Death... and me

Roan was right. As they moved forward, they began to find more Decaying Demon Beasts. However, their strength wasn't much different from each other.

This was a Training Ground made for young cultivators by the imperial family. Naturally, they couldn't allow too many Demon Beasts above the 3rd Stage to exist since the cultivators would be powerless against it. It wouldn't be considered training if the participants couldn't even react to the Decaying Demon Beasts' attacks.

Before starting every event, the Imperial Family's experts, led by a Saint Realm Expert, would sweep the entire Profound Abyss. They already had a good understanding of the Decaying Demon Beasts present in this place as well. They would purposely leave just a few Stage Four Demon Beasts with power equivalent to Initial Stage Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivators.

No participant in the Profound Abyss had cultivations higher than the Peak of the Core Formation Realm. However, they were geniuses of their own powers nonetheless. That meant that they could still fight above the average level. Logically, quite a few of them have no problem matching an Initial Stage Core and Fusion Realm average enemy. A few were more powerful than that.

As for what would happen if a Stage Four Demon Beast found a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator? Well, that cultivator could just be said to be unfortunate. Everyone had been informed about the Profound Abyss' cultivation limit. If they decided to enter with Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation, then that was their problem.

"Malaka, I'll leave those two Decaying Golems for you to take care of. They have a strength similar to a Peak Stage Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, so you can deal with it."

Rean and Roan weren't just ordering Malaka to battle. They were battling as well. At the moment, they found a group of Decaying Golems. They were categorized by their sizes—the bigger, the stronger. While Malaka was fighting those with power equivalent to the Foundation Establishment realm, Rean and Roan were dealing with Core Formation Level Golems. 

Turns out that those Golems detected their presence even before Roan's Spiritual Sense could see them. Still, it was to be expected. This was their own home, so they definitely evolved to detect others' presence in this environment.

"Alright!"

'Death Water Style, Second Form, Spinning Dragon Tails!'

Using both sides of her Staff, Malaka rotated her body while hitting body golems at the same time. She was so fast that she could create afterimages using the Water Element to confuse the opponent. The attacks were very fluid, showing the advantages of a Water Element User. Still, she was not very proficient with it. The hitting points were quite off from the places she wished to attack. It couldn't be helped, though. She came up with this skill with Roan's help just a month and a half ago. She needed time to adapt to it in real battle situations.

The Golem's bodies broke on the sides where she hit them but did not crumble. Not only that, they didn't feel any pain to start with, so they used that change to attack Malaka as well. 

Malaka wasn't affected by that, though.

'Death Water Style, First Form, Flowing Dragon!'

The same way as she did with Roan, she used the Dragon's Head on one side of the staff to defend against the attacks. She then used the counterforce and the staff's bending properties to power the attack against the golems. If there was one thing that Malaka lacked, it was raw power. She had to use those maneuvers to increase her own strength, or things would be difficult for her.

*Bang, bang!*

As expected, Malaka was already used to the First Form. Thanks to that, she hit the Golem at the point where their cores were located. Still, the Golems lacked anything but defense. The area around their cores crumbled as their cores were somewhat affected. However, they did not crumble. The worst part was that as soon as Malaka tried to gain distance, the dark earth under them began to move to recover their bodies.

"Don't stop! If you give them a chance to heal, you will run out of Spiritual Energy before you can do anything else."

"Alright!"

Rean and Roan were not much better. At the moment, they were using their Death Style Fifth Form, Mirage Assault, to fight several Stage Three Decaying Golems. It's just that there were just too many of them.

'It's not good like this. Instead of focusing on them all at the same time, let's destroy them one by one. Ignore the others.'

'If we leave others alone, they might attack Malaka and Kentucky. Are you sure?'

Roan nodded.

'This is a training ground. Malaka and Kentucky will not only find opponents at their level during their time here. They have to get used to dealing with adverse situations. Otherwise, only death would await them in the future.'

