Its mouth was big, it didn't have any hair. When the creature opened its mouth, its big dinosaur-like jaw opened and the row of sharp teeth was revealed, unlike its body colour, its teeth were milky white. When it opened its mouth, its long lizard-like tongue moved like a snake as it tasted the smell in the air.
The humanoid leech screeched towards the ceiling, then it abruptly stopped and turned to Rex.
It bent on its knees then it leaped at him as it broke the sound barrier with sheer force.
Rex quickly reacted and urged his Battle-Wings, but before he could react, the figure of a woman holding an iron club appeared in front of him.
Lerna tightened her grip on the club and swung it at the incoming leech.
The leech failed to evade because of its uncontrollable speed, the club hit its stomach, the leech got thrown back like a cannon bolt and didn't stop until its body was pasted wall on the other side of the hall.
"Homerun?" Rex muttered while looking at Lerna.
"So you refined it?" Rex said.
Lerna shook her head as she swung around the club in the air to get familiarize herself with it.
She hasn't refined it and was only using it as a normal weapon but even she had refined it element attacks didn't do any good against the leech.
Rex then looked at the leech on the other side, its body was almost deformed by the hit a few seconds ago, but it had recovered now, moreover, the texture of its skin was now slightly different, its plain skin seemed to have grown scales.
"Defeating him with force doesn't seem feasible, keep it down and try to use less stamina as possible," Rex said. He decided to observe the leech to find its weakness.
Lerna was someone from the monster race and she was a Calamity Lord on top of that, her stamina and Qi reserve cannot be underestimated.
She didn't reply and just dashed towards the leech.
The leech leaped at her but although its speed was faster, the leech failed to avoid the club-swing from Lerna.
Lerna might have failed to compare to its speed but her senses and reaction speed was something that leech couldn't compare to. After all, she was a genuine Calamity Lord that grew up in the wilderness.
First hit, the second hit, third hit... The leech was getting beaten up without any resistance.
On the other hand, Lerna's lips were slightly curled up, it had been a long while since she let out such steam without any restraint.
Rex was carefully observing the leech, although he was getting beaten up but some new variations were appearing on its body every once in a while.
It's skin hardened into tightly packed snake-like scales. Its speed, defense, and strength increased, by now it became quick enough to evade one or two attacks of Lerna. It doesn't get shot on the wall with one hit.
'It feels like it's adapting or... Evolving? Hmm, it's more like only some of its body parts... Wait, it's not a single entity but something made from thousands of those damn leech-like creatures, does that mean that the ones evolving are those leeches? But how? Just how, the first time those scales grew it was fine, but now...' Rex thought.
Time passed slowly... One hour, two hours, three hours, the fight went on for more than 6 hours.
Lerna slightly frowned. She wasn't tired, she was sure that she could fight for the next two days without showing the slightest sign of tiredness but a problem occurred, she noticed that leech had become stronger, way stronger compared to the time they started the fight.
The leech again dashed at her without the slightest bit of fear and pounced like a beast.
Lerna reacted, she switched the club from her right hand to left hand then swung it at its head.
The leech evaded in time, it then opened its mouth and a long pointed tongue shot out from its mouth at Lerna's face.
Lerna was slightly surprised but that was it, she urged and a water blade appeared slicing at its tongue.
Just then something strange happened, the long tongue divided itself into two, the left tongue got hit by the arrow and the right tongue got Lerna by surprise, it attacked her neck.
She tried to evade but the tongue still managed to leave a wound.
As soon as the strike landed, the leech quickly retreated.
Lerna touched her neck, the scratch was small but it was bleeding continuously.
The leech on the other hand retreated far away, it retracted its tongue and savoured the taste of the blood of its opponent.
Rex was about to act and help her heal, but then he saw a green flame flickering around her wound and the injury disappeared in the next second.
..Sccrrttchh....
The leech screeched at the ceiling then a mutation happened, two big wings grew out of its back. It flapped its wings to fly but crashed into the wall on the side.
'It has wings but doesn't know how to fly? Wait... Those wings... Aren't they similar to Lerna's,' Rex thought of something and his eyes widened.
"Don't let it get your blood, it can not only adapt from your attacks but also evolve from your blood," Rex shouted at her.
Lerna gave him an angry look. It felt like she was asking if she enjoyed distributing her blood.
The fight continued again but this time Lerna no longer had the upper hand, the leech had now adapted to her wild battle style. She occasionally started to receive injuries during her exchange of moves with the leech.
She fought valiantly but with time, the injuries on her body continued to increase, although her wood element flame helped her recover from injuries, she still lost quite a bit of blood while fighting. She had noticed that the leech's attacks were aimed more at sucking blood from her wounds than dealing with critical hits.
Rex landed her potions but they didn't help in the long run, especially with her cultivation base they didn't have much effect.
Soon she had no choice but to switch to her beast form, Lerna finally got the upper hand for a while but the leech had grown far stronger by now and she got suppressed.
Rex frowned deeply, he decided to take the shot and analyze the leech no matter the cost. Earlier, when he saw the leech getting abilities from Lerna's blood he was slightly worried to take action because his own blood would most likely act as a tonic for it but now if he didn't hurry then Lerna would suffer.
'Dammit, it's do or die,' Rex dashed at the leech fighting Lerna.
'Battle-Wings: Second Form'
His fluttering blood-red coat shrunk and clung to his skin, four red tentacles shot out from his back, they passed through the thin jelly-like surface of the coat and shot at the leech at lightning speed.
The leech reacted, it turned around and grabbed onto the two of his tentacles, the other two penetrated into its stomach.
