The grey dragon was being encircled by the three.Tatsumi could see that they were in a stalemate despite having a superior number. Of course, for a dragon, superior numbers meant nothing in front of its power.
The grey dragon then inhaled a lot of transcendent energy.
“It’s a breath attack! Interrupt it!” Tatsumi gave an order as precise as possible.
Kushina then brandished her Buster Sword, creating a vacuum through her flying slash. The flying slash then hit the mouth of the grey dragon and managed to interrupt its breath attack.
“Uhm, Senior. Will this be fine?” Bore asked Tatsumi.
“No, this is where it begins.” Tatsumi replied as he watched the grey dragon then use its physical body to contend with the three.
Maito Dai kept striking its scales, but the scales proved to be a tough exterior. Even if he were to strike it with a shockwave that could reach its internal organs, the recovery speed of the dragon would make sure that such injuries were healed.
And Maito Dai could not perform that kind of attack in rapid succession. Kushina had to handle the dragon’s breath while hitting its head, while Charles Xavier tried to interrupt and interfere with the grey dragon’s fluid action.
“No wonder the dragon is said to be an unmatched creature. They are truly resilient.” Kushina panted as she kept swinging her sword.
“But this means that the path of the physical body is still far from perfection!” Maito Dai exclaimed.
“Also the path of the mind. The dragon seems to realize that we are also playing a mind power game.” Charles Xavier said.
What was strange was that the grey dragon did not speak at all. Tatsumi noticed this anomaly and could not help but think that something must be going on that affected the dragon.
“Keep the formation intact. Let them have their way.” Tatsumi channeled his transcendent energy, converting it into the undead element before it was received by the three.
As the core of the formation, Tatsumi needed to have a grasp of everyone’s situation. He perceived that the three were under pressure, so he needed to keep them up with the grey dragon.
Ame also helped by shooting with the transformed weapon that turned into an anti-materiel sniper rifle. She shot at the inverse scale or at the eye of the grey dragon. But the dragon noticed her involvement and moved by flapping its wings.
That caused the formation to be unable to do its job properly. That gap was used by the dragon to assault them.
This time, Tatsumi stepped forward and met the force with an even more overwhelming force. He even activated his dormant dragon blood and his physical body was strengthened to a terrifying degree. He unsheathed Dragonsbane as he made a slash at the wing of the grey dragon while continuing with a second slash at the inverse scale and the third at its eyes.
The dragon’s eyes narrowed and it changed its direction but it also meant that its wings were greatly damaged and it fell to the ground.
“Now!” Tatsumi shouted while on the mental link; he ordered them to surround and attack the fallen dragon.
Tatsumi then went to the head of the dragon, slashing with all his might and the line from the slash was clean; not an ounce of it dispersed out of the slash and caused unnecessary damage. Instead, the cut line was so damaging that it cut through the flesh of the grey dragon, almost chopping its head off from the neck.
Ame changed her weapon into a spear. She thrusted the spear with all her might, causing damage to the place the spear tip pointed. The spear tip was pointing at the inverse scale of the grey dragon. Her eyes flashed coldly as she used the extreme point of the spear tip to cause great damage, possibly to thrust it to its heart.
The others dealt damage to the other wings, its tail, its limbs as well as its belly.
The dragon roared in rage and pain. Although it shifted its body, some damage was taken and it was severe.
Furthermore, its inverse scale had been broken, causing the dragon to turn into a furious beast. But Tatsumi did not let it as he slashed once again, causing the almost severed neck to be fully severed from the neck, causing the dragon’s eyes which had widened with fury, to slowly regained its light before dimming forever.
“That was dangerous.” Tatsumi commented as he took a breath in and out. He stabilized the active dragon blood inside his body and suppressed the feeling of being invincible.
His body let out steam due to the dragon blood ignition. His body temperature increased so much that he gestured for anyone not to approach him.
“But it also is the moment when I am the strongest.” Tatsumi murmured.
As the dragon died, the team then started to treat themselves to the banquet that was the corpse of the grey dragon itself.
They used a bit of their undead element to infect the corpse then turned it into a factory to produce more undead element. The produced undead element was so pure it could elevate even the Revolutionary Realm transcendents by one or several heavenstage.
Then consecutive breakthroughs were underway as the transcendents were absorbing the undead element produced from the corpse of the grey dragon.
“Yes, I finally broke through after so long!” Maito Dai was elated and raised his fist.
“My mental power has increased after the transcendent energy is sufficient for a breakthrough.” Charles Xavier was checking his Mind Palace that had been fully opened by shattering the chains surrounding it. His mind power was affecting the area around him but with Tatsumi stronger in Mind Power, it was negated quite easily.
“Huff, looks like I also gain some progress. Hitting that dragon sure gives me some inspiration.” Kushina said as she clenched her hand and felt her power increasing greatly.
