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Returning back to the Problem Children's side.

Now that they were aware that Leon could create earth puppets to make clones of himself everything had changed and they started on the Plan B. Which was actually supposed to be the original plan of Jin.

"Is he following us yet?" Leslie asked Lance who just got down from the tree.

"Yes, I hit him in the head just now which seemed to make him pretty furious," he said nonchalantly.

"Hopefully he gets angry enough to actually follow us, otherwise the plan is not going to work anyway," Leslie said as she shrugged.

"Oh yeah, before I forget to say it. He also sent 5 clones after us so it seems like we will fight more than one of them. I haven't tried attacking them so I can't tell how strong they are" Lance spoke to the earpiece.

Now they knew that aside from just creating a copy of himself Leon could actually create multiple copies of himself.

"Umm, will the plan still work?" Leslie asked unsure about it.

The original plan was to deal with a single [Earth Lord] not fight an army. They weren't even sure if he could create more.

"As long as the original dies all the others should die as well. Just make sure that he reaches the location we discussed about" Jin replied from the earpiece.

"Understood" all of them replied at the same time.

Selim was on the way and should reach the forest from the sewage system. Hayato and Six were not part of this phase of the plan. As for Luke, he must have already been on his way. 

Lance decided to stay back in order to draw aggro to himself after seeing the original Leon not move and just send clones. As for Leslie, she was just staying behind to help him in case things got out of hand.

"Okay let's start going again," Lance said once he was done with his report.

So the duo started running towards the location on the forest they agreed upon before. It was away from the rest of the school so there wouldn't be any accidental casualties. 

According to Jin, he had a strong attack that could take down [Earth Lord] Leon in one hit but in order to make sure he is hit they had to make him stand in the same position for at least a minute.

That might seem like a pretty short time for some people but what you might not be aware of is the stronger a person gets the shorter their fights become. Just look at battles between swordsmen.

They can decide who is the winner or who is the loser just from a single attack.

So Jin needed time to set up his attack while they needed to make sure Leon stay in the same spot.

As they arrived at the location they saw that Luke was already there waiting for them. He was aware of the fact that Leon sent earth puppets after them so he was getting ready to attack them. 

[Earth Shatter]

The ground they were standing on started to tremble with cracks spreading all over. The crack seemed to have its own will as it made its way towards them. If they were caught up by it they would fall into a crevice.

The trio looked around to see any indication of where Leon might be but they couldn't see anything. He had attacked out of nowhere.

While Luke and Leslie were still trying to find out Leon's whereabouts Luke had a glint in his eyes.

Two jet black twin swords appeared on each of his hands and he stabbed them towards the ground.

He seemed to be expecting something but nothing happened.

How?

He was sure that Leon or rather Leon and his clones must be hiding underground.

According to Jin's description, Leon was an Earth Mage and Luke had seen him jumped out of the ground to attack Selim once.

That meant since they weren't able to find Leon's real body and they were getting attacked by him it could only mean he was hiding underground. That could be the only logical explanation then why was it that his attack did not do anything?

Seeing that it didn't work Luke spoke to Lance "Get on top of the trees and give us a visual" 

Lance immediately did as he was told and climbed the tree.

The situation was getting tense.

The cracks on the ground were following after them and there wasn't any sign of Leon. That was when Lance caught a glint in the corner of his eyes.

*BAM*

He didn't think twice about pulling the trigger of his rifle.

"AGH!"

A scream sounded and Leon jumped out from the ground blood with blood covering his chest.

Then he died?

No matter the cracks on the ground had stopped moving so they were safe for now and apparently they took out one of his clones as the dead body turned into dirt short after.

Lance kept observing the forest trying to see where the next attack might come from. He didn't like this feeling. The initiative was totally on their enemy's hands and they couldn't do anything about it.

The only thing they could do is stand here and watch as he hunted them one by one which was the worst scenario.

There was one more important detail and that was the fact that before confirming Leon's location Jin couldn't start the countdown on his attack. Then what now? They needed to force him out but they didn't even have a way to locate him.

The ground started to shake again. Lance got anxious and started to search for the familiar cracks once again but they were nowhere to be seen. Then where was Leon? Why was the ground shaking? If he didn't appear that meant he was getting ready for something big. Could they handle it themselves?

"Jin you said he was a God right?" Lance asked on the communication channel.

"Yes, he is most despicable being of this world who looks down on th-"

"Simple yes would have sufficed," said Lance and cut Jin's words short.

For the love of God, that guy really liked talking all fancily. No wonder he doesn't have a girlfriend... or friends.

"Hey Luke, what do you think gods hate the most?" Lance asked.

Luke looked at him puzzled. What was he talking about? Couldn't he see they were in a dangerous situation? This was no time for jokes! He must have been infected by Jin's speech pattern. Luke was sure of it.

"Well, they hate the evil of course! And don't we have the most evil being in existence right here?" Lance said as he pointed towards Leslie.

"Me? No way! I am not letting him out!" Leslie denied vehemently. She would rather die than let that demon take over her body.

Well maybe die was a rather strong choice of words but she definitely did not like and would rather not do that if she could find a way out.

*Tremble*

"Suit yourself. I can protect myself from whatever Leon is going to throw at me and you might also be safe thanks to the guy living inside of you but what about our little poor Luke? Do you think he can survive it?" said Lance.

Luke was staring at the duo in a dumbfounded manner. What did this have anything to do with him? Also, he was not weak! He could still escape from whatever Leon was planning to throw at them.

Leslie, on the other hand, looked at the silent look in front of her. She was deciding whether or not to release the demon inside of her. Lance was right. 

The demon would protect him at all cost in order to make sure he still had a host and Lance's expertise lied in gravity magic so at least he would be able to survive but what about Luke? His poor swords and shields definitely would not be able to take it. Yes, she needed to let him out in order to make sure he is okay.

[A-Burst: Release the Demon]

As soon as she thought along those lines the seals inside of her broke apart. Her body began to deform and change. 

Arms popped out of her back, her hair began to fall and her skull seemed to grow bigger.

The next time Luke looked at her the one looking back at him was not Leslie. It was a Lovecraftianesque demon.

He had a head with countless holes in it. He didn't have eyes. If Luke were to describe how this head looks it would be like a beehive. It was like someone took the beehive and skinned its walls leaving only the combs behind.

He had 6 arms with 2 elbows each. It was a horrifying sight but instead of fearing it, Luke felt sad. He was aware how much Leslie hated doing this but she still did it in order to make sure he wasn't hurt.

But in the end, she didn't need to do it as he was perfectly capable of protecting himself!