With its tremendous muscles, the Aardgnoll brought down the axe faster than the speed of sound. The monster was blessed with innate physical strength that not even martial artists of the Tenth Degree Body Refining Tier could achieve.
Even before the sonic boom hit, Leonard felt as if his head would explode from the tension.
Boom! And then there was a squishing sound.
Hee? The Aardgnoll made a sound of frustration when the spray of blood never came. When the axe had hit Leonard's sword, the monster's weapon had been deflected. This had caused the axe to slip from the Aardgnoll's hands and fly away in a random direction. The trees shook in the aftermath of the sonic boom, but the boy didn't look the least bit bothered.
"I suppose the sword would have broken into two if I had tried to block head-on," Leonard said, sounding as calm as always but feeling a shock of pain in his wrists.
Monsters were physically stronger than humans by a considerable amount. Forget ogres; even gnolls and orcs could rip people apart with their bare hands. Even though Leonard knew this in his head, he'd never actually experienced it before.
Leonard's eyes flashed. I thought this was just a normal beast, but it may actually be a worthy opponent.
The gnoll was only at the Second Stage, the Mature Demon Tier, but it was stronger than a martial artist at the Tenth Degree Body Refining Tier. That meant that the monsters who ranked above them, the more powerful and dangerous species, could have posed a real threat to even the Sword Emperor during his peak.
Leonard couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto his face. "Heh."
His cold smirk sent a shiver down the Aardgnoll's spine, and the monster stood frozen in fear.
Eee?! The Aardgnoll chieftain instinctively retreated about twenty meters back before it wondered why it did. Though it was at the Mature Demon Tier, it was close to reaching the True Demon Tier. However, its animal impulse to attack was fighting with its urge to flee; after all, its instincts were warning it that standing before it was a true predator, one that the likes of monsters in the Forest of Wastes shouldn't underestimate.
Kiyaaaa—!
Ultimately, its savage nature and wounded pride won. It remembered the day it was forced to settle in the Forest of Wastes with other members of its species, unable to compete with the monsters residing deeper on the island. It remembered how it restored its dignity by dominating the weaker members of its species with its rugged build.
The Aardgnoll chieftain suppressed the urge to run away once more.
"Have you turned away from your inner fears?" Leonard asked when he saw the change in its demeanor. "Some might call you reckless, but I truly commend you. You're suppressing the urge to run, and have the courage to face someone stronger than you. I respect that."
There were two meanings to the idiom, "a mantis trying to stop a chariot." The first was used in a derogatory way to mock someone who didn't know their place and had started a fight with someone stronger than them when everyone knew they would lose. The second was used to express respect for someone who was courageous enough to stand their ground and not run away when they faced someone stronger than them.
"Come. I'll give you a real fight," Leonard said, swinging his sword in an opening display.
Leonard's actions made the Aardgnoll's nose twitch. The Aardgnoll growled and raised its axe diagonally. It assumed the eight-direction stance, though unintentionally. It wouldn't know anything about martial arts or techniques, so it was simply attacking with all its might. The fact that it didn't know what it was doing was even more disappointing than if it were making a purposeful but poor attempt.
Shaaa...
The wind blew between them and rustled the branches, making the trees dance.
A single leaf fell to the ground. As it floated downward in a zigzag motion, it blocked their sights.
Shoo! The Aardgnoll kicked hard and threw dirt into the air in an attempt to blind Leonard. It was a clever move, more human than beast.
But...
"Concentrate." Leonard didn't even blink as he flicked away the dirt obscuring his vision.
He'd promised to give it a real fight, after all.
"Here I come." Before he even finished his sentence, Leonard dashed forward like a bolt of lightning.
Thanks to his heightened processing speed he had achieved from reaching the Third Degree Body Refining Tier, he was several times more agile than he used to be. Furthermore, his improved bones, which were reinforced when he had reached the Second Degree, gave him better physical abilities. On top of that, Leonard boosted himself with mana, further increasing his speed.
He was charging forward with the power of a martial artist at the Apex Realm.
Kiyaaaaa—! The Aardgnoll chieftain reacted as if it had expected and was waiting for that level of speed. Again, a monster's physique was far better and couldn't be compared to that of a human's; it was the same for their reflexes and visual processing speeds.
The Aardgnoll swung again, its axe so fast it sounded like a clap of thunder. Like the first attack, the swing wasn't something that could simply be blocked. It didn't matter how good Leonard's martial arts were when he was so physically inferior.
There's only one way I can handle this blow with my sword.
It was the same strategy he'd used when facing No. 1's nearly fatal attacks.
He wouldn't block.
He wouldn't dodge.
He would simply... cut.
The axe came down like a bolt of lightning.
Five Elements Style
Vermillion Bird, Twelfth Form: Brilliant Flame Blade
His sword flashed like a beacon of light as he swung out with an attack that was in between a cut and a stab. He aimed not for the axe head but for the handle beneath it, which didn't have the most momentum.
Clang!
The handle was made of metal, not wood, but Leonard still made a smooth cut. The axe head flew away pathetically.
Leonard wasn't done yet. His sword kept moving and stabbed into the Aardgnoll chief's neck.
Clang!
Sparks flew. Despite how easily Leonard had cut through the axe's metal handle, he couldn't penetrate the Aardgnoll's hide.
"What?" This time, it was Leonard's turn to be surprised. Though he'd lost some of his initial momentum by attempting a two-part attack, he was sure he had put in enough force to sever the cervical vertebrae. But he didn't even leave a scratch on the Aardgnoll's hide?
It was impenetrable.
Keehee! The Aardgnoll didn't wait for him to sort through his thoughts. It raised what was left of the axe, using the handle like a staff.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! Now that the weapon lacked the weight of the axe head, the monster could attack even faster and more precisely. Though the weapon had less destructive power, it could easily shatter a boulder.
