The announcer of the underground arena wiped the heavy sweat from his forehead, trembling as he picked up the shattered remnants of the ruined microphone before scurrying to the back to grab a brand new one. He stepped to the edge of the ring, took a deep breath, and roared through the newly restored PA system:
— "THE MATCH OFFICIALLY... BEGINS!!!"
WHOOSH!
The moment the bell rang, Shiraishi Kagetora lunged forward like a tiger escaping its cage. He dropped his center of gravity, the tightened muscles in his legs propelling him straight toward Kento at a speed that tore through the air. He bared his teeth in a vicious grin, his five fingers hooking into claws aimed directly at the boy's head:
— "Your time is up, you little brat...!"
Kento stood perfectly still. The cigarette on his lips softly exhaled a thin wisp of white smoke. His dead eyes showed not a single ripple as he barely moved his lips, dropping a flat, bone-chilling sentence:
— "You're too weak... to make me actually get serious."
SWISH!!!
The very moment the last syllable hung in the air, Kento abruptly moved. His arms hung completely loose; he was fighting entirely bare-handed.
Kento's explosive speed surpassed the limits of human perception. Using his left leg as a pivot, he executed a flawless 180-degree spin—an advanced Taekwondo technique: Momdollyo Huryeo Chagi (Spinning Hook Kick).
Carrying raw, brute physical force, Kento's bare heel traced a perfect arc through the air, slamming directly into the center of Kagetora's charging face.
CRACK... BOOM!!!
A crisp, sickening crunch of shattering bone echoed, accompanied by a massive shockwave. The kick was so devastatingly heavy that it not only sent Kagetora flying backward, but his entire head and neck were warped and snapped backward at an impossible angle. The beast-attribute psycho's massive frame slammed into the reinforced concrete wall behind the arena, carving out a deep crater before collapsing into a crumpled heap like wet mud.
He died instantly, his eyes rolled back completely white, having failed to land even a single strike.
The massive underground arena suddenly plunged into dead silence. Tens of thousands of spectators were struck mute; the roars died in their throats across the vast stands. The announcer's jaw hit the floor, nearly dropping his new microphone, stammering for a long moment before finally screaming in absolute bewilderment:
— "HUH... HUH?! THE WINNER OF THIS ROUND... IS THE WHITE ONI!!!"
ROAAAR!!!
Following the dead silence was an explosion of fury and terror. The stands erupted at Kento's absolute display of being "out of their league." Not only were the eyes of those who had bet their life savings on Kagetora burning with rage, but even the hardened fighters in the waiting room felt their scalps tingle. They realized the black-haired teenager wasn't just ordinary; he was an entity far beyond the realm of the ordinary.
— "What the fuck just happened?! Just one kick?! Is he even human? He’s banned from using Sophion, how is his base physical state this monstrous?!" Spectator 1 screamed, clutching his head in terror.
— "MOTHERFUCKER!!! MY MONEY! MY ENTIRE BET IS GONE! I LOST IT ALL!!!" Spectator 2’s face turned purple as he frantically smashed his seat.
— "One hit, one kill... Kagetora didn't even touch a thread on his clothes!" Spectator 3 muttered, trembling.
Kento casually withdrew his leg, adjusted the collar of his jacket, and leisurely strolled back to the waiting area for his next match.
Sitting in his wheelchair, Choi Hyun-seok stared wide-eyed at Kento as if looking at an ancient monster, his voice trembling uncontrollably:
— "This... this level of pure physical strength is completely absurd! Even high-level Beast-attribute Sophion users have incredible natural healing and resilience. Yet you... a normal kick just snapped his neck and killed him instantly!"
Kento leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes to rest, and replied dryly:
— "In this place... there isn't a single guy skilled enough for me to care about."
The Shadows of the Underworld
Just outside the bustling corridors of the black market, two tall figures were moving stealthily through the crowd. They were draped in the heavy leather jackets of the street gang from earlier that evening—it was Shin and Ling Mo.
Shin grumbled as he walked, tugging at the tight collar:
— "To think that gang eating burgers this afternoon actually had VIP passes to sneak into this place. But this stinking leather jacket is so uncomfortable, it's suffocating!"
Ling Mo pulled his cap down low, scanning the surroundings before warning in a low voice:
— "Keep your mouth shut, Shin. Look around; this place is entirely funded by the illicit trade of the underworld. Over there in the distance... see? Those are slaves from other races being held and locked in iron cages."
