Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a deep breath, causing the surrounding air to rush toward him again. All around him, the strewn corpses of armored knights lay. Though they didn't leak any of their own blood, the cracks and joints of their armor leaked out plumes of Force. Unfortunately, Leonel couldn't absorb this like he could the Beast Crystals, he had already tried.

Up ahead, there was just one knight that remained. His spear was so tall and mighty that it was at least 50% taller than him, who already stood over two meters tall to begin with. On top of that, its blade was of an exaggerated size and shape, taking up an entire third of its body. At first glance, it looked far more like a lance than a spear. The difference was that rather than having a cone shape, it had four blades perfectly perpendicular to one another, almost looking like the extended head of a mace.

The knight rose from his throne as Leonel approached, plumes of Force jetting out from the joints in its sapphire blue armor.

Leonel exhaled one more breath and he had already recovered to 100%, his body feeling loose and limber. He didn't know what reward lay at the end of this castle, but clearing it had taken as much time as it had for him to gather up 10 territories to begin with on top of clearing the more elite beasts. He hoped that whatever he got in return would be good.

All thoughts were thrown to the back of his mind as his gaze became frighteningly cold. With a step, he moved just as the blue knight moved, however his brows couldn't help but jump the instant the latter did.

The blue knight was fast. Extraordinarily fast. Although Leonel had moved first, he had actually attacked a step late. While he had expected some difficulty in the final hurdle, Leonel had thought that the greater part of the challenge was already behind him only because of the sheer number of enemies.

It seemed like he had been wrong.

Leonel realized that it was too late to continue attacking so his stance shifted and his wrists flicked upward, nicking the underside of the blue knight's enormous mace-like lance spear.

Ducking with a bend of his knees, Leonel slid under the violently piercing blade, his feet gliding along the marbled floors of the throne room.

Forceful.

Leonel's spear spiraled through the air, forming its own lance-like construct as his Absolute Spear Domain wrapped around it and collided with the blue knight's chest plate armor.

CLANG! BAN!

The blue knight stumbled just a single step backward, but it had already raised its spear upward, swinging it down as though it was a club rather than a spear, even to the point of using just a single arm.

Leonel rolled to the side, just barely dodging. However, he was calm as he sprung back up to his feet, gliding back to dodge another strike. Inwardly, though, he was confused. Logically, his spear should have done much more damage.

For one, his spear had been upgraded to the bronze grade after fusing ten territories. Secondly, he had used Forceful, the strongest strike he could utilize in such close quarters and with such short notice. And yet, he had only left a dent on the armor.

Leonel dodged again as he sent a look toward his spear. This time, his expression changed a little when he noticed the micro fractures fissuring its body. The good news was that these fractures slowly healed, likely because this tribulation wasn't cruel enough to leave a participant spear-less in the case of an accident. The bad news was that this pretty much guaranteed that Leonel wouldn't be able to break down these defenses with normal means.

He had been through this castle for long enough. Attacking the joints wouldn't help. Only by causing enough damage to the armor itself could he cause a knock down and victory.

Leonel's gaze sharpened as he stamped his foot down hard, unleashing a roar.

The marbled floors cracked once as he launched himself forward. Backtracking wouldn't help him, the only path forward was to push, relentlessly.

The blue knight had exceptional straight line speed, but Leonel had already realized that its agility was lacking and things were only made worse by the heft of its spear. He had to stay close, unleashing barrage after barrage.

Leonel glided around the blue knight, his tactics changing as his eyes glazed over. His spear left countless afterimages in the air, delicate brushes of gold painting the throne room in a nobility beyond anything it had experienced before.

'Faster... Faster...

The white furs that coated Leonel's body fluttered, dancing into the coarse wings as his body only seemed to become more and more agile. His spear danced, clashing against the blue armor again and again.

'Not working... change tactics... layer strikes..."

Leonel's body moved faster than his thoughts. He followed up "slow" strikes with accelerated strikes, giving the illusion that he was layering two attacks into one, and then three into one, and then four.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

'Not fast enough..."

The number of loud clashes began to lessen, and then they lessened again. Eventually, Leonel moved so fast and skillfully that the layered spear strikes echoed as one, making it seemed as though he had only struck out with his spear just a single time.

Leonel's gaze flashed with a blazing light and he suddenly felt his spear techniques evolve. His Spear Domain Lineage Factor shifted, touching upon a barrier that felt far more ethereal than what it had before.

Leonel tried to burst through and just barely failed, however the feeling of euphoria gripped his soul.

This time, Leonel truly only pierced his spear forward just a single time, and yet the blue knight felt as though it had suffered three strikes at once.

BANG!

The armor dented.

BANG!

The dent deepened.

BANG!

The armor was torn through like thin aluminum, Leonel's spear shooting right through like a blazing meteor.