Levels of Death (1)

"Haha... It's just the first level, but it's already a higher-ranked monster than me?" Xavier muttered to himself as he made a helpless smile.

'This Trial really is another absurd challenge. If the first stage is easily doable, but if it's like this now, I wonder what the later stages are like...'

The monster in front of him was a dire wolf, a lower rank 1 monster. It was a basic monster that newbies hunt right after graduating from slimes and goblins. It's strong and fast, but it isn't anything tricky to deal with.

'It's just a buffed-up dog. I may be way weaker physically than this mutt, but...'

Xavier pointed his sword towards the dire wolf, his stance impeccable. The dire wolf felt a strange sensation of danger, and he instinctively rushed forward to eliminate that 'danger'. Xavier watched with calm eyes as the wolf got nearer and nearer, and just as he was in range,

*swish*

A faint flash glimmered out, and the dire wolf's head was cleanly slid away from its body. Xavier returned to his stance, his sword stainless without a single drop of blood. It was the most perfectly performed slash, better than anyone in the current world.

'I was a Crafted Sword Archon. Even though I have lost my power, my skills and expertise are still with me. It's an insult to me to think that such a lowly mutt can even begin to harm me. Still, this is just the first level, the later ones can...'

*WOOOSH*

As Xavier was distracted, a black shadow-like tentacle emerged from the shadows of the corpse. Utilizing Xavier's inattentiveness to its advantage, it bound his limbs and effectively immobilized him.

'SHIT! I CAN'T MOVE!'

Despite Xavier's skills, he still has the body and strength of a frail, malnourished child. No amount of skill could help him now, as breaking out was fully up to brute force. Somehow, he couldn't even use any secret techniques, as that black shadow had injected some sort of debilitating curse into Xavier's body.

The sliced-off head opened its eyes and looked at Xavier with taunt. Xavier saw that look and immediately understood what was going on.

'Fuck, to think it was a mutant, a shadow type at that. Shadow mutants are effectively immortal monsters that don't die even if you cut off their head or pierce their heart. Their physical body is just a host, and their soul resides in the shadows of their hosts... These fuckers also have access to elusive curses.'

The headless body of the dire wolf got up and slowly moved towards Xavier as if relishing this moment of victory over this overwhelming opponent. Xavier struggled with all his might to get out, but it was for naught, as technically, the wolf is still 'stronger'. He couldn't even use his techniques because of the curse.

"Fuck! No! I ain't gonna die like this! Not to the hands of a fucking dire wolf! I'll survive! I'll definitely survive! I WILL NOT DIE TODAY!"

Xavier screamed at the top of his voice, he brought out every single ounce of strength his body possessed. It was his last-ditch effort, it was all he could do now.

Alas, however much Xavier struggled, the bindings were not coming off. He wasn't some fairytale character who would gain immense strength in desperate times out of nowhere, nor was there going to be a miraculous plot twist where he would be saved by someone. Externally, he was still screaming, but he knew what was going to happen eventually.

'I'm going to die again, aren't I? This time, it's not even a grand battle, just a fucking dire wolf. How? How was I supposed to know that this is a fucking shadow-type mutant? How unfair this is...

No, I should stop blaming everything around me for once... How pathetic am I? I knew that these trials were anything but simple. Despite knowing that, I underestimated the first monster. Even if it's a shadow mutant, I could've somehow beaten it if I'd been more careful...

It wasn't the monster who killed me, it was my own arrogance. Maybe I was never supposed to live after the hero killed me... Maybe I was supposed to just accept my fate...'

In the midst of such depressing thoughts, the headless wolf slashed its claw and beheaded Xavier, just like he had done to it. Xavier once again felt the cold embrace of death, his vision blurring, his senses slowing down. It wasn't a new feeling to him, he had experienced it once before after all. Just, this time, he wasn't calm and accepting his his death. He was full of regrets, full of unfulfilled wishes, desires, and goals that he decided in this life.

'I... hate this...'

Just like that, Xavier had died once more.

.

.

.

*********************

[Death] Detected. Activating time loop.

[Death] Counter: 0->1

[Death] Record:-

Level 1: 0->1

*********************

"..."

*GASP*

"W-What the? I'm alive?"

Xavier, who had completely closed his eyes in the comforting embrace of death, opened it once more in the world of living. It was a sudden feeling, but, it was coincidentally nothing new to him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his mind and make rational conclusions.

'I had died. No doubt about that, since I know what it's like to really die. This trial is what kept me alive. It brought me back from the dead, just like that time. With this, I can conclude that these trials are hosted by a being with similar power to the one who gave me this second chance at life. I really feel like I'm being played in the hands of powers incomprehensible.