He then looked to another side, just to see Kentucky fighting another two Stage Three Golems on his own. Still, his beak was just so long, so his attacks failed to reach the Golem Cores every time. Fortunately, Kentucky seemed to have understood that he had to continue to keep attacking to prevent the Golems from recovering. He focused on a single golem while bearing the attacks of the second. It seemed like Kentucky's defense wasn't any worse than the Golems either.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

Every time he received and performed an attack, only metallic sounds could be heard. It was a real brawns only battle.

Rean then looked at Roan and nodded.

The twins then looked at the largest Golem in the group and changed their targets. As soon as the twins and their mirages changed direction, the Stage Three Golems on the sides changed targets as well. They were not thinking much, just choosing the targets that seemed to be the easiest to kill. Naturally, they charged at Malaka and Kentucky.

Rean and Roan ignored it, though.

'Focus on its core!'

The four of them dashed at full speed to increase their attacks' power.

'Death Style, First Form, Stellar Piecer!'

Stellar Piercer was commonly used for long-range attacks. However, this attack's real power was at close range. If they considered single target damage, none of Rean and Roan's skills could beat the Stellar Piercer.

Four Stellar Piercers came at the Golem Leader from all sides, all of them aiming at the place where its core was. However, the Golem understood the danger and immediately assumed a boulder-like form, covering its core with its enormous dark stone body.

*Bang, bang, bang, bang!*

All the Stellar Pierces connected, leaving deep holes into the Golem's body. However, they still failed to reach deep enough to touch the Core. Soon after, the Golem opened its arms and rotated its body, sweeping Rean and Roan's group away. However, at this moment, another Rean and Roan appeared right under this guy's body in a flash!

"Idiot! Who said that we can only make two copies?"

'Death Style, First Form, Stellar Piercer!'

The Golem was already slow to start with, so it simply had no time to react at all.

*Puchi, Puchi!*

The twins' attacks pierced right through the layer of dark rocks, hitting the enormous Golem Core head-on!

*Crack!*

*Boom!*

However...

*Roar!*

The Golem looked at Rean and Roan as it brandished its arms at them. Rean and Roan didn't have time to change the attacks into a defensive form, so they could only move away.

"Jump back!"

*Bang, bang!*

Even though Rean and Roan were fast, they were still a little too slow. The Golem's attack was powerful, which immediately made some of their bones break on impact. That's already considering that the twins mitigated some of its power by moving in the same direction as the attack.

"Focus, he isn't the only one."

Roan didn't lose his calm. He kept his Spiritual Sense locked on the other two Stage Three Decaying Golems that didn't change target and followed them. Not long after, the two controlled their mirages that were free and blocked the Golems' path.

'Death Style, First Defensive Form, Reversive Arcs!'

*Bang, bang, bang, bang!*

The four Mirages were sent flying for trying to stop those Golems' attacks head-on. Still, it brought the real Rean and Roan more than enough time to land and reach a safe distance. 

It turned out that they hit the Golem's Core, but they lacked the power to shatter it. In the end, that Golem only had its Core cracked, but not destroyed.

'Life Style, Second Form, Instant Recovery!'

Rean and Roan's body began to heal, and their bones mended together once more. However, there was really a significant lacking of the Light Element in this place, so it would take at least a minute to finish.

'That thing's level is probably at the Middle Stage of the Core Formation Realm, but its defense is probably at the late, no, Peak Stage.'

Rean then looked at Malaka and Kentucky. Rean was surprised to see that Malaka had defeated one of the Stage Two Decaying Golems before the Stage Three ones arrived. After that, she assumed a defensive form and kept retreating in circles, holding one Stage Two and two Stage Three Golems occupied. However, it was evident that she was also reaching her limit. There were also a few injuries on her body, proving that she was hit at some point.

As for Kentucky, Rean noticed that it had also destroyed one of the Stage Three Golems it was fighting previously. However, with the addition of another two, Kentucky held its ground against three Stage Three Golems. Rean noticed that Kentucky's scales began to crack already as his blade feathers were broken everywhere.

"We might need to retreat from this place."