Impressive.
The lion thought to himself as he was sent flying by the rabbit's blow.
Anyone who knew the lion would have been astonished.
And they would have envied the one who had earned such a reaction.
For the lion's praise only came when he truly acknowledged an opponent.
At the same time, they would have pitied them.
Because once the lion acknowledged you, the true baptism would begin.
Boom!
The sacred flame, charging like an enraged bull, collided with the giant and erupted in a magnificent explosion.
But Vesta's expression remained sharply honed.
He's not someone who'd go down from something like that.
Three seconds' worth of accumulated power. It had been amplified, but whether it could even leave a scratch, let alone deliver a finishing blow, was doubtful.
Still, the momentum had shifted. Push through!
He stepped forward. Planting force into his outstretched front foot, he charged straight toward the giant hidden in the smoke, throwing everything he had.
Then, the giant dodged backward.
"Kuh...?!"
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
His heart began pounding at an incredible speed.
Cold sweat poured down, and every pore on his body constricted.
Instinct—the sensor that had always saved him by detecting danger—was screaming.
It told him to run right now if he wanted to live.
Overwhelming pressure.
The air had grown unbearably heavy.
His body, his instincts, and his reason all cried out in unison.
The overwhelming difference in species.
"Hm."
As the smoke cleared, the giant emerged.
The giant had taken the attack and yet did not have a single scratch...
No, that was no longer important.
That is...
It was a sight from the time when a massive wall—the Boar—had once stood before him.
The overwhelming power that shattered the door to a barely opened hope.
Maxim had transformed.
*
A red mane and enormous fangs.
"That thing," clad in sharp claws and thick hide, looked down at the rabbit.
The name of that being, accompanied by overwhelming pressure, was the ruler of the plains, the king of beasts.
"A lion beastman... Nemea...!"
A name long vanished. At the descent of the king, said to have gone extinct before the age of the gods, the rabbit's instincts and soul shuddered.
An unbridgeable gap in species. His whole body trembled with a primal fear felt at the level of an entire race.
Everyone had been like that. Whenever he transformed, humans and monsters alike were struck with terror.
Not even the gods were exempt. Even the great Lord Zeus had been unable to hide his shock at the sight of him.
The lion was noble. And yet, at the same time, lonely.
Did he have no equal?
Even looking at the rabbit before him, the lion remained indifferent.
The sight of the trembling rabbit was pitiful indeed.
As I thought...
The rabbit's struggle had exceeded expectations. But only this far.
No one could withstand his current self. In the end, it was obvious the rabbit would surrender without even being able to fight, just as everyone else had.
So this was how it ended.
"...Ugh."
He heard the rabbit's silent cry of fear.
Was he so terrified he could not even make a sound?
Maxim simply looked at the rabbit with detached indifference, as if watching someone else's affair.
"Uu..."
...Perhaps he disliked that thought. Or perhaps he had already overcome that fear from the start.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"What...?"
The rabbit, who had seemed on the verge of collapse, quickly regained his stance and once again burned with fighting spirit in those red eyes before charging at the lion.
The rabbit's blazing front paw. It was certainly not a weak blow by the lion's standards.
It was only that the opponent was far too powerful.
A fist that was merely "not bad" would not even register against the lion's body.
But it had landed.
As if he did not care about the difference in species or the overwhelming gap, the rabbit bared his teeth before the lion.
Had he gone mad from fear?
...No.
Look at those eyes. Look at that blazing fighting spirit. Look at that fierce, roaring competitiveness.
Those were not the eyes of a loser paralyzed by fear.
Those were...
Trying to beat me, are you?
Eyes fixed on victory alone.
Eyes he had never seen before, eyes he had longed to see.
...Good.
A small flame flickered in Maxim's once-cold heart.
As if the rabbit's own sacred flame had spread to him.
I was planning to teach you a lesson... but it seems I've received one instead.
For the first time, receiving such fierce fighting spirit made his body heat up with excitement.
Grin—
For the first time, the lion smiled.
For the first time, the lion bared his teeth.
In that case...
He did not like only receiving.
If he was given even one thing, he had to repay it a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
Whether it was a kindness, a grudge, or even fighting spirit.
If that is your wish...
I'll crush you here.
With an inaudible yet unmistakably resounding roar, the king awakened from slumber, and the second battle between rabbit and lion began.
*
"Kuh?!"
Overwhelming pressure crushed his entire body.
The lion beastman's unique presence weighed down on him like a lead weight, making his body feel heavy.
Breathing was difficult. His whole body was shaking. That thing was a monster. He can't win, run...
Yes, that was just like back then...
The lion's form before him collapsed. As the lion's shape crumbled, it turned into a monster with two horns.
Into the form of a black beast wielding a double-headed axe.
Overwhelming disparity. Overwhelming fear.
The image of the rival who had always pressed down on him surfaced once more.
The bitterness of defeat rose again.
The monster's form collapsed, and next he saw the figure of a swordsman.
A giant wall that had once stood in his way. A symbol of despair.
It felt as though the swordsman's brass-cold eyes were looking down at him.
The old sense of hopelessness surged up again.
The swordsman's form collapsed, and next a black dragon stood before him.
Catastrophe, despair, the end. The final existence that no number of epithets could fully describe.
The unavoidable apocalypse mocked him.
The nightmare he could never erase grew larger and larger.
The dragon's form collapsed. Before he knew it, his opponent had returned to being a lion.
Vesta calmly watched that sight with his one eye.
As if engraving the newly faced wall into his memory.
As if he would never forget the rival that would remain in his soul.
And so the rabbit, having carved the lion's image into his eyes, bared his teeth.
As always. And as he always would in the future.
Even now, without fail, the rabbit charged straight at despair.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
The rabbit's blow. The strike launched by a body heated like a sacred flame, burning his whole body, his soul, and his fighting spirit, was power beyond what his own strength should have been able to produce.
Just as the lion had done, the rabbit too burned his soul.
The bullfighting instinct that had remained within the extinguished sacred flame was awakened.
The rabbit's blow struck the lion.
Thud! With a heavy impact, the surroundings were blown back by the shockwave, and the lion's body bent slightly.
No, the lion had not moved at all. The ground had simply caved in, making it look that way.
The lion still stood proudly, displaying his majesty.
But a single ray of light seeped into the lion's eyes.
Flash—
With the illusion of something flashing, before he knew it, his body had half-penetrated the cliff on the opposite mountain.