The Aqua Serpent Beast.
The surface of the silver lake was broken.
A geyser of water shot up into the sky, drenching the glade in a torrent of sound. Leon stepped back reflexively, boots scuffling over wet moss as his sword flashed into guard position. Something huge emerged from the depths.
Scales of midnight sapphire disturbed the water first, glinting like burnished armor. Afterwards came the ridged, horned head—crocodilian in outline, but thinner, more deadly. Steam spat out of its nostrils. Silver-blue eyes fixed on Leon with a still, appalling malevolence.
"Aqua Serpent-Beast," he grunted, eyes squinting.
The beast rose up from the lake, coiled and coiling, an impenetrable wall of sinuous muscle and primal fury. Water streamed down its sides in rivulets, hissing as it encountered the heat emanating from its body. The air hummed. Mana charged like electricity in Leon’s bones.
Its aura hit him like a crashing tide. Master Realm, mid-level. Strength sufficient to raze a town. And it was looking at him.
Not like a threat. Like food.
A creeping smile curled Leon’s lips even as the heaviness bore down on his chest. He tilt his chin fractionally higher.
"They come to me now," he muttered under his breath.
The serpent reared back and bellowed.
The noise was deafening—a grinding, primal scream that shook birds from the branches and rippled across the lake like an earthquake. A column of water shot up into the air behind it, crashing back down with explosive force.
Instead, he laughed. Low, rough, and breathless—not from arrogance, but from the rush coursing through his veins.
"Let’s dance, big guy."
A silver flash slashed across the clearing as he ran in, sword lifted in a descending arc. He hit the serpent’s flank—clang!
The blade clanged like metal striking stone. Sparks flew from the point of impact. The serpent hardly winced.
The blow shook his bones.
His sword hit just above the serpent’s eye — and ricocheted. Not a mark.
"Damn," Leon spat, withdrawing. "Its scales are harder than the Hexafox’s claws..."
The snake spun, jaws yanking wide. A pressure spray of water shot from its throat.
Leon sidestepped, the torrent missing him by inches. It blasted through three trees behind him like paper. Bark burst. Shards rained. He landed on the ground and rolled, choking from the pressure shock.
Its attacks are quick—and precise. No excess motion.
He slipped back onto his feet and swung his sword once more—this time at the serpent’s belly. Another flash of metal. No breach.
"Tch... nothing? Bastard scales are cheating."
The serpent attacked. Its jaws snapped shut where he’d just stood. He jumped back, flipped over in mid-air, and landed swinging.
The serpent coiled its tail.
The blow crashed into Leon’s side like a battering ram. He went flying ten meters, smashed through a tree trunk, and landed in the dirt with a jar. Blood spewed from his mouth.
He hacked hard, torso wracked with agony, and rolled onto his side. His ribs expanded with each breath. Blood coated his tongue—tangy, metallic. But still, a smile crept across his face.
"That. hurt," he said, wiping his mouth. "But I’m definitely learning something from this, no doubt about it."
He stood, slower this time. His hand trembled slightly from hit as he gripped the sword.
"This thing fights like it owns the water. Because it does..."
His gaze shifted to the lake. The serpent wasn’t budging—it couldn’t. He could sense the manner in which it anchored itself there. All its energy was concentrated in a ten-meter circle around the water.
It’s bound to its element. Its dominion ends at the shore.
The serpent his mouth serpent again — its affinity manifesting.
Spirals of water swirled around it, creating enormous, lethal projectiles.
A cannonball burst of water shot in the direction of Leon. He rolled sideways, just out of the way, as the earth behind him shattered in a geyser of mud and broken rock.
One, two, three—more cannonade.
He avoided the first two, but the third struck him on the side and slammed him into a boulder. Shards of rock webbed across the stone behind him.
He wheezed, finding it hard to get up. "Tch. that magical affinity’s a pain." His thoughts ran mad.
In Galvia, cultivators who made it into the Master Realm could perceive six elemental affinities—fire, water, earth, light, darkness, and air. With proper training, humans could use them all. but beasts?
A blast of water cut through him, splitting a tree in two.
Beasts could only control one affinity. But their mastery? Always highest quality. Always frightening.
Leon gritted his teeth.
He’d never studied one spell. Not elemental channeling, anything remotely close to magic.
"Body. Blade. Battle." That had been Leon’s motto since day one he enter this world. Just, Harden the flesh, sharpen the instincts, refine the craft. It had always sufficed.
While other farmers planted their noses in runes, mana equations and ancient tomes, following formation circles and reciting incantations, Leon trained hellish. Strength to him wasn’t about glowing glyphs or mana equations—it was momentum, muscle, and movement. You didn’t cast power. You became it.
Back home, He’d learned by observation and idolized anime heroes—One Punch Man, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z and other martial anime—where fists dominated fireballs and brute strength bludgeoned magic like glass. When he awoke here, in a world saturated with spellcraft, he’d laughed.
Even the original ’Leon’ hadn’t wielded much magic. So why should he?
Even the original ’Leon’ of this universe had been a close-combat fighter, hardly practicing magic. Why should he, then?
Spells were unnecessary when your blade could best magic?
Apparently. now, it did.
"Tch... Magic casters are probably laughing their asses off," Leon growled, just parrying another blast. "If they knew half the crap, I used to say about spells..."
He stumbled back, blood on his lip, sword shaking in his grip. A long crack spiderwebbed down the hilt.
"Yeah," he scoffed, spitting to the side. "I’d be the joke of the damn continent."
But then, as he prepared for his final push, something in his mind clicked.
After this... it’s time to stop clinging to my Earth logic and those damn anime tropes.
This is not a tale in which you die and are given a second chance. This is my actual life now.
If this world is based on magic, then I will learn it. Not to be like them. Not to belong.
But because I am finished pretending, I don’t need it. I am finished being weak with it all around me—because the power to keep everything I have built safe is right here, right in front of me.
And I won’t lose it by being too damn stubborn.
His eyes burned with resolve.
"I’ll learn this damn magic," he growled, locking his gaze on the serpent.
He pointed the tip of his sword toward the coiling beast. "But first, I’ll carve it out of your corpse."