Cities inhabited by commoners dreaded encountering a Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast most of all. No matter how thick their walls were, they could not withstand his charges.
This creature's destructive power defied imagination, and his thick scales could not even be pierced. He was simply a nightmare of a beast for ordinary life forms.
"Thank goodness, thank goodness. It's a defensive level-one beast, not one of those speed or attack types." Compared to other kinds of level-one beasts, a Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast was already relatively easy to handle. After all, even if you could not beat him, you could still escape. He was the best possible subject for testing combat strength.
Mana circulated through Leo's body, and the fourfold Gravity Rune Array, High-Temperature Rune Array, and Electric Shock Rune Array on him all stopped.
The shadow beneath his feet twisted and seethed, as though it sealed a demon eager to break out of its cage, ready to burst out and tear any living thing apart.
Facing a level-one combat beast, Leo dared not be overconfident. He instantly unleashed his full combat strength.
His aura surged, and tremendous strength filled his entire body.
His heart thundered, his blood raced, and the muscles throughout his body instantly swelled.
His veins bulged, and every inch of Leo's skin radiated violence...
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's enormous eyes visibly froze. How had the two-legged beast he could have casually killed just now suddenly become stronger?
"Hah!"
His lips parted slightly, and he stomped down, crushing two footprints several inches deep into the ground.
Wind suddenly whistled. Leo appeared on the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's back in an instant, his heavy sword flashing with afterimages as he slashed hard at the beast's neck.
Bang!
The strike landed without the slightest surprise, breaking through five layers of scales in succession. A full third of the heavy sword sank in, and crimson blood emerged.
"Roar!"
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast flew into a rage. This hateful two-legged beast had injured him.
An explosive crack sounded beside Leo's ears as the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's tail lashed toward him.
The tip of the ten-meter-long tail was shaped like a conical blade. Leo had personally watched the beast casually swing his tail as he walked, slicing great swaths of rock off the mountainside with barely more difficulty than shaving.
Alarm bells rang. This strike from the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast covered his entire back, giving Leo no chance to escape.
He pulled out his sword, leaped forward, and instantly plunged into his own shadow.
"Shadow Jump!"
The tail ripped through the sound barrier and swept past Leo's afterimage. The wind it dragged along instantly shredded a row of large trees ten meters away.
The aftermath of that attack alone had an attack power exceeding 400 points. As expected of a level-one beast, the elevation of his very essence of life had made him stronger by a whole margin.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast searched everywhere with bloodshot eyes for the hateful two-legged beast who had injured him. Once he found him, he would tear him apart and eat him piece by piece.
But as the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast circled around searching for Leo, he failed to notice a head already emerging from the shadow by his hind leg.
Leo looked up at the excretory opening above his head and chuckled.
This Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's defense exceeded his expectations. He could practically ignore all attacks below 400 points. If Leo had not had a weapon in hand, with his own attack power also exceeding 400 points, he would not even have been able to break through its defense.
What surprised Leo even more was that his strike had landed without even touching bone. For a Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast ten meters tall, a one-meter wound counted as a minor injury at most.
Leo was only a Wizard Apprentice, yet he could already more or less ignore minor injuries, let alone a level-one Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast renowned for its defense. A minor injury might heal before the beast even noticed it.
From that single attack, Leo had already determined that his attacks could not seriously injure the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast, while one hit from the beast would leave him seriously injured, if not dead.
So Leo aimed at the vulnerable weak point of almost every animal—the chrysanthemum!
He took aim.
He mustered every ounce of strength...
"Awooo!"
What an agonized cry. The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast might never have imagined he could one day jump ten meters high. Sure enough, every fatty had limitless potential, human or beast...
Leo plunged almost the entire three-meter heavy sword inside. Nor did he stop there. Gritting his teeth, he mustered all his strength and gave it a savage twist, cutting away a large chunk of bloody, yellowish flesh along with the intestines.
Blood gushed out by the ton.
Had Leo not escaped quickly with Shadow Jump, the blood would have given his entire body a free bath.
"Roar!"
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast was utterly enraged. Never in his life had he suffered such a serious injury. Pain drove his eyes bloodshot, and the scales all over his body flared open, constantly making terrifying swishing sounds.
His aura soared, and terrifying pressure descended. The aura of a level-one life form instantly weighed down on Leo. He knew the battle had only now truly begun.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast furiously opened his bloody maw, and energy gathered.
His body suddenly swelled as vast quantities of air were siphoned in.
Mana enveloped it and compressed it to the extreme. Enormous quantities of air were compressed, compressed without cease.
Looking into the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's mouth, one could clearly see a mass of wind taking shape, compressed to its utmost limit...
