Meanwhile, the explosion lit up Bruce's entire field of vision, blinding gold, roaring flame, and a shockwave that swallowed everything in a wave of burning wind. The earth split. Trees were ripped from the ground. The air itself seemed to scream as the blast devoured everything in a radius of hundreds of meters.

But then…

Bruce's eyes widened.

"…Impossible," he muttered, stunned by what he was seeing inside the explosion's core.

The world was still shaking, smoke still billowing, embers still raining down like falling stars. The flames hadn't even settled yet, firestorms still raged, the ground still molten in places, chunks of burning earth rising and falling in the heated air.

But even through that chaos…

Something remained.

Something alive.

As the flames finally thinned and the haze pulled back, the shape at the very center came into view,

A heart.

A massive, still-beating golden heart suspended in midair, pumping slowly, rhythmically, as if nothing that happened around it mattered. And circling around that heart was a glowing mana core, no, not a normal one, one with five rotating rings, each one etched with ancient-looking runes and radiating terrifying power.

The sight was unreal. The core didn't just float, it pulsed, resonating with the heart in perfect synchronization, keeping the beast tethered to life.

Bruce stared, fascinated despite himself.

'So that's how it survived… the mana core absorbed the detonation and protected the heart…'

He didn't fully understand the mechanism yet, but one thing was certain:

The Golden Mane Lion wasn't dead.

Not even close.

The first ring around the core cracked.

Then melted, turning into molten, liquid mana that flowed downward and wrapped around the exposed heart like armor of living gold.

Bruce watched, expression tightening.

The heart pulsed harder.

Veins began to form. Flesh began to grow. Muscle re-knitted. Bones re-formed. Fur started sprouting.

It was regenerating from the heart itself.

The lion was at its weakest now. Bruce could feel it, not just sense it in the air, but read it in the beast's aura, in the faltering pulse of its pride. He knew he could end this right here, while it lay in a state between death and rebirth… but the idea didn't sit well with him.

Killing it now would be wasteful.

The Golden Mane Lion's regeneration wasn't normal healing, it was rebuilding itself through the cycling of its mana core, reforging its strength in real time. If it survived this phase, it would return stronger than before.

And that meant Bruce would grow stronger too.

So he let it happen.

Sighing, Bruce sat cross-legged amid the shattered earth, eyes half-closed. He didn't need to chase the victory. The victory would walk to him on its own.

His mana pool was low, dangerously so, yet all he needed was a single, casual spell.

"Heal."

Warm energy flowed through his veins, accelerating his mana recovery. The calm pulse of regeneration wrapped around him like a second heartbeat, stabilizing him for what was coming next.

Meanwhile, on the torn battlefield, the Golden Mane Lion was piecing itself back together.

Its obliterated flesh rewove itself from the heart outward. Bones re-formed. Muscle knotted back in place. Ash and blood were pushed out and replaced with radiant vitality fed directly from its core. Bruce could feel it, the violent rush of energy, the way the beast's life force wasn't just restoring, but evolving.

'Mana core, huh… I missed that. Maybe for actual S-Ranks, targeting the core is the key.' Bruce sighed lightly.

In just two minutes, the beast was whole again.

It rose, fur unmarred, mane gleaming like a crown of molten gold. The earth around it was still charred and cratered. Trees were shattered into splinters. Smoke drifted through the air like the remains of a fallen sky.

And yet the lion stood there calmly, as if nothing had happened.

Its eyes locked onto Bruce, still sitting cross-legged in front of it, completely unbothered. No stance. No guard raised. No fear.

Just waiting.

[The Golden Mane Lion's Pride is Shaken!]

[The Golden Mane Lion is Full of Rage!]

That was the final push.

Its fury detonated.

Rage flooded its senses. The golden mane crackled with violent flame, and with a sound like stone splitting under divine pressure, the lion launched forward.

The speed was absurd.

In the same instant the ground shattered beneath its paws, Bruce was already rising, slow, effortless, almost uninterested. He stepped back once, hands still relaxed, as if shifting position in a lecture hall instead of dodging a killing blow.

Such a dumb beast, Bruce smiled.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!!

Swoosh!!!

The claws came like steel storms, ripping through the air, each strike strong enough to shred steel plating and pulverize concrete. The lion was faster, stronger, and somehow even more precise after its rebirth.

Each swipe carried at least fifteen thousand tons of force. A force of power that can pulverise mountains instantly.

But every time its claws tore into Bruce, the damage vanished the moment it landed, healed instantly, converted into growth.

He didn't dodge.

He tanked.

With every wound, Bruce adapted. With every slash, his body reinforced itself, synching to match the beast's strength.

The lion's attacks escalated to a blur of wild precision, swinging with the desperation of a king who couldn't accept that his throne was slipping.

Bruce didn't even flinch.

On the third strike, he caught the lion's paw mid-swing, barehanded, fingers curling around the claws like he was holding nothing heavier than a pen.

That was the moment the fight ended.

The lion snarled, muscles bulging, trying to retract its limb, but Bruce held it there like it was pinned beneath gravity itself.

He looked at the beast with a small, almost sympathetic smile. The fight was starting to get boring, Bruce decided to end it here.

"In the end," he said softly, "no matter what you do… it's useless."

His right hand began to glow.

A faint shimmer first… then a cold, internal light, like a surgeon activating a precise tool.

"Vitality Collapse."

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