Dimensional Descent

Leonel appeared amidst Vice, Monkey and Lionel. With light steps, his movements became like the breeze. Every motion flowed into the next, every muscle twitch had its own purpose, every start had its end. He embodied the cycle of the Four Seasons to an extreme. And, when this was fused with the winged swordsman’s style, Leonel became untouchable. 

Monkey sent out a punch that shattered the sound barrier. Even before it reached Leonel, his arms burst beneath the strain, sprinkling out with drizzling blood. 

Seemingly noticing his mistake, Monkey rectified it mid-punch. He doubled his body’s healing factor again and again and solidified the skin and bone in his arm. On the fly, his attack became several levels more lethal. 

His eyes, hidden behind his messy, unkempt hair, seemed to light up as though he had learned something new. Initially, all he wanted to do was get rid of the pain he was feeling. After all, he didn’t personally experience the deaths of his clones so he couldn’t instinctually react to what needed to be fixed. But now that he had no choice but to attack with his main body, the talent of a Savant shone through like never before. 

While Monkey’s punch threatened to take Leonel’s head, Vice also reacted. He focused on Leonel once again, his spatial suppression coming down. But,  just as easily, Leonel broke through it once again, using the tip of his spear to parry Monkey’s fist. 

Leonel’s spear snaked around Monkey’s arm like a viper, aiming right for the latter’s head. It was simply an impossibility for Monkey’s combat awareness to surpass Leonel’s. One had practically been on a battlefield for the entirety of the past more than year of his life while the other was in the first fight of his lifetime. 

But, just when Leonel’s spear would of run through Monkey’s head, the latter’s neck suddenly doubled in length, bending itself out of the way. 

‘His ability…’ Leonel narrowed his eyes. 

Among those here, Monkey had the most versatile ability. He seemed to be capable of doing anything with it. By now, Leonel had come to understand that it was a doubling ability and that it seemed to have almost no limits. In fact, Leonel was certain that Monkey had to have doubled his reaction speed and fast twitch muscles as well, or else dodging his counter would have been impossible. 

The worst part was that the more times Monkey was put in a life threatening situation, the more ways he learned to get out of it, and the more powerful he grew. If Leonel had to assign a danger level to these Savants, Monkey wouldn’t even be far behind Lionel who could even warp reality to his whim. 

‘I see… In that case, I’ll just bombard you with more new information than you can adapt to.’

Leonel pulled back his spear, his chains lashing out against Monkey, Vice and Lionel all at once. 

By now, Lionel was a shell of his former self. Leonel was too perfect of a counter to him, all he could seem to do was use his ability to escape. But, any attempts he made to attack fell flat. 

Still, his escaping ability alone was giving Leonel a headache. The longer this fight dragged on, the more powerful Monkey became, and, there was no guarantee that Vice wouldn’t become cleverer in using his ability as well. On top of that, Candle was still constantly fighting back against his chains, draining his stamina. 

If it wasn’t for the fact he was so focused on keeping Candle trapped, he would have long since made far more use of his Domain against Monkey and Vice. If it was up to him, he would have already constricted Candle to death, but he realized that doing so would be no better than suicide for him. 

Candle’s ability was dependent on the strength of her opponent. The more Leonel constricted, the more strength she had to push back, and the greater drain his stamina would experience. To make matters worse, Leonel didn’t have to initiate the strength either. 

At the moment, Candle was pressing her mirrors against her cocoon of chains in order to escape. But, in doing so, Leonel’s chains applied pressure in order to stop her. This pressure was then reflected back, causing an endless cycle to ensue. 

Essentially, the more strength Leonel placed into keeping Candle trapped, the more strength he had to use to resist her entrapment. This left Leonel with no choice but to slowly allow the cocoon Candle was wrapped in to slowly expand. Only by doing this could Leonel slow Candle’s escape, but this also put a timer on his battle. 

There was only so large he could allow Candle’s cocoon to become before it exceeded the range of his Domain. By then, how could he possibly keep her trapped?

Candle seemed to realize this subconsciously, so she formed more and more mirrors, lining them against Leonel’s chains and pushing with all her might. 

However, Leonel was much more intelligent than Candle was. The moment the cocoon around Candle reached five meters in diameter, Leonel manifested new chains around Candle, allowing the outer structure to collapse. 

Candle’s mirrors shot in every direction, no longer having anything to press against. But, without her sight, Candle had no ability to gauge just where her mirrors were going as she suddenly found herself trapped once again. 

Leonel indifferently gazed down toward Monkey who was brandishing yet another fist at him. He seemed to be completely detached from the events happening around him, as though he was a master puppeteer observing things from on high. 

Just when Monkey’s fist was about to connect, Leonel’s body flickered, a halo of golden light enveloping him as his speed reached impossible levels. 

Monkey’s fist lost its target, suddenly finding itself flying toward a mirror. 

At that same moment, the chains Leonel had sent lashing out at Monkey and Vice aimed for their mirrors as well. 

The timing was impeccable and the result was devastating. 

Monkey’s fist crashed into the mirror at the same instant Leonel’s numerous chains did. 

Candle’s ability was very simple. It had the ability to reflect and multiply the strikes it received. Not only would one have to face the strength of their own attack, but it would also be multiplied in strength by several times. 

That was already horrible enough, something Coach Owen could attest to. 

But, what if on top of your own attack, you had to deal with the amplification of several others at the same time?

BANG!

An entire half of Monkey’s body exploded. As though a bomb had gone off within his body, his chest, arm, leg and even half his head erupted into a rain of blood and gore.