The sight of a Rank A3 monster attempting to speak took Leonard by surprise, his eyes widening. However, he quickly regained his composure and put on an indifferent expression.
"So, you can speak a human language. Are you trying to beg for your life?"
The manticore didn't answer directly. Instead, it looked off into the distance and then said in a leisurely tone, "If, we, fight, now, I, will, die, by, your, hand."
"Of course."
"B-but, I, won't, go, down, easily. If, this, drags, on, that, one, will, come."
"That one?"
Leonard's eyebrows twitched. This was not something he could dismiss lightly. The voice of the Rank A3 manticore carried a trace of fear even though the manticore was at the True Demon Tier.
"Far, stronger, than, any, of, these, others, you've, faced."
Among the shadow knights who had infiltrated the Galapagos Island, only one matched such a description. It was the Swordmaster who had reached the Transcendence Tier, the Fifth Shadow. While Leonard couldn't fully trust the manticore, a monster's senses were several times, if not dozens of times, more acute than a human's. For Rank A monsters, it wouldn't be surprising if they sensed a Swordmaster's power from several kilometers away.
If I keep fighting this manticore and then face the Swordmaster, my chance of survival will be smaller than a needle's eye.
Leonard wondered if it was true or false. If the manticore's words were true, he needed to avoid the fight; if false, he could simply kill the creature for lying to him. The former would guarantee his death if he ignored it, whereas the latter wasn't something he needed to do.
Leonard's mind raced with possibilities.
Just then, the manticore said, "If, you, want, to, fight, go, ahead. Come, at, me, whenever."
The manticore's eyes turned crimson, and a tremendous power surged from its battered body. Though not fatally wounded, it had been seriously wounded in a few places and was in no shape to emit such formidable energy. It was clear that the manticore wasn't an opponent that could be easily subdued.
A faint hum filled the air as the black and white dual swords gleamed brightly. Leonard, ready to strike at any moment, stared at the creature with killing intent.
"..."
"..."
The standoff between the man and the monster continued for several minutes until both simultaneously lowered their guards. The manticore's sharp senses detected Leonard's diminishing bloodlust.
"Thank your tongue for your life. It's what saved you."
Leonard sheathed both swords and extended his hand. Using qi and mental power, he retrieved the distant blades that had been embedded in the ground during his initial ambush, making them fly into his hand. He was using Item Manipulation.
Leonard stored the swords in his subspace pouch and glared at the creature with disdain.
"Next time, I'll kill you."
"Sure, guff, guff."
Resisting the urge to spit at the manticore's sneering face, Leonard turned and began to walk away. One step, two steps, three steps.
As his figure grew smaller, the manticore watched with a twisted smile. Then, it opened its mouth, releasing an ability undetectable even by mana senses.
"Groarrrrr!!"
The True Demon Tier manticore's full-force roar exploded behind Leonard. The sonic attack reached him in the blink of an eye. Leonard froze. He reflexively gripped his sword hilt as the manticore approached.
This had been its plan. Without the Petrifying Wave and unable to rely on its venomous stingers, a lethal surprise attack was necessary to overcome a nearly invincible opponent.
"Stupid, human. To, forget, my, roar."
The manticore approached confidently, preparing to crush Leonard's skull like it had the Twelfth Shadow's. Its tail rose high, its stinger covered in venom.
Just one strike would end it. The tail accelerated like a whip and instantly broke the sound barrier. Even with an energy shield, it would be impossible to fully absorb the impact from the strike.
"Die."
As the manticore declared Leonard's death, the stinger descended toward his crown. Leonard had been waiting for this moment.
Five Elements Style
Black Tortoise Ninth Form: Great Moon Anti-Yin Mirror
A black lightning bolt erupted from Leonard's waist, drawing a circular trajectory like a full moon. It twisted the manticore's tail in a strange direction, distorted the opponent's attack, and created an opening. This move was befitting of being one of the 36 Black Tortoise Defensive Forms.
Five Elements Style
White Tiger Sixteenth Form: Sky-Breaking Demon Quell
From the opposite side, a white sword energy soared upward. It was a skill that broke the sky and brought demons to their knees. The power of the sword energy soaring from the bottom to the top was terrifying, as evidenced by its grandiose name.
The sword energy was powerful enough to be one of the top three within the White Tiger Forms. The sheer destructiveness was undeniable, but it was irreversible once used and came with the risk of leaving the user defenseless.
Crunch!
Half of the manticore's face shattered, brain and blood splattering everywhere. It had barely dodged enough to avoid instant death, though it was still critically injured.
Screaming in pain, it leaped back and shouted, "H-How! I, hit, you, with, my, roar!"
"If you're prepared, the roar is not impossible to block. I've faced sonic attacks plenty of times before," Leonard said with a calm and collected demeanor.
The manticore's roar was undeniably powerful, but it functioned similarly to sound arts, which meant there were ways to counter it. The terror of a sonic attack was in its nature as a vibration. Normal energy shields might block it partially, but the remaining vibrations could still shake the body internally, causing internal injuries or disrupting the sense of balance.
Leonard recalled an incident from his youth as Yeon Mu-Hyuk when he had faced a sound arts expert and had to retreat after sustaining severe injuries.
Yeon Mu-Hyuk had spent weeks reflecting on that defeat and had eventually developed a method to counter sound arts.
To block a vibrating force, you need to use vibrational force.
