Dimensional Descent

BANG!

Leonel's fist flew forward like a falling meteor, shattering the metallic carapace of Runed Rapax before him.

From start to finish, it had been an absolute slaughter. What had started off as a Rapax stalking their position had immediately turned into an all out assault.

In one moment, Leonel had been by Aina's side, in the next he was above a Rapax's head, his fist falling as though an ice infused rock through the atmosphere.

His gaze flashed with a hidden Rune, his body covered in a destructive crimson coating that seemed to burn everything in its path. In a single strike, a Tier 9 Fifth Dimension Runed Rapax had fallen without even a method to fight back.

As cautious as Leonel had been last time, he didn't even bother to store this Rapax away before it died. His foot stamped down on its neck, shattering its spine and severing his head from its shoulders. Then, he ripped out what remained of its spine, taking with it its tail.

He snapped it all together, squeezing tight until the joints crumpled together into a long makeshift polearm with a scorpion-like blade on one end. It alone was easily over three meters long but Leonel didn't seem to care at all.

Ignoring the dismembered corpse, he took his new 'spear' and turned back to find Aina waiting with Little Blackstar in her arms.

"Don't look at me like that, there was really nothing I could say this time." Leonel said.

It was true, the Rapax had just fallen from the skies and it tried to stalk them, maybe because it had more questions than answers about certain things. It wasn't exactly the situation for Leonel to explain things before he acted.

"No, you definitely could have, but that's not what I'm looking at you for. You got stronger again."

"Oh, that. I was teetering on a breakthrough before I fought the Sixth Dimensional Runed Rapax and I broke through just before I beat it. It's pretty useful."

Aina's irises twinkled. Her senses weren't as sharp as Leonel's, but her battle sense and intuition was on a different level entirely. She could tell that Leonel's force output, as in the strength in his arms and legs, hadn't changed at all. And yet, somehow, his damage potential had skyrocketed enough to make a Runed Rapax look like playdough. The difference was enormous.

Of course, the only Runed Rapax Leonel had fought until now was a Sixth Dimensional one so he didn't have an appropriate gauge for how powerful they were in the Fifth Dimension. But, they still knew enough to know that they should be more powerful than that.

This 'breakthrough' Leonel was speaking of was the formation of his Scarlet Star Rune. He had been on the verge of forming it before and just barely managed to against the Sixth Dimensional Runed Rapax. Unfortunately, against it, it hadn't been enough. But, against its lower Dimensional counterpart, it was a different matter entirely.

In its presence, things tended to become far more fragile than they really were and even without any additional force output, it was as though the world scaled down in its sturdiness to benefit Leonel. Plus, it felt more pointed and controlled.

Leonel was a bit confident now that he could use a spear without destroying it, but he still chose this route instead so that he could fine tune some things. This spear would do him well enough for now. Plus, he felt that he was close to Tier 6 after forming his Rune and he didn't want to have to lose another spear under the whims of a sudden breakthrough as his Eighth Star formed.

Aina, though, didn't take her off of Leonel.

"I know I looked very valiant just now, but I have a head between these broad shoulders." Leonel feigned hurt. "You can't just look at me like a slab of meat."

Aina was caught off guard for a moment before she sputtered. She knew this was Leonel's way of getting her back for just moments before. Maybe only these two could so casually banter this deep into enemy territory as though there wasn't a hunter coming at them right this moment.

"That's not it. It's just that your dad seemed to have done something to you. You don't feel any different? Nothing's changed?"

Leonel paused for a moment, not answering immediately.

The two broke out into a run once again, heading down the winding tunnels. Leonel's sense of direction was immaculate and despite the number of twists and turns they took, he was always able to point out the very same direction he had pointed out to the three youths that had followed them.

He only had two goals in mind. The first was to avoid the center of these nests. There was no doubt that they were the most protected regions and they would also have the most powerful warriors. The center was where the eggs should converge and be located, so it made sense they would be the most heavily guarded.

With this goal in mind, he had to ensure that the paths he took brought him closer to the direction he wanted to go while not locking them into an obvious death sentence.

The second goal, obviously, was to continue to head in the direction of the nearest exit.

"I'm not sure. It both feels like I've changed and that I haven't. My mind is clearer and more relaxed, my number of split minds increased another tenfold from ten million, and I've suddenly thought of countless other ways to use my Ability Index.

"But, I also don't feel different. It just feels natural."

Leonel knew that there was something off. His Ability had gone from being suppressed back down to Tier 3 to suddenly being stronger within Tier 4 than he had ever been in a benign environment. He had no doubt that if he returned to a lesser world now, he would experience another huge burst to his Ability that was still being hampered here.

It was just that… he couldn't understand why.

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