Leonel's feet shifted, slowing his black surfboard to a grinding halt. He pulled out the horn once again, but Khaled only sneered.
Seeing his reaction, Leonel put the horn away without even blowing on it. Now that he understood the situation he was in, his mind flowed like water, jumping from idea to idea without pause or rest.
It was already impossible for him to stop the gliders, but he had at least bought the Baronies and Camelot time. By now, information about what was happening here should have long since been disseminated. A city falling from the sky was not something that could be missed and Leonel had made certain of that.
Leonel's goal had already changed.
Assuming that he would be able to stop an entire army by himself had been foolish. Since he knew that he couldn't, he would focus on what he could do.
His first priority was to survive. His second priority would be to kill this commander.
Though Leonel set this second priority, he didn't spend any of his time hoping for it. He could sense that this commander was much stronger than he was.
At his current level, Leonel couldn't even deal with the likes of Jilniya and those Heirs of Powers with any sort of assurance. At most, he could deal with exceptionally weak Fourth Dimensional existences and those who couldn't defend themselves like those gliders.
But, against someone like White Knight Diore… well, it was safe to say that if this battle was happening on the ground and not the air where Khaled could not directly track down and kill Leonel himself, Leonel would likely already be dead.
Leonel's emotions seemed to vanish, his cold, calculating eyes locking onto the flock of birds around him as though he could no longer sense the gliders flying by below him. His mind reached an unprecedented sense of calm and seriousness that made the White Knight frown for the first time since this battle began.
Leonel stood absolutely still in the air. Using his flying treasure as his base, he nocked another arrow, his breathing calm and steady.
The way his eyes locked onto White Knight Diore made the latter feel as though their was nothing else around them, as though in this world there were only the two of them, as though if he made the slightest mistake, miscalculated just the smallest bit… that his life would be over.
A halo of bronze appeared above Leonel's head, wafting out a majestic violet fog. It seemed to coat Leonel in the air of a King, even causing the atmosphere to become several times heavier.
In the past, the gravity field ability of Leonel's Metal Synergy Lineage Factor had been exceptionally weak, barely increasing the gravity by a few percentage points, if that. But, after absorbing so much Urbe Essence, just the presence of Leonel's halo alone increased it by 20%, giving a 1.2x effect at no expense to Leonel's own stamina.
This might not seem like much, but aerial beasts were especially reliant on their light weight. Small changes could cost them a drastic amount of speed. And, at this moment, Leonel would take whatever advantage he could get.
SHUUUU!
A Predator Raven swooped down at Leonel, its eyes a furious shade of crimson. But, almost in the exact instant it reached the range in order to do this, Leonel had reacted first, letting loose an arrow.
KWWWAAAA!! KWWWAAA!!
An arc of blood sprayed from the Predator Raven's eyes. It sprawled in the air, its wings flapping about so wildly that it lost several feathers in a matter of moments.
Leonel's surfboard moved at his command. He seemed to move in a straight line, but the angles he took were just out of reach of several Predator Ravens.
Without any long ranged attacks, these Ravens could only assault Leonel with their beaks and their claws. Their pupils were also useless if Leonel wasn't casting any spells.
Though they could disrupt the organization of Force, that was all. They couldn't dispel Force or negate it. This meant that against Force Arts, their abilities were exceptional. But, against normal Force attacks like Leonel's reinforced Arrows, the amount of change they could cause was next to zero.
To make matters worse for the flock of Predator Ravens, their size was simply too big. With only short ranged attacks available to them and even the smallest of them having a wingspan of five meters, nimble movements were most definitely not their forte. In fact, even if it was, with how many of them had swarmed Leonel, sudden bursts of movement would cause more problems to themselves than they would to Leonel himself.
Khaled narrowed his eyes.
He thought that since he was facing a child, all he had to do was intimidate Leonel into making a stupid mistake with the use of his overwhelming numbers. He thought that Leonel wouldn't have the presence of mind to realize that he was keeping the Predator Ravens spaced out so that they wouldn't collide with one another.
Yet, not only had Leonel realized this, he realized it immediately and even boldly acted upon it even to the point of allowing the flock of Ravens to surround him.
If things kept going like this, without the room to even turn around, they would end up flying by Leonel and ironically letting him escape.
But, Khaled wasn't a fool. In fact, he was one of City Lord White's most trusted White Knights. If not for this, how could he be allowed to man one of their most important missions?
"Disperse." He commanded calmly.
In one swift motion, the Predator Ravens that had already passed Leonel by flapped their wings and spread out. Instantly, they had formed a large encirclement of Leonel, effectively cutting off the surrounding 500 meter space for their battlefield.
Those Ravens that were still surging toward Leonel spread their wings out wide, coming to grinding halts as they either shot up or down.
Despite feeling that he could kill Leonel with a single strike if he got the opportunity, Khaled remained calm, retreating as well.
In the center of it all, all that was left were a group of three Predator Ravens, the smallest and swiftest of them all, assaulting Leonel from all sides.
Khaled's response immediately cured all of his formation's weaknesses. He had expected Leonel's calm expression to crack, but to his surprise, there wasn't even the slightest shift.
From start to finish, Leonel had only shot a single arrow. The rest of the time, he spent calculating the safest lines of trajectory he would take to dodge around these beasts.
Well… That was at least what it seemed like.
But, Leonel's real target had been his target from the very beginning.
A particular bird beast that now had just a single eye and was in much too much pain to follow Khaled's orders perfectly.