In the darkness of the tunnel, Blake stares down at Leo. Leo just looks uninterested as he gets into a stance. Blake laughs a little.

  [Blake: Why would a well-respected warden like yourself join forces with the Aspects trying to destroy the world?]

  Blake poses a question to the warden, who just sighs.

  [Leo: Well-respected? You wouldn’t understand.]

  Blake raises his axe and points at Leo.

  [Blake: You're right. I don’t understand. Your record has been perfect, so why let the Aspects take over? I would get it if you went down fighting, but to join them? You have fallen.]

  Leo gets in a pouncing position. Blake quickly looks around.

  *Blake: This is bad! The tunnel is too small for me to swing around my axe and flail. Tch.*

  Leo jumps at Blake, and his nails turn into claws. He slashes downward as Blake quickly jumps back.

  *Blake: I need to get into a more open space!*

  Blake turns around and starts to run backward.

  [Leo: Come on. This is boring.]

  *Blake: Reaching the outside of the tunnel is the best thing I can do right now!*

  Leo appears in front of Blake and hits his chest with his palm, sending Blake backwards in the tunnel. Blake skits across the ground. Blake stands to his feet and looks at Leo.

  [Blake: I just have to deal with these conditions. It’s not all bad, though. After all…]

  Leo smiles as he jumps at Blake. He points his hand to stab Blake. Before his claw can reach, a bunch of shadows curl around Leo.

  [Blake: This place is full of shadows!]

  Blake quickly swings his axes from behind him overhead. He is going to send the axe slamming down on Leo's head and end the fight.

  *Blake: It’s over!*

  Klank!

  The axe hit the top of the tunnel and deflected out of Blake's hands. Leo takes the opportunity to break free.

  *Blake: Oh? It’s over. My weapon is gone.*

  Leo jumps back and sends an air slash at Blake. The slash digs into his chest, and blood sprays out. Blake starts to heal the wound with cell manipulation. It’s taking long, and Blake doesn’t expect to live for the full duration. However, Leo doesn’t move. Blake looks up at Leo.

  [Blake: What’s wrong? Don’t want to kill me?]

  Leo just stares.

  [Leo: This is too easy. I don’t want to win because you can’t fight properly. Heal yourself and follow me.]

  Blake wants to respond with “What are you playing at?” but he knows better. Blake will take this opportunity to heal himself. After fully healing up, Blake follows Leo down the tunnel.

  *Blake: Is he taking me to the entrance? Will we be fighting outside?*

  Leo stops in the middle of the tunnel and looks at a wall.

  [Leo: We are here.]

  Leo smashes the wall in with his demon strength, revealing a door. Leo opens the door and leads Blake into the room. The room is vast compared to the tunnel, and it features 26 giant pillars that span the entire space.

  [Blake: What is this place?]

  [Leo: This is a special room. These 26 pillars hold up the entire tunnel. They are all fitted with a spell that shifts the weight of the tunnel onto them. We don’t need this much. As long as one pillar stands, the tunnel stays up. I just like to have a lot of them just in case-]

  A flail smashes through the pillar next to Leo and hits him on the side. Sending him flying to the side of the room. Leo gets up and looks at his arm. A big bruise is covering it from the flail. Leo turns his head and searches for Blake. He is nowhere.

  *Leo: I lost him? He ran? No. He's hiding among the pillars.*

  Blake is standing behind a pillar with a smile.

  *Blake: Thanks for taking me here, Leo! This is exactly what I needed! I will hide and wear him down with hit-and-run techniques! He can’t needlessly destroy the pillars to look for me! That being said… I can’t shoot my flail or axe at him either, the chain will give away my position. That means!*

  『Totality』

  A giant grey-haired bipedal dog appears and jumps at Leo. He blocks the first strike of the dog. Totality quickly follows up with a multitude of slashes, one of them grazes his cheek, and Totality bites down on Leo's arm. Leo goes to slash, but the dog jumps back. Leo wipes the blood off his arm.

  [Leo: This puppy is strong!]

  Leo quickly jumps at Totality and slashes his arm open. Totality cries out in pain as Leo quickly turns around for another slash. Totality blocks and counters with a kick and sends Leo back. Leo stands up and gets into position. He shoots a few air slashes, which do more damage to Totality.

  [Leo: This is fun, but I should probably end it. Let me show you my beastfolk heritage!]

  Leo starts to grow in size as a mane starts to grow on him. His claws get sharper, and his fur is everywhere.

  『Hybrid form: Lion』

  Leo, in his hybrid form, then gets into a martial arts position.

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  [Leo: Let me show you something. The pride of the Beastfolk race! A martial arts style that changes based on what beast you are! The only downside is that you need to be in hybrid form to use it!]

