Chapter 2538: Yes.

The Nomads had made it too easy on him. Each one had spread out in the mountain ranges immediately around the location he had found Clarence's corpse in. Leonel didn't even need to waste a lot of time looking for them; he didn't even need to capture a guide anymore. He simply followed the chain of mountains one by one.

Clearly, after killing Clarence, they thought that he wasn't a threat, and they could have never imagined that Leonel was just in the mountain range one over from their original starting position.

This time, the Nomad in question was battling a White Stone Elephant. Now that Leonel thought about it, he had yet to see any creature ranked over a Starry Tailed Fox. It might be that this Dream Plane was too low ranked, or maybe they would only appear at Tier Seven or higher.

This Dream Plane, of nine, was ranked third overall. Not too high, and probably not too low either depending on one's perspective.

The battle was raged on for a long while with the man barely holding on.

Leonel frowned. He felt confident enough to stick around, but he didn't want to waste so much time watching this battle.

Almost half a day had passed since the Challenge began, now that Leonel thought about it. And yet, every one of the Nomads he had run into, except for the last one, had been in the middle of battle. But Clarence had died long ago.

'Whatever it is they're trying to do, it takes a lot of time... Hm, maybe...?'

According to Leonel simulations, and some information he'd gathered from observing earlier battles, there was a better than 50% probability that the Nomad's were waiting for an opening to launch a one-strike sure-kill sort of attack.

This was the best explanation. They weren't setting up anything else, and their bodies hadn't had any other treasures on them.

'In that case, why not make the opening for him?' Leonel's lip curled.

His Life Tablet trembled, and he took control of the elephant. The Nomad frowned as though feeling something odd, but in the end, the battle was too intense for him to take note of anything else, especially when the fluctuations he had sensed were immediately replaced by the swinging trunk of an elephant coated in an indestructible, gem-like Earth Force.

However, the elephant overextended itself. He was just barely able to dodge it, and the moment he did, his expression seemed to light up with glee.

Finally!

The net of runes on his forehead trembled, and the beast within was suddenly dissolved and a powerful beam of light rushed forward.

Leonel's brows raised. So that's what it was, huh? But wouldn't that destroy the beast they were trying to capture?

That was when it happened.

The net of runes shot out and entered the wound along with the beam of light. It was barely noticeable, and if not for his keen senses, Leonel would have definitely missed it.

Leonel's eyes widened in shock. Was that how it worked?

It was no wonder he couldn't understand the Force Arts. It was once again something far beyond him.

The creatures here ultimately weren't real; they were just bundles of Dream Force. Their "death" couldn't be considered real either. So long as they were stabilized by some external force, it was possible for them to survive.

This net of runes was able to help them maintain that structure, but the tradeoff was being trapped and controlled.

Although the rune could be used the way Leonel used it, it took time and much more effort.

That sounded like a funny thing to say when these Nomads had been fighting for many hours just to get to this point, but if Leonel controlled a creature and froze them, wouldn't he be able to reliably deal this fatal blow every time? He wouldn't need to fight for hours at all.

As for why the Nomads never used this ability on him, it made sense to Leonel as well.

Whenever he fought them, he was at a far distance and was often using the Tier Sixes as a buffer to assault them. They could only use the ability once, and he was often far enough away from them to dodge it easily.

Second, although they were fighting to keep their lives, they never really felt that they were in danger either. Most of them thought that they would obviously survive in the end because they didn't think that Leonel dared to kill them.

Unfortunately...

He did dare.

Suddenly, he moved.

Just as the net of runes was about to return to the Nomad, he caught it. Right now, without the net of runes, the Nomad had returned to Tier Four. Its speed in this world was too far inferior to Leonel's own.

"You..." The Nomad was speechless for a moment before he regained his bearings. He immediately dismissed Leonel, thinking that he had only not managed to sense him earlier because he was too focused on battle.

The Nomad's eyes narrowed when he saw the net of runes in Leonel's palm.

"Return what isn't yours and I can let you leave here alive."

Leonel gave the man a glance. Raising a finger, Leonel pointed to his own forehead.

"Your race's forehead is so large, blinding, even... so why are you all so stupid?"

The Nomad's eyes widened. "What did you just say to me?!"

BANG.

The Nomad froze, looking toward one of his arms, only to find that even the shoulder it had been connected to was gone, let alone the arm itself.

A simple concentrated blast of Dream Force left him in this state?

How was that possible?

Fear began to creep up in his heart. That blow just now didn't just injure him, it eviscerated all of that Dream Force as well. If it hit his head, wouldn't he...?

"Really think about what you're doing," he said slowly. "Do you want to offend-"

"Yes." Leonels said with a smile.

BANG.

The Nomad's head vanished.