Chapter 406: Shadow

Leonel suddenly manifested from thin air, his appearance causing no small number of people a great deal of shock.

A wide grin spread across his face as he looked toward his teammates. Any rage he had been feeling vanished, replaced by a gratification he had yet to feel in his life before.

"Captain!"

They didn't have time to think about how Leonel had suddenly appeared here, or how he was somehow already blocking the path between them and the white wolf.

After registering that Leonel was actually here, the faces of his teammates changed wildly.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Are you trying to die?!"

The whirring of the canons atop the walls never stopped. The truth was that from the vantage of those up above, it was impossible to hear even their screams, let alone noticing the sudden appearance of a single person on such a large battlefield.

Even now, no one but those on the ground had noticed the addition of Leonel. Of course, among those that noticed included the Variant Invalid and its ice guards. However, surprisingly, from start to finish, Leonel's back faced them.

It was as though he was showing the same disregard for the white wolf that it had shown to his teammates.

Who cared about when you stomped an ant as long as it was done?

This sort of air of confidence was something the white wolf hadn't sensed from an enemy during this war. Such a feeling caused its toothy grin to become more sinister, carrying a more bloodthirsty air to it.

Leonel patted the rookie's shoulder. "What's your name?"

As part of the hazing ritual of their football team, every rookie was only known by exactly that title. They didn't have the right to have their own names until they passed through a year of initiation. It was only after this that they were allowed to have their own identities once again.

So, when the rookie heard Leonel ask such a question, he immediately went teary eyed.

Technically, he should have already passed through initiation a long time ago. But, due to the various circumstances surrounding the Metamorphosis, he had been stuck in his role as a rookie for over double the time he should have been.

However, somehow hearing Leonel's words made it all worth it.

"My name is Drake, Captain!"

Leonel smiled. "You did a good job, Drake. Supporting your brothers is exactly what a man should do. But, remember in the future to only do things within your means, do you understand?"

Drake stared blankly at Leonel before lowering his head like a wronged child.

Leonel shook his head and patted Drake's shoulder again.

"Though things worked out this time, you also have to realize that your seniors wanted to sacrifice themselves for your benefit. If your life wasn't saved in the end, then wouldn't their sacrifice have been for nothing?"

Drake's gaze lit up with understanding. But, because he was looking at the ground, no one noticed.

Still, Leonel felt that he had said enough. Anymore would just be beating a dead horse.

Leonel looked up and toward the rest. Though some of the faces weren't from the Royal Blue football team, he smiled toward them nonetheless. For a moment, everyone seemed to forget that they were on a battlefield. Whatever pressure had been coming from the Invalids all around them, or the white wolf just 20 or so meters from them had all of a sudden vanished.

"Fire!"

Finally, the canons had been aimed and were all fired at once.

Leonel's gaze sharpened. Though this wasn't as bad as what Miles had done before, they were clearly still within the range of being struck. A 20 meter buffer was nothing to such high-tech bombs.

The white wolf's gaze didn't seem to want to leave Leonel, but Leonel also seemed to have no intention of paying any mind to the white wolf.

"All of you, let's go."

"Ah..."

Everyone was shocked by Leonel's words. What did he mean let's go? Didn't he see that they were in the middle of a battlefield? Also, hadn't a volley of bombs just been launched, maybe in as soon as another second, they would all be dead.

However, Leonel only smiled and winked.

Force surged around him, lighting up a pattern on the ground that had been invisible to this point.

The truth was that Leonel hadn't appeared randomly and out of thin air, nor did he try to appear at the last moment on purpose. He had been trying to find a method of getting everyone out of here in one piece.

The reason he appeared abruptly was because before then, he had been using [Light Refraction] to appear invisible. In the time, he managed to draw a teleportation Art on the ground that he was now currently activating.

Though Leonel wasn't necessarily afraid of the white wolf Variant Invalid, he knew that he wouldn't have been able to accomplish this while its sights were locked onto him.

Luckily, Leonel's Soul Force had entered the Fourth Dimension. One had to remember that in order to practice in Force, Internal Sight was needed. Without it, sensing and controlling Force was impossible. By this logic, the stronger one's Internal Sight, the greater control of Force one had.

With Leonel's level of control, he was able to draw such a large array without the horde of Invalids around him even sensing any leakage.

Just as the bombs fell, Leonel's teleportation Art activated, taking him and everyone else along.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The white wolf who had been observing Leonel all this time was slightly caught off guard. It wasn't that it didn't expect such a bombardment to happen, but rather that it had stopped paying attention to anything but Leonel.

On the walls, Miles sighed a breath of relief. His greatest worry was that with the white wolf's speed, they wouldn't be able to hit it in the first place. Now, he could put his heart at rest.

Of course... Miles had no idea that the only reason he ever hit the white wolf in the first place was because of the man he hated most in the world.

However, Miles wouldn't have time to think about this at all, because as the smoke slowly cleared, a familiar billowing coat of white fur appeared. Not only was it pristine, it was just as spotless as it had been before the bombardment.

The white wolf took its attention away from the sudden disappearance of the object of its interest, its pearly blue eyes turning somewhat demonic.

A low growl slowly overtook the waning sounds of artillery, the ground cracking once again as the white wolf's limbs flexed.

BANG!

A familiar shadow appeared in the skies. But this time... it was above the walls of Royal Blue Fort.