NO CHOICE

"You've finally finished crying, old man?" Leonel asked with a laugh.

Old Hutch only seemed to finally realize that Leonel was behind him at that moment. He blinked for a moment and then his eyes brightened.

"Don't make fun of me, brat. I've been making my enemies shed tears since before you were a thought in your father's sack. It was about damn time I shed a few."

Leonel laughed. The old man was still the same, it seemed. Well, the same in some aspects… and very different in others.

The old man's Dimension remained the same, but his Blade Force… that was very much different. Even Leonel could feel some pressure coming from it.

That man really had an obsession with his machete.

"Tell you what, old man. I'm kidnapping."

"Hm?" Old Hutch asked in confusion.

"Technically, you're supposed to be a warrior of the Slayer Legion, but we're not doing that anymore. You're coming under me."

Old Hutch was speechless. Was this the sort of unilateral decision you could even make?

The old man had always been a person of duty. He didn't even allow his grandson's hatred to get in the way.

But now Leonel was…

"Nope. You don't get to refuse. Do you know why?"

Old Hutch was confused again before he suddenly realized what was going on.

"… You think you've grown some hair on your balls finally and think you're stronger than me? Is that it?"

"Think?" Leonel burst into a fit of laughter, his booming cadence filling the skies.

Leonel patted Aina on the back and pulled her behind him. Then, he grabbed at the air, causing the Brazinger Heirloom to appear.

Then, with another wave of his hand, he tossed over a familiar rusted blade over to Hutch.

Leonel looked at the Brazinger Heirloom and after a long while, he shook his head and pierced it into the ground.

"That's too much. I don't want to scare the old man."

Old Hutch's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. "Hehe…"

It was all he said but a bloodthirstiness was already coming from him.

Leonel grabbed at the air again, but this time a long branch broke free of a tall tree. With a surge, his Spear Force rushed into it and it began to glow a bright golden light until a blade grew out from its tip.

"Come on, you old bag of bones. I'll show you that listening to your weapon nonsense you were spewing was all bullshit."

Veins bulged from Old Hutch's forehead.

"I'm going to spank you like the good 'ol days, brat." Content provided by .

BANG!

The two suddenly vanished at once. A shockwave spread out from between them, however, it was clear in a single glance who was superior although neither took a single step back.

High in the skies, Leonel thrust out his spear with a single arm, the tip matched with the blade edge.

Hutch tried to twist his wrist and continue his attack, but every time, Leonel only lightly flicked his wrist, sending them back to the starting position.

"Hoho… it seems you really have grown a bit. In that case… I can stop holding back."

BANG!

A violent red aura seeped out from Hutch and his eyes went crimson.

He suddenly pulled back his machete and unleashed a violent rain of attacks.

Leonel took a single step back, his wrist elegantly flickering. His arm hardly moved, but every time the blades clashed, Old Hutch's machete would be parried to the side.

But what surprised Leonel was that with every strike, Old Hutch would seem to adjust, and then adjust again.

He wasn't becoming faster or stronger, but he was becoming sharper.

The lines of his attacks were becoming more simplified, more to the point, and yet they carried a myriad of mysteries deep within that all pointed to one direction…

Kill.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Leonel became a hint more serious, his second hand finding its way to the shaft of his spear. His aura changed and a suffocating spear dance erupted from him without the slightest change to his expression or his foot position.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

His wrist twisted and parried the machete upward, but Old Hutch had already bailed into a spin, moving toward Leonel's spear and shifting slightly, causing the blade to just barely miss cutting into the back of his neck.

His torso tensed and he continued his spin, forcing down his parried machete right toward Leonel's throat. He had closed the distance too much for Leonel to pull back his blade in time.

And yet, Leonel was completely indifferent to it all. He pulled his arms up and changed his stance slightly.

BANG!

The machete's blade met the shaft of Leonel's spear just before it could decapitate him.

Old Hutch was just as savage as ever, immediately twisting his wrist and sliding his blade down the shaft to cut Leonel's fingers into minced meat.

But Leonel only pushed upward, throwing Old Hutch who was still in a half spin off balance.

Taking advantage, he erupted with a quick three-piece combination, thrusting toward Old Hutch's head, heart, and crotch seemingly all at the same time.

Old Hutch was still off balance and hurried to block, but it was clear that he was pressed into a sorry state.

He stumbled backward and almost fell after the first thrust, but the second was already coming toward his heart. He barely managed to twist out of the way, but that left his crotch wide open to a slash.

By this point, he had barely managed to recover his machete blade and thrust it downward to block.

CLANG!

"Not bad, old man," Leonel said with a laugh. But this time it was his turn to twist his wrist.

Old Hutch's expression changed as he found that his own blade was being pressed toward his crotch. If this continued, his own precious blade would castrate him.

However, just as this was going to happen, Leonel suddenly stopped.

The loss of a force to fight against caused the old man to stumble and almost fall out of the air.

Leonel grinned, catching his old teacher by the shoulder.

"See? You have no choice."