Leon was sent flying like a broken kite. He could hear the sound of his ribs breaking, and he even felt a few pieces piercing his flesh.

’Arrgghhk-!’

Pain flooded his senses, and at that moment, he felt like crying. Even when his mother had flogged him when he was younger, he had never felt this much pain. Even when he had been hit by a bike to protect Clara, he hadn’t felt this much pain.

Falling roughly onto the road, he eventually rolled to a stop, then pushed himself to sit up.

’Damnit...’

His whole body was in pain, and he had a feeling he was about to say hi to Hades himself.

’No, no, no. I don’t want to see that guy yet.’

Raising his head, he saw the mutated gorilla hit its chest triumphantly, even hitting his sword against the ground and trying to break it.

Unfortunately, it only injured itself and decided to drop the weapon.

Then, the beast turned towards its crippled prey. Growling, it pressed its fists to the ground, then tried to take a step forward.

Tried to. It failed to do so.

Watching it, Leon grinned faintly. "Got you."

The mutated gorilla looked down at the black chains tying up its legs, only to have its two eyes directly pierced by thin shadow spears that rose up from the ground.

The beast roared and immediately pulled out the spears, easily crushing them to pieces. However, the damage had been done.

It had gone blind.

Leon forced himself to his feet despite feeling like a single move would bring him to the point of no return.

With slow, unsteady steps, he walked towards his sword which was dropped carelessly on the ground.

The mutated gorilla was swinging around blindly, hitting nothing but air.

Leon shot it a cold glance, gritted his teeth, then picked up his sword from the ground.

The beast turned towards the source of the sound and roared. Leon didn’t care. His time was almost up.

Gripping the hilt of the sword tightly, he waited for it to draw closer to him, then he ducked under the wild swing of its arms.

’Now!’

In that instant, he sprang back up and swung the black greatsword at its neck.

The beast was unable to see, so it couldn’t sense the danger until it was too late. The blade tore through its neck and separated the large head from its body.

[You have slain a Level 28 Tier One Evolved Silverback Gorilla! +10 strength points gained!]

[You have leveled up to Level...]

[You have leveled up to Level 24! +12 stat points gained!]

Leon stared at the messages in a daze, then suddenly froze. His muscles turned rigid, as if locked in a specific state and unable to be turned.

[Time frame has been exceeded, flaw will now take hold]

Leon’s eyes widened just as a flush of pain rushed through his body like lightning, causing him to release a silent scream as he collapsed to the ground.

The pain was so intense that he could only last a few seconds before him brain was unable to cope and shut down, rendering him unconscious.

Thyra came down from the tree she had been sitting, looking at him with a complicated look in her eyes. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Sigh... I should stop getting surprised by your feats."

While still being an unranked entity, he had killed two ranked entities just two weeks after the apocalypse.

It was something unbelievable, just like saying a child had killed two grown men. Or a rat had killed two house cats.

Perhaps, if she even shared it with her mates in the Demon Army, they would only think she was trying to hype her temporary host.

’I probably shouldn’t even mention him at all. That weird girl might get interested in him.’

She shook her head with a wry smile. Then she helped him pick up his rewards, and the yellow soul crystal from the gorilla’s head.

After that, she carried him into a secluded corner of the forest.

.........

The two buses arrived at the field house safely, but the people inside weren’t smiling. They all alighted with grim faces, looking back as if they were expecting someone to pop out and shout: ’It’s a prank!’

However, there was no such thing despite them waiting for almost half an hour.

"Should we go check for him? He might..."

Gwen spoke hesitantly, then stopped.

Everyone turned to Selene who was the undisputed leader of the group.

The girl had a cold expression on her face as usual, but her eyes looked like she was struggling with something internally.

Finally, she spoke after a few seconds.

"We wait for five hours. He promised that. If we don’t see him by then... forget it."

She turned around and walked into the field house. The others looked at each other, then hesitantly followed her inside.

The students and staff that had been waiting for them were jubilant when they heard the roars of engine outside, as it meant their confinement here was about to end.

When Selene and the others entered, they were met with an emotional scenes where some students were crying on each other’s shoulders and mentioning their eventual reunion with their families.

Selene glanced at them, scoffed inwardly, then went to her own bathroom to take a shower.

Gwen looked at the people who were now throwing them grateful glances, but she couldn’t feel any ease at all.

Indeed, they had gotten the buses, but at what cost?

Leon was out there, and they didn’t know if he was dead or alive, or perhaps he desperately needed help while they were here basking in people’s praise.

"Don’t think too much about it. Things like that are bound to happen."

Samson, being the adult of the group, patted her shoulder and reassured her.

Still solemn, the group gathered around their table and patiently waited for five hours.

"It’s been five hours already. Where’s Selene, by the way? Isn’t she supposed to be here with us?"

The man asked with a frown, folding his arms.

Reymond glanced at Gwen, who understood and immediately went to the bathroom to check up on Selene.

A few minutes later, she came back, her face pale with confusion.

"She... she’s not there."