Shin glanced over, witnessing the sight of alien beings chained hand and foot, auctioned off like commodities. He ground his teeth, his frustration boiling over:
— "Damn it, this pisses me off. Let's just ditch these disguises! We only beat up that gang to find our way down here, who knew we'd stumble upon this disgusting, vile scene?!"
Ling Mo gently held Shin's shoulder, calmly analyzing:
— "Don't be impulsive. Let me figure out a tactical plan to rescue all the slaves here first. Making a move now will just alert the enemy."
Shin brushed Ling Mo's hand off, his eyes flashing with a fiercely arrogant resolve:
— "Who needs a complicated plan? We just rush in and sweep away all this scum! Ling Mo, remember, if we want to change a whole generation, change this entire oppressive system, we have to boldly push forward and smash it to pieces!"
The Next Contender
Back at the underground arena, the next solo match pitted an infamous serial killer against a freelance assassin. The two clashed, delivering a breathtakingly even hand-to-hand combat display utilizing incredibly fast footwork.
Watching from afar, Kento slightly narrowed his eyes, suddenly predicting the outcome:
— "I bet the masked assassin wins. His strikes are too fast and clean, every angle of attack aiming directly at vital points and lethal areas to finish his opponent."
True to Kento's prediction, just three moves later, the assassin slipped past the serial killer, using two fingers infused with kinetic force to pierce the opponent's windpipe. The serial killer collapsed to the ground.
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The announcer immediately roared:
— "THE MATCH IS OVER! THE WINNER IS... QIN WUSHANG!"
However, immediately after claiming victory, Qin Wushang didn't celebrate. He casually walked over, snatched the mic from the announcer, and let his cold voice echo throughout the arena:
— "I forfeit my next match. Because this place... is too utterly boring and tasteless. I yield my remaining spot in the inner bracket to the next person."
With that, he tossed the mic back to the dumbfounded organizer and decisively turned his back, walking straight out of the underground arena.
The announcer stood frozen for a few seconds before stammering an update:
— "Huh?! Just... just like that, a forfeit?! Uh... Then, congratulations to the next fighter receiving a bye! And now, we will move on to the highly anticipated bracket for the Remaining 4 Dojos!!!"
— "THE FIRST MATCH OF THE TEAM BRACKET: MCMAP (MARINE CORPS) VS. COMBAT SAMBO (MILITARY MARTIAL ARTS)!!! WILL THE TWO DOJOS PLEASE ENTER THE RING!!!"
SWISH! SWISH!
The representatives of the two dojos stepped into the ring. This was to be a pinnacle display of military close-quarters combat.
The Combat Sambo fighter initiated the attack. He rushed forward, throwing a probing jab before immediately closing the distance, executing an incredibly decisive Double Leg Takedown to bring his opponent to the mat for a Leg Lock.
However, the MCMAP fighter was a seasoned veteran. He instantly dropped his hips to defend against the takedown (Sprawl), using his arms as a solid frame clamped onto his opponent's shoulders. The moment he neutralized the takedown, the MCMAP fighter immediately employed ultimate CQC techniques: He dropped a vicious 12-to-6 Elbow Strike straight onto the back of the Sambo fighter's neck, simultaneously driving a Knee Strike hard into his solar plexus.
THWACK! UGH!
The Sambo fighter painfully lost his grip. Seizing the opportunity, the MCMAP fighter pivoted, slipped an arm under his opponent's armpit, and executed a Whizzer Takedown, slamming the Sambo fighter shoulder-first into the alloy floor. Immediately after, the MCMAP fighter secured a Mount Position, relentlessly raining down brutal Ground and Pound strikes right into his opponent's face until the referee was forced to jump in and stop it.
— "THE MATCH IS OVER! MCMAP CLAIMS A GLORIOUS VICTORY TO ADVANCE TO THE INNER BRACKET!!!" the speakers blared.
Over in the stands near the Taekwondo dojo's section, Kento stared at the exit Qin Wushang had taken, smirking as he spoke to Choi Hyun-seok:
— "I think that assassin... is no joke. He was clearly hiding his true strength against that opponent. Even though he voluntarily withdrew from this boring tournament, I’m really looking forward to a fair rematch with him someday."
Choi Hyun-seok was stunned, asking:
— "For a monster like you to actually be interested... just how strong must that Qin Wushang be?"
Kento mused for a moment before exhaling his final puff of smoke:
— "He's definitely a master of close-quarters combat techniques, and his Sophion energy must be somewhat monstrous. He can't be underestimated."
