"Who is this man?"

Talon's gaze sharpened. Such halberd skills shouldn't appear in this world. But then again, the Sea Gods were far more powerful than they should be as well. Was this why his uncles were so obsessed with this place? There had to be something special about it.

Sashae's eyes narrowed as well. What Leonel was doing now was something that a single Sea God should have been able to do to the human army. Instead, there was an odd reversal where a mere human Overlord was capable of all of this?

Even she felt palpitations looking at the strokes of that halberd. There didn't seem to be any Halberd Force on it, and yet it was more masterful than any other halberd master she had seen.

The people of her Race were all tyrannically large. The number that wielded halberds wasn't small in the slightest, so she had seen her fair share... but this...

...

Every step forward, Leonel took reaped another three lives. His halberd seemed to teleport, warping space and time and elevating beyond normal realms of reasoning.

Just as blood would spurt from the throat of one Sea God and another would be watching in shock, the latter would suddenly find a hole in the middle of their foreheads, completely oblivious to how it had happened, even to the moment of their deaths.

Life seemed like nothing but a pawn in Leonel's palm. He swept and thrust, cut and slashed. His movements were without the slightest wasted energy, simple in their beauty and unadorned in their splendor. And yet it was precisely this that made it all so beautiful.

Light radiated off of him in waves. In the darkness and the heavy rain, only he seemed to exist.

And the soldiers to his back fed off of his energy.

With Leonel taking the bulk of the pressure, they challenged the Sea Gods in pairs of two and three, ripping their armies apart.

...

"This can't continue. I'm going."

"Stop, we-."

"That's enough."

Talon's cheery gaze and casual smile vanished in the blink of an eye. He looked down on Sashae from a taller height, the oppressive aura of not only a Demi-God, but a genius confident in his strength shining forth.

"I've let you order me around for a long while now, but you'd benefit from remembering your place. I'm here under the orders of my uncles, not you. Your pitiful little Incomplete World is nothing in my eyes, and if not for the suppression of your Regular, I could wipe out your entire Race with a snap of my fingers.

"Don't piss me off anymore."

Sashae was taken aback, not expecting Talon to have such a side to him.

It was honestly rare for Talon to snap like he had, but the last several months of his life had truly been too oppressive.

He had lost to Leonel in front of so many eyes. He lost to a human, of all things.

The world might have forgotten Leonel, but how could he? How could he not know what dirty tricks were played to suppress him? They could trick others, but could they trick themselves?

Leonel had been the very best candidate present, and there was no comparison at all.

That matter had been grating on his soul ever since the Gathering of Minds ended. But worse than that was the reaction of his Race.

They had never wanted him to become a Crafter in the first place. They were warriors first and foremost. Having to listen to those old fogies harass him about spending more time on his training just made him recall those same events again and again.

It was infuriating.

Now, he had been shipped off to this world when he would much rather be Crafting, forced to play babysitter to this woman who clearly thought far too highly of herself, and she wanted him to wait around?

There was something about this halberd wielding man that really pissed him off, too.

He couldn't help but recall another memory of Leonel, one that grated on his soul just as much...

~

Leonel chuckled. "That's a shame."

Talon frowned. "What is a shame?"

"If you had chosen to use your fists, you might stand a chance. In a battle of Crafting? Even if a God descended, they would lose."

~

Recalling those words, Talon's fury erupted like a volcano. His aura alone forced Sashae a step back.

His legs bent and he launched himself into the air.

It looked as though he was soaring through the air until he suddenly started to plummet.

Thunder clapped in the skies and a twin pair of hammers appeared in Talon's hand. One was recognizable as his Crafting hammer, but the second was obscenely large, having a hand that was half the size of a normal adult male and a pole arm that stood at two meters.

Both weapons expanded instantly to accommodate his new size.

The moment Leonel saw the first hammer, his heart skipped a beat.

Even in disguise, he knew who this person was immediately. It was a simple flaw, and probably one Talon didn't even consider as one, but how could Leonel miss it? Even if it was just the expanding hammers alone, Leonel would have still picked up on it.

Still falling through the air, Talon's body bent like a bow, stretching both of his hammers backward as he unleashed a mighty roar.

Thunder clapped in the skies, and bolts of lightning descended, striking his hammers.

One long, the other short, they formed an odd rhythm between the two of them that shook the world.

"DIE!"

Leonel's pupils constricted. His halberd shook in his hand, glowing a fiercer golden light. He took that opportunity to flood it Emulation Spatial Force that was entirely imperceptible. The Dream Force aspect was far too good at concealing.

He thrust upward, his gaze sharpening to the max.

BOOM!

The world shook, the planet feeling as though it would collapse on itself.