A Larger Predator

The severed pieces of the leopard went right past Aeon and Suri by the side and slid on the ground, leaving a long, bloody trail.

"Sorry I'm late," Aeon said with a smile.

For a moment, everyone looked at him, even Samuel who currently grabbed a hold of the komodo dragon's mouth. They were all a bit surprised by Aeon's display of power.

But then again, they still had things to worry about.

The other beasts were still about 100 meters away from them, so the immediate danger was the komodo dragon. Samuel focused back on it while Levi and Selena assisted him. Its thick skin was really hard to penetrate even with Levi's piercing spells, so the three had quite a problem.

Aeon smiled at them, but when he looked at Korona's face, he realized that there was a mix of relief and worry in her expression. Aeon looked down on his feet and saw Suri lying down. His eyes were half-open, but he seemed to be out of it. Aeon leaned forward and saw the wound on Suri's temple. He must've suffered a blow to the head. Suddenly, Aeon saw something move by the corner of his eyes. He immediately straightened up his body.

Whoosh!

A head-sized rock flew right past him. Just in front of his face! Aeon looked to the side and saw a big monkey with a pouch on its belly perched on a tree. They were in a really dangerous spot. Moreover… Aeon looked behind him. Four more beasts headed their way. Fortunately, they weren't that fast.

A long fence made of ice rapidly formed beside Aeon, blocking the monkey's vision on them. It was the temporary solution Korona came up with to limit the monkey's attack range and keep them safe from surprise range attacks.

Four giants beasts in the front. One at the back. And a monkey who had excellent aim lurking in the forest.

Troublesome.

Aeon looked at Korona who was rushing towards him and Suri. "Korona, grab Suri and regroup with the others."

"What? How about you?" Korona replied as she ran.

"I'll distract these four," Aeon faced the beasts who were rushing towards them, "don't forget about the monkey."

Aeon did not wait for Korona's reply and paid no attention to her yells and pleas to stop. He started running towards the four gigantic beasts with his swords. His target was the one in the front, a gigantic tiger about 6 meters when standing on all four legs. Two meters taller than the leopard he previously cut.

The quaking of the ground steadily grew stronger as Aeon got closer to the beast.

He focused on his body, feeling the power welling up within him. When he hit the 40-meter mark in front of the tiger, Aeon demonstrated a sudden burst of speed. One that he had never displayed before.

Shuaa!

The wind blew as Aeon disappeared from his previous position and almost instantly reappeared in front of the unaware tiger. Aeon jumped forward with immense force and slashed with one sword.

Zephyr buried itself on the tiger's neck and exited on the other side!

Spurt!

Blood spilled from the cut that the tiger suffered. It stumbled forward and but immediately stabilized itself. The other beasts behind reacted and stopped charging forward. They had their eyes on the small human.

Aeon landed on the ground, turned around, and rushed towards the tiger again. The resistance he felt from the slash told him that the tiger was still alive and kicking. Its muscles were way thicker than the leopard's who got cleaved in just two slashes! Probably, the leopard only developed its legs, giving it extraordinary speed, not its overall constitution.

The tiger on the other hand… Although it was way slower than how tigers should be, it had quite a muscular build. Also, now that Aeon had a closer look at it, its tail had a metallic tip. It looked like it had a dagger attached to it.

The tiger looked at Aeon and bared its fangs. It was wounded, but it showed no signs of weakening. It also rushed towards him, not appearing to be afraid. Instead of moving in a straight line, however, it moved in a zigzag path.

As he ran, Aeon eyed the tiger move. He found himself having a hard time aiming for a vital spot. They weren't separated by a huge distance like before, so Aeon arrived in front of the beast again in no time. Aeon jumped in the air and spun with his swords. Sword light flashed through the air and hit the beast's shoulder, leaving two clear sword marks and wounds.

The tiger hissed in pain, but aside from that, it was okay. It landed on the ground and pounced on the airborne Aeon. Afraid of being attacked on its mouth, the tiger used its claws instead.

The airborne Aeon had no way to dodge! Aeon shifted a bit to face the sharp claws that were closing in. He crossed his swords in front of him in an attempt to defend!

Ding!

The sound of metal hitting against metal reverberated through the air as the tiger's claws collided with Verdure and Zephyr. Aeon shot towards the ground like a meteor! The moment Aeon hit the ground, his feet dug two deep grooves on the dirt.

The beast packed quite a punch!

Fighting the tiger was so troublesome that he wanted to just lie down and relax. But he wasn't able to rest just yet!

Aeon rapidly rolled sidewards!

BOOOM!

