Leon and his summons breezed through the floors at a quick pace, but even still, by the time they cleared the ninth floor, they had yet to come across any lizardmen.
‘Weird… I should keep my guard up.’ Leon thought to himself.
But even with how ominous things seemed, Leon was not planning on turning back. He was determined to clear out this dungeon.
When Leon stepped onto the soft ground of the next floor, he took a moment to pause and take in the floor. It was dark, like night. If not for his enhanced sight, he was sure that it would have been many times more difficult to peer into the darkness, even with the help of magic.
Through the darkness, Leon could feel his surroundings. He could still not sense anything below the water, but he would be able to tell if any spawning point for Bogmen was close by or if any monsters were moving above the water.
Leon and his summons set out walking through the dark forest. Only a few steps in, Leon paused and turned to the side, conjuring a fireball and hurling it at the building hotspot of mana that had suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision.
Boom!
A dozen Bogmen were flattened and destroyed under that explosion, along with the spawn point going inactive.
The Bogmen were really difficult things to kill if a person did not have the right means. They were weak to fire, and could only be killed if they were blown up or sliced into so many pieces that they just could not come back.
Around Leon, his summons also broke into a fight against the emerging monsters. Leon paused and looked around, and was taken aback when he spotted a figure emerging from the distance.
The approaching lizardman did not hide itself at all. It walked proudly, its legs in the water, but the rest of its body exposed. Its cold eyes were fixed on Leon, and when it had reached a good distance, it raised its sword and pointed at Leon.
‘Oh? Challenging me?’ Leon hummed. He turned to look to the side where Nedra was having some fun fighting against three Great Crocodiles at a time, but seeing as she was busy, he decided to take the monster up on its offer.
Whoosh!
Leon leapt up into the air, soaring over the fighting groups, before landing just above the body of water, on a platform made of ice.
“You will die here.” The lizardman said, brandishing his sword in a threatening manner.
“Haha, well, you won’t die. Not completely, anyway.” Leon chuckled.
His words were the trigger that set the lizardman off. With a loud bang, it shot forward, the water parting around it. Water reached up for Leon, but he easily cancelled it out with his own water magic.
Brandishing his own sword, Weapon Aura burst around the weapon, dying it in a dark, purple light that looked ominous in the darkness of night.
Clang!
The sound of their weapons clashing rang through the night. The lizardman’s strength was not much weaker than Leon’s own, so it was able to hold its own against his strength.
Pa!
With an audible snap, the lizardman’s tail whipped around their side to snap against Leon’s side. But it was blocked by a solid ice barrier.
“You’re strong.” Leon grinned. A High B rank being could not stand against him, meaning that this was a Peak B rank monster.
“My strength is something you cannot match up to!” The lizardman declared with a hiss, and following that, a massive burst of strength followed, forcing Leon to stumble back with a surprised look on his face.
‘Seems I need to get serious.’ Leon hummed and swung his sword again. The weapon aura of the lizardman’s sword blazed an ominous golden color that lit up their surroundings, only to be swallowed by the bright purple light that blazed from Leon’s skull.
Instantly, the light of the weapon aura on the lizardman’s sword dimmed considerably, and a sense of weakness came over it. But even then, the lizardman did not waver.
“DIE!” It swung down against Leon’s sword.
“Hmph!” Leon snorted and swung upwards.
Ding!
The sound of metal hitting the ground reached the ears of the fighters and surrounding monsters and summons, but none of them paused to see what had happened. They were too absorbed in their own battles.
“H-how…?” The lizardman asked itself as it stared at the hilt of its broken sword. On que, like a pressured pipe had been broken, blood sprayed out of the vertical slash on its abdomen, painting the water and ground around them in red.
Thump!
The body of the lizardman hit the ground, lifeless, but still warm.
Leon sighed and turned around, looking at the body of the lizardman. Then he reached out and allowed his mana to flood its body, converting it into his summon. It only took a few moments before a black scaled lizardman was kneeling before Leon in subservience.
“I am yours to command, Master.” The lizardman bowed its head.
“Good, now go and help the others clean up.” He waved the lizardman away. It got up to its feet and turned around. Its sword had been destroyed, but its fists were in perfect condition.
Silently, the lizardman stalked forward, reaching the back of a Giant Crocodile in one smooth motion. Its hands reached up and clamped around the giant reptile’s jaws, before twisting.
Crack!
With a sickening crack, the jaw of the crocodile was snapped, and its skull was crushed. All this happened in mere seconds, showing just how strong this lizardman was. But it had fallen to Leon in moments.
Seeing this, Leon hummed in satisfaction and held up his hands to his face. “I should be able to fight an A rank head on right now, I think…” He wondered to himself.
He was not just guessing. He was already strong enough to bat aside Peak B ranks, no matter how difficult they may seem to be. With his skills and abilities, combined with the fact that he was not just purely a mage or warrior, he actually believed that he had what it took to fight a Low A rank.