I Am Indeed Brave and Fearless

The tavern fell silent. All the Temple Knights stopped what they were doing and quietly watched the Old Captain, listening to him. Their young faces brimmed with intense excitement.

"We charged!"

"We lost!"

"Heh heh." The Old Captain laughed, stroked his thick white beard, wiped away the wine stains, and looked utterly proud.

"My strength was limited. I took quite a few blades and fell among the corpses like a dead dog. Haha, when I woke up, I found myself back at the temple. Only then did I learn that the entire Fifth Regiment had been wiped out. I was the only one left."

"The Cold Cedar Knights showed us no mercy. They made sure to finish off every corpse. But luckily, the knight who finished me off used a Thrusting Sword. That sword blinded me, pierced into my head, and spilled my brains all over the ground."

"The Great Emperor personally saved this dog's life. He asked me what reward I wanted."

"So I told His Majesty that I wanted the designation of the Temple Knight Fifth Regiment. I wanted to rebuild the Temple Knight Fifth Regiment!"

"That was how you little brats came to be, understand?"

"Otherwise, why would the mighty Temple Knight Order recruit new members so easily?"

"You little fellows all got damned lucky. But you're still too young. What did that battle just now amount to?" The Old Captain shook his head and said nothing more, merely continuing to drink.

His account was brief and rough, but the young Temple Knights in the tavern were all flushed with excitement.

They began talking excitedly.

"I know about it! In the battle at Jackalwolf Valley, our Fifth Regiment, with only a little over a thousand men, wiped out more than five thousand Cold Cedar Knights and destroyed three of their formations!"

"The Cold Cedar Knights had just finished clearing the battlefield when the Temple Knight Third Regiment struck them in a lightning raid. In the end, they were completely wiped out in Jackalwolf Valley."

"The Cold Cedar Knights were the Southern Noble Alliance's greatest trump card. That battle broke the Southern Noble Alliance's backbone!"

"That's right. This is what we Temple Knights are!"

"We are invincible, unstoppable!"

"Even when trapped in hopeless circumstances, we must hold our heads high as we march to our deaths!"

"That's right! Charge, charge, charge to our deaths!"

The tavern grew lively again. Whether from the wine or their excitement, the young Temple Knights' faces were all crimson.

The memories faded, but their voices still seemed to linger beside Zhen Jin's ears.

Charge!

Charge!

Charge to your death!

Zhen Jin charged forward without hesitation!

The Monkey-Tailed Brown Bear's ears immediately twitched. It had heard the movement.

But its severe injuries had made it far slower than usual. It had only just turned around when it saw the Boy in midair!

Zhen Jin sprinted, then leaped into the air, the dagger raised high in his hand flashing with cold light.

Caught off guard, the brown bear had its remaining left eye stabbed directly by the dagger.

In an instant, it became blind.

Aoooh!

The brown bear flew into a rage. The excruciating pain and the darkness before its eyes completely unleashed the beast's ferocity.

The Bear Arm swung fiercely, and Zhen Jin had no way to dodge.

In his haste, Zhen Jin could only curl up as tightly as possible, raising both arms to shield his face and chest.

Bang.

With a dull thud, the Boy was sent flying by the brown bear at twice the speed as before.

He was smashed hard into the cave wall. The arms he had used as shields were completely broken. The violent collision with the wall fractured his shoulder blades and rear ribs in multiple places.

His internal organs had suffered as well. The blow was so violent that it seemed to have caused internal bleeding.

Zhen Jin opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of blood.

Agonizing pain swept through his body, and the Boy's face turned deathly pale.

Yet even under such circumstances, new strength still surged up from deep within him.

This was the effect of the Berserk Potion!

After spitting out another mouthful of blood, Zhen Jin pushed hard with his feet and kicked himself free from the cave wall.

"Kill!"

He growled and charged at the brown bear again with utter resolve.

In an instant, gale-force wind howled past his ears. It was as if he had broken through his limits. The intense exertion magnified the pain, yet it instead made him even more excited.

Both his arms were completely numb. As he ran, they dangled behind him like two thick noodles.

The brown bear's previous blow had been no small matter. It had shattered the Boy's arm bones and pulped his muscles, leaving them barely held together.

The brown bear had gone mad, attacking wildly inside the Mountain Cave and sending ore fragments flying.

The scattered ore struck Zhen Jin's body, but the Boy's expression was as grim as iron.

He suddenly lowered his head, dodging a sweeping claw strike from the brown bear, while his charging pace accelerated to its absolute limit!

He stepped onto the cave wall, took several quick steps, then launched himself into the air once more.

Both of the brown bear's eyes were blind, and it was consumed by madness. It noticed nothing.

Seizing the moment as he fell through the air, Zhen Jin viciously stomped down with his right foot onto the dagger embedded in the brown bear's eye socket.

Squelch.

