<h4>Chapter 23: Real Powerhouses</h4>


    "You are..." Leon knitted his brows in confusion. in front of him were a group of teenage hunters being led by one with blue eyes.


    They were hunters about his age and probably knew who he was. So why were they questioning him.


    "You think you should be the one questioning me? Who the hell do you think you are?" The leader of the young hunters questioned with an obvious look of annoyance.


    "You had better apologies to the young master, kid, this is young master Anan Dalriss of the honorable Dalriss household. Show some respect" one of the young man''s cronies stepped out to protest Leon''s attitude. How dare this good for nothing prisoner speak to their boss like that?


    "Oh? A dalriss?" Immediately after hearing that name, Leon froze. That name, it was the only reason he was in this predicament right now. Captured and treated like a prisoner because he killed someone with the surname Dalriss.


    "Hehe, now you know who you''re messing with. Apologize" with a sly smile on his face, the cronie said to Leon. They made it a point of importance to engrave the names of the top hunter families in the minds of their ves. They would beat them, hang them upside down and torture them in the name of noble families so, whenever one heard those namese up, there would be fall into uncontroble fear.


    (Hmp!! The Dalriss name should strike a chord in your heart, you beastly peasant)


    The cronie felt very proud, sending fear down the hearts of others. It was a kind of thrill for them. It made them feel important.


    "Ha!! I had no idea that honorable sir was from the dalriss family. I humbly offer my apologizes sire" Leon didn''t act arrogantly, he gave a simple bow and an apology. There was no need to create a mountain out of a molehill in his opinion. If they wanted to feel big, then he would grant that to them.


    Leon had seen and been through alot of situations like this in his past live, he understood that sometimes there was a need to take a step back. Unnecessary conflicts would breed Unnecessary problems.


    "You are the one who fought against my big brother to a standstill?" Instead of epting Leon''s apology, the kid Anon asked Leon this awkward question.


    The brother he was referring to was none other than Fryn Dalriss. The young hunter Leon had killed. Anan was his little brother.


    "I wouldn''t call it a standstill....." Leon responded humbly as if trying to show subservience but, His words had a double meaning. If Arian were here, she would read it as Leon saying he had ended Fryan''s life. But to Anan, he would see it as Leon admitting that he was inferior to his big brother.


    "Hahaha, good decision. I advise you to let go of this narrative being spread by you and that b*tch Arian. Let go of it and we will be okay..." Anan didn''t like the rumors. Plenty of people looked down on his brother because he liked to overemphasise on hisckluster talent at hunting. He believed he was the best at it, but was really trash.


    Even though he knew his older brother was a wannabe prodigy. He couldn''t let the family name be aughingstock in front of others so he had to keep Leon in check.


    "Sure," Leon responded with a bow, then proceeded to turn around in an attempt to leave.


    However


    —shingggg


    Before he Could, a bright light shone as a chain coiled through the air, threatening to wrap Leon by the neck. Anan was not going to let Leon leave.


    —duum


    Fortunately, in the next few seconds, Leon was able to dodge, resulting in the chain hitting the cloth of a tent beside him.


    (Lunatic!!!)


    Leon screamed in his mind, he had bent his head down just now, so why was this guy attacking him out of the blue????


    There was no time for thinking, though. He had to run away as fast as he could. He didn''t want to fight a battle where he was outnumbered at this point.


    —woosh


    "Get him!!!" Ananmanded his men as soon as Leon began running away. And just like that, the chase had begun once again only, this time, Leon was the target.


    —woosh


    —woosh


    —woosh


    Leon ran at his top speed, desperately dodging Anan and his cronies. During the past few days. Even though he had not sessfully entered level 1, he had improved by leaps and bounds. His physical body had improved, abet it maintaining anky structure. He was able to easily avoid Anans cronies.....


    Of course, Anan himself was an entirely different case.


    —Bang!!


    Anan was an absolute beast, For a kid his


    Age. His chain maniption skills were topnotch and seemed to be following Leon like a ma.


    —Boom!!


    No matter where he went, the chain would follow. It was a wonder how the gray smander kid was able to escape Anan.


    (This kid is a pain in the ass)


    Leon was pissed off, Anan was spoiling his fun. He thought he would have the opportunity to continue piging the battlefield, but this bastard had dash away all his ns.


    "I have no choice" Leon''s eyes trailed onto a distant silhouette who could be seen asionally looking his way, meanwhile facing off against a warlock.


    With a mischievous smile on his face, Leon immediately dashed towards the silhouette.


    ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


    "F*ck I can''t draw this out for much longer"


    Arian was pissed by the insistent warlock.


