Chapter 165: Forty 2

Warehouse Forty-Two was a massive, looming structure built from heavy iron and dark, treated wood. It sat completely isolated at the end of a long, reinforced pier.

Unlike the surrounding buildings, this warehouse hummed with a deep, suffocating magical resonance.

A faint violet glow leaked from the boarded-up windows, casting eerie, shifting shadows across the wet wooden planks of the dock.

"The anchor is inside," Seraphina whispered, her violet eyes narrowing as she sensed the dense, corrupted earth mana flowing through the air. "I can feel it pulling ambient energy directly from the bedrock below the river."

Leon held up a hand, signaling for the team to halt behind a stack of rusted shipping crates.

Standing guard in front of the heavy iron doors were four Syndicate mercenaries, but they were not the standard thugs. They wore thick, reinforced armor and carried heavy repeating crossbows loaded with glowing, enchanted bolts.

"I will handle the sentries," Leon commanded smoothly, pushing the lingering pain in his shoulder aside.

He did not wait for a response. He activated his spatial movement, folding the physical distance to materialize directly behind the mercenary formation.

Before the guards could even register the sudden shift in air pressure, Leon struck. He delivered a brutal, open-handed palm strike to the back of the first guard’s helmet, transferring a massive kinetic shockwave directly into the man’s skull. The guard crumpled instantly.

He pivoted, grabbing the heavy crossbow of the second guard and violently jerking the weapon upward. The sudden movement dislocated the man’s shoulder, allowing Leon to follow up with a devastating knee to the sternum.

The remaining two guards panicked, attempting to raise their weapons, but a sudden blur of motion bypassed Leon entirely.

Captain Nyx vaulted over the rusted crates, her twin cutlasses flashing in the foggy night. She moved with breathtaking, predatory speed, slicing the bowstrings of the mercenaries before delivering two precise, non-lethal strikes to the backs of their knees, dropping them to the wooden pier.

"I thought we were working together, tall man," Nyx purred, offering a dark, competitive grin as she sheathed her blades.

Leon smirked, genuinely appreciating the mercenary’s lethal efficiency. "I prefer to do the heavy lifting. Save your energy for the Enforcer."

Seraphina and Valeriana hurried across the pier to join them. The silver-haired warlord did not bother searching for a key. She channeled a concentrated burst of her crimson fire directly into the heavy iron hinges of the warehouse doors, violently melting the metal until the massive doors sagged and crashed inward.

The strike team stepped into the warehouse, and the suffocating pressure of the anchor instantly crashed down upon them.

The interior of the building was massive and entirely hollowed out. In the very center of the wooden floor stood a towering, jagged obelisk carved from pure black obsidian. Deep, glowing violet runes pulsed along its surface, acting like a massive, corrupted beating heart.

Standing directly in front of the obelisk was a tall, heavily scarred man wearing a dark leather trench coat. The air around him was visibly warping, filled with a dense, toxic green mist.

This was the Tier Two Syndicate Enforcer.

"You made it further than I anticipated," the Enforcer rumbled, his voice wet and ragged. "But Lady Morgana’s anchor will not be touched by feral street rats."

The Enforcer slammed his heavy boots onto the wooden floorboards, instantly activating his localized domain.

A terrifying wave of highly corrosive acid and corrupted earth mana exploded outward. The toxic green mist rapidly flooded the warehouse, eating away at the wooden support beams and violently sizzling against the stone foundation.

"Stay back!" Leon roared, recognizing the extreme lethal danger.

If Beatrice or Valeriana stepped into that toxic domain, their lungs would melt in a matter of seconds. Seraphina possessed the Grandmaster density to survive, but the corrosive mist would severely weaken her crimson armor.

Leon activated his Aura Hardening, fortifying his skin with a dense layer of kinetic energy. He held his breath, diving directly into the suffocating green fog.

He charged the Enforcer, swinging his heavy dark blade in a brutal, sweeping arc aimed squarely at the man’s torso.

The Tier Two Enforcer simply laughed. He raised his hand, summoning a thick, jagged wall of corrupted stone directly from the floorboards.

Leon’s heavy blade smashed into the stone shield. The concussive impact shattered the rock, but the residual acidic mist immediately latched onto Leon’s kinetic armor, violently eating away at his magical defenses with terrifying speed.

The Enforcer stepped through the shattered stone, driving a heavy, acid-laced punch directly toward Leon’s ribs.

Leon was forced to rely purely on his advanced reflexes. He twisted his torso, barely dodging the lethal strike, but the corrosive aura grazed his side. The intense, burning agony flared across his ribs, tearing through his tailored shirt and biting into his flesh.

He wasn’t fighting a squishy aristocrat. He was fighting a seasoned, hardened killer who knew exactly how to leverage his domain.

"You can’t punch poison, boy!" the Enforcer mocked, summoning dozens of sharp, acidic earth spikes that shot up from the floor, attempting to impale Leon.

Leon leaped backward, utilizing his extreme Agility to bounce off a wooden support beam and evade the lethal spikes. He landed heavily, his chest heaving as the toxic mist continued to aggressively drain his kinetic armor. He needed an opening, a singular fraction of a second to deliver a fatal blow.

"Seraphina!" Leon yelled, his deep voice echoing through the toxic fog.

The silver-haired warlord understood instantly. She didn’t charge blindly. She raised her heavy broadsword, channeling every single drop of her Tier One power into a massive, concentrated sphere of raw volcanic heat.

She hurled the blazing crimson fireball directly into the center of the toxic domain.

The extreme, blistering heat violently clashed with the corrosive mist, creating a massive, localized thermal explosion that temporarily incinerated the toxic fog, clearing a narrow path straight to the Enforcer.

The Syndicate killer flinched, raising his arms to shield his eyes from the blinding flash.

It was the only opening Leon needed.