Chapter 4: Drunken Master
'It's a blaze,' Leon noticed.
A simple observation. Yet, one that bore massive consequences, forcing Leon to figure out a new plan of action.
'It's one thing to sneak into a peaceful village and another to enter one subjected to this kind of fire,' he thought, gritting his teeth.
A lesser man would rejoice at the opportunity to use the chaos to one's own advantage. After all, with the limited wealth local villages had now turning into ash, they would hardly pay any attention to strangers roaming around.
But it was a shallow way of thinking. The logic that Leon left behind years ago.
And yet, despite the situation changing to Leon's disadvantage, his body relaxed a little.
'To think the sight of a burning village could put me at ease...' Leon thought, contemplating his broken mental state. 'At least it means this world isn't all that different from my own.'
Leon closed his eyes a mere second before his body flew right into the raising cloud of dark smoke. He closed his mouth and made sure to keep on exhaling through his nose, keeping the harmful smoke away from his lungs.
The smoke assaulted every inch of Leon's skin, threatening to set it on fire with just how hot it was.
'It's like being burned on a stake,' Leon thought, gritting his teeth when the unpleasant sensation brought back one of the few memories he wished to bury.
And then, his body flew out of the smoke's cloud, meaning, he now broke through the village's proximity and entered the airspace right above it.
Leon pried his eyes open, instantly taking in all the information that he could gather from his elevated perspective. He then sent one last drop of blood that he could spare towards his legs before rolling in the air so that his legs would be directed toward the ground.
'Just like landing a rocket,' he thought, activating his blood only to slowly turn it into a propellant that slowed down his descent.
This motion bought Leon only a moment, a few seconds at most. But with his ability to rapidly process information, it was more than enough.
'It's a raid,' Leon called the situation for what it was.
He could see people running away in every direction. Rather than trying to put down the fires, they were escaping from other people that chased after them while wildly flailing their weapons in the air.
The men who failed to escape would be cut down. The women would either share their fate or could only attempt to wrestle their freedom while dragged around by those attackers who had an insatiable itch.
'I know enough,' Leon thought, fine-tuning the bloodmancy propellant below his legs.
Leon's momentum continued to decrease at a rapid rate... but so did his attitude. And mere seconds after he broke past the cloud of dark smoke he plummeted to the ground...
Only for his legs to land squarely on the shoulders of a man currently pulling his clothes apart to feast on the terrified and beaten-up woman below him.
Crunch!
The unpleasant sound of bones cracking and flesh breaking apart joined the cacophony of the raid. And once Leon's feet squashed an unlucky raider into the ground, the impact of his landing caused a small cloud of dust to raise in a small radius around him.
THUMP!
The sound of Leon's landing acted like a bucket of cold water for the entire village. Be it raiders or their victims, everyone froze in their tracks and turned their eyes toward the source of the unnerving sound.
'So even people who know of no explosives can instinctively tell the threat of a shockwave?' Leon thought, his lips twitching into a dark smirk.
Leon could feel all the eyes on his weakened body. And yet, rather than hurrying up to make use of such a massive opportunity...
He leisurely squatted down only to pick up a short, rusty sword that the raider discarded before attempting to give in to the desires of his flesh.
Leon wasn't in any hurry.
He basked in the attention of both sides of the conflict while swinging his arm and twisting his wrist to get the proper feel of the sword's weight and balance.
"This will do," he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.
And then, for the first time since he dropped down, Leon raised his eyes and looked back at all the shocked people around.
'Fourteen... No, fifteen of them,' he thought, combining what he could see right now with what he observed before.
Leon's hands fell right by his sides. The sword in his hand hung down as if the man had no strength to lift it up.
'I'm too weak to take them head and I can't really spare any more blood for bloodmancy,' he thought, calmly making use of everyone's shock to weigh his chances.
And then, Leon's lips curved up, revealing the very same smile that a lot of dignitaries in his old world experienced moments before their demise.
'Drunken master it is.'
Leon took a step forward.
No one dared to move a muscle.
Leon took another step.
Both the raiders and villagers alike that happened to be near uniformly took a step back, giving in to the pressure behind Leon's empty smile.
"It's just one man!" a raider shouted from behind the backs of his companions.
That guy... was perfectly right. Leon was all alone. And yet, there was a difference between pointing that out from a safe distance and accepting such a fact when faced with the threat.
So, while all the raiders were still too confused to take action... Leon took another step.
And then he stumbled, nearly falling down and burying his face into the ground.
Leon's legs shoot forward.
In any other situation, even an amateur could react to this kind of approach. But Leon didn't attempt to confuse the raiders with his footwork.
Instead, he desperately lunged forward... all for the sake of keeping himself on his legs!
'That should be enough to bait some to go ahead,' he thought, keenly observing the changing situation from behind his half-lowered eyelids.
"Kill him!"
Someone shouted, urging the raiders to take action.
And take action... they did.
First, two warriors came forth. One swung his ax around as if he expected to scare Leon off while the other charged forward with a spear.
"Aaa..." Leon uttered an incomprehensible sound, a mix of faked fear and bravado. He then took a wide, overhead swing with his rusty sword... Only to lose his balance long before the attackers could reach him, failing to keep himself upright.
Leon leaned way too much to be able to stay on his feet, his entire body swinging forth as a result.
Yet, right as the spear of the closer assailant was about to puncture his chest... Leon slipped on his leading leg, dropping down to the ground. Yet, right before he could strike the ground with his right shoulder... Leon slashed with his sword, opening up a long, bloody wound right below the spearman's third and fourth rib.
"Ah!" the man shouted in confusion when his blade passed way above Leon's flesh. He moved a few steps forward, carried by his own momentum, only to lower his hand to his side and then raise it to his eyes.
"Huh?"
The spearman took a moment to register the meaning of the wet crimson that now decorated his fingers. "Aaagh!" he then let out a scream, the pain of the injury finally catching up with his consciousness.
'One,' Leon thought, calmly counting his first prey as he fell to his side.
But there was still the other man, one wielding a handy, one-handed axe.
He couldn't attack because Leon escaped to the side blocked by the spearman's charge. Yet, as soon as his comrade moved out of his line of sight, the man raised his ax with the clear intention f bringing it down on Leon's head.
"I will throw up," Leon uttered through his gritted teeth, only to roll over on his belly.
This sudden change caused the axe-wielding assailant to miss his attack. What's more, once the handle of his ax struck the back of Leon's head, the weapon slid out of his hand, falling somewhere on the ash-covered ground.
"Urgh..." Leon shook his body, making it seem as if he was about to retch.
"What now?" the raider uttered two words, his voice signifying just how disappointed he was. "It's just some stupid..." he added, sending his leg to the back, "... drunk..." he continued, kicking forward, aiming with his leg at the bottom of Leon's stomach.
"Idiot!" the man shouted, sending his leg flying forth.
Or rather, that's what he thought he did. Because while his foot connected to Leon's abdomen, there were no signs of Leon getting kicked away.
"Right back at you," Leon muttered in a bored tone, lowering his left arm to his side and locking the man's leg between his arm and his belly.
Leon then rolled onto his back, easily forcing the man to trip over his stomach and then fall face-first on the sword he dropped on the other side of his body.
The silence returned to the burning village. Only the cracking of the nearby blaze dared to intrude upon this strange sanctum of peace.
And then, Leon stood up.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone