The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast could no longer walk, but he turned himself around on his two forelegs and opened his bloody maw toward where Leo had been sent flying.
His abdomen heaved, fierce winds rushed into his mouth, and a ball of wind took shape.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast let out an enraged roar, blasting a storm straight toward where Leo had been hurled.
The storm swept up everything in its path and shredded it all, splitting the forest in two amid thunderous explosions.
Having forcibly unleashed his body's potential, the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast pressed his advantage to finish Leo off while he was hurt. After this furious strike, he could no longer sense Leo's presence and judged that he had killed him.
After taking two attacks like those, never mind a two-legged creature whose aura had yet to reach level one-even a level-one creature would never survive.
But the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast still wasn't reassured. Laboriously propping himself up on his two forelegs, he crawled toward Leo. Only eating Leo's corpse would put him at ease.
But just then, excruciating pain suddenly shot through the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's tail. His body grew lighter, and he could no longer feel his tail.
Without his tail, his enormous body could no longer maintain its balance, and he toppled over.
Leo stood at the severed stump with his greatsword in hand. The Healing Rune Array on his chest flashed frantically, sending out rays of healing light that constantly mended his injuries.
After Leo had used Shadow Jump to strike, the shadow beneath his feet plunged straight into his body.
His strength increased slightly, but more importantly, merging with his shadow instantly reduced his severe injuries to minor ones, bringing them within his tolerance.
Leo's face was ashen. The instant that blow struck him, he had wondered if he had died on the spot.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's hate-fueled strike had exceeded 700 points of attack power. Every rib in Leo's chest had been broken, and his ribs had even punctured his internal organs in four places. He had been severely injured-the kind of severe injury that left him on death's door.
Leo's earlier estimate had been correct. If the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast landed a hit, he would either die or suffer severe injuries.
Leo looked at the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast. After unleashing another storm, the beast's aura had weakened to its limit. Leo had also cut off its most dangerous weapon, its tail, and severed both its hind legs. It was now nothing but a great turtle for Leo to butcher at will.
"Are you ready to die?" Leo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and asked coldly.
"Roar!"
The answer Leo received was the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's furious, defiant roar, declaring that it would fight to the death.
Inside a cave, Leo had not taken a single step outside for half a month. To get revenge on the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast, he had eaten a fifth of the beast's body over those two weeks.
As expected of a level-one beast, its meat was rich in energy and could greatly help repair bodily damage.
Together with Leo's own regenerative abilities and the Healing Rune Array's constant healing, it had completely healed his severe injuries in half a month.
"This battle also exposed my shortcomings. My body isn't strong enough, my defense is inadequate, my resilience is lacking, and I have no way to finish things with one decisive blow," Leo silently reproached himself as he rubbed his chest.
If his body had been a little stronger and his methods a little more powerful, how could the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast have injured him?
"Holy crap, listen to the outrageous things coming out of your mouth! Your opponent was a level-one lifeform! Right now, you've barely crossed the threshold of a peak apprentice at best. You fought above your level, against an opponent with incredibly strong defenses at that. What more do you want?"
Benji, who had not spoken for nearly eight years, finally couldn't take it anymore and unleashed a torrent of words at Leo.
There were some things Benji left unsaid. In his world, an expert like Leo who could kill above his level would be a chosen son of heaven, a peerless hero. The emergence of even one would have the entire city cheering and make his name known throughout the world. Back in his day, he had been just such a hero.
Yet Leo had reached that point and still wasn't satisfied. What else did he want?
Did he want to fly into the heavens?
"Then how do you think I compare to Alice? She's a peak wizard apprentice too," Leo asked, still dissatisfied.
"..."
Benji instantly fell silent. Leo was a freak too, but compared to Alice...
The gap was still glaringly obvious!!!
He wasn't enough of a freak yet!
Leo had suffered severe injuries to kill a level-one beast. Alice could kill one instantly!
Even more impressively, Alice could withstand two casual attacks from the level-two Nox. That had utterly shocked Benji. Someone like her had probably never been born in his world!
As Benji fell silent, another thought left him unable to argue: whether Leo or Alice, both were merely ordinary wizards in the Wizard World.
Across the entire Wizard World, who knew how many wizard apprentices like them existed? There were probably more than the total number of living beings in his world.
He had come here through a twist of fate, but he had no idea whether it was a blessing or a curse!
Once Leo recovered, he resumed his hunt.
While recuperating from his severe injuries, Leo had also reflected on how he could have taken down the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast without getting hurt. His injuries had been entirely due to his inadequate combat awareness.
That was why he urgently needed a great deal of combat. As long as he didn't die, he would fight-fight until he no longer got hurt!
Time raced on as Leo fought.
Killing.
Endless killing.
