Chapter 31 - A Tragic Loss

[Sarah] blinked twice in disbelief. She couldn't figure out when Leon started watching her.

She knew Leon knew she wasn't timid but was perplexed why he knew Sarah wasn't her name or why he was so confident that she wasn't weak.

"Stop looking surprised, brat. You're like a goddamn parasite testing every skill you can on us while we're not looking!" Leon scoffed.

"Lindy might as well be blind, and Caitlyn's always being [useful], but did you think I wouldn't notice your useless assists?"

"GYAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

BOOOM! CLANG! Clang! Clang, clang, clang….

Leon jumped onto a shelf and used the height to jump onto another shelf to avoid an attack without running on food items.

It was getting hard to walk with the spilled liquid and cans everywhere.

Sarah genuinely shivered in fear after hearing Leon call her out. She was amazing at hiding from people and had yet to be called out.

Now she was watching a stressful fight play out and wrangling with shock.

"Now, snap out of it, you brat!" Leon ordered coldly, "I need you to distract this thing for five seconds. If you can't be useful for that long, I'll throw you into this thing's mouth to earn me ten!"

A jolt of electricity shot through Sarah's body the moment she realized she was in genuine danger.

She couldn't stay alive for the next three hours alone. More importantly, she couldn't run through the Cocytus tar or across the battlefield that Leon was fighting on.

The only other exit was on the other side of the mecha-bear, and the monsters were only at bay because creatures knew better than to challenge the mecha-bear.

"I'll do it! Five seconds is a stretch, but I can only hold it for a few." Sarah yelled, "On the count of three!"

Leon nodded and turned to run across the battlefield into an open area in front of the bear. When he started moving, he felt something sticky and looked down.

That's when he saw it—

"One!"

—the horrifying sight that he feared most.

There was pudding, pudding everywhere.

Chocolate pudding.

Dark chocolate pudding.

Toffee pudding.

Butterscotch pudding.

Lemon pudding.

There was vanilla pudding, which disgusted him his entire life until he saw its death and realized how important it was. After all, many people wouldn't buy the increasingly less popular snack without vanilla pudding, and he'd be left completely puddingless.

"What!?" Leon seethed.

He saw something even more brutal than before.

"Two!"

"They have apple danish flavored pudding!?" He growled with suffocating, killing intent, "I've never seen so many flavors of pudding in my life, and they're all gone. Gone!"

Ding!

[A/N: The user has exhibited true emotion for themself for the first time! The user has leveled up!]

"One!" Sarah yelled.

"I'm going to rip your lungs out and use them as sleeping bags!" Leon roared at the top of his lungs.

"I'M GOING TO RIP OUT YOUR LUNGS!—" Leon roared at the top of his lungs.

"Go!" A massive red barrier wall burst from the ground using a barrier technique to protect comrades at a distance.

"—AND USE THEM AS OPIUM DEN TENTS!"

It reached toward the sky until it reached the top of the burnt bear on all fours, preparing to swipe at him.

"GYAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

BOOOOOOM!

The mecha-bear matched Leon's killing intent, clawing at him with full power. However, the paw crashed against the barrier.

Leon ran full speed toward the bear, who couldn't attack him as he got close.

"You're lucky! If this dildo was longer and harder—"

When Leon thought about the overpowered dildo's shape and appearance, it immediately transformed into a far deadlier sex toy.

It increased to ten feet in length, straightened, and stopped giggling.

Leon's eyes burned with murderous satisfaction.

"—and was meant to please Freyja, I'd give you the attention you deserve!"

Something horrifying happened when he asked the sword to please Freyja.

It became golden, became as thick as a baseball bat, and shot pointy studs.

Freyja's masochism was truly terrifying. All of the women's eyes widened in shock. They would never be able to unsee what they were looking at.

Leon's reaction was very different. He was grateful to be given a weapon that only a god with a decadent track record could craft.

"Release the barrier when I'm airborne!" He ordered Sarah.

Lindy watched him jump 20 feet into the air with a look of awe. She was captivated by him and couldn't remember why she ever found him so repulsive.

She could remember the aspects that drove her mental but didn't know why she found them negative.

The young brunette wasn't desperately in love with him. However, he was appealing in a way that none were before.

While she knew that was part of his power, the scene she witnessed would have had the same effect on any woman.

"Now!" Leon yelled when he was above the bear's head. They were within ten feet of each other, as it couldn't attack him as he approached.

Sarah released the barrier a split second later.

When the red cage lifted, the silver bear swiped up at Leon with blinding speed while Leon swung down with all his might.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The mythically trauma-inducing sex toy crashed against the mecha-bear's palm, and the two forces counterbalanced each other perfectly for a moment.

