Chapter 222: Mangled (1/2)

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Leonel felt as though all the bones in his body were shattering. He had never been hit by a truck before, but he assumed that this was about as close as he could get to the real thing.

His body curved grotesquely around Lamorak's spikeless, cylindrical mace almost like a ball deforming around a baseball bat. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was sent flying.

Or rather… he thought that was what would happen. But, reality was cruel.

In the single step Lamorak had taken to send a blow toward Leonel, the ground beneath his feet caved downward before jetting up a large broken piece. Before Leonel could fly very far to the side, he hit this broken piece first, causing his already bent body to crash the other way.

In the end, as though it was all planned out beforehand, Leonel fell right before Lamorak, the glint in his eyes slowly growing dim.

Leonel's world began to spin. He didn't have the presence of mind to maintain his ability any longer. It felt as though everything was fading. The pain was truly too much.

His thoughts were in complete disarray. He only caught onto the faintest inkling of something that made him shocked to the point of speechlessness.

Every step Lamorak had taken before had caused a crack on the ground. Then, during his last attack, his final step managed to kick up a large slab of stone that stopped Leonel from flying away. However, according to Leonel's calculations, that should have been impossible unless… the previous steps drew the outline of the stone slab he eventually kicked up.

If this was true, Leonel could only admit that he was entirely outclassed. His ability was perfectly suited for this kind of planned battle, yet he still lost so resoundingly. Weren't big brutes like Lamorak supposed to be simple minded?

Leonel felt his consciousness fading.

The last time he felt this kind of pain, it was while he was opening his bloodline shackles. But, at least that had some sort of reward at the end. This was just unbridled, unconcealed, and unrestrained pain.

Suddenly, the sound of whistling wind shook Leonel awake. He didn't need to look up to know that it was Lamorak's heavy mace swinging down toward him.

As a man of the battlefield, Lamorak didn't feel the need to say anything after siezing victory. There was no room for trash talk or disdaining the enemy in such a situation. Those who did things like this usually didn't last very long.

It could be said that this was the first time Leonel felt that death was so close. Not that there was just a threat of it, but in just a few more moments, he would experience what it felt like to have his life snatched from him.

In the Mayan Tomb, he almost died at the hands of the sacrifical virgin, but that was a choice he, himself had made. He had found it too difficult to take the life of an innocent teenage girl. Compared to this situation where the choice wasn't in his hands at all, it was completely different.

'This feeling… sucks…'

Leonel hadn't ever felt such a wave of helplessness before.