Supreme Swordfiend

He had assumed the fire would burn itself out after an hour had passed.

He’d been wrong.

Leon watched on as another tree collapsed in the distance, the hungry inferno consuming another of the wood’s defenders, more smoke and ash thrown into the air in the conflagration’s wake.

As he stood outside his house, the swordsman eyeballed the spread of the flames, aiming to predict the inferno’s course. By his estimation, it was heading away from him. His house would escape untouched.

A minor victory.

Turning his focus to the melted pile of slag metal at his feet, Leon put off reading through his bloodline’s description. The bloodline’s instincts that demanded he fight, that he kill, that he assert himself on the world remained sedate, the sacrifice of a sword enough to keep the snarling beast at bay.

Another minor victory.

Examining what remained of Bladeless and seeing a pop-up appear surprised Leon.

“Bladeless- A common sword put to the test and found wanting. Its Self-Repair enchantment is barely keeping the metal intact. It will require the tender care of a skilled smith to regain its original form.”

At least there was a way to salvage the weapon. One day he would re-forge the blade, even if only to honour the weapon for its sacrifice.

Turning then to his armour, ensuring his protective gear still held strong, Leon produced a bowl of chicken wings from his storage ring to replenish himself with. Aside from the hit he’d taken against the first tyrannosaurus that had sent the swordsman into a tree, Leon’s armour was untouched, untarnished. He could not say the same about his senses. They had suffered thanks to the smoke and explosions the Flamma Tyrannosaurus had created in its rampage.

He was stalling. He knew it. His armour was fine. While crunching into the thin chicken bones and tearing through the salted meat that clung to them, Leon pulled up his status.

Name- Leon Knox

Race- [Human]

Grade- [H]

Class- [Common-Swordsman]- Level 20/25

Job-None!

Stat Block:

HP-440/440

MP-0/260

Power-45

Speed-45

Constitution-44

Intelligence-26

Wisdom-25

Fame-3

Infamy-0

Skills:

[Swordsman’s Eye]-Level 4/10

[Sword Affinity]- Level 1/1

[Swordsman’s Physique]- Level 1/1

[Giant Slayer Style]- Level 1/1

[Shifting Tides Style]- Level 1/3

Bloodline:

[H] Grade- Swordfiend (Sealed, 0% Unlocked)

Insights:

Water’s Power- Early Shallow

Air’s Pressure- Early Shallow

Pulling up his bloodline’s description, Leon began picking through it, crunching through another wing while reading.

The System’s promise of unique Skills and Classes had yet to materialise, but he supposed it would make them available once he’d capped his current class.

Being able to master any technique he could find was a great boon for developing his own swordsmanship- it would give Leon the widest possible base to build on.

The more styles he comprehended, the stronger he could make his own swordsmanship style, incorporating all that had merit and discarding the rest.

The ability to gauge strength was one he was keenly aware of. When he’d first met Zerasos, his bloodline had let him know that any attempt to fight the devil would end in his death. When facing a raptor, a carnotaurus or another human, he could tell they were weaker than him, giving him confidence in securing victory. A useful ability to have, one that would stop him from picking unwinnable fights.

The drawbacks. They were what concerned Leon most.

Casting his mind back to the events of the last few days, he realised the root cause of his fluctuating mood was his bloodline.

His victories against the slimes had bolstered his confidence and the arena dungeon had propelled his arrogance to further heights.

Then he’d taken his first serious injury, the backlash of Tsunami ruining his arm and firmly beating down his arrogance. He’d been far less confrontational afterwards, focused on increasing his power rather than testing his strength.

Every major victory thereafter had come with costs- he’d lost an eye, had his heart pierced through and most recently sacrificed his sword. The gains to his confidence after ploughing through hordes of weaklings? Lost, thanks to injuries suffered against worthier foes. This was what had kept his bloodline’s influence in check.

If he’d solely used Wavecutter and the Shifting Tides Style, then he’d never have suffered these setbacks, able to crush all opposition thanks to the overwhelmingly powerful synergy between Ebb and Flow and his Water’s Power insight.

Thanks to starting his fights with Bladeless, he’d avoided this, potentially even avoided death. The warning the System had provided had Leon on edge as well. If it was common for bearers of the Swordfiend bloodline to die seeking a true challenge, then he needed a plan to counteract the worst of his bloodline’s influence. The System was very clear that he couldn’t erase the impulses, hell Leon was having a hard time even detecting them.

A single drop of poison in a lake was undetectable, harmless. The problem was that as Leon stacked up victories, the flow of droplets increased until the lake was more poison than water.

So he had two choices.

The first was to stop holding back. Bank on a snowball effect and build his power and stats to a tipping point. A level of power at which he became impossible to fight, let alone defeat.

It would work within the Tutorial, but once he was back on Earth? There were no guarantees that he’d be able to continue growing at the same rate, no guarantees that someone stronger wouldn’t turn up while he was out of mana, someone able to beat him into paste without access to his trump card. The risk was too great to take.

So it was the second choice then. Hold back even more. Store Wavecutter away, renounce the use of Ebb and Flow and rely solely on his Giant Slayer Style. Every fight would push him harder. That was exactly what he needed. In this sealed place where he was the strongest, he had the chance to prepare, refine his style and develop a truly firm foundation. He would be weaker and the time needed to gain each level would be longer. In exchange, he would be asserting some control over his bloodline.

