( Leo's POV )
While all the fighting took place at the Duke's Manor, Leo frantically looked for Elena throughout the city.
His intention was to find her and get her to safety in these chaotic times, however, as he reached the bakery where she worked, he found it to be completely empty, as everyone working inside seemed to have already ran away in a haste.
This forced Leo to look for his mother around town, however, after 10 minutes of trying to find her and sending her a dozen texts, Leo just plain gave up as this was not an actual life and death situation for her mother.
The worst that could happen to her even if she died, was mental trauma and a loss of a few levels, however, it wasn't anything permanent.
Hence, after trying to look for her unsuccessfully for a while, Leo just plain gave up and started to look for Ben instead.
"So…. How do I look for master Ben in a city full of chaos?" Leo wondered, looking around, until his eyes fell on an old and abandoned mage tower which towered over the city's skyline.
"Guess I can start from there–" Leo muttered to himself, as he quickly made his way to the mage tower and began scaling it, like he was climbing Mount Faulkner for his morning training.
'Woah, I've gotten so much better at vertical climbs–' Leo thought, as what felt like extreme exertion on his calves when he used to train at Mount Faulkner, now felt like child's play after his level and strength had increased significantly.
Within seconds he climbed close to 20 floors worth of height, before planting two daggers into the gaps of the bricks to create a standing support.
"Woah…. That dragon sure did a number on the Duke's mansion" Leo noted, as the first thing he noticed from the height was that the Duke's mansion was now reduced to rubble.
The next thing that he noticed was that the black dragon was currently wreaking havoc on the opposite end of the city from where he was standing, as it destroyed entire blocks of houses with every breath it took.
"Bloody hell….. that beast is undoubtedly the end level boss of this game. Even if a million players band up to take this behemoth down, we most likely won't be able to" Leo noted, as he felt thoroughly impressed by the strength of the beast.
Not once did the thought of how many innocent lives were being lost due to this dragon attack cross Leo's mind, as while he admired the dragon's power, he did not really care what happened to Thumba City.
Unlike Ben who had a strong moral compass regarding matters of national importance and the lives of common men, Leo did not have one.
For Leo, he would only care about Thumba City if he were the one governing it, however, since he was not, nor did he have any personal interests vested in it, Leo did not have any sympathy for the commoners at all.
Even now, his only priority was to keep Ben safe from dying, with his secondary motive being to gain some benefits from this unexpected situation if he could.
"Well…. With Duke Nico taking such a big loss, this is the perfect opportunity for the Uprising to expand their territory if they wish…." Leo muttered, as after mulling over the idea for a while, he quickly wrote a message to ChaosBringer from his 'TheBoss' account.
[ The Southern Capital of Thumba is burning….. the Duke's forces are in disarray…. Immediately mobilize all forces and grab as much land as you can… ] Leo wrote, as he did not request ChaosBringer to do as he suggested, but rather demanded it.
If ChaosBringer had an ounce of brain in him, he was most likely not going to let this opportunity slip in the first place, however, Leo still dropped him a text if he still needed any more convincing to do, or if he did not understand the importance of acting fast.
However, once that was done, Leo returned all his focus to finding Ben, and looking at how the small wyverns were all continuously circling the same area, as if looking for someone, Leo assumed that Ben would be somewhere around there.
"Well…. There's no harm in looking–" Leo muttered, jumping off the mage tower as he skidded down the edge.
*Thud*
Making a smooth and weightless drop, Leo rolled twice on the floor to disperse the momentum before jogging in the direction which he assumed Ben would be in, with his daggers at the ready.
*********
( Meanwhile on the forums )
The global chat melted with discussions over the dragon attack, as this felt like the most major event that had taken place within the game world since the start.
Pictures of the Demon King, the black dragon and its insane attack power were going viral on the forums, with every player, their mothers and their ancestors talking about it.
"Mannnn….I wish I was in Thumba City right now…. I so wanted to fight a dragon–"
"Mate, are you out of your mind? Let alone fighting a dragon, you wouldn't even be able to come close to one, even if you tried–"
"But why did the Demon King suddenly show up within human territory? And that too this deep into our land? Is there a hidden event ongoing in Thumba city that we are unaware about?"
"If the demon king destroys Thumba City, can we then loot all the abandoned shops and the left behind resources without gaining infamy?
If it's legal, it could make one rich!"
"Why did the Demon King attack Thumba City and not StrongHaven? What's going on?"
Many speculated about what was going on in Thumba City, however, nobody really understood the full picture.
The gaming landscape of Terra Nova had changed forever with this attack, as the downfall of the Empire had officially started.
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/// A/N - Chapter 5/5 of the mass release! Cheers! That was a lot of hard work. Hope you guys enjoyed it! ///