Chapter 373: It’s getting interesting

"Won’t he suspect?" Veronica asked after Kyle had explained his plan to get noticed by Arthur.

Amanda looked equally concerned, her expression tightening as she considered the risks.

Kyle merely shrugged. "From what I’ve observed so far, Arthur looks at people like tools. Whatever secrets those tools might be hiding are insignificant to him. In his eyes, a tool is useful as long as it does its job and remains weak enough to be controlled. And to him, I’d become a tool he couldn’t afford to ignore."

....

Dhak.

Lauren, a martial arts champion who had won several medals in both taekwondo and judo, was currently struggling to comprehend what was happening.

She had more than enough experience and physical ability to deal with a scrawny, pale man like the one standing before her. Yet somehow, every attack she threw ended with nothing but empty air.

Her irritation had started long before the fight. The man had declined to fuck her, and Rey had spent the entire night laughing at her because of it. The humiliation had left a bitter taste in her mouth, and now she had finally found an opportunity to vent her frustration.

The bastard had rejected her outright. Such arrogance deserved to be answered with blood and pain.

And yet, the question gnawed at her with every failed strike.

Why can’t I hit him?

She had been trying for several moments now, throwing herself into every attack with enough force to put down an ordinary opponent in seconds.

A straight kick toward his stomach was avoided by nothing more than a slight shift to the side. When she lunged forward and tried to seize him before throwing him over her shoulder, he simply slipped out of her grasp and sprang over her head, landing several steps away as though the entire exchange had been effortless.

He was avoiding even the slightest touch, moving with such precise timing that it felt as though her attacks were being repelled by an invisible wall. The more she failed, the hotter her temper burned.

Gritting her teeth, Lauren finally lost what little patience she had left.

"JUST FUCKING TAKE IT!"

Her roar echoed through the arena as she launched herself forward. She flipped through the air, her body twisting with practiced control before one leg whipped around in a vicious roundhouse aimed directly at Kyle’s head.

A wave of gasps swept through the crowd. Some watched in awe at the sheer speed and force behind the strike, while others could not help but feel relieved that they were not the ones standing in front of her.

Kyle, however, saw the attack entirely differently.

To his eyes, the kick seemed to crawl through the air at a fraction of its actual speed. Every weakness in Lauren’s movement was exposed to him, from the slight opening beneath her guard to the unstable position of her supporting leg. He could have stepped inside her range, struck her exposed side, and ended the fight before she could even recover her balance.

Instead, Kyle simply lowered his body and ducked.

The kick swept harmlessly over his head, close enough for him to feel the rush of air against his hair.

"Tch! Slippery eel!" Lauren snarled as she landed, immediately turning to face him. Her breathing had grown ragged, and sweat had begun to glisten across her brow.

Kyle straightened and raised one hand, curling his fingers toward himself in a deliberate gesture.

"Keep going. You haven’t even warmed me up yet."

The provocation landed exactly as intended.

Lauren’s eyes sharpened, her jaw tightening as anger surged through her. More importantly, Kyle could feel the Genesis around her beginning to stir. The energy responded to her heightened emotions, gathering around her body in increasingly dense currents.

A faint smile touched Kyle’s lips.

It had worked.

....

Meanwhile, Elena was finding the fight increasingly amusing.

On the other side of the arena, Rey was beginning to bare his teeth in frustration. Another one of his punches cut through empty air before Elena slipped past it and drove her palm straight into his chest. The impact forced a grunt from him, but he immediately retaliated, driving his knee toward her stomach.

Elena brought both hands down to block it. The force of the blow made her arms tremble, yet she did not give even an inch of ground.

Rey sneered. He reached out, seized a fistful of her hair, and twisted his body in one fluid motion until he was facing the opposite direction. Using his grip to control her head, he dragged her forward and pinned it against his shoulder.

"Survive thi..."

He never finished.

Elena suddenly hardened her fingers and drove them straight between his ribs. Rey’s body jerked violently as the strike found its mark, his grip loosening for the briefest moment.