Anyway, the trial remains the same. I need to beat that dire wolf, or rather, that shadow mutant.'

*CREAK*

Xavier once again looked at the gate opening, this time with far more coldness than before. He drew his sword and got into a stance before the wolf even revealed itself.

'What killed me was my own arrogance, I should never forget that. I am weak right now. I am a shell of my former self. The strength that I carried with pride, it doesn't fucking exist. It was retarded of me to underestimate a monster higher ranked than me, however high my skills with the sword were.

This time, I won't hold back. Shadow mutants are almost immune to physical attacks, so my matchup is pretty bad. But the key word is 'almost'...

After so long, I think I should just accept my nature and once again give some 'flavor' to my sword. My sword is demonic to the core, so trying to ignore that and create a whole new 'better' sword art while being so weak is just a death wish. My situation is too dire to have such aloft thoughts.'

The stance Xavier got into was drastically different from his previous one. It was full of openings, the sword guarded basically nothing. But, this was never meant to guard. It was a stance to make the fastest and the most powerful offensive, sacrificing everything just to slash your opponents with more power.

The mutant was finally revealed, and this time, instead of waiting for the wolf to attack first, he dashed first.

It was not fast enough to catch the wolf by surprise, Xavier was too slow right now for that. Still, it did give him the initiative.

And, that was enough for him.

"Supreme Demonic Style:

Advent of Insanity"

*SLASH*

The wolf had opened its mouth to do a counterattack, but Xavier took that as an opportunity and slashed right from between his jaws. This time, his sword was dirty with blood, but it had not cut only its head, but fully dissected the wolf horizontally.

Even though this was enough to kill a lot of creatures, Xavier knew better. Without losing the slightest bit of battle momentum, he forcefully canceled his inertia and once again went for a full-force slash. This time, he swung from downwards up, right from its gut, splitting it further.

The wolf was now divided into 4 parts, but it was still not over. The shadow was still alive, and now it had begun to reveal its true form because it had judged Xavier to be a maniac who would hack its host into pieces.

It wasn't wrong, either. Xavier was not so easily satisfied. Even if the wolf had died from the earlier slashes alone, the vengeful swordsman would still go further. It had become personal for him.

This time, he let the momentum from the sword carry him, and he twisted his body to slash down from the sword high up, effectively performing an overhead full-circle slash. Treating his body like a puppet, pushing it beyond its limits was definitely self-harming, but he didn't care. The mutant was still alive, so he must not stop slashing.

The shadowy tentacles once again emerged from the wolf's body, but this time, Xavier was prepared. He was anticipating the attack, and as soon as they emerged to pierce him, he quickly stepped back to dodge.

*SWOOSH*

"Tsk. I've become so weak."

He wasn't able to avoid damage completely, as a few managed to nick him a bit. It wasn't a problem movement-wise, but it has become a weak point that will constantly bleed. The shadows attacked once more, but Xavier parried them easily. Parries are one of the few concepts in swordsmanship that are heavily technical and less dependent on strength. For someone like Xavier, this was a huge advantage. He approached the wolf once more without taking any damage this time and slashed once again.

The wolf was already rendered completely powerless in his physical body. It was hacked into 6 pieces, each limb a different piece. Xavier was basically just slashing at a pile of chopped meat that was somehow still alive.

This time, however, he slashed from the blunt edge, which did not cut any piece, but scattered the nearby pieces quite a distance away from each other. The shadow, which was intact and at full power till now, was split into six different pieces.

The eyes on the wolf's upper head showed fear for the first time. It frantically started sending shadow attacks towards Xavier, which he parried easily this time as well.

However, it was much easier to parry compared to last time. It didn't go unnoticed as Xavier flashed a diabolical smile. This monster had a weakness too.

"You don't like your shadows smaller, do you?"

Xavier quickly moved towards a limb, parried the weak tentacles, and slashed it over and over. Once it was hacked into small cubes, he kicked them away and scattered them.

*Grrrr*

Xavier heard a guttural cry from the part with the lower jaw. He looked and noticed that the shadow of the hacked pieces had gotten lighter. This could mean only one thing, and Xavier was happy to see his attacks finally taking effect.

"You finally took some damage, mutt. Don't worry, I suffered a much greater horror from you just now, so I ain't stopping until I'm satisfied.

You will experience the fears of death I felt. You will experience my fears."

Like that, Xavier went piece to piece, hacking it away without remorse despite the wolf's desperate cries. In fact, he took joy in hearing those cries. It was a dark satisfaction to him that the wolf was similarly struggling in his grasp, just like he did earlier. Xavier was never a merciful person, otherwise he wouldn't have ended up being a Demon King.