V1. C8. The Sky Lion

Hearing the vicious roar that obviously came from the Sky Lion, Neon knew there was no running away. The Sky Lion's ability, or any beasts ability to sense elements depending on their strength, was much more advanced than a humans. Thus leaving Neon no choice but to grip his already drawn sword a little tighter and prepare for the fight of his life. *fwoosh*

Neon heard the Sky Lion dive from above and couldn't help but shiver from the sheer size of the beast. Practically double the size of a normal lion and with a coat that shined of pure gold, the Sky Lion landed roughly 30 feet from Neon, expanding it's wings to its full capacity of an astounding 35 feet! *ROOOAR*

The beast roared and gave a look of displeasure due to Neon's appearance for unknown reasons… normally they would be happy for a meal but the Sky Lion only showed a look of disdain towards Neon which puzzled him greatly. Neon planted his feet and was now ready to fight the beast, or at least find a way past it.

The second Neon planted his feet the Sky Lion pounced with an alarming speed and with barely enough time to respond, Neon jumped through space behind the lion and slashed towards its back. *shink* The blade slid off its back due to the pure density of it's golden coat. "Tch. I should've paid more attention in Beast Studies class, now I have to find it's weakness by scratch."

Neon landed from his initial spatial jump and dove forward towards the back of the Sky Lion again, and as he was about to make contact, the Lion abruptly turned around and swiped its razor sharp claws towards him. *thwip*

Neon teleported in the nick of time and popped back up right underneath the neck of the beast and using his momentum from the original dive and encasing his blade in a golden aura and spatial element he slashed with urgency in ending the battle as soon as possible.

The power packed slash that he attempted made contact and even made a small gash in its neck, leaving small traces of blood on the ground and some dripping from the wound.

"Looks like the neck will work for this one," Neon said to himself and then decided that the fastest way to end this was to do it in one strike.

The Sky Lion was now wary of Neon's target and closely guarded its neck by backing itself up into a group of trees only giving Neon one direction to come from, the front.

Staring at Neon, the beast seemed to know that they both would have to end this in one fatal move, and roared one more time before extending its 5 inch claws to their maximum and stood still exuding a domineering aura with its 'back' against the wall. Neon released his cultivation aura of Peak Divine Gold Perfection to the max, leaving a golden glow so thick one could almost grab it and feel its strength. Neon roared back like the beast he was contending with and charged forward wrapping his blade with almost triple the space element that he attached with the last attack and then used a skill that he has yet to master, "Spatial Blade!" Neon yelled and if one could see the space around Neon's unarmed left arm, one could see an outline of a blade that blurred with Neon's speed. As Neon closed in on the beast who was now reared up on its hind legs, ready to smash Neon to pieces, he made it right under the Sky Lion and jumped towards its neck and slashed with the sword in his right arm. As Neon slashed towards the lion's neck, the lion brought down its arms in an attempt to claw up Neon in an 'X-shaped' manner. *SLASH DINK RIIIIIP thu-thunk*

The next moment happened so fast, an average human wouldn't have been able to comprehend any of the events that took place other than the scene that now took place, Neon standing above the now deceased Sky Lion, and blood dripping not only down his sword, but his right side.

"Gah," Neon grasped his side, "I could only block the left side with my Spatial Blade and end the beasts life with my right, had to sacrifice quite a bit in this fight huh-AH," Neon winced in pain as he started to move forward, accomplishing the extemporaneous mission of ending the beast.

"I really need to make it up to the peak, walking would take to long with this injury," *riiip* Neon tore off some fabric from his cloak and placed it on his wound while applying pressure. "That should be the only beast up here, might as well risk it one last time to jump to the top," he assured himself that there wouldn't be anymore mishaps and then jumped through space one last time, roughly 20 feet from the peak.

Neon slowly approaches the peak, wincing with every step and as he looked over the ledge to the top, the flickering light he was expecting to be blinded by, was condensed into a small orb, and surrounding that orb, were 15 feet tall stones sticking up vertically and laid out in a circular formation.

"What in the world is this?" Neon approaches cautiously and as he enters in between two of the stones, a golden barrier connected by the stones surrounding the orb, encases Neon inside almost immediately after he stepped foot inside.

The orb in the center of the circle started to flicker and smaller orbs started to detach from the original orb and fly around the inside of the now barricaded circle.

A warm feeling started to overtake Neon, and as he looked for the source of warmth he realized the orbs that were floating around encased his wound and actually healed it within a matter of seconds.

"Eh??!! What is going on?!" Neon couldn't help but jump with a start and question out loud about the weird phenomenon that was taking place in front of his very eyes.

Neon looked around the circle and then focused intently on the center orb of light… when suddenly a voice of unknown gender came from that same orb…

"Hello Neon Stoneheart, we've been expecting you."