CHAPTER 25 NIGHTMARE VALLEY

"You are right; unfortunately, that thing is too strong for me."

Leon admits that he is incapable of going against the flying ghoul without any hint of embarrassment.

He does not want his pride to endanger the lives of his friends.

Upon hearing his confession, Aranold is shocked.

He knows just how strong his friend is, and if he straightforwardly admits that he is unable to defeat the flying ghoul, the probability that he would also lose is incredibly high.

"Do not worry, leave that thing to me!" Diamond is not surprised, she knows that Leon is powerful, but he does not have enough genetic enhancement to be considered a top ranker.

In terms of just pure combat techniques, he is actually a lot stronger compared to many top rankers.

She leaps towards the flying ghoul and sends a flying golden palm towards it.

The energy that she released seems to be the bane of dark creatures.

The flying ghoul quickly escapes, and with its fast speed, it easily dodges the attack.

ROAR! Leon let out a loud roar, causing the zombies to stop.

Aranold had already expected him to release this attack after seeing his signs.

BAM! Not wanting to waste such an opportunity, he punches the bronze zombie, causing it to stumble backwards.

He then thrusts his blessing, stabbing it in the head.

Meanwhile, Leon also charges towards the frozen zombies.

He is only picking those that are much easier to kill, he will leave the bronze zombies alone for now, their speed is slower than his, he is using this advantage to attack.

Hit and run.

He rips the heads of the zombies around him using yin claws.

With the yin energy helping him, this skill is much more lethal than it should be.

Together with the buff that comes from transforming into a malevolent tiger, his physical strength is twice as great as usual.

[Warning! Warning! The host is exerting tremendous strength for an extended period of time! ]

Leon, who was fighting against the zombies while supporting his two teammates, pauses, his body is now aching after dispersing his transformation.

He grabs his hand and grits his teeth.

He shouts. "Retreat!"

The two stop and quickly flee, they can see that their situation is very disadvantageous, with the number of zombies only increasing the longer they fight.

Fortunately, the flying ghoul is in no state to chase after them after its body was nearly destroyed by Diamond and Leon's attacks.

Aranold grabs his friend and makes a run for it.

They retreated back to the boundary.

They can stop and rest, but in order to be sure, both he and Diamond decided to retreat to the boundary.

As they arrive at the boundary line, their group immediately crashes into the ground, exhausted after fighting for half an hour without holding back.

Leon feels that his body is now burning, it seems that his muscles are now crying in pain after fighting for such a long time with a strength that is clearly much greater than his ordinary strength.

"F*ck! No wonder they are called the forbidden grounds! How did Blake manage to survive all on his own!?" Screams Leon as he punches the ground, not caring about his aching body.

"That is where you are wrong, Blake did not survive alone. The Raging Volcanoes Area might be incredibly dangerous for most beings, but for his race, they thrive in such locations. Also, as a Vulcanean, he has direct access to a safe area that the seniors of their seniors painstakingly created."

Aranold explains, knowing that his friend might have become more knowledgeable after studying in the academy, but it is still lacking.

*Sigh* "No wonder, but at least I had personally experienced the danger that one of the forbidden grounds possesses, this will be helpful for me once I go to Lost Jungle in the near future."

The two are stunned.

After fighting against strong undeads and enduring the cold and invasive yin winds, the two of them realise just how difficult it is to survive on any forbidden grounds, but he is still planning to enter a different one.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He might be afraid, but if it is to help his best friend, Aranold will not hesitate to come with him.

He shakes his head and answers. "No, I wish to go alone, do not fret, I am only going to that location after my visit to the Realm of the Thousand Worlds.

He smiles and says. "I am planning on filling my normal genetic enhancement to its full capacity."

He then turns to his friend and says. "Besides, you are going to be busy after the exhibition match, you need to fully awaken and control your bloodline."

"To do that, you must enter this place repeatedly, maybe in that time, the two of us will be unable to come with you."

Hearing this, Aranold's expression becomes solemn, he slaps his chest and makes promises.

"I will definitely become a top ranker! Do not worry about me! I am your friend! As your friend, I will not let myself be left behind! You can count on me in the future!"

Watching their interactions, Diamond feels something inside of her burning.

He punches the ground and says. "I will become one of the Aces!"

Leon smiles and says. "It is said that in the future, you are set to become one of the aces, but after watching your battle, I am saddened to tell you this."

He takes a deep breath. "Other than your lack of supernatural genes, you are also lacking in experience."

Diamond did not disagree with his words, in fact, her senior brother, Pure, also said this to her.

She was unaware of the true meaning of his words and decided to issue a mission that requested a sparring partner.

She expected that she would be able to fix her problem after fighting against multiple different partners, but only after fighting against the flying ghoul did she realise what she was lacking.

