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Dante confidently tilted his shoulder before Ava even started her claw swiped diagonally at his neck. He locked her elbow with his own, restricting the mobility of her right arm. Immediately, he slipped around her and hooked his other hand under her only free arm.
'Got her now.'
Ava was forced to use her feet, the most flexible part of her body, and only second to her claws in lethality. She lifted her legs and leaned her entire weight forward before stomping down so hard that she cracked the mat. The problem was, leverage required equal strength classes to matter.
He could pump more solar radiation to reach an even higher peak, whereas Ava didn't have that luxury. Though, he couldn't afford to have a prolonged battle in this state. Even this consumption had stopped his regeneration. He had already used a lot of solar radiation to train earlier. He had to use the rest conservatively.
Applying more pressure, he joined his hands above her ponytail, fully locking in the submission. "Give up."
Ava gnashed her teeth, making a sound like an animal trapped in a cage. "I'm not losing like this. Not to—"
She didn't finish. Instead, she gathered strength in her core and executed a standing backflip, despite the excruciating pain of the submission. Her slippery suit let her escape. The moment her feet touched the ground, she pounced and landed on his shoulders.
She swiped both claws at his neck. "Muérete, imbécil!" (Die, asshole!)
He caught her wrists just as her claws grazed his nape. He had seen the attack coming from miles away since a predator like her would always aim for the weakest part.
Rather than trying to tame her again with submission, he slung her away as if her figure and mystical suit weighed no more than a feather.
She landed in a cat-like crouch and came back at him. For a moment, he saw black stripe-like markings appear on her suit.
'She's lost her mind.'
There was an old saying about tigers that "a tiger may die, but it will never lose its stripes." The mere thought of such a humiliating defeat had wounded her pride, and that incited raw bloodlust in her White Tiger form.
He brushed her claw and pushed her shoulder, using her own momentum to shove her away. Blood dripped from cuts on Dante's chest, and his breathing grew just a bit heavier. But his eyes stated that he remained in his element even as he bled and sweated.
"Silvija, Ava has gone feral."
Ava dashed past him like a shadow. "I'm still here. I won't let myself be humiliated in front of Sis."
Three lines appeared on Dante's face and fresh blood dripped down his cheeks. He was so occupied in strategizing and looking at the bigger picture that he couldn't focus on her. She had also gotten faster, likely the result of extra markings on her suit.
"Ava, stop! Are you trying to kill him?!" Even Silvija had stopped considering it a friendly match after seeing Dante's wounds. "AVA!"
He wiped the blood from his face. "Let's end it here, kid."
She leaped, and her leg swung in a graceful arc that promised a graceful death. His head would've separated from his shoulders if he had ducked just a second later.
"FIGHT ME." Her eyes glowed with intense madness. "BEAT ME OR GET OUT OF OUR LIFE."
The desperation in her voice told him everything. This wasn't about winning anymore. This was about proving that Silvija chose the wrong person.
"Alright."
He clenched his fists and turned to face her. What came next wasn't fighting. It was pure violence, both sides trying to kill each other with their complete power. She moved her head as his fist whistled past her cheeks, and once again, she clawed his face. He didn't dodge, adding four gashes on the left side of his face.
He continued full-power punches, completely abandoning defense.
She dodged, counterattacked, dodged again. One brief flicker of opening was all he needed. That came when she tried clawing his chest for what felt like the thousandth time. The small hesitation when her mind considered hurting him meant hurting Silvija.
A solid hook on her face made her stagger, and she shifted into full defensive posture. She was banking on her endurance to defeat him since she wasn't ready to kill him. He could read Ava's intentions from her stance. The amulet had the ability to eliminate toxins and accelerate recovery. Ava could go on for hours even in her current state.
That's how absurd White Tiger Amulet was in right hands.
The young Latina had only defended a few attacks when a punch slipped past her guard and struck her right in the belly. Despite the suit's protection, it forced her to slow. He grabbed her shoulders and drove a knee into her stomach. She crossed her arms to block, but she failed to read his next attack. A vicious headbutt that rattled her skull hard enough to make her sway.
His skull was amazingly sturdy, despite how bloody his face was at the moment.
Ava wasn't the type to let dizziness stop her. She moved on instinct and drove her claws into his ribs, a move that could've earned her the victory, yet it was the most predictable move in this situation. Before she could cut deep enough to cause real damage, he grabbed her wrists and yanked forward. The move slammed her face-first into the mat with force that would have crushed a normal human entirely.
