Tossing the corpse aside, he stood in front of the girls. Yet, the pirates seemed to have wizened up, because they tried to encircle him and take hostages again. With his weakness exposed, he knew he couldn’t beat them alone without taking a risk.

“Damn… you just had to play unfair.”

Mildly irritated as he weighed his options, Leonardo threw caution to the wind. Without reaching for a new blade or assuming a stance, it seemed he had given up.

The pirates shared hopeful grins. But then, he chanted aloud. His tongue rolled rapidly, and he invoked named spirits the men knew nothing of, but seemed to dread nonetheless.

The torches they held flickered ominously as his chant drew to a close, yet it wasn’t their time to go out. Instead, as if choking on too much energy, they flickered softly — then burst with unmatched radiance.

A few streams of fire escaped their natural confines and lunged at the pirates like hungry serpents. As Leonardo continued to guide them from afar, he had the flames circle around the pirates like a cage, consigning them to hell.

Amidst hoarse shouts and pleading screaming, they burned mercilessly, with not one escaping. Not even whole metals remained after the Flame Serpents dispersed. Everything was gone, except for a few puddles of steaming bronze and the stench of scorched flesh.

‘Alright… here we go.’

Closing his eyes, Leonardo groaned and fell to his knees, twitching like a beached whale. His breathing became difficult and his muscles moved involuntarily in odd, conflicting patterns. A bone snap in his left arm threw his whole nervous system in disarray, and temporarily he blacked out from sheer pain. When he came to, he saw it dangle sideways as if it forgot its original shape…

Since he openly defied the Kismet, it was time to pay the price. Having used Invisibility, a Kinetic Blast and Enhanced Velocity to reach the hostage in time, he was already verging on a karmic judgement.

The Flame Serpents completely crossed the line. Yet, he had no choice lest they surround him, and could only use the most defiant spell in his arsenal. Though the enemies burned to his satisfaction, now he felt as if he was burning too.

As he helplessly tried to cope with the damage accumulating across his body, he felt something hit him from the side. The sudden external impact felt almost refreshing, but he had no time to revel in the variety of pain — seeing as he was still in serious danger.

The mask shattered to pieces as a sword bit weakly into his temple. Yet, despite bearing most of the lethal impact, his skin remained unblemished. Only a streak of red faintly surfaced where the blade made contact.

Putting the karmic judgement to the back of his mind, Leonardo used the impact to roll sideways. Still somewhat twitchy, he forced his body into obedience and hurled his dagger through the air, accurately piercing a woman’s skull.

Unfortunately for the ambusher, Leonardo couldn’t muster enough force to break past her cranium entirely, so her death would be painful and lengthy. Alas, he held no compassion whatsoever.

He did his best to rescue them, yet received anything but the hero treatment. Out of all things, he had been back-stabbed by someone he least expected. Fortunately, she was too weak to bypass his Rock Skin technique, or it would have ended badly.

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The women were just as surprised, and only when the woman collapsed did they take note of the sudden betrayal. Now that it happened once, they distanced themselves with wariness, as afraid he’d associate them with the killer.

It seemed like today’s events took too much of a toll on some of them. Despite suffering in captivity, not all of them treated him with the heroic welcome he deserved. Most just seemed lost and uncertain, with others outright blaming him for upending their life.

Luckily, Leonardo wasn’t entirely reliant on their feelings, or he would have perished already. Unwilling to stay here longer and risk another attack, he limped to the sea and nonchalantly threw himself in.

Regulating his breathing with difficulty, he let the faint current carry him away as Karma continued to wreak havoc through his body. Having sunk to the depths, he wordlessly thanked Muchen’s training regimen for saving him once more.

Tonight had been really risky, and his magic might not have cut it. With the crowd of over thirty natural skeptics as an audience, it was really difficult to invoke any significant effect. Coupled with his will being drained from entering the dream realm, he was definitely not in a good state to fight. Alas, humans are emotional creatures and often act on impulse.

Then again, even with the risks involved, Leo didn’t regret his sacrificial choice, and would probably intervene again. This stubborn instinct wasn’t necessarily bad, and even aided in his martial practice.

A sword can only be called such when its sharpness is unquestionable. Even if at times it is hidden beneath a sheathe, it should never be dulled by anything as trivial as ‘reason’.

Not to say that he should jump into the fray whenever a fight calls for it. Preparation is key to success, and luckily his preparedness turned out to be just barely sufficient to survive.

The Rock Skin was his final layer of defense and even that was almost penetrated. Were the attacker a brawnier man, he might have been pierced through. Luckily, the woman was rather malnourished and didn’t have any notion on how to wield a sword.

The so called Rock Skin as it happens wasn’t a spell, nor did it actually turn his skin into granite. Instead, it was a Mortal Transcendence technique that sought to temper the body from the outside in. At the crux of it, it was about building a faint barrier of energy within one’s skin.

The reason it wasn’t a spell is because the energy used to power it came from the body itself as a natural result of prolonged training. No matter how conveniently he could manipulate primal energy, it took several years of rigorous practice just to cultivate his body to the current state.

After the Rock stage, there was also the Iron Skin and the Jade Skin respectively. Were he to one day reach the final stage, his body’s outward hardness should exceed steel. Even if he didn’t employ any magic, he should be able to easily withstand blades, arrows and other trivial injuries. The kinetic impact could still batter his organs into mush, however, so it’s best he kept a look out for catapults.

As he mulled over the difficulty and rewards of his martial practice, his over the top cramps ended at last. Finally regaining control of his body, he channeled chi through the broken tissues and gradually healed them. His broken arm was a bit more difficult, but he bore through the pain and reset its angle. After a few tearful grimaces, he mended the bone in place.

It took a dozen minutes, then Leonardo finally resurfaced next to the ship. Using it as cover, he carefully assessed the crowd. There were three distinct groups formed, huddled together away from one another. There were the new captives, with the noble girl seemingly trying to soothe the little girls. She kept looking over her shoulder, as if more afraid of Leo returning than of the pile of bodies at her feet.

Another group looked over the corpses with twisted longing and seemed at a loss on how to proceed. Deeming those women hostile but disregarding their threat, Leo decided to let them be. He owed them nothing, and he didn’t care less if they blamed him.

Lastly, there was another group rummaging through the huts and carrying out whatever wealth the pirates had scrounged over the years. Whether they planned an escape, or to buy out Leonardo with a bribe, the idea seemed senseless to him and he almost laughed.

‘Dear Lord… Surely you don’t think you can sail this out of here?’