Before either of them could reach him, Lucius leapt to the side with impressive force. For the first time in a long while, his legs were able to make perfect use of his mana.

The last time he felt something like this, he was in his previous body.

Now, however, it was all thanks to Clara’s distant assistance.

’She’s a support type...’ he thought, genuinely surprised. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He had never heard of this kind of support mage before.

It was the first time he’d seen one.

He immediately understood what he could do with this, so he smiled and looked at the Jaguar and the three assassins in front of him.

He signaled to Clara to stay back. "I’ll take care of these."

He clenched his fists tightly. They began to flash with a strange, meteor-like glow. "And they won’t last long."

The Three-Step Jaguar ignored the assassins and focused solely on his target: the mage who had just dodged his attack.

It roared, causing the dry leaves in the forest to tremble. It was an E+ Rank beast, but its ability was peculiar. It possessed the ability or magic of [Wind Distortion Stride], which allowed it to practically teleport on the fourth step after taking three precise steps.

While it wasn’t true teleportation, but rather an extremely fast movement through the wind, to the weak like them, it was a powerful form of teleportation.

After the roar, the Jaguar moved.

One step! The ground beneath the beast’s claws cracked.

Just then, one of the assassin leaders moved as well.

"So this is the famous Lucius Asturias, huh. Well, killing him will feel good. Killing scum is my profession, after all." One of the three assassins smiled, drawing a pair of daggers coated in dark poison.

The other two flanked him, ready to behead him.

Lucius knew that the one who spoke wasn’t the leader. ’He must be among the two who moved to the flanks. Who sent these guys? The Asturians?’

Step two! The cracks spread out to the sides.

The air around the jaguar suddenly began to distort and was enveloped in an aura of crimson lightning.

Lucius bit his lip slightly as he felt pain radiating from his chest.

’Even with her help, is it this complicated?’ he thought.

In the distance, Clara kept her magic active. However, the Jaguar’s power was interfering, and that was why she was struggling to keep it active.

"That will be enough," Lucius thought, looking ahead.

Step three! Finally, the cracks caught up with Lucius.

Suddenly, Lucius sprang into action. The jaguar would reach them before the other three attackers. But now he was out in the open, so he had no fear of the jaguar.

The problem with the Jaguar’s almost instantaneous movement is that it’s easy to understand once you know it’s going to happen and you know what its target is, which is very simple.

However, when it’s in a forest or enclosed spaces like this, it’s practically impossible to tell where it’s going because there are too many distractions, and it can make up to fifteen turns in an instant.

It’s a difficult spell to control, but highly sought after by wizards.

Suddenly.

Fourth step!

The jaguar vanished from everyone’s sight.

"Watch out!" Clara shouted from behind, a trickle of cold sweat running down her cheeks.

Keeping that core intact required his absolute concentration; he felt as if he were holding some kind of volcano on the verge of erupting with a pair of ice-cold tweezers.

The Three-Step Jaguar then materialized with its jaws wide open, mere millimeters from Lucius’s neck.

Space itself seemed to tear apart. At the same time, the three assassins fell from the air, coordinating their attacks to leave him no escape routes.

"Die!" roared the assassins’ "leader."

However, Lucius didn’t even blink. He simply widened his smile.

"Too slow," he whispered.

Moving at great speed, Lucius ducked his body. His mana-covered fists struck the beast above him directly in the stomach.

[Meteor Impact: activated.]

A shockwave of pure mana erupted. The Three-Step Jaguar let out a choked scream as the mana pulverized its internal organs, sending it flying backward and slamming directly into one of the assassins who was in mid-air.

That assassin’s bones were completely shattered by the force of the impact.

Shock spread across the faces of the assassins’ leader, the beast, and Clara. Everyone who witnessed this was paralyzed.

The assassins’ "leader" opened his eyes in horror. The useless mage of the Asturias family had... neutralized an E+ Rank beast and an E Rank assassin in a single move?

"Impossible!" he roared. "Clearly your core has been destroyed!" he roared.

Just then, a strong breeze reached him.

"That’s right. My core is fractured. But since when has that been a limitation on using magic? Heh, you just have to figure out the trick, and you’ll be able to do amazing things." Lucius laughed and gave him a hard punch in the stomach with his other hand.

The force of the blow destroyed everything inside the defenseless assassin’s body.

"A student... I see." Lucius looked toward where the other assassin was standing. "So you’re Kenneth."

Kenneth took three quick steps backward, moving more than 20 meters away in an instant. He was fast and agile.

He stared at Lucius from head to toe and admitted it. "You’re really strong, Lucius Asturias. I don’t understand why they cast you aside, but I suppose you committed some sin you shouldn’t have. In that case, I, as the family’s sword, will be your executioner."

Lucius laughed. "Executioner? You’re overestimating yourself. It seems you forget quickly what’s happening right under your nose."

"It’s not that I forget." Kenneth raised a sword instead of the poisoned dagger. "I just know you don’t have much time to fight in that state, do you? Your strength is surprising, but I can see how you’re slowly destroying yourself from the inside. I wonder who will destroy themselves first."

Lucius burst out laughing. "I like a good bet. So let’s do it, then. Let’s find out who will destroy themselves first."