Hou Qing charged.
His punch came straight and fast. From Baki's perspective it was slow. He moved his head two inches and the fist passed his ear. Hou Qing threw another. Baki shifted his weight and it missed. A left-right-left-right combination came next and Baki's head moved in small, tight motions through all four of them. Every punch cut air.
Hou Qing stepped back. "Such sharp reflexes."
Baki came forward. His punch appeared inside Hou Qing's guard without warning and hit his chest. Hou Qing slid back several feet. Baki followed without pause and threw three more. All three landed. The last one sent Hou Qing stumbling sideways.
Hou Qing tried to counter. Baki swayed and it hit nothing. The follow-up met the same result. Then Baki's fist caught his jaw. A chest punch followed. A knee drove into his midsection and Hou Qing folded. Baki grabbed him and put two knees into his face. Blood sprayed across the floor. He kicked him away.
Hou Qing crashed through a table and rolled through the debris. He pushed himself up on shaking arms and wiped blood from his face. "Were you holding back before?"
Baki smiled. "No. I just raised the bar."
Hou Qing came forward again. Every punch he threw found nothing. Baki read each one before it arrived and wasn't there when it landed. Hou Qing threw combinations, changed his angles, changed his rhythm. It didn't matter. Baki slipped everything and hit him clean on the way out every single time. A jab to the nose. A hook to the ribs. A kick to the thigh. Small hits that added up fast.
Hou Qing's eye was swelling. Blood ran freely from his nose. He couldn't land a single clean shot.
Then the blue glint appeared in Baki's eyes.
His movements became a blur. He was inside Hou Qing's guard before Hou Qing could track it and the hits came too fast to count. Hou Qing stumbled backward, blood pouring from his nose and mouth, vision going gray at the edges. Baki grabbed his arm, pulled him forward, and drove two knees into his face. He kicked him in the chest.
Hou Qing flew back and crashed through a table. He rolled across the floor and stopped.
His arms shook when he tried to push himself up. Blood ran into his eyes. He got to his hands and knees and stayed there, head hanging down.
Baki walked toward him. "You fought well. It's over."
Hou Qing's hands pressed flat against the floor. He stayed down for a moment. Then an image came. Zhang Jian on the first day, looking at him with honest admiration. You're my idol. Zhang Jian in high school, always beside him, always smiling. Zhang Jian following him into Red Dragon without a single question. Where you go, I go. Then the ballroom floor. Zhang Jian's broken body.
Something in Hou Qing's chest cracked open.
He pushed himself to his feet. He swayed but he stayed standing. His hands closed into fists and his eyes opened through the blood and began to glow purple. Dark veins spread under his skin and reached across his face and down his neck. A low pressure filled the air around him, the kind that made the ground feel heavier.
Baki stopped walking. Something close to caution entered his expression for the first time. "I need to finish this fast," he said.
Hou Qing took a step forward. His body was broken and his breathing was ragged and the purple light in his eyes burned steady. "I won't let you walk away," he said, his voice rough and torn.
He charged. His speed was different now. Not fast enough to vanish, not fast enough to fool Baki's reflexes completely, but the weight behind each movement had multiplied into something that didn't match his body anymore. His punch came and Baki slipped it the same way he had been slipping everything. The fist passed his head. Baki countered with a straight right to the chest.
It connected clean. Hou Qing stumbled but didn't go back. He brought the extended arm down onto Baki's shoulder with his full weight behind it.
CRACK!
The shoulder shattered. The force drove Baki down to one knee and cracks spread outward across the floor from the point of impact.
Baki's eyes went wide for a fraction of a second.
Hou Qing threw another punch. Baki's shoulder wasn't responding and the window to move had closed. It caught the side of his head and his head whipped around violently, blood and spit flying from his mouth, jaw dislocated.
Baki swept Hou Qing's legs on instinct. Hou Qing hit the floor. Baki rolled away and pushed himself up on his good arm. He grabbed his dislocated jaw with his good hand and shoved it back into place with a wet pop.
