Kai's breath hitched, his mind racing. That girl will die, he thought, panic squeezing his chest like a vise. Nocturne didn't care about lives.
Back when they were kids, he toyed with people like they were pawns on a board, twisting fates for his own amusement, utterly ruthless.
I thought he was dead, Kai told himself desperately. I thought he was publicly executed by the German Prince himself.
But here he was, standing in the arena, cold and calculating as ever.
The bell rang and the fight started.
Kai barely looked away from Nocturne's poised figure. Every move was precise, measured—like a predator ready to strike. The crowd held their breath.
Then—
The battle ended in a swift. The girl easily defeated Nocturne without breaking a sweat.
The crowd cheered for her and the fight was over, just like that.
Kai blinked. His heart skipped a beat, and a cold chill ran down his spine.
Nocturne lost?
It didn't make sense. Nocturne always won. Kai's mind spiraled. How? Why?
The boy who crushed entire clans with his intellect, who broke Kai's strategies like twigs, was defeated—here, now, in front of everyone.
Kai didn't stop. He ran straight through the crowd, ignoring Freya's shout, Reno yelling, "Hey! Where the hell are you going?" His legs pumped faster, heart pounding, until he saw Nocturne walking slowly, calm like nothing happened.
Kai grabbed his shoulder, steady but urgent. Nocturne turned, those dark eyes locking on him. It was a look Kai hadn't seen in a long time—quiet, almost empty, like a stranger staring back.
"Ah, who are you?" Nocturne said softly, voice low but clear, like he'd forgotten everything, including Kai.
What happened to him...? Kai froze. That wasn't the Nocturne he knew. Before, Nocturne was ruthless, sharp, dangerous. This… this was something else.
Then the loudspeaker cut through the tension.
"Next fight: Rank 3, Class 3 Alric Alrone versus Ottokai von Seraphis, Rank 24, Class 5."
Kai let go of Nocturne's shoulder and took a breath. "I mistook you for someone," he said quietly but firmly.
"Oh, alright!" Nocturne said, kindly.
He turned and walked toward Arena One without looking back. The crowd parted as he moved, whispers trailing him, but Kai didn't care.
He stepped into the ring, muscles tight, mind sharp. The fight was coming, and this time, he wasn't going to back down.
The crowd buzzed, voices overlapping in surprise and disbelief.
"Isn't he the one who fought Alric the other day and lost?" someone near the stands muttered.
"Why's he fighting him again? Wasn't he already humiliated?" another whispered back.
In the corner, Marin narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms. "So he's the one you want to join?"
Sylvie nodded slowly. "Yeah, I heard. Ottokai von Seraphis. Not much is known about him, but if he's stepping up to Alric again, he must have something up his sleeve."
Akari's gaze sharpened. "He does."
Akari's voice lowered, more hopeful. "You have to win, Kai. I don't care how. I just know you have a plan."
Meanwhile, up in the VIP box, Herr Direktor Klaus Eisenwulf adjusted his glasses and leaned forward. "That's an unusual move, having a lower-ranked fighter go again Alric so soon."
Professor Dietrich Faulkenrath nodded, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Indeed. It's either reckless or brilliant. Time will tell which."
Commander Erhardt Schwarzklinge, standing beside them, kept his arms crossed, eyes sharp and unreadable. "I don't care who he is, as long as he doesn't disrupt the order or break the rules."
Klaus glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're always so pragmatic, Commander."
Erhardt smirked slightly. "Someone has to be. But I admit, I'm curious how this Ottokai will handle Alric."
Back in the arena, the tension thickened as Ottokai stood ready, and the crowd quieted, waiting for the clash that could shake the whole Yearly Standoff.
The arena rang with the echo of steel and bone colliding.
From the stands, Seren leaned forward, hands gripped tight around the rail. Freya glanced at her. "You okay?"
Seren didn't answer. She just stared, remembering what Kai had said the night before, his voice clear in her mind.
"I'll win. I'll take you back."
Down below, Alric dashed forward, lightning-quick, his right arm cloaked in hardened crimson chitin. "You're still a low-rank rat, Ottokai," he spat. "Let's see how long that confidence lasts."
"I'll win," Kai said, steady and calm, and as Alric's chitin fist came flying toward his face, he raised his left arm—and it wasn't human anymore.
From his elbow down, jagged bone plates erupted like armor, the fingers sharpening into curved claws. The punch landed, but the bone absorbed the blow with a sharp crack, Kai barely stepping back.
Alric's eyes flickered. "Oh, you improved!"
