Its intelligence had dulled, but its instincts had sharpened. Every movement was faster and far more lethal now.
In Leo's previous life, pain had been nothing more than an artificial signal, something fed to the brain inside a VR suit but this was different.
'This is bad…' Leo pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain running down his back. He had underestimated the bear once, he wouldn't make that mistake again. A grin spread across his face, wild and unsettling.
Then he charged straight at the bear, this time, the bear matched his speed perfectly.
Even without properly seeing him, it intercepted his attacks, guided by instinct and scent alone. Its claw came down too fast for his body to keep up but he forced himself to move, adapting with each exchange.
The strike missed his head by a hair's breadth, close enough for him to feel the air tear past his skin while he continuously exploited the weak already injured areas on bear's body, angering him more.
Dodging one such exchange, the bear's other arm came in from his blind spot, slamming into his side.
The impact sent him flying again. His body hit the ground hard and skidded across the dirt, tearing through loose soil before finally coming to a stop.
For a second, he didn't move.
"Ugh…"
The relentless exchange had already worn him down, but that single blow had fractured his arm. His legs trembled as he forced himself back to his feet.
The bear was already on him again, its massive frame closed the distance in seconds.
Raising his other arm, forcing every ounce of strength and that faint, elusive force he couldn't yet grasp, Leon dodged the bear's Jaw and met the incoming claw head-on.
The impact sent him flying once more, while the bear only skidded back a few steps.
A sharp pain ran through his arms, but this time his body held. A faint trail of smoke rose from his fist.
'What is this feeling?!' Leo thought, closing his eyes as he tried to summon that same force he had just drawn upon subconsciously.
Burying the pain, he raised his arms defensively, crossing them above his head just as the bear's claw came crashing down again and again, each impact driving him deeper and carving a small crater beneath his feet.
Pain surged through his arms as they began to give way under the force and he fell to his knees.
The bear grabbing his head lifted him off his feet entirely and threw him backward, his body crashing into a boulder hard enough to split it in two.
Leon sucked in a breath, but it came out uneven. His vision blurred, his mind ringing.
'Should I use that dagger Mother gave me… or run away until the bear's berserk state ends.'
Some old memories surfaced in his mind.
"I understand you wish to hunt that bear in the forest, Leo… but I can't shake this uneasiness. What if something happens to you?"
"Rest assured, Mom. I've made ample preparations, and you know how strong I am. It's just a bear." Leo tried to comfort her.
She stepped closer and placed something in his hand. "You may hunt that bear, but take this dagger with you."
It had a jade-like hilt, its blade forged from a strange black metal. Yet when he brushed against its edge, it felt like a dull scraping stone.
"It's no ordinary dagger. It's forged from an unknown meteoroid metal mixed with seastone. It belonged to your father." Her gaze hardened. "If my instincts are right about that abnormal bear… this will be the most useful thing you can have."
'Use something like that or run away? Never… this beast is nothing but a training dummy, remember what your true goal is Leo, remember who you are...'
Leon's heart began to race uncontrollably, thoughts sharpened as he focused on the incoming attack. He dodged halfway but was flung back again.
'I can feel it… just within reach. Before this bear burns itself out… I have to grasp it.'
Smoke began to seep from his fists, curling around his strained muscles. His broken hand collided with the bear once more.
Pain surged again but this time, he didn't resist it, he let it guide him.
The bear charged again. His mind screamed to retreat but Leon stepped forward instead, straight into danger.
He slipped into the beast's inner range, into a gap so narrow he hadn't known it existed, the claw passing just inches from his body.
'So… this is it…' He finally understood.
Observation Haki wasn't about reading movement, it was about sensing intent. The emotion and killing intent. The moment an attack was decided, not executed.
The world slowed in front of him.
The bear moved but Leon was already gone.
The claw split the ground beside him.
'Then Armament Haki must be…'
Instead of forcing strength into his shattered bones, he guided it toward that unseen force, building a bridge between the two, drawing out as much as he could from that vast, endless reservoir he sensed deep within himself.
The smoke around his fist shifted and condensed.
A faint silvery metallic sheen spread across his fist not complete.
The bear's reverse swipe came instantly, but Leon moved on instinct. He planted his foot, twisted his body and drove his fist forward matching the beasts.
For the first time, he felt a different impact.
Solid and Real.
A crack rang out as the blow shattered the beast's paws bones, its massive frame recoiling from the force.
It wasn't sudden clarity, but the culmination of sixteen years of effort realized in the one moment it truly mattered. The sound of the wind, the pressure beneath his feet, the subtle shift in the bear's movement, he could feel all of it through observation Haki.
The way its shoulder turned before the strike, the tightening of its muscles and the exact path its claws would take.
He understood it, not by seeing, but sensing.
The claw came again but they missed.
Leo moved to his left instead of backing down.
His arms screamed the moment he forced them to move, broken bones grinding against each other but he didn't stop. He clenched his fist and struck anyway.
The impact felt more stronger and heavier.
A faint silver glow flickered around his knuckles.
"Still only half-perfected…" he muttered, glancing at it.
