Chapter 599: Forest Manticore

Since Heaven’s Voice had already informed Leo about the increase in the difficulty of the challenges and adding to the fact there is only a single opponent, Leo knew that he had to be very careful.

Therefore, as soon as he heard about the challenge, Leo became alert and kept an eye on his surroundings.

‘Swiish’

As he expected, a scorpion tail with its stinger aiming at Leo’s heart came from behind.

dαn?νel ‘Damn it…there is not enough time to dodge it.’

Leo was always proud of his reaction speed and that’s how he was able to avoid most of the sneak attacks in the past.

However, this time, the stinger that was coming at him was very fast and there was hardly any time for him to dodge it.

‘Puchi…argh.’

Since Leo was unable to dodge it, he decided to get pierced by it; however, instead of a heart, he let his left shoulder get pierced by the scorpion stinger.

‘At least I am alive.’

If that stinger pierced through his heart, Leo would have died and been sent out of God Tower. Therefore, Leo heaved a sigh of relief to be alive.

‘Swiish’

“How dare a human with only legendary cultivation enter God Tower? Are you tired of living or what?”

The scorpion stinger was pulled out of Leo’s shoulder as Leo heard a rough voice from beside him.

Currently, Leo was in the forest with a large gap between the trees and the chances of sneak attacks were very high which is also another reason why Leo was able to guess about it.

As Leo looked in the direction of the voice, he saw a being that had a human head, a lion’s body and a scorpion’s tail.

“A manticore?”

It was not Leo’s first time seeing a manticore as he had some history with manticores in the past.

“Not just manticore but a forest manticore.”

After correcting Leo, it ran towards Leo and at the same time, it used its scorpion stinger to attack Leo.

‘Swoosh’

‘Swoosh’

Unlike before, Leo was able to dodge the attacks from the scorpion stinger; however, when the forest manticore came close to him, it used its lion claws to attack.

[Starlight Steps]

Thanks to his past history with the manticores, Leo knew their attack pattern a little too well. Hence, he was able to dodge the lion’s claws in time.

“You are good at dodging. Let’s see how long you can last…haha.”

The forest manticore was surprised to see how easily Leo was dodging his attacks. Nevertheless, in its eyes, a level 7 legend-grade human was not his opponent.

So, he continued to toy with Leo as he wanted to play with him for a while before killing him.

‘System, can you check its strength?’

On the other hand, Leo asked the system to show him the forest manticore’s strength.

‘Ding,

The system is unable to analyze its strength.

‘From its earlier words, this forest manticore must be a mythical grade being. I need to be careful.’

Leo had already expected that the system would fail to analyze the forest manticore’s strength; however, he had the observation skills to guess his opponent’s strength.

Leo had not killed any Mythical Grade Beings until now and knew that it would be very difficult to clear this floor.

Nevertheless, Leo was not the type to give up just like that as he still had confidence that he could kill an enemy that was one grade higher than him.

‘I have done it in the past and I can do it now. So, let’s hope for the better.’

Leo motivated himself and he started planning on how to take care of the forest manticore.

‘Should I get some information from him before using my trump cards?’

Of course, with his current talents and cultivation, Leo won’t be able to kill a Mythical Grade being.

What’s more, Leo believes that the forest manticore is also an ascended being which makes it more dangerous than a regular mythical grade being.

So, Leo had to use his trump cards to see some hope in clearing the fifth floor and at the same time, he wanted to fool the forest manticore that he was only good at dodging and had no trump cards to use against it.

Nevertheless, Leo also wanted to use this opportunity to get some information from the forest manticore.

‘I got some information from the devil serpent that is on the third floor. Since the forest manticore is on the fifth floor, I believe it must have some good information for me.’

With that thought in mind, Leo played along with the forest manticore and asked, “Just how powerful are you? And even with that strength, you are only on the fifth floor of God Tower which has 100 floors? I wonder how powerful the opponent on the 100th floor is?”

Leo just asked some questions, hoping that the forest manticore blabber some information in reply.

“So, you want answers?”

Compared to what believed, the forest manticore in front of him was much more intelligent than he thought as he already figured out one of Leo’s intentions.

“Sure, I will answer them as long as you land a hit on me.”

As soon as the forest manticore finished its words, its speed increased as the lion claws and the scorpion stinger attacked him simultaneously, making Leo hardly stay focused.

‘At this rate, I am going to die. I should just use them now.’

Leo gave up on the answers; instead, he focused more on striking back while dodging the forest manticore’s attacks.

‘Let’s go with the re-usable trump cards and go for the direct kill.’

Even though the forest manticore was much more intelligent than the manticore he fought in the past, Leo was happy about one thing and it was that he had successfully fooled it.

From its earlier words, it was very clear that it would answer him if Leo successfully lands an attack on him showing how arrogant and confident the forest manticore was in its strength.

Therefore, Leo wanted to use it to kill it in a single attack before it could put its guard on.