Time slowed down as Leon observed the pile of boxes nearing closer and closer. He was going too fast for his brain to process the movement and he couldn’t hit the brakes, or his insane momentum would tear his legs straight off his body.

‘I can’t go out just yet. The others need me! I need to find a way!’ Leon shouted internally as he focused all his willpower and resolved on his brain to regain control of his fast-moving body.

All of this was happening in a mere seconds’ time but it was the longest seconds of Leon’s life as he pushed his speed aura to the max to make his brain work faster so he could regain control of his out-of-control fast body. .

Leon’s speed did decrease a bit as he focused on pulling out more and more of his speed aura, but it looked like it was going to be too late and Leon was going crash straight into the boxes and get knocked out of the fight.

Many memories flashed by Leon’s eyes as the pile of boxes drew nearer. He saw himself refusing to take the training his father had offered him, losing to Mako on both occasions he had challenged him, always letting his teammates down by getting knocked out of the fight in the first few minutes and then being a burden on them while they cleaned up the mess.

*Slap!*

“What kind of a person are you? Don’t you have any shame!? Why did you even want to take the recruitment test if you were too afraid to man up when the time called for it? You are just a crybaby who has no confidence in himself. Even if I was completely void of energy, I would still fight to protect my friends and so will everyone else in this room. So let me ask you this! What is your resolve!? Why do you fight!? What will you get if you pass this test?!”

Erin’s voice rang in Leon’s mind as he thought back to the recruitment test when she slapped him for suggesting to retreat from the 4th wave just to save his own skin.

Leon felt himself in the same exact situation again.

The boxes in front of him were getting closer and closer. He couldn’t let it end here. He needed to be of more use to his friends, the ones who taught him what it was like to have good relationships and to fight with meaning.

With newfound resolve and determination, Leon pushed the small bubble of silvery aura that represented his speed aura to the absolute limit, so much so that it looked like it was going to burst.

However, it didn’t burst. The bubble instead began to expand making more room for more silvery aura to fit inside. From the outside, Leon’s aura exploded exponentially announcing that something fantastic was about to happen.

The reaction was so great that everyone paused their fights for a moment as their hearts absorbed this fantastical change that was happening near them.

For Mako, this feeling was one that he had experienced before. This was the exact same reaction he felt when he observed Rhino evolving his transformation ability from level 3 to level 4.

Unlike himself, where his system had increased the level of his abilities as a reward, people like Rhino and now Leon had to push their bodies and souls to the absolute limit in an intense situation to physically break the barrier that was holding their abilities back at a certain level.

Leon’s speed aura shined brightly within as it continued to expand allowing more and more aura to fill his heart. Suddenly he felt his mind getting clearer and clearer as if time had slowed down even further finally allowing himself to feel every movement his body was making.

Leon was finally able to fully register all the moves his body was making and with this, he began moving his legs to the right, maneuvering around the boxes just in time and stopping himself before he crashed into the wall.

All the fighters including Angela and Victor observed this incredible change as Leon stared at himself, happy to see that his body responded to his call for help.

Mako observed him through the lens of Analyze and just like he had felt, the words in front of him revealed the fruits of his determination and resolve.

Analyze

Profile: Leon Czolgosz

Ability: Speed (Level 5), Earth (Level 3), Hardening (Level 3), Fire (Level 2) ?

Leon’s speed ability had evolved and had now reached level 5, a remarkable achievement indeed.

Leon’s leg armor was still glowing blue as the active skill was still active. A huge smile appeared on Leon’s face as he now knew he could fight with his 100%.

“WOOOO!” He shouted with joy as he dashed forward at an insane speed much faster than anything Mako had observed before.

Leon went straight for Boris who thanks to the boost that Lana had given him recovered enough from Leon’s devastating kick from earlier that he was back on his feet.

Boris completely acknowledged Leon’s speed and knew that he could sit still and be a free target so he started sprinting forward as well aiming to clash head-on with his strength ability giving him the edge.

The two met each other quickly with both of them throwing a punch forward. Leon’s insane speed and momentum combined with his fortitude and hardening ability produced enough force to counter Boris’ raw strength with the shockwave from their fist colliding blasting outwards with explosive force.

Boris and Leon started to trade blows with Leon easily taking the upper hand with landing multiple strikes on Boris before he could even land one.