Hou Qing got back to his feet. Still bleeding from everywhere, still slow, but those purple eyes burned without wavering.
Baki rushed in with his good arm and hit Hou Qing in the face. It landed clean and Hou Qing's head snapped back. His left uppercut came up from underneath before Baki could read the angle.
Baki tried to move. He was too close.
The uppercut hit him under the chin like a wrecking ball. His neck vertebrae popped. His feet left the ground and he flew up and hit the ceiling. The ceiling cracked and concrete chunks fell. He hit the floor hard.
He lay there for a moment with his vision blurred and his ears ringing. His shoulder was destroyed, his jaw was out again, and his neck had nearly snapped. He pushed himself up anyway and got to his feet with blood running down his face.
A grin spread across his broken face. "OVERCOMING YOUR LIMITS MID BATTLE! HOW BEAUTIFUL!"
Hou Qing moved toward him. Each step looked like his last. Blood poured from his nose, mouth, and ears. His skin had gone gray. The dark veins covered his face and neck and the purple glow in his eyes flickered. His body was tearing itself apart from the inside and it showed.
Baki rushed forward and kicked him in the stomach with everything he had. Hou Qing doubled over. Baki kneed him in the face, grabbed him with his good arm, and kneed him again and again. Blood hit the floor each time.
Hou Qing's glowing eyes locked onto him. He grabbed Baki's leg with both hands and lifted him off the ground. He slammed him down and the floor shattered. He lifted him again and slammed him a second time. Chunks of marble broke free and scattered. He lifted him a third time and his body gave out completely. The purple glow flickered hard. Blood poured from his nose and ears in streams. He stumbled and dropped Baki.
Both men stood in the wreckage and breathed.
Baki's left shoulder was destroyed and his neck could barely support his head. Blood covered him from his forehead to his chest. The grin was still there.
Hou Qing's entire body was failing. Dark veins covered him like a net pulled tight. Blood ran from his nose, ears, and the corners of his eyes without stopping. The purple glow flickered like a flame in wind.
Baki moved first. He kicked Hou Qing in the chest. Hou Qing stumbled back and threw a punch that was slow and wide. Baki ducked it easily. The fist hit the pillar behind him and the entire pillar exploded into chunks. Concrete rained down.
Hou Qing threw another. Baki ducked and the fist hit the floor. The impact cratered the marble and a whole section collapsed into the level below.
Baki punched him in the stomach. Hou Qing bent forward and grabbed Baki's arm in the same motion. He pulled him close and drove his forehead into Baki's face. Baki's vision went white. He did it again. Baki's nose shattered and blood covered both their faces.
Then Hou Qing stumbled. The purple glow went dim. His grip loosened. Blood poured from every opening on his face in steady streams.
Baki drove his knee into Hou Qing's face. He kicked him in the head. He grabbed him with his good arm and kneed him again and again until the sound of it filled the empty ballroom.
The purple glow flickered once. Then it went out.
Hou Qing's body went limp. Baki let go and Hou Qing dropped to his knees, then fell forward onto his face and stopped moving. Blood pooled under his head. His breathing was shallow and barely there.
Baki stood over him and swayed. His left shoulder was destroyed. Blood ran from multiple points on his face and body. Every breath sent pain through his ribs.
"You pushed past your limits," Baki said quietly. "But I am yet get pushed past mine."
He grabbed his destroyed shoulder with his good hand and forced the joint back into alignment with a grunt. He turned to Li Xiu, who stood across the hall with her drink still somehow in her hand.
"You're Red Dragon too," Baki said. "Aren't you going to stop me?"
Li Xiu raised both hands slowly. "I'm not a fighter. And if I were you, I'd go after your actual target instead of wasting time here."
Baki looked at her. Then he hit her in the face.
Her head snapped back and her body hit the wall hard enough to crack it. She slid down and her drink shattered on the floor beside her.
Baki turned toward the exit where Wang Wei had fled. His body was broken in multiple places. Blood covered him. He started walking anyway, each step steady and deliberate.
"I miss South Korea," he said to no one.