Supreme Swordfiend

Rubbing his hands as he dismounted the cable, Leon kicked a severed goblin head out of the way.

He watched it roll across the desecrated lobby with disinterest, a death scream stuck on its tiny features, a hole in its skull leaving a trail of brain fluid and blood in its wake.

One down, one to go. Might not have been the nicest conversation with Mia, but if Octavia had wanted sugar, spice and all things nice she'd have gone herself.

Backtracking through the ashy streets, Leon remembered seeing a human a while ago, one who'd been cutting open a goblin to retrieve its core- a waste of time in his opinion, the things could barely clear single-digit levels and were disgusting pests to boot.

Still, they were good killing. Bled and screamed like everything else but you felt good when you stomped out a pack of them.

They gave Leon a feeling akin to one he'd felt when bringing a shoe down on a spider or cockroach, like he'd done the universe a favour by stamping out something that should not be.

Idle thoughts of goblin extinction kept his mind occupied as he threaded his way towards the shantytown he'd passed on his way into the city proper- a collection of ramshackle wooden bridges strung between apartment blocks on the edge of town, with a white banner draped across its front, hanging from windows midway up one building's height.

'Safe here' had been hastily splashed on the fabric with thick black paint in all caps.

At best, safer applied.

At worst- well he would be there soon and really anywhere Leon Knox went he created trouble.

They'd posted lookouts, those with shoddy bows or weak magical loci scavenged from the dead. He doubted anyone strong enough to have cleared the Tutorial would waste their time taking care of a bunch of weaklings.

Unbothered by the warning shot that thudded into the ash in front of him, Leon unsheathed Abyss Brand and waited for the shout from above to declare his intentions or they'd shoot to kill.

It never came.

Instead, a barricade at the entrance shifted and an older man strode out to meet him, crystal already in hand.

Slinging his sword over his shoulder, Leon spoke first.

"You guys mind readers? Not that I'm complaining- hand it over then."

Slavish compliance followed, he received only a bowed head and a tossed crystal in response.

As it touched his hand he watched the interface materialise in front of him, snapping off a message to Octavia with a flex of his mind and pointedly ignoring the fact he already had a few thousand messages on an account he hadn't known about three seconds ago.

The guy who'd handed him the crystal made to speak but the portal opening beneath Leon cut him off.

After his head stopped spinning the blood stench hit.

Wherever he'd been sent something had torn through it, a rampage that left corpses strewn across the ground.

One hand held fast to his blade as he followed the path of carnage to its terminus, working his way through what appeared to be a small coastal village.

Hundreds lay broken and bloodied. Humans mostly but a race of hairy four-armed aliens had also fallen victim to the killer, their corpses given special ministration, eyes pierced and hearts excavated from their burst chest cavities.

Only as he approached the sands did the blood thin, a single man kneeling upon the beach, hands clasped in prayer around a spear shedding strips of gore as its wielder shifted.

Leon drew closer and the indistinct murmurs ceased the moment his feet touched the beach.

Really the massacre behind him should have been warning enough, but his intuition informed him this one would not be simple.

So as his aura burst forth, loosed from its cage like a starved beast, he expected to find strength enough to whet his appetite.

What he felt had him involuntarily recoil as he drew his sword, the spearman shifting slightly as he felt the fiend's aura brush against him for but a moment before Leon spoke.

"The hell is this? How the fuck are you stronger than me! No, nope, sorry- this is bullshit. I refuse to believe a human can be stronger than me."

He smiled.

The blonde bastard had the gall to smile at him, cocking his head like he didn't understand.

"Ah, my apologies Mr. Knox. I am assuredly human. My patron informed me you would appreciate, well how did he put it, 'a clash with a warrior exceeding your strength' I believe he said? If he is mistaken, then I must apologise on his behalf as well. We could postpone our battle until your strength matches my own?"

Unwillingly he inspected the spearman.

"Level One Earth's Spear Saint- Unique Class

Aggregate Level- One Hundred and One"

He heard his jaw lock, his teeth grinding together as he levelled his blade at the soon-to-be-dead man. Damn Octavia and her stipulation that he needed to recruit this guy. He clearly knew what it meant, to show up before Earth's mightiest warrior with such strength.

"Nah, fuck it. I could use a workout. Let's dance, blondie."

His enemy made to speak but Leon heard nothing over the roaring blood in his veins, urging him to split this obstacle in two.

Dimly he realised in that moment that stomping a bunch of goblins flat in a one-sided massacre may have impacted his judgement.

In the next he split the sand apart, his enemy weaving to the side and lunging at his heart.

Overcommitted to his opening strike, Leon watched as the spearhead struck the Void Aegis, point rebuffed.

Drawing back he then made to separate the man's legs from his torso only for the spearman to boldly charge into his range once more, spear striking the same point on his chest and this time he felt the metal part for a second before he slammed the pommel of his sword into his foe's gut and followed it up with a thrust that dented the glossy white armour he used.

Spitting blood into the sand, Blondie flourished his spear as he weathered Leon's storm of follow-up slashes, serene smile never shifting as he spoke.