Even so, the change was undeniable.
The bear roared again. Its body swelled as the blood-soaked tattoos flared brighter, then began to flicker unevenly.
Its strength had peaked but he wouldn't last.
"I'm only getting started now."
Leo stepped in, slipping past its blood slick jaws before driving a strike to its legs, shattering its support.
What followed was no longer a one-sided beating.
The bear swiped, bit and lunged with brutal force, but Leon moved through it dodging every attack with a narrow margin with his newly awakened Observation Haki.
Each exchange pushed him further ahead of the bear, while the bear seemed to be running out of blood, his tattoos receding.
The same was happening to Leon. His body was reaching its limit, his vision dimming at the edges but the fire in his eyes only burned brighter.
Leo focused his assault on the wound Jack had opened in the bear's chest, hammering into it again and again. Each strike, coated in Armament Haki, drove deeper than any blade could, tearing the injury wider with relentlessly.
The bear's condition was far worse.
Its jaws hung broken, upper and lower halves misaligned. Both its forelimbs sagged uselessly at its sides, barely able to lift as it dragged its massive body forward.
The glow of the tattoos dimmed further and for the first time, the bear hesitated.
Its eyes, once clouded and feral, cleared just enough for fear to surface.
It didn't understand what had happened to his body, only that the human before it, bleeding, broken, felt far more dangerous than anything it had faced before.
A deep buried memory stirred within it as it stared at the faint gleam around Leo's hand.
It took a step back, then another but Leon charged.
The bear tried to attack but its body refused, drained of every last bit of strength after pushing its berserk state for too long.
"Thank you for helping me break through." He took a step forward, eyes steady.
"I'll grant you a swift death."
Leo leapt forward, his movement blurring into a mirage that drew the bear's focus toward his head but it was a feint. In the same instant, his Haki-coated hand drove straight into the open wound in its chest, piercing through and puncturing its heart before he pulled back.
The beast stiffened, trying to retaliate but collapsed.
Leo exhaled sharply, but his gaze lingered on his own Haki-covered hand for a moment. He still didn't understand what had frightened the bear when it saw him use haki… but he didn't have the strength to think about it now.
His back bled, both arms were fractured, and claw marks covered his entire body, burning and itching all at once. His legs finally gave out, exhausted under the strain, and he dropped taking support of a tree.
With what little strength he had left, Leo pulled the jade dagger from his waist and examined it.
If he had used it from the start, the beast wouldn't have stood a chance but choosing not to had been the right decision.
In that struggle, he had managed to awaken both Armament and Observation Haki.
Through blurred vision, he saw Jack dragging himself toward him. Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Leo noted that he had managed to patch his stomach wounds.
With a faint, playful smirk, Leo flicked the dagger from his hand. It spun through the air and buried itself into the bear's neck but something unexpected happened.
The bear's body began to shift.
The massive form shrank, the blood-soaked tattoos fading as if they had never existed. Muscles deflated until what remained was the lifeless body of a frail old man.
Leon narrowed his eyes slightly.
"…So it wasn't an animal that ate a Devil Fruit… but a human whose instincts were overtaken by the devil fruit." Leo's voice was quiet.
"He was… human."
He didn't feel guilt, but as he processed the truth, something else caught his attention.
A normal red berry they had prepared as bait for the bear suddenly shifted.
Its surface changed into a spiraling pattern. Its stem curled strangely, its appearance unmistakably similar to the tattoos on bears body.
A Devil Fruit.
"Why would it appear here? I thought they reincarnated randomly across the world… Is this just a coincidence?"
He retrieved the dagger, then picked up the Devil Fruit lying nearby. As Jack drew closer, Leo explained everything that had happened after he'd been knocked out.
His wound would have killed an ordinary villager, but Jack wasn't ordinary. He was a trained hunter, his body stronger but still too weak when compared to someone like Leo.
They slowly returned to the village by evening not encountering a single animal.
The news of the Beast King's death spread quickly and what followed next was… expected.
The village head and others scolded them harshly, their voices filled with anger as they berated the two for acting recklessly. Leo was even stripped of his position as leader, temporarily.
But beneath the anger, there was relief and gratitude.
The punishment felt more like a warning to others than true condemnation, and for some unknown reason, the villagers organized a grand feast that very night.
The villagers were even more shocked upon learning the truth that the "bear" had once been human, taken over by a Devil Fruit. Judging by the body Leo and Jack had brought back, he wasn't someone from their village.
No one knew how he had ended up there, yet they gave him a proper burial.
As the discussion continued, Leo noticed something, a single tear at the corner of Uncle James eyes.
The retired hunter stood quietly at the edge of the crowd, a faint, almost satisfied smile on his face.
Leo noticed it, but didn't ask the reason.
Leo couldn't enjoy the festival much because after treatment, his body was wrapped in bandages and plaster.
For the next three days, his mother didn't let him step outside.
When the bandages were finally removed something had changed within him.
His body was completely healed with few claw marks here and there.
His muscles were more defined. Even his bones felt… denser, as if they had been reforged under pressure.