  『Beastfolk Mystic Arts Lion Style 1: Slashing Claw』

  Suddenly, Totality cries out in pain. A giant cut appears on the dog as its arm gets cut off. Totality falls to the floor, dead.

  *Blake: This is interesting. I don’t want to rely on Bracken, especially after all of my training. Mahoraga is out of the question for right now. I got a plan!*

  Before Totality disappears, it grabs Leo's foot with its other arm. Leo looks confused before a bird rams into him from behind.

  『Thunderbird』

  The bird charges up and releases a large bolt of lightning. Shocking Leo a ton before Leo cuts its wing off. The bird falls to the ground. Leo has burn marks all over him and is panting.

  *Leo: That lightning did more damage than I would like to admit. I should end this. I can smell him out from his pillar!*

  Leo closes his eyes to focus on searching for Blake. However, he feels pain in his foot. Leo looks down to see a snake.

  『Great Serpent』

  The snake quickly grows in size and starts to flail Leo around, smashing him through five pillars. Leo quickly tries to free himself, but two shadow spikes appear from behind him and go right into his back.

  [Leo: Stop with these cowardly strategies!]

  『Beastfolk Mystic Arts Lion Style 2: Sushimi』

  The snake is cut up into mincemeat, and Leo lands down. Suddenly, Leo is on his knees. He feels something.

  *Leo: Poison? That damn snake!*

  Leo spots a person moving from one pillar to another in his peripheral vision.

  [Leo: Found you!]

  As soon as Leo turns, an Ox breaks through the pillar behind him and smashes him into the wall at full speed.

  Leo cuts up the ox and heads back to the center of the room. The damage is accumulated, and he is infuriated at this point. Leo reverts to his demon form.

  [Leo: This sucks! What do you know about me? My hardships! Before all of this, my wife was a human. I came to the human continent for a better life, and my wife was always there for me. Until some radicalists found out, they murdered her for marrying a beastfolk. Ever since then, I have worked tirelessly to bring people to justice, regardless of who they are. Everyone has always been against me. I just wanted to bring people to justice. I've faced racism and pushback at every turn. Living as a beaskfolk in this country is impossible, let alone the fact that I am a demon! I had to take the warden position by force. By then, no one could stop me. My version of justice brings everyone to justice!]

  Blake steps out from his pillar and faces Leo head-on.

  [Blake: I don’t care! Your version of justice is bullshit! Racism? What the hell are you talking about? You made your own decisions. Don’t blame it on other things you damn hypocrite! You are working with the Aspects. It sounds to me like you abandoned your version of justice a while ago. So stop trying to cling to it.]

  Leo laughs. Blake is angry.

  [Leo: You're right. Saw right through me. Maybe I just want to end it all.]

  To Leo’s surprise, Blake throws his weapon at the door leading to the tunnel and stares Leo down.

  [Blake: You called me a coward. Let’s fight man-on-man.]

  Blake gets into a stance, and Leo smiles.

  [Leo: You can’t beat me in a hand-to-hand fight.]

  [Blake: That's true if you go hybrid, but you won’t. You want this to be fair. If it’s your base demon form, I have a chance.]

  『Cell Manipulation: Four Arms』

  Another set of arms is made from Blake's torso; he now has four arms.

  『Cell Manipulation: Bloodflow』

  The blood flow in Blake's body nearly triples. Making all of his stats boosted. Blake jumps at Leo and punches him. Leo dodges and goes to slice Blake, but all he sees are bunnies.

  『Rabbit Flee』

  Thousands of bunnies surround Leo, who quickly shoots an air slash at Blake and hits him.

  [Leo: Don’t underestimate my nose! I can tell where you are among the rabbits if you are this close.]

  The rabbits disappear.

  [Blake: I didn’t need you to not notice me. I just needed some time.]

  Leo looks at Blake, and he seems to be charging up something in his mouth.

  『Roar of the Shadow Dragon』

  [Leo: Shit-]

  The blast of pure shadow energy hits Leo directly and sends him flying into the wall. Blake wipes his mouth and looks over. He is starting to tire.

  [Blake: No way… How are you still standing?]

  Leo walks back to Blake. Leo is heavily damaged.

  [Leo: I am stronger than you think.]

  Leo quickly closes the distance and cuts off one of Blake's arms. Blake smiles and uses the shadows to grab Leo's body. He gathers shadows around his other arm.

  『Wings of the Shadow Dragon』

  He elbows Leo with full force in the chest with shadow energy. Leo is knocked out briefly before regaining his senses. Blake turns his arm into a hammer with cell manipulation and tries to follow up, but his third arm is cut off. Blake makes a wave of shadow, and Leo jumps back.

  [Blake: Perfect!]

  Blake quickly jumps to the door and grabs his weapons.

  [Blake: Thank you for playing along with my game!]

