"So, it is really you, Leon," Betty crossed her arms and showed a displeased expression. "I thought you died a long time ago."

The current Betty looked like a veteran soldier of many wars, she didn"t have many scars in her body, but Leon could see in her eyes that she had to dirty her hands with blood many times. She was so different from the shy Betty from ten years ago that one could think they were two different people, even though her overall appearance didn"t change all that much.

Leon first met Betty on his first year at high-school, she was a shy girl who didn"t have many friends and liked to spend her time at school reading comics. In her free time, she stayed at home playing computer, console games, and watching cartoons like Dr*g*n B*ll. Leon just recalled that she always got mad when Leon called them cartoons, she wanted him to call it anime…

"You grew up in the last years, Betty." Leon smiled. "Three centimeters, I would say. You didn"t get mad when I called you little Betty, either."

"I see… so you are going to joke around about your captain"s height." Betty smirked. "It seems you are not afraid to see h.e.l.l…"

"I guess you didn"t grow all that much…" Leon shrugged.

Leon saw a vein throbbing in Betty"s forehead. As expected, she still didn"t like to be made fun of like that. Little Betty was how her parents called her, and she hated that nickname with pa.s.sion, Leon always called her like that to tease her.

"… What are you doing here?" Betty sighed to calm down. "You are from the south; you are not supposed to be here."

"I could ask you the same thing…" Leon frowned. "When the monsters appeared… I was returning home after graduating from college. The plane was forced to land in Vancouver, so I had to walk all the way back to Phoenix… only to find our hometown destroyed by a nuclear bomb."

"I see… believe me; the bomb didn"t destroy the city, a horde of dragons did." Betty recalled her memories of that day. "The bomb killed dragons and the other monsters… at least a few of them."

Leon frowned when he heard, it looked like many dragons survived the power of a hydrogen bomb, but considering that many dragons could use fire, it wasn"t that surprising… Leon made a mental note of that.

"… Anyway, without a home and my family, I just moved from one survivor"s camp to the other." Leon explained. "Until I heard that things in New York were going quite well."

"I see… and while you were traveling, you learned how to manipulate earth." Betty added. "Still, to think that you could become this powerful after training and working for two months… perhaps you have the potential to become the strongest mage in the world."

"That looks like the t.i.tle that the old you would want," Leon smirked.

"No…, even the current me, would want that." Betty scratched the back of her head. "Although it is impossible, I"m quite satisfied with my current skills."

Leon didn"t ask for Betty to show, but she did it anyway. Betty threw one of her knives to a nearby tree, and when the knife pierced the tree, she appeared in the same place holding the knife.

"It looks like the weakened version of teleportation… very impressive." Leon tried to a.n.a.lyze how that skill worked. "It also looks like a game we played in the past."

"Hahaha, you remembered…" Betty smiled. "You can"t imagine how happy I was when I found those knives."

"I actually can easily imagine." Leon chuckled.

"…Anyway, we don"t have time for this. We can talk about the past after the mission." Betty said, a bit embarra.s.sed. Now it is time for you to show me the power of your skeletons."

"Yes, Ma"am." Leon nodded.

Leon wondered why his friends of his high school days had such important jobs now that humanity was suffering against the monsters... maybe it was because of that. Just like Hector changed from a sc.u.mbag to a respectable leader, Betty wasn"t just a shy nerd anymore; she was the captain of an important team under the control of the Allied Forces of the North-America. Due to their relations.h.i.+p in the past, Leon started to feel a bit conflicted, since the chances of her being involved in the death of Makoto"s son was quite high.

Leon had no time to think about it, so he just summoned several skeleton knights. Even without her semi-teleportation, Betty destroyed ten skeletons in less than ten seconds. Her base stats were also quite high…

"I guess they are on the same level as of those I faced before..." Betty concluded. "Why did you summon only skeletons knights?"

"Because they don"t consume my mana when they attack," Leon explained.

"Skeleton archers and wizards consume your mana?" Betty asked.

"If I made them attack as soon as they appear, yes," Leon answered. "If I summon them a few hours before a battle, they will have enough time to absorb mana from the environment, and thus they won"t absorb my mana... for a while."

"I see... I guess the best option would be to summon the skeleton knights." Betty nodded. "They are more st.u.r.dy, and since they don"t consume your mana to work, you will be able to summon more of them. The test is over, let"s join the others."

Leon almost stopped Betty; she was a friend from the past, so Leon wanted to convince her to help him. But in the end, Leon stopped. Just like himself, Betty must have changed a lot in the past four years. He couldn"t just suddenly bring the topic, and he also had to prepare himself for the worst... Maybe in the future, he will have to offer her neck to Makoto.