“For us who don’t use undead element, the best way is to absorb the transcendent energy in the air.” Ame shook her head as she looked at the undead element transcendent user. She did not envy them one bit since she was stronger than them and knew that the opportunity belonged to them.
And so they remained on the tenth floor for a long period of time, as long as they could still become stronger by staying there.
Dian and the half-beast raccoon saw that the record of the tenth floor changed, turning into the transcendent team from the Hinon Federation civilization.
“They have managed to do it.” Dian nodded with a smile.
What he did not tell them was that they could not be hurt in the Trials. But Dian hid this fact so that they would be careful not to treat it like a game with infinite resurrection. Because Dian knew that was not the case.
“Sir, your team is truly capable in the transcendent path.” The half-beast raccoon said with admiration.
He knew that Dian’s team was new, probably at the Rank 4 capability. It was because the Trials were opened when the Planet Master reached the Fourth Rank.
“But this is the beginning and the team probably also realized that. They will climb higher to their limit.” Dian said with confidence.
Tatsumi stabilized his own internal circulation as well as his own planet in his lower dantian. It was because the dragon blood was so domineering that it even injured his own energy pathway as well as causing internal injuries.
He not only healed that but also made his energy pathway stronger and his internal organs stronger.
Then he also felt that the bottleneck had loosened and the opportunity to break through became obvious. Of course, he did not immediately break through just like Ame, who, despite having the opportunity to break through, delayed it to stabilize the foundation and strengthen herself.
Tatsumi then slowly opened his eyes and found that the air was scarce in transcendent energy. Since that was the case, now was the time to go to the stairs to the eleventh floor.
“Ha.” Tatsumi exhaled and a mist appeared in front of him, his breath felt refreshed.
Then he looked at Ame who was already moving around, reminding everyone that they should prepare to move.
Tatsumi then scanned everyone and found out that the undead element transcendents had become stronger, so much so that they could defeat their previous selves many times over easily.
But the biggest gains from this trial were that the expert who pioneered the transcendent path became inspired and started to think about elevating their path further while possibly widening it at the same time.
“We are ready.” Bore said.
“The rest of the transcendents are already waiting for further instruction.” Long Wu said. He got a small share because his contribution was not large. But he did not mind since there were people who needed the opportunity more than him.
Tatsumi then looked over everyone. He looked at their faces one by one before he blinked and nodded.
“Alright, let’s go to the eleventh floor.” Tatsumi said while leading the team to the stairs that connect the tenth and eleventh floors.
The moment Tatsumi took a step into the stair, he felt pressure.
“The pressure here is suitable for you. Try to climb it with your own power.” Tatsumi then took another step up.
Ame followed suit and the others then also took a step toward the eleventh floor.
The pressure was greater than the stairs and ladder before. But since they had become much stronger, the pressure became the perfect training for their transcendent base power to be utilized as well as their physical bodies.
For the others, they needed to acclimate to the pressure first before considering took another step. This process was grueling but also rewarding.
Long Wu then passed them by since the pressure was not enough for him, following after Tatsumi and Ame.
The others could only train there on the stairs.
Slowly but surely, they climbed the stairs. Their breathing got hard and ragged. But their mind and physical bodies were improving. The pressure was not limited to physical but also included mental pressure.
The bottleneck they felt before was now loosened up. But they would rather keep training on the stairs for some more time. That was why the progress was so slow.
Tatsumi, on the other hand, reached the end of the stairs and saw the environment on the eleventh floor. Different from the tenth, which was a grassland, the eleventh floor was a swamp.
The swamp was letting out miasma which was dangerous for a transcendent at the Revolutionary Realm. But he also detected a trace amount of undead element.
“So this time it is a paradise for the undead element transcendent.” Tatsumi let out a satisfied smile.
He, Ame and Long Wu were strong enough to pass this floor easily but it was not the case with the others.
They needed to temper themselves so that they could catch up with the three. Therefore, the three used every opportunity to make them stronger.
The result showed after some time. Most of the transcendents in the group had reached the ninth heavenstage of the Revolutionary Realm as of this moment. Only one still at the eight heavenstage of the Revolutionary Realm but soon that individual had a breakthrough on the stairs.
When they were done with their power-up session, Tatsumi, Ame and Long Wu had been waiting on the top of the stairs, not advancing further from their current position for fear of attracting the beasts on their current floor.
“Good, you all have become stronger.” Tatsumi said.
“They should be. With all the energy and pressure, it is doable.” Long Wu commented.
“Ha, ha, ha, I am satisfied to hear that.” Bore was the first one who managed to get to the top of the stairs.
“This stimulation is not something that our current civilization can produce. Too bad.” Kushina climbed out, and Long Wu extended his hand, and she received it.
