BANG!
Leonel was rocked. He was sent flying into a tree with such force that he nearly cut it in half. Even so, he felt that satisfying feeling of his spear piercing through truly tender flesh. No matter how powerful the wolf beast, there was no way that even its brain would be so fortified, right?
The last mournful howl of the beast echoed as Leonel's head swam. He nearly lost consciousness, but he bit his tongue. He couldn't afford to lose his mind here.
Leonel coughed up a mouthful of blood and stumbled once before pushing himself to his feet and nearly falling to the ground again.
'Dammit...'
He had a mild concussion and all the wind was knocked out of him. In fact, he was also pretty sure that he had cracked a few ribs as well, not to mention the ugly gashes on his chest now. It was lucky, though, that the latter were just skin deep. But even so, in this environment, and considering his body was back in the Third Dimension, this kind of injury could kill him if he didn't deal with it properly.
Wouldn't it be too pathetic if he lost his life to an infection after having already become a Sixth Dimensional existence? Even back in Third Dimensional Earth people almost never died from such things, technology had gotten much too far.
Leonel stood weakly to his knees and thought about running, but he shook his head again in a vain attempt to clear it. He knew that he needed to understand what was going on with that barrier first. Why had it appeared? Why was it there? And why was there not even a single warning?
Leonel rushed up to the barrier and pressed a hand against it. He couldn't pass through no matter how hard he pushed, and the barrier showed no signs of giving in.
Leonel frowned a moment and shook his head again, his fogginess beginning to clear a bit.
There were no obstructions to his sight. He could see to the other side all too easily, which was why he had run into it to begin with. He wouldn't have been foolish enough to do so otherwise.
'It's moving...'
Leonel wasn't sure at first, but he definitely hadn't moved his feet just now, but the barrier was definitely further out than it was originally. Was it here to protect him? Maybe there were much stronger beasts than what he could handle on the other side?
That seemed to potentially be the case considering this was a trial or tribulation of sorts.
Suddenly, Leonel's pupils constricted. On the other side of the barrier, what must have been at least a few kilometers out, he actually saw another human.
Leonel wasn't too shocked by this to begin with. There was no telling whether beasts were the only challenge ahead for him. After all, this was a spear trial, one for the king weapon of the battlefield. To use it solely against beasts, although this was where its roots lay, was a bit... lacking for its status.
However, the more Leonel looked, the more his shock increased, until his head spun so much that he didn't quite understand how to take what he was seeing.
The youth several kilometers from him ran into the forcefield like he did, but seemed slightly more prepared than Leonel had been. His spear chipped at it first before his body came to a stop. Only then did he nod to himself and turn back.
There was enough distance between him and Leonel that he didn't notice the latter, well that and the fact there were so many trees and obstructions between them. Leonel only happened to have the perfect angle to see this young man.
The young man landed on the ground and brandished a spear that looked practically identical to Leonel's own and pierced out toward a beast before him.
He underwent an arduous battle, not much unlike Leonel. But what was truly shocking was the fact that everything was simply too similar... The Spear Domain Lineage Factor, the Absolute Spear Domain, the crown of spears...
After a long fought battle, the young man finally managed to take down the beast. Without hesitation, he stuck his entire arm into the bloody eye socket of the beast, digging around in its brain until he found what he wanted and pulled out a bloody Beast Crystal. Then, under Leonel's widened gaze, he opened his mouth and swallowed it whole.
His body bulged once before concentrating back down to his original size.
His head suddenly turned in Leonel's direction. He paused for a long while, seemingly scanning Leonel up and down before he gave a bloodthirsty grin, the blood of the beast he had just killed drizzling down his cheek.
Leonel's gaze narrowed as the young man picked up his spear and shot into the distance, his speed clearly much swifter than before.
Even after several moments, Leonel didn't quite understand what was going on. This situation was far too weird.
Leonel's heart shuddered and he realized that he had wasted far too much time here. At any time, a swarm of beasts could be attracted to this location, he couldn't allow himself to get caught with his pants down like that.
He turned back, prepared to run away.
What was obvious to him was that soon enough, if those barriers kept moving, his barrier would eventually overlap with that young man's and maybe even the barriers of other humans that may or may not be here. Obviously, his only opponents this time around wouldn't be human.
He didn't know what it would take to perform to the standard his grandfather of the past had, or even surpass him, but there was no doubt that doing so would require battle with his fellow humanoids.
Leonel's steps suddenly came to a pause and he shot back toward the wolf's corpse. He mimicked the actions of the young man and dug into its eye socket.
He hesitated for a moment. There was no telling if that young man was special or not. Maybe he had a body that helped him digest Beast Crystals like this, or maybe he had a cheat. It looked like he was far more prepared for this tribulation than Leonel had been for some reason.
'T'1l take the risk. This wolf had no attributes to begin with and it's not like absorbing Beast Crystals in unheard of..."
Leonel grit his teeth and swallowed the Beast Crystal, knowing full well just how foolish such a decision could be. But as things went, he had minimized the danger as much as he could.
What he did know for sure was that if he couldn't improve his strength like that young man could, his only path forward was death. In that case, he might as well take the risk now.
To Leonel's surprise, the moment the Beast Crystal hit his stomach, his body was flooded with strength. His brain fog, caused by his concussion, completely vanished, the cracks to his ribs healed, and the flesh wound to his chest began to close up.
At the same time, his baseline of strength increased by leaps and bounds and he could feel himself growing more powerful.
Leonel gripped his fists. It seemed that the beasts here weren't just a measure of whether or not he could survive, they were here as stepping stones to prepare him for the later trials.
If he wanted to survive, he would have to hunt them all down.
Brandishing his spear, Leonel dashed forward.
His mind flickered with all sorts of thoughts, but they ultimately landed on just one image...
The image of the ring on that young man's finger...
The Spear Domain Ring.
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