MY 10,000× DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM

Mountainside Battle

Christopher wasn't particularly surprised by the difficulty of the mountain chain, or how the difficulty was set.

This is because the higher one went, the colder it became, and the denser the Mana was. As such, the higher one went, the stronger the creatures they could encounter would be.

The tiger he killed at the base of the mountain he was climbing was at the bottom of the food chain in this place, and the difficulty gradually increased as he climbed.

Moreover, the battles were hardly ever straightforward. Sometimes he'd fight beasts and creatures that required head-on collisions. However, beyond that, most of the things he fought could easily be considered to be nightmare fuel.

A clear example of this was when he had reached the 5-kilometer mark on the mountain he was climbing.

Because this place wasn't inhabited by any intelligent species, there were no clear paths for Christopher to follow, so he was using his discretion to ascend. The result was that he encountered a swarm of microscopic flies that were completely white which caused them to resemble an unassuming white mist on that part of the mountain.

Individually, they were quite pathetic. The issue was that there were trillions of them. A true example of quantity over quality.

Luckily for Christopher, he was extremely receptive to energy signatures. That and his senses were on another level, literally. So he immediately noticed something was off when he saw the 'mist'. This prompted him to use his Transcendent Vision, as he had decided to call it and saw the trillions of tiny threads connecting each fly to the fabric of existence.

Surprised and appalled, Christopher didn't hesitate and ignited the swarm with blue flames. They tried to resist, but his Void-Forged Mana ignored whatever resistance and defense they could put up and killed them in a matter of seconds.
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It was when the mist faded that he was able to see the half-eaten skeletons of various creatures, their flesh and blood consumed long ago.

Even with his strength, the idea of trillions of tiny creatures trying to eat him from the inside and the outside wasn't pleasant to visualize.

Regardless, he kept moving upwards.

As he proceeded, the mountain started to slope more and more, and its surface also became slippery as thick sheets of ice covered its surface.

Committed to not flying, Christopher created metal chains and then a harness by his waist, he attached one side of the chains to the harness and then fired the other sides which were shaped like harpoons high up, and embedded themselves into the ice.

This would make fighting many times more difficult, especially if he encountered a flying creature. But Christopher was determined to make things as difficult as possible to ensure maximum training potential.

It didn't take long for something to attack him as well.

As he was shrinking the chains to pull him upwards towards where it had embedded itself into the mountain, he felt his back tingle, and he increased the length of two of the chains and then killed to the side, allowing himself to swing to the side.

A moment later, the spot he was in was shredded apart by fast-moving projectiles. And on closer inspection one would be able to see light blue feathers that had a metallic sheen on them.

Christopher spun so that his back was against the mountain and created a sword of ice once more and placed it in front of his body just as two pairs of sharp talons crashed into him.

The impact shook the entire mountain side and Christopher's body created a hole where he was in.

Still, Christopher had blocked the attack and the talons were trying to press past his blade and sink into his chest.

Christopher looked forward with a calm gaze. His opponent was a light blue goshawk who looked at him with burning fury as it tried to sink its claws into his chest.

It was significantly smaller than the tiger Christopher fought at the base of the mountain, about the size of a truck. Which wasn't small by any means for a bird, but still lacking compared to a lot of the things that lurked in this place.

That said, despite being smaller, the goshawk was significantly stronger than the tiger as shown by the previous collision.

As mentioned before, the ground of the hidden realm was at least a dozen times stronger than ordinary worlds, and that observation was made by Constella who came from a world that was numerous times denser than earth.

The tiger had only managed to create a few meter-deep marks in the ground with its claws which were its primary source of attack. But the beast effortlessly collapsed a portion of the mountain with a single attack.

Moreover, Christopher was certain it wasn't going all out yet.

With a grunt, Christopher pushed the beast off him and lunged forward to slice its legs off. But it was faster, and with a flap of its wings, it shot away from the hole it created and created some distance between itself and Christopher as it flew.

Then it flapped its wings again and sent another barrage of sharp feathers which Christopher promptly dodged.

He decided to make his legs stick to the mountain face and use his physical strength to stay upright as he dodged the attacks.

That wasn't all though, as the beast sent a barrage of cold wind blades that moved even faster than the feathers from before.

Christopher had to deflect a good chunk of them using his sword, but even then, the cold wind was enough to cause bits of ice to appear on his body.

Moreover, the goshawk showed no signs of getting closer and seemed content in gradually overwhelming him with attacks.

At this, Christopher immediately changed his strategy. He created a barrier to fend off the attacks for a short time, then he turned the sword into a bow, and just like he had with the tiger, he drew the string and a blazing blue fire arrow appeared.

He canceled the barrier and let the arrow fly, it tore through the barrage of attacks with ease and streaked toward the beast in a blue line, going straight for its head.

However, the beast didn't just watch. Instead, its chest inflated slightly, then it opened its beak and let out a concentrated blast of cold air that collided with the arrow. The impact was enough to slow it down and cause it to detonate into a sphere of blue fire that ducked up whatever oxygen was in that area.

Christopher didn't stay put and neither did the goshawk as Christopher started running along the side of the mountain while the beast flew in the same direction some ways away from him, and the two of them continuously unleashed ranged attacks with the intent of putting down the other.

Christopher's arrows would either be dodged or destroyed by the beast before they hit it, and the beast's feathers and blades would be dodged or deflected by several ice blades Christopher created and had them float around his body.

For a time, they seemed to have entered a stalemate as up till now, none of them had injured each other.

But that was about to change.

Christopher let another arrow fly and it was dodged like many others, and he exhaled behind his mask as the floating blades he created worked extra time to defend him from the onslaught of ranged attacks.

'Now should work.' Christopher thought and suddenly created a fire arrow that was of a deeper blue hue and gave off significantly more heat than the ones from before.

He let it loose, but instead of streaking toward the beast, it exploded into hundreds of smaller arrows that swarmed the beast like flies.

It immediately stopped its attacks on Christopher and flapped its wings as its speed surged and it started performing some insane maneuvers to avoid getting hit. While also destroying the arrows that got too close.

Christopher kept on firing the arrows he had been firing before too, which increased the pressure the beast faced. But that wasn't his ultimate goal.

He looked up a little and saw numerous blue dots rapidly approaching and nodded in his heart.

The arrows that the beast had dodged didn't simply dissipate or disappear, instead, Christopher made them go out of sight so that they would strike at the right moment. And now was that moment.

The beast just destroyed the last few mini arrows when it suddenly felt danger and looked up, and before it was a tide of blue fire arrows that streaked towards it like meteors. Each one making use of gravity to move significantly faster than when they were first shot out.

The beast shrieked as it prepared to use one of its skills to defend, but before it could, its body suddenly jerked as a large ice javelin tore through its chest and sprayed blood. Its eyes widened and it turned its eyes to Christopher who wasleaving his throwing pose.

And before it could do anything else, it was drowned in the tide of arrows.