BANG! BANG! BANG!

Twin spears danced through the air, clashing with one another and each other as often as they did the opponent. Sometimes, it was hard to even tell if they were fighting themselves or an enemy. Sometimes it even looked as though the two spearmen had teamed up to face off against an invisible enemy.

Leonel's spears slowly became faster, sharper, and more incisive. He picked his spots with greater case, and he began to mix in order into the chaos in a way that the short man had never seen before.

Staring into those deep violet eyes, the heart of the man couldn't help but shudder, especially when a crown began to manifest atop Leonel's head all on its own.

Suddenly, the man spun again, and one of his spears was launched from his back. While he was still in the air, he kicked out, his foot landing on the butt of the spear and sending it flying forward like a meteor.

There had been barely three meters separating the two, and the sudden action caught even the arrogant Leonel off guard.

He twisted to the side, but the spear still drilled into his shoulder.

The short man landed on the ground once before launching himself into another pirouette, kicking out once again.

A second spear shot out with shocking speed, but this time Leonel parried it to the side, repeating the actions of the man in quick succession.

However, when Leonel landed on the ground, the spear he had dodged came spiraling toward his back while the one lodged in his shoulder was forcefully ripped out.

The sensory overload was perfect timing, and the spear coming from behind managed to dig into his hamstring at the same moment the one that had been lodged in his shoulder slashed down at his neck.

A new spear dance seemed to erupt as the man kicked out one spear after another, controlling them through mysterious means.

Leonel had never seen Spear Force used like this... Spear Force being used almost as if it were Bow Force...

This man didn't seem to follow any of the rules of Weapon Forces, bending and twisting them as he pleased. But it was odd that he was even seen as a spearman in the first place. It almost felt like he should be put in his own category.

The wounds Leonel was suffering accumulated, but he found himself liking this sort of battle even more than the first phase.

The variables accumulated and short spears flew around.

He was having trouble adapting his Spear Force to control spears at a distance like he might his Bow Force without, well... using Bow Force.

He knew that the moment he used Bow Force in this place, the Idol Battlefield would use it as an excuse to target him once again. But his Spear Force was much too arrogant to be used like Bow Force in the first place.

It seemed like much of the disdain he had for this man was coming directly from his Spear Force,

and his Bow Force seemed particularly unhappy that it wasn't being used at all.

Leonel continuously weathered the storm, facing off against the barrage of attacks as he slowly forced his Spear Force into submission.

Ie tapped into that odd state of fluctuation his Spear Force had been in when he fought against the Bear Beastman, trying to get it to focus on the flexibility of use and the chaos of it all.

And that was when it finally clicked for him.

His eyes lit up once more, and his Dream Force came back in full force.

"I understand. I understand... I understand..."

Leonel's mumbling didn't slow the speed of his spear, though it didn't speed it up either. However, that wasn't what the short man felt like.

The sudden burst in skill might as well have made it feel like Leonel was accelerating the rate of his attack. The fluidity of his motions suffocated the man, and despite being fluid, they were ironically and contradictorily impossible to track as well.

With fluidity should have come order, not chaos. It was why the man's style was erratic to begin with.

But what he didn't know was that Leonel was a man who was now steeped in chaos. His very being itself was fueled by the existence of chaos. And chaos was his only path to outdoing the woman who had ruled his life for so long.

The short spears that Leonel was having trouble controlling before became strong and solid, zipping with speed and precision.

They all clattered in the air just once before they split into countless paths, slipping by the counters the short man formed with his own.

Fear flickered in the short man's eyes as he realized all of Leonel's short spears could now target him. But he was still a man of many battles.

The short man changed tactics, sending the spears that missed Leonel toward him instead. Since they were going to both attack, they might as well go down together.

What the short man didn't expect was for Leonel to tap the ground once in a motion that was nigh identical to the man's.

His body pirouetted past the first and second, landing on the ground just in time to be above the third and below the fourth. Then, he parried the fifth and sixth with the short spears in his hands. The short man could only watch in horror, not understanding how Leonel had read through the chaos of his tactics with such unbridled ease.

But he only had the chance to think about it for a moment before he was skewered from all sides. Leonel stood in silence, deep, gashing wounds covering him from head to toe as he looked down toward the ground. One would have thought that he had reached his last legs, and if he was honest with himself, he had.

He had made it so far, but this battle was too difficult, and the rest would only be tougher than this. However, if one looked into his eyes, they were only shining brighter and brighter as he slowly pieced together something profound.