  Leo is confused.

  [Leo: You finally going to use your weapons on me?]

  Blake smiles.

  [Blake: Fight you? The fight is already over.]

  Blake pulls his weapon, and chains wrap around Leo, keeping him in place. Leo quickly looks around and sees the chains wrapped around all of the pillars diverging at the point where Leo is standing. Blake pulls on the chains, and they tighten. The pillars start to crack.

  [Leo: You wouldn’t…]

  Blash sighs, and a huge smile appears on his face.

  [Blake: You know. I was stumped. I hit you with everything. My strongest attack, roar, didn’t even get an ow. I can’t kill you with my current strength. Luckily, I set up this failsafe. During the time you were fighting my shikigami, I set up the chains around all of the pillars. Then I fought you physically to lure you into that position. It was risky, but I am a gambler!]

  Blake starts laughing manically.

  [Leo: You're more of a demon than I am!]

  [Blake: Now I will destroy all of the pillars and collapse the tunnel, right on top of you. If I can’t kill you, that should do the trick.]

  [Leo: You are bluffing! You won’t have time to escape the tunnel either. You will kill us both!]

  Blake smiles and points down to a circle below him.

  [Leo: A magic circle… No way! You shouldn’t know about that!]

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  A few days earlier, in the forbidden library.

  [Zel: Specialist, Esper, Negation, Contract, and Vows. Those are commonly accepted as the only forms of power in this world. What if I told you that there is a sixth form of power? A secret form called “Magic.” Magic is forbidden in every country in the world. However, in the forbidden library, we have spells everywhere.]

  [Blake: What is Magic?]

  [Zel: While Negation is widely considered the strongest, Magic is considered the most dangerous. Simply put, magic allows anyone to learn and use nearly any power through the use of magic circles, grimoires, and spells. If the common people realized they could wield power, then the world would fall into chaos. That is why Magic was banned and is considered forbidden knowledge. With this in mind, would you like to learn a few spells?]

  Blake smiles.

  [Blake: Yes!]

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  [Blake: This specific circle is for teleportation magic! In case something happened, I prepared a circle outside the tunnel! Now with that in mind!]

  Blake starts to pull on the chains, and the pillars begin to crumble.

  [Leo: You bastard!]

  Leo starts to grow in size as the fur comes back. His eyes turn red.

  『Full Beast Mode』

  Blake just smiles as the pillars come down.

  [Blake: Bye-bye!]

  The Magic Circle glows under Blake.

  『Teleportaion』

  In an instant, Blake disappears. Leo screams as the room crumbles around him.

  Outside the tunnel, Blake appears. Blake falls to his knees. As he watches, the ground next to him falls into a sinkhole.

  [Blake: Geez, that was harder than I thought. I really thought I was going to die!]

  Blake summons Bracken and orders him to go help out at the front door to the Dungeon.

  [Blake: I have a bad feeling.]

  After Bracken leaves, Blake gets up and starts to move before stopping.

  [Blake: Tch!]

  Blake goes back to the rubble and jumps into the sinkhole. He uses his shadow and cell manipulation to dig through the rubble until he finds Leo. He grabs Leo and pulls him out.

  Leo slowly rises to his feet and looks at Blake. Blake looks back.

  [Leo: Why did you save me?]

  [Blake: I think your justice is wrong. With that being said… I don’t think there is any “right” form of justice in this world. Congratulations, your sob story made me sympathize with your plight. The plight of a man who gave up. You never went all out against me, so it doesn’t feel like a win. Considering you held back, I thought I might as well repay that favor.]

  [Leo: I'm still able to fight. Are you not scared I will just kill you now?]

  [Blake: You won’t. You are a Demon/Beastfolk, two of the most egotistical races out there. You already lost. Your pride won’t allow you to fight me again today.]

  Leo just nods, acknowledging Blake's statement. Leo walks up to Blake and hands him a silver coin. Blake's eyes widen in surprise.

  [Blake: No way! Is this a marker?!?]

  [Leo: Oh? You know what it is?]

  [Blake: Yeah. I lived on the demon continent with my dad for 3 years during my childhood. When a demon gives someone a marker, that means that the person can use that marker to make the demon do one favor that the demon cannot refuse. Are you sure you want to give me this?]

  Leo looks off into the distance and hands Blake a call button.

  [Leo: Yeah, you saved my life. So I will give you my marker and my call button, use them if you are ever in trouble. Don’t think this means we are allies, though. I'm just repaying this debt.]

  Leo starts to walk away.

  [Leo: I'm going to rediscover myself. I will be back to rematch you someday. So get strong enough that I won’t have to hold back.]

  Leo walks away. Blake just sighs before he hears Bracken in his head.

  [Bracken: Yo bossman! We need you here right now! This guy is powerful!]