The moment the fight began, it was chaos.
Alric blitzed Kai with a barrage of punches that came like cannonfire—left, right, low sweep, overhead smash. Kai's bones twisted into shields, spears, and gauntlets mid-motion, clashing against the storm of muscle like steel against thunder.
He blocked. He dodged. He countered. But he still got hit.
A punch grazed his ribs and sent him sliding. Another clipped his shoulder, cracking part of his transformed armor. His jaw stung from a glancing blow, his feet skidding against the stone.
He's fast. But he's not careful.
Then Alric lunged for a full-body tackle—and Kai let him.
That's when it happened.
"Argh—what the hell!? I'm getting itchy!" Alric suddenly shouted mid-charge, his massive frame twitching.
From inside Kai's mind, Sekh clicked.
"George Two, status?"
"Inside. I'm being careful. I don't wanna die."
Earlier, during that first clash—when Alric had thrown his weight into a wild hook—Kai had used the opportunity to throw George Two, a needle-sized bone larva, straight into Alric's exposed chest. It had wriggled through pores, snuck past muscle, and latched onto his spinal channel.
Now, the itching was the warning. The paralysis was the strike.
Alric's body staggered. His arms slowed. His legs stiffened just enough.
Now!
Kai's bone-arm surged forward, morphing into a hammer-fist. He slammed it straight into Alric's chest.
BOOM.
The impact cracked the platform and launched Alric backward like a freight truck had hit him.
The audience erupted.
"What the hell?!"
"He knocked Alric back!"
"Was that a parasite trick?!"
Even the professors stood from their seats. The sensors in the arena flickered from the sheer output.
Seren's eyes widened, her mouth slightly open, her fingers over her heart.
"He actually landed a hit… a real one!"
Across the upper floors, in the shadowed balcony reserved for elite monitors, a black-haired woman leaned forward. Her bangs framed piercing dark eyes. Wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl was a long, snow-white serpent, blinking with slitted gold eyes.
She whispered without expression, "That's impressive."
Alric hit the ground hard, body rolling until he slammed into the platform wall. The crowd gasped.
But then—
"GRRAAAHHH—!!"
He pushed himself up, veins bulging, breath like fire.
"This fight's not over, last rank!" he roared, spitting blood with a grin. "You're dead now!"
Kai took a breath, body tense, eyes cold.
Good. Because neither am I.
Alric cracked his neck, the smile gone. Muscles flexed like tree trunks under pressure. "No more playing," he said, stomping forward.
Kai didn't wait. His fingers flexed—and the Swarm-Kernel inside his spine flared to life.
From under his coat, bone-thin larvae burst out, twitching on invisible tethers. Six in total. They scattered across the arena like glass bullets, crawling up the walls and darting behind rubble.
Scout pattern: Delta Bloom.
Sekh clicked approval in his skull.
"Tactical spread successful."
"Trying bugs now?!" Alric growled, dashing in.
Kai stepped forward to meet him.
A punch came from the left—Kai twisted, arm shifting mid-motion into a hooked blade to deflect the hit. But Alric wasn't stopping—he followed up with a right jab, low and fast.
Kai dropped, used the blade to push himself backward, feet skidding as sparks flew across the tiles.
"George 1, pulse!"
One of the micro-parasites ignited, releasing a burst of bio-electric interference.
Alric's vision stuttered.
But the guy grinned through the blur. "Nice try!"
His knee came up—Kai caught it with both hands, arms forming a hardened exoskeleton—and pushed off it to flip over Alric's head.
As he spun mid-air, he activated George 4.
A sliver of white-hot bone extended from Kai's finger, like a stinger made of thought.
He aimed it for the back of Alric's skull.
Override.
He stabbed.
And missed.
Alric pivoted too fast.
He grabbed Kai mid-air by the ankle—and slammed him downward like a sack of bricks.
Kai hit the arena hard, body bouncing. He rolled, bone armor cracking.
"Okay," Alric said, stepping forward. "No more dodging."
He charged.
Kai clicked his tongue. "George 6, Bloom."
Behind Alric, another larva erupted—this one releasing spores of phantom feedback.
Suddenly, four mirrored KAI illusions darted outward—blurry, flickering.
Alric punched one—it vanished.
"This path is pretty strong," Kai muttered, standing with bruised ribs. He won't guess right forever.
Alric roared. "I'll punch all of you to death!"
He smashed two more—gone.
Then the real Kai lunged from behind—but Alric spun without looking.
His fist collided cleanly with Kai's gut.
The hit lifted him off the ground.
"Got you."
Then Alric's fist slammed again, this time into Kai's ribs.
CRACK.
Kai flew.
He soared across the arena—over the cracked tiles and broken beetle shells—until he hit the platform's barrier hard enough to make it shudder.
Dust erupted. Silence fell.
Seren stood, stunned. The teachers leaned forward.
The black-haired snake lady just watched, unreadable.
Kai groaned, bones flickering back into place, blood in his mouth.
Damn. He's not just muscle... he's adapting.
Kai sprinted in, two phantoms flanking him, flickering shadows mirrored perfectly in step. Their motions were fluid, not like before—these ones didn't twitch, didn't jitter. They breathed as he breathed.