That was all she needed.

Elena thrust her knee into his lower back, forcing him to hunch forward before her hand shot up and clamped around his throat. Rey struggled to regain his footing, but Elena had already taken control of the exchange.

Their eyes met for a fleeting moment.

A wicked smirk spread across Elena’s face.

"Bastard meets reality."

She tightened her grip and suddenly drove him down.

Rey’s head struck the ground with a brutal impact.

DOOM!

A wave of winces passed through the crowd as several spectators instinctively recoiled at the sound. The instructor’s expression tightened, and he glanced toward Jimmy, silently questioning whether they should intervene and declare the match over.

There was little reason to wonder about Rey’s condition.

The real spectacle was happening on the other side.

By this point, Kyle was barely fighting Lauren at all. He was playing with her.

Every time she attacked, he was already gone. Every time she tried to change her approach, he adjusted before she could even complete the movement. He kept her chasing him, forcing her to waste energy on attacks that never came close to landing. Her punches grew slower, her breathing harsher, and even her curses became broken by gasps for air.

Kyle, meanwhile, had yet to throw a single serious attack.

He was simply waiting for her to exhaust herself until there was not enough strength left in her body to throw another punch or enough breath in her lungs to curse him.

Elena grinned as she realized her partner had completely overpowered his opponent without even touching her.

He is quick and very slippery, indeed.

By no means was Lauren weak. Elena could tell that much from the force behind her attacks alone. Yet Kyle was barely putting any effort into avoiding them, slipping past each strike with movements so economical that it almost seemed insulting.

Just when the battle seemed to be nearing its end, however, something unexpected happened.

Crackle!

Chains suddenly materialized around Elena’s ankles and snapped tight, violently yanking her legs out from under her.

"Ah!"

She hit the ground hard, her head striking the surface with enough force to leave her momentarily dazed. Wincing, Elena slowly opened her eyes.

What she saw immediately wiped away the pain.

A pair of eyes stared down at her, filled with nothing but rage.

"Bitch..." Rey growled.

Genesis was now actively coursing through his body, the energy wrapping around his limbs and strengthening the chains that had captured Elena’s ankles. His face twisted into an ugly expression as he looked down at her.

"You dare insult me..." His voice was low and venomous. "That ugly smirk of yours won’t exist from today onward."

The instructor immediately moved to intervene, but Jimmy reached out and held him back.

"But, sir..."

"Just wait. I’ll handle things if it goes awry," Jimmy assured him.

The instructor hesitated, his concern refusing to fade as he turned his attention back toward the pit. What he saw only made his expression grow more troubled.

Another person had already broken the rules.

Elena’s body began to rise from the ground.

Two radiant, angelic wings slowly unfolded from her back, their appearance accompanied by a sudden shift in the atmosphere around her. The sight alone was enough to silence the surrounding crowd. Conversations died away as countless eyes turned toward her, drawn instinctively to the strange majesty of her transformation.

Rey, however, only grinned.

"Nice. Very nice." His gaze traveled over her with undisguised malice. "When I will fuck that ass and break you under me, I want those wings unfurled just like this."

Elena stared down at him from the air.

There was no fear in her expression.

No anger, either.

Only a coldness that made it painfully clear that whatever happened next would not end well for him.

On the other side of the arena, Kyle simply stepped aside as Lauren’s final attack swept past him. With the last of her strength spent, she stumbled forward and collapsed onto the ground, unable to rise again.

Kyle did not spare her more than a glance.

His attention had already shifted toward the silent confrontation taking place across the arena. The tension between Elena and Rey was seconds away from erupting into something far more chaotic than the instructors had intended.

Then his eyes caught something else.

A figure appeared high above the arena.

It was so faint that an ordinary person might have mistaken it for a trick of the light. Yet Kyle saw it clearly enough.

Someone was standing high above everyone else, watching the entire scene from the shadows.

Kyle suppressed the smile threatening to reach his lips.

Then he made his decision.

Someone is going to be destroyed today.