On this planet there is a landmass called Pangea, a supercontinent that is equal in size to all the earthen continents combined.
On Pangea, there span a myriad of different landscapes including massive forests, endless deserts, inescapable fog lands and gargantuan heaven piercing mountains.
Our focus is one on of Pangea's many forests.
Within this particular forest, there are numerous hundreds of kilometre long trees that blot out the sky, dense perpetual rainfall that constantly keeps the ground damp, and an array of cumulonimbus clouds that linger around regardless of time or day.
All these factors resulted in the ground layer being in a never-ending shroud of darkness, as the leaves on the canopy block the smidgens of sunlight that managed to pierce through the thick cloud cover.
This culminated into this forest being filled with all types of different, deadly creatures
A sleek, disguised figure moved forward and immediately regretted it as a sleek feline figure erupted from its previous cover at breakneck speed with raised fur, wide eyes with alert slit shaped pupils, tense muscles and paws rapidly pounding at the ground.
The little deer was lucky as an ongoing stream of beasts continued to run past it.
A flock of blackbirds with startling red wings burst out of the surrounding canopy with frenzied flaps.
A mobile death trap emerged from the swamp with its a 6-meter main body with a 2-meter scaled whip attached to it, along with its bullet proof armour like 8 cm hide and ridiculous size.
This included the massive serpentine creature lying at the riverbed which rose to the top of the river brought out it's forked tongue to lick the air and swiftly swam back into the river.
All creatures within the vicinity made an attempt to move away, no mammalian, avian, reptilian or aquatic organism took a step forward.
As if there was some incorporeal wall preventing them from even entertaining the thought of stepping within a certain radius, some will they were following that prevented them from doing what some of their instincts dictated.
At the epicentre of all this commotion stood two humanoid figures, one obese, kneeling with a hand on their side and currently heaving.
The other stood straight, despite the line of blood sliding down his face.
A pair of vivid silver globes bore down at the heaving figure ''how can a champion even be this weak? Completely inefficient use of your abilities, zero proficiency with your own weapon and ridiculously low durability."
A wet cough echoed out as a splotch of blood fell onto the ground ''Hard to stay active and fit when I'm busy training mutts.''
The young man showed no response, still calmly hovering over him ''Nice to see you can still speak; guess your champion status isn't fake?''
A self-depreciating laugh rang out into the ''Oh, mine's as fake as it gets, the fact you're still breathing is a testament to that fact.''
He supported himself with his hands ''I don't think there's ever been a champion like me, failing to kill a mere neophyte.''
He threw his head back '' You haven't even been in this stage for a majority of your life; all my friends must be rolling in their grave. I'm going to die to a greenhorn.''
''Your parents are definitely fuming in the underwold, wishing they would've faced me right now instead of in my prime.''
"Parents is a strong word. People who made me is a much better title.''
Loeto pointed at him ''And your current, combat ability would not have changed anything; you made sure of that when you started putting deviant herbs into the nearby stream.''
He clapped his hands ''We got a smart one on us, someone figured it out''
Loeto dropped to a squat ''By the way, the mercenaries you've been stalling for aren't going to arrive.''
And right then, just as his face paled, Loeto loosed a claw right across his jugular vein.
He lazily waved the blood off of his claw with a bored expression on his face "All that for work this, what was the point of me coming here myself? Should've just let Aone slit her throat''
Loeto sighed and sat down on the damp grass beneath him, enjoying the breeze and absentmindedly stared at the moon.
Unfortunately, this serene scene was interrupted by a large dark green tail unfurling itself from one of the trees, first a tail, then a long dark olive body with fresh, undulating wounds and finally a narrow head.
It raised itself to eye level struck the ground ''Good to sssee you are ssstill alive.''
Loeto turned to face it ''I struggle to believe that. I think you would be happier if both my adversary and I died together. ''
Confusion crept into its voice ''That iss weird, from what I've ssseen, you two-legged creatures like lying to each other.''
A multitude of intense stares bore into Loeto ''For example, the creatures you asked us to take care of were discussing something before we got to them.''
The snake dryly chuckled ''Ah, they were talking about banding together against the merchant and robbing him and before anything happens, I'm sorry little wolf.''
Those words seem to trigger a stamped, as beast after beast rushed out of the surrounding foliage.
The first one to arrive was the jaguar we previously mentioned with its sleek build, pitch black fur and most importantly its dagger sized meat shredders. It had been rearing to go, prowling the outskirts of the area they were in and as soon as the snake had finished speaking, it had exploded forward.
Blood rushed to its long muscular hind legs as it burst of the ground. It's streamlined build reduced air resistance as well as its retractable paws giving it extra traction.
All of these factors culminated in it being ridiculously optimised for short bursts of speed, which unluckily enough for it, allowed the poor panther to reach Loeto first.
It leaped to his head, attempting to crush his skull with its jaws.
despite its impressive effort, all its optimizations were useless in front of Loeto as he simply, almost gracefully ducked beneath the panther's wide-open maw, raised his left paw and raked it across the panther's underbelly.
He didn't put much effort into the swipe, simply sticking his claws into the panther into its underbelly and let its momentum do the heavy lifting for him.
This resulted in the disheartening image of the panther leaping and immediately getting disposed of or in the view of others, it looked like the panther had happily jumped onto loeto's claws.
...