He was either killing or on his way to kill.
In any case, the Wizard World had no wildlife protection laws. No one would punish Leo for killing too much.
On the contrary, his killing would earn him merit. It couldn't be helped: ordinary civilians couldn't fight these beasts, and wizards wouldn't protect those civilians every day. They could only reduce the beasts' numbers through large-scale slaughter.
After some time passed and the beasts' population grew again, they would slaughter them once more. Only by repeating this cycle could they maintain a basic balance.
Leo traced circles around Tiyama City, sweeping outward ring by ring. He spared no beast with more than 100 points of attack power.
When he encountered level-one beasts he could beat, he fought with his life on the line. When he encountered ones he couldn't beat, running came first.
Once his strength was close enough, he would come back and fight!
Year after year passed, and Leo no longer knew how many beasts he had killed. All he knew was that he spent every day killing, and after repeating this over and over, he had reached five hundred li from Tiyama City.
Leo didn't remember the ordinary beasts, but he remembered every level-one beast perfectly. He had encountered 178 in total, killed 15, and defeated 23.
For all the rest, Leo had been the first to run!
In short, he lost more than he won. Fortunately, Shadow Jump was reliable, or Leo would have died who knew how many times.
The greatest gains Leo reaped from this constant combat were improved combat awareness and the tempering of his body.
Only the sense of danger between life and death could make his body instinctively evolve on its own. This was not passive evolution, but active evolution to overcome difficulty. Every time he hung between life and death, Leo could feel his body's potential being unlocked.
So later on, Leo spent most of his time seeking out level-one beasts and fighting them every day. If he couldn't win, he ran. If he won, he ate meat.
"Buzz, buzz."
As Leo rested, he suddenly felt a vibration. He reached out, and a crystal ball rose from Shadow Space.
"Kid, hurry back. It's time to select wizard apprentices."
Gru's voice came from the crystal ball.
"Didn't Samatchi always handle this himself before? Why come to me this time?" Leo asked in confusion.
One of the duties of his twenty-year garrison assignment was to select suitable apprentices for Purple Flame Academy.
The task was extremely simple. All he needed to do was check whether young people under twenty met the spiritual power requirement.
The testing took place once every three years. Leo had never done it since coming to Tiyama City, and neither had Gru. Work like this, which required no technical skill whatsoever, had always been Samatchi's responsibility.
Leo did the math. It was already the eighteenth year of his garrison assignment, making this the last apprentice selection task.
But even if it was the last one, that shouldn't require him to interrupt his training and go back, should it?
"Has someone from the academy come to Tiyama City?"
There had never been any unexpected developments before. Suddenly calling Leo back for a task now was clearly putting on a show. Who else could that show be for but a wizard from the academy?
"...You'll know when you get back."
In a rare display, Gru hemmed and hawed without giving a clear answer. Leo wanted to keep pressing him, but Gru abruptly cut off the connection, telling him only to hurry back.
Leo had no choice. Though puzzled, he packed his things and left the wilderness.
When Leo returned to Tiyama City half a day later, he understood why Gru had been in such a hurry to call him back.
A female wizard stood in the hall, her frosty expression keeping everyone at arm's length. Magical power surged around her, and the floor within a foot of her was covered in ice.
This one wizard alone had lowered the temperature of the entire hall by several degrees, like cool air conditioning on a scorching summer day.
"Alice?"
Leo looked questioningly at Gru. Hadn't this peak wizard apprentice, who had previously been secretly protecting him, left after the battle at the volcanic crater? Why had she suddenly appeared here again?
"Leo, I don't need to introduce her, do I? Alice, an absolute top-tier peak wizard apprentice. I called you back because Alice has something to discuss with you."
After that brief introduction, Gru gave him a strange look with a hint of encouragement. "I won't get involved in you young people's business. You two talk. I'll go handle the selection of qualified apprentices."
Gru instantly vanished from the hall, winking at Leo before he disappeared. He left behind only Leo, whose head was full of questions, and Alice, who kept giving off cold air like an air conditioner.
Alice's aura was stronger than at their last meeting. Her icy chill had begun to affect her surroundings, clearly indicating that her magical power had grown beyond her control.
Or rather, Alice had already become strong enough to attempt advancing to a level one formal wizard at any time, with an extremely high chance of success.
Leo didn't understand. If she had already reached this point, why was she still holding back instead of advancing?
"By the academy's orders, you and I will form a team to compete in the Six-Academy Joint Championship two years from now. I've come so we can get used to working together," Alice told Leo icily.
"Two years from now? The Six-Academy Joint Championship?"
"What's that?"
Even more questions filled Leo's head. Why had he never heard of this Six-Academy Joint Championship? And from what Alice said, it seemed he had been entered without his consent.