A small pond spread in the midst of what seemed to be a little natural respite, a clearing.

Finding it after a bit of search, Aziel walked towards its shore to quench his parched, dry throat and then to wash down all the mud, grime, blood, and whatever filth he carried on his body.

Stepping out from the boscage, the foliage, Aziel saw several smaller creatures already present and spread around the shoreline.

Feeling no aggressive intent from them, Aziel decided to ignore them. After all, there was nothing to gain from such feeble critters anymore, nor could they pose any meaningful threat to him. Though he haven\'t tested his combat prowess, nor his newly gained natural defenses, such small reptiles, no matter if they charged at the dozens, were no longer capable of piercing Aziel\'s thick skin.

Approaching the border of the pond, or to be more precise, small lake Aziel knelt down. Using his hands, he began pouring some of the crystal clear drink into his mouth.

*RUSTLE!* *RUSTLE!*

Behind him, the rustling of bushes could be heard.

Alerted by the sound, Aziel turned around to check the source of the disturbance. In front of him was a massive dinosaur that seemed somewhat familiar to him, although he couldn\'t remember why.

The oversized creature crept up on a smaller dinosaur that was on the other side of him. Lurking behind the oblivious critter, the giant apex predator opened its massive jaws and with an uncannily swift motion, it snatched up the poor prey by its neck, shaking it violently.

*CRACK!*

The shaking continued until a small cracking sound was heard, indicating that the neck of the creature had broken.

The bigger dinosaur placed the smaller one on the ground and looked at Aziel. Seeing the creature\'s face, he finally recognized it.

Though quite a bit of time had passed since then, he hadn\'t met a similar leveled creature since then. The towering giant, the hungry menace, the true zenith of the Jurassic food chain.

Also, his nemesis, the cause of his very first painful experience, his first death.

Seeing his predator once again, Aziel\'s excitement began to rapidly rise.

He sneered as he looked at the creature. His newly formed facial muscles began to exercise for the first time, his lips parted to give way to his first-ever spoken words since his arrival in this strange, new world.

"Heh... The very first on my list... You bastard, finally decided to come out of hiding? How stupidly brave of you... I guess I should thank you for that!" His voice was still slightly croaky and raucous due to his vocal cords resonating for the first time since their formation.

A slight discomfort swelled inside Aziel\'s throat, which he ignored. Looking at his first true opponent, Aziel\'s face revealed a cruel, menacing grin.

*SNARL!*

The creature, although unable to process his words, could still feel the underlying meaning, the general emotion they carried. He could understand that this strangely shaped creature just uttered a threat, taunting his majestic dominance.

The beast\'s mentality as the absolute peak existence of its time couldn\'t let such an affront go unpunished. Its massive jaws gave way to a booming, rage-filled roar, shaking the nearby boscage and quaking the very ground itself as well.

Whilst the dozens of small critters fled in panic, Aziel remained still, matching the fierce gaze of the giant beast with one of his own. His lips curving higher, turning his already terrifying, cruel sneer into one bordering the craze and bloodlust, he snickered.

"You have read my mind!"

At the same time, both creatures rushed forward, charging at their opponents.

Their clash for ultimate dominance and revenge shook the landscape...

...

"RAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

*ROAR!*

Aziel and its nemesis, the humongous reptilian predator\'s rushed at each other relentlessly, charging headfirst against the other. The ground was trembling from the massive weight behind their reckless assaults.

Aziel began to increase his speed, building momentum, planting his feet, and jumping towards the creature.

While he launched himself at the beast, time seemed to have slowed down as they got closer to each other.

The pressure kept on building until it finally reached the boiling point.

*BOOM!*

Colliding, the two generated a small shockwave upon impact, both bouncing back to catch their balance from the collision.

Both contenders began showing signs of being disoriented from the initial charge.

Due to Aziel\'s smaller size, if he did not have his current level of strength, he would have been at a grave disadvantage.

His opponent was visibly shocked, it did not expect that this small fragile bipedal creature would be capable of pushing it back. He was used to easily killing its prey.

This small, weak, and fragile creature, however, despite it being many times smaller than itself, managed to push it back! This was not something its feeble, primitive mind could easily process.

"What\'s wrong?! Never had a REAL FIGHT BEFORE?!" Aziel exclaimed, raising his voice in anger, causing an echo.

As if the creature could understand him, it ran at him with its jaws agape, flashing its fangs, charging for a second attempt.

Watching as the creature rushed towards him, Aziel braced himself, planting his right leg to the back, and bending his left, effectively sinking his feet a few inches into the soil.

*ROAR!*

The creature stretched its neck, attempting to bite down on Aziel. Seeing this, he further tightened his hold on the ground, holding his hands in position to catch the creature in its charge.

*CRASH*

Colliding for the second time, Aziel held the edges of the creature\'s jaws open. Not letting up in its charge, the dinosaur continued pushing him back, causing his feet to further dig into the ground, displacing more of the soil.

"AAAAARGH!!!"

Aziel\'s body started to strain under the incredible pressure. Noticing this, he contorted his body beyond normal means, redirecting the creature\'s force away from him, causing its head to plummet into the ground next to him.

The dinosaur quickly recovered and lashed its teeth against its mortal enemy. Aziel evaded the creature by performing a double back handspring, launching himself into the air at the end.

*BOOM!*

This acrobatics eventually proved to be a mistake, as the creature wasted no time in spinning around, swinging its tail at Aziel, effectively swatting him out of the air.

This sent him flying violently into the trees, snapping several of them in half along its flight crashing and tumbling on the ground for several dozen yards before his abrupt journey came to a halt.

