7 dismounted his horse and looked at 4, who remained stationary. 7 shook his head and turned to Leo and Mira. He quickly scanned the surroundings and gauged the power levels of the two.
The minute he did a wave of confusion hit him. The two people in front of him were kids, and neither of them seemed to emit any aura. 4 dismounted the horse as well after noticing this same observation.
Leo remained calm and stood steady in front of Mira who was too scared to move back. He was curious to see if the two in front of him would treat him as a boy without any aura, or an Aura Knight hiding his power.
7 and 4 both took out weapons from their dimensional rings, revealing their intentions to kill him. The former was carrying a sword while the latter had a pair of daggers.
"Did the leader say anything about how strong the girl's companion is?" 7 asked 4.
"No," 4 said while stepping forward. "The mission said that there were only 2 3rd Circle Aura Knights in the group, and we killed both of them. We just need to kill the boy and take the girl. This should get us a good mission rating."
7 frowned when he saw the person in front of him try to finish the mission quickly by himself. Their organization rewarded competition over team effort. The mission they were on was considered incredibly important, so the person capturing the girl would likely receive their very own team. He wanted his own team just like 4 did, which meant he needed to get to the girl before him.
Before 7 could move forward, 4 launched himself toward Leo.
"Fuck!" 7 cursed while chasing after his partner. He had taken too much time to decide whether he wanted to compete with 4 or not, which allowed 4 to get to Leo. He knew that he had essentially lost his chance since they would both only need a second to kill a 15-year-old without any aura.
4 arrived in front of Leo with a smirk on his face.
"You shouldn't have taken this escort job without knowing the target. Next life, try taking easier jobs," he said. "Thanks for the promotion you will get me."
He raised the dagger in his right hand, unleashing his aura. Leo looked up at the taller Aura Knight in front of him without any expression. The incoming dagger was covered in aura that burned the air around it. The heat reached him, but the dagger itself seemed like it was moving slowly. His eyes moved to meet the complacent eyes of the person attacking him as his lips curved into a smirk.
As 7 chased his team member, a thought went through his mind. How did the two of them escape into the forest while staying above the ground? The trail they had left was damage done to the branches of the tree, which meant the boy and girl had to be moving above the ground. How was that possible without any aura?
But if the boy or girl had aura, then why couldn't they see it? The only other person's aura that they couldn't sense was... was their leader's. 7's eyes widened and he warned 4 with a shout.
"Back off! He's an Aura Knight!"
Just as he shouted, a blood-red tendril shot up, piercing through 4's body. 4 looked down at the tendril with confusion. His face turned back to see 7 maintaining a safe distance from the two. The warning just registered in his brain as he looked back at Leo.
"So you were an Aura Knight all along," he said weakly. The tendril twisted itself into his body, making him cough out some blood. It lifted him into the air before flinging him down to the ground. 4's vertebrae shattered at the force that he impacted the ground with. The sound made the horses behind 7 neigh and move back a little.
The tendril disintegrated as Leo turned to the other person there.
"I assumed you would know that I was an Aura Knight. You guys seemed very experienced," Leo commentated. "You will be harder to kill, though. He was decently weaker than you."
When he saw them both, Leo had gauged them like they had tried to gauge him. The person he had killed was only an Early-Stage 3rd Circle Aura Knight, while the other one was a Middle-Stage 3rd Circle Aura Knight.
7 had no intention of fighting Leo. The person in front of him was only an Early-Stage 3rd Circle Aura Knight, but the power he had shown made him afraid for some reason. The aura Leo emitted felt weird in a scary way. He took out an item from his dimensional ring the minute he saw what Leo did to 4.
Leo saw 7 take out an orb and was confused. What would an orb do in this situation? Was it a bomb? He prepared himself to shield Mira and him from an explosion that wasn't coming.
7 filled the orb with his aura and threw it up into the air. When he did that, the orb released a shining beacon that only lasted a second. That second, however, was very impactful, since the beacon in the dark would be visible from anywhere inside the forest.
Leo immediately released his perception to see who was coming toward him. There was already a person only a kilometer away from him that was now rushing to his location. Another person entered his perception's range only a second later, followed by another one after them.
A frown formed on Leo's face. If it was only one of them, he would be able to handle the situation with aura, but all four of them would be impossible. He ignored the person in front of him who was prepared to receive an attack from him and instead turned to face Mira.
The girl behind him was still recovering from the sight of the broken body in front of her. She hadn't expected that Leo would be this strong. She was absent during the initial fight, so she didn't see him at that time. If she did, she would know that this was normal to him.
"Mira. I am going to apologize in advance for what I am about to do. This is necessary," he said to her.
The small hope she held in her mind disappeared. A sigh escaped her mouth as she readied herself. She expected that Leo would run away at some point. After all, who would keep up with this much danger for so long? The only surprise was that he held on for so long that he had given her hope. But now that hope was taken from her too.
Leo, completely engrossed in tracking the people around him, didn't pay any attention to the broken face of the girl in front of him. He moved behind her and chopped at the back of her neck with a little force, knocking her out instantly. She was already weak because of her many sleep-deprived nights that he didn't even need to use a lot of force. He caught the falling body and slowly set it on the ground.
