RESPECT

Leonel's lip curled. When he came here, he already expected this.

"Wife, it seems we've got competition."

Aina didn't reply, but her eyes blazed with battle intent.

"We'll kill one of them then swagger off," Leonel said as though it was just a matter of fact. © 2024.

Aina didn't reply again, but her movement was all the acknowledgment that Leonel needed. With a roaring moment, she took a step. The world shook and Life Force seemed to pierce through the waves of Earth.

Leonel raised his hand and the skies trembled along with it. Wisps of Bow Force pulsed, and although it didn't take full form, space shuddered nonetheless. He drew a finger across the air and formed an arrow. It only carried small wisps of Bow Force, and yet that small change was enough for the world to nearly splinter beneath its presence.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Leonel's speed suddenly accelerated, his arms leaving blurs in the air as he drew arrow after arrow. In that moment, it looked more like there were dozens of clones of him all acting at once. His arrows took beautiful arcs through the air, piercing right through shields of Force, and gathering it together as though it was its own to control.

That was when the Celestial Terra that was rising out of the ground felt that something was off, and its expression couldn't help but become a hint more serious.

The curving arcs of Leonel's arrows actually carried a particular rhythm to them, rising through the air, drawing lines across the skies, and forming a hidden formation of sorts that caused them all to link together and form a net of Natural Force Arts that made them far more powerful than they seemed initially.

It was a Bow Dance, but this time on a completely different level. In fact, it was a Bow Dance that Leonel was able to complete in just a single instant of time.

BOOM!

The arrows that were curving along their own unique paths suddenly pulsed together and blinked out of existence.

When they returned, there wasn't a torrent of arrows, but rather just one enormous one, so thick that it could block out an entire eyeball of the already impossible-to-fathom Celestial Terras.

All the Celestial Terras that it wasn't aimed for were blown back, and the one rising out of the ground felt that it had just been locked onto by a God of Death. It was something that it had never experienced before in its long life... But it was already too late to dodge.

All the wisps of Bow Force in the arrow came together and suddenly solidified, forming a gorgeous silver arrow peppered with dense golden runes that looked like an ancient weapon all on its own.

PCHU!

The arrow drove into the Celestial Terra's eye. In those last few moments, it had tried to dodge, but it was in one part still lagging behind after just being awakened, and another part too unskilled to understand the profundity of Leonel's attack.

Its body shuddered and it stumbled, only to be startled awake by an even more frightening killing intent that came in right after it.

The blood flowing from its eyes was suddenly ripped out of its control as Aina peeled her battle ax back. It swung in a wide, gorgeous arc of red and gold, and along with it, rivers of blood were pulled back as well. And then she swung forward.

The blood had already retreated around her, becoming a scythe that expanded her blade until it ran kilometers of distance. And yet, it didn't slow the arc of her swing in the slightest.

The Celestial Terra didn't even register what happened. In one moment, it was trying to rouse itself awake, and in the next moment... it froze. Its body shuddered and then it collapsed in two pieces, unable to fight back for even an instant.

Furious howls began to resound across the world. Leonel appeared beside Aina in a blink and then pressed a hand down, taking the corpse. As much as he wanted to use [Arise] right now, after seeing how difficult it was with Shan'Rae, he knew that he couldn't get away with it. The only way forward was to take now, run, and then hopefully deal with it in the future.

"Time to hightail it out of here."

Leonel gave Aina a grin, took her hand, and then began their escape. The world shuddered and Leonel looked back to find an enormous brown eye that looked like an explosion of swirling tans, browns, and blacks had appeared out of the ground. In fact, from this vantage point, it looked as though the world itself was the body of the creature.

Leonel felt all his hair stand on end. These Celestial Terras... Just how deep did their waters run, exactly?

At that moment, there was a Force that locked down Leonel and Aina, and both of them were frozen in place. Leonel clicked his tongue, feeling endlessly impressed. However, although he could feel the danger of the situation, for some reason... he just felt calm.

Respect and Persistence...

When he had first stepped onto this path, often, Respecting something came with it waves of fear and apprehension. It was this that drove him to be sharper, to be better, or else he just might lose his life in the next instant.

However, right now, he didn't feel fear. He could feel the strength of the Celestial Terras, he respected it... but it was still unable to slow down his steps.

When he decided that he would do something, he would do it. Respect didn't have to mean that he feared something.

And just like that, the reason he hated this Path the most vanished into thin air like thin wisps of smoke.

Leonel's throat echoed with a low rumble, and a smile spread across his face.

"Sorry, big guy. My wife and I used this place as a small get-away vacation, but we've already had our fun. So, we'll be leaving now."