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Leonel pressed forward with a furious speed. It was clear that his Spear Force was sharper and his reactions were quicker. At the same time, his strength output was beyond that of the Rapax. After all, he had cleared five territories while the Rapax was still working on its second.
However, the combat style of the Rapax was unpredictable and it flowed exceptionally smoothly. All parts of his body seemed to become a spear, it was to the point where it was difficult to tell whether he was a true spearman or if he was a close combat expert instead.
Leonel's spear separated into six blades, attacking all the vital points of the Rapax at once. The Rapax young man reacted with three of his own, but what was surprising was that his tail also split into three matching Leonel with a total of six.
Leonel's timing was thrown slightly off by this. The Rapax's three spear collided against him first with a purely forward pressure, but the three tails followed up with a more side-swiping momentum. The delay between the two destabilized Leonel's spear and opened up his guard.
Suddenly, the Rapax's foot appeared before Leonel's chest, clearly having expected exactly this sort of lapse.
Leonel didn't have the time to block and could only try to twist away. Unfortunately, he was a step slow and a claw coated with radiant gold Spear Force shot across his chest, taking with it a strong impact that knocked the air out of his lungs.
With a grunt, Leonel spun and shot backward at the same time, the armor that protected him deflecting much of the pressure. He realized immediately that had it not been for his self-forged armor, his rib cage would have been slashed to pieces beneath that strike.
Leonel's expression couldn't help but become several hints more serious. He had the advantage in strength, power, speed and even sharpness, but he was actually losing in... combat effectiveness, experience and battle prowess.
The Rapax appeared before Leonel instantly, not giving the latter any room to breathe.
The Rapax's leg soared into the skies, performing a perfect vertical split. Its momentum was so fierce as its ax kick descended that the ground around its plant leg cracked.
Leonel swiped his spear at the Rapax's plant leg, trying to throw it off balance before its kick could land. However, his tail countered before Leonel's spear could even gather up momentum, clashing strongly against the spear.
The ax kick descended swiftly, the Rapax's heel glowing with a blinding golden light like a shimmering guillotine. Even before it landed, Leonel could feel the sharpness digging into the skin of his forehead. He had no doubt that if this kick connected, his body would be split right down the middle.
Without a choice, Leonel used the momentum of his clash against the Rapax's tail to roll off to the side, just missing the downward ax kick by a small hair.
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The ground split in two and the residual impact cracked the rest. Even so, the Rapax was completely unmoved and he pressed down toward Leonel again, and then again.
The closer to death Leonel came, the calmer he became. Although he didn't have perfect control over his body like he did when he had his Ability Index, he still maintained perfect control over his mind. He realized that he needed to enter that state he had cleared the first territory again.
After he had gained power, he had let his brain take over the heavy lifting again. Since he could win through sheer power, his skill had become less important.
This was actually the first time that Leonel was fighting against a spearman for obvious reasons. A spearman who was also a close quarters combat expert like this Rapax was a whole other can of worms. He couldn't win this by taking this so casually.
The Rapax could sense Leonel's gaze becoming sharper and sharper, so he pressed even harder. His own instincts were sharp enough to feel that something might change if he didn't end things as quickly as possible.
Leonel's figure flickered. He had noticed another weakness of his: movement. With his speed, he had never needed a dedicated movement technique, and that only became more so after his Spatial Force affinity shot up.
But after this battle, he could see that the martial arts Style of this Rapax seemed to be infused with a mysterious movement pattern that allowed him to press his advantage instantly.
The more Leonel saw of it, the more he got used to it, until his cold gaze suddenly went entirely blank.
Leonel planted a palm on the ground, holding his spear in his free hand as he pushed up into a handstand. His hips torqued and he twirled once, spinning out of the way of the Rapax young man's downward swinging spear before bending his elbow and pushing.
He spun through the air and landed behind the Rapax's back on his feet.
Swift.
Leonel's spear shot forward just as the Rapax's tail rose to block, but this time, a mysterious Spear Domain seemed to form around Leonel's spear rather than around his body, creating a vortex of Spear Force that deflected the spear and landed right on the Rapax's body.
The Rapax managed to throw Leonel's spear a tiny bit off course, causing him to miss the vital point between his natural plate armor. Even so, the impact caused the Rapax's back to curl in an awkward direction and his figure flew into the distance, crashing through several trees.
Leonel shot forward, appearing above the Rapax and piercing down.
"SKKREEEEE!"
The Rapax released a war cry as he forcefully spun his to thrust his spear up toward Leonel. However, at that moment, Leonel met its gaze with a boundless confidence.
"One spear to connect the earth and skies."
The Rapax felt his heart tremble when he heard these words. Leonel's voice seemed to have a magical tone to them that demanded his essence of meaning to be birthed into the world.