Dimensional Descent

Leonel coughed up a mouthful of blood, the action causing his cracked ribs to crackle like firecrackers, loosely rattling in his body.

It was only now that Leonel understood he had been attacked by the blue cobra man's tail. It turned out its body wasn't entirely human after all.

Leonel slid down the barrier, his coughing growing hoarser.

Within such an enclosure, the advantages of being an archer weren't even that great. At any moment, he could at best be 100 meters away from this monster, a distance that was negligible to a demon with this level of strength.

It was clear at a glance that this demon was a dual strength and water-based one, giving it outstanding physical prowess and a supporting Force that was able to form ice even upon Leonel's own powerful body.

Leonel's feet hit the ground and he tried to push himself up.

He wiped his lips, his gaze looking up to find that the cobra demon hadn't taken a single step forward. It kept staring at Leonel, a peculiar light dancing in its eyes.

The personality of this demon was quite odd. Or, rather, it was the fact that this demon seemed to have a personality at all.

The fact it took so long to attack Leonel in the first place was odd, but now it looked as though it was playing with its food. However, after seeing how weak Leonel was, the look in its eyes seemed to say that it had already grown bored.

Its tail swished lightly. It was a casual action that hardly brought any sort of attention, and yet it formed an enormous five meter long scythe that appeared before Leonel in an instant.

'So fast…'

Leonel couldn't understand how Water Force could be so fast, it wasn't known for such a thing, and this didn't seem to be a special sort of Water Force that had such properties either. If anything, the only property this Water Force had was an ice cold.

Leonel's spear appeared in his hands and his struck out.

"Let the air burn!"

A blazing trail of fire followed his sweeping spear. Despite the short phrase, it represented something he embodied all too well. When it came to fire control of fire, there was no one that was his match.

BANG!

Leonel's spear nearly fell out of his hands, his body being blasted against the barrier once more. His shattered ribs rattled and his jaw clenched, the pain making his eyes go red.

Leonel thought he stopped the attack, but it remained persistent, wrapping around his body like a death grip.

Leonel quickly summoned his Divine Armor, hoping to mitigate the cold. But the seeping ice lodged into its jointed, slowing his movements to the point he felt he might truly be frozen solid at any moment.

Without a choice, Leonel dispersed his Divine Armor. Somehow this Water Force was even more poisonous than it was fast. The moment it sensed the Water Force of his Divine Armor, it latched on and began to eat at it. If Leonel had been a second slower, he would have lost all ability to move.

In that moment, it had even felt like his Divine Armor wasn't even his own any longer.

Leonel's expression flickered.

He just couldn't understand.

In just a few seconds, this demon had used his Force like a domain, and then it had displayed speed it shouldn't have, followed by leaching abilities that it should have.

Although it took a small moment, Leonel had already recognized the Water Force. It was barely ranked top 30 amongst Water Forces and it was known as Misty Frost Force. It was known for two things: its ability to quickly take the form of a vapor and its dense cold.

However, it shouldn't have such a range of abilities.

This was already the second time in just as many battles that he had run into such a thing. And now that he thought about it, others of this Zone had displayed such wide ranging applications for seemingly narrowly applicable Forces as well, it was just that they had been too weak for Leonel to care or even take notice.

Before Leonel could think any further, the cobra demon took just a single step forward and somehow crossed the distance in the blink of an eye.

Leonel's eyes widened, his arms shooting upward and using his spear's body to block the coming tail.

He barely made it in time, but his block integrity was far too weak, causing his own spear to smash against the side of his body and send him flying outward once again.

BANG!

Leonel's brows shot up. This didn't make any sense. Even his internal Sight couldn't seem to keep up, but his mind was the strongest thing he had.

Now that he thought about it, even Thaela's thinking speed seemed faster than his own. He had ignored it previously because he felt that this was what she gained as someone who could control Dream Force. But now this demon seemed to also be able to outpace his thoughts

'What's going on?'

BANG!

Leonel collided with another barrier, his body immediately flopping to the ground. This time when he coughed, shards of bone and pieces of flesh followed suit. His blood was so dense and dark that it almost looked black. The kind of pain his body was experiencing was enough to make him want to pass out, anything to avoid the pain.

However, he couldn't. If he did, it would really be over.

Leonel grit his teeth.

His mind couldn't focus, and any calculations he made seemed to become wildly inaccurate. He had already experienced this with Thaela, but now it felt even more potent. There was no doubt that this demon was several times more powerful than her.

Leonel's eyes widened, his pupils constricting into pinholes.

A spark ripped through his Dreamscape and he immediately understood.

'Time Force… That was much too similar to Time Force… But this demon doesn't control Time Force at all! How is this possible?!'