Smoke drifted like ghosts around them.
Leo stood barely.
His arms shook. His knuckles bled. One eye had already begun to swell shut.
Across from him, Vernon Slade stood unbroken. Towering. Radiating brutal power, like war made flesh.
Then—
BOOM.
A single punch from Vernon caught Leo clean in the ribs.
CRACK!
Leo's body folded from the force. He flew like a bullet, smashing through a concrete pillar and tumbling end over end across the rubble-strewn ground.
Dust rose.
Blood splattered.
And for a second—
silence.
Vernon cracked his neck.
"I expected more."
In the wreckage, Leo's fingers twitched.
He coughed blood, eyes wide, body trembling.
(I… can't…)
He tried to rise, but his knee buckled. He dropped to one hand, gasping.
(I'm weak… I can't win...)
(He's too fast… too strong… and I'm nothing compared to him...)
The golden glow around his body dimmed.
And then—
A whisper in his mind.
