...…

Leonard was staring at the 5 members of the Predators Adventurer Team, trying to see if they were going to respond with his provocation. He was even looking more warily at the Bearkin guy who was also looking back at him with an aloof gaze.

"Heh! Still confident as ever? I see," sneered Leonard before casting his gaze at the other guys who were also waiting patiently for their turn.

"Since that is how you want this done, then let's take this on properly," he muttered as he sidestepped towards his right dodging the spells sent by the White Elf Master Elementalist of the 'Mountain Dwellers'.

"First, let's take care of the range support of these guys," he added as he locked his gaze on the Shaman and Bishop standing in the distance. "Please don't hold this to me, alright? I'm just doing the most logical way to finish this early."

Then Leonard suddenly disappeared as he executed his real-life foot technique which he converted inside the game.

'Epic Combat Technique: Devil's Footprint'

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A consecutive sound of loud footsteps could be heard as a series of deep footmarks suddenly appeared on the ground and rapidly made their way towards the Foxkin Master Shaman and female Human Bishop.

Understanding Leonard's plan, Junpei immediately positioned himself right in front of his teammates, guarding them. "Move back, Sherly, Joanna! Mago, build an Ice Wall!"

Responding to his orders, the two supporters immediately cast their respective Blinks to get away while the White Elf Master Elementals named Mago immediately waved his scepter upwards to summon a thick wall of ice in front of them, seemingly blocking Leonard's path.

They couldn't see Leonard due to his strange footwork. So, they could only guess his location based on the footprints that appeared on the ground.

Swoosh!

Unfortunately, those footprints were a part of the scheme to trick the opponents. Even if they could see the footprints on the ground, it didn't mean that they could keep up with Leonard's speed.

"I see that you are still in battle command of this team, Junpei," said Leonard as he appeared behind the Swordmaster right after the formation of the Ice Wall.

"But it is a pity, you have a right call but it is still way too slow," he added before kicking the ground once again to relaunch himself forward. "You should have known that footprints are left on the ground because our feet departed from it."

"D*mn! So, you are telling me that it is pointless to look at them since you are already away from it," muttered Junpei with a bitter tone before his head was severed from his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Leonard continued moving forward as a series of Ice spikes shot up from the ground, hindering his advance.

"If we can see you, then we are going to attack the place where you are heading to before you arrive," said Mago, the Elementalist, while casting a spell after spell.

Seeing the ice and rock obstacles that suddenly appeared in front of him, Leonard had no choice but to stop using the 'Devil's Footprints' and changed it into a more versatile foot technique.

But because of that, his speed slowed down drastically since he exchanged it to move more freely. And that let the other members of the 'Mountain Dwellers' caught up with him and halted his advance.

Bang! Bang!

Unfortunately, catching up with him and stopping him were two different matters. Even with the combined efforts of the two Master Berserkers of their group, they still couldn't halt his advance no matter what; Leonard was like an unstoppable bulldozer charging at them.

Clang! Clang!

The Wolfkin Master Hunter, who was also the leader of the group, was appearing from time to time to ambush Leonard from the most unexpected angles. And with his aid, the group was able to slightly slow down the advance of their opponent.

And while Leonard was pretty occupied with them, Joanna, the Bishop of the group was currently making his way towards Junpei's body; she was obviously planning to revive him.

"Marion, cover the left side! Don't let him charge that way!" said the leader to the Tigerkin Master Berserker while creating some breathing space for himself, after blocking Leonard's head-on.

His Health Bar almost hit zero when he tried to block that attack. Fortunately, a timely heal landed on him at the critical moment, saving him from his deathbed.

"Marron, limit his movements – buy us some time," he added to his commands to which the Lionkin Master Berserker immediately responded.

But as they were doing their respective task, the three suddenly sensed an immense threat coming from above them.

"Get away from there!" shouted Mago while signaling Sherly, the Foxkin Master Shaman, to cast some protection buffs on the trio to make sure that they were going to survive even if they failed to escape.

