Supreme Swordfiend

As he fought Leon grew more appreciative of the Sunlight Greatsword.

The blade’s edge was keen, cutting through scale and bone as though they were nothing. He’d noticed no signs that the blade was dulling even as the fights grew more and more intense and the sword had enough reach for him to launch attacks as he was running, sure the blade would connect thanks to its length.

Felling the third Flamma Tyrannosaurus of the day, Leon finally got a level up.

“Level up! You are now a Level Twenty-One Swordsman! +2 Power, +2 Speed, +2 Constitution!”

Four more to go.

The inferno had burned itself out at some point. Overly focused on the fight, Leon had missed the moment the conflagration had ceased, straining his perception to ensure nothing ambushed him.

Storing his latest kill, Leon stopped.

There was a tremor spreading through the ash-covered earth. A great number of feet beat into the dirt, compacting the fiery residue beneath them as they drew nearer to him. Keeping his weapon drawn, Leon braced for impact.

Seconds became minutes and sweat trickled across Leon’s brow. The exertion combined with the heat had him drenched in his own perspiration. Brushing an errant strand of hair from his eyes, the swordsman focused on the surrounding air, flakes of ash dancing on the currents the fire had created, a temporary wind that acted as a midday balm.

It did not soothe Leon. He was alert, ready for a brawl.

He felt the first tyrannosaurus before he saw it, a disturbance in the air behind him, an image of snapping jaws in his head, barrelling through the treeline behind him.

A pair of uppercuts to the jaw beat the charging beast back, Leon’s Power stat reaching a level the dinosaurs had to acknowledge.

The beast did not roar even as blood poured from the deep wound Leon had left in its face. The second tyrannosaurus made the reason for the silence clear as it emerged from the treeline, ignoring Leon and tearing into its wounded kin.

One part of Leon wanted to watch and see which lizard would triumph. He ignored that part of himself, fully aware that he’d not gain any experience if he didn’t contribute to the death.

The new entrant had wrestled the initial aggressor to the ash-laden floor, jagged teeth tearing into the T-Rex’s throat. The previously restrained roars of pain now flowed freely alongside the beast’s black blood.

Leon’s blade silenced the roars as it cleaved deeper into the wound he’d already made; the swordsman hacking the lizard’s face open, battering teeth from their gums and slicing the monster’s tongue apart. Thanks to the hold, the second rex had the first under, the beast’s jaws could not close around the invading swordsman.

As blood pooled in the downed tyrant’s throat, Leon slammed his blade skyward, piercing the brain and ending the unfortunate creature’s desperate struggle. A fresh burst of mana flooded Leon, though he felt a significant portion splitting off, being diverted to the second T-Rex.

He’d be getting that back shortly, with interest.

Withdrawing from the dead dinosaur’s mouth, Leon took advantage of the corpse, scrambling over the rough scales and onto his next target’s head. The kin slayer’s attention had been consumed with the consumption of its brethren, unable to spare any for the smaller threat.

The foolish beast snapped its head up as it felt Leon alight upon its skull, its muzzle fresh with crimson gore, strings of torn flesh hanging from its mouth.

Before it could begin attempting to dislodge Leon, he had already used the momentum to leap skyward, the height he gained revealing the full devastation of the wildfire.

A vast swathe of the woods was gone, burnt to ash. The river that snaked back and forth across the woodland had stymied the fire’s path, cutting off its source of fuel. Thankfully, Leon’s house had remained untouched, as he’d predicted.

Turning his attention to the woods below, Leon saw the source of the tremors. At least twenty more tyrannosaurs were stampeding towards him, led from the rear by a Flamma Tyrannosaurus.

A smile spread across Leon’s face.

This would be a good fight.

His upward momentum stalled, forcing Leon to line his sword up with the rex beneath him, the beast exhibiting a more keen foresight than its lesser brethren.

It had turned its attention skyward, mouth open, awaiting the inevitable return of the one that had dared press its feet upon a lizard king’s head.

Seeing its wide open mouth gave Leon an idea.

Angling his blade’s tip towards his feet, Leon pointed it at the beast’s throat.

Then gravity kicked in and he dropped.

The wind whistled past him as the swordsman plunged directly into the T-Rex’s throat, his speed quicker than the monster’s reflexes, saving him from being bitten in half.

The victorious lizard let out a victory roar, only to keel over dead seconds later, its organs slashed apart from the inside, the trauma alone enough to kill the overgrown gecko. A few seconds later, the swordsman carved his way out, cutting up through the beast’s back, drenched in acid and gore.

Wiping the worst of it from his eyes, he hefted his blade out of the carcass’ cooling flesh, the crimson blade retaining its lustrous gleam as the innards slid from its length onto the scales beneath Leon’s feet.

Through the remnant blood and ash that covered his vision, Leon saw another two tyrannosaurus approach.

From his elevated position, he threw himself forward, the force of his leap carrying him onto the closer gecko’s back. Placing his sword into the beast’s back, Leon carved a bloody trail, slicing open his foe from neck to tail, cutting the tail off as he did so.

The screams of pain were music to his ears, though he noticed a peculiarity. These tyrannosaurs were thinner, weaker than the ones he’d fought previously.

Before he could connect the information into a unified theory, a tail flew into Leon’s chest, punting him backwards. He crashed against one of the corpses he’d made prior, his sword still firmly in his grip.

