KINETIC

Hoo~

Leo let out a breath of relief. 'I don't know what I would've done if that attack didn't kill it.' Leo thought while looking at his energy.

(5/40)

'You were really cutting it close there. If it had survived then you'd have been in serious trouble.' Dreifus said with a relieved tone.

'Yeah I know.' Leo replied 'I didn't have the energy to continue if it survived'.

"Leo, are you okay?!" Clay shouted from Leo's side. He had luckily rolled out of the way just in time before Leo and the monster corpse fell to the ground. If he hadn't moved then he would have been crushed.

"Yeah... I'm alright." Leo looked at Clay and Nila. Both of them appeared to be mostly unharmed, having sustained only small injuries like cuts and bruises.

A wave of relief washed over Leo when he saw that neither of them were injured. Just then, Leos eyes went wide. "Cain..."

Leo turned and started running towards where Cain was lying on the ground. Although Leo didn't do it intentionally, he began to absorb the energy he created by running. It was something he did by instinct now.

Clay seemed to have forgotten about Cain for a moment as well. The stress of the fight pulled his attention but now that it was over, he too ran towards where Cain was lying.

Nila wasn't close to Cain so she wasn't too concerned with going to check on him. Of course she didn't want him to die but there was nothing she could do to help anyways.

Instead, Nila walked towards the monsters corpse and started checking inside its body for a crystal. Crystals are usually found near where the chest would be, although some monsters are oddly shaped and that makes it difficult to find the crystal. Luckily this monster was simple.

Leo reached were Cain was lying. He was on his back with Rene leaning over him with her hands placed on his chest. A soft golden light illuminated from her hands and spread over Cain.

"How is he?"

"He should be fine after some rest. If I hadn't been here then there's a good chance he would have died. From what I can tell he hadn't placed any AP into his body for defense, I think that's why he got so injured." Rene replied with a shaky voice.

Rene looked very concerned but at the same time she was relieved that Cain would live. Leo placed his hand on Renes shoulder "You did well to keep him from dying." He said with a smile.

Tears filled Renes eyes as Leo spoke. She felt happy that she was able to repay the kindness that they had shown her when they rescued her front Trent.

John was standing next to Rene and Cain. He had been watching the fight from their side, waiting to use his barriers if he needed to. The entire fight he kept thinking to himself 'I can't let them get hurt. I can't let Leo down again... I have to get stronger so nobody can use me against them again...'

Clay knelt down beside Cain and opposite Rene. He had heard what Rene said and was relieved that Cain would live. "You idiot, why didn't you strengthen your body?" He asked Cain with a chastising tone.

Of course since Cain was unconscious, there was no reply. Leo turned to face the monster and was just in time to see Nila pulling a crystal out of its chest.

The crystal was about the size of a thumb. Leo felt disappointed with its size since he couldn't help but compare it to the crystal he had in his storage ring.

Nila saw Leo looking her way as she wiped the blood off her hands. She looked at the crystal for a moment before lifting it up and throwing it over to Leo.

Leo caught the crystal and looked at Nila confused. "Why did you give it to me?" He asked.

"Because you killed it. Crystals always go to the person who dealt the final blow." She replied nonchalantly while shrugging her shoulders. "Besides, that's a pretty small crystal, so it's not worth fighting over."

Leo didn't know that the last hit determined who would get the crystal, although it made sense why things were done this way.

'If there was a tough fight against a strong monster and they retrieved the crystal, there would be a lot of fighting over who got to keep it. This way, it's already decided that the one who kills it keeps the crystal. This also gives people a reason to fight harder in hopes of dealing the last hit.'

'The only issue is that someone could attack at the last second after staying out the fight. They would kill the monster after others did all the hard work and they would get the crystal. I wonder how often that happens.' Leo thought with his usual analytical view of things.

"We should go back to the carriage. We can't continue with Cain being so injured and most of us are drained from fighting. Rene looks like she's already out of AP too, so she wouldn't be able to help any of us if we got injured again." Clay said while standing up and looking at Leo.

Rene nodded, showing that what Clay said was true. Everyone looked at Leo, since he was the leader of their group and the decision was up to him.

"I think we should go back. Clay is right, there's too high a risk of something going wrong if we continue." Leo said. Everyone agreed that this was the best course of action.

Clay picked up Cain and started walking in the direction of the carriages when John stopped him. "You're tired. Let me carry him." John said with a guilty look.

He felt bad that he hadn't helped during the fight, so he wanted to at least help now. Clay looked at the tiny figure that was John and had a sceptical look on his face.

John raised his hand and a flat translucent board of energy appeared floating horizontally in the air a meter off the ground. This was one of John's barriers.

Clay understood now how John was going to carry Cain and agreed that it was a good idea. He placed Cain on the barrier and started walking behind Leo. John followed after the group with his barrier floating next to him carrying Cain.

Leo walked through the bush that they had come through earlier to reach the monster, and on the other side was something unexpected.

The officer who was asigned to be his groups guide was lying on the floor in a pool of blood with his neck sliced open.

There was moment where Leo was confused and shocked by this and his guard was down. A blast of energy slammed into Leo's chest from the front, pushing him backwards and into the clearing again.

All the others could see was a flash of greyish energy and Leo's body went flying over their heads.