Han Sen was thinking to himself, "Come on, don't stop me. I just need to get a little closer."
The boss of Jade Hill's beasts would be difficult for Han Sen to tackle mano-a-mano, and if he found himself bearing the brunt of one's attack, he could find himself in a similar condition to that of the chef.
If Han Sen could just about reach the boss, he could use Super Spank to deliver enough damage to kill it and end the threat for good. But Han Sen had to physically touch his opponent with his hand to use Super Spank. Getting that close was a dangerous feat, and it was a stunt he wasn't entirely sure he could pull off.
Han Sen was still a good distance away from his foe, and the tide of monsters was already headed his way.
With the chef in one arm and a horn in the other, he stood strong and broke the wave. He managed to slay every creature that dared to come near him.
"Why am I so unlucky, huh? No one has come to help kill this guy." Han Sen was disheartened.
The boss of Jade Hill looked at Han Sen with a strange expression. The human had achieved the power of a primitive creature, but he had no geno core.
The boss had initially only wanted to kill the chef, but he couldn't allow a human like that to run rampant. He had to make Han Sen his target now, as well, and not only the chef.
Han Sen's Jadeskin had a high threshold of stamina, but he had been running for a long time already. Having exhausted much of his energy, Han Sen knew he couldn't keep on fighting the onslaught of creatures that were spawned to impede him. As he had seen with the chef previously, the boss could generate creatures continually, almost faster than he could kill them. If he kept this up, he'd become winded and fall.
"How am I supposed to get out of this?" Han Sen asked himself, looking around for a solution to his woes.
The boss of Jade Hill was too far away from Han Sen, and with the barrage of monsters that kept on coming, it didn't look likely he'd reach the spirit.
Things were different in the Fourth God's Sanctuary, and there was a perpetual sense of unease. The atmosphere and gravitas of every situation were heavy, and this was only tripled under the threat of those creatures.
And with everything being so strong, the powers he might have once used to sunder mountains in the Third God's Sanctuary could only manage to split rocks here.
A weak, new demi-god to the Fourth God's Sanctuary did not have to encounter a creature or spirit to meet a grizzly end. Han Sen wagered the atmosphere itself could choke the life out of them.
Han Sen had a few AoE hyper geno arts that could hit multiple opponents at once, but they wouldn't be of much use here. And again, that was mainly because he lacked a geno core to call his own. He had to use his body to fight, just as it was. As such, his attacks had to be singular, too.
"I can't turn back now. I must do this." Han Sen then decided to take off running towards the split earth.
He had wanted to poison the creature that resided within, but now, provided it hadn't yet died, he thought it might be possible to enlist its aid.
Han Sen bought himself time by breaking the bodies and cutting the throats of all the creatures that came close. But when he killed one, the body would explode into a whiff of black smoke and respawn.
Han Sen's arm was dealt a scratch at one point, but Jadeskin proved sufficient to withstand the light fumbles he made. He didn't even end up bleeding.
He was still a good distance away from the split earth. He regretted running as far as he had, for it now proved rather difficult to return.
The boss of Jade Hill was getting peeved, as this transpired. He was annoyed the beasts were unable to do Han Sen harm, so he cast even more powers into the pages of the book he wielded.
Then, the bronze book turned to silver.
Han Sen's mood turned grim upon seeing this. It was a knight-class spirit, and that meant his geno core had probably turned silver-class. Silver geno cores would create far stronger enemies and generate a threat Han Sen might not be able to overcome.
And to coincide with this, the boss's temperament looked disturbingly ill. When he drew with his fingertips, he drew carefully and concisely. He wasn't scrawling across the pages wildly as he had been. He was now more deliberate.
Han Sen saw a silver light beam from out of the new-and-improved book, and it spawned a silver-winged ape creature, that was able to fly directly over to Han Sen.
Dong!
Han Sen punched the ape with a mighty release of energy, which had it stumbling back ten meters.
"This guy must be primitive." Han Sen frowned.
The boss of Jade Hill continued to draw, but Han Sen noticed the trickles of sweat that were rolling down his forehead like a number of beads. Clearly, the repeated casting of these greater creatures was taking its toll on the spirit.
After summoning four of those apes, he stopped.
Han Sen was in a bad situation, and he had to use Jadeskin to equalize his fitness with theirs. Han Sen had to deal with four horribly powerful apes and a tide of regular creatures, all by his lonesome.
Han Sen used Jadeskin and his phoenix techniques, trying to use these enemies for cover.
He didn't make use of Super Spank, though, for he was afraid he'd spook the boss into running away if it found out what Han Sen was capable of. And Han Sen wasn't in the mood to make lasting enemies, either, so the threat of the self-proclaimed boss had to end there and then.
Han Sen wanted to fight the boss right then. Exerting his strength to take down the apes was a waste of both time and energy. He was starting to incur wounds, too, as the brutal hits delivered by the apes were making him bleed.
After a long fight, Han Sen felt a strange power begin to well-up inside his body. It felt as if his very cells were being empowered by Jadeskin. Han Sen was enthused, feeling this. He was feeling the same sensations Old Man Ji had once described to him.
"Is my geno core generating?" Han Sen asked himself with gleeful surprise.