"Time for the show." Leo said as he dived toward the clueless adventurers, ready to start a slaughter.

As he dived toward the crowd under him, Leo's mind quickly turned as he chose his priority target.

As he looked at the six humans, Leo quickly set his sight on two people. The brawny shield wielder and the young mage who seemed to be the leader of the team.

'Hum, who should I go for?' He frowned as he was now unable to choose a target between those two. 

In his situation, killing the leader looked like the best option. If he killed the supposed leader, he would without a doubt deal a great blow to the enemy. 

It was common sense that an army without its general would be greatly weakened. And if the general happened to be their strongest fighter the impact of his death would be even greater. Thus, the most logical choice should be to target the leader. 

However, he wasn't 100% sure that the mage was the leader. Also, if the team was experienced and had already fought together many times, they would be able to hold on even after losing their leaders. 

On the other hand, if he killed the guardian, Leo would be able to get rid of the only person who should be able to confidently hold his ground against him in a close-range fight. 

He wasn’t clear how things worked when it comes to the various occupations in this world but he was sure that no matter how experienced they were the loss of their first line of defense would greatly affect them. Without their guardian holding him back, he would be able to go on a rampage as much as he wanted.

Still unable to decide himself, Leo asked Celia whose understanding of this world was better than his.

As she heard his query, Celia didn’t hesitate before answering. 

" We should target the guardian first." She said immediately.

"Actually, what I want to say is that you have more chances to kill the guardian. We mages are really hard to kill.  Since our body is generally weaker than warriors of the same level, we always have one or two automatic defense spells ready when we are on the battlefield. As soon as we are in danger, the shield would activate and protect us." She quickly explained.

"It should be the same for that guy. Even if his shield can’t stop you it should be able to buy him enough time to dodge. In that case, we would have wasted a precious opportunity. On the other hand, even if the guardian body is strong, I don’t think it amounts to anything in front of you."

"Alright, the guardian it is then." Leo nodded and immediately sped up. 

**

Meanwhile, in the clearing, the adventurers still unaware of the danger looming above them were observing Leila while leisurely chatting. 

"Is it done?" Blake asked.

"Almost." Leila said with a frown. However, at that moment, she had an ominous feeling and her spell detected a hidden life fluctuation quickly closing on them. While she didn’t know where it was coming from, she was sure it was close to them.

"Watch out." She shouted to warn her companions.

"Well, despite how strong I am, someone my level was still able to see through my concealment." Leo frowned as he heard Leila shout.

"Unfortunately, it is too late." Leo muttered as he left his concealment and unleashed his whole aura along with a cast of dominating pressure.

 Just as the adventurers heard Leila shout and before they could react, Leo’s crushing pressure descended upon them. 

The moment the aura of Leo crashed on them, their bodies stiffened and they felt their minds going blank. The only ones who were somehow able to keep their bearings were Blake and Leila and even they could barely do so.

"Shit. Is this why Bel was so afraid? The bastard should have warned us more clearly." Ali cursed as his mind became sluggish under the oppressive aura.

As he was struggling to regain control of his body, he saw the massive figure of a lion appear above him. 

Horrified, he watched as the Lion's massive paws fell toward him. Like the hand of god bringing judgment upon the mortal world. Like the scythe of the reaper bringing death in its wake. 

"Fuck." He cursed as understood that he would die if he did nothing. Summoning all the strength he could, he was able to cast a defensive technique despite his state. 

Iron augmentation.

Instantly, his skin gained a metallic shine while the armor he wore was strengthened. Unfortunately, it was a pointless struggle as the moment the massive paws reached him, it crushed all his defense as if they were papers.

Squelch… His head was pushed inside his body like a button and his whole body was then splattered on the floor like an omelet.

"I have done it." Leo muttered as he felt the guardian crushed under his paws. However, the little guilt he felt quickly faded once he heard the sweet sound of the system.

'1.' He muttered with a grin as he turned toward the midget who already fainted after witnessing Ali’s fate. Opening his mouth, he threw a shadow ball toward the defenseless sap. 

Bang. A loud sound filled the clearing as the head of the midget exploded.

'2.' It is easier than I thought. He muttered as he looked at the remaining adventurers who regained control over their bodies and hurriedly put distance between him and them.

"We are doomed." Ali muttered as he drew his bow and jumped back. "This power…. It didn’t have so much power before." He muttered as he looked at the corpse of his two companions. 

Only a short second passed between the beast's arrival and then but two of them already died. As he saw this outcome, Bel's mind sank into despair as he frantically thought of a way to get out of here.

"You…You... you killed Ali." Rin shouted furiously as she dashed toward Leo.

"Did none tell you that you shouldn’t lose your cool during a fight?" Celia who was hiding on Leo’s back showed herself and mocked as she pointed her staff at the dazed Rin.

"Rin, retreat, now. It is too dangerous." Bel and Blake shouted as they saw Rin mindlessly running toward Leo. 

As she heard her companions shout, Rin understood what she was doing and instantly tried to retreat. However, she was suddenly unable to move as she found her feet slowly sinking into the ground. 

"Purgatory thorns." Celia muttered as she cast her spell. Instantly, the immobile Rin was bound and set ablaze by dozens of fire vines.

"Water ball." Seeing his companion who was being tormented by Celia's fire, Blake threw a hail of water balls toward her to put the fire out. Still, before he was able to extinguish Celia’s fire, the damage Rin sustained was nothing to scoff at. 

'Mage hands.' Leila muttered. Two ethereal hands only she could see appeared and rushed toward Rin, trying to drag her out of the quicksand. 

Meanwhile, Blake and Bel started furiously attacking Leo to buy enough time for Leila.

"I thought you said you could kill her." Leo scolded Celia as he cast earth guard to resist the rain of arrows and icicles falling toward him.

"How could I know that he was a water mage?" She said helplessly. Even though her fire was special, she just ranked up and her mastery of the elements was inferior to Blake’s. In such a situation where two mages with opposite elements fought, it was the one with the greater mastery over his element who would win.

"It is normal that I was unable to do anything. But why are you letting them do whatever they want?" Celia asked as he found it weird that Leo stopped killing the first two adventurers.

" I just want to milk everything out of them."He said with a smile.

"Milk what?" Celia asked curiously.

"I can get a better understanding of the way humans’ skills work by watching them. Besides, I can also increase the mastery of my skills." He said.  

"Besides, those guys aren’t that simple." He muttered as he looked at Leila and Blake. 

Since the beginning of the fight, he carefully watched how each of those adventurers behaved and he noticed that despite everything that happened, the two mages were still very calm, the woman was even more relaxed. Only the swordswoman and the archer seemed genuinely afraid of him.

If his understanding of the way humans think wasn’t wrong, that would mean that the two have the confidence to escape and keep their lives or even kill him despite the strength he showed. 

Thus, it was normal for him to be cautious when dealing with them.

Other than using them to grind his skills, his goal was to see if he could find where their confidence came from. Also, he wouldn’t mind letting them waste their mana to protect someone who was already a liability.

With those thoughts in mind, Leo carefully watched the two mages, waiting for them to show the ace they had up their sleeves.

However, the following set of events was something he couldn’t predict at all…