Aeon barely dodged the slap of the gigantic brown bear that just arrived on the scene! Dust and dirt blew towards him from the impact. When he was at a safe distance, Aeon hopped to his feet as he started running sidewards, away from the tiger, as it followed him. He completely ignored the brown bear and the other two who had attempted to gang up on him but failed.

Fuck!

In order to deal some damage to the buff tiger, he had to close in as much as possible. That's why he needed to jump before attacking. But the thing immediately found a way to counterattack at his most vulnerable state. As expected from a beast of prey.

Ever since Aeon woke up from his dream, he felt a new kind of power, as if his body was on fire and full of energy. He was now strong enough to attack from a distance using the force behind his swings. He could perform sword attacks that reached beyond the blade of the sword.

But his experience was still immature.

He didn't know how to wield such power yet. Something told him that it wasn't his limit. That's why he challenged himself by fighting a beast that was completely out of his league.

BOOOOOM!

A huge explosion came out of nowhere.

Aeon looked towards the other battlefield and saw a complete mess of beast meat all over the place, especially on the wall. The others were now rushing towards him to aid him in their escape.

Now that he was in the situation, he might as well go all out. Since backup was about to come, he at least wanted to find out how much of the new power his body could handle.

Aeon stopped running.

He placed Verdure in front of him and Zephyr behind. His knees bent, ready to slash or rush forward at any moment. He breathed in as he watched the four beasts approach.

Aeon activated his Tenro.

To be exact, he lit up all 464 spheres of light inside his body.

His focus increased by several folds, way beyond what he could previously achieve. Aeon was so shocked that he lost focus on the battle at hand for a second. He was already so confused, but as if that wasn't enough, the feeling of his Tenro did not stop on his head. It started spreading on his torso, arms, hands, then finally, his legs, too!

Aeon appeared to have been frozen solid. Completely exposed to the beasts who were charging towards him. Even when they were already at a critical distance, Aeon did not move.

Korona, Levi, Selena, and Samuel watched in horror as the gigantic rat opened its mouth, getting ready to devour Aeon in one go. Levi and Korona immediately casted a spell.

They weren't aware, though, that Aeon had a huge grin on his face.

"Haha," Aeon laughed flatly. For him, it was a pleasant surprise worthy of celebration.

Aeon smelled the rotting breath of the rat as its mouth closed in, but it didn't foul his mood one bit. No, not a single bit.

Aeon sidestepped, avoiding the mouth of the beast by a hair. The rat's snout hit the ground, taking a large chunk of it. Grass and dirt flew everywhere, but Aeon did not care.

Aeon ignored it and casually walked forward.

Zing! Pffft!

A Wind Blade and an Ice Spear pierced the giant rat's head.

The bear charged at Aeon, bringing down its paw, along with its momentum.

Aeon responded by slashing with Zephyr using his right hand.

Zing!

The bear's entire foreleg was cut in half, failing to hit Aeon at the last moment. The bear howled in pain as the blood spurted from the remaining stub of its foreleg. It crashed to the ground.

Aeon's slow advance was not halted even the slightest bit. As he walked, he stared at the unmoving tiger straight in its eyes.

The moose finally arrived, flaunting its sharp and bloody antlers. Their sanguine appearance would make common people feel terrified. Who knew how many beasts got impaled by them? One thing's for sure, though. The count wouldn't go up anymore.

Aeon effortlessly slashed with Verdure using his left hand, cutting the moose's body horizontally in half. Like the brown bear, its large body crashed to the ground.

The large tiger with a dagger-like tail started backing away, preparing to escape. The tiger bent its legs and bolted away from Aeon.

It acknowledged that it was in the presence of a larger predator.

"Hoh," Aeon said, surprised. He didn't expect that even the ferocious tiger would feel fear. It was indeed much smarter than the two beasts who continued charging at him mindlessly.

Aeon had no intention of letting it live though. It had metallic claws and tail. If he continued to let it live, it might evolve further and bring more danger.

Like the tiger, Aeon bent his knees, then kicked. Aeon rushed forward at an unimaginable speed. Surprisingly, he moved like a fish underwater. The extreme speed posed no difficulties on him as he ran. He moved at a much... much faster speed when he was trapped in his own consciousness.

He dodged any obstacle that stood in his way, and they failed to slow him down. The tiger was truly slower than it should be, and Aeon easily overtook it.

With Aeon's speed, the beast didn't even notice him approach until the last moment when it saw the human stand right in front of it.

Aeon slashed the beast from under its body using both his swords. The resistance he felt was much lesser than earlier.

The body of the tiger was cut cleanly in half.

It felt no pain.

Only peace.

….