Leonel's battle intent blazed. Facing off against this bear man who stood so much taller and larger than he was, wielding so much more strength, all while he was heavily injured and outnumbered to top it off...

It was a situation where most wouldn't make it out alive.

And yet, Leonel's back stood straight and tall. His thoughts didn't have the slightest intention of backing down, and his heart hummed to a rhythmic cadence.

So much of his strength was sealed away, but his mind was just the same.

He held out his spear, and a shocking aura suddenly erupted from him. His hair whipped violently in the winds, but there wasn't the slightest bit of Force whirling around him. It was like the world itself was resonating to the cadence of his heart.

SHUU!

The two shot forward, and their blades raced through the skies. Leonel's broken ribs and injured body screamed at him all the while, but the intent in his eyes only glowed brighter and brighter. BANG!

His arm almost shattered beneath just the first impact, but he twisted his wrist to the side, just barely off-loading the strength down through his body, to his feet, and into the ground while parrying the spear to the side.

The bear man was far swifter than his brother had been, pulling back with sharp speed the same instant Leonel had and slashing out again.

Leonel found himself protecting himself and his spear from every blow. Himself to avoid the blows themselves, and his spear to stop it from breaking mid-battle.

His mind was practically overloaded with all sorts of information, and his Dream Force was being wrung out like a wet towel.

His stamina was seeping away faster and faster while an oppressive air hung over the battlefield. In the distance, the army of a thousand came to a stop. They were perfectly disciplined, standing in perfect rows of straight lines, and looked ahead to the battle in unison.

A fog came from them as dusk fell, and the air cooled. One could almost hear their heartbeats from a distance drilling into their psyches.

The militiamen of Leonel's village had faces colored with despair, lacking the slightest hint of red. Just the thousand-man army alone was enough for them to shake. But the strength of the bear man made them realize something else...

If Leonel could force 300 men to flee on his own, and the bear man was so much stronger than him... didn't that mean that they were facing something even worse?

Were they dead already and just didn't know it?

The dichotomy between the momentum of both sides only grew worse the more injuries Leonel suffered, the worse he was beaten back, the more devastating the blows he faced.

Every spurt of blood, every crackling bone, every slight grunt was like another blow to their morale... because they knew that even if Leonel somehow managed to survive this one, there was an even worse challenge waiting behind him.

And these disciplined men... didn't look like they would run the moment something went wrong.

Leonel could practically feel the pressure on his shoulders increasing. It was an amorphous feeling, one that had been so fleeting to him in the past and yet so clear now.

Not only could he feel the weight pressing him down, but he felt it clearly as the bear man seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

The momentum of his side was only increasing while that of Leonel's was only weakening with every step.

A valiant heart...

Leonel's wrists shook as he suffered another blow, but his gaze flashed at the same time. 'Weaker!

His eyes locked onto the bear man's furious expression. The latter's seething growls and almost feral obsession with making Leonel not just die, but suffer, had been practically tuned out by Leonel entirely.

Leonel had been entirely focused on this burden on his shoulders, not realizing that this man had completely lost his mind.

"You are too weak to face me," Leonel suddenly said.

They were words that didn't make any sense at all, and yet they also pierced right into the depths of the bear man's very soul.

BANG! BANG! BANG! CHIII!

Leonel withstood two blows back to back entirely head-on this time. His knees buckled, and he almost collapsed, but he held on.

With a pivot, he took on the third blow. Sparks flew as their blades clashed and then slid along one another.

Leonel's wrist forcefully twisted, and the polearm bowed. His blade caught the twine that held the bear man's blade to his polearm and cut it in two.

They might not have had a level playing field when it came to raw strength. But... their weapons were a different matter entirely. The only difference was that the one the bear man was wielding was much larger, by almost twice in terms of both length and thickness.

Unfortunately, that didn't matter.

Leonel's spear swept to the side, hitting the tip of the bear man's spear with precision that shook the soul. His blade tip couldn't have been steadier, and for a moment, his back carried shades of his father's presence.

It didn't matter how heavy the burden was.

He would carry it.

CHILI! CHII! CHII! CHII!

The bear man's blade was almost completely knocked out of the groove it sat in. When he tried to

strike again, he found that he didn't even have a straight blade anymore.

And in that moment of hesitancy and shock...

PUCHI!

Leonel's spear ripped through his throat.

The bear man froze, and many eyes opened wide in shock.

Leonel's earlier words felt like nothing more than a joke. And yet, now...

It was almost like their sense of the world was crumbling down around them.

Leonel swiped his spear to the side, ripping it out of the man's throat.

His breathing heaved, and his chest shuddered in pain with every breath he took. But even so, his back remained straight.