Growth through failure

Time waits for no one. It keeps on going with its steady pace regardless of the whims of the feeble mortals, or even those that proclaim to have a higher standing, a higher measure of power brimming within their fleshy frames.

Since Aziel's last clash and eventual victory over the giant snake monster, several months have passed by. Throughout those months, he has been searching for more creatures to assimilate to make himself stronger. To claim back what he had lost.

Still, his smile was no longer honest, despite having shaped into a much more agile, slender bipedal frame. He had managed to completely shed his theropod origins, and now was standing in two firm legs, sporting a frame mostly reminiscent of a humanoid, albeit with deep reptilian, lizardlike origins.

The dark, brown thick scales that covered his entire frame were like genuine armor from some medieval fantasy. The jagged, long, and curved ebony claws reflected the sun's luster whilst also providing their host with an aura of true apex predators.

His build, with an astounding 9 feet, whilst it would have made him a genuine monstrosity in the modern urbanized world, wasn't that exaggerated when compared to the multitude of titanic creatures he had seen since his arrival.

Creatures with the sizes of literal mountains, legs thicker than some of the towers in his palace back on Nova…

Not so long ago, he had come across a massive tank-like animal, during one of his excursions. It was roughly the size of an elephant, sporting armor that had seemed to put a modern-day tank to shame, covered in spikes and thick layers of hardened skin. It also had a hammer-like appendage at the end of its tail.

The creature was fairly powerful, as Aziel watched it withstand all the attacks of a bigger dinosaur and then proceed to shatter its leg with one swing of its tail, completely crippling the predator. Once the dinosaur was on the floor wailing, the creature raised its tail, slamming it into the head of the reptile, putting it out of its misery in mere seconds.

As its once hunter became a helpless victim of the fearsome beast's abuse and was wailing on the hard ground, the tank-like creature raised its tail one last time before slamming it down and squishing the reptile's head into a mushy mess, putting it out of its misery in mere seconds.

After it left, Aziel went up to the bludgeoned carcass and swiftly absorbed it. In doing so, he gained an even thicker skin than he had before, his muscle strength and density increased by a volume once again, his claws and fangs gained some additional sharpness. His tail, which so far was mostly useless, finally transformed as well.

In addition to becoming slightly thicker, several more joints have been formed inside it, allowing even more dexterous maneuvers. He could finally fully feel it, sort of similar as an extra limb that grew from the wrong side of his body.

Examining it, he found it to be much stronger than he previously thought. He tested this by slamming it against the nearest tree. The tree put up zero resistance and was easily blown to pieces by this singular swing. It felt as if he was hitting a twig, not a tree comparable to the thickness of a grown man.

His unique physiology, the [Essence Restitute] selected the most dominant traits from all the similar genomes of the mass of assimilated creatures. He was becoming more and more reptilian as he kept consuming the prehistoric animals.

He soon escaped his thought process, when he noticed the creature getting a little too far away. Chasing after it to see where it was headed, once he finally caught up, he saw it was integrating itself back into a larger herd of similar animals.

Wanting to spectate more and hope to pry more of the peculiar creature's secrets open, Aziel began to circle around the group, making sure to keep his presence hidden while studying the group of living tanks.

After a while, he noticed one of them leaving the group by itself. Taking this opportunity, he slowly went around and followed after the creature.

Staying hidden as his main priority, he sneaked after the animal unnoticed.

The creature soon arrived at a meadow. Stopping in its tracks, it began to calmly engorge itself by eating the lush green grass that was sprouting from the rich soil. Seeing this, Aziel snuck up behind it with his claws all ready and prepared beforehand.

Lunging himself at the creature, he swung his claws at it as hard as he could against its thick backside.

*CLANK!*

'What the...'

To his utter shock and surprise, his claws that knew no obstacle, no hindrance so far was easily bounced off of its back, leaving behind no trace of damage, not even a blemish. It was as if he was trying to slice through reinforced steel, it didn't even leave so much as a scratch, completely opposing his idea of cutting it in half.

The creature, startled by his sudden attack swung its tail with an instinctual response, slamming it into his side.

*CRACK!*

"AAAAAARGH!"

The amount of pain he felt was unbearable. His entire left side shattered, his arm, and what felt like at least three of his ribs were destroyed on impact. He felt his broken ribs piercing his organs, causing him to fall to the ground, writhing in pain, before he could gather his thoughts due to how disoriented he was.

Yet the creature, now aware of the strange-looking enemy that had made an attempt on its life was not forgiving. It raised its fearsome tail and with a sudden surge of its strength utilized, it slammed down.

As the spiky appendage made contact and sunk deep into Aziel's back, he could hear yet another round of cracks. His spike clearly, obviously shattered to pieces, Aziel coughed up several mouthfuls of blood before with the unbearable, searing pain, he swiftly lost his consciousness.

Seemingly satisfied by the outcome of their clash, the creature snorted coldly, before he turned around and left Aziel's broken body on the ground floor of the meadow. Not bothered what its opponent's fate would ultimately be, the beast made its way back to its group.

The shattered, broken corpse of Aziel remained still for a while before it finally tremors finally began to spread around the surface. Originating from somewhere deeper in the center of the fleshy gore of the mound, it dissolved into the same primordial fluid once more, proceeding to seep beneath the soil in the next couple of minutes.

His trait, [Essence Restitute] kicking into full gear for the third time in this world, his body was reconstructed from the base once more. At the same time, his vessel evolved yet again, teachings its third iteration.

Sucking up the rich essence stored around, the surrounding meadow was slowly drained of its previous bright luster. The leaves were dried up as they aged visibly to the naked eye.

Some hours later, the same-looking humanoid figure, Aziel's body could be seen lying on the now dried-up, parched portion of the land. The gruesome remainders of his third defeat were nowhere to be seen.

The sun has long receded below the horizon when Aziel's body was fully restored, all of the brutal damage he had sustained was now fixed, and his body was now more attuned to take higher levels of physical abuse. All that was left for him was to wake up from pain-induced slumber.

A bit more time had passed, the night had already replaced the daylight luster when Aziel finally began to stir and wake up. Opening his eyes and adjusting, he realized that he was spread out on the floor and that he was gazing at the starry night sky.

'What the hell happened?' He pondered, lost in confusion.

Slowly, the events that led to his third demise began to resurface from his stored memory.

'Another one to the list...' He growled with anger, recalling the shameful blunder he had made.