With its protectors dead, the Woods Tyrant waited no longer. It emerged from thin air, popping into view, Leon’s sword still bloody with the gore of its kin.
Standing much larger than a regular tyrannosaurus, the beast dwarfed even the Infernal Rex.
Its size was the second thing Leon noticed.
The first, that the creature was wrong.
Leon had no other words to describe it.
Scales that shifted, from red to grey, grey to white, white to craggy rock armour. Unnatural shifts, as though someone had grafted the sections on, with no intent or design behind their placement.
Its teeth featured the serrated kind Leon expected from a tyrannosaurus alongside the pointed protrusions of the spinosaurus. Again with no pattern to their placement, with teeth in positions unfit for purpose.
He looked into its dark yellow eyes. They shone with violent intent, with cruel intelligence. The beast knew Leon had killed its entourage, and that had done little to endear him to it, fury clear to see in its reptilian pupils.
Good- he could exploit that anger.
Claws dripping venom alongside scales dripping fire. A mixture of his previous foes, with no grace, no care, put into how the pieces fit together.
An abomination, a mockery of nature.
His bloodline slammed against it, probing. Curiously meeting no resistance from the stitched-together beast.
It was strong.
Perhaps stronger than him?
Their strengths were too similar to be completely sure.
Activating his [Sealed Fiend Eyes] for the first time, Leon saw the abomination’s description.
“Level Twenty-Five Woods Tyrant- A Unique being designed as a ‘final exam’ for the Proving Grounds Tutorial’s first stage. Combines physical might, mastery of both the Flamma Tyrannosaurus and Infernal Rex’s flame abilities and the venom and active camouflage used by the Venomback Spinosaurus and Creeping Death Spinosaurus.
The creature bears reinforced flesh on its legs, neck and throat, with durability just below the [G] Grade. This has been implemented as a method to harden its biological weak points and prevent a swift victory.
This being possesses a [G] Grade [Manabeast] Bloodline.
Absorbing this bloodline will loosen user’s bloodline seal by five per cent.”
Leon noted the detailed description. The System hadn’t been kidding when it had claimed [Sealed Fiend Eyes] would give him more information.
The section identifying the bloodline was welcome. Being able to identify any beast carrying these sources of strength was critical- all the more reason to kill the aberrant monster.
Snapping his attention back to the beast before him, Leon’s eyes noted the thicker scales adorning the reinforced areas.
Then the monster vanished, and the tension ratcheted up another notch.
Closing the gap to the lizard’s location, Leon’s senses didn’t detect his target.
Scanning his surroundings, he prepared for the worst.
The fireball still caught him by surprise, a white orb of hellish heat blasting the swordsman backwards, sections of exposed skin cooked, the explosion itself bursting his eardrums.
Knocked into the corpse of a prior foe, Leon had only seconds to dodge the follow-up beam of baleful flame, a familiar white-hot beam lancing through the dead lizard.
Not even ash remained in the beam’s wake, the tyrant now visible as Leon rolled across the dirt, burning energy to heal his injuries, his internal reservoirs dipping to seventy-five per cent.
His foe bore a new feature- a sail raising from its spine, thinner than a spinosaurus sail and consisted entirely of flesh, the skin thin enough to see the blood beneath.
It was venting heat.
Regulating its temperature.
Charging another attack.
Not that Leon would give it a chance.
If the legs, neck and throat were out, that took most of his favoured targets off the table. No chance of a quick kill on this one.
The easy way was out- he’d have to do it the painful way.
The slow way.
The death by a thousand cuts way.
Starting with the arms.
Kicking off the ground, Leon dodged the fireball this time, closing the gap in seconds, cleaving a stubby arm from its socket, then forced to retreat by a reckless bite that left the dinosaur chewing dirt and nursing a bleeding stump.
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Neither combatant had spoken, their attacks serving as conversation enough. A silence Leon broke as he watched the creature spit a glob of fire onto the ground, thrusting its wound into the burning dirt, cauterising its injury.
“Clever girl.”
The beast took offence at his words, roaring in response, and the fight began again.
Charging in once more, the stemmed blood flow did not deter Leon. Cauterisation was a traumatic treatment- the creature’s body would labour for a while longer, but such a wound drag it to its death soon.
He just had to outlast it.
Closing past another super-heated beam, Leon took his second arm of the day, darting to the side as a burst of blue flames turned the dirt beneath the monster to ash.
Trying his luck against the leg, his sword bounced off. No purchase to be had, no mark left on the impenetrable scales.
Shifting his focus, he discovered its foot was decidedly less durable, Leon’s crimson blade splintering claw and maiming toe. The blood flowed once more, dark and thick.
The tyrant’s retaliation was swift. The now bleeding foot kicked out. Leon’s ribs cracking under the force, his armour keeping the claws from tearing his organs apart but doing little for his bones.
Catapulted into another tree, Leon resolved the third time would be the charm- no more cratering into innocent bark-clad bystanders.
Repairing his fractures took Leon down to fifty per cent of his energy- he had little time to recuperate, dodging as a napalm fireball smashed into the space he’d vacated.
Approaching flame-spewing lizards wasn’t a skill Leon would brag about, but it was one he was mastering, his sword meeting a predictable tail swipe that had been aiming to gore the swordsman on the appendage’s spiked protrusions.
