"Spider?" Sunjae asked.
The woman smiled. "You must be the ones causing all the noise."
"We're here for the kids," Baki said.
The blonde man beside her stepped forward. "You're not getting past us."
Spider tilted her head. "Ken and I have been waiting for something interesting. Looks like today's our lucky day."
Sunjae glanced at Baki. "I'll take the blonde one."
"Fine," Baki said, his eyes on Spider.
Ken came in fast with a spinning kick. Sunjae slipped it, stepped inside, and hit him in the ribs before he could reset. Ken grunted and spun away. He came back with a running jump, body horizontal, heel driving down at Sunjae's head. Sunjae sidestepped and the foot punched a dent into the floor. Sunjae was already moving forward when Ken landed. His punch caught Ken in the jaw and sent him skidding back.
Ken reset and came back harder. His kicks were fast and his combinations were clean, each one building off the last. He was good. Sunjae blocked, absorbed, and kept reading him. A kick clipped his shoulder. Another grazed his cheek. Ken thought he was finding his range.
Ken faked low and drove an uppercut up fast. It caught Sunjae's jaw and launched him into a ceiling pipe.
CLANG!
Sunjae grabbed the pipe, swung around it, and landed. He spat blood to the side.
Ken watched him from across the corridor. "Get up."
"I'm already up," Sunjae said.
Ken rushed and jumped again, hanging in the air, spinning hard. Sunjae stepped under him and let the kick graze his back. The moment Ken's feet hit the floor Sunjae closed the distance completely. Inside Ken's range, the kicks were useless. Sunjae's punches came fast and didn't stop. Ken blocked the first two and the rest went straight through. Jaw. Ribs. Temple.
Ken hit the wall and the metal buckled behind him.
He pushed off and tried to spin. Sunjae caught the leg, twisted it, and threw him through the door behind him. Ken crashed into the next room and the floor cracked where he landed.
He got up slower. One hand against the wall before he straightened. He looked at Sunjae and charged one last time, everything committed to a full uppercut as he jumped.
Sunjae moved aside and the punch hit nothing. Ken stumbled forward onto one knee from the momentum. Sunjae grabbed him by the hair and drove his knee into Ken's face.
CRACK!
Ken hit the floor and stayed there.
Sunjae looked down at him. "You're good."
Ken's eyes were already closing. "You're something else," he said, and went quiet.
---
Spider came at Baki the moment Sunjae moved. Her heel drove down in a drop kick. Baki sidestepped and her foot left a dent in the floor. She pushed off immediately into a spinning combination, each kick snapping out clean and precise. Baki blocked two and leaned under the third, then stepped in and hit her in the chest. His uppercut caught her chin on the way up and she flew back into the wall.
She pushed off and wiped blood from her lip. "Not bad."
She rushed back in. Her foot found the side of his head before he could cover. She used his shoulder as a platform and kicked him again on the way past. Baki hit the wall and left a dent in the metal.
Spider landed and smiled. "It'll be more fun to break you."
Baki rolled his neck. "Good. Now it's interesting."
She went high again. Baki stepped into it instead of back and drove his knee into her midsection as the kick landed. The trade hurt them both and Spider got the worse end. She doubled over. He grabbed her, rolled back, planted his foot on her stomach, and launched her over him.
She hit the floor and the metal cracked on impact.
She got back up and looked at him differently now. The smile was still there but it was tighter. She rolled her shoulders and came in low this time, feinting at his legs before snapping a kick at his jaw. It connected. Baki's head turned with the impact. She followed immediately, not giving him a second to reset. A flurry of strikes, high and low, switching levels faster than most people could track. One kick hit his ribs. Another clipped his ear. She was quicker than she had been at the start, like she had been holding something back.
Baki took a kick to the chest that pushed him back two full steps.
Spider pressed forward. She jumped and drove both feet into his chest in a dropkick. Baki hit the wall hard and the metal behind him buckled and split. He peeled off it and she was already spinning, heel coming down at his skull.
He caught her ankle.
She twisted in his grip and kicked off his shoulder with her free foot, wrenching her ankle loose before he could throw her. She landed clean and put distance between them, breathing harder now.
Baki looked at her. There was a cut above his ear. He touched it and looked at his fingers.
"Okay," he said.
He moved forward and she met him. Her kicks came fast and clean but he walked through them now, taking the hits and closing the distance every time she tried to reset. She went for his head one more time with everything behind it.
His jumping uppercut snapped her head back. Before she could fall he put three fast kicks into her and finished with a final uppercut that took her completely off her feet.
Spider dropped and didn't move. She was still breathing.
Sunjae came back into the corridor and looked at her on the floor. "You certainly didn't go easy on such a beautiful lady."
Baki walked past him. "Fuck off."