Chapter 90 Sloth Bears

As I looked at what looked like a mixture of sloths and bears, I quickly narrowed my eyes and relaxed my posture.

'This has to be a joke...' I mused to myself while looking down upon these sloth bears that immediately began to attack me without holding back.

***

'This might be hard on him, but I need a good successor. Even if it takes another millennium to find a successor, it is still better than having a bad successor.' The woman thought with a stern gaze.

While she did not have a body in this realm, due to her previous mortality, she chose to create a vessel for herself that would be completely invisible to me.

As she looked at me with a stern gaze, she quickly snapped her fingers and animated the formation, causing them to light up and eventually concentrate in a single location before finally-

*Roar*

'I hope you do not fail me like the others...' She sighed; however, a trace of hope still lingered in her eyes. This was not a trial of absolute power but a trial of battle prowess and talent. She knew, or at least thought she knew, that if she were to put me against a creature in the middle mortal realm, I would die almost immediately.

'He is but a boy of a young age. From what I can tell, his cultivation journey barely began a few months ago, so it is only expected that he would still be in the early mortal realm. But to think someone of his age could have so much patience... Truly a prodigy' She quickly nodded to herself in satisfaction before her gaze lingered on me, who stood in the middle of the arena with a spear in my hand.

From her point of view, I seemed to be wary of everything and anything around me, but the moment he saw the sloth bears, I lowered my guard and began to look at the creatures before me with a strange expression.

The woman began to frown subtly at this action, but she did not say anything for now.

***

'This has to be some kind of joke, right?' I joked to myself as the scene before me was laughable at best.

'She thinks she can test me with these weak things? These things are barely stronger than those tiny goblins I fought a few weeks back.' I mused as I watched them all charge at me simultaneously.

'This must be some kind of trick. Wait, no... My dread would have immediately kicked in if they were dangerous, so there is no way they are. This must be some kind of trap to make me look down on them now, but later on, they boom in strength and numbers, catching me off guard. Yes! That must be it!' I concluded and quickly got into my battle position.

This sight made the woman sigh in relief, yet her sigh got caught in her throat, and the next scene flashed before she could even close her eyes.

*BOOM*

She could only watch unblinkingly as my spear shot right through one of the bears, decimating it and splattering the remains of its corpse all over the arena.

The rest of the sloth bears stopped in their tracks and began to look at me warily, yet before they could decide what to do next, I had already disappeared from their vision.

"Up here." I mocked as I appeared above one of the bears with my spear no longer in my hand while my arm stretched back, readying itself to release a power punch that would decimate the land it would land on.

*Roooa-*

Its last-ditch effort to release an intimidating roar had been cut short as a fist slammed into its head, piercing right through and smashing onto the ground under without losing a single newton of force.

*BOOM*

The explosion rang out as several pieces of the bears shot out in different directions, leaving nothing but a blood-stained tile on the arena floor.

*Tuck*

Landing on the ground softly, I switched my attention to the final sloth bear that had started looking at me with eyes filled with fear as it retreated backward, its hands raised to its shoulders as if it was trying to surrender.

"No surrendering today big guy." I looked at the bear and gave it a warm smile that shook it to the core of its soul.

Without a care in the world, I took a step forward and still held the warm smile on my face, yet unbeknownst to me, this smile looked like the devil's smile to anyone other than me.

The bear tried to roar just the same way its fellow bredrin had done before their deaths, but after seeing that it didn't work the way it usually did, it chose another method.

It slowly began to open its maw wide, energy gathering within it while the mana flew into its maw-like winds.

"An energy attack? Impressive." I chuckled to myself, knowing it could not understand anything I was saying.

*ROAR*

And with another roar, it let out a pale yellow beam of energy that shot towards me at what would usually be considered frightening speeds; however, in my eyes, it was nothing but a small ray of light.

Instead of bracing myself for a powerful attack, I spread out my arms as if welcoming it. However, quickly my arms began to move at blurring speeds toward each other until finally-

*CLAP*

After the palms of my hands collided, a strong wind current blew out, destroying the beam of energy instantly and causing the sloth bear to slam into the walls, becoming a stain due to its momentum.

'Well... I guess I should wait a few seconds until the next wave starts. Hopefully, those are a little stronger than these... I don't even know what to call them. They feel like creatures who haven't even begun cultivating yet...'

Clearly, I did not know that they were on the same cultivation level as me, but as someone who didn't know their own cultivation level due to not being able to cultivate, I'd say it was forgivable at the time.

On the other hand, the woman did not think the same way as I did, as the frown on her face only deepened, while the surprise shown by her agape mouth only made her look even more flabbergasted by what she was seeing.

For all she knew, this was a random planet with lower life forms than she was used to. Of course, during her lifetime, she had seen people fight above their cultivation; however, she did not expect to see someone do it so early in their cultivation path and also come from a weak planet such as earth.

I felt her gaze over me increase in intensity, and even though I didn't know exactly how, when, and why I could feel gazes, I knew that it was some kind of ability of mine now, and I was going to take full advantage of it.

[Second Wave Shall commence in 5...]