Under Rex's control, the two tentacles clutched a tiny potion of leech's body and retracted quickly but the other two were tightly held by it and failed to retreat.
In the next second, the leech opened its big mouth and bit the tentacle in its right hand.
Rex felt intense pain when it chewed onto his limb, fortunately, Lerna waved her tail and shot out the leech onto the wall.
Rex didn't delay and tried to analyze the pieces of its skin, but...
[The structure of its DNA is complicated just like Zakiya, it will take quite some time before I can retrace it,]
Zakiya's blood was the blood of a divine being, Rex wasn't able to analyze it quickly and it took him several days to get the full result, if the leech's DNA also took that much time then it's a big problem as they won't be able to handle the leech for so long.
Rex then looked at the leech and saw that it was now able to transform its two hands into whip-like tentacles at will.
He was still thinking of what to do when a familiar voice reverberated in the hall.
"The second way to pass the trial is to escape from the Leech and enter the exit gate,"
When the sentence was finished, they saw that a door had appeared on the other side of the wall, a light curtain was present at its entrance preventing others from seeing its other side.
Rex felt something was wrong, why does the second way was informed now and the next sentence cleared his doubts.
"But only one person can clear the test using the second way because the door will become unusable after one use,"
Rex ignored him and kept fighting the leech with Lerna, she also didn't say anything.
It was easy to guess what this test was trying to do, it was telling them to sacrifice their comrade to proceed. Furthermore, the test cannot be fake, meaning that if someone tried then they can really pass through the door without suffering from any penalty.
They both fought the leech using all of their strength but the leech continued to become stronger without any sign of stopping.
'Rose I have a plan to clear the test, but for that, I need to push out Lerna and use... Overdrive before I can execute it, but if the plan failed then I might be done for, what do you think? Should I do it?' Rex thought.
[If you ask me, is there any other choice?]
Rex smiled, he then turned to Lerna and spoke.
"Wifey~ Go use the door," Rex said.
Lerna's movement halted for a moment, she then continued fighting without replying.
Rex didn't say more while thinking of any other plant or if the consequences of his action if the plan failed. He wasn't sure if he should use this method, he was reluctant.
Half an hour passed just like that. No one talked, at this time Lerna suddenly spoke.
"If you died then Aru would be sad," She slowly spoke.
"Huh?" Rex turned to her.
"But if I died then who will take care of him," She said again, it seemed like she wasn't talking to him but herself.
"Don't think that deeper, I don't have time to explain so listen, what I'm trying to say is I have a plan to defeat this leech but if you remain here than you might also suffer under my attack, so leave first using that exit door then I will come soon after," Rex said with a serious expression.
Lerna looked at him with an expressionless face then slowly nodded. She then transformed back into her humanoid form.
"Good, leave the rest to me," Rex raised his hand towards the leech.
'Telekinesis + Geokinesis + Aerokinesis + Hydrokinesis'
An invisible force together with wind pressure pushed down the leech to the ground, tentacles made of hardened soil bounded him, shackles made of water imprisoned his whole body.
Rex directly used four types of abilities to press the leech on the ground. He then grabbed Lerna's hand and flew past it with his full speed.
The leech broke free in the next second and chased him, but the delay was all Rex needed.
He used Instant Transmission and appeared just several meters away from the gate.
"Now go fast... Huh?" Rex pulled her near the gate, he turned and was saying when he saw that Lerna had freed her hand from his grasp.
She had taken out her iron club and swung at him.
'Fast Clock'
Using Fast Clock at an alarming time had long become his extinct.
Everything around appeared slow to him.
'This crazy... Woman,' Rex thought when he looked at her face, he was both surprised and moved, he didn't even need to think about the purpose behind her actions, she was throwing him in the gate knowing that she won't be able to enter it after him.
It was likely that when he told her his plan, she thought that he was making excuse for her to leave this place, Rex could guess that but he didn't bother thinking that much, and Lerna trying to sacrifice herself for him was completely out of his expectations. If she did it for Aru he won't doubt it but no matter the excuse she trusting him with Aru was not something she would do for just anyone.
Rex loved many women but he never once expected them to sacrifice their life for them, he wasn't thinking superficially, everyone loves their life, as long as they were loyal to him, loved him, and cared about him, he was content with that. He knew that just not everyone can be like Wang Cang, that's why her place in his heart was at the top, whether it was appreciation or reverence is something he never cared about.
Rex shook his head, he didn't have time to think about it yet, his eyes flashed with resolve and he gave the next command.
'Overdrive'
Suddenly, the core housing all the Life Energy/Exp inside him reacted, Exp gushed out from the core but this time it didn't move towards his dantian but drilled into his meridians completely pushing out the Qi channeling inside.
The meridians that were made to channel Qi till now were bursting forth with the explosive Life Energy, the situation was the same as someone using the rocket fuel to drive a car.
Rex felt his body getting charged up with endless energy but at the same time his body was in extreme pain, bulging veins were visible all over his body, his meridians were at their limits, cracking sound was coming from his bones and his nerves, tendons, muscles were already on the verge of breaking apart.
At the same time, he was feeling that he had the strength to easily take on someone like Spirit Mountain Monarch's head-on.
Rex ignored the pain, he reacted, his body disappeared from the place and appeared just before Lerna.
"You.."
Before she could speak, he grabbed her waist and threw her at the gate.
Lerna felt an unstoppable force pushing her, she used the remaining strength in her body but failed to resist, she was thrown straight into the light curtain.
The light curtain turned grey, seemly unusable.
He then turned and looked at the incoming leech.
'How long?' Rex asked as he groaned in pain.
[Approximately 30 seconds, do it fast whatever you want to do,]