He would now only draw Wavecutter against a foe that could force him to retreat. Another round of torture at the hands of his own blood wasn’t appealing.

Flicking Wavecutter out of its scabbard, Leon ran his hand along the flat of the blade, taking in the masterful craftsmanship of the sword. The last lines of the description- the seal on his bloodline. Leon did not have any spare bloodlines in his possession he could use to weaken the seal. Why had some outside force sealed his? Leon resolved to ignore it for now. If anything came up, he’d deal with it.

Course decided, Wavecutter went into the storage ring.

Tossing the empty bowl of wings into the woods, Leon drew the Sunlight Greatsword from his storage ring, stowing the remains of Bladeless as he did so. Leon knew the Giant Slayer Style’s moves weren’t a perfect fit for this blade, but he had no other blades to use. Despite these misgivings, Leon had no doubts the blade would serve him well enough.

He’d returned for a reason; to speak with Zerasos. His reflections on his bloodline had re-aligned his goals.

With both tyrannosaurus and spinosaurus stalking the woods, alongside their powered-up kin, Leon knew he needed to push himself to Level twenty-five, both to access any new classes his bloodline offered and to secure himself against any threats Day Five would bring.

Setting off towards the origin point of the wildfire, Leon picked his way through the corpses of the flame’s victims. The liquid flame ate through scale and skin easily, the bones beneath reduced to ash, mingling with the crumbling redwoods and becoming indistinguishable from the whole. A carpet of death, Leon’s every footfall stirring the ashes, forcing him to breathe slowly to avoid inhaling the remains of the once vibrant forest’s ecosystem.

The rapid change to the woods united the survivors toward a singular purpose. Escape. They fled the torturous heat, their reptilian biology unable to vent the excess warmth that the environment was teeming with.

They would not grant Leon anything. Their levels were too low to grant him experience, their bodies were hardly worth the effort to collect. Soon he had arrived at the site of his last fight, the space devoid of any trees thanks to the still boiling hot ash that blanketed the ground.

The smoke had cleared enough to make breathing possible, though not enjoyable. Leon’s throat objected to the smoky air, even as he sucked in great breaths. The smouldering craters remained, the napalm within still chewing into the dirt.

The pungent scent of gasoline covered the clearing as Leon surveyed the damaged areas. His plan was to follow behind the fire and pick off anything that was left clinging to life.

He set aside that plan as a roar resounded through the ashen clearing. A Venomback Spinosaurus stepped into the clearing, an unspoken challenge in its eye as it sighted Leon.

Pulling the Sunlight Greatsword into his hands, Leon quickly adjusted his battle plan. The Sunlight Greatsword was nowhere near wide enough to block a rampaging dinosaur and any moves that benefitted from the weight of the blade would have a reduced effect. The standard dino strategy still applied- cut into the legs, sever the tail and when the opportunity presented itself, carve through the neck.

Kicking off the layer of ash, a tail swipe met the charging Leon. He’d never spared a good look at a Venomback’s tail before, the sharp spikes that adorned the tip were no doubt loaded with a healthy dose of paralytic venom- though they couldn’t break through Leon’s thick armour.

Slashing at the rebuffed tail, Leon severed the tip, the beast roaring and clawing at its side, hoping to catch the swordsman. Leon was already out of range, lashing out with a two-handed slash, cutting deeply into the beast’s left leg, catching the muscles that let it stand and forcing the spinosaurus into the ash.

It writhed in the burning dust, spilling dark blood onto the ground and whipping its injured tail around in a frenzy as it pushed forward on its good leg, desperately limping and crashing to the ground as it failed to flee. Leon’s next blow, one that tore through the neck and spinal cord alike, was a mercy to the wounded beast.

The lack of any challenge irritated him, an irritation he forced himself to push aside.

Storing the corpse, Leon moved on.

Two more Venombacks fell to his blade in quick succession, which drew another Flamma Tyrannosaurus to him.

Squaring off against another napalm lizard, Leon prepared himself to end the fight quickly. Another forest fire did no one any good. The beast’s eyes met his, his now awakened bloodline beating back the aura of intimidation around the lizard and informing Leon of a simple fact.

This beast was prey.

It was weaker than him.

With that in mind, the swordsman charged as the beast’s maw opened wide, cinders giving way to building flames as a fireball of terrible power brewed in the monster’s mouth. Before Leon could reach his target, the flame burst forth, forcing him to leap to the side, into the thick ash, biting back a grunt of pain as he did so, his flesh burning as hot ash coated exposed skin.

The fireball’s impact followed, leaving Leon’s ears ringing as the ground he had occupied seconds prior vanished under the terrible might of the napalm explosion. Kicking to his feet, he forced himself to evade a rapidly approaching red-scaled tail, sliding under one of the beast’s natural weapons.

Another fireball was forming in its throat, but he was too close now. It had lowered itself to the ground, aiming its gaping maw at the swordsman, unwilling to let him dodge a second blast.

Giving him the perfect opening.

Leon dashed straight at the prime target, sending his blade through the roof of the creature’s mouth and into its brain. Swiftly retracting his sword, Leon watched as the building fireball detonated, blasting the tyrannosaurus’ head and throat apart.

Still no level up.

A pity, but the day was yet young.

At least he had a goal now- kill a Flamma Tyrannosaurus without letting it blow itself apart.