Leo observed Karl from behind the sand dune, watching as the traitor fought the seven assassins spread around him with a feral smile stretched wide across his face.
A part of Leo wanted to leap in, strike Karl down and end the bastard for good—but something about the man's current aura made his skin crawl.
His current aura did not feel like the Karl he remembered.
It felt dangerous.
Predatory.
And hence, his instincts told him to stay low, and wait.
'That aura… it feels like a Transcendent-tier warrior. Is that his true strength?' Leo wondered, narrowing his eyes as he tried to reconcile this monster before him with the cook he once knew.
The Karl he remembered had been a weak, soft-spoken, master-tier chef with a silver tongue and a coward's spine.
Leo had never seen him fight seriously—never even considered him a threat.
But now?
