Apex's eyes opened wide.
Bull's death hadn't hit him very hard. He was objectively the weakest of them, and they were also sharp enough to see that Leonel had used what looked like a once-use technique to deal with him quickly, especially since right afterward Leonel's aura seemed to plummet.
However, what he didn't expect was that Leonel didn't even need to use that technique to deal with them.
The suppression around him doubled the instant Peacock died and he realized just the sheer level of terror that Leonel was able to inflict.
He wasn't even sure how such a Domain could be possible.
Even so, fear wasn't Apex's immediate emotion. He couldn't see the wounds on his body and when he looked at Leonel, there was a deep light that seemed to exude an inhumane air.
What was the most shocking about Leonel was that his Spear seemed to be so strong... and yet Apex only realized now that he hadn't sensed any Spear Force even a single time.
"You are strong."
Leonel responded with nothing more than a spear. He never paused even a single time, and his hatred had yet to be vented. His spear danced once more, another relentless barrage erupting around Apex like firecrackers.
There was just one left and victory should have been easy. He should have been able to take Apex down even easier than he had Bull. He already understood his combat style and by now, his Control Ability Index had a predictive model for the Variant Invalid that was more than 99% accurate.
And yet, after a trio of exchanges, Leonel realized that something was wrong.
Apex was still holding up. His situation wasn't much better than when he had been fighting alongside Peacock, but it wasn't any worse either.
Leonel realized this instantly. Most would have taken several more exchanges, but the moment Leonel got to three, he indifferently changed his tactics.
Apex had the very same tattoos as the Barbarian Race, this was the first thing that Leonel had realized the moment he saw this man.
Back then, Leonel had planned to take out both Somnus and Talon at the same time. According to his calculations, they should have been together. But Talon deviated from that plan and ended up staying behind in the Owlan Race's territory for a bit before leaving later on.
Leonel had found this odd. Back then, his predictive abilities were already quite extensive, and afterward, they only got better, especially with his breakthrough in the use of Auspicious Air.
When he recalculated his deductions from back then, there was still a better than 90% possibility that Talon should have appeared with Somnus.
But he hadn't.
Why was that?
Leonel wasn't sure at first, but this quick exchange with Apex had already given him an idea.
Apex was an Invalid of the Barbarian Race, and after becoming a Variant of great power, he didn't seem to have exhibited any special abilities.
Bull was practically made of metal, though that was his downfall. All Peacock and Apex saw was him use [Finality] to kill him, what they didn't see was the manipulation of Earth Force that did him in.
Peacock had fallen to Leonel, but his abilities were also quite exceptional. On the surface, it looked as though he was just manipulating sharp feathers to assault Leonel from all sides, but the reality was that his rainbow-coloured Force was actually multi-faceted and layered.
It had a mimicry ability that seemed capable of storing one ability for every one of the colors it exuded, and this mimicry seemed to extend well into illusions and tricks of the eye, blending attack, defense and even assaults on the mind all into one...
It was an exceptional ability.
Just absolutely useless before Leonel.
So what was Apex? Just a man who could punch things hard and happened to be battle thirsty?
No, there was something being missed here, and after the third exchange, Leonel understood what it was.
Premonition.
Apex's predictive ability without Peacock in the picture had actually increased. Now he didn't need to predict the actions of two people at once, but rather just a single one.
It could be said that Apex was the perfect counter for Leonel. Leonel's battle style had always been built off the back of forcing his enemy to make a mistake and then capitalizing, but Apex seemed to be able to allow the smaller mistakes and avoid the large ones outright.
How do you counter someone who could see the future?
Honestly, at the moment, Leonel was truly infuriated. He wanted nothing more than to wipe all of these Invalids out and he didn't want even a single piece of their power. They were all worthless to him and he wanted nothing to do with them.
But right now, he could no longer justify it.
"Elorin."
Leonel couldn't keep his rage out of his voice, but it didn't seem to matter at the moment. He and Elorin were not close to begin with.
"Kill him and you'll improve."
Leonel turned and began to walk away. But before he vanished, he paused.
"If you can't kill him and you let him escape, there's no need for you to return."
Elorin didn't say a word as Leonel vanished. He knew that Leonel wasn't mad at him currently, but he also knew that Leonel didn't have a very good impression of him to begin with. How could he have one of a person who would kill his own grandfather?
These were still things that Elorin didn't regret, and it could be said that he and Leonel stood on opposite sides of things. But that didn't mean that they couldn't use one another.
Elorin had been under Anastasia's teachings all the while, and if Leonel and Aina were first in resource consumption, it wouldn't be a surprise to say that he was third.
If he couldn't defeat this level of opponent by now even after how much Leonel had done for him.
It really wasn't worth it for him to return.
