Lian waited, and when the creature came within range, he took one step forward and punched its chest.
The sound of the impact spread through the forest like a hammer hitting a rock, the monster’s large body was pushed back almost two meters.
But it did not fall, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
The mark from his punch could be seen on the central plate of its chest, a thin crack had appeared on the black surface.
The Ironroot Ravager roared and attacked again.
This time, the young Vorhelm moved past its bone horn with a short movement and punched exactly the same spot.
The crack became larger, but something else also happened.
Faint lines of orange light moved from around the creature’s body toward its chest, the damaged plate became thicker.
"Hmm?"
The monster turned and swung its heavy tail toward Lian.
He moved backward and the attack passed through the air a few centimeters in front of his body, the tail hit the trunk of a tree and broke half of it.
Then his eyes remained on the creature’s chest.
"I understand."
The Ironroot Ravager approached again.
This time, instead of its chest, Lian kicked its front joint, the creature’s body bent slightly, and the lines of light moved toward its leg.
Then his next punch hit its shoulder and the light changed direction, at the same time, he made a feint toward its head.
The creature raised the plates around its neck, but the young Vorhelm did not attack and only moved backward.
True Sequence.
The monster’s mana structure became clear in front of his eyes.
What had first looked like a simple movement of energy now had a clear path.
This creature did not have unlimited mana to strengthen its entire body.
Every time a part of its body came under pressure, mana was gathered from other parts and moved to that exact location.
Its defense increased, but at the same time, another part became weaker.
He attacked several more times on purpose.
Chest.
Leg.
Shoulder.
The monster reacted every time, and every time the young Vorhelm understood more clearly how the mana moved, and finally, his fist moved toward the front part of its chest.
The Ironroot Ravager strengthened all the central plates, its mana was released from the back of its body and gathered right in the lower part of its neck.
"No... you’re still too slow," Lian said mockingly, and his body disappeared.
He moved past the monster’s head, his foot landed on one of the large roots beside its body, and he used it to push himself upward.
His fist came down, right on the point where the mana had moved out of a moment ago.
Crack!
A large crack spread from the back of its neck down to its artificial spine.
The Ironroot Ravager’s legs bent, and its four-meter body fell heavily to the ground, sending some of the soil around it into the air.
[Simulated Monster defeated.]
[Points increased.]
The Ironroot Ravager’s body began to collapse and turned into thousands of pieces of light.
He gave it a short look and continued on his way.
He had already seen something in the northern part of the island from the height of the ruins, and after about ten minutes of moving, he reached it.
A bridge.
Or something that had once been a bridge.
Two huge stone chains stretched from the edge of the island toward another island in the distance, and large pieces of stone were placed on them.
But the middle part of the bridge was completely destroyed.
Lian walked to the edge.
The next island was about 150 meters away.
Below them, there was nothing except a sea of black clouds, and lightning sometimes lit up the depths of the clouds, with the weak sound of thunder reaching his ears a few seconds later.
The wind was much stronger in this area, beside the bridge, there was a short stone pillar, and three circular slots were carved into its surface.
He only needed one look to understand what belonged in them.
He took the Broken Crown Token out of his storage space, its size was exactly the same, and now he understood where this thing was used.
But he was still curious to know what it was supposed to do.
He placed it into the first slot.
Click.
The token locked into the stone, and silver lines on the pillar lit up, with light moving from it toward the bridge.
Part of the large gap began to rebuild.
New stones appeared in the air one after another and covered almost one-third of the empty distance.
Then everything stopped.
[Passage Activation: 1/3.]
Lian looked at the two remaining empty slots, so there were probably two more Sub-Tests somewhere on the island.
If he found them, he could complete the bridge and safely move to the next island.
It was logical and safe, and it was probably what most participants would do.
But he looked at the forest behind him for a few seconds, if each test took fifteen to twenty minutes, he might spend almost an hour just finding the other two tokens.
Then his eyes returned to the gap, with about one hundred meters still remaining.
"Should I find two more?"
"No."
He left the first token there, then stepped back a few steps from the edge.
Lian took a calm breath and lowered his body slightly.
[Thunder Step]
Blue lightning wrapped around his legs for a moment.
First step.
The ground under his foot cracked.
Second step.
A short explosion sounded in the air.
Third step.
He left the edge of the island, the stone under his last step shattered, and his body was thrown toward the sky like a bullet.
The wind hit his face with great force, for a few seconds, there was no ground, tree, or wall around him.
Only the gray sky, the next island in front of him, and the sea of black clouds hundreds of meters below his feet.
To some extent, it was a beautiful and amazing scene.
Then lightning flashed below him, Lian calculated his path, he had enough speed.
But right at that moment, a panel appeared in front of his eyes.
[Unauthorized crossing method detected.]
"Excuse me??"
[Method accepted.]
[Adaptive response created.]
"What—"
The black clouds below his feet exploded, and suddenly, a huge creature came out from them.
Two gray wings with a wingspan of nearly fifteen meters opened in the air and disturbed the wind around Lian.
The creature’s body looked like a combination of a bird of prey and a reptile, it had a long neck, black claws, and a beak full of thin teeth.
Its red eyes locked directly onto the young Vorhelm.
The creature flapped its wings once and charged directly toward him while he was still dozens of meters away from the nearest surface.
[Simulated Monster.]
[Fallen Sky Predator.]
[Rank: Fallen.]
[Level: 23.]
Lian looked at the notification for a few moments, then at the huge creature coming toward him at high speed.
There was nothing under his feet, and dozens of meters of empty space were behind him.
The island in front of him was atleast 50 meters away.
"Really?" He let out a short sigh.
———
( Scene’s Visualization )
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