Chapter 120: Silent Abyss
Here, on this battlefield, Moon clashes violently with the fearsome Gandharva, while far away, on another ruthless tournament planet…
The broken city was nothing but the skeleton of another age. Shattered towers clawed toward the artificial sky, their glassless frames jutting like broken teeth. The ground was littered with twisted steel, half-collapsed bridges, and fragments of shattered roads.
And through those ruins, a single figure ran.
His hair was disheveled, his fair skin smeared with dirt and blood. His beard—once neat—was streaked with crimson. Yet his crystalline blue eyes burned with defiance. His breaths came fast, ragged, each one scraping his lungs. Behind him, the sound of pursuit thundered like war drums.
Eight hunters.
Eight men in black, their forms cutting through the shadows, their laughter cruel. One raised his arm and flicked a shuriken with casual precision.
Thhk.
The blade bit into Kai's leg. His step faltered, momentum broken. He hit the ground hard, the impact rattling through his spine.
"Got you, you son of a bitch," one of the pursuers snarled, spitting on the broken concrete. "Do you know how many streets you made us run across? Huh? What the fuck are you, a rabbit with an engine strapped to its ass?"
They circled him like wolves, their faces twisted with malice.
Kai lay on his back, unmoving for a beat. The dust swirled around him. Then, slowly, he turned his head, letting them see his face. His lips curved into that familiar smile—mocking, teasing, dangerous.
"Do you want to hear a fact?" he said, voice smooth, almost lazy.
The hunters stiffened.
"I'm not tired. At all."
The words were spoken like a slap, dismissing their effort, their exhaustion, their anger.
One of them roared and lunged, dagger flashing toward Kai's head. The steel came down fast—
But there was no impact.
Kai's figure blurred. He wasn't there anymore.
Instead, he stood behind the man, expression stripped of its mocking edge. Cold now. Merciless. His hand gripped the man's skull.
"Wrong move," Kai whispered.
A single motion. A savage twist. The sound was wet, brutal.
The man's head tore free, ripped from his body with no elegance, no clean blade's cut—just raw, ruthless force. His scream ended before it began. The corpse dissolved, teleported away.
The system's voice chimed in Kai's ear.
[Opponent eliminated.]
[+1 point.]
[Total: 23 points.]
The other seven froze. Their comrade's headless body was gone in a blink, but the echo of his death still hung in the air. Rage replaced fear.
They charged.
Blades gleamed, fists swung, essence burned.
Kai didn't meet them head-on. Not yet. He slammed his palm against the broken ground.
Boom.
Dust and rubble exploded upward, filling the air with choking gray haze. Visibility dropped to nothing. The hunters coughed, eyes stinging.
Kai moved within that chaos like a phantom. His fist hammered into one man's ribs, caving them inward. His knee drove into another's stomach, folding him in half. His elbow cracked across a jaw.
And then—he saw his chance.
One blinded man staggered, blinking furiously, sand burning his eyes.
Kai grabbed him.
The man didn't even have time to scream. Punches rained down like a storm, each one breaking flesh and bone. His face crumpled under the relentless assault. And at last—
Crack.
Kai twisted his neck, ending it cleanly.
The system chimed again.
[Opponent eliminated.]
[+1 point.]
[Total: 24 points.]
By the time the dust settled, two were gone. Only six remained.
One hunter's scream tore through the crumbling city.
"This psycho… he cut us from sixteen to six! Enough—focus! Strike together!"
The six surged forward like a coordinated wave of predators, weapons flashing, fists slicing through air, each intent on spilling Kai's blood.
Kai's laughter rolled low and dangerous across the ruins.
"Finally. You're taking me seriously."
A fist lunged for his jaw—Kai twisted, ducked low, and slammed his elbow into the first man's temple. Crack. The skull didn't just sting—it rattled. Before the man could recover, Kai's foot arced backward in a spinning kick, smashing into the second attacker's chest with a force that sent him cartwheeling through broken glass and shattered metal.
Another blade swung from above—Kai's hand shot out, catching the wrist mid-air, redirecting the strike into a teammate's shoulder. Metal clanged, bone groaned, and sparks of impact flared.
Kai spun, delivering a rapid flurry of blows: a knee to a gut, an elbow to a temple, a fist snapping into a man's collarbone. Each movement precise, fluid, and devastating. Bodies flew, stumbling, collapsing, hitting the cracked concrete with sickening thuds.
Numbers pressed, relentless. Another punch tore across Kai's cheek—blood spattered, teeth ground together. A kick slammed into his ribs, forcing a grunt from deep in his lungs. A dagger grazed his arm, slicing skin, and pain sparked in his muscles.
Kai blinked, assessed, adapted—he moved like water, flowing around their attacks, letting their own momentum fling them into one another. He pivoted, ducked under a lunge, and spun—heel smashing into a man's jaw, snapping it sideways with a crack that echoed off the broken walls. Another man's knee struck his chest; Kai caught it mid-motion, flipped the attacker over his shoulder, sending him crashing into the ruins behind.
"Not smiling now, are you?" one taunted, circling, eyes wide with growing panic.
Kai wiped blood across his lip with the back of his hand, then slowly straightened. His stance shifted, shoulders low, eyes darkened, voice dropping to a whisper that carried through the rubble like a promise of death:
"Still… Abyss."
The world changed.
From the cracks in the concrete, black water erupted—thick, alive, a sentient tide rising with terrifying speed. It engulfed the six men, pulling at their limbs, crushing, swallowing, muting everything. Sight, sound, movement—stolen, trapped within the weight of the abyss.
Inside the dome, silver light flickered. A single line traced across each throat. Cold, surgical, merciless. Blood blossomed in precise arcs. Limbs went slack, bodies collapsing in unison, screaming swallowed by darkness.
And then—silence. Absolute.
The abyss dissolved. The ruins returned to stillness.
[6 opponents eliminated.]
[+10 points.]
[Total: 33 points.]
Kai stood at the center, chest heaving, blood streaking his face, muscles trembling from the adrenaline spike—but the expression was not victory. Not satisfaction. It was… the weight of discipline, the restraint of skill, the shadow of frustration.
He spat onto the concrete, a spray of red hitting the cracked stone.
"Damn it… I swore I'd take all sixteen without a blade. Without art. Just bare hands. I was doing it… I was close."
He ran a hand through his hair, smearing blood across his temple, shoulders sagging, every motion sharp with exhaustion and irritation.
"Well," he muttered, voice low, "nothing I can do now."
The broken city stretched around him—shattered towers clawing at the artificial sky, jagged steel jutting like teeth, shattered bridges and streets like scars across the earth. Shadows twisted in the corners, watching the predator among ruins.
Kai took a measured step forward. Each movement, deliberate. Each breath, controlled. He was not rushing, yet every predator, every hunter in this world could sense the storm he carried in his body.
The remaining six would be gone from the system's tally in minutes. Others would come. And Kai? He would be ready.
Without another word, he turned toward the edge of the city, weaving through debris, fading into the labyrinth of ruined towers, each step echoing like a silent warning across the desolate battlefield.
…
To be continued.