The woman ran up to Leo and Marem with a smile, “Thank you so much for saving me!”

Leo was lost for words as she approached. Her smile shined brighter than a loving day. She had eyes that rivaled the clear skies. Every part of her had him mesmerized. If Gods truly existed in this world, then they must have sculpted her. He only snapped out of his trance as Marem started to speak.

“We're only doing our responsibility as adventurers. Happy to see that you’re holding up well after the attack,” replied Marem. She walked up to the woman. “Can you tell us why he attacked you?”

The woman’s relaxed smile broke for a second, “Sure, I can tell you what happened. I was traveling to Edheim to sell some baked goods. He just burst from the side of the road and attacked my cart.”

She took a nervous breath before continuing, “Most bandits would demand money or what I was selling, but he didn’t seem interested. He got a hold of me and threatened to kill me while laughing. I tried to fight back, but I couldn’t get free.”

She started to cry. Her tears glistened against her skin as she tried to fight them back. Leo stood still as she grabbed onto him for a hug. He barely processed what was happening until she was holding onto him. He nervously placed a tender hand on her back.

“There, there, it’s all good now,” was the only response he could think of.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he is handed in to the kingdom. If you want, we can accompany you to an upcoming stop or to Edheim,” offered Marem.

The woman sniffled, “With my cart destroyed, I’ve lost my reason for going to Edheim. I’d appreciate it if you helped me get to the next stop so I can find a ride back.”

“Alright, well let’s get going," responded Marem

“Wait, we can’t leave the rocks,” mentioned Leo.

He slowly separated from the gorgeous woman. Internally he argued about letting go so soon, yet also for holding on too long. Fighting wizards and dragons could be easily learned off the cuff. It was much harder to figure out how to be normal.

He shuffled towards the spilling pile of rocks. They had spread out considerably over the past minute, but they were still up to his waist. It wouldn’t be possible for carts or people to travel safely in these conditions.

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He wanted to avoid causing the road to be shut down because of him, but he struggled to find a solution. If this was a piece of solid stone, he could easily have lifted it. But loose rocks didn’t require strength, rather they needed many hands to move them.

Leo turned to see that Marem was occupied with comforting the girl they’d saved. He didn’t want to interrupt them and admit his inability to help. He just needed to find a way to look at the problem differently.

Another rock tumbled from the pile and tapped against his foot. That tap gave him an idea on how to move these rocks out of the way. Leo made a short hop to the other side of the pile and rolled up his sleeves.

He shoved his arm into the side of the road and walked for around thirty feet. The dirt quickly piled up but a simple shove sent it deep into the forest. He repeated the process on the other side of the road as he returned back to the pile. During this process, he broke off the stone pillars and threw them to the side.

Leo poured water onto his arms in an attempt to clean off the worst of the mud. While doing so, he returned back to where Marem and the woman were. They didn’t seem to pay any mind to Leo while he walked around.

With his arms cleaned and some trenches dug, Leo pulled his hand back and shot it forth. It was difficult to balance the tightrope that was his strength. Every day felt like an uphill climb that he was forced to grow accustomed to.

This was one of the times where he fell off of the tightrope. His plan was to send out a weak burst of air that would collapse the pile. The rocks would then roll into the trenches that he had formed. Even if not all of them fit, the remaining stones would be nowhere near enough to block the road.

He didn’t know if it was just too difficult a maneuver, the stones were lighter than expected, or he was nervous in front of the woman. But what was meant to be a light tumble turned into a high volume artillery attack.

The mountain of rocks released a violent crack as they suddenly shot through the air. Leo saw the larger stones break into pieces as they collided with other rocks. He’d turned the pile into countless chunks of shrapnel.

Leo felt the eyes staring at the back of his head. He did not want to turn around. His eyes were glued to the attack that soon moved past the horizon. He had no clue when it would land or where. His only prayer was that it wouldn’t be on an unsuspecting town.

“Bit much for some rocks,” commented Marem.

“Yeah, I may have overdone it,” he blankly responded.

He turned to see the two of them staring at him. Their hair had been frazzled and most of the leaves on the ground had been sent flying off. Even though unintentional, they both were caught up in his attack. Thankfully, it seemed to just be cosmetic damage.

“So, we should get going,” he suggested.

Marem had grown used to seeing the ridiculous feats that Leo pulled off. She decided to just let this pass, as that was likely an accident. The woman with them was far more frazzled about the whole situation. But with Marem’s lack of response, she decided to keep quiet.

Leo was happy to walk off and try to not think about the rocks. Whatever he planned to occupy his mind with was quickly drowned out. His mind went to the sound of a ping, the classic noise when he gained EXP.

The small beep quickly became a deafening orchestra, as he heard hundreds of notifications ring in his ears.