The second beast appeared after another couple of seconds, and Shang killed it.
The third one died just as quickly.
The fourth one also wasn't an issue.
The fifth one needed Shang to release two strikes instead of one, but that was about it.
"Level six: Powerful Early Commander Stage beast," the mechanical voice announced.
The wheel spun, and this time, Shang actually looked at what the wheel would land on.
He still remembered the last time he had been on level six in the beast category.
He had fought a powerful tiger with insanely hard metal armor.
That fight hadn't been easy.
Eventually, the wheel stopped, and Shang saw the image of his opponent.
Just like last time, the beasts were depicted like they were mascots from a cereal company.
The image of his next opponent was a smiling, long, green snake with a large wizard hat.
'That's probably a Serpent,' Shang thought.
Sure enough, Shang's opponent appeared, and it was a Serpent.
It was about two meters wide and nearly twenty meters long. It had four claws at different parts of its body, and it hovered in the air. Wind Mana was constantly swirling around it, keeping it afloat.
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The Serpent opened its eyes, and it quickly spotted Shang.
BANG!
Shang immediately exploded forward with an Ice Blast. He knew that Serpents were basically the Mages of the beast world. They excelled in ranged combat.
WHOOOM!
The Wind Mana around the Serpent exploded, and the Serpent went into the air without any difficulty.
After it reached a height of about a hundred meters, it focused on Shang again.
Lots of Wind Mana gathered around it as it was preparing something akin to a Spell.
SHING!
An instant later, a transparent blade shot through the air at incredible speeds, right at Shang.
BANG!
Shang evaded the blade by jumping, the blade exploding on the ground and destroying the surrounding ten meters.
Shang quickly reached a height of 25 meters, but at that point, the Serpent had another attack ready, which directly shot at Shang again.
BANG!
Shang released a Fire Blast, diagonally evading to the side while gaining more height.
The Serpent readied another attack, but something happened before it could launch it.
Shang put his left arm over his sword, his left arm shriveling up.
Then, he released a quick slash with his Sword from a distance.
A black beam left Shang's sword, and it reached the Serpent in nearly an instant.
If the Serpent had known that Shang had a ranged attack, it might have been able to evade, but nothing about Shang told it that he could launch an attack from a distance.
BANG!
The black beam hit the Serpent, but it wasn't injured.
Then, the Serpent realized in horror that it was uncontrollably falling!
Why couldn't it fly anymore?!
BANG!
Shang released another Ice Blast and shot at the descending Serpent.
A second later, the Serpent managed to regain control over its Wind Mana and halted in the sky.
BANG!
Shang released another Fire Blast, a bit of blood coming out of his body as he shot upward.
The Serpent tried to evade with its slender body, but the reach of Shang's sword was just too long.
BANG!
Shang's sword bisected the Serpent in the middle.
A shrill screech of pain came out of the Serpent's mouth, and its body began to move around violently, out of control.
Shang grabbed the front half of the Serpent and used Darkness Absorb.
Usually, the Serpent would be able to release a devastating attack at Shang from this range, but its heavy injury made it impossible for it to focus.
The two of them began to fall to the ground as the Serpent grew weaker and weaker.
Shang's body began to balloon as he absorbed a bit too much, and he stopped absorbing more.
BANG!
Shang cut away another part of the Serpent.
BANG!
Then, he used an Ice Blast to slow his fall and lightly landed.
BOOOOOM!
The three parts of the Serpent hit the ground, the Serpent dying from it.
Shang cleaned his sword on the grass of his world and stepped away.
At that moment, the cheering returned.
'Sure enough, that was a powerful beast. I can't compare the last beast I fought to this one.'
For a warrior, this was the worst matchup.
The Serpent had been over a hundred meters in the air, and it could release one devastating Spell after the other. A normal warrior would have easily died to it.
Of course, there were ways around it.
For example, Shang could fight very well in the air due to his Affinity, but other warriors had similar weapons.
They could release the ranged attack Shang had gotten from the last trial, for example.