And so, time passed, as one bloody match after another unfolded. Teams and individuals were systematically eliminated, until only the strongest factions remained for the grand finals.
The Ten-Man Gauntlet
The announcer stepped into the center of the ring, his voice blaring shrilly:
— "AND NEXT, THE MOST ANTICIPATED SEMI-FINAL SOLO MATCH: FREELANCE FIGHTER, THE WHITE ONI, WILL FACE OFF AGAINST THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MCMAP DOJO!!! FIGHTERS, PLEASE STEP INTO THE RING!!!"
Kento leisurely stepped onto the vast alloy platform. He stood towering in the center, his eyes sweeping over the MCMAP dojo's section—where ten Marine Corps veterans, fully equipped with steel-reinforced combat knives, alloy batons, and spiked gloves, were warming up.
Kento subtly gestured for the announcer to approach, speaking flatly:
— "Hey, tell the organizers... I want to fight all 10 of them at the same time. And let them bring all their weapons up here. I'm fighting bare-handed."
The announcer froze, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. He stammered, frantically asking over the mic to confirm he hadn't misheard:
— "Huh... Huh?! Are you sure?! FIGHTER WHITE ONI WANTS TO FIGHT... ALL 10 MEMBERS OF THE MCMAP DOJO WHILE THEY USE WEAPONS!!! I REPEAT, 10 MEN WITH LETHAL WEAPONS USING MCMAP COMBAT TECHNIQUES!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The moment the announcement ended, the entire underground arena exploded in a frenzy of screams, curses, and absolute hysteria, the noise threatening to completely drown out the organizers' high-powered speakers:
— "He's lost his mind! That White Oni kid is completely insane! Taking on 10 elite armed soldiers alone?!" Spectator 1 screamed.
— "Who the hell do I bet on now? 10 soldiers with military-grade weapons, their close-combat lethality is absolute!" Spectator 2 agonized.
— "Are you stupid? Didn't you see him completely 'out-class' and kill Kagetora with a single kick earlier? I'm going all-in, my entire life savings on the White Oni!!! The strong always forge their own path!" Spectator 3 roared fanatically.
— "But I see 10 guys surrounding him, how can he dodge all those knives? I'm betting on the 10 MCMAP guys!" Spectator 4 argued back.
— "All-in! This is the most tense and bloody match in arena history!!!" The stands devolved into pure chaos, betting pools skyrocketing into millions of Sophion Coins.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Down on the cold alloy floor, the 10 deadliest elite veterans of the MCMAP dojo vaulted into the ring simultaneously. They drew their razor-sharp, silver-gleaming combat knives and raised their alloy batons, quickly fanning out into a circular formation, tightly surrounding Kento in the center with no route of escape. The murderous intent of the 10 military killing machines locked onto their target.
Kento stood in the center of the encirclement, his demeanor still utterly relaxed. His bare hands, hanging loosely at his sides, clenched slightly into fists. A fiercely arrogant and ruthless smile curled on his lips:
— "Being this crowded... might actually be a little stimulating. Come at me, all of you animals."
The ten elite MCMAP veterans had barely tightened their encirclement, their combat knives glinting in defensive stances, when an invisible pressure swept across the arena. Kento stood there, arms hanging down, entirely unarmed. His dead eyes blinked once.
WHOOSH!!!
Before the 10 Marine Corps soldiers could even react or reorient themselves, Kento’s silhouette vanished like a phantom. When he reappeared, the ten-meter distance had been reduced to zero, directly in front of the leader of the formation.
Kento launched a brutal straight punch with inhuman speed. His bare fist, carrying terrifying kinetic energy, pierced through the protective leather armor, shattered the ribcage, and plunged deep into the MCMAP soldier's chest cavity. His five fingers clamped shut, directly ripping out a chunk of flesh—the soldier's fiercely beating heart—into the open air, crushing it into a puddle of bloody mush.
SPLAT!
Fresh blood splattered onto Kento's apathetic face. He looked at the bloodstains on his hand, frowning in sheer disgust:
— "Too dirty!"
Before the first corpse could even hit the ground, the second MCMAP soldier on his right lunged forward with a vicious, descending diagonal knife thrust. Kento didn't even bother to dodge; he simply tilted his body slightly, pulled his right arm back to his hip, and launched a textbook Kyokushin Karate straight punch—the Seiken Chudan Tsuki.
CRACK... SMASH!