“My physical prowess has increased once again.” Maito Dai commented with a grin.
“Don’t forget to forge a healthy mind.” Charles Xavier reminded.
When everyone climbed to the top of the stairs, it was time for the team to challenge the eleventh floor.
“There is a trace amount of undead element. This place is filled with miasma.” Long Wu said, stating facts.
“What? Natural undead element? Absorb, we must absorb it!” Maito Dai became excited.
“Let’s defeat the beasts on this floor before we do that.” Kushina suggested.
As if on cue, the beasts on the floor detected the team, which had already moved. The beasts came in waves.
The fifteen minutes of rampage and slaughter had begun. Blood splattered on the ground, a pool of blood forming on the surface of the swamp as the smell of metal covered the natural smell of the swamp itself.
Tatsumi, Ame and Long Wu were in charge of maintaining the formation and not directly fighting.
They left the fighting to the others since they did not need more battle. Bore was leading the others since he was the most experienced in combat. Despite his age, he had assimilated the implanted memories about combat as well as the real experience of fighting against transcendents and even Outer Beings.
With the Eight Direction Formation, the safety and the killing momentum of the team remain undiminished.
“Look at that, the coordination and the flow of transcendent energy have increased.” Tatsumi was surprised to count that the time it took for them to slaughter the beasts was just fifteen minutes.
It meant that their power increased while their efficiency also increased with that.
“That’s something to be celebrated. If we are not in the trial, maybe we should try one.” Long Wu said with a chuckle.
“This is the formation that you have comprehended from the experience of the Slayer Division, right?” Ame said. She had noticed the similarity of the formation they used and the formation that the Slayer Division had used.
Tatsumi looked at Ame; a slight upturn of his lips could not be hidden.
“They are a good reference so I just tweaked it a bit to be useful to us.” Tatsumi admitted.
“But as long as it is useful, I think we can use it.” Long Wu added.
Then they collected the corpses of the beasts and turned them into the sources of the undead element. For the undead element transcendents, that was the source of their power.
For the others, they had to hold themselves from absorbing the air since the miasma was making their energy pathway contaminated and causing some of it to be stuck.
For Tatsumi, he had to try different methods of filtering the miasma before he discovered one.
Then he spread it to those who could not use the undead element.
With that, they stayed on the eleventh floor.
The beasts' power was at the late Rank 2, equal to the seventh to ninth heavenstage of the Revolutionary Realm. But with the enhancement from Tatsumi, Ame, and Long Wu, the gap was easily surpassed, and the slaughter ensued.
“Huff, the gain here is bigger than on the lower floor. But it is not enough for a Planetary Realm transcendent.” Tatsumi frowned as he felt that the difficulty was in proportion with the reward. But it also meant that they were getting closer to the Planetary Realm floor difficulty.
“What’s wrong?” Ame noticed the expression on Tatsumi’s face.
“We are going to hit the limit very soon. I don’t know what I should do at that moment.” Tatsumi said.
He was torn between continuing or just giving up. According to the information from Dian, giving up meant that the floor where you gave up would be the record for how far you climbed.
But Tatsumi felt that there was more than what Dian said. Furthermore, he did not want to incur casualties from his team. That was why he was hesitating.
“No, it would be better to just give up if we can’t defeat the beasts.” Tatsumi decided on this after a short consideration. Although he wanted to test what happened when someone died in this trial but he did not dare to gamble on uncertainty at all.
“That’s right. Don’t gamble on uncertainty. It is unwise.” Ame finally let out a sigh of relief. She thought that Tatsumi wanted to do something reckless for once.
But she forgot that Tatsumi held others’ lives in his hands, so he could not be careless.
“I am just thinking about possibilities. Why are you so worried?” Tatsumi naturally detected Ame’s action and asked in a teasing tone.
“So annoying.” Ame curled her lips and said but her eyes became a bit softer.
“So what is the reaction from the others absorbing the miasma?” Tatsumi asked.
“Varied but it is definitely possible to convert them into Ether. Just the difficulties involved is not something a beginner can do.” Ame reported back truthfully.
“Well, this is for a critical situation so of course it is not for a beginner. But I’d like to simplify things. I think this will work.” Tatsumi then stood up and went beside Ame’s side and whispered to her ear.
Ame blinked and blushed a bit before her face showed a serious and looked elated. Tatsumi’s idea could be implemented on a large scale, allowing even a beginner to be able to do it through seven steps.
Those seven steps were the most crucial ones where the air and the contaminated air would be filtered and converted into Ether.
Then Tatsumi finished whispering and Ame went to the other to inform them about it. Tatsumi chuckled as he watched her do that with a happy face.
Sometimes, it was a very rewarding thing to do to see your beloved ones be happy. At least, to Tatsumi, it was so.