Maybe they had a great number of disposable, throwable spears? Shang remembered fighting a couple of warriors that used these spears.
There were ways to counter a flying opponent, but it wasn't easy.
Shang felt a bit of pressure as his armor pressed onto his swollen body, but it wasn't a big deal.
"Level seven: Weak Mid Commander Stage beast," the mechanical voice announced.
Shang looked at the spinning wheel, and his next opponent was unveiled.
The last time he had been at the seventh level, he had only won due to the inexperience of his opponent.
The white dog had had quite a terrifying defense, even though it was definitely not known for its defense.
But this time, Shang's body was quite a bit more powerful.
The wheel stopped at a smiling, burning ant with spiky red hair.
Young kids would probably say that it looked cool.
The ant appeared, and Shang looked over.
It was about five meters long, which wasn't very big for a Mid Commander Stage beast.
Except for its crimson red color, there was nothing really special about it. Sure, its pincers were huge and terrifying, but basically all such pincers were terrifying when magnified by that much.
The jester lifted his hammer and hit the bell.
DING!
The ant turned to Shang and charged at him.
Surprisingly, it wasn't very fast, and it moved almost like a robot, very mechanically.
Since the opponent was coming to him, Shang didn't immediately charge in. Instead, he ran at the ant without releasing his full speed.
When the two of them were about ten meters away from each other, Shang saw fire gather around the ant's pincers.
BANG!
Shang used a Fire Blast to jump upward.
CRACK!
The pincers of the ant clamped together below him just an instant later.
They had elongated, and they were completely on fire.
'Quite a devastating and dangerous attack,' Shang thought. 'However, this ant counts as a comparatively weak beast. If it has such a devastating attack, it probably means that everything else about it is trash.'
BANG!
Shang released an Ice Blast above him and shot directly at the ant's back, his sword pointing forward.
CRACK!
Sword broke through the exoskeleton of the ant, but it didn't get very far. Some blood was pouring out of the ant's back, but it hadn't received a fatal injury.
'I used a lot of power with that attack,' Shang thought calmly. 'Seems like its defense is also not bad.'
Shang jumped off the ant shortly before it fell onto its back.
It had no way to properly attack something on its back. The best thing it could do was fall to its side and awkwardly rollover.
BANG!
Shang used another Fire Blast with his left arm and landed behind the ant.
CRACK!
One of the ant's legs fell off.
'Sure enough, its legs are too thin to resist my attack.'
The ant scrambled to get back up.
CRACK!
Shang destroyed another leg.
Then, Shang jumped back and watched the ant.
The ant looked like it hadn't even felt its legs being cut off and began to awkwardly advance toward Shang like a robot.
It was quite a bit slower due to it missing two legs.
'So, that's it, huh?' Shang thought as he watched the ant.
'This is why it counts as a weak beast. It has one powerful attack and good defense, but that's all. It doesn't have variety, it's very slow, and there are several blind spots in its defense.'
Shang retreated from the ant with a couple of light jumps.
The ant was so slow that it was even slower than Shang, someone with a much weaker body.
'Well, it's an ant. They don't normally fight on their own. If there are ten such ants, these weaknesses are no longer such a big problem. After all, they can cover each other's backs with their devastating attacks.'
'Ants are dangerous and incredibly powerful, but one ant is weak.'
Shang danced around the ant and cut its remaining legs off just to be on the safe side.
Then, he killed it with several strikes to the head.
This fight had been even easier than the previous one.
The cheering returned, and the wheel returned.
"Level eight: Average Mid Commander Stage beast," the mechanical voice announced.
Shang still remembered the last time he had been at the eighth level.
His enemy had been a porcupine, and he had needed to unleash Entropy to win back then.
One could say that Shang had never beaten the eighth level fairly.
'But this time, things will be different,' Shang thought.
'I have a ranged attack, a domain, more control over my Mana and my Affinity, and my body is even more powerful in relation to beasts than back then.'
'All in all, my power is much greater.'
'It's time to beat my old record!'