Before she could recover, he drove his heel into the back of her head, pressing her skull deeper into the cracked mat. He swung on his heels, sat down on her back, and locked her arms behind her. With White Tiger amulet, she could lift a dozen men like him, but she couldn't push him away with no leverage.
His breathing was heavy, blood flowed down his face faster than sweat. But he laughed. "You want me to leave Silvija? Keep dreaming."
He took off her mask and unclasped the White Tiger amulet from her neck.
Sanity returned to her eyes immediately.
"Let go!" Ava growled through her mask. "This—this is cowardly!"
He made the villain gesture—slow head shake, disappointed tch tch tch sound. "Silvija, what's the best way to disable a wild cat?"
"Look at those wounds. Is this the time to be cracking riddles…?" Silvija looked at him as if he had gone crazy, but still decided to humor him. "You beat her up?"
"No. You take them by surprise from behind."
Ava gnashed her teeth. "When the hell did you take me from behind, pervert?!"
Dante smiled and raised his hand, letting it stay in the air with suspense. Then he landed a loud spank on Ava's butt. "Like this!"
Ava's face turned crimson. "Why are you doing this?!"
The mercenary queen laughed at the sheer absurdity of everything. A genuine, unfiltered laughter until her ribs hurt and tears formed in her eyes.
"Sorry, sorry!" She apologized, holding her stomach. "I'll grab the medkit. Don't humiliate her anymore. Please."
Dante nodded and rolled off Ava's back before sitting his ass on the mat. His face, riddled with claw marks, felt like it was on fire. Thankfully, he had regeneration from solar radiation to avoid a surgery.
"You're a brat. A fucking child." He rarely cursed like this, but the pain just pushed him to vent out some.
Ava, who had tears at the corner of her eyes, glared daggers at him. She would've added more claw marks to his face if the amulet was still around her neck.
"Fuck you too, amigo."
"Why?" Dante asked, feeling a burning pain just from speaking. "We could've had a friendly sparring match. You just had to become emotional."
She didn't say anything. Just her jaw clenched, unclenched, clenched again. She was pissed enough to murder him.
"You pissed me off."
He was quiet for a moment, going over everything about her in his mind. "I know your deal. You don't want to be treated like a kid. You want to share Silvija's burden by becoming the Vice-Commander. But she never trusted you with serious work, and that pisses you off."
She was quiet for a moment before whispering, "Don't act like you know me."
"I don't know, and I don't care either." He tossed the White Tiger Amulet back to her. "I'll kill you if you cross the line next time. Even your White Tiger God will die."
She opened her mouth to argue, but he activated Death's Resonance for exactly three seconds. The sudden, overwhelming presence shut down every survival instinct she had. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything except comprehend her inevitable end.
When he released it, the pain in his face was gone too. He touched his face, only to feel smooth, unscarred skin.
'It had such a function.'
He had forgotten about Death's Resonance Link removing his reliance on vitality and changing his body to an existence state. His existence itself became closer to a cosmic being in nature; it'd be weird for any physical injury to be present in that state.
Dante wiped his face with the shreds of his hoodie and stood up to leave. The disappearance of pain also cheered him up.
Ava was still processing the terror when Silvija pushed through the door, followed by Anna. The receptionist took one look at the crater in the mat and the blood on the walls and didn't even blink. She had already observed everything through the CCTV in the corner.
He shook his head. "Come to the room."
Silvija touched his bloody face, a little surprised to find no cut or scars under all the blood. "I'll say sorry on her behalf. She isn't a bad child…"
"Sis, I—"
"Ava," Silvija said coldly. "You're suspended from Wild Pack until you reflect on your mistakes."
Ava covered her face and started sobbing, her shoulder shaking. Not from pain, but from disappointing and shaming to the closest thing she had to an older sister. Her only family.
Silvija lost all anger in front of a crying Ava. "Dante…"
He shook his head and signaled her to stay here. Ava was only grown-up in age, inside, she was still a child clinging to Silvija. She needed Silvija's comfort more than him.
He wrapped an arm around Anna's shoulder, causing her to gasp. "My little angel, can you grab me some clothes? And some food too. I'm so hungry I can eat a whole cow."
"Y-yes. Are you... are you really okay?"
He laughed. "Tis but a scratch, little angel."
A/N: Ava needs some more spanking from MC
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