    She had even given him several opportunities to escape, so she could focus on what Leon was doing, but the fool couldn''t take a hint.


    "I hate this!!" With rage in her eyes, Arian kicked up a cloud of dust with a swing of her sword. Then she pushed her mana to the limits.


    "Sword rain"


    A massive amount of mana erupted from within her and rushed to the sword in her hand, causing it to be longer all of a sudden.


    —PU


    —PU


    —PU


    —PU


    Small and subtle sounds whizzed through the air suddenly and when the dust cloud finally settled, the two figures previously standing in the open battlefield had turned into one figure.


    Arian had won.


    It seemed like a swift and simple battle. In fact, Arian barely had any wounds, but those who knew, understood that Arian had used a spell that was too expensive. It could visibly be seen from her shaky hands.


    "Stop there!!!"


    While she was in this state, she heard a voice sound from beside her and Leon''s figure could be seen rushing towards her.


    "This bastard." Arian spoke through her teeth. She had just finished a battle with someone who was clearly of a higher rank than her, and now Leon wasing here with more trouble??


    "Don''t look at me like that, they started it" Leon gave a smug response while hiding behind Arian''s figure. In front of them were Anan and his cronies, who had apparently been badly beaten.


    "This...." Arian looked annoyed. If Leon was going to run away, then he should have run away. But now that he had attacked these guys, it was a entirely different ball game.


    "Hand over the ve!!!" Anan shouted at the top of his voice. Although he wasn''t injured, his subordinates had received the back end of the stick.


    It was embarrassing, especially with the fact that Leon didn''t actually send any attacks their way. He just went throughplicated terrain in such a way that they couldn''t keep up and ended up hurting themselves. He was unable to imagine what would happen if people heard about that.


    They got battered and bruised from just chasing? What kind of hunters would injure themselves when chasing game?


    "Why? What did he do?" Arian frowned her brows and asked. She hadn''t seen the whole thing, but she knew Leon didn''t actually hit them, only the way they looked.....it was miserable, and it wasn''t like she could prove that he didn''t touch them.


    "It doesn''t matter what he''s done. Just hand him over!!" Ananmanded once again. He couldn''t say the reason out of shame, reporting it would be worse. He just wanted to kill Leon.


    "I won''t"


    Arians voice sounded without a trace of hesitance. There was no way in hell that she would hand Leon over, it was tantamount tomitting suicide.


    ''You....." Anan was speechless, his interactions with Arian were limited as she was his big brothers'' bodyguard, so he didn''t expect this response....he was basically nobility to her, how dare she?


    Unfortunately, Before he couldin.


    —kaboommm!!!!


    From the mountain side, a massive explosion erupted, drawing the attention of not only Arian and Anan, but also Leon who was calmly hiding behind Arian.


    "F*cking hunters!!!!" In the sky, an elderly figure with ethereal wings stood triumphantly in the air. He looked angered.


    "That''s...." Arian was in shock. The whole n was to siege the warlock camp and capture prisoners, while the hunter elders entered the mountains to fish out the top Brass of the warlock alliance. However, it seemed like things had changed.


    The person standing in the sky was powerful, but he was definitely not from any of the ns in the alliance that they knew about.


    This was an ambush!!!


    Immediately, Arian tensed up and grabbed Leon involuntarily. She was preparing to flee.


    Fortunately


    "You''re so nosey old ghost....what do you think we mages are weak?" Another voice sounded as another figure appeared in the skies right in front of the winged figure.


    "Stupid question, of course you are. If that wasn''t the case, then exin how I''m able to do this?" The winged figure raised his hand and formed a bloodline magic circle.


    "WingedDevil bloodwork: feathers of wind"


    A line of magical feathers formed from thin air and lunched at a crowd made up predominantly of hunters.


    —UUU


    —puuu


    —puuu


    The feathers flew through the air, causing a deafening sound that made the hearts of the hunters grow stiff. Just from the sound, they knew that if the attacknded they would cease to exist.


    "Hmp!!" In thest minute, another elder from the human hunters rared his head and directly countered this attack with a massive chain thatpletely consumed the attack.


    "A worm can never win against salt" the elder who blocked the attack looked prideful. The Warlocksunched an ambush, but they managed to counter it easily.


    "Two on one? Why not?" The winged elder felt no fear. He spread his hands outwards and weed them.


    "Hehe we will apany you" The elder standing opposite the winged elder nodded to his partner on the ground, signalling for him to meet them in the skies.


    "This battle is over, round up the prisoners you could get and head back to the camp" the elder who used the massive chain said to no one In particr before slowly flying to the sky.


    Their battle was over, now it was time for the true power houses to fight