"Indeed, your talent is impressive. Adapting so swiftly... if I must then."

Slamming the butt of his spear into the earth saw the sand beneath Leon morph into deep mud, his legs submerged to the knee, his strength useless as another tap had the mud harden to rock.

A spear point materialised before his eyes, Blondie glancing down at him along the length.

"Do you yield?"

Abyss Brand fell as his shaking hands drifted to his sides.

He met the enemy's gaze and spat an answer through his rage as he drew his swords.

"Never."

Silent and Scream tore through his legs, the spear driving towards where he would have been had he not launched himself down while sheathing his blades, arms ripping his severed legs free and mashing them back into place.

His nerve endings reconnected in time to allow Leon a kick off the ground, avoiding a second stab and his scimitars were back in his hands, slashes aimed at Blondie's throat, both warded off by defensive strikes.

Back on his feet, Leon wicked blood from his blades, taunting his enemy as he prowled closer.

"Neat trick. My turn."

All thought ceased as the fiend loosed blow after blow, chaining his strikes into a net that bound the spearman's actions and kept him backfooted.

Lightning struck the beach as the two clashed, gaps in one man's offence plugged by the other, weaving a web of lethal strikes a conversation carried out via glares, breaking steel and shed blood.

Mana flooded Leon's legs as he ascended, storm at his back roaring and still failing to drown his exulted cries.

"Not bad, but not enough!"

Catching heavenly fury on his blades, he launched himself towards the raised spear, an explosion of lightning and mana glassing the sand beneath his feet.

For he had missed the meat he'd aimed for, his foe already back on the offensive with a new style incorporating staff-like strikes that opened Leon up just enough for the spearhead to pierce his cheek and draw deep crimson blood.

A bolt striking behind Blondie allowed him to retreat via teleportation, his enemy levelling his spear anew and circling around, wary of striking again.

"Curious. You haven't drawn your last blade."

"Won't need it."

"I see. Then I shall stop holding back."

A creeping vine crawled down the spear's shaft and Leon felt Blondie's power boost higher again. Where before the man had exceeded him, now he dominated him.

Pillars of metal burst from the ground, as the vine blossomed. No longer could bolts strike the earth, a white bloom entwining with the spearhead, Blondie holding the spear at his side as he spoke in a reverent monotone.

"Verdant Earth Spearmanship. Form Four, Green Hell."

Somehow he knew he'd wind up skewered before the spear left Blondie's hands, even as he jumped in the vain hope his Ascending Demon circuit would carry him high enough to dodge the strike, he knew the spear would hit home.

The projectile carried him higher, then dragged him back down, point embedded in the sand that shifted to mud and hardened to stone as Blondie approached and drew his weapon from Leon's chest.

"Yield."

"Go fuck yourself."

"Please, yield. I do not enjoy this senseless violence."

"A whole lot of corpses back that way would say otherwise."

For the first time, Blondie's mask of placid serenity cracked, a disgusted sneer forming on his face.

"Those wastes? Parasites and invaders. My violence there? Calm, measured. None suffered longer than necessary bar the monsters. They deserved every second of cruelty before I allowed them access to everlasting peace."

Abruptly he wiped his face and that irritating kind smile took its place anew.

"You are stalling Mr. Knox. Already your wounds lessen- I can do this all day, so indulge my curiosity while we prepare to clash again. You submit to a mage, one who shrouds herself from my patron's view. We have caught only glimpses. Why follow her?"

Spitting a glob of half-clotted blood out of his mouth, Leon heaved himself out of the crater, forcing Blondie to retreat. The spearman had good instincts, for Leon held the scabbard of Wavecutter in one hand and the blade's hilt in another, chuckling a little louder with each step until his laughter reached hysterics.

It ceased as he drew his brilliant blue blade, admiring his marred visage in the reflection, having neglected to heal any cosmetic wounds.

"Why? It's because I have no delusions. I'm no hero, never wanted to be, never will be. One day, retribution will come to a villain- but that's not my role either. I chose another. I am the final obstacle, man's primal fear given form, the penultimate battle that eclipses the final in strain, the right hand of the emperor, the guardian of the treasure."

Slamming the blade back into its sheath, Leon cycled mana, Ebb and Flow honing his intent to a razor's edge as he prepared to claim Blondie's neck or die in the attempt.

"No one remembers a villain- better to be the dragon."

Four slashes crossed the spearman's armour, metal bending under the strain as Leon gave no more openings.

Wave after wave crashed against the spearman's defence, Leon's honed focus yielding insight.

The power he'd been sensing- beneath its signature lay one closer to his own, one slightly weaker.

Unbidden memories of his clash with Jin came back and he retreated just as Ebb and Flow capped out, his body creaking under the strain but holding up as fresh laughter burst forth.

"You goddamn cheater! How much mana have they been pumping into you, huh? Well, this changes things."

Blondie paled as Leon spun up a second Ebb and Flow.

"Guess we're just getting started! Let's put on a good show for your divine owner, eh blondie!"