Marie remained silent for a few minutes, feeling inwardly conflicted.

She almost didn’t know what to do, until her daughter moved.

Nora took a glance at Marcus and immediately hugged Marie tighter, as if she was scared of him.

Marie’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything. After all, it was obvious that Marcus didn’t have a good reputation at the camp.

Sighing, she made a decision in her heart, and raised her head.

Turning to Marcus, she said calmly, "Marcus, I understand that you feel remorseful. And I’m glad that you’re willing to change and amend your mistakes."

Instantly, the guy’s eyes brightened, "I surely will. I promise."

However, Marie shook her head and continued, "I’m sorry, Marcus, but I can’t stay. I made a promise, and I’m not going to break it."

Instantly, Marcus’s expression darkened. Meanwhile, Leon sighed in relief.

’Thankfully, I won’t have to resort to that.’

Then, he turned to Marcus and said, "You’ve heard her. Our business here is d—"

He took two steps back, narrowly avoiding a blade aimed at his throat. His expression didn’t change, as he had already expected something similar.

"Marcus?! What are you doing?" Marie shouted as she clutched her daughter tightly.

"What am I doing?" He turned to her, a frightening expression on his face. "I am only fighting for my family. If you made some shitty promise with him, then I just have to kill him."

Instantly, Marie’s eyes flared with anger, "Don’t you dare!!!"

She held her daughter with one hand, and her spear with the other. She took a step forward, ready to fight against him. However, she was quickly surrounded by the other evolvers that had stayed hidden. Also, several guns were pointed at her and her child, forcing her to stay in place.

"Don’t move, Marie. I don’t want to harm our child," Marcus said without turning to her.

His full attention was still on Leon, who appeared completely relaxed.

"Die for me."

Gritting his teeth, he held the rapier in his hand and dashed towards him. Leon sidestepped the attack, elbowing him in the ribs.

This caused Marcus to stagger as he was pushed off balance.

"You bastard..."

Growling angrily, his body rippled strangely. Then, his skin turned silver like metal, and his body transformed into living metal.

The rapier in his hand also trembled, then became a normal sword.

Floating above them, Thyra’s eyes widened, ’Metal manipulation? That’s... a strong one!’

Seeing the change that had happened to Marcus, Leon immediately got serious. He unsheathed his greatsword, and the two men dashed at each other.

Clang!

Their blades met midair, delivering an ear-stunning ring.

Marcus was pushed back in the exchange, losing in strength. However, he wasn’t troubled. After all, his ability was what he was most confident in.

Stepping forward again, he moved in and attacked Leon. This time, he didn’t just attack with his sword. Several steel spikes shot out of his body and struck Leon.

Since he was too close, he could not dodge. Thankfully, his armor held and protected his vitals.

Wincing, he stepped back, then slashed towards Marcus’s neck.

Surprisingly, the guy didn’t block with his sword, instead raising his arm. Meanwhile, he struck at Leon with the sword using his other hand.

Clang!

Leon’s heavy blade struck his arm... and dealt no damage. The skin simply rippled from the impact, like oil dropped on the surface of water.

Meanwhile, Leon suffered an injury to his shoulder where Marcus’s blade dug deep.

His brows creased for a moment, then relaxed as he disengaged. He continued attacking Marcus, trying to find a way to deal actual damage to him.

However, all his blows were blocked, and his silver body merely rippled whenever he was struck.

’Impenetrable defense, hm? I see.’

After exchanging a dozen moves, Leon decided to change tactics. He raised his sword high above his head, tightened his arm muscles, then brought it down as fast as he could.

Marcus felt a sense of danger and immediately sidestepped.

But then, he realized that... he couldn’t. His legs were rooted to the ground by black cuffs that were made of something he didn’t know. He tugged at them in an attempt to break off, but it was too late.

He could only tilt his head so he wouldn’t tank the attack with his shiny head.

The blade landed on his right shoulder with a metallic clang, and he winced.

’What the hell?!’

His metal skin was cut slightly, but then sealed itself in a few seconds. Still, he was in pain.

Holding in a grunt, he staggered backwards. The strength behind that blow was nothing to scoff at, and only now did he realize that Leon’s strength might be more than he thought.

Meanwhile, Leon calmly assessed him, raising his sword again.

’Even if you have impenetrable defense, you’re still human. Facing something this heavy, augmented by external force and gravity, you have no choice but to fold.’

Seeing him raise his sword, Marcus flew into panic and hurriedly tried to stop him. However, Leon abruptly changed the direction of his blade, turning it diagonally.

Marcus was caught off guard and scrambled to raise his sword.

Bang!

His arms were pushed back, and his figure slammed to the ground beneath him, cracks spreading from the impact.

Screams erupted from the survivors as they all ran away in panic, not wanting to be caught up in such a dreadful battle.

If that heavy black blade flew out of Leon’s hand by mistake, then several people would be sliced in half or crushed to death.

Soon, only Leon, Marcus, Marie, her daughter, and the armed men remained in the camp square.

"You bastard..."

Getting up from the ground, Marcus gritted his teeth, and glanced at Marie.

"Do you see how much trouble you’re causing me? Don’t blame me if I’m rough on you when this ends!"

The woman’s brows furrowed, and she felt glad that she hadn’t chosen to side with him.

Marcus ignored her and glared at Leon, "I’ll let you leave now. If you don’t, I swear I will bury you here."

Leon tilted his head and answered, "Let’s make this quick. I still want to sleep early."