Finally... full mirage generation. These aren't tricks—they're soldiers.
He rushed Alric, watching carefully.
The giant didn't hesitate—he spun left and obliterated the left mirage with a snap kick, then pivoted right to backfist the second one. Both illusions collapsed in bursts of static haze.
He's predicting my rhythm.
Kai narrowed his eyes.
Then he whispered, "George 2... you're an important one."
A pause.
But goodbye.
Deep inside Alric's torso—nestled along the adrenal tissue where the parasite had latched in the first exchange—George 2 detonated.
It wasn't fire, but pressure. A hyperkinetic burst of neural static and protein-bursting vibrations.
Alric froze mid-punch.
His eyes widened—one red, one twitching.
Blood sprayed from his nose.
Kai didn't waste it.
He roared, surged forward, bone lining his fists. His punch hit clean in Alric's sternum—sent him staggering back.
The crowd exploded. Shouts of "No way!", and "He got him!" echoed across the arena.
Freya punched the air. Emric gasped. Even Reinhardt grinned a little.
And Seren, she stood frozen, her lips barely open. She didn't know whether to cheer or panic.
Then—
From the dust cloud, something moved.
Thud.
Alric stood.
Head lowered.
Chest rising and falling.
Blood matted his chest and arms, eyes burning scarlet.
"...That hurt," he growled.
Kai took a half-step back.
Oh shit.
Alric slammed his fists to the ground.
BOOM.
The arena cracked like dried earth under lightning.
Tiles split and buckled as chunks of stone and sand flew skyward. A shockwave spiraled outward, knocking weaker students off their feet.
Then Alric raised his head.
Veins bulged like ropes across his arms, his mutation fully active now—bones thickening, muscle threading visibly under his skin, forming ridged armor.
"You want to play with bugs?"
He grinned.
"I'll crush them all."
Then he stomped forward, each step cracking the stone further.
Kai's mirages flickered instinctively—but even they trembled. He had pushed too far.
And now, Alric was no longer holding back.
Kai dropped his stance low, his knuckles brushing the cracked arena floor. Breathing hard. Limbs aching.
No more tricks... no more parasites… Sekh, I need everything.
"Sekh, give me everything you have…"
"Yes, partner!"
A burning heat coiled in his spine. His veins lit with parasite fire. Bones bent, muscles unraveled and reformed. His armor didn't grow over him—it erupted from within.
His right arm turned first. It split open and encased itself in silvered chitin. Then his left. Then his torso arched backward, and a jagged spinal crown burst from his back like a helm's crest.
His entire frame grew, warped, reshaped into something monstrous and regal. A warped Heloxian Knight. But not a pure one.
His legs were too long. His shoulders were uneven. His helm-crest cracked at the edges. It was a failed replica because he was too weak.
But he still stood tall.
His roar shattered the tension.
A tremor passed through the platform.
From the crowd, the black-haired woman narrowed her eyes. The white snake coiled tighter around her shoulders. "That's… a Heloxian Knight. But –"
Alric grinned. "So that's your real form, huh?"
He stomped forward again—and charged.
Kai moved faster.
Their fists met in the center of the ring—the shockwave blasted out like a cannon.
Tiles flew skyward.
Kai's spear-arm grew from his wrist and jabbed—Alric deflected with a sweeping elbow.
Alric countered with a hammerfist—Kai bent backward unnaturally, his spine cracking into a sickening bow as he dodged low.
Kai leapt—his fist collided with Alric's jaw. A geyser of blood sprayed. He landed behind him, spun, and delivered a kick to Alric's ribs that sent the titan skidding.
"GET HIM KAI!!!" Freya shouted from the stands, pumping her fist.
Reno stood up from his seat. "He's pushing him back!"
Emric's pigeons fluttered nervously. "That's not human…"
Alric growled, wiping blood from his mouth.
Then he stomped once, leapt into the air—and slammed both fists down.
Kai crossed his arms to block—but the impact drove him a meter into the arena floor.
Dust burst up around him.
Kai's helmet cracked.
I can't outlast him. I need one shot. One break. Come on Sekh, charge everything!
Sekh's voice pulsed in his skull. "Generating Core-Lance. Fifteen seconds."
Make it five.
He launched himself upward with a cry, armored feet crushing stone. His elbow caught Alric under the chin. His shoulder smashed into his gut.
Alric staggered.
Kai spun—and threw a full-body roundhouse that sent the behemoth stumbling back.
"YEEEEAAAAH!!!" the crowd exploded.
Even some upperclassmen stood up.
Then—Sekh whispered.
"Core-Lance ready."
Kai's right arm shifted, transforming into a long jagged energy lance lined with fractal chitin and sparking with internal pulses.
Kai roared again—and charged.
But Alric was grinning now.
And as Kai thrust the lance forward—Alric ducked low, slammed his shoulder into Kai's gut—and hurled him.
Kai flew across the ring like a meteor, hit the arena wall with a deafening CRACK, and dropped to the floor unmoving.
Dust settled.
Silence.
Alric stood in the center, bloody and panting, arms limp at his sides.
"Nice trick... but not enough."