This sudden development had paused all the other battles as everyone wanted to observe this fantastical development, but Angela and Mako had the same idea as they used this opportunity to land a critical strike on their own opponents.

Angela activated her strongest ability, her nightmare ability as her whole body got engulfed with the misty black fumes that appeared more liquid than a gas. She had activated a skill that created a strong armor of anguish around herself to protect herself as she dashed in to land a critical blow on Victor Voss who was still levitating off the ground thanks to the constant stream he was released from beneath his feet.

Angela was definitely more skilled than Victor and with her quickly reacting to the situation and launching a sneak attack when Victor’s guards were also focused on Boris’ fight, she was able to land a clean powerful strike that launched Victor straight into the all behind, embedding him into the wall itself which goes to show Angela’s strength.

It was by no question that Angela was holding back when she was fighting against Mako and the others prior to making the decision to help them behind the commander’s back.

Her physique didn’t show that she had crazy strength but that wasn’t the case and was something that Mako would learn in the future as to how high-level beings were able to produce such great physical feats without appearing to be incredibly buffed.

Simultaneously, Mako reduced the Storm Caller Staff’s height to the lowest height, entering it into concentrated lightning mode.

Using all the lightning aura he had concentrated on the staff beforehand, Mako activated the most offensive skill he had which was the Lightning Claw.

Lightning Claw had been activated

Mako masterfully spun the staff around his palm before finally gaining enough momentum to swipe the air vertically in front of Sergei launching a powerful lightning claw that quickly travelled towards Sergei.

Since the Staff was only high tier and could only produce attacks up to Level 4 it wasn’t the strongest possible strike that Mako could muster, but it still packed a punch since it was in concentrated lightning mode.

However, that wasn’t the extent of Mako’s attack as he knew that Lightning Claw wouldn’t be able to deal massive damage as Sergei had resistance to lightning because of his own lightning ability.

As soon as he finished casting the lightning claw, the staff was pretty much useless as it had gone on a cooldown for 5 minutes so he retracted it back into its pen form.

He activated his red fire aura and began charging the fire aura by concentrating it on his fingertips.

Flame Bullet has been activated

Mako launched another powerful skill toward Sergei to deal him even more damage, but Mako still wasn’t done.

Sprint had been activated

Motion Sense has been activated

Stone Skin has been activated

Stone Sword has been activated

Using the small window of time where Sergei was caught off guard by the sudden lightning strike and with him dealing with the attack to reduce incoming damage plus Mako’s little fiery surprise, Mako activated a multitude of skills.

He activated Sprint, Motion Sense, and Stone Skin to greatly increase his perception, agility, and fortitude to match Sergei with the boost he received from Lana. Next, he quickly formed a stone sword before dashing in after the lightning strike to launch an even sneaky surprise attack.

The attack was executed beautifully. Sergei was indeed caught off guard by the lightning claw which he quickly began to discharge using his own lightning aura; however, his entire vision was occupied by the lightning claw.

As soon as he finished discharging the lightning claw, his palms were blackened and smoking from the damage that the Lightning Claw was able to do, and almost instantly from within the smoke, intense heat began to surge as the flame bullet arrived in front of a second later, ready to explode and deal more damage.

Sergei already feeling the effects of the lightning claw, painfully raised his arms once again to catch the bullet and reduce its damage using his fire ability by absorbing some of the fire; however since this was red fire, it was much stronger than the regular orange flames and so the bullet exploded at point-blank range dealing great amounts of damage and burning him as well.

Sergei was greatly hurt after tanking two very strong attacks in a row with his hands trembling as he was surrounded by the smoke cloud of the exploding flame bullet. He quickly focused on recovering, but what he didn’t realize was that Mako was already on the move, and mere seconds after the flame bullet explosion, Mako lunged forward with the stone sword equipped in his hand reading to land a massive horizontal strike.

The attack was so instant that Sergei wasn’t even able to register what had just happened, only to suddenly feel a very sharp shooting pain in his right arm as he was sent flying across the room.

The room fell silent as three of the 6 gang members were greatly injured and fighting a losing battle while the leader himself was still embedded into the wall from Angela’s strike.

The remaining three were barely able to maintain their own ground against Angela’s constant attacks and it looked like against all odds, the intruders were going to defeat them.