The Regulator was an absolute annoyance. If Leonel could have directly killed it, he would have made the attempt already.
But he knew those thoughts were foolish.
If that Regulator could go toe to toe with Anastasia, then he certainly stood no chance. Such thoughts were nothing more than something to help him sleep better at night, not that he was getting much sleep these days.
Even so, he had his own ways of sticking a middle finger to the Regulator.
Blacksmithing was definitely a much different profession than Crafting had been for him.
Rather than Finger Designations, he had to replace it with rhythmic swings.
Rather than communicating with Tolly to deal with impurities, he had to hammer them out or burn them away.
Rather than fusing metals with a thought, he had to adjust temperatures and melt them into one another, then force their fusion with tempering processes.