Dimensional Descent

Leonel gaze sharpened, his eyes quickly scanning the region.

In this dense fog, his Internal Sight could only stretch out about five meters which was barely beyond his line of sight, which was about two meters in this environment. The trouble was that thought it was theoretically better than relying on his eyes, the impact on his stamina was to great.

Under normal circumstances, he could continuously use his Internal Sight passively without much issue. But, in this world, not only had a Seventh Dimensional pressure restricted his range to an extreme, but the Anarchic Force also ate away at him rapidly.

The only reason Leonel was able to sense the creature was because his instincts had called out to him. He could feel a slimy and slippery Internal Sight latching onto his body. In fact, he could even read some of the creature's emotions.

There was nothing but an endless thirst and hunger. It wanted nothing more than to eat and satiate itself. The feeling was so overwhelming that it leaked into its internal sight, even beginning to affect Leonel's own psyche somewhat.

In a moment of distraction, a wild tendril appeared to Leonel's side, whipping down with a force that that dispersed the fog for several meters.

Leonel regained his bearing, jumping back.

The tendril slammed against the ground heavily. After seeing what had happened to that youth's leg earlier, Leonel was certain that the ground would shatter and erupt out in all directions with countless spiderweb-like cracks, but the reality was very much different.

The tendril was sent rebounding backward, a cry that sounded somewhat like a pained shout resonating through the forest.

Leonel got another wakeup call about just how sturdy the world around him was. That same tendril had blasted a person's leg into a bloody mist seconds ago, but it couldn't even cause a crack in the ground. The disparity was glaring.

Leonel didn't get much of a chance to think about this, though, as the tendril suddenly gained several companions. One line of black became six, snaking toward Leonel with blinding speed that left after images in the air.

The wind refused to give way, giving each tendril a chorus of wind pressure that assaulted Leonel long before the attack itself landed.

'Don't have time to play around here…'

With a tap of his foot, Leonel activated the Second Awakening of his Speed Branch once again, slipping by the first two tendrils and drawing closer toward the source.

The tendrils reacted quickly, one portion sweeping for Leonel's knees and the other for his neck.

Leonel jumped into the air, his body flipping horizontally and slipping out the combined high and low attack. The instant he felt his feet hit earth once more, he exploded forward.

In that moment, Leonel's Force surged throughout his body, a faint red-gold pulsing beneath his bronzed skin. The feeling was so soothing and relaxing, but the resulting speed was only all the more exaggerated. As though Leonel's Blood and Force had only just finally circulated properly for the first time, the wind before him burst, shattering as he leapt across the final distance.

What Leonel saw when he closed in was quite surprising.

It looked like nothing more than a normal wolf. It had gruff grey fur and a sharp snout, not to mention a pair of yellow eyes that reflected something half carnal and half intelligent. However, what felt like a normal beast very quickly became a horror story.

With another look, Leonel spotted several pulsing veins of black hidden beneath the wolf's tough exterior fur, something that only just barely caught his attention due to the light reflected in its yellow eyes.

To make matters worse, its belly was the worst of it.

The stomach of the wolf had burst open, revealing what looked like leaking intestines. Any yet, instead of that, what they were instead were the very origin of the tendrils that had been attacking Leonel. It was a sight grotesque beyond words and it almost made Leonel freeze completely.

If it was an odd ability mutation, Leonel could barely accept it. But, something told Leonel that this mutation had almost nothing to do with such a thing at all. Whatever had happened to this wolf had likely occurred to the environment around it.

The real question was how?

Were all the beasts here like this? Was it because they had ingested something? Or was this simply what happened when you spent too long in this environment? Or was it a different unknown Leonel couldn't even begin to speculate on?

Despite all these thoughts running through Leonel's brain, his steps only faltered for a moment before they accelerated once again. He entered the close range, the tendrils that surrounded him from all sides being rendered useless for the immediate while.

The wolf was only a meter and a half tall and it seemed to have lost much of its agility thanks to its new status. Leonel took full advantage, his spear appearing in his hands and piercing forward. A flicker of gold touched its blade, his Spear Force having seemingly evolved once more.

PCHU!

The head of the wolf was precisely split in two. In fact, the Range of Leonel's spear was so pure that the Force sliced through its entire body even after Leonel came to a grinding halt, bisecting the beast entirely.

Leonel immediately checked his spear. If even his Spear Domain spears were affected, it would be a problem. The Spear Domain Heirloom could probably fix them before they crumbled to ash, but it would be troublesome in a long, drawn out battle to have to constantly switch between spears.

Surprsingly, though, Leonel found that his Quasi Silver Spear was doing just fine, something that made him raise an eyebrow.

Leonel was about to turn his back when his heart suddenly twitched.

He shot backward explosively as the belly of the beast erupted, a violent surge of tendrils that looked like a wall of tentacles shooting toward him.