"Ahahaha, I actually felt that... That is it, this is what I need... GIVE ME MORE!" Despite the massive attack, Aziel was growing more and more excited by each passing second, grinning from ear to ear without showing any restraint.

Moments like these allowed his troubled mind to release its mental shackles, and allow its host to let go of all the negative emotions he kept inside.

He picked himself up at incredible speeds, grabbing one of the fallen trees with his right hand, reaching back, and hurling it at the creature.

Seeing this, the beast barely managed to dodge by shifting its mass to its left.

Noticing its unstable manner of dodging, Aziel swiftly stomped his feet. Taking in a deep breath, he then ran in a zigzag motion towards it, trying to disorient the creature.

Getting close enough, he grabbed a handful of sand, chucking it at the creature\'s eyes. He then jumped, cocking his fist back as he launched himself forward.

The fraction of a second in which this all happened felt like several minutes as Aziel arrived close to the creature\'s face.

Despite it not being able to see correctly thanks to the sand in its eyes, the beast opened its jaws in the direction of its opponent\'s supposed trajectory.

Seeing this, Aziel quickly reacted by using his tail to pierce the neck of the creature, pulling himself away from its jaws before they could snap shut.

Landing only a few feet away from the beast, Aziel immediately rushed at it, slamming himself into its hind legs, throwing it off balance, tipping it sideways. This created a new opportunity for him.

Noticing this chance, Aziel jumped to the side of its face. As it was off-balance, cocking his fist back for a second time.

*BANG!*

Slamming his fist against the creature\'s lower jaw, making its head fling back.

As the creature\'s head was coming back down, Aziel contorted his body, twisting it while tensing his steel cable-like strains of muscles to build up pressure behind his fist.

Noticing the creature\'s head coming back down and slowly coming back from his short disoriented state, Aziel released the pressure he was building up, untwisting his body.

*BANG!*

Punching the beast with all his accumulated energy, Aziel tightly clenched his fist, sinking into the side of the creature\'s jaw, causing its head to forcefully jerk sideways.

*THUD!*

The immense force drove the creature\'s face into the earth with a loud thud, almost knocking it into unconsciousness.

Not wanting it to recover, Aziel sunk both his feet into the ground, running at the still dazed beast.

The creature, gaining back some level of cognition during this time, noticed its opponent charging towards it. To retaliate, it used its hind legs while still on its side, violently kicking Aziel away from it.

Aziel had placed his arms up to defend himself. Despite this, he was still hurled a great distance into some more trees by the beast.

"What\'s with you and the trees? Do you have a vendetta against the jungle?" Aziel asked, taunting the beast whilst picking himself up from the new trails of broken foliage.

The creature ignoring his jabs also got back up meanwhile and charged at Aziel.

"*Sigh* This is just getting repetitive now…" he sighed.

Watching as it got closer, Aziel extended his claws and replicated the creature\'s course of attack.

As the two ran at each other, Aziel, when he got close enough, pivoted to the creature\'s left, slashing at its Achilles tendon, causing its left leg to drop. He then simultaneously spun around and sliced its other leg, crippling its opponent in one swoop.

*THUMP!*

The creature fell to the floor unable to move any more.

Aziel walked up to the head of the creature, grinning like a madman.

As he did, the beast opened its massive jaws as a last attempt at retaliation.

Already anticipating this, Aziel quickly grabbed the edges of the creature\'s mouth.

"I think that\'s enough of that." He exclaimed as he tensed his muscles.

*SPLATTER!*

The splattering of blood could be heard, as he then proceeded to tear off the beast\'s lower jaw.

*THUD!*

He threw it to the side as if it was a piece of used tissue.

The creature began to squirm, obviously in pain, but unable to make a sound, consequent to its lack of lower jaw.

Aziel then placed his dominant hand on the beast\'s face, leaning over, looking it in the eyes.

"Remember me now?"

The beast\'s eyes filled with fear. It couldn\'t understand Aziel, it began pleading with its eyes, hoping his victor would not kill it.

Seeing this, Aziel made up his mind.

"An eye for an eye!"

*SHANK!*

Aziel then stabbed the roof of the creature\'s mouth, piercing the brain, ending its reign, killing it instantly.

"Well, that\'s that..." he exclaimed as he removed his claws from the carcass.

"Let\'s see what I will get from you!"

Saying this, he began to absorb the massive beast, watching as its body liquified and fused with his mass.

"Huh?"

In doing so, Aziel noticed something was different this time around. Unlike usually, his body didn\'t change as he expected it to, he stayed relatively the same.

However, just as he began to ponder about what was going on, after a few moments of inactivity, the observation quickly changed.

"AAAAAHHH!" Aziel screamed from the sudden surge of pain he was experiencing.

His body was giving off a golden hue, releasing a blinding light in all directions. He felt as if each of his cells were on fire, becoming stronger as if changing into something else entirely.

He began convulsing, his body growing and shrinking in size as his pupils vanished.

His body became heavier in an instant, the sudden shifts in weight causing the soil under Aziel\'s feet to cave in, creating a small crater.

He felt as if his skin was being torn off his body, his nerves firing nothing but pain signals.

Eventually, as all the air escaped from his lungs, so did his screams die down. The immense pain that tormented his entire body finally knocked him out, he slipped into unconsciousness.

*THUD!*

Falling down, the crater increased in size.

Aziel could be seen laying in the crater, his body increasing in density, glowing and rapidly changing, making itself stronger down to its very cells, becoming many times more efficient than it was before.