Alpha Instinct

Chapter 114 - 114:

The searing white flash subsided, leaving behind spots dancing in the void and the sharp, biting smell of ozone. The swamp air, usually thick and heavy, now crackled with residual energy.

Leonard hung in the air, feet slightly off the ground, his body a conduit for raw, untamed power. The blinding light now coalesced around his hands, no longer just crackling sparks, but writhing tendrils of pure, white-hot lightning, twisting and snapping like living creatures. His eyes were still blank voids of storm energy.

Fleshripper, kneeling, paralyzed by terror and the overwhelming power radiating from Leonard, could only watch.

Leonard raised his hands, palms facing the doomed Gnoll. The lightning intensified, the sound escalating from a crackle to a deafening roar of raw energy. Then, he unleashed.

Bolts of true lightning, jagged and blindingly bright, leaped from his fingertips. They struck Fleshripper not as single impacts but as a continuous, unrelenting barrage. The first bolt hit the Gnoll's remaining shoulder, exploding outward, sending chunks of burnt meat and shattered bone flying. Fleshripper shrieked, a sound drowned out by the crackling thunder.

Another bolt struck its chest, carving a smoking, cauterized trench through its torso. A third vaporized its knee. The lightning wasn't just hitting; it was tearing, ripping, disintegrating.

Fleshripper convulsed uncontrollably, its body jerking wildly under the onslaught. Its eyes, wide with a final, primal terror, stared directly at Leonard, reflecting the deadly light show that was ending its existence.

A final, silent scream seemed to tear from its throat before the light in its eyes extinguished completely. Its body collapsed, a mangled, smoking ruin barely recognizable as the Named Elite it once was.

The violent noise finally jolted Kaleb awake. He sat up groggily, his head pounding from the mana depletion. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, and then he saw Leonard. Floating. Crackling with lightning that wasn't coming from his swords but from his hands.

"Holy shit! What the fuck is that, Leonard!?" Kaleb yelled, scrambling backward, utterly incredulous, as if seeing a ghost wielding a thunderstorm.

He watched, stunned, as the lightning subsided, leaving Leonard hovering silently for a moment before slowly drifting back to the ground. "Lightning... from his hands... that means... mana control." Kaleb's mind raced, connecting the pieces. "The insane swordsmanship... that's physical prowess. The reaction time, predicting moves... psychic ability, Temporal Cognition. And now... pure elemental magic?"

The realization hit Kaleb with the force of a physical blow. "He has all three," Kaleb thought, his mouth dry. "Physical... Psychic... Magical... Leonard possesses all three strands of Neumond power. A Weise"

Slowly, inevitably, Leonard drifted back to the ground, the residual lightning fading from his form. The moment his boots touched the mud, he collapsed, unconscious.

Kaleb rushed to his side, his earlier terror momentarily forgotten in a surge of panic. He fumbled through Leonard's pouches, then his own, pulling out two vials—one mana potion, one regenerative. He uncapped them clumsily and poured both down Leonard's throat. He checked Leonard's pulse. It was weak, thready. "Shit, shit, shit..." He was dangerously close to death from the massive energy expenditure.

Kaleb looked around wildly,

Kaleb wrung his hands nervously. "He probably sensed Leonard's energy... when he broke through... when he used all three powers." He paced frantically. "He must be looking for us."

Mikaela, feeling she had done all she could, gently removed her hands from Leonard. "Leo? Leo, wake up!" she urged, shaking his shoulder lightly. No response.

Kaleb, looking awkward and slightly embarrassed, shuffled over. "Uh, there's... there's a method that might wake him up... archaic, but functional," he mumbled.

Mikaela looked at him expectantly. "How?"

Kaleb took a deep breath, muttered another quick apology under his breath, then grabbed Leonard's head, tilted it slightly, and slapped him hard across the face. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Three sharp sounds echoed in the tense silence.

Mikaela gasped, instinctively bringing a hand to her own cheek, remembering the stinging sensation. "You...?!" she started to ask, incredulous.

Kaleb quickly interrupted, avoiding her gaze. "Never mind that. Look, he's waking up."

Indeed, Leonard groaned, his eyelids fluttering.

"Come on, we need to go," Kaleb urged Mikaela. "Can you carry him? A mage class isn't exactly known for its strength stat."

"Leave it to me," Mikaela said grimly, already preparing to lift Leonard. "Let's go."

Just as Mikaela spoke, the landscape behind Kaleb seemed to warp. Skullcrusher, radiating palpable fury, slammed his colossal mace into the ground. The earth buckled and twisted, trees splintering, mud erupting upwards as reality itself seemed to turn inside out around the point of impact.

Kaleb stared, paralyzed for a split second. "Shit! Don't use your energy! Run!"