Void Reaper: The Essence Apocalypse

Chapter 70 70: I’m glad you remember me

Ragnar heard the dull boom of his projectile and snorted in satisfaction, already expecting to see Natalia's body slam into the building wall - or at the very least crumple to the ground with shattered bones.

But when he turned his head, he saw something completely different.

In front of the girl stood a thick, several-meter-tall wall of ice - so dense and massive it looked like a fragment of a glacier torn straight out of the Arctic and forced into the middle of the campus. Its surface was cracked and mangled from the impact of the compressed air blast, yet it still stood - heavy, cold, and utterly unbroken at its base.

Behind it, Natalia stood upright. She hadn't even taken a step back.

And her eyes were colder than before.

"What the fu…" slipped out of Ragnar when he realized she hadn't just survived - she was already forming new ice constructs above her head.

This time not thin spikes.

Thicker, heavier and blade-like.

And they were very clearly aimed at his throat, eyes, and groin - the kind of targets where a single hit meant the end.

She wasn't trying to knock him out anymore.

Now Natalia wanted to kill him.

Her spikes shot forward at full speed.

Ragnar leapt sideways, feeling one graze his shoulder, slicing his shirt sleeve and leaving a thin, freezing cut across his skin.

At the same time, Roland was already on him.

The cane whistled through the air, slamming into Ragnar's knee from the side.

Ragnar managed to pull back half a step, avoiding the full impact, and the air barrier flickered again for a split second.

Roland's eyes glinted faintly.

"It's not active all the time," he realized when he saw Ragnar instinctively dodging instead of tanking the blow on that strange shield.

Ragnar was pushed onto the defensive, forced to keep retreating - balancing between Natalia's ice assaults and the old man's precise strikes. Yet even under pressure, he still found moments to gather strength and hurl another condensed air blast toward Natalia.

Each time, she responded by creating more walls, shields, and layered ice barriers - burning through mana, but not retreating a single step mentally.

Roland growled under his breath, irritated that his opponent wasn't some mindless brute, but someone capable of fighting and thinking at the same time.

Natalia frowned, sensing the growing stalemate.

She knew she could break it in an instant - if she unleashed the full power of her ice spikes, freezing everything within dozens of meters and immobilizing Ragnar so completely that even his air tricks wouldn't save him.

But Arnold and Victor were within range.

And just a few meters away stood the building - with other people inside.

Using that ability meant risk.

A risk she wasn't willing to take - even if her rage was telling her otherwise.

So she held her ground, forming more ice constructs, balancing between aggression and control.

Leon, meanwhile, hadn't moved an inch.

He stood beside Arnold and Victor, arms hanging loosely at his sides, watching the fight with a faint smile - not mocking or malicious, but analytical.

Like someone studying a complex chart and trying to understand its patterns.

He already more or less understood Natalia's style.

Ranged mage. Terrain control. Area dominance. Pressure from above.

Nothing surprising.

But Roland…

Leon narrowed his eyes as he watched the old man vanish again - reappearing half a step from Ragnar.

No visible skill activation. Just pure, raw speed.

Slightly slower than Leon's own - but still at a level unattainable for an ordinary Evolver.

"Interesting…" he murmured. "Passive… or something more?"

Beside him, Valeria crossed her arms beneath her chest - accentuating it completely unconsciously - and tilted her head, watching Ragnar with interest.

"What a surprise…" she said sweetly. "To think that man has such a powerful ability."

Leon snorted quietly.

"No chance. His skills are far inferior to mine."

Valeria glanced at him, raising a brow.

"At higher levels, yes. But right now the gap isn't as big as you think. So what makes you so certain?"

Leon didn't take his eyes off the fight.

"Instinct."

Valeria rolled her eyes, pouting.

"My lover is teasing me. I don't like that," she muttered theatrically, lips curling as if offended.

But a moment later, her voice cooled slightly.

"You know, analyzing your allies' strengths and weaknesses while they're fighting for their lives is a bit… heartless."

Leon looked at her with an innocent smile.

"I have no idea what you mean."

Before she could respond, his gaze shifted back to Ragnar - who had just propelled himself away with another air burst, creating distance from Roland.

And then something clicked in Leon's mind.

His eyes narrowed.