The rex that had whipped him had torn into the one he’d injured, the two lizards snapping and clawing at each other with their stubby arms.

Leon chose to focus on the injured one, shaking off the aftershocks of the blow he’d taken. Slashing through leg muscles to hobble the beast, the swordsman left the rex alive for now, allowing its kin to tear into the stumbling creature’s side.

Then it too was hamstrung at Leon’s hands, the two crippled foes still continuing their struggle as Leon cleaved their heads open.

The flow of mana from their deaths was strong- powerful.

Yet, it was not enough.

Another T-Rex arrived at the impromptu mass grave, forcing Leon to leap into action once more, a savage grin visible underneath the coat of muck that covered the man and his armour.

The sounds of battle, of roaring apex predators, and the occasional burst of crazed laughter from a man who fought at the very limits of his constrained abilities. This was enough to ward the area, to deter the lesser creatures from approaching.

A battleground of monsters had no place for men.

Metal against bone.

Scale versus steel.

An incomparable explosion, the stink of gasoline and a pained bellow.

Evening approached as Leon took stock of the notifications he’d received at the end of the protracted battle.

“Level up! You are now a Level Twenty-Two Swordsman! +2 Power, +2 Speed, +2 Constitution!”

“Level up! You are now a Level Twenty-Three Swordsman! +2 Power, +2 Speed, +2 Constitution!”

Two more to go, though he was out of foes to fight. The Flamma Tyrannosaurus had detonated its own head once again, its body at the foot of the pile Leon had created as he’d fought.

The corpses had served as useful platforms, allowing him to leap onto the backs of any unaware tyrannosaurus. It was upon the pile he sat, rivers of blood flowing into the dirt, dark red clashing with dirty grey, a mound of gore.

A monument to his skill. The Giant Slayer Style had allowed Leon to claim more than a few severed heads.

Moves like Circle Swing and Earth Skewer hadn’t an opportunity to shine in that fight, their usefulness diminished in part thanks to Leon’s reduced need to control the movements of his foes.

Another reason was the lacking weight of the Sunlight Greatsword. Leon had less confidence that the thinner and lighter blade could root a rampaging lizard the length of a bus nor did he feel the need to test its ability to knock said lizard around when the blade had proved more than capable of cutting through any bone he’d tested it against.

Rising to his feet, Leon began the arduous task of storing away the corpses. A process that took nearly fifteen minutes in total as Leon was unwilling to leave any of his loot behind.

He hunted down all the severed tails he’d cut, retrieved any loose teeth that he’d knocked from their owner’s mouths, and collected a talon he’d sliced from a foot.

He paused when he reached the Flamma Tyrannosaurus, noting the beast’s thin frame, the lacking lustre of its scales, and the fact its final fireball had only blown off its lower jaw.

Normally, the fireballs took out the entire head, which left Leon curious.

How did they make those napalm balls?

Was it just magical bullshit or was there a biological element to the process?

Dragging the corpse away from the burning dirt it had been lying in, He propped open the upper jaw with his greatsword and peered into the beast’s throat.

There he saw a small hole in the back of the throat that stank of gasoline.

Presumably, the inactive liquid napalm sprayed out from there, produced within a sac or gland, though Leon hadn’t the knowledge to even guess at how the lizards ignited it within their throat or how they formed it into a fireball.

It was probably magical bullshit anyway.

Storing the corpse and retrieving his blade, Leon weighed up his choices.

Continue hunting or clean himself off?

The choice was made for him as he was forced to dodge an incoming fireball. His ability to detect movement in the air was the only thing that saved him from being burnt to cinders.

A roar unlike any he’d heard before followed the deafening explosion. Leon’s latest foe, enraged that the human had dodged its fireball.

Bearing a resemblance to the Flamma Tyrannosaurus, this monster had clearly gone even further beyond the bounds of normalcy.

Each scarlet scale upon its hulking frame spewed rivulets of molten flame, the ground beneath the beast’s feet scorched by its footfalls. It was taller and wider than what Leon had grown to expect from the tyrannosaurus species.

Along its back jets of flame burst, their tips burning blue, rising and falling with each breath the gargantuan monster took. From its mouth, flames burst forth, a pure and brilliant blue. Its tail swished back and forth in agitation, revealing the spikes that lined it, each one appearing like hardened magma, lined with veins of infernal lava.

Leon locked eyes with the beast, ignoring the crater the fireball had created to his side, sizing up his newest foe.

The aura of a despot and a fiend clashed and Leon felt his bloodline crush the inferior being’s futile attempt to intimidate a Swordfiend.

It was weaker than him.

Though not by much.

The thought sparked incoherent rage.

That anything on this island could even approach his strength was inconceivable! It was a challenge, plain and simple.

One he would take joy in rising to meet.

[Swordsman’s Eye] chimed in, spitting out the information of the ignorant challenger.

“Level Twenty-Five Infernal Rex. What happens when a Flamma Tyrannosaurus Rex masters its abilities and survives long enough to mature? You get one of these, a dinosaur whose command of flame is matched only by its natural armour. A rudimentary intellect guides it; this beast seeks to do more than merely survive. It seeks to dominate. To do so, it will bend its lesser brethren to its will, using them as sacrificial fodder. A novice swordsman has no chance against one.”

“[Swordsman’s Eye] has reached Level Five!”

Leon had enjoyed his appetiser.

Now he was ready for the main course.