Chapter 688: Deciding A Location - 1

"L-Lily! How many elements can Leo even use?" Aaron asked, seeing Leo gathering stormy clouds over the sky.

Lily turned towards him.

"Why don't you try asking him? You might have a chance to get an answer." Saying that, she looked back at Leo, who was going to use one of her skills.

Both are so difficult... Aaron thought.

High above, Leo had already completed the preparations to strike the Roc with [Black Lightning].

Kaelion's lightning might be ineffective due to being lower in strength than the Roc, but not only would Leo's lightning be at Peak 4-star rank due to Lunaria—from whom the attack was copied—being in the 4-star realm, but the lightning itself was not normal lightning.

Normal lightning was pure electrical energy that relied on speed, heat, and explosive force to damage enemies. But Lunaria's Black Lightning was a rarer, more concentrated form that carried destructive energy capable of disrupting mana, had higher penetrative properties, and could damage the target's internal energy circulation along with its physical body.

In other words, Leo needed to try it out.

The dark clouds in the sky revolved as they formed a vortex right in the Roc's path of escape, and the moment it came right under the vortex, a thick bolt of black lightning crashed down.

The Roc wasn't prepared for the sudden attack, and the attack hit.

CRRARRKK—BAAAAAMMM!!

The attack crashed onto its back, and the remaining current discharged from its metal talons onto the ground.

The attack had actually damaged the beast, as it seemed to have blacked out. It went into a free fall in an arc due to its previous momentum, leaving a trail of black smoke in its path as if its inner skin beneath the metal feathers had been burned.

Leo was shocked to see that the point where the black lightning struck the beast had been completely obliterated, with the feathers missing and the flesh beneath charred and burned. Even the surrounding feathers around the point of impact were red-hot, as if they had been heated to extreme temperatures.

But the more interesting sight was the beast's talons, through which the remaining current discharged. The sharp claws were bright red, and the legs themselves seemed to have suffered severe burns.

The rest of its body seemed fine from the outside, but the way the Roc had been blacked out made it clear that it had suffered some internal damage.

"Crap, don't let the meat get spoiled." Leo was worried about a different thing.

Seeing the falling beast, the others started to cheer, but the very next second, it regained consciousness and strongly flapped its wings to regain balance.

By that time, Leo was already on top of the beast's head.

He noticed how one of its eyes was completely bloodshot, as if it had suffered some brain damage, but its sheer will to live had allowed it to keep going.

Though—

"Time's up," Leo muttered.

Whether it was because of a numb sensation caused by the lightning or something else, the Roc couldn't sense Leo standing over its head anymore, and that cost it a hammer punch right there.

BAAAM—CLLANNG!

A metallic blast rang out when Leo struck the armored head, directly making the skull of the beast—along with the metal feathers—cave in.

SKEEEEEEEEE—!!

The beast screeched and finally shook its head left and right to throw Leo away, but the damage was done.

Both of its eyes were completely red with multiples vein popped, and blood leaked from its head into the open sky. But somehow, the beast still maintained its flight and actually accelerated, using every ounce of its remaining mana to increase its speed through wind while flapping its wings frantically.

It reached an astonishing speed of Mach 5 in moments, and within a couple of seconds it was already 10 to 15 kilometres away, still accelerating.

But to the beast's horror, Leo was flying alongside it.

THUUM! THUUM! THUUM!

"SHHHIIITT!!" Leo cursed because a single mistake in the structure of the sleek, needle-like wind barrier in front of him was creating loud sonic booms behind him.

But Leo was already reaching the limit of his speed and needed to act quickly, so he increased his speed a bit more and crashed into the beast's side with force.

BHAM! CLANG!

Both beings were thrown apart in different directions, with chunks of shattered metal feathers falling along with bits of flesh.

Flesh because Leo's skin and muscles had been sheared away!

While he was being thrown away, his regenerating body had visible bones around his shoulder and arms. Thankfully, Leo healed them quickly and once again shot towards the disoriented beast before it could start running away again.

In the Emperor's Chamber, Louis and Cyrandel were closely watching the fight.

They had a separate screen set up for Leo and Lily, almost as if they were more important people there.

"He has that thing in him, but he doesn't have much experience," Louis said.

Cyrandel nodded.

"Should have finished things with a second Black Lightning, but I guess he wanted to preserve the beast's flesh integrity."

Louis shrugged.

"Could have simply crushed the beast down with his superior Wind pressure on the atmosphere, but I guess even this move is also good for his level."

Cyrandel nodded.

"Well, it might as well be his first proper fight with such a large flying beast, and he is young. He will learn things. But what I find commendable is him reaching that speed without wings."

Louis nodded.

"I guess he indeed got lucky obtaining that physique somehow."

Back at Leo's location, he had finished delivering the final blow to the head and killing the beast.

Ding!

Ironfeather Roc (High 4-star) killed — 80,000 XP

Level 31: 180,000 → 260,000 / 1,550,000

Leo sighed in relief as he gazed at the spirit clothes stitching up the last threads of his torn uniform.

"Damn, shouldn't this be considered my proper fight with such a huge beast... that too, a flying armored one?"

Leo tried to recall his previous encounters.

Except Howl, which was tamed, he had never actually fought truly big beasts properly. Lily's Hydra was probably the closest, but it wasn't as big as this Roc and didn't even fly.

The rest were either those already-dead followers of the migrating King Spirit Beast, the Infernal Serpent, or the Wind Amphithere.

Even out of those last two, the Infernal Serpent died on its own without a proper fight, and the spirit Wind Amphithere was thoroughly weakened in the summoned state, where it could only use limited mana.

Leo simply stored away the Roc's corpse in his spiritual space and flew towards the waiting team. It was time to decide on a location for their stronghold after reviewing the map drawn by Uraan and Kaelion.