A man was doing a complicated and sophisticated set of movements, with each of them straining his muscles. He had been doing such exercises for around three hundred lays now.
His physical improvement was slowly coming to a halt, especially today. He felt as if he had reached the peak muscle strength he could obtain without sacrifice.
He sighed in disappointment before walking towards a tower of dead bodies. The tower was holding a single, skinless, and bloodless body as if it were holding a sculpture.
Elias took out the body and held it in his arms. The body did not have any skin or blood, looking like a sculpture to study Chinen's muscles rather than a corpse; It even had its fat removed.
Elias started moving it in a set of movements which would cover his offence, defence, speed, and nimbleness with the help of the skinless body. He wanted to have movements that would grant him the maximum strength, as they would use most of his muscles.
Movements which could completely utilize each muscle to the fullest and have multiple muscles to strengthen him.
Interestingly, the wounds he had to absorb the river water — which he did time while taking breaks — did not weaken him; rather, they acted as if they were not present.
Elias believed that once he made and learns a good combat style he would be able to fight the horror on the peak.
That was because he sincerely believed that the horror was a grade two beast or a grade two Requim beast, capable of using mystical powers itself.
Elias remembered what he read on the black cube about mystic powers as he continued practising sophisticated movements.
There are mundane beasts or normal beasts like sheep, goats, and Chinen. All beasts can evolve into Requim beasts.
Combat warriors are grade one Requim beasts, while priests are grade two or higher. Elias's strength was merely that of a combat warrior, while he himself did not have the power of the lights.
Even if he was at the peak of combat warrior strength, it was nowhere near the raw strength of a priest.
Even dreaming of killing a grade 2 Requim was hard for him; however, to survive he would have to pull off the impossible
…
A few days later… or hundreds of lays later
A young man was climbing a mountain of corpses as his purple hair swayed in the strong wind. His hair was roughly cut, reaching his back. If he had not routinely bitten them off and used his teeth to keep them in check, his hair would have gotten as long as the mountain. Well, at least that was what Elias thought.
As he climbed the mountain, he felt the murderous pressure on him increase — he felt weaker and more exhausted the closer he got to the peak. His olive skin glistened with sweat as he persevered.
He did not let the pressure weaken him; he could not let the pressure weaken him. He wanted to survive, but moreover he wanted to win.
He could see the top of the mountain now; his eyes shone as he thought.
What should I call my fighting style?
I make use of every muscle… so white muscle? White corpse?
His rough hand was now at the peak as he used his hands to raise his head to peek at the top.
His eyes widened as adrenaline hit his veins — if not for that, he would have fallen from the mountain in surprise.
***
[It is a lesser replica of Yugo D'oro]
The voice spoke with utter confidence — well, it always spoke in that manner, but the voice seemed to be much more… proud? while giving no proper answer to her question.
Why is the gravity of that creature not affecting us?
The golden ape stared at the blond haired girl as a drop of blood dripped from its nostrils; Flieday immediately understood what was happening and asked:
"Is it tamed to you?"
[It will listen to you]
As soon as she heard the voice in her head, she dashed towards the ape sitting on its back. She held tightly onto its golden fur as she commanded it to run.
It must have the ability to render other abilities useless around it… Whatever the voice is it is extremely strong and has deep foundations, not only it had raised a grade two beast capable of enduring a grade three attacks, the voice gave me this mystical clothing
As they were rushing out of the creature's gravitational radius — which was fully focused on the bedrock tree, Flieday felt amazed by her covering.
It was clinging to her body without any vines keeping it in place. It was truly magical - not only that; the covering was really comfortable and supported her. Especially the feet covering.
As comforting as it was… She felt nothing but hollow. She did not feel any happiness at such covering, nor did she feel shock. The type of hollowness in which nothing seems to have any purpose, as if the world had stopped caring about you.
Did the world ever care about us? …What should I do next?
She felt a deep sense of unease. Her heart was heavy and her expression was grim. She had to kill another Chinen, but she did not feel particularly moved by such a predicament.
It is common knowledge that a Chinen's life is extremely precious. Even in tribal wars, the casualties are kept as low as possible. After all, all Chinen lives are co-dependent on each other.
Even more so the voice had asked for her to take out a Chinen's heart and place it on the bedrock tree. But she herself did not feel anything wrong with this — this made her uneasy. Had she lost herself on the way to survival?
Now that I think about it, killing a Chinen makes no difference in the grand scheme of things
The golden ape snorted as it signaled that it sensed movement. Flieday too could hear faint sounds of a group running before, but she had dismissed it as a Head eyed deer.
But now she could hear faint slithering and the sound of birds chirping.
Why was she not feeling scared? Why was she not feeling anticipation?
Even when she saw a wall of faint figures dashing towards her, she felt nothing but peace.
Even when the horde of beasts was rushing straight towards her, she was apathetic to it.