By vibrating the protective qi enveloping the body, he could cancel out the vibrations the enemy created. Even if not entirely successful, the disrupted wave patterns would nullify the sonic attack's effectiveness. The manticore's roar had never been a threat to him.
"Did, you, know, I, would, attack?" the manticore asked, realizing the truth from Leonard's composure.
"You have to practice a lot to be able to lie properly. Do you think a mere beast could easily deceive me?" Leonard's reply was nonchalant.
Compared to those bastards of the Black Path, this manticore's trickery is almost cute.
The forces Leonard had most frequently and intensely clashed with were those from the Black Path. Not aligning with either the orthodox or unorthodox sects, they pursued only profit and operated outside laws and ethics to fulfill their corrupt desires. They were a mass of human filth, ready to sell their own family or betray others. Leonard had lived through countless battles, cleansing their blood with blood. There was no way he could be fooled by a monster that hadn't even wiped the killing intent from its eyes.
"I might have spared you if you hadn't attacked, but now, I don't see the need. You understand, right?"
As Leonard drew his twin swords, the manticore let out a long sigh. "I, have, dug, my, own, grave."
The ancient proverb "The mouth is the door to disaster, the tongue is the knife that cuts the body" came to Leonard's mind as he began to muster his energy in earnest.
Five Elements Style, Two Swords Style
White Tiger First Form: Mountain Crusher
Charging with both swords glowing white, Leonard rushed forward.
The manticore countered with the remaining venomous stingers on its tail, but with one eye missing, its aim and sense of distance were off. Leonard pierced through the unstable barrage and crossed his swords.
Crunch!
One of the manticore's front legs was crushed. Blood sprayed as the manticore rolled on the ground. It had sacrificed its leg to save its neck.
However, Leonard had no intention of stopping there.
Five Elements Style, Three Swords Style
White Tiger Extra Form: Three-Edged Tiger's Flight
He threw the two swords he held straight ahead and drew another from his waist, hurling it as well. Imbued with White Tiger Qi, the three white blades simultaneously pierced the manticore, tearing it apart. One sword struck the lungs, another the heart, and the final one the remaining half of its head.
"Phew."
Having used nearly half of his internal energy, Leonard wiped the sweat from his forehead and caught his breath. He had exerted himself by improvising this technique. Compounding several elements was beneficial, but continuously stacking a single element to amplify power also seemed viable. Leonard organized this principle in his head as he retrieved his three swords.
Crunch.
The manticore's skull, shattered by the White Tiger Form, crumbled into pieces. The manticore had been a formidable opponent. If Leonard hadn't anticipated its betrayal and delivered a fatal blow at the critical moment, the fight could have lasted several more minutes, if not longer, with intense bloodshed. Despite the manticore having used the Petrification Wave and a significant amount of magical energy to deal with the shadow knights, his victory had been anything but simple.
Shimmer!
Five brilliantly shining high-grade mana stones crystallized. Although the quantity of mana stones didn't always correlate with a monster's power, this manticore yielded five times the amount a second-stage manticore would have yielded. There was a reason it was comparable to the Tenth Degree External Force Tier.
If Leonard had been the one losing and was hit by the manticore, it would have been difficult for him to survive.
"Well, I guess that's it for today."
Leonard had defeated five shadow knights and practiced dual and triple sword styles in the fight with the manticore, so his achievements for the day seemed almost unbelievable.
Leonard reached for the high-grade mana stones. Collecting just a bit more would allow him to break through to the Fourth Degree External Force Tier. Even with ninety years of internal energy, managing dual and triple sword styles was challenging. Feeling the need to increase his internal energy, Leonard contemplated his future growth plan.
Shimmer!
The signaling device around his neck blinked once. For some reason, Leonard felt the scythe of death brushing past his spine.
No way!
Moving faster than he could think, he yanked off the signaling device and hurled it over the cliff and then ran in the opposite direction. One second seemed to stretch infinitely, with death's approach growing clearer.
Leonard vanished from the battlefield littered with corpses. Mere seconds later, a shadow descended from the high sky. Despite falling hundreds of meters, the figure landed softly without stirring any dust.
It was a shadow knight. Underneath tousled brown hair, bloodshot eyes scanned the battlefield, observing the scattered corpses.
"I was too late. If I had hurried, I could have saved you all without ruining our grand plan."
The Fifth Shadow, the Swordmaster who had infiltrated the Galapagos Island, looked down at his fallen subordinates with red-tinged eyes.
There was a corpse with its head crushed by the manticore's tail; a body burnt to a crisp by cursed fire; and a corpse impaled through the abdomen, its heart crushed.
"These wounds... they weren't inflicted by the manticore."
The cuts on the decapitated bodies were too clean, clearly the work of a blade. The Swordmaster recognized this immediately.
"Is it the demons of the Cardenas family?"
These weren't techniques from the Kurdish Kingdom's swordsmanship but something developed to counter non-human opponents. The Fifth Shadow turned to the manticore's corpse. More precisely, he observed the steam rising from it. The blood was still warm. It had been alive only minutes ago.
"They sensed my approach and fled. I must kill them."
The Swordmaster's aura spread for kilometers, a testament to his Transcendence Tier power. Sensing the response from the signaling device that had activated, he took off again, broke the sound barrier in one step, and swiftly left the corpse-ridden battlefield.