Chapter 640: The Ten Star Spear

Lian watched one of the creatures, a thin Withered with uneven legs, take several steps toward the center.

Then it stopped.

It placed its hands on the ground and tried to turn its body in the opposite direction, but after struggling for a few seconds, it turned back toward the center.

Exactly what the scout had reported.

He was about to move closer and examine the creature’s behavior, but at that very moment, three Withered separated from the group.

Unlike the others, these three creatures showed signs of aggression, and the first one rushed toward them on four long limbs.

The other two also approached from both sides of the path.

Rindo pulled his spear from his back.

"Leave these to me."

"Are you sure?" Lian looked at him for a moment.

"Yeah. You can examine the others too, and see if you can learn anything from their behavior." Rindo held the spear in front of his body.

The young Vorhelm gave a faint smile and walked toward the remaining Withered.

[ Race: The Withered ]

[ Rank: Mutated ]

[ Level: 29 ]

[ Level: 31

[ Level: 33 ]

Lian raised an eyebrow.

Level thirty-three, huh?

Rindo was now level twenty-eight.

Based on the abilities Lian had seen from him, defeating a level-thirty-three monster in a one-on-one fight was possible for him, but it certainly wouldn’t be easy.

And now, three creatures were attacking him at the same time.

However, Rindo didn’t seem particularly worried, he slightly turned his spear.

The weapon’s shaft was made of black and silver metal, and its long, narrow blade shone under the golden sunlight.

But what caught Lian’s attention were the ten small marks carved along the shaft.

He had seen these marks several times before, but he had never had the chance to examine them closely.

What an interesting spear.

The first Withered reached a distance of ten meters, its body was nearly two and a half meters tall, and its right arm had turned into a heavy, bone-like structure.

The creature pulled its arm back and then slammed it toward Rindo with all its strength.

He made no attempt to block the attack directly, his left foot moved slightly backward as he lowered the tip of his spear, and mana flowed along the weapon’s shaft.

One of the ten marks lit up with a faint blue light.

[ Ten Forms of the Heavenly Spear ]

[ First Form: Stillpoint ]

A moment before the impact, Rindo turned his spear with a short movement, and the blade touched the side of the creature’s bony arm.

But instead of stopping the attack, he changed its direction.

BAM!

The creature’s heavy arm slammed into the ground, sending dirt and pieces of stone flying in every direction, but Rindo had only moved half a step.

He had used his opponent’s strength against itself, the Withered tried to pull its arm back up, but Rindo moved before it could do so.

The second mark on the spear lit up.

[ Second Form: Piercing Meridian ]

The silver blade moved straight forward, unlike the previous attack, this time all the mana was focused on the tip of the spear.

The attack struck a narrow gap between the defensive layers on the creature’s chest.

CRACK!

The spearhead pierced the Withered’s body, the creature let out a harsh scream and bent backward.

But Rindo had no time to continue his attack, the level-thirty-one Withered had approached quickly from the left.

Its long claws moved straight toward Rindo’s neck, he pulled his spear back and struck the creature’s wrist with the end of the shaft.

The direction of the claws changed.

However, the third creature, which was level thirty-three, took advantage of the opening and quickly approached from the right, throwing a heavy strike at Rindo’s side.

Rindo was forced to jump backward, and the creature’s claw passed in front of his stomach, tearing part of his armor.

If he had reacted even a fraction of a second later, the attack would probably have seriously injured him.

Instead of trying to defeat all three creatures quickly, he changed his position to force the attackers to approach from the same direction.

The level-twenty-nine Withered, which had been injured by the previous attack, was the first to attack again.

He aimed his spear at it, but just before the strike landed, he changed the direction of the blade.

The third mark on the shaft lit up.

[ Third Form: Threefold Return ]

Three consecutive movements followed.

The first strike knocked aside the level-thirty-one Withered’s arm.

The second strike hit the level-thirty-three creature in the side and forced it to change the direction of its attack.

And the third strike hit the exact same spot that the second form had created in the chest of the level-twenty-nine Withered.

The blade passed through the gap in its defenses, and a few moments later, the creature’s body fell motionless to the ground.

Rindo pulled out his spear, but two enemies still remained.

The level-thirty-one Withered attacked with a harsh scream.

He stepped toward it this time, and the end of his spear struck the creature’s knee, throwing it off balance.

Then, by turning the shaft, he sent the blade toward its neck from a lower angle, dark blood splashed across the stones, and the second creature fell as well.

However At that exact moment, the Level 33 Withered reached him.

Unlike the previous two enemies, this creature had watched Rindo’s movements and no longer attacked the blade directly.

This time, it approached from the side and tried to close the distance, where using a long spear would be more difficult.

Rindo was forced to pull his weapon back.

The creature’s next strike hit the shaft of his spear, and a heavy force passed through his hands.

He took several steps back.

This one was really better than the others.

The creature attacked again.

Rindo used the First Form to redirect the attack, but the force caused his foot to slip on the stone.

He quickly regained his balance and sent more mana into his spear.

With a spinning movement, he placed the shaft of his weapon between himself and the creature, and when the Withered moved forward to break his defense, he sent the spear’s tip upward into its body.

The strike pierced the creature’s side, but despite the injury, the Withered wrapped its hand around the shaft of the weapon instead of retreating.

Rindo frowned.

If he wanted to pull the spear out directly, he would have to use a lot of strength, and if he took too long, the creature’s other hand would reach him.

So instead of pulling the spear, he took a step forward, changed his body’s position, turned the shaft at a different angle, and forced the creature’s hand to move along with the weapon.

Then he raised the end of the spear, and the shaft struck the Withered’s jaw, throwing its head backward, and at that same moment, the spear’s blade came out of its side with a short movement and returned toward its neck.

Slash!

This time, the strike was deadly, the creature’s body took several unsteady steps and finally fell to the ground.

Rindo took a deep breath.

A few drops of sweat ran down the side of his face, and the mana flowing around his spear slowly faded.

He looked at the bodies for a few seconds.

Then he lowered his blade.

"It’s over."

Lian had also finished examining the other Withered a while ago.

"I have to admit, your spear is more interesting than I thought."

"Just the spear?" Rindo looked at him.

"Fine, your skills aren’t bad either."

"Thank you very much."

Lian pointed at the ten marks on the body of the weapon.

"So each of these belongs to a different form?"

"Yeah. The Ten Star Spear was made to perform this martial art."

Rindo ran his finger over one of the dark marks.

"But the weapon alone isn’t enough, if the order of body movements and mana flow isn’t correct, even the best spear can’t perform that form."

Lian nodded.

Through [True Sequence], he had also noticed that Rindo did not completely stop the flow of mana when changing forms.

Part of the energy and position gained from one movement was used to perform the next movement.

This gave his martial art a connected structure.

"So there are still seven forms left."

Rindo nodded.

"Yeah."

"I hope I get the chance to see all of them someday." Lian smiled.

"Maybe, but I’d rather not be forced to use all ten forms just to stay alive."

"That’s a reasonable choice."

Lian turned his gaze toward the bodies.

Despite his victory, Rindo had used some of his mana, and his breathing had not completely returned to normal.

Even so, his performance was impressive.