Dimensional Descent

Leonel surged toward the towering beast. 

With his improvement to his treasure shoes, even without activating its formation, his leaping ability was now beyond the realms of reason. Even jumping 20 to 30 meters into the air was no longer impossible. In a flash, he had already appeared above the creature, his palms flipping over to reveal two pistols. 

​​ ’Wow…’

Despite the fact his goal was to kill this creature, Leonel couldn’t help but hesitate in the last moment. It was simply too much of a work of art. Before the Metamorphosis, seeing such a beautiful creature was too difficult. Or, even if they did exist, they were on a much smaller scale than this.

He could immediately tell that this creature was some kind of mutated coy fish. Its scales were various shades of blue, varying from what was almost a deep black to a sky blue. Its fins shot through the air almost like a pair of wings and its tail fin, especially, flowed almost like the hair of a gorgeous woman. 

If there were any hardcore environmentalists here, there was no doubt they’d rip him apart for even daring to have thoughts on such a creature. But, at this point, the dye had been cast. If he didn’t shoot not, he would be the one in danger. 

’Sorry big guy.’

Leonel fired a series of shots, unrestrainingly concentrating his shot on the eyes of blue coy fish. 

KKKKUUUUUUUAAAAAAAA!!!

The bullets of white left spiraling trails of spinning wind in their wake, tearing a path through the raining water that shed reflective droplets in every which direction. 

The damage was undeniable. A spray of violet blood leaked from the blue coy’s eyes as it body tried to flop back down to the river. But, would Leonel allow this?

A layer of green enveloped Leonel’s right sole. He launched himself forward, sending a strong kick toward the massive fish that knocked it toward the land. 

Without pausing, the sole of his other shoe lit, stopping his rebounding force and sending him back toward the shore. 

Leonel thought it would all be over at this point. A fish out of water, no matter how large it was, was just a fish out of water. It was self explanatory. In fact, it was even more exaggerated considering how injured it was now. 

But, Leonel had forgotten to consider one important thing. Just what was this coy fish’s ability? 

Just when the blue scaled coy fish was about to land on solid ground. A shocking change took place. 

It took a dive as though it was going into water. 

At first, Leonel thought that this was simply because it was blinded. Maybe it was in so much pain that it hadn’t even registered the fact Leonel had just kicked it. But in the next moment, Leonel was left speechless. 

The ground the coy fish should have landed against suddenly became as fluid as water. No… That wasn’t it. It had actually become water!

Leonel could only watch as what once was solid land suddenly became a lake. And then, as the fish rampaged, completely blind to its surroundings, it became a winding river. 

Suddenly, everything made sense. The odd structure of this island, the seemingly fantastical ways lakes and rivers appeared, the random and impossible to explain waterfalls… It was all the doing of this fish!

Leonel’s eyes widened, realizing that blinding this beast was maybe one of the worst things he could have done. Now it was blind, in pain and enraged? On top of having such an ability? 

”Run!” Leonel roared. 

From start to finish, the youths of both Lookouts had been watching with shocked expressions. Leonel’s actions seemed to get more and more wild with each passing moment. 

Leonel fell through the air. The process was completely out of his control. He had already used both platform jumps of his treasure shoes, and though he had improved them greatly, the cool down time was still 30 seconds. 

Where the was dry land below him before, there was suddenly a vast and steadily growing lake. Well, maybe calling it a lake wasn’t accurate because the erratic movements of the coy fish made it look like a toddler had randomly scribbled onto a page. 

However, Leonel wasn’t worried. If it was before, he would fear a battle on the water. But, after he observed Old Hutch’s use of Force, he was able to glide on the surface of the lake. 

As far as he knew, there were no Invalids on this island. Maybe they had already been weeded out by the beasts or maybe they taken out by the overseers of Project Hunt. Even if this wasn’t the case, the Invalids who would appear here would all be beast types, so they wouldn’t be interested in Leonel to begin with. So, he wasn’t shy with using his Force at all. 

Leonel landed heavily on the surging waves below, his body sinking in to the point his hip were submerged before the bouyancy of his Force sent him shooting back up. 

’This is difficult.’ Leonel thought, his jaw clenched. 

He had used this ability to run from the boat that brought him here to the island. But, back then, the ocean had been fairly calm. He hadn’t thought that it would be so much more difficult when the water was agitated. 

’I need to end this quickly with a Light Elemental shot…’

Had Leonel not been too conservative in his approach before, he most definitely could have ended this earlier. But, it was impossible, even for him, to predict everything. 

”Haha! Dealing with such a beast is what I’m built for!”

At that moment, the quiet and stoic King of Seas suddenly became a totally different person, charging forward in his brass speedo with trident in hand. 

Leonel frowned but he didn’t say much. If there were others with water abilities, it really could be useful. Those without them had already heeded his advice and retreated by a long measure. The only exceptions were those who were seemingly able to use Force just like him. 

’The Slayer Legion has Force users…?’

Leonel felt that maybe he had to reevaluate this group of rebels again. 

While his mind was half wandering, half focusing on the battle before them, their movements had caught the attention of the beast toward the center of the island. Their intelligent eyes flickered with a peculiar light.