The giant, winged leader of the pack let out a deafening, roar that shook the ancient canopy and vibrated through the dense timber.
In unison, the dozens of three-eyed tigers answered with their own guttural roars, their coordination snapping into practiced alignment.
A strange, metallic luster rippled over their blue fur, turning their hides into a steely, physical armor.
With their eyes flashing a predatory crimson, the pack lunged forward, their steel-tipped claws slicing through the damp air straight toward Leylin's neck.
Leylin merely let out a low, amused laugh at the ambush.
With a casual wave of his hand, he released a Rank 1 wind spell.
[Rank 1 Spell—Hands of Tornado Saint!]
A violent squall of compressed air erupted outward from his palm. The sheer force of the gale smashed head-on into the lunging predators, throwing the attacking tigers backward through the air and sending them crashing heavily into the surrounding underbrush.
Realizing that these exotic beasts possessed a physical structure far hardier than standard mortal predators, Leylin decided to observe them further.
He raised his left hand, calling upon his Soulbound Devourer to unleash his personal army.
In a fraction of a second, a pitch-black spiritual vortex ripped open in the center of the primeval forest, and a chilling horde of translucent, spectral figures spilled out onto the mossy ground.
The entire collection of his summons materialized within the trees—sixty-one Rank 1 Magus souls, the massive, coiled form of the Black Horrall Snake, and the towering silhouette of the Vanguard of the Requiem.
"Attack!" Leylin stood calmly at the center of the spectral manifestation, his arm extending as he coldly commanded them.
The chaotic melee began instantly. The sixty-one common Rank 1 Magus summons fanned out across the terrain to tie down the standard three-eyed tigers, while the Rank 2 Vanguard and the peak Rank 1 Black Horrall Snake moved in unison to lock down the giant winged leader.
The forest erupted into a frenzy of clashing elements.
In one corner of the clearing, two spectral Magus summons tightly coordinated their positioning against a single snarling tiger, pelting the beast with contrasting elemental spells as rapid fireballs and sharp frost spikes detonated against its thick hide.
However, the native predator fought back with terrifying finesse; unhinging its heavy jaw, the tiger let out a screech and spat a condensed steel projectile from its maw, the high-velocity metal slug tearing straight through the protective barriers of the spectral Magi.
Leylin stood at the edge of the crossfire, his eyes analyzing the exchange with a critical gaze.
He quickly noticed a bizarre, troubling anomaly.
Despite possessing a numerical advantage, his Rank 1 Magus summons were struggling, unable to deal any significant damage to the tigers' metallic bodies.
Meanwhile, over in the centre of engagement, the giant winged leader was fighting with an overwhelming ferocity, systematically suppressing the Vanguard's heavy shadow blade and swatting the Black Horrall Snake away with ease.
A heavy, invisible weight seemed to be dragging down the efficiency of his entire soul network, sending a distinct wave of friction through his sea of consciousness.
He immediately sensed that something was wrong with his current output.
'Is it exactly what I think it is?' Leylin thought, his brow furrowing as a foreboding premonition gripped his mind.
'A.I. Chip! Run an immediate diagnostic scan and check my current status parameters!' Leylin commanded internally.
The cold, mechanical voice of his assistant intoned instantly within his mind:
[Beep! Leylin Farlier. Rank 3 Warlock | Bloodline: Giant Kemoyin Serpent | Spirit Knight. Summons: Black Horrall Snake (Rank 1), Vanguard of the Requiem (Rank 2), 61 Rank 1 Magus. Physical Attributes: Strength: 34.5 (43.2)| Agility: 30.7 (38.4) | Vitality: 39.4 (49.3) Mental Attributes: Spiritual Force: 165.6 (207.1) | Magic Power: 165.6 (207) (Magic Power is in perfect synchronization with Spiritual Force).]
[Beep! Due to an unknown force, 20% overall decrease in all stats noted.]
At the grim sight of his degraded stats, Leylin could only force a wry smile.
"I was right," Leylin muttered to himself, adjusting his footing on the damp soil. "So this is the exact weight I was feeling. This foreign world actively suppresses the power of outside intruders. But to think its natural laws would enforce such a high degree of suppression on me... To the vast consciousness of an entirely foreign world, even a Rank 3 Magus is viewed as no more significant than an unremarkable ant. Is it because my native spiritual force and elemental signatures are entirely alien to this world hence, the native energy fields naturally rejects it."