Killing experience!

Spar matches might be able to help her out, but not as much as true combat, one on which she needs to bet her life.

The three of them spend two hours resting and discussing their next actions.

Aranold proposes using a two-one battle method, both he and Diamond will be at the front, and Leon will be in the back, in charge of support.

Diamond agrees with this after experiencing how attentive Leon was throughout the entire battle, he not only took down multiple zombies but also managed to support the two of them the entire time.

Leon disagrees, his reason is also sound.

Since both he and Aranold are quite weak, they must be in the front, responsible for taking care of weaker opponents, leaving the troublesome ones to Diamond.

The two of them need to hurry with their battle in order to assist Diamond, she is not tasked with defeating any powerful foes and only holds on long enough for them to team up.

After a couple of arguments, they finally decided in two battle plans that if the enemies they were going to face were relatively weak, the two boys would be the ones responsible for fighting.

Diamond needs to conserve as much energy as she can, at least they face a powerful foe.

On the other hand, if they are facing a single entity that is too strong for either Aranold or Leon, the two of them will have the support of Diamond, and she will be the one facing the enemy upfront.

"Sorry, Diamond." Leon apologises, he knows that he had asked her to help them in their training, but he did not expect that they would leave most of the heavy lifting.

Aranold also lowers his head in shame, he cannot believe that he is the most useless one in their group, and the main reason why the three of them decided to go here is for him.

"Do not be! I am quite happy that I have discovered my flaw, as long as I can gain as much experience as possible in this journey, it will be totally worth it."

She is not disappointed at all, she is actually quite excited.

Leon sighs after seeing her excited expression.

He shakes his head and says. "I know that after fighting against the flying ghoul, you had gained something, but let me be upfront. I think that you already realised this, but the three of us are not that good at fighting flying-type enemies."

Hearing this, the two frown.

Aranold can use his spear, it will return to him after reaching a certain distance as it is one of the soul blessings that is inside one of his soul slots, but he knows that this type of attack is a bit useless against fast-flying monsters such as flying ghouls.

Diamond is not trained in fighting against aggressive flying creatures, she has sparred against individuals that are capable of flight, but it is in limited space, making the situation easier for her.

The only one capable of fighting against a flying creature at elite level is actually Leon, and that is only because the system is capable of pinpointing the location of his target.

Also, with the help of his intuition and the system's calculations, he can predict the movement of his target almost one hundred percent.

"I should learn more techniques that can travel a certain distance without the need for charging or concentration." Diamond says to herself.

Aranold nods his head after hearing her.

"I was good at hunting birds when I was a child, that inflated my ego, thinking that I could deal with flying beings with ease, now I understand that I am but a fool."

Leon shakes his head and stands up.

"Let us not wallow in regret over our past decisions, we learn from our mistakes, and we must move on and improve ourselves."

The two of them can agree with this, they then return to their journey, but this time they travel in a different direction, they are still incapable of fighting against such large numbers of zombies all by themselves.

"Plants!?" After reaching a certain location, the three of them were surprised by a forest, it should not exist, but it seems that they are still underestimating the complexity of the Nightmare Valley.

"Finally! Hahaha! We can use the trees as cover in order to avoid powerful beings!" Aranold shouted.

Leon stops him from going forward, he was frowning.

The two quickly react, they prepare for another battle, they believe in their friend's intuition.

"What is it, Cleo?" Aranold whispers to him.

He shakes his head, his instinct is actually screaming, it is telling him that the trees are dangerous.

Without hesitation, he follows it and re-evaluates the forest in front of him.

"Diamond, can you attack the trees in front of us with your golden palm?"

She quickly agrees and starts chanting as her palm emits a golden light.

With a deep breath, she throws a flying palm towards the trees.

BOOM! When her attack hits the trees in front of them, it causes a loud boom, and suddenly, the trees that were hit and destroyed release a howl.

It was filled with pain and anguish.

The expression of the trio changes, especially Leon, he shouts. "Retreat!"

Without hesitation, the three of them flee, the trees around the forest start moving, and multiple sharp sticks start flying towards the three of them.

It was too fast for Aranold to avoid.

"Yin Claws!" Leon transforms into his Malevolent Tiger form and fires an attack at the incoming sharp sticks, causing them to lose power, but there are still thousands of them chasing after their group.

"Run faster!" Diamond screams as she sees a giant creature appearing out of the forest, looking at them like they are prey.

"F*ck!" Aranold screams, his instinct is telling him that the monster that just came out is incredibly dangerous, much more dangerous than the flying ghoul.

"Continue retreating!" Roars Leon as he is forced to use one of his trump cards.

He raises his foot and stomps on the ground, causing dust to scatter everywhere.

He then secretly summons Cleo's clone and orders it to buy them some time.