"Valeria… It seems," he said quietly, "he was the one who lured those zombies to me after the fight with the giant boar."

The words left his mouth calmly, almost indifferently - like he was commenting on something trivial.

But his gaze had changed.

When he looked at Valeria now, he wasn't looking for conversation or banter - only confirmation. That silent, unspoken certainty that had formed the moment all the puzzle pieces fell into place.

He immediately understood she hadn't brought up that topic by accident.

Valeria wasn't someone who spoke "just because."

If she hinted at something, it was always for a reason.

She wanted to guide him.

Toward the man who had tried to kill him in the most convenient way possible - without dirtying his own hands, without risking his own skin.

Just directing a horde of zombies at him like prey to be finished off once exhaustion set in.

A small, satisfied smile appeared on Valeria's face.

Slowly, she raised a hand and placed it over her chest, as if her heart had suddenly quickened. She gave it a light squeeze, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks. Combined with her half-lidded eyes, it gave her gaze a distinctly lustful edge.

"Don't do this to me…" she murmured softly. "Your intelligence just makes me want to do it here and now…"

Leon stared at her in complete disbelief.

For a second, he almost forgot that a life-and-death battle was happening a few meters away. His brain genuinely didn't know how to process what he was seeing and hearing - and his eyes, against his will, drifted to the spot she was squeezing, as if hypnotized.

And in that exact second…

The atmosphere changed.

Valeria released her chest.

The blush vanished.

Her face turned serious, cool - almost professional.

"Since you've already reached that conclusion," she said with a faint smile, "I won't deny it."

That was enough.

Leon turned his head back toward the fight, a cold smile forming on his face - far colder than before, stripped of the analytical curiosity that had dominated him minutes earlier.

Now it was personal.

Victor and Arnold glanced at him strangely. Instead of watching the battle, he'd been looking off to the side, whispering under his breath like he was talking to himself - which, given the situation, was more than a little unsettling.

Leon was just about to look away from Valeria when Natalia's frustrated voice cut through the air like an ice blade.

"Leon! What are you doing?! Are you still not planning to help us?!"

He looked at her.

Natalia truly intended to kill Ragnar.

There was no trace of negotiation or cold calculation left in her eyes - only anger. Icy, focused, suffocating.

But the problem was that Ragnar was like a cockroach she couldn't crush - constantly dodging, rebounding off the air, blocking, forcing her to burn more and more mana on walls and barriers.

And her reserves were melting.

At an alarming rate.

A quick tactical calculation flashed through her mind - if there were other Evolvers in the building, and everything suggested there were, a prolonged fight would only worsen their position. If her mana dropped too low and another enemy appeared, retreat would be their only option.

She also felt a flicker of relief that Adam and the other survivors weren't here. If Ragnar really was the type to use people as tools, their presence would only slow them down and force additional protection.

Leon smiled faintly when he heard her shout.

Because although at first he truly hadn't intended to interfere - wanting to see how Natalia and Roland handled things on their own…

Only now did Ragnar truly look at Leon. Not as some extra standing off to the side. Not as a random companion of the ice woman.

But as someone he had just recognized.

His pupils narrowed sharply.

His gaze dropped first to the coat - still swaying faintly from the air torn apart by earlier impacts. Then to the two daggers resting loosely in Leon's hands, as if they were nothing more than natural extensions of his arms.

"You…!" The words burst out of him, raw and disbelieving. "It's you!"

For the first time, something other than arrogance crept into his voice.

That night had been dark.

Buildings had collapsed like matchsticks as the giant boar rampaged through everything in its path. Ragnar had stayed hidden in the shadows - too cautious, too afraid to get closer - watching from a safe distance.

All he'd seen was a silhouette.

A lone man standing against the monster.

Flashes of blades cutting through the air.

The sharp snap of a coat whipping in the chaos.

The steady figure that refused to fall even as the world around it crumbled.

He hadn't seen the face. He hadn't memorized the details.

But that coat.

Those daggers.

Those were burned into his memory - the image of a fight that had shattered his understanding of how strong a single human could be.

Leon met his stare calmly.

As if being recognized was only natural - expected, even.

He tilted his head slightly and replied in a tone that was almost polite.

"I'm glad you remember me."