SERIOUS

Leonel's thoughts wanted him to grab a hold of the magma glaive. He was practically immune to fire and heat, while also incredibly resistant to Earth Force as well. This person would usually be someone that he could perfectly counter without even the slightest hint of unease.

But the moment he thought to do so, his instincts screamed at him to not be stupid an instant later.

Dream Step.

He took a single step back as the glaive swung, barely missing the tip of his nose. The searing hint threatened to burn a layer of his skin off, and the sharpness caught some of his hair, slicing them off and then, as though a will of fire itself continued to burn within them, began to quickly burn them as well.

'What the hell?'

Leonel was speechless.

His hair was truly indestructible. He had tried everything, but outside of the compulsion of his King's Might itself, nothing could cut his hair, let alone singe and burn it.

He didn't even know what to say, but then he understood a bit later... The Metal Synergy aspect of his body had hit absolute rock bottom, while his King's Might Lineage Factor was entirely dormant. The reality was whatever it was that had made his hair special in the past was no longer active.

'Ah, so you're saying I could end up bald? What a travesty!'

Leonel dodged again. Despite his internal jokes, he realized that he had to take this matter more seriously.

There was a certain threshold of enemy he could deal with right now. So long as they were below that threshold, no matter how powerful they were, killing them was as easy as a single stroke of his spear. Despite how ferocious the beastmen had been until now, this was the category the most of them had fallen into.

This was a gap in pure skill. Leonel was no longer that youth fumbling about with a spear, not understanding how to maximize his own strength. He was a true spear master and he put much of the older generation to shame. He could not use any Force at all and still kill Sixth Dimensional existences with ease. With the help of Force and his Ability Index, he could kill even Seventh Dimensional existences.

But there was a limit to this.

Once that threshold was surpassed, even if there was still a large gap in skill, the weight of overwhelming power would be difficult to ignore.

And this Alpha Magma fell into that very category, weighing him down with oppressive might and charging forth.

'No Divine Armor, no King's Might, no Metal Body, no Innate Nodes. Can't use my True Sovereign Spear Force or Body Force, can only gather elements from the surroundings... You really screwed me over big time, old man.'

Before this Alpha had appeared, a part of Leonel had thought that he would still be able to steamroll everyone. But he knew that this Alpha wasn't even the pinnacle of this Beastman Dimensional Verse, and yet his momentum was already so fierce and his power was so oppressive.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Leonel continued to dodge.

His senses swept the surroundings and he realized that the Betas had no intention of interfering. This was interesting because in the past, they had no problem with ganging up on him.

It seemed that when Alphas were involved, the first priority of the Betas was to protect the former's ego.

That was fine by Leonel, though it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. All of those Betas were below the threshold, so even if they jumped in, they would be a single spear stroke away from falling. If anything, they had saved themselves from death, at least for now.

'Since that's not a problem, I need to focus on how to win this battle. This man's greatest strong suit is his strength if I was still using my Ability Index to put numbers on people's "stats," he would be near the limit of his current Tier. He's fast as well, though not nearly as fast as he is strong, and he can't synergize his agility and strength all that well. But none of this matters because he's so much stronger than me...'

Leonel's head tilted to the side and he dodged out of the way of another strike.

'I've been slacking too much. I need to use Dream Path on myself, I need to understand exactly what steps I need to take to maximize the chance I've received by returning to the Fifth Dimension. Sure, reforming my Metal Body and Crafting my Divine Armors... again, seem like the obvious choice, but none of those things will fundamentally change my foundation. Well, my Metal Body might, but I don't think this is what gramps wanted me to do with this chance. I don't think El'Rion's current strength, even though he's in the Fifth Dimension too, is built off the back of techniques like Metal Body. There's something deeper I have to look for, something that I'm missing.'

Leonel dodged out of the way of yet another strike.

Alpha Magma was starting to become truly infuriated, but rather than making him sloppy, he seemed to become even faster and even stronger.

Leonel's brows shot up and he tapped his foot on the ground several times, flashing in a round arc and stabbing out at Alpha Magma's hip.

Before the strike even landed, he shook his head and explosively retreated, just barely managing to avoid the fate of having his spear, and likely his arm as well, being burnt to ash.

'Force.'

Leonel ultimately decided on this, at least as a sort of pivot point.

What was the largest difference between himself and El'Rion other than their bloodlines? Well, it was obviously their usage of Force. El'Rion wasn't just in the Impetus State, but he had also traveled quite deeply into it.

Could it be that El'Rion and Shan'Rae had wanted to enter the Life State before they entered the Sixth Dimension? Was that their goal?

Leonel's spear tip shook as the surroundings began to tremble.

This really wasn't the time to think about this. It was time he get serious.