The next moment,
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast indiscriminately blasted everything around him with his enormous mouth.
It was like a tornado laid on its side and driven forward. Everything within thirty meters of the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast was flattened.
Boulders were shredded into small fragments by the endlessly dense storm, and those fragments were instantly pulverized.
Within thirty meters, giant trees, no matter how many years they had grown, were smashed apart at the waist and ground to powder.
The enraged Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast went berserk, wildly attacking everything and even ripping up the ground.
The nearby mountainside was torn apart by the storm, sending rocks flying everywhere. By the time the storm passed, more than three feet had been stripped from the rock face.
Leo stood behind a boulder a hundred meters away and cautiously peered out. Retreating far away after one strike had indeed been right. Against a berserk level-one Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast, keeping well away was the wisest choice.
The entire battlefield had been razed flat, then drenched in the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's blood. Now, after his frenzied outburst, the beast's aura began to plummet.
After suffering serious injuries and then unleashing a storm without restraint, it would have been strange if his aura had held steady!
Unable to find Leo or smell the energy crystal, the gravely injured Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast turned to flee. His survival instincts told him which choices to make at which times to stay alive.
"Run? Let's see where you can run."
"Shadow Jump!"
Leo instantly vanished into the shadow behind the boulder.
When Leo poked his head out of the shadows again, he saw a thick leg directly in front of him, with an enormous wound still gushing blood above it.
His heavy sword swung, instantly ripping through hide thicker than a tank and slicing cleanly through.
"Awooo!"
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast stumbled. His hind leg failed to support him, and he instantly collapsed to the ground.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast tried to stand, only to find that one hind leg could not rise. It dragged limply along the ground, an upturned wound at its heel exposing two thick severed ends of a tendon.
Leo had severed the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's leg tendon with one slash!
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast went berserk again. He could sense that hateful two-legged beast nearby, waiting for him to expose a weakness so he could dismember him. He had an ominous premonition of approaching death!
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast slowly crawled away on three limbs. To survive, he could no longer remain here.
Having retreated far away after one strike, Leo hid in the shadows behind a large tree and carefully observed the slowly crawling Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast.
As expected of a level-one beast renowned for defense, the bleeding from that terrible wound in his rear had begun to slow. His forcibly clenched muscles pinched every blood vessel shut. Given a little more time, even such serious injuries could slowly heal.
The Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's aura had now weakened to less than half its peak, but he was still some way from death.
Leo lacked the ability to kill him in one blow. Like a hunting hyena, he could only keep looking for opportunities to attack his weak points and wear him down little by little.
"Awooo!"
As the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast crawled past the mountainside previously ravaged by his storm, the rubble tugged at his wounds, making him howl in pain. His enormous body swayed somewhat from the pain, and a sudden shudder tore open the wound that had almost stopped bleeding. Great streams of blood spurted out.
An opening.
"Shadow Jump!"
Leo instantly appeared beside the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's other hind leg and slashed at the tendon in that second leg.
Once the second tendon was severed, the immobilized Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast would have absolutely no chance of escape.
Carrying Leo's tremendous strength, the heavy sword's attack power instantly exceeded 450 points. Such an attack already approached ten times the strength attribute, the peak level of a Wizard Apprentice.
Leo's own attack power had only just exceeded 400 points. The remaining 50 points came from his weapon's enhancement.
If this heavy sword could be quantified numerically, it would undoubtedly have-attack power +50.
The heavy sword tore through the thick hide. Muscles harder than steel forced Leo to exert his full strength. As a faint snapping sensation traveled through the sword in his hand, delight filled him. The tendon had snapped!
But just as the joy of success showed on Leo's face, he failed to see the terrifying killing intent flashing in the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's eyes. Where was the pained expression from his tugged wounds now?
Boom!
The instant Leo's heavy sword struck the hind leg, a sonic boom had already exploded beside his ears. From the corner of his eye, he saw only a black blur flash past.
Like a venomous snake that had lain in wait for a long time for a single lethal strike, it bared its fangs the moment Leo relaxed after his successful attack.
It was too late.
At the critical instant, he could only follow through with his momentum and bring the heavy sword in his hand in front of him.
Boom!
It was as though a cannon shell had exploded in his hands. The heavy sword he had hastily raised in defense was instantly slammed into his chest. An unimaginable force struck him. Crack, crack, crack-in an instant, an unknown number of ribs broke.
Without any mental preparation, he was sent flying.
He plowed straight onward, smashing countless branches and slender trunks. In an instant, Leo's own body carved a bloody passage through the woods.
"Roar!"
With the tendons in both hind legs severed, the Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast's enormous body crashed to the ground. That furious blow seemed to have exhausted all the strength he had accumulated, and he lay there panting heavily.