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C256 - Bestowal

Leonel took a deep breath.

He managed to kill a Demon Lord without invoking his Metal Synergy Runes. This could be considered improvement, but he still wasn't happy with this result. He felt that dealing with Maugrier wouldn't have been a problem for him even half a month ago.

'I'm learning all these spear techniques, but chaining them together well is too difficult… I need a new direction…'

After steadying his breathing, Leonel looked up to find the remaining demons inching away from him. It was clear that if they weren't worried that Leonel would stab them in the back, they would have long since turn and run. They were all veteran warriors. They knew that with such a large disparity in strength, and especially since Leonel was a mage, they'd be finished unless they banded together.

However, what they never expected was for Leonel to do nothing to them. Even up until the point the first of them ran away, he didn't lift a single finger.

.

In Leonel's mind, he didn't benefit entering such a battle. Without a leader, these demons wouldn't be able to organize themselves to continue the chase. At best, they'd be able to regroup with another Demon Lord. But, by then, Sir Peirce would be in position and things would become much easier.

Instead of putting his life on the line fighting so many enemies alone, it was best to take advantage of their fear and allow them to run away. Leonel wasn't an invincible god. Fighting almost 50 opponents by himself was far too difficult.

Though he had feats beyond this in the France Zone, it had to be remembered that those were normal humans without special abilities. Leonel wouldn't play with his life like that in this place.

Leonel bent forward, picking up the bow Maugrier had dropped.

"Oh…?"

Leonel was stunned.

The bow had a sleek coldness to it that reminded Leonel of polished stainless steel. However, it was oddly both black and rough to the touch, almost like sand paper.

But this wasn't what shocked Leonel. What truly caused him to pause was just how heavy the bow was. It weighed at least 50 pounds, and that was already about half the heft of his black spear.

'Now that I think about it, a huge part of the reason Maugrier was able to shoot and reload so quickly was because he didn't pull the bowstring back very far…'

Leonel replayed the battle in his mind. He clearly remembered that the cloaked Demon Lord's firing was almost like flicking a finger.

In the heat of battle, Leonel didn't think much of it. But now that he had the time, he realized that the only explanation for this must be because this bow was just that powerful. Even with such a small pull, it could have such power…

Leonel had always been good with long distance weapons. In truth, this was likely a large part of the reason why his Gene Assessment had set him as a star quarterback. He was very good at reading a target's intentions and pinpointing a throw in their direction. This was something he only got even better at after his ability awakened.

A large part of the reason Leonel chose an atlatl as his first ranged weapon was because the throwing motion was the same he was used to.

After that, his first craft was a pair of pistols. But, his strength was already beginning to leave those long barreled pistols behind to the point he rarely used them in battle anymore. It couldn't be helped, they were at most C or B-grade treasures to begin with and he didn't like having to constantly repair the nozzles like he did.

Leonel had never really thought about supplementing his long ranged abilities with a bow and arrow before. But now that he did, he realized it wasn't a bad idea.

An arrow would always be able to travel further than he could throw something. Though it sacrificed a bit of flexibility as a result, judging by how powerful this bow would be with just the flick of a finger, it might still be a good option.

'Hm… I'll keep it with me, I guess. Even if I can't take it out of this Zone, since I'll be here for such a long period of time anyway it'll still be of some use.'

Leonel put away his spear and tested the bow string.

"Ah…!"

Leonel sucked in a cold breath. He realized in that moment that had he not reacted quickly, he would have lost the tips of his fingers.

Why was this bowstring so sharp?

'… It's not that it's sharp, but that it takes so much strength to pull that it exerts too much strain on my fingers… but if that's the case, how did such a weak Demon Lord pull it?'

Leonel flipped over Maugrier's corpse and checked his hands. Soon, he understood.

First, Maugrier's hands were covered in coarse gloves made of an extraordinarily sturdy material. Not only that, but they were also thick to the point it made him look as though he had paws for hands.

However, even with that, Leonel could see deep grooves on Maugrier's pointer and ring finger. It was clear that Maugrier likely replaced these gloves very often.

'There's also a lot of Force concentration on his fingers, it's the combination of these factors that allowed him to do this…'

Leonel made up his mind. He was still a Force Crafter, after all though he hadn't had time to design any new crafts recently. But, this position he took up on the border gave him a lot more flexibility and there were less eyes watching him. He could definitely make something better than this.

After making up his mind, Leonel took off Maugrier's spatial brace. It covered about half of his forearm and had a total of six small spatial spaces within, five of which were filled with arrows of various kinds and the final of which had miscellaneous things.

'Oh?'

Something caught Leonel's attention within the last space. He quickly took it out.

The object was a crystal that very much reminded Leonel of the ones he had seen within the Magic Art Tower. After sinking his mind into it, he found exactly what he had expected. Or, not...

'[Merlin's Bestowal: Bowman King].'

"Wait, what?"

To be continued