Dimensional Descent

BANG!

A violent mouthful of blood shot out from Leonel's lips, his eyeballs threatening to pop out of their sockets even as all the air that had once been in his lungs was forcefully ripped out as though by the hands of a menacing god.

The impact he felt against the opposing wall was just as devastating. If it wasn't for the improvement to his Metal Body, he would have experienced what it felt like to have all the bones in his body crushed at once.

"Leonel!"

Aina's part enraged, part worried cry resonated through the cave walls, both her and Little Blackstar leaping to action.

'Son of a bitch…' Leonel coughed and wheezed, trying to quickly regain his bearings.

The group of three had just began to run, realizing the kind of trouble they were in. If they allowed themselves to be pinned down by the Rapax, their deaths would be practically inevitable. Their goal, first and foremost, was definitely to get out of the range of the location they had teleported into as quickly as possible. That way, even if the Rapax knew there were invaders, they would have a harder time finding them.

Who could have expected, though, for them to hardly have traveled 50 meters before running into their first altercation? If not for Leonel's sturdy body, he would have already ended up blasted into bits and pieces of flesh and blood.

Leonel only had himself to blame. He took the lead and rushed forward, protecting Aina and Little Blackstar to his back. But, so confident in his Internal Sight and sense of danger, he rounded a corner, only to find a vicious straight leg kick waiting for his sternum.

Leonel had obviously not accounted for the most pressing thing. Or, rather, it was difficult to do so… Internal Sight was useless against Rapax!

Because his sense of hearing had been impaired by the previous screech and because of the all encompassing, grotesque scent that filled the hive nest, Leonel had no way of hearing it coming nor smelling the distinct scent of the Rapax, landing him in such a situation.

He could feel his ribcage bow and flex, almost snapping at its hinges entirely. He had never been more happy that his Metal Body had undergone such drastic improvements until now.

The instant Leonel crashed against an opposing wall, he activated his Bronze Runes in full force, dispersing the strength of the impact across his entire body before he fell to the ground, his head spinning.

'I have to adjust. Locking onto Rapax is impossible, at least not until I can figure out a way to circumvent their natural protections. However, it's impossible that Rapax wouldn't affect their environment. Start Dream Simulation.'

Leonel's mind began to work at top speeds. Although he no longer had access to Tier 4 abilities, Dream Simulation didn't have such high requirements. The fact that it was one of the first abilities Leonel had created for himself spoke for itself.

Quickly, Leonel went through his memory bank of battles with Rapax. He organized their movement patterns, their gait, their general impact on the environment around them.

In the blink of an eye, he had finished and created a new pseudo Dream Counter ability. He couldn't use the real Dream Counter as it was a Tier 4 ability he had created capable of triggering a reaction in his body without his explicit input. But, he could use the principle of assigning a mind to a task just the same now. It was just that he would have to constantly divert overt attention to it.

Leonel adjusted the way he used Internal Sigh from a general sweep of the surroundings to a focused and dialed in intention toward certain parameters. His thought process was simple. The Rapax could hide themselves from Internal Sight, but they couldn't hide themselves from the environment.

If this was a grassy land, the process would be simple: just look for imprints in the grass. Unfortunately, there was nothing but dry stone everywhere. However, this wouldn't impede Leonel in the slightest.

'Their tails swish at a certain cadence, look for regular patterns in the wind. Wind is too unpredictable to have such measurable and constant repetition… Their bodies are heavy, though slight and almost impossible to detect, as they move, so will the ground tremor… It's difficult to detect their distinct smell in such an environment, but it's still possible to if I'm looking for distinct signatures with my Internal Sight…'

Leonel went out to list at least a hundred other parameters, tweaking them to the point they fit in perfectly with the environment they were in and all completed before he fell to a knee sinking down from the wall he had been smashed against.

'I'll call you Dream Detect.'

Leonel's head snapped upward, his gaze having regained its sharpness. He completed all of his calculations in a near instant, in time to see that there was just a single Rapax before them. This Rapax, though, was of Tier 9 of the Fifth Dimension and its kick was no joke at all.

"Kill it before it can call for reinforcements."

Leonel said quickly.

Aina didn't say a word herself. She spun on her heels, her ax glowing with lethality.

The Rapax, whose leg had just descended from its assault on Leonel, reacted quicky. Closing in the distance, it rose a knee to the skies, aiming to deflect and quickly counter. It was a combination that Leonel had seen many times. The Rapax loved to use their knees for defense as it could be retracted much faster than a kick.

However, it was then that Leonel, who the Rapax likely thought would be out for a moment sprung to action, his speed blazing as a trail of Star Force followed his path.

The Rapax reacted almost instantly. Canceling its thoughts at countering, it fell back. Unfortunately, it hadn't seen that there was a third member of their party until it was far too late.

Little Blackstar appeared to the Rapax's back, his little claws glowing with a dangerous light. With striking precision, Leonel's punch and Blackstar's claw landed at the same time, forcing the Rapax to take the full brunt of both.

Little Blackstar's claw ripped right through tender flesh, severing the Rapax's head from its body.

"I don't think this was a coincidence." Leonel spoke before the corpse even fell. "We need to move, fast. Or else we'll be surrounded."