"That's my question, no?" Leo asked back. "For someone to go through Cimeration and still consent, that's something only warped minds can do."
"Oh, so you know about this." The creature stood, holding a six-meter-tall and almost one-meter-long weapon. "That means you're old enough to give some nutrition."
With a cruel smirk, it let its bloodlust flood, trying to press Leo down. In the process, it spread all over the zone, alarming some people who were investigating this place.
Leo, on the other hand, only looked at him for a second and sighed. "Well, yeah, I am old enough." The next second, he released raw energy to counter the bloodlust.
What he didn't expect was the burning effect it had on the miasma and corruption around, as if fire was burning through a forest. His aura burned the corruption around, forcing the creature to corner itself.
"What are you—" the excitement and happiness changed to fear, sensing his aura and remembering how in the old days humans came with perfect counters to dark creatures—something hardly known in current times.
"Well, they used to call me Winter Lion," Leo said, compressing the aura around his sword, starting to freeze the air around it.
Run.
That was all that was in the creature's mind the moment it heard the name.
Winter Lion was an old creature with unknown origin or place. What was known about him was only that he was a one-of-a-kind race.
Some said the last survivor of his race; some believed he was the balance keeper.
But all that was only in old literature and books. After all, he vanished when the mystique energy began to taint the world.
Some said he got killed, some said he was sealed, but those who had dealings with him believed he was just hidden.
And surprisingly, despite the long time he wasn't seen, his title still drew shivers in the hearts of dark-type creatures.
"Oh no, you won't." Leo murmured, seeing the creature trying to slip away. He used quick step and stabbed the sword into the back of the creature. Not a moment later, it got sealed in ice.
Leo wasn't intent on killing it. He still needed to know what was going on, and he wasn't about to waste a research sample.
The moment the chimera was sealed, the vibration that restrained the phasing effect disappeared. Noticing this and sensing the fight still going on above, he sent a mental message to Loyed:
"Go wild."
-------------------
On the upper floor, Loyed and his group started to feel the tight spot. But not minutes later, he heard Leo's signal and smirked.
"Hunt down!!" Loyed said, and his eyes turned completely white as he phased through the next attack, getting behind the two creatures. He lengthened his right arm claw, slicing their necks. With a puff, they burned to ash—and the same happened to the others.
The creatures started to feel the fear they used to inject into their victims. One second they were in a hunt call from their leader, and the next second they were fighting ghost-like creatures out of nowhere.
By the ten-minute signal, all the creatures in the building were cleaned.
"Round the upper floors," Loyed said. "Each team take a healer with you. See if you can save the survivors—if not… you know what to do."
Loyed caught dozens of life signals, but from what he picked up, they were under a curse or almost on their last leg in life.
The teams scattered while Loyed unsealed the door and jumped down to see what Leo was doing.
"Okay, that's one hell of a monster," Loyed said, noticing the frozen sculpture. But seeing that it was still alive, he looked at Leo. "Wait, it's alive? Leo, what are you thinking?"
Calling and not getting any answer, he got closer to Leo, finding him inspecting a wall not far away.
"Hey, Leo, why is this thing still alive?" Loyed asked. "And what are you doing?"
"I'm keeping him alive for info." Looking back at Loyed, "See if you can see anything behind this wall."
Not understanding, but doing it anyway, he noticed nothing except wall—and that was all. Which confused him. With his ability, he could see everything deep to ten meters, and there was no wall that thick.
"So you noticed," Leo said and put his fist on the wall. With a quick, sharp fist, the wall cracked, revealing an open space on the other side.
Entering, and the reverse of what they expected, they found something like an underground house, with a full set of lab and computer settings.
Seeting in front of the main computer, he star trying to crack the protections on the software, takin coupl minuts.
"crpy system" murmering he start to look at recoreds, and his mothe open wide in surprise "oye loyed come over"
Loking along with him he notice wht leo mean, this was only a part of chains of hotels, luckly the others just start to operate.
"Okay, this is getting more and more confusing," Leo said, looking around. "Send some people to collect these things and send them to our property."
"Which one?" Loyed asked. "If you don't remember, I wasn't out with you, and I have no idea where it was."
"Oh right. Then ask Flint—he's doing nothing anyway," Leo said. "Now let's get out of here. Your team already wrapped the thing up."
"what about the other brunche" loyed asked. Just verifie.
"just put it as urgent mission for higher ups in the guild" leo add "sence they have only start for days it wont be any mature kimira"
"then I wil just add high danger warning" Nodding, Loyed followed Leo upstairs after adding,
sealing the basement door for later. They decided to leave from the front door directly—proved a bad move.
"Freeze!! Hands where I can see them!" a scream accompanied by flashlight beams came from the front door the moment they stepped out.
Looking around, Leo almost cursed at how he let his guard down.