[Broadcast Feed: City U News 7 - LIVE AIR 1]
The camera feed, broadcast from a news helicopter, was shaky. The audio was a mix of the roaring thwack-thwack-thwack of the helicopter blades and the high-pitched, terrified voice of the anchor.
"We... we are live over the eastern suburbs," the anchor, a woman named Maria, was stammering. The helicopter's searchlight cut a brilliant white circle in the night, illuminating a scene of pure chaos on a quiet, tree-lined street.
"The... the tiger is cornered!" Maria yelled over the noise. "An 'Expert' from the Guardian Families is on the scene. We... we have a visual! He's... my god, he's engaging it!"
The camera zoomed in, a grainy, high-definition shot of the two combatants.
On one side: the 2,000-pound monster. The Level 5: Blood Vitality tiger. It was standing over the wreckage of a mail truck, its crimson eyes burning with an intelligent, feral rage.
On the other: Li Wei. The Level 4: Grandmaster. He was a single, elegant, defiant figure in his deep-blue silk robes. He stood, his hands clasped behind his back, looking not at all like a man about to fight a monster, but like a landlord about to evict a tenant.
"Filthy beast," Li Wei's voice was captured by a nearby comms unit, broadcast to the world. "You have ruined this neighborhood. And your fur has stained my robes. Disgusting."
The tiger, sensing this Level 4's power, let out a deep, chest-rumbling roar. It pounced.
It was a blur of orange and black, a 2,000-pound missile aimed directly at the prodigy.
"He's moving!" the anchor screamed.
Li Wei didn't run. He shifted.
To the mortal eye, he simply vanished. He was a "leaf on the wind," a core tenet of his family's movement technique. He reappeared ten feet to the left, his hands now raised, his silk robes completely undisturbed.
The tiger, slamming into the empty pavement where he had been, roared in frustration.
"Incredible!" the anchor gushed. "The speed! The control! The beast can't even touch him! This is the power of a true Guardian Family!"
Li Wei was a blur. He was running circles around the beast, his speed a perfect, fluid, and arrogant display. The tiger, for all its Level 5 power, was a brute. He was a technician.
"This ends now," Li Wei's voice declared, cold and final.
He saw his opening. The tiger, enraged, lunged again. Li Wei didn't just dodge; he moved inside the attack, a breathtakingly dangerous maneuver. He was now, for a split second, flank-to-flank with the beast.
He raised his right hand. A shimmering, silver-white aura, the color of his jade pin, enveloped his palm.
"Crushing Jade Palm!"
He slammed his open palm, with all the [Level 4: Bone Forging] power of a Grandmaster, into the tiger's ribcage.
THUD.
The sound was deep, dull, and solid. The camera, in perfect, slow-motion, captured the tiger's side caving in. A spray of blood and saliva exploded from the beast's mouth. It let out a high-pitched, pained shriek and stumbled, crashing into the side of a parked sedan.
"A SOLID HIT!" the anchor screamed, triumphant. "He's done it! The beast is down! The prodigy has..."
The anchor's voice died in her throat.
On the ground, Li Wei stood, his hand still raised, a perfect, arrogant smirk on his face. He was waiting for the beast to die.
It didn't.
The tiger, which had been on its side, shook its head. It let out another pained grunt. The caved-in, shattered, bloody ruin on its flank... bubbled.
The live-feed camera zoomed in, a gruesome, high-definition shot. The world watched, horrified, as the crushed ribs and torn muscle visibly reformed. The circulating, [Level 5: Blood Vitality] Qi was an insane, super-charged healing factor. The wound stitched itself closed in real-time.
In three seconds, the "fatal" blow was gone.
Li Wei's victorious, arrogant smirk shattered. It was replaced by a look of pale, ashen, impossible shock.
"What...?" he whispered, his voice a terrified, uncomprehending croak. "Regeneration... No! Impossible! It... it healed?"
The tiger, its wound now nothing but a matted patch of bloody fur, got to its feet. The crimson in its eyes was no longer just rage. It was amusement.
It was done being a target.
Li Wei, his perfect calm broken, panicked. He raised his palm again, "Crushing Jade Palm!" and ran forward to strike it again, a fatal, tactical mistake.
He was fast. The tiger was faster.
It was a single, fluid, orange-and-black swipe. It didn't aim for his body. It aimed for the arm that had dared to strike it.
Li Wei, his "car-dodging" reflexes screaming, brought his "Bone Forged" left arm up in a desperate, last-second block.
Level 4 (External) met Level 5 (Internal). A forged, hollow bone met a Qi-infused, indestructible claw.
It was not a contest.
KRRR-SNAP!
The sound was horrific. The prodigy's "indestructible" arm didn't just break; it shattered. The bone, the muscle, the silk, all of it was torn from his body in a single, ruinous swipe.
Li Wei let out a high-pitched, agonizing scream, a sound he never thought his "noble" throat could produce.
The force of the blow didn't just break his arm; it sent him flying. He was a 160-pound projectile. He sailed backward, end over end, and crashed through the rear windshield of a parked minivan.
He slumped, his body disappearing into the car, a single, bloody, silk-robed arm, the one he hadn't blocked with, draped limply over the broken glass.
Defeated. Humiliated. Broken.
The park was silent again.
The tiger, now the undisputed king of the suburbs, stood over the wreckage. It lifted its massive head to the thrumming helicopter in the sky.
And it roared.
A cry of pure, triumphant, and unchallenged victory.