The creature dropped from the branch with a strange, loose motion that did not match anything human, landing on the ground without making a proper sound, only a soft crack of dry leaves and bent soil beneath its feet.

It stood there for a moment without moving, head slightly tilted, as if it was trying to understand what Leo was, while the stretched smile on its face remained fixed in place.

Leo did not move immediately, only tightening his grip on [Yielding Spine] while his body shifted into a more stable stance, remembering what he had been taught during Aura Practical about keeping balance while circulating Aura through the core.

The forest around them remained silent, the same dead silence that had followed him since he entered deeper, and it made the presence of the creature feel even scarier than it should have been.

Leo slowly pushed Aura from his Core, feeling it gather in a controlled but still unstable flow as it moved into his Seeds, even though the movement was not smooth yet and kept breaking slightly in rhythm.

The Core inside him responded like a weak engine trying to stabilize itself, and he could clearly feel the three Seeds reacting differently as Aura passed through them, especially the Living Seed which always drained and refilled in uneven patterns whenever he tried to circulate too fast. The Divine Seed remained inactive as expected, only reacting when evolution conditions were met, while the Skill Seed held everything together in a loose structure that prevented total collapse of his internal flow.

He remembered the instructor saying that Aura circulation was not about speed at first, but about control and repetition, and he tried to apply that even now while standing in front of something that clearly was not part of any normal training scenario.

The creature finally moved again, taking a slow step forward, and its long fingers dragged slightly along the ground as if testing the surface, while its head tilted even further in a way that made its neck bend too far without breaking.

Leo exhaled once and shifted his weight slightly backward, using what he had learned to keep Aura spread evenly through his limbs so his body would not collapse under sudden movement. He could feel the difference already compared to before, where his Aura would simply scatter on impact, but now there was at least a thin layer of control that allowed him to react without losing everything at once.

The creature suddenly rushed forward without warning, its movement fast but not clean, more like a broken sprint that ignored proper structure, and Leo reacted by stepping sideways instead of backward, letting his body follow a simple circulating flow that kept Aura moving instead of stopping.

The creature’s arm swung across where Leo had been standing, and the wind pressure alone cut through the space, showing that even its random movements carried real force, but Leo had already shifted his Aura toward his legs and redirected his movement instead of resisting directly.

He raised [Yielding Spine] at the same time and blocked the next strike, but the impact still pushed him back slightly, forcing him to adjust his circulation again as he felt Aura briefly destabilize inside his Living Seed. He clicked his tongue softly and reminded himself that he was still not maintaining proper balance, since his Aura flow kept collapsing whenever he tried to combine movement and defense at the same time.

The creature did not pause after the clash and immediately followed with another strike, this time aiming lower, and Leo responded by twisting his body while letting Aura move through his torso in a continuous loop instead of a fixed point, reducing the strain and allowing a smoother dodge than before. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The forest floor cracked lightly under their movements, and dry branches snapped as both of them shifted positions around each other, while Leo slowly began to understand the rhythm of the creature’s attacks, which were not planned but still followed a pattern of aggression and recoil.

He tried to copy the same simplicity in his own circulation, keeping Aura from overloading any single Seed while allowing small bursts through his Skill Seed to support movement timing.

[Yielding Spine] whispered faintly again, its voice low and unstable, but Leo ignored it this time and focused only on the flow inside his body, since breaking concentration even slightly would cause his Aura to scatter again.

The creature suddenly stopped moving for a fraction of a second, and Leo used that moment to push forward instead of waiting, letting his flow shift into a forward burst that gave him more speed than before, even if it still felt rough and uncontrolled.

He closed the distance and swung [Yielding Spine] in a direct arc, but the creature tilted its body strangely and avoided most of the strike, only receiving a shallow cut across its shoulder, which leaked a dark fluid that looked more like ash than blood.

Leo stepped back immediately after the strike, adjusting his breathing to stabilize his Core again, because the sudden burst had drained his Living Seed faster than expected and left a slight pressure in his chest. The creature reacted with a short, broken sound that was not quite a scream and not quite laughter, then rushed again with increased speed, forcing Leo to circulate Aura more carefully this time instead of relying on bursts.

He focused on keeping Aura evenly distributed, letting it flow through all three Seeds in a loop, and although it was still unstable, it was better than before, allowing him to react without feeling completely overwhelmed by internal pressure.

The next clash was faster, and Leo barely managed to block two strikes while dodging a third, but instead of panicking, he forced his Aura to stay inside a steady cycle, even when his Living Seed flickered under strain.

He realized then that control was not about stopping Aura from leaking, but about accepting the leak and redirecting it back into movement, something he had not understood during practice but was now forced to learn through pressure.

The creature suddenly slowed slightly, as if it also noticed the change in his movement, and Leo used that opening to step in again, this time combining a controlled circulation with a short forward strike that pushed Aura through his arm without letting it explode outward. The impact landed more cleanly than before, forcing the creature back a step, and Leo felt a small but clear shift in his control, as if something inside his circulation had finally aligned even if only for a moment.

The creature regained balance quickly and circled him again, but now Leo did not move backward immediately, instead maintaining his stance while continuing the slow internal flow of Aura through his Seeds, keeping everything steady even under pressure.

The silence of the forest no longer fully affected his focus, and he could clearly see how his circulation was slowly becoming more stable compared to the beginning. The creature prepared another rush, but Leo had already adjusted his rhythm, and for the first time, his movement matched his Aura flow instead of fighting against it.