The tyrant lost its tail in the exchange, crimson metal cutting through pale bone, scarlet blood spraying from the open wound.
Unlike its lesser brethren, the Woods Tyrant’s retaliation came swiftly, the beast jerking back while spewing a jet of dark purple flame, the flames creating a cloud of acrid smoke.
As Leon breathed it in, he felt his muscles spasm and seize.
Poisonous flames bearing a paralytic component- more energy burned as he drove the toxin from his system.
The beast had activated its active camouflage before Leon could sight it; the swordsman making a swift judgement call.
He was losing the war of attrition, and the beast always spat fire after repositioning with camouflage. Obviously, the camouflage took energy to maintain alongside the cost of wielding potent fire attacks.
Combined with the wounds he’d inflicted, he had a solid shot to end this here and now.
No more holding back.
Time to bust out the big guns.
Storing the Sunlight Greatsword allowed the Woods Tyrant another attack, one Leon had predicted.
The fireball splashed harmlessly against the dirt, the swordsman already moving, a fresh blade at his side, the tyrant visible once more.
Pumping every drop of mana into the circuit, Ebb and Flow roared to life in his veins. Sucking everything he had from his armour’s enchantment, Leon used all five hundred and five points of mana, giving him six hours of Ebb and Flow uptime.
Either his body or his focus would fail long before he approached that time limit. Leon realistically only needed ten minutes to close out this fight, but he would hold nothing back. This fight would serve as a fitting benchmark for his abilities.
Another fireball, another beam, the remains of a tail aiming to beat him down.
All dodged nimbly, the swordsman closing in for the third time, launching a vertical slice at the monster’s face, a flicker of blue steel visible through the smoke and flame.
A burst of blood followed, a deep wound carved upon the beast’s visage by Wavecutter, Leon’s Power and Speed surging as Ebb and Flow absorbed the wasted energy.
Not enough to kill, but this was the first blow. The second or third would surely break its skull open.
Recognising a threat, the Woods Tyrant made a surprising choice.
Vanishing again, Leon scanned the clearing that had formed as they fought, waiting for the next blow to land, for their dance of death to resume.
The fireball never came.
The beast had retreated.
Having spent all his mana, alongside what he’d had stored in his droplet inscription, he was now in a precarious situation.
With no mana to charge another circuit of Ebb and Flow, he was on a timer to track down his opponent.
Worse, he had landed a hit.
With the multiplier in effect that was no longer possible. He could feel the raging stream of energy coiling through his veins, carried by his mana.
The only safe way to release it was to fire a Tsunami- a technique that left Leon weakened and frail.
Belting his sword to his side, he scaled the tree he’d hit earlier, using the crater he’d left as a handhold to leap onto the branches.
Above the forest, Leon saw the extent of the damage.
Three separate wildfires raged. By the end of the day, the once beautiful woods would be little more than smouldering cinders. Shaking off the thought, Leon looked for any sign of his foe.
Two of the fires burned blue, the third burned white only a short distance in front of him- started by a stray fireball, no doubt.
As time ticked by, Leon remained above the trees. Controlling his circuit proved far easier outside the heat of battle. Devoting himself to managing this, Leon used the downtime to recharge both his mana stores and energy, filing his mana pool to half capacity and restoring his energy to full thanks to an energy-dense chocolate bar.
The calories didn’t have to be healthy- they just had to be there when he needed healing.
He would have continued regenerating his mana, had a white beam not obliterated a nearby stretch of trees. Close, within a minute’s sprint.
The target had revealed itself- his patience had borne fruit.
Sliding down the tree, Leon hit the ground sprinting, eager to cleave the Woods Tyrant in two.
The tyrant had done some cleaving of its own, a beheaded Infernal Rex at its feet when Leon found it, snout deep in its stomach, jaws ripping through the dead lizard.
Wounds Leon had inflicted were now healed, the severed appendages still gone though the stumps bled no more.
The facial wound he’d inflicted?
Completely healed.
Round two would begin, with both warriors bearing marks of their previous bout- this one to decide the winner.
Leon took all this information in as he inflicted another deep cut on the tyrant, leaping forward and drawing his blade, blinding an eye before the monster could retaliate.
Knowing it would run again if the fight turned south, Leon resolved to burst it down. If he gave an inch, it would run a mile- he would build to his two-times multiplier, then launch Tsunami, slaying the beast as soon as possible. It was too cunning to be allowed another chance to run.
His follow-up attacks were just as swift, the brutal energy in his body growing with each blow, the rex’s head forced backwards as his blows grew in strength, each one tearing out more flesh, getting closer to inflicting lasting damage.
After the fourth blow hit bone, the monster retaliated, jerking sideways and spewing familiar purple flames that enveloped Leon, the swordsman too committed to his attacks to dodge.
Immediately his body seized, muscles locking in place as the venom coursed through his system, Leon collapsed on the ground, the toxic flames burning his internals as they cooked his skin.
The gout of flame tapered off, the Woods Tyrant looking on with mocking disdain, its throat beginning to glow, a brilliant white flame building in its throat, ready to snuff out the swordsman’s life as he lay in the dirt, limbs immobilised, his sword held in a deadened grasp.