he didn't appear likely to move either.
So, Leon took his time to stand up and give the furious elven girl a short stare.
Then, the bloodmancer released a deep sigh before reaching with his now freed, right hand.
There was no jello-like air around him. There wasn't any sort of barrier there. The only thing that he called forth, was an extreme form of mana vibration that brought forth all those properties.
The only reason why the girl couldn't move was that she had no support to push herself against. Yet, the same didn't apply to Leon who pushed only his arm alone inside the sphere of the spell's influence.
The bloodmancer didn't go for any fancy moves. Instead, he reached for the girl's throat before tightening his fingers around him.
"To think that this world has elves in it..." Leon said in an amazed voice, adoring the qualities of the girl that were unheard of back in his homeworld.
It wasn't just her ears alone. Her entire psychique was slimmer, more elegant than that of a human. Her features oozed beauty and grace.
"It might be worth playing around here for a while," Leon added, tightening his grasp over the girl's throat and snapping her neck with a single jerk of his hand.
Leon then retracted his hand from the spell's zone of influence before leisurely picking up the spear stuck into the ground.
The second Leon pulled his weapon out, the zone of control ceased to be, causing the corpse to fall down to the ground with a silent thud.
"Now then..." Leon muttered. He then fixed his grasp on his spear before looking up and towards the cloaked man. "Where were we?"
*****
[Royal Castle]
The work on repairing the damage caused by the freak summoning accident only started today. And yet, the king himself refused to move away from his throne as if he was cursed to sit there forever.
The workers and guards have only started to patch the holes the escaped hero created to run away. The only real progress came in form of the rubble and blood that the royal workers properly cleaned from the throne hall.
Not even the king's moody stare could motivate the workers to do their jobs faster.
"Your majesty!" A chamberlain called out from the massive doorway at the far end of the hall.
Then, after receiving a nod from the royal head, the old servant of the royal line took a deep breath.
"Overseer of the Ancient Tower, sir Magnus Alteria!" he announced in a powerful voice before nodding his head to the guards by the doors.
The massive gate then swung open, letting a single man into the devastated hall.
It was a man in the strength of his years although the length of his beard indicated his best time has long since passed. He was dressed in relatively plain robes that only revealed their value upon closer inspection of the material.
He came in with no escorts or entourage, with only a staff made out of a golden wood for a companion.
"Your majesty," the man cordially nodded his head to show a sign of respect for the royal line. "I've arrived as per summons," he announced with a smile.
The guards in the hall tensed up, even more than they were when under the scrutinous eyes of their king.
Not a single soul in the palace dared to make an unnecessary sound.
The king thought... He only nodded his head back to the man, not bothering to utter a single word from his mouth.
Once the silence lasted for long enough, sir Magnus finally took it upon himself to speak.
"My reports say my golden disciple botched the summoning ritual," he opened up the conversation.
The king released a long sigh.
"Sir Aleister gave his life while courageously fulfilling his duty..." the king officially announced. His face then soured. "... master."
The guards did their best to look as if they heard nothing. The workers didn't even dare to look at the scene.
And yet, sir Magnus... smiled.
"A pity," he commented. "I had great hopes in his potential," he added, his smile only widening as if he wasn't talking about the death of one of his direct disciples.
The silence ensued once again. And only after a long while did the royal guest bother to break it.
"Fear not, your majesty," he said, putting a huge emphasis on the king's title. "The Ancient Tower... will fulfill its duty!"