Blood and brain matter splattered out. The dagger plunged deep into the brown bear's skull, and the portion that had remained outside its eye socket was driven in to the hilt.

Aoooh—!

The brown bear let out the most shrill and agonized howl of its life.

Following its beastly instincts, it grabbed Zhen Jin in one swipe.

Its blade-sharp claws once again radiated intense heat, turning scarlet red.

The claws plunged deep into Zhen Jin's abdomen, piercing straight through the Boy from front to back before viciously slamming him onto the ground. The sharp claw tips drove directly into the hard stone beneath them from the sheer force.

The scorching claws pierced Zhen Jin as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Zhen Jin cried out in agony. His intestines and flesh had been scorched black. At that moment, he fully understood the pain those Scaled Horn Black Panthers had endured.

"My lord—!" The horrific scene before her made Zi Di cry out miserably.

Her cry reached Zhen Jin's ears, allowing him to regain a shred of clarity through the overwhelming pain!

His waist and abdomen were pinned to the ground by the claws, nearly fixing him in place.

At that moment, the Monkey-Tailed Brown Bear had already lowered itself, its bloody maw right before Zhen Jin's face!

At the critical moment, the Boy used all his strength to twist his upper body to its limit.

The brown bear had no vision at all, and Zhen Jin successfully avoided its attack.

With a bang, the bear's head smashed viciously into the ground. Its sharp teeth bit into the earth, spraying chunks of stone everywhere.

Zhen Jin's arms had long been crippled. In this desperate situation, the Boy could only imitate the brown bear, opening his mouth and biting toward its neck!

On this side of the brown bear's neck was an utterly terrifying wound.

This was the heavy price the Monkey-Tailed Brown Bear had paid when it fought the Scaled Horn Black Panther leader not long ago.

The wound was deep enough to expose bone, and its fur and hide had long since been torn away.

Zhen Jin practically buried his head inside it. After a few bites, his mouth was filled with brown bear flesh and blood.

The brown bear's wound had originally bled heavily, but after it consumed ore, the bleeding had stopped. Now, however, Zhen Jin's biting tore through the artery within, and a great surge of blood burst forth, flowing even more violently than before!

In an instant, Bear Blood covered Zhen Jin's entire face.

It was as though Zhen Jin had plunged his head beneath a small waterfall. He could only squeeze his eyes shut as a horrifying bloody stench and heat filled his mouth and nose, seemingly carrying a trace of sweetness.

Zhen Jin continued fighting desperately, relentlessly tearing at the brown bear's flesh.

As a result, great quantities of Bear Blood poured backward into his throat, and the Boy could barely breathe.

But what did breathing matter at a time like this?!

Their fight had reached its most critical moment.

Who would win? Who would lose? Who would live? Who would die?

Zhen Jin began choking on blood. Bear Blood flooded into his lungs as well, making him feel unbearably miserable.

But the savage bear let out a low whimpering growl. It was afraid!

It could not see the Boy, but it could sense Zhen Jin's frail physique. Yet Zhen Jin was fiercer than any beast it had ever encountered in its life!

Zi Di was stunned as well. She stared blankly at the sight of man and bear tearing at each other, her eyes unfocused, like a stone statue rooted in place by terror.

The brown bear tried to pull out its claws and then tear the Boy to pieces, but after several attempts, it failed.

It turned out that after the great battle, it was already at the end of its strength. After suffering the Boy's desperate assault, its power rapidly ebbed away like an avalanche, leaving it unable even to pull its claws free.

Thud.

At last, the brown bear collapsed onto the ground and did not move.

Its enormous body was several times larger than Zhen Jin's, but in the end, it was the loser.

Zhen Jin also fell to the ground, coughing violently and continually vomiting chunks of flesh and clots of blood from his mouth.

After vomiting out the blood and flesh, the Boy was finally able to breathe properly.

He was like a drowning man who had been on the verge of death before reaching shore. For a time, his chest rose and fell violently as he gasped like a bellows.

After taking several breaths, he began coughing again and spat out another mouthful of bloody foam.

He did not know whether it was the brown bear's blood or blood from his own internal injuries.

An intense dizziness filled the Boy's mind.

The Boy wanted to get up, but after trying once, he failed completely.

His waist and abdomen were still pinned to the ground by the brown bear's claws, blood flowing constantly. Moreover, the savage fight had violently tugged at his original puncture wounds, tearing them completely open.

A section of blackened intestine, scorched by the claws, spilled out from the huge torn wound.

With a thump, the Boy collapsed onto the ground again.

"Heh heh heh..." He looked at the massive bear corpse and let out a weak laugh.

That laughter sounded remarkably like the Old Captain of the Temple Knight Fifth Regiment.

Then, Zhen Jin's open eyes gradually became vacant, and his laughter quickly weakened.

After several breaths, the light completely vanished from his pupils.

The Berserk Potion's effect had worn off.

The Boy completely lost consciousness.

For a time, neither man nor bear moved at all.