Bermuda

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

Andreas alternated his gaze between Hugo's ice wall—its lower part blown away—and Leonardo, who gleamed amidst the rising steam after escaping from inside, eyes wide open. Soon, admiration slipped from his lips.

“Did he disintegrate the water to cause that explosion so quickly?”

It seemed that was why bubbles had been rising from the iron cage before the blast.

Yet, if he had faced such a massive explosion at close range, he shouldn’t have emerged unscathed. Seeing him standing casually on his feet, Andreas grew curious about the kind of man he really was.

At Andreas’ words, Hugo, still staring at the black fragments scattered by the explosion, gathered ice crystals in his hand and formed a long ice spear.

“The iron cage that wouldn’t melt served as a solid catalyst instead.”

The sight of a man wielding his own abilities, a mind that used surrounding objects cleverly, and formidable destructive mana standing boldly in the heart of the Imperial Capital felt so surreal it was almost precarious.

As the feared moment arrived, Hugo gripped the ice spear tightly and charged forward. He needed to end this quickly before the damage escalated. If the man took the citizens as hostages, the Council would have no choice but to concede to protect them.

Leonardo calmly watched Hugo’s fierce approach. Though combat was limited in the Imperial Capital—no teleportation allowed—he held a slight advantage in speed and a chance to win.

Just as he prepared to lightly dodge Hugo’s incoming ice spear, thick vines sprouted from beneath his feet, wrapping tightly around his ankles.

Momentarily startled, Leonardo struggled to tear them off, but the vines were tough and braided into multiple strands, making them hard to break at once.

Even without lifting his head, he sensed Agrizendro, who had somehow gotten close enough above him. Leonardo immediately ignited fierce flames to burn the vines, then threw his body sideways with all his strength.

Kwaaang!

The ground was torn apart, and the stone pavement split as Hugo’s spear drove deep into the spot Leonardo had just vacated. As Leonardo narrowly escaped, Andreas, who had grabbed his ankles with the vines, looked at the burnt remains and muttered regretfully.

“The compatibility is just too unfavorable.”

At that moment, Leonardo, free from immediate danger, quickly searched for Andreas’ mana. Spotting him atop the ice wall, he shifted his target and charged in that direction.

As the terrifying man suddenly glanced up and rushed toward him, Andreas hurriedly extended the vines wrapped around the ice wall to catch one of Leonardo’s arms and a leg as he flew vertically along the wall’s surface.

Due to Leonardo’s extreme speed, the vines often snapped, risking him breaking free, but twisting them into multiple strands greatly increased their strength, somewhat slowing him down.

Still, Leonardo seemed unfazed. He forcefully pulled at the vines on his arm, trying to climb upward. But gradually, the thickness of the vines tightened noticeably, and he abruptly stopped midair, as if caught by a taut rope.

Frowning deeply at being halted again, he conjured a blazing flame sword in his hand. Mercilessly swinging it in every direction, he began cutting through the encircling vines.

The flickering flame sword relentlessly sliced the vines on his arm, but the vines below grew faster, climbing up his legs and gripping them tightly. As his cutting couldn’t keep pace with their growth, the green vines soon enveloped Leonardo’s body, as if swallowing him whole.

“Damn it, so annoying.”

Gritting his teeth, he thrashed and struggled wildly.

As his resistance dragged on, impatience grew, and amidst it, he sensed a cold, eerie chill creeping closer from behind.

Exhaling to calm his anxious breath, Leonardo glanced down at the vines shackling his legs.

If I can break these shackles on my ankles, maybe I can manage... but with the iron cage shattered, there can’t be anything stronger...

He hadn’t put it into action because he thought kicking the iron cage to remove the shackles on his ankles—like he had done with the handcuffs on his wrists—would leave his ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) legs broken.

Fortunately, the shackle on his right ankle had been blown off by the earlier explosion, but a large chunk of magic stone still clung to his left ankle.

Normally, dealing with just one shackle like this wouldn’t have been so difficult, but perhaps because it was his first time using this level of mana inside the Imperial Capital, he hadn’t expected mana control to hamper him this much.

With control overlapping, he couldn’t even burn these damn tree vines in one go, and his flight speed had slowed significantly. If he couldn’t remove the shackles soon, he’d be caught quickly, making his escape pointless.

At that moment, Leonardo instinctively glanced back and saw Hugo’s blue ice spear hurtling toward him at high speed.

That’s when a plan formed in his mind.

The ice wall he was currently tied to by the tree vines still stood tall and solid, its lower part destroyed only by the hydrogen explosion that had shattered the iron cage. If the ice was this solid, maybe it could shatter the magic stone shackle around his ankle.

Add the acceleration from moving at full speed, and the chances were over fifty percent.

As the ice reaper that would free him drew near, Leonardo’s heart hammered fiercely. The closer it came, the colder and sharper the air brushing his skin felt. Amid that, a smirk slipped onto his lips at the thought of daring to use his enemy like this.

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

In that fleeting moment of doubt, the ice spear, cold and fierce, lunged right in front of his eyes in the blink of an eye.

The moment Hugo raised the spear high to strike down...

Leonardo sliced part of the vines around his legs with the flame sword and deliberately pushed his ankle toward the spear’s sharp tip.

Kwaddeuk!

The ice spear drove deep into the thick, solid ice wall, stabbing the dense tree vines clustered around it. Viscous white sap oozed from the pierced area, and a brutal crack formed on the wall behind the tangled vines.

A small torn piece of clothing and the magic stone shackle were caught on the spearhead, swaying.

Hugo exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

He furrowed his brows deeply when he noticed faint red blood on the spearhead stuck in the ice. Gritting his teeth, he roughly pulled the spear out.

“Reckless fellow.”

If there was a physical advantage the man had over him in combat, it was his lightness and speed. His instantaneous ability to close in on a target was definitely among the top three compared to other strong mages Hugo had faced.

But even with that confidence in speed, deliberately pushing the shackle on his ankle onto the spearhead was truly unimaginable.

Had Hugo not changed the spear’s direction, the man’s ankle might have been completely severed. He had taken an incredibly dangerous gamble to remove the magic stone—reckless beyond reason.

Looking up, Hugo saw the man who’d freed himself already soaring high into the sky. Perhaps freed from all restraints suppressing his abilities, he easily burned the vines chasing him with even greater speed and ascended swiftly.

Hugo frowned at the sight of him, apparently unfazed by his injury. Soon, fully caught up in the man’s extraordinary actions, he gave chase immediately.