Chapter 240: Black Rhino
[Black Rhino]
[Power: 7 Stars (Black)]
[Strength: 8 Stars (Black); Speed: 5 Stars (Black); Agility: 4 Stars (Black); Coordination: 7 Stars (Black); Stamina: 8 Stars (Black); Reactions: 6 Stars (Black); Defense: Quasi 9 Star (Black); Spirit: 1 Stars (Black); Force: 1 Stars (Black)]
[Power Scale Accuracy: 97%]
Leonel's gaze flashed. Even with a beast standing at three meters tall before him, he hardly react.
"[Mud Pit]."
Leonel stretched out a hand. The land quaked and shook as the black rhino charged over. In the blink of an eye, it had already entered a 100 meter radius.
Just when it was about to press its front feet down, it suddenly felt its footing disappear. Instead of hitting solid ground, it sank into a quagmire, causing its body to flip forward.
"[Harden]."
Just as the rhino's body was about to flip out of the mud pit entirely, the pit hardened. The sudden change caused the rhino, who was in the process of rolling off, to come to a sudden stop.
At that moment, the sickening sound of shattering bones rang out, only to be completely overshadowed by the pained roar of the black rhino.
The black rhino heavily landed on its back, its front legs snapped in two. In fact, a portion of its legs were still stuck in the hardened mud pit.
However, Leonel hardly reacted, a familiar swirl of wind had already surged around his body once again.
A strong Earth Element swirled in the air above the rhino, quickly coalescing into a bronze, angled blade that radiated a beautiful light.
"[Heavy Guillotine]."
SHUUUU!
The blade descended into the rhino's open mouth. It was too busy roaring in pain to even sense the danger.
An instant later, its mouth was pierced through to the back of its skull, leaving it impaled into the ground.
By this point, Leonel's teammates were looking at his back as though he was some kind of monster. This wasn't the first Demon Leonel had taken down. In fact, it wasn't even the tenth. Yet, every time they saw him do it, they would feel just as shocked as the first time.
That beast was at least as powerful as a One Star Magus. Wasn't Leonel just an Official Mage? They should have been working together to take it down, so what the hell was happening?
'Hm, this power scaling system is alright. But, still not perfect. It's too broad now… It needs some tweaks…'
Leonel calmly analyzed.
'That battle was at most 72% efficient. It would have been much easier to finish that battle had I taken a different approach.
'If I had used [Gravity Warp] just after the rhino flipped due to [Mud Pit], I could have used [Earthen Spike] to impale it beneath its own weight… [Earthen Spike] is only a Two Star Official Art, it would take much less to cast than the One Star Magus Art [Heavy Guillotine], even if I have to take into account the Three Star Official Art [Gravity Warp]…'
Leonel wasn't really worried about his stamina usage. Even compared to true Three Star Magi, his stamina was far beyond what they could imagine. After all, he technically had the reserves of a Fifth Dimensional mage. The only shame was that he had to use more of his spirit to form Magic Arts since he hadn't crystallized his Spirit Pressure as thoroughly as the true elites of this world.
But, even then, his starting point was still so much higher that it hardly mattered.
Leonel was seriously refining his Dreamscape bit by bit. He wanted to reach a point where he could understand the best way to defeat an enemy the moment he laid eyes on it. Unfortunately, it was clear that he was still very far from this result.
72% efficiency might sound impressive, but Leonel knew that this was pitifully low. For one, the more efficiency he wanted to eek out, the more difficult it would be. But, this wasn't even the biggest point…
The truth was that the rhino was much weaker than Leonel. Not only was it much weaker, but it was much less intelligent than Leonel. The petty tricks Leonel used might work on it, but on a True Demon or another Magus, it would be nothing more than parlor tricks.
Leonel believed that had the black rhino been just any other One Star Magus, Leonel would at best be able to wring out a measely 30-40% efficiency, 50% if he was lucky and could counter his enemy's ability. It would be even worse the closer to his strength the enemy was.
Suddenly thinking of this, another light bulb went off in Leonel's mind as a branching arc of lightning surged through his Dream World.
'Counters… It might not be possible to perfectly counter every enemy I come across… An Earth Mage would be the bane of a Wind Mage, but might not necessarily do well against others… Hm…'
Leonel thought that there was merit to this idea. However, he didn't have a perfect way to act on it currently. Though he could technically cast all Elemental spells thanks to his talent, he knew that this wasn't a viable solution.
The power system of Camelot would only be useful to him in the Third Dimension. It would lose its use the moment he crossed into the Fourth. So, that solution would only be short lived. He needed to think of something better.
"Leonel, you're a monster. Do you know that?" Theybul suddenly spoke in a somewhat exasperated tone.
They all thought after the first beast Leonel took down that he would soon realize he couldn't expend his stamina so wildly. But, the current Leonel looked like he was still on his first battle. It was too ridiculous.
Originally, they had been accepting of Leonel joining this expedition for two reasons. Firstly, Lionus recommended him. And, secondly, they heard rumors that he had battled a Knight of the Round Table and came out alive.
In their minds, even if Leonel's magic wasn't up to standard, he could make up for it in other ways. But, they had never expected for him to be such a monster even when only using Magic Arts.
"Uh —." Leonel didn't know how to respond to this.
Lionus and the others chuckled seeing his response. They had expected the atmosphere to become heavy after entering these lands, but Leonel's prowess took a burden off their hearts.
It wasn't that they couldn't defeat the beasts Leonel could as well. They all knew that these 'Demons' were easy pickings. The True Demons were far more powerful and were humanoids. But, Leonel let them all save up their stamina and remain in peak condition. This was more than they could ever hope for.
"It seems like we've arrived at our destination."
Lionus said in a somewhat surprised tone. He had expected it to take about a week, but this was only the third day.
He sent another deep look toward Leonel's back. He had realized that Leonel sometimes swerved their formation in certain directions, but he didn't think much of it. But, it seemed that Leonel was avoiding danger for them at the same time as taking the vanguard.
'A monster indeed…'
Up ahead, a small, makeshift fort stood. The gates were made of black wood and stood about three meters tall. Peaking over the wooden walls one could see several tall tents from the distance.
Several patrol units stood between them and the small fort. They had already passed through several lookout checkpoints, so the Commander of this fort should already be prepared for their arrival.
As expected, before they could even approach, the gates opened and a small troop of knights riding war horses galloped forward.
Leonel winced. 'Damn horses again…'
As Leonel was remembering his past trauma, he didn't notice that Lionus had begun to frown behind him.
'Something's wrong…'