Bearmen and Brax

Yuri lifted the curtain and silently blinked as he watched the two creatures, which resembled both humans and bears, mating.

He quickly lowered the curtain, silently counted to three in his mind, and then pulled it open again!

It's still the same old "bowing and scraping".

"..."

Silence, a long, drawn-out silence.

After staring at the two bewildered bear-men for a moment, Yuri suddenly slammed the curtain down!

Goodbye!

After saying that, he turned and ran.

But the shouts from earlier had already caught the attention of the bears, and now, an angry roar came from behind them.

Within a short time, one after another, the bear-men stationed at the encampment filed out of their tents.

Like a well-trained army, those without weapons picked them up first, while those with weapons pursued and intercepted Yuri.

A deafening roar, as if about to tear your eardrums apart, echoed behind me.

One after another, burly bear-men, averaging over three meters tall, clad in sturdy armor and carrying sophisticated weapons, surged in from all directions.

Yuri sidestepped the blade coming from behind and punched a sneak-attacking bear-man, sending it tumbling into a hunched position.

He then leaped up and kicked it away, instantly knocking over a large group of bear-men who were trying to surround him.

He then caught the shield that fell from the sky and turned around to block the sledgehammer that came crashing down from the side.

Even though the burly bear-man had used all his claws, he still couldn't budge Yuri.

Yuri swung his shield to block the hammer, then landed a rising dragon punch on the bear-man's chin.

The bear-man's heavy body rose uncontrollably upwards, but a tremendous force suddenly came from his waist.

A roundhouse kick sent him flying a great distance.

Yuri picked up the giant hammer that fell from the sky and stepped directly onto the bear-man's body, using it as a ski to slide across the snow.

Unlicensed driver Yuri, seeing the bear-men closing in and trying to form a circle around him, suddenly swung his hammer and began to spin it.

In an instant, a high-speed spinning snow tornado appeared in the snow, and even the bear-men's bodies, which weighed over a thousand pounds, were sucked into the air.

Suddenly, a dazzling azure light shot into the sky, rising high into the air along the eye of the snow tornado, standing out brilliantly against the vast snowfield.

The bears, fighting off their dizziness, looked up and saw a massive iron fist instantly fill their field of vision.

"Boom!"

With a tremor in the ground, Yuri gracefully flipped himself to the ground.

He brushed the snow off his clothes and was about to leave when he saw another ring of bear-men emerge from the outer edge...

Looks like I've hit the jackpot today!

Yuri calmly exhaled, then smiled helplessly, "Want to keep playing? If you're not afraid of getting hurt."

"Roar!!"

The bear-men were not intimidated by Yuri's previous performance. Like fearless warriors, they surged towards Yuri again like a torrent, determined to engulf him.

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Taking advantage of the riot that broke out in the bear-men's encampment, a snowman cleverly dodged the bear-men who swept past it.

They quietly infiltrated the largest tent within the encampment.

"Phew... thank goodness, I'm finally inside." The snowman lowered the tent flap and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Immediately afterwards, he began searching through the tent.

There's nothing on the shelf.

Storage box... None.

Round wooden barrels... still none.

The snowman was like a destructive husky, ransacking every possible hiding place.

But he never found what he was looking for.

"Isn't it here?" the snowman wondered.

Just when he was at his wit's end, he suddenly looked up and saw a horn hanging in the most conspicuous place on the wall.

"Found it!"

The snowman exclaimed in surprise, leaped high to take down the horn, then carefully lifted the snowman's headgear and put the horn away with great care.

After doing all this, he ran quickly towards the door, intending to escape this place of trouble immediately.

Just as he lifted the curtain, a hand suddenly lashed out at him.

The snowman was immediately shocked, but the hand was too fast to dodge, and he could only watch helplessly as his "head" was slapped off.

"Smack!"

The snowman's head was slapped off, but it was hollow inside.

The headless snowman, with its round body, continued running forward recklessly.

But the next moment, someone grabbed him by the foot and lifted him up.

Yuri tapped his finger to break open the "bullet casing" that was wrapping the snowman, and a youthful face appeared before him. The face looked to be about ten years old, even younger than Lisanna.

"So it's just a kid." Yuri said with a smile.

He had previously thought the other person's voice sounded a bit strange, but the snowman headgear made the voice sound muffled, making it difficult to determine their exact age.

With the hollow hood adding to his height, he really hadn't expected the other person to be just a tiny kid.

"Who are you calling a brat? You don't look much older than me!" The child, hanging upside down in mid-air, grinned and pretended to be fierce.

"If he's not a brat, then he must be a shorty."

Yuri showed no mercy in mocking the little kid who was only about 1.2 meters tall, which immediately infuriated the other kid.

"I'm not short and stout, I just haven't grown up yet! I'll grow tall and strong, even taller than you!"

"Oh."

Yuri didn't say anything more, only giving him a "dream on" look.

Yuri, who is almost 15 years old now, is already close to 1.8 meters tall, and should grow to around 1.9 meters tall if nothing unexpected happens.

To him, the little guy who was 1.2 meters tall was indeed no different from a short, stout person.

"Hey, kid," Yuri questioned, "Why did you lie to me and say there were Hearth Family here?"

"I already told you I'm not a brat, my name is Brax!"

"And I didn't lie to you," Brax retorted. "I just want my horn back."

"Horn?"

Yuri glanced at the horn being held in Brax's arms and a wicked smile immediately appeared on his face.

"As compensation for deceiving me, I'm confiscating this!"

Having said that, he reached directly for the horn in Brax's arms.

By the time Brax realized what was happening, the horn in his arms had already vanished!

"Damn it, give it back to me!"

Brax waved his hands wildly, trying to wrest his horn back from Yuri.

Unfortunately, his arms weren't long enough; he couldn't even touch the hem of Yuri's clothes.

"Want it? Come and get it yourself." Yuri said tauntingly, tossing his horn repeatedly while carrying the Brax in one hand.

"I'll let you have it! Give it back to me!!"

Perhaps finally provoked by Yuri, Brax forcefully hurled a ball of silvery-white light into the air.

Then, taking advantage of Yuri's moment of looking up, he suddenly kicked him in the chest, breaking free from his restraints in one fell swoop.

Brax landed with a somersault, reached his right hand into the falling light spot, tensed his legs, and leaped up, punching Yuri in the cheek.

"Bang!"

The violent collision stirred up a blizzard, and a hand steadily caught Brax's fist.

Yuri carefully sensed the force coming from his hand and examined the child in front of him with great interest.

Aside from himself, he had never seen anyone else possess such power at the age of ten (without the Devil Bringer).

It's estimated that even a bear-man comparable to B-Class magical beast would be knocked down by this punch.

And most importantly... this kid wasn't nearly this strong before.

Is it because of the boxing gloves he's wearing?

Yuri suddenly remembered what Brax had said before, "I didn't lie to you."

Perhaps, this kid wasn't lying after all... he really does know the Hearth Family.