CHAPTER 224: EX 224.ATTACK

Leon had already slipped deep into the forest, branches snapping beneath his boots as the towering mass of flesh lumbered behind him. He didn’t run recklessly, nor did he crawl at a snail’s pace, his stride was deliberate, measured, just enough to keep the creature’s fury fixed on him. The abomination’s hatred burned like a tether; it had not forgotten the moment Leon cleaved off its master’s head. That insult was carved into whatever twisted consciousness still lingered inside it, and Leon intended to exploit that obsession for as long as he could.

But then, the golem like creture slowed.

And stopped.

Leon’s pace faltered, his eyes narrowing as he turned, blade in hand, to face the colossus. The creature stood rooted among the trees, silent, and menacing, its aura of death still poisoning the air around it. It did not advance. It did not retreat. It simply stared, as though it had grown tired of the chase.

"Tch..." Leon’s grip tightened on his sword. If this thing turned back toward the city now, all his efforts to pull it away would have been for nothing.

He thought quickly, then raised his blade. In the next instant, power surged across its edge, raw and violent. Tier 3 Force affinity wrapped the weapon like a crackling mantle, humming with unstable energy. Leon exhaled sharply and swung.

BOOM!

The air shattered as the strike tore through the sound barrier, a streak of compressed force cutting across the distance. It struck the abomination’s right shoulder with a thunderous impact, carving a deep gash into its massive frame. For a heartbeat, Leon thought he had its attention.

But the golem didn’t flinch.

The wound knit itself back together almost instantly, flesh reweaving into grotesque wholeness. It was as if the strike hadn’t happened at all.

Leon’s brow furrowed. "Damn it..." He had counted on damage to provoke it, not this cold indifference. If the thing simply stood here or worse, decided to turn back to the city, all of his work, every risk he had taken, would collapse into disaster.

A bitter thought crossed his mind.

’Right now, I’d kill to have Adrian’s taunt skill.’

But before the wish could linger, the abomination moved.

Slowly, with a sound like boulders grinding together, its head turned toward him. Then its hulking frame lurched forward, and the death zone pulsed, swelling like a tide as the forest floor cracked beneath its step.

Leon set his stance, his heartbeat steadying.

It had decided to act.

****

Despite its towering, impassive frame, the golem was far from indifferent. Every ponderous step it had taken through the city and forest had been soaked in agony. Corruption gave power, yes. But it was twisted, boundless, overwhelming power and it came at a price. The brunt of that torment did not fall on the hulking body of flesh.

It fell on the still-living head imprisoned within.

Deep inside the grotesque amalgamation, the former city lord’s head floated in a churning sea of dark, pulsing flesh. His face contorted in constant pain, teeth grinding until blood seeped from his gums. He had no body left to scream, no lungs to draw breath, only the unending torment of thought.

Make Shantel great again... make Shantel great again... make Shantel great again...

The phrase pulsed through his corrupted mind like a hammer, pounding without end. Every time the words repeated, the pain grew sharper, the madness tighter, until his very soul seemed to crack under the weight.

And now, as the hulking body stood motionless in the forest, all that pain gathered into one boiling point.

The abomination suddenly moved.

With a roar that warped the air itself, the golem lunged. Its massive bulk blurred with a speed it had never displayed before, branches snapping like twigs under its charge. The death zone rippled outward violently, black lines crawling across the ground as the aura swelled to engulf everything in reach.

Leon’s eyes went wide. He hadn’t expected this. Not now. Not this fast.

"Shit—!"

He pushed off the earth with everything he had, throwing himself backward in desperation. But the abomination was faster. The death zone surged like a living tide, expanding, devouring, and swallowing him whole.

For an instant, Leon’s body froze. Black veins spread across his skin. His limbs cracked, then turned to ash, the wind scattering what was left of him into nothingness.

The golem halted, the grotesque maw that served as its chest gurgling in twisted satisfaction. It watched as the pest, the thorn that had drawn it away, the source of so much pain was erased before its eyes.

Finally, silence.

But then—

"Finally."

The voice rang sharp from above.

The abomination’s head twisted violently, its gaze dragging upward. Perched casually on a tree branch a dozen meters away stood Leon, very much alive, his blade resting across his shoulder. His blue eyes glinted coldly in the dim forest light.

The Leon that had just been consumed was nothing but a mirror clone. A decoy.

And now, the cycle had ended.

Now Leon could act.

****

Leon’s chest rose and fell in steady rhythm, his sword still slung across his shoulder as if the abomination looming before him wasn’t a monstrosity born from corruption itself. His stats had climbed far from those meager numbers he had started with, now, each of them sat comfortably in the four digits. But stats weren’t his focus.

No. His eyes locked on the shimmering numbers before him.

[Attack Points: 30,000]

He still had points from the last cycle, hoarded for this exact moment. And now, with the cycle finally ended, it was time.

Leon exhaled slowly, shifting his grip on the blade. With a casual flick, he swung to his side. The air split with a crack as several sound barriers fractured at once. His control was surgical, each strike small, and precise, adding to his points.

[Attack Points: 35,000]

Another swing. Another break in the air.

[Attack Points: 37,000]

Again.

[Attack Points: 40,000]

Leon lowered the blade, his gaze unwavering on the abomination. His jaw tightened. He already knew where every last point was going.

Vitality.

The death zone wasn’t just an aura of corruption, it was a field that preyed on what made living things alive, stripping away their very life force until they crumbled to dust. The lower life force one had, the faster they would loose it.

So Leon would overwhelm it.

He would generate so much life force that the zone would choke on it before it could drain him dry.

"Burn all points into vitality," he muttered.

The system responded instantly.

A shockwave erupted outward from his body, BOOMING through the forest. The tree he had been perched on splintered in half, collapsing with a thunderous crash. Branches whipped violently as dozens of nearby trees cracked and snapped under the sheer pulse of his overflowing vitality.

Leon landed lightly on the forest floor. A wave of radiant life force spread through his being, golden-green sparks flickering faintly around his skin like embers in the night. His hair, already stark white, seemed almost to glow as it fluttered in the wind.

The golem abomination froze. Every face carved into its grotesque body, hundreds of them, each with eyes wide in eternal fear, shifted in unison, locking on Leon. For the first time, there was something like hesitation.

Leon gripped his blade in both hands, his expression stripped bare of anything but grim determination. This time, he didn’t retreat.

He surged forward, vitality roaring through him like a second heartbeat.

And for the first time since the corruption was born...

Leon charged into the death zone.