Still, the Aardgnoll's technique was laughable. As Leonard read its movements, he realized it didn't pose much of a threat. He easily dodged dozens of strikes and tried to understand the monster's defense mechanism.
It looks like metal mana is reinforcing its entire body. Maybe it has a single core as some Cardenas family members do?
If the Aardgnoll had an innate capacity for metal mana, perhaps the effects of the elemental affinity expanded after it reached the Mature Demon Tier. It was typical for the metal element to reinforce one's bones, but in this case, the surplus mana spilled out of the Aardgnoll and changed its hide into something like steel. Hundreds—no, thousands of metal strands of fur had blocked Leonard's attack, so it naturally became ineffective.
In that case, I know what to do.
Leonard charged as soon as the answer came to him.
Heek?!
His movement took the Aardgnoll by surprise, causing the monster to flail.
In an instant, Leonard reached its bosom and thrust his blade forward. Since he couldn't use sword energy, it would be difficult to cut through the hide.
Therefore, he would pierce it.
If the hide was as strong as steel, the bones would be even stronger, so Leonard aimed for a point that wasn't covered in bones.
Five Elements Style
Azure Dragon, Second Form
The form required him to start with one knee on the ground. He swung his sword upward and aimed directly at the point below the Aardgnoll's chin. Neither humans nor beasts had any bone in the area underneath the jaw. If he penetrated through the flesh and up into the roof of the mouth, he could then pierce the brain in an instant. In murim, people often aimed for that vital point when fighting someone in armor.
Dragon Soaring Through the Sky
His sword slithered like a dragon and thrust toward the Aardgnoll's chin. It was fast but exact. The Azure Dragon Form required more than speed. No matter how fast someone attacked, if it was imprecise, it was just as bad as being slow. To draw blood, the strike had to be quick and true.
Kiyaaaa—! The Aardgnoll felt the shadow of death approaching. There was no way out. It couldn't read the trajectory of Leonard's sword, so it couldn't block or dodge.
There was only one choice left: it would bring the boy down with it.
The Aardgnoll gave up any prospect of defense and brought down the staff with all it had. Even if its head went flying, the inertia would make it strike!
The staff and sword intersected.
"..."
The monster stood frozen in place, and its heart stopped beating. The Aardgnoll crumpled to the ground. The tip of the sword was sticking out from the back of its head.
The Aardgnoll chieftain had been close to reaching the True Demon Tier, but it had fallen to a fourteen-year-old boy who had not even reached the External Force Tier. In fact, the boy was but a small greenhorn at the Fifth Degree Body Refining Tier, not even at the Tenth Degree.
"Your fighting spirit was impressive, nameless gnoll," Leonard commended the corpse.
He rubbed the area on his left arm where the staff had hit him. It had fractured several bones, but the bones were already healing. If he had been hit with an axe, it was likely it would have left him critically wounded.
I need to reach a higher Degree. The Fifth Degree Body Refining Tier isn't enough. The frailty of his body wasn't something that could be solved with martial arts. Sure, Leonard had just defeated a monster much stronger than him, but if the Aardgnoll hadn't had a weak point, he wouldn't have been able to defeat it so easily.
He had to reach the Tenth Degree Body Refining Tier.
It was important to avoid catching the attention of other Cardenas, but he couldn't let himself die an untimely death.
I can hide my expanded mana capacity by sealing acupoints or by only interacting with others when I'm almost out of mana. People who don't know much about Breath Circulation won't be able to see through the concealment.
In his old world, martial artists could use Breath Circulation to absorb naturally occurring qi and replenish their energy. But here, martial artists had no other way to restore mana other than to ingest mana stones or wait for it to be replenished. No sane person would go around with an empty mana hall.
Instantly, mana stones appeared on top of the Aardgnoll chieftain's corpse. They weren't low-grade. They were mid-grade.
Leonard's eyes widened. "Mid-grade? I thought it was very rare for D2 monsters to drop them. This Aardgnoll had to have been close to reaching the Third Stage. I knew it was too strong."
This Aardgnoll wasn't suited to be in the Forest of Wastes. Its strength was incomparable to the hobgoblins and kobolds that Leonard had faced. According to Bradley's map, mid-grade mana stones started appearing in areas with a danger rating of two skulls.
"I think a mid-grade mana stone is equivalent to one hundred low-grade mana stones," Leonard muttered. That meant that the Aardgnoll chieftain was equivalent to a hundred weaker monsters, or even more than that.
It was impractical to hunt in the Forest of Wastes and other places yielded better results, which was why this area was unpopular. If Leonard was in a high enough Tier, he would take the risk and hunt in more dangerous areas because it was a lot less time-consuming.
Once I reach the Tenth Degree Body Refining Tier, I should go to the more dangerous areas. But that does mean there'll be a higher chance of encountering other people...
The only reason he could be so carefree in the Forest of Wastes was that no one came here. No one could see what he could do. There weren't even any pages, let alone full-fledged members of the Order of the Fledgling Dragon.
But once an area's danger rating reached two skulls or more, Leonard had to assume that he was being watched at all times.
"I should put on a disguise." Why would he give up when there was a way out?
He'd spent a long time mastering Face Changing Arts and other forms of disguise. He was no Shadowless Phantom Thief or Thousand-Faced Demon, nor could he transform into a completely different person like the head of the Lower Five Sect. However, he had more than enough skill to conceal his outer appearance.
Next, he had to figure out whom he could imitate without attracting suspicion.
"There were a few novices who poked around my cave. I should borrow their appearance."
This spelled an ominous warning for the fourth-year pages.