Then he struck again. This time it was a spinning kick, his heel lined with razor-hardened flesh. But Kai ducked low, slammed his arm into the ground, and a bone spike jutted from the floor, catching Alric mid-turn and forcing him to twist away.
"Oh damn, he's countering already?" Marin muttered from the Midnight Band's seat, eyes wide.
"He didn't fight like this last time," Sylvie said.
Kai didn't let up. He rushed in, claws scraping across the ground as he spun. His right hand burst into pale bone threads and lashed forward like a whip, trying to trap Alric's arm.
Alric leapt back, but too late—the bone threads grazed his forearm, cutting into flesh.
"Not bad," Alric muttered, licking blood from his arm. "But not good enough."
He threw up his hand and fired a burst of red energy—compressed heat and parasite venom. Kai slammed both hands into the ground, and a bone wall erupted in front of him. The blast exploded harmlessly against it.
"He's adapting," Professor Faulkenrath said from above.
"This Ottokai… he's not just improving. He's fighting like someone who's been trained to kill elites," muttered Klaus Eisenwulf.
Erhardt Schwarzklinge crossed his arms. "This isn't a low-ranker's desperation. Who the hell trained this kid?"
Alric closed in, blades sprouting from his shoulders, spinning wildly around him as he charged. But Kai didn't retreat. He moved in—closer.
Seren's eyes widened. "He's going into that?"
Kai ducked under the blades, bone claws forming on his feet. He slid along the ground and kicked upward, catching Alric's ribs with a sharp crack. Alric grunted and spun, but Kai grabbed him mid-spin and flung him across the arena.
Reno stood up. "He's really doing it!"
Freya nodded. "He studied him."
Alric hit the ground, rolled, and stood. He was smiling now.
"Oh," he said, "so that's how it is."
Kai didn't reply. His bone claws gleamed, and the crowd held its breath.
The explosion rang out like a grenade.
A streak of blue-black smoke billowed up from Alric's head, and the crowd leaned forward, eyes squinting through the haze.
Freya stood up halfway. "Did he… just plant something in his ear?"
Reno blinked. "That was a bug, wasn't it? He cloaked the injection—wait, no, he timed the movement with the feint…"
But when the smoke cleared, Alric was still standing. Blood trailed from his temple, but he was grinning, wide and slow, teeth bared like a beast that had just remembered it was hungry.
"Oh no," Seren whispered.
Below, Alric rolled his neck, his spine cracking audibly. Then, in a single motion, he tore off his chest armor, let it clang to the side, and ripped the fabric from his shoulders.
His skin started to harden—brown, gray, rough like dried clay. His right arm cracked, then bulged, growing and distorting until it was no longer flesh, but a mass of molten-looking stone.
Ridges, spikes, fault lines. It looked like a piece of earth torn from a collapsing mountain.
"You think illusions scare me?" Alric shouted, his voice deepened. "Try this."
He's becoming serious!
He slammed his stone fist into the ground. The floor fractured instantly, sending out a web of splinters and jagged upturned stone. Dust shot up like a geyser. He smashed it again and again.
Ottokai leapt backward, landing on a shard of broken floor. His breath was steady. His eyes didn't blink.
Then Alric charged.
He was like a moving boulder, dragging destruction in his wake. He barreled forward, every step cratering the ground. Kai rolled sideways, dodging the first blow—but Alric shifted mid-swing, his left arm shooting out, jagged and armored.
Kai blocked with a bone plate, but the impact tossed him like a ragdoll.
"He's faster now," Marin muttered, eyes narrowed. "That stone arm's not just strong—it's reinforcing his balance."
Ottokai slid across the arena, boots screeching as they dragged. He flipped onto his feet and dug his clawed toes into the ground to slow himself. Then he dashed forward again.
"Is he—charging back in?" Sylvie said.
Kai ran straight toward the chaos.
Alric grinned wider. "Bitch!"
They clashed again—stone against bone.
Ottokai ducked, bone claws flaring out like talons. He slashed at Alric's side, but Alric swung his massive fist down. Kai rolled under it, barely missing the quake that split the floor behind him. He created a wall of illusionary clones—dozens of them, sprinting from all angles. Alric growled, swinging wildly, shattering three fake Ottokais in a single motion.
But the real one appeared behind him.
A claw to the back—cut shallow, but it landed.
The crowd roared.
Herr Direktor Eisenwulf's brow lifted. "He baited the blind side."
"Flank and vanish," murmured Faulkenrath. "Not bad at all."
Alric roared and slammed both fists down, creating a crater. Ottokai flipped backward mid-air, bones reshaping into a glider as he soared over the ruined field.
"He's still standing," Seren whispered, watching in awe.
The momentum had shifted. And now, both of them knew it.