Leonel punched out, his action being followed by a sharp whistling sound. He could feel the wind stacking up against knuckles, his punching speed too fast for the particles to get out of the way any faster. If he pushed just a measure faster, he was certain that he'd be able to shatter the sound barrier, a feat that would be shocking considering the fact that this was an Eighth Dimensional world.
With a thought, a clone of Leonel appeared, however the original Leonel didn't use it immediately. Instead, he continued filling it to the brim with solid Spatial Force, making it harder and more robust.
Then, without moving an inch, Leonel allowed the clone punch him with all the force it could muster.
BANG!
The sound reached Leonel long after the punch landed on his chest. Vicious winds kicked up and his hair was sent flying backward with such force that it even looked as though it wanted to rip away from his scalp.
As usual, Leonel's hair grew a great deal after practicing his Metal Body, but even so, he had long since cut it down to size once more. Even still, the effects were so exaggerated.
However, Leonel didn't move a single inch.
His skin seemed to ripple with a formless energy and with a BANG!, the clone he had taken so long to form shattered into pieces before his eyes, unable to withstand the strike at all.
Leonel nodded lightly to himself.
When he took so much time and effort to build a clone, its strength wasn't something that could be casually dealt with. In fact, it was probably much stronger than his previous self. And yet, it couldn't even withstand hitting Leonel with a full powered blow.
The current Leonel's defenses could not only be defensive, but they had a certain offensive quality to them as well, taking Candle's ability as inspiration.
Candle had the ability to form mirrors that could both reflect and multiply attacks she faced. She was a terrible headache to face and Leonel had only defeated her originally by outsmarting her. Considering how many decades of training she had under Anastasia and Wise Star Order, it was doubtful that he would be able to replicate this feat without quite some effort on his part.
Of course, Leonel's abilities weren't so exaggerated. He could only reflect a portion of an enemy's strike relying solely on the abilities of his body, but this was where the beauty of his Tier 4 Control Ability Index came into play.
Using the flexibility of his newly constructed body and his absolute control over every aspect himself, even does to the individual cells.
Using this control, Leonel could take advantage of his Metal Body's innately water-like characteristics to redirect the flow of energy that collided with him and use it to empower him. In homage to Candle, he called this ability Dream Mirror.
Essentially, Dream Mirror used his Bronze Runes, or what might more accurately be called his Bronze Aura, to redirect the force he experienced. Like this, he was able to replicate Candle's ability within range of his Bronze Aura almost perfectly.
Unfortunately, the key word was "almost".
While Candle could accomplish this feat with almost any Force or attack, Leonel could only do so with physical attacks. In addition, said physical attacks had to be blunt as his effectiveness against piercing attacks lessened drastically.
Of course, there was good news as well. With Leonel's current bodily defenses, even attacks that could technically be cla.s.sified as piercing would still be ultimately blunt in his eyes. If one didn't have the strength to pierce through his defenses, there was really no difference between a sword blade and a punch, they were all the same.
In addition, although he could redirect and multiply the strength of Forces like he could physical attacks, he could still convert whatever impact they had against him into a physical output so long as they also couldn't break his defenses.
After reaching this state, Leonel returned to his calm.
By now, his naked body exuded a perpetual bronzed glow. It made others feel as though he was wreathed in a halo constantly, like he was separate from the normal world of humans.
When matched with his vascular physique and his hair which also seemed to exude its own pale violet light, he looked to be far more like a Spiritual than a human.
Leonel flipped his palm over and a familiar gorgeous spear appeared. It had a bright golden, harpoon-like single sided blade, and a radiant white body covered in hexagonal scales. No matter how one looked at it, it looked far more like a work of art than a weapon of war.
The faint sound of dancing and sharpening blades resounded around Leonel as closed his eyes, focusing on the movements of his spear.
Due to his time in the Zone, Leonel had had an opportunity to learn a lot more about Resonance and its potential applications. As that experience acc.u.mulated, there was a subtle feeling tugging him toward a certain direction.
Listening to and feeling the resonance of Spear Force had become a method to increasing his strength by leaps and bounds.
Even though Leonel hadn't stepped into the Sixth Dimension with his Spear Force, after mastering poetry and calligraphy, his Spear Force had strength by huge leaps. So, wouldn't the same happen if he applied music and painting as well?
However… Had he truly "mastered" it? He felt like could always create more powerful lines, more powerful words to give wings to the feelings in his heart.
It didn't even feel like these words had to be particularly tyrannical, or that they had to continuously one up each other. That feeling in his chest, those emotions he wanted to embody… They all felt like they were the most important.
What was that image his uncle had been trying to draw before he ran out of energy and stopped in dissatisfaction? Wasn't it just a simple spear? There was nothing grandiose or oppressive about it… The difference was in what his uncle wanted that spear to embody… That was where the strength lay.