Bermuda [bl]

Flaunting his perfectly dried golden hair as if he had never been drenched in water, Leonardo grinned so widely that his eyes curved. Hugo looked down at him with a frown.

Andreas alternately gazed at Hugo's ice wall, which had its lower part blown away, and Leonardo, who was shining amidst the surging steam after escaping from inside, with wide-open eyes. Before long, what flowed from his mouth was pure admiration.

"Did he disintegrate the water to cause an explosion in such a short time?"

It seemed that was the reason why bubbles had been rising from the iron cage before the explosion occurred.

However, if he had faced an explosion of that magnitude at close range, he wouldn't have been completely unscathed, but seeing him standing on his two feet with such a relaxed demeanor, Andreas inwardly became curious about what kind of guy he was.

At Andreas' words, Hugo, who had been looking at the black fragments that had been pushed out along with the explosion, gathered ice crystals in his hand and created a long ice spear.

"The iron cage that doesn't melt served as a solid catalyst instead."

The scene of a guy possessing his own abilities, a brain that utilizes surrounding objects, and a formidable destructive mana standing brazenly in the middle of the Imperial Capital felt so precarious that it seemed quite surreal.

As the feared situation finally unfolded, Hugo immediately grasped the ice spear and charged toward him below. He had to end it as quickly as possible to prevent the scale of damage from growing larger. If the guy recognized the citizens of the Imperial Capital as hostages, the Council would have no choice but to let him go to protect the citizens.

Leonardo quietly observed Hugo's fierce movement flying towards him. Although there were restrictions on combat in the Imperial Capital as teleportation couldn't be used, he had a chance of winning because he was slightly more advantageous in terms of speed.

Just as he thought that and tried to lightly dodge Hugo's approaching ice spear, tree vines sprouted from beneath his feet and tightly wrapped around his ankles with a strong force.

Momentarily startled, Leonardo immediately tried to tear them off, but the vines were quite tough and sturdy, and they were woven into multiple strands, making it difficult to tear them off at once.

In the midst of that, even without raising his head, he could fully feel the chill of Agrizendro, who had somehow approached within reach, above his head. Leonardo immediately ignited fierce flames to burn the tree vines and then threw his body to the side with all his might.

Kwaaang!

The ground was dug up, and the stone pavement split in two as Hugo's spear deeply pierced that spot. As Leonardo narrowly escaped and dodged the attack, Andreas, who had grabbed his ankles with the tree vines, looked at his burned vines and muttered regretfully.

"The compatibility is just too unfavorable."

At that moment, Leonardo, who had escaped the crisis, quickly shifted his eyes and started searching for Andreas' mana. Soon, he discovered him on top of the ice wall and changed his target, charging towards that location.

As the terrifying guy suddenly looked at him and rushed over, Andreas hurriedly grew the vines wrapped around the ice wall to catch Leonardo's one arm and leg as he flew vertically along the surface of the wall at high speed.

Of course, due to his extremely fast movement, even if the vines caught him, they would often snap and lose him, but by twisting them into multiple strands, their durability increased considerably, and they were somewhat effective in slowing him down.

However, even so, Leonardo seemed completely unconcerned as he forcefully pulled the tree vines tied to his arm, trying to climb upward. But at some point, the thickness of the vines wrapping around his body became noticeably different from before, and he suddenly came to a halt in midair as if pulled by a taut rope.

Frowning deeply as he was stopped against his will once again, he immediately created a blazing flame sword in his hand. Then, he mercilessly swung it in all directions and began cutting down the vines lurking around him.

The vines wrapped around his arm were relentlessly sliced by the flickering flame sword, but the more he did so, the vines below grew faster, climbing up his legs and strongly restraining them. As the speed of cutting them down gradually fell short of the speed at which the vines grew, the green tree vines soon covered Leonardo's body as if devouring him.

"Damn it, so annoying."

Gritting his teeth, he struggled and thrashed incessantly.

As the time spent struggling unexpectedly prolonged, he felt impatient, and in the midst of that, he could feel an eerie chill gradually approaching from behind.

Exhaling briefly to calm his breath that had been disrupted by anxiety, Leonardo looked down at his legs held by the vines.

'If I can remove the shackles on my ankles, I think I can somehow manage, but now that even the iron cage is shattered, there can't be anything stronger...'

He didn't put it into action because he thought his legs wouldn't remain intact if he kicked the iron cage to remove the shackles on his ankles like he had done with the handcuffs on his wrists.

Fortunately, the shackle on his right ankle had flown off due to the earlier explosion, but a large chunk of magic stone was still attached to his left ankle.

Normally, he wouldn't have struggled so much with just one shackle like this, but perhaps because it was his first time using this level of mana in the Imperial Capital, he didn't expect mana control to hinder him to this extent.

As the control overlapped, he couldn't even burn these damn tree vines in one go, and his flight speed had significantly slowed down, so he thought that if he couldn't remove the shackles like this, he would be quickly captured without any meaning to his escape.

At that moment, Leonardo instinctively looked back and saw Hugo's blue ice spear flying towards him at a fast speed.

It was also at that point that a scheme came to mind.

This ice wall, where he was currently tied up and hanging by the tree vines, still stood tall and majestic, with only the lower part blown away by the hydrogen explosion that had destroyed the sturdy iron cage. So, if the ice was this solid, perhaps it could also shatter the magic stone shackle encasing his ankle.

If the acceleration of moving at full speed was added to that, the probability was more than half.

As the ice reaper that would liberate him from the shackles gradually approached, Leonardo's heart pounded fiercely. The closer he got, the colder and sharper the air brushing against his skin felt, and in the midst of that, a smirk escaped his lips at the sight of himself daring to try to use him.

'Surely my ankle won't be cut off, right?'

In the brief moment of concern, he, who was emitting a chill with a fierce expression, approached right in front of his eyes in the blink of an eye.

The moment he raised the ice spear high and tried to strike down at Leonardo...

Leonardo cut off a part of the vines wrapping around his legs with the flame sword and simultaneously deliberately pushed his ankle towards where the sharp spearhead was aimed.

Kwaddeuk!

The ice spear pierced deep into the middle of the thick and solid ice wall, stabbing the thick tree vines clustered around it. Then, white tree sap flowed viscously from that area, and a brutal crack formed on the wall that had been penetrated behind the tangled vines.

A small piece of torn clothing from somewhere and the magic stone shackle were stuck together on the pierced spearhead, swaying.

Hugo exhaled the breath he had momentarily held.

He furrowed his brows deeply upon seeing the faint red blood on the spearhead stuck in the wall. Eventually, he gritted his teeth and roughly pulled out the spear.

"Reckless fellow."

If there was a physical advantage the guy had over him in combat, it was his light movements and fast speed. His instantaneous speed of penetrating toward the target was definitely among the top three compared to other mages he had considered strong until now.

But even with that level of confidence in speed, deliberately pushing the shackle tied to his ankle onto the spearhead was truly an unimaginable act.

If Hugo hadn't changed the direction, the guy's ankle could have been completely severed. It seemed he had daringly taken a dangerous gamble against Hugo to remove the magic stone, which was utterly reckless beyond compare.

As he raised his head, the guy, who had been freed from the shackles, was already flying far into the sky. Perhaps because all the restraints suppressing his abilities had disappeared, he easily burned the vines chasing after him with an even faster speed and swiftly ascended.

Hugo frowned at the sight of him, seemingly unconcerned about his wound. Soon, feeling completely swept up in the guy's extraordinary actions, he immediately chased after him.