Without further ado, the three surrounding Leonard quickly used their respective movement skills to get away from their current spots.

BOOM!

And right after they retreated, a giant blazing sphere suddenly fell from their previous location, causing the two Master Berserkers to break in a cold sweat.

"Sh*t! What was that?" said Marion after seeing the destructive power of the blazing sphere.

The group was still looking warily at the blazing wall of fire in front of them, created by the previous explosion when they suddenly remembered Joanna was currently on the other side.

"This beast in human disguise sure is troublesome! But I thought he is more of a brute force type of fighter than an intellectual one," cursed Marron as they realized that they fell into another scheme.

...

"You guys are famed for being a well-coordinated group. Unfortunately, your team tends to crumble easily when you lose your lead," said Leonard with a smirking tone as he brandished his battle-axe at Joanna.

"And who is idiot enough to let their team healer unattended?" said a voice as its owner grabbed Joanna and carried her in safety.

Bang!

With his actions, Leonard missed his target with his battle-axe landed on the ground.

Seemingly not to be surprised, Leonard raised his axe from the ground before resting it on his shoulder in a leisure manner. He then turned his head to a certain direction before saying sneeringly. "So, the reason why you let Junpei handle the commanding is so that you can move more freely around the battlefield, protecting your teammates?"

"If that is the case, I'm now starting to suspect why you let your own strategist get killed instantly," he added after a brief moment of pause.

The Wolfkin Master Hunter put Joanna back on the ground before turning around to face Leonard. "Get killed? Are you sure that you killed him?"

Hearing that, Leonard raised his brows a little as he suddenly realized that he indeed didn't get a notification informing him that he killed Jumpei. "Tsk! Such a rookie mistake."

A few moments later, the wall of fire from the previous skill that he used earlier finally subdued, revealing the other members of the 'Mountain Dwellers' from the other side. And standing at the forefront was Junpei who was currently holding his greatsword in front of him in a horizontal manner.

Behind him stood Marion and Marron on each side while channeling their mana on their respective weapons. And right behind them was Sherly who was chanting out some words, casting a spell to buff up the three in front of her.

Meanwhile, Mago was standing at the very rear of the group while also casting a spell of his own. With a wave of his scepter, a pair of serpent-like groups of fire suddenly circled around them, seemingly protecting each member of the group.

At the same time, Joanna suddenly blinked at the center of the group before kneeling on the ground and started praying.

A moment later, a beam of light was suddenly sent out from the group and hit the body of their leader, the Wolfkin Master Hunter standing in front of Leonard.

But instead of being harmed, the leader of the group seemed to gain more powers instead and rivaled the dangerous aura that Leonard was currently emitting with the help of his 'Elemental Beast Triple Fusion'.

Whistle~!

"So, they were planning to use that combination skill that they learned, huh? I wonder if it is enough," said a member of the Cougar Brothers as he sat on a rock boulder.

Not far from him stood the members of Predators Adventurer Team who cast their gazes at him after hearing his words. And after a few moments of silence, the Bearkin of the group suddenly smirked and said. "Heh! So, why did you suddenly stop your attacks, Shere? Suddenly got scared?"

"Tsk! Don't pick up a fight with me now, Kuma. I don't have enough energy to argue with you," said the guy named Shere of the 'Cougar Brothers'.

"Tsk! Tsk! We got here first, so we should be the ones to fight him first!" said another Tigerkin Master Berserker as he stood beside the rock boulder where Shere sat.

Meanwhile, the third member of their group stood on the other side of the boulder before nodding in silence.

"Too bad, all of us want to fight that guy in full strength and not in an exhausted state," said the hooded guy with a slight.

Seeing them chatting with each other, the Twin Claws couldn't help themselves but join as one of them chimed in. "Well, at least we can witness a good show before that and see which one is stronger-…"

"The famous 'Beast Arts' of the War God: Simba? Or the combined forces of the Great 8 Mountain Dwellers'?"

...…