Dimensional Descent

A spiraling aura took shape around Leonel’s cracked blade. His heart thumped and his body’s aura soared to pierce the skies.

The pressure of the mountain on his back seemed to descend into the world itself.

Staring at him, one could tell that there was absolutely nothing that would make him lower his spear, nothing that would impact his will, nothing that would dull the blade hidden in his heart.

His body might have seemed to have lost all life, his Force didn’t seem to respond to him, and his flesh itself had practically begun to atrophy, but the light in his eyes...

That hadn’t dimmed in the slightest and seemed to have no intention of doing so. Come.

That was the one word it seemed to roar at the top of its lungs.

And then Leonel moved.

His spear danced through the skies, carving what looked like a simple arc but actually targeted both Sylvan and Pluto at the same time.

He truly treated them no differently from the men he had just faced off against, and he would cut them down no differently.

Despite his pride, Ger’Ain reacted on instinct, feeling the scent of death kissing at his neck. Before he even knew what was happening, he was locked in a battle, shoulder to shoulder with Vaelin, and had no easy way to extricate himself without suffering a lethal blow.

I

The Pluto’s grey-blue skin rippled with an underlying violet light as his eyes flickered with rage.

Humiliation.

Undisguised, unabashed humiliation.

He couldn’t tell if Leonel was doing this on purpose or not, but somehow, the idea that he wasn’t could make him feel more fury.

The fact that Leonel didn’t have to think to target him like this, to think of attacking his pride, and only doing so as though it was only natural... as though it was only natural for a pitiful, puny human to fight against the lofty Sylvan and Pluto Race all on his own.

He didn’t second guess it; he didn’t even hesitate in the slightest.

It was like to Leonel... this was just another battle.

They were only another road he would cross, mountain he would scale, sky he would pierce.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Leonel’s spear weighed heavy, but its swiftness was undeniable. He pushed Vaelin to his backfoot before crossing blades with Ger’Ain and taking a step back.

His feet pivoted as he parried the Pluto’s spear to the side, erupting with a flat foot to the side of Ger’Ain’s knee.

At this point, Leonel’s smaller size was to his advantage. He was fighting against giants by comparison, but his nimbleness was beyond theirs even if his speed was not.

Ger’Ain was forced to brace his knee for impact so Leonel couldn’t shatter it at the same moment his spear was sent piercing into the ground, having missed Leonel. Vaclin recovered in that instant, swiping out a blade toward Leonel’s back. However, that was when the angle of Leonel’s ”kick” changed, and he used Ger’Ain’s knee as a platform to launch himself upward and over the blade coming for him, leaving Vaelin’s blade about to rip through the Pluto.

The Sylvan only sneered. As if he would fall for something like that. How great was his intelligence? And how much greater was his spear control?

His blade came to a steady stop, ready to pierce up toward Leonel, who had not left himself in a vulnerable spot mid-air.

But Vaelin realized too late that Leonel’s trajectory wasn’t just upward. It was up and back.

Leonel somersaulted through the air, his feet landing on the body of Vaelin’s spear with a vicious downward momentum.

Unfortunately, the strength of Leonel’s two opponents wasn’t so simple. Something like withstanding Leonel’s weight on their spears, even while suppressed to the Third Dimension, wasn’t a problem for them. Especially after Leonel had lost so much weight due to his injuries, blood loss, and flesh atrophying.

Vaelin’s gaze flashed and his arms flexed. Rather than stopping the upward trajectory of his spear, his torso flexed and his feet dug into the ground. With a roar, he lifted

with all his strength, his intention being to punish Leonel by sending him flying higher into the air.

And yet... that still seemed to be within Leonel’s calculations.

Leonel’s feet only lightly touched Vaelin’s spear before they ”slipped.”

Vaelin, who had just put all his strength into thrusting his spear and Leonel upward, suddenly found himself off balance.

It was happening again. Leonel was forcing uncoordinated movements using methods

the Sylvan had just never prepared for before.

Suddenly, Leonel had landed on the ground and the Sylvan’s chest was wide open.

Leonel could feel that Ger’Ain had already recovered to his back, but the angle was far too tight. Leonel was beneath both of Vaelin’s arms, and with the angle Ger’Ain’s spear was pierced into the ground, he wouldn’t have a vantage point to work with.

So, Leonel didn’t even hesitate.

The weight of a mountain trembled to his back as he erupted with a spear strike that spiraled the energies of the world to the tip of his blade.

Even without Force, the laws of reality seemed to bend to his will.

Leonel didn’t even have the energy to roar... but his spear did for him.

PUCHI!

He rocketed forward with so much strength that his spear and arm ripped through the Sylvan’s chest.

Blood exploded from the large man’s back, golden streaks and runes followed suit as Vaelin froze, his eyes wide.

He realized too late that Leonel had already seen through all of his abilities. It was why he had run away in the first place, because the scent of death was only getting closer

and closer.

With the added variable of Ger’Ain, a man he neither trusted nor was used to working with, he only sped himself closer to death.

And the fact he didn’t trust Ger’Ain only seemed smarter after Leonel suddenly sensed a blade rip through Vaelin’s body and head right for him.