Everyone watched in slow motion as the two froze in mid-air.

Then it happened.

To the beast's horror, its arm split down the center with the terrifying ease that bananas split into thirds.

Bone fragments assaulted Leon's body like shrapnel as he glided through the Bear's arm.

He looked like he was sliding down the steps of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan on an Aztecan slip-n-slide. (1)

CRAAAACK!

When [Sir Lance a LOT]! smashed into the bear's elbow, it exploded, and the force sent him hurdling twenty feet to the ground.

Wooooooosh!

Just as Leon thought he might hit the ground and get stepped on, Caitlyn caught in her arms. She was flying with a strained expression, but he was grateful to be alive!

Risking one's life with an uncertain action was always better than dying trying to protect their life!

"Thanks for the sav—"

"GYAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The bear finally overcame the shock and gripped its mangled arm while falling to its knees. The event cracked the floor of the building.

"Sarah! Do you have power for another barrier that can go over that thing's head!?" Leon yelled.

"Yes! But if I do that, I won't be able to defend us once the other beasts enter again!" Sarah yelled back.

"That's okay! Lindy, hit that thing in the head with the largest water ball you can." He ordered, "Sarah, cover its head with the water inside it!"

The two were stunned by the ruthless yet unorthodox use of barrier magic.

Leon had shown twice that barrier magic could be used as an offensive weapon. It was perplexing.

"Lindy, aim for its mouth! NOW!" He barked.

The two snapped out of their daze and complied.

A large torrent of blue energy materialized from Lindy's hand, and a green glow enveloped Sarah's.

"Gyuaguahguah!"

The mecha-bear took a large load of liquid to its screaming throat, and the water crashed into its eyes simultaneously. Then a green barrier encased the water like a fishbowl.

The beast cried in lament. Blessed by the Bear God Lakota, the bear had stood atop the food chain as the alpha for over a hundred years.

While he couldn't rival gods, he had yet to meet a foe that could surpass him.

Yet, at that moment, he had a horrifying realization.

Not only would he die at the hands of a few exhausted ants, but he would also die in the most disgraceful way possible.

Death by bukkake.

In its dying moments, it aimed for a Pyrrhic victory. (2)

"Gyuaguahguah!"

After a ridiculously uncool battle cry, it charged forward at Leon and his dragonfly.

At least, that was what he tried to do.

When he charged forward, the only human it found was Sarah. Arm smasher, dragonfly, and bukkake girl were missing!

As for Sarah, she watched the bear approach with the saltiest expression imaginable. She ensured the bear's death, and now she was manaless escape bait!

Leon and Caitlyn collected Lindy and flew away without glancing at her. If she wasn't certain before, she was now. Leon was a bonafide sociopath.

The bear decided to cut its losses and take at least one person with it.

"Yeah, about that."

Just as it was about to jump at Sarah, it heard a cold voice above it.

BOOOOM!

Darkness clouded the bear's eyes as a massive, golden dildo smashed into its skull and drenched Sarah in brain matter.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The mecha-bear smashed into the floor and caused a minor earthquake. Before its final breath, the ¼ of its brain still functioning informed it of a cruel reality.

It had been bukkake'd and then finished off with a dick slap.

Leon Traxler was the worst.

BOOM!

Its body went limp. The final slam of its body was the straw that broke the camel's back. The earthquake had cracked the walls and ceiling and walls. With the final push, everything began crumbling.

Sarah stared at the sight with a wry smile. In a cruel twist of irony she would die in a collapsing building when she was a barrier master.

While Leon had used her as bait to kill the distracted bear, he and his flying calamity were already gone.

Woooooooosh!

"Ekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!"

By reflex, Sarah screeched with her false voice as she felt her arm get yanked into the air

Booom!

Woooooooosh!

Boom!

Woooooooosh!

BOOOM!

Woooooooosh!

Rubble, rubble, rubble….

Sarah looked up in confusion and found Leon holding onto her arm as Caitlyn weaved in and out of falling debris to the sky.

However, Leon wasn't looking at her. He looked toward the ground where the pudding was with a sorrow-filled expression.

He had gone through dangerous maneuvers to avoid the snack aisle, and prevented Lindy from using water to prevent pudding loss.

Despite his best efforts he was helpless to save it.

He was too weak.

Now his pudding was dead because of it.

His weakness killed the pudding.

He learned a valuable lesson: the new world was cruel, and the only way to survive was to kill every problem he faced.

Leon vowed to become strong, so he would never experience such a tragic loss again.