The Mech Lord

Leo sat there with a forced smile on his face. He was trying his best to maintain that expression.

He really wanted to grab Regan's collar and scream at him if he was truly the Emperor or not.

"Well, I guess I should leave now. Take care of your health, and remember what I said." Regan stood up with a smile, and then further continued, "As for this incident, I will ask the Dean to properly compensate you. After all, the problem was on the Academy's side as well. They were unable to properly react to the situation."

With that he waved his hand at Leo like the neighbourhood Uncle and then walked out of the door.

A short while later, Harry woke up holding his head. He didn't remember what happened and why he had fainted earlier.

Leo just told him it must be due to exhaustion, and asked him to rest.

...

A while later…

Leo's face twitched as he put a smile on his face while looking at Aaron.

"Are you cursed or something?" Aaron asked with a sigh.

He felt that this guy was getting a bit too much trouble ever since he ran away from home.

"I didn't do anything this time. I am the victim," Leo said with a helpless look on his face.

He had actually called for Aaron instead of anyone else.  After all, Aaron was still in the Academy as his classes were ending later than Leo.

"So, are you fine or not?" Aaron scanned Leo looking for any injuries.

"No, I am fine," Leo shook his head. After getting treatment, he didn't feel much pain. A night's rest would probably be to do the work for him.

"Shall we go then?" Aaron asked, looking at Leo.

"Is anyone coming for you, Harry?" Leo turned to look at Harry.

"Umm..I will get by.." Harry replied with a smile. It didn't seem that he had anyone coming.

"Can we leave him on our way?" Leo looked at Aaron and he just gave a nod.

Harry couldn't refuse in the end, and just thanked them in the end.

And, the group left the place.

As Leo was getting into the car, he paused for a second. He felt like he was forgetting something very important here.

"What's wrong?" Harry looked at Leo, but he just shook his head and got into the car.

….

A bit later…

"Are you sure this is the place? We can leave you right in front of your house.'' Aaron looked around. This place was near the main gates of the Housing Society Area. One would probably still need to walk a bit to reach their home.

Leo looked at Harry as well. He could see that the guy wasn't feeling too good for some reason.

Either he was uncomfortable bringing them to his home due some reason like a Shinobi can't let people know about his base or something.

Or, it just might be due to the pain from his injuries.

"I can walk from here. It's fine," Harry shook his head and waved at them before leaving.

But, the moment the car left the place, his steps paused and he turned his head to look at it disappearing into the distance.

…

Back at home, Leo went through a checking and questioning session from Viona while Vanessa assisted her.

This was really tiring.

The next few days passed in peace.

Leo had to go to the Hospital for a final check on his severed hand and after that the process of building a custom made mechanical arm began.

This allowed Leo to take some time off the Academy as all his appointments were in the beginning Hours of the Academy.

But, it couldn't have been any better for him.

He had heard that the students who had left for the Field Trip had returned. And, some of them were major bullies. Especially that Graylock guy.

Hence, there was even more of a need to improve his strength.

After the last fight, Leo has gone above two levels right then and there. And, it seemed that the effects were much more than that as he had leveled up once again in the next two days.

This made him go all the way up to Lv 5 Awake. That certainly was a huge growth for him and pushed his Comprehensive Body Assessment from [F-] to [F].

And, the thing which excited him the most was the Branch Skill he had gained.

[Burst]

[Sends out an explosion of current that the Awakener has charged himself with.]

Branch Skills were actually nothing but, just a different manner of using your main skill.

Naturally, Branch Skills appeared every ten levels on their own. But, there were chances of it appearing early too. The same happened in Leo's case.

There was another thing to be noted that a Branch Skill couldn't surpass the rank of the original skill, but could be at a lower level than the Original one.

"Burst!" 

"Crackle!'' 

Lightning busted out of Leo's feet and it began to run rampant all around. It was pretty hard to control.

He was trying to merge this skill with flow of Arora energy using his Kicking Arts. And, it turned out to be extremely difficult to achieve.

[Not like this! Concentrate!] Arthur really wasn't cutting slack here.

A frown emerged on Leo's face as sweat dripped down his chin.

The next instant, the lighting around his feet was immediately pulled in and he shot his leg out, going for a sidekick.

"Bang!"

His leg sank deep into the kicking bag. The power behind it was definitely much more than the kick he had been throwing a few days back.

"Crackle!''

But the kick this time was different as lightning busted out of his feet.

'Shoot!' Leo's eyes turned grim when he lost control over the rampaging energy. 

…

"Is Aiden ready?" Viona asked the maid, it was almost time for them to leave for the hospital.

"Boom!"

An explosion sounded from upstairs and smoke shot out from Leo's room.

Viona's eyes immediately widened as she rushed upstairs with the servant behind. 

"Aiden!" She opened the door with a worried look when the smoke rushed onto her face.

"Cough!"

"Cough!"

She waved her hand around before looking inside the room. And, her eyes constricted when she saw the sight of the room. It was littered with sand all around which had obviously come from the sandbag. That thing had been torn apart into pieces. 

A few of the stuff had even caught fire and Leo was lying there in the chaotic room with his body half covered in sand.