Since his undead summons were inextricably linked to his own soul domain, the severe 20% penalty had automatically cascaded down their spiritual chains, limiting their combat efficiency on this foreign battlefield.
Nevertheless, although Leylin's spectral forces were heavily suppressed by the world's laws, their sheer numerical advantage slowly began to turn the tide of the skirmish.
The spectral Magi felt no physical pain and could be endlessly reconstructed and resummoned on the expense of Leylin's spiritual force, whereas the flesh-and-blood tigers possessed finite reserves of stamina, their movements growing progressively sluggish as the grueling battle stretched on.
Sensing that his pack was rapidly losing ground, the giant winged leader let out a sharp, frenzied roar.
Suddenly, the central vertical white eye embedded in its forehead shone with a brilliant light, casting an eerie radiance across the clearing.
A high-frequency sonic resonance formed instantly between the leader's skull and the brains of the remaining pack members, linking their nervous systems.
Driven by the psychic resonance, the three-eyed tigers went into an absolute, blood-red frenzy.
Their physical attributes spiked as they ignored their fatigue, lunging forward with terrifying speed to violently rip several of the Magus summons completely apart into scattered mana fragments.
Even the powerful Black Horrall Snake was caught off guard by the coordinated burst; heavily injured by a series of savage, deep-cutting claw strikes to its trunk, the massive serpent collapsed onto the forest floor, thoroughly defeated.
Leylin watched the sudden escalation with a look of interest. These native predators were a fascinating specimen; the pack members appeared to be roughly as powerful as Rank 1 magical beasts possessing power equivalent to 50% elemental conversion magus, two of the variants operated at the peak Rank 1 level, and the massive winged leader was a solid Rank 2 entity.
Yet, when utilizing their unique ocular resonance, their combined combat might was even more impressive.
Deciding he had gathered enough data on their physical capabilities, Leylin prepared to make a move himself.
His black eyes turned into vertical amber pupils, and they dilated completely unleashing his innate Rank 3 spell: Intimidating Gaze.
[Intimidating Gaze (Rank 3) —Any living being trapped within the active perimeter of the caster's spiritual sight will have their powers suppressed. Targets possessing weak willpower parameters will instantly enter a state of absolute confusion. Rank 1 entities will have their core abilities weakened by 50%, Rank 2 targets are weakened by 30%, and even Magi of the exact same rank will suffer a 10% reduction to their overall status attributes.]
Unlike the innate domain of a legendary Morning Star Magus, which granted a ruler complete, reality-warping control over the physics of a region, Intimidating Gaze operated as a concentrated, localized wave of psychological and spiritual pressure.
The moment Leylin activated the spell, the three-eyed tigers felt as if a colossal, ancient eye from the deepest depths of the netherworld had opened directly above their skulls, peering down into their very souls.
The regular pack members instantly collapsed onto the muddy ground, their bodies trembling uncontrollably as their frenzied minds fell into confusion.
As for the giant winged leader, its expression turned completely ashen, its eyes warping with terror as the crushing weight of a Rank 3 Warlock pinned its limbs to the earth.
With the enemy pack partially neutralized and crippled by the gaze, the remaining spectral summons quickly closed the distance to deal with the threat, systematically executing the helpless, whimpering tigers.
The Vanguard of the Requiem glided forward like a shadow, its dark blade flashing through the air to cleanly shear through the leader's majestic wings, leaving the giant beast critically wounded and bleeding out into the dirt.
The brilliant white sonic resonance glittering through their eyes slowly dimmed, flickering out into darkness.
Just as the Vanguard lifted its heavy hand to deliver the final execution blow to the leader's skull, Leylin raised his finger, commanding the spirit to halt its strike.
He walked forward through the carnage, his eyes fixed on the injured and defeated creature.
He wanted to capture this specimen alive to conduct a some experiments on its biological structure.
Reaching into his Insatiable Bottomless Pouch, Leylin retrieved a heavy glass vial containing sedating compound and ruthlessly force-fed the thick potion to the beast, entirely dulling its nerves and plunging it into a deep, unyielding slumber.