The un-gloved, bare fist slammed dead center into the second soldier's face. The penetrating force completely pulverized his facial bone structure; his nasal cavity and cheekbones caved deep into his skull, and his teeth were blasted clean out, spraying alongside bloody foam. He died clinically before he even hit the floor.
Instantly, the third soldier closed in from behind, attempting to use an MCMAP chokehold takedown to neutralize him. Kento seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Applying the force-redirection principles of Aikido, he smoothly pivoted on his axis (Tenkan), grabbed the opponent’s knife-wielding wrist, and used the man’s own forward momentum to shift his center of gravity. The third soldier lost his balance, flying forward. Kento coldly raised his knee, delivering a ruthless Knee Strike (Hiza Geri) straight into the man’s solar plexus, snapping his sternum and piercing his heart and lungs.
Simultaneously, the fourth soldier lunged from a blind spot to cover his comrade. Kento planted both hands on the alloy floor, using the massive centrifugal force to whip his body into a somersault—a surprise Capoeira (Brazilian) kick known as Meia Lua de Compasso.
CRACK!!!
Kento's heel traced a deadly arc, slapping directly into the fourth soldier's neck. A crisp crack of a snapping cervical spine echoed as jagged bone fragments pierced through the skin. Without pausing, Kento followed up with a second sweeping kick using his other leg, the impact so severe it decapitated the fourth soldier entirely, sending his head rolling across the arena floor like a ball.
Witnessing four comrades butchered in less than ten seconds via the most horrifying methods imaginable, the remaining six MCMAP soldiers realized fighting individually was suicide. Three of them roared in absolute fury, charging simultaneously from three different directions—high, mid, and low. They coordinated flawlessly, unleashing a flurry of military knife slashes interwoven with highly disciplined MCMAP CQC footwork.
Yet, against those high-lethality, wind-shearing blades, Kento moved as lightly as a leaf in a hurricane. He executed subtle footwork, tilting his head to dodge a knife point by a hair's breadth, stepping back a half-pace to neutralize a leg sweep, and slipping past a horizontal slash. He dodged the entirety of their coordinated assault perfectly, his relaxed demeanor making it look as if he were toying with toddlers learning to walk.
Slightly tilting his head to dodge a blade that grazed his hair, Kento sighed, dropping a word of contempt:
— "Are you guys actually trying to fight? That was like a light scratch."
WHOOSH!
The words barely out of his mouth, Kento went on the offensive. He closed in on the nearest man, utilizing the most brutal martial art in the world—Lethwei (Burmese Boxing). His hands clamped onto the back of the soldier's neck like steel pincers, and using the hardest part of his frontal bone, he delivered a sledgehammer Headbutt right into the center of the opponent’s face.
SMACK!!!
The Lethwei headbutt pulverized the man's nose; he saw stars, completely losing consciousness. Kento casually grabbed his hair, channeling power down his arm to punch him straight down to the floor.
BOOOM MM!!!
The arena’s alloy floor cratered under the concussive force of the punch. The MCMAP soldier's completely malformed head was wedged tightly into the crater.
Now, only two men remained standing in the ring. The pride of the Marine Corps veterans had been utterly crushed, replaced by sheer, unadulterated terror at the bare-handed monster before them. They trembled, backing away, desperately looking for a chance to flee the ring.
But Kento would not allow it.
His legs began moving at a dizzying frequency, unleashing a chain combo of advanced Taekwondo kicks. He surged forward, launching an Axe Kick (An Chagi) that shattered the ninth soldier's arm, instantly following up with a Side Kick (Yeop Chagi) that caved in his entire ribcage, sending him flying clear out of the ring, his fate unknown.
And for the final man, trembling uncontrollably, Kento used his momentum to leap into the air. His body spun a full 360 degrees mid-air—a flashy but devastatingly powerful 360-degree Turning Kick. His bare leg, carrying the full weight and kinetic energy of the spin, slapped directly into the sole survivor's head.
BOOOOM!!!
A sickening, wet explosion echoed. Kento's finishing kick instantly obliterated the final soldier's head like a smashed watermelon. Brain matter, eyeballs, and teeth splattered across the floor in a gory, bloody paste.
Ten armed MCMAP soldiers. All completely annihilated, bare-handed.
Kento stood amidst the reeking pool of blood, casually using the hem of his jacket to wipe a few drops of blood off the back of his hand. His cold, deep black eyes looked up toward the organizers' VIP room and the stunned, silent thousands in the stands. His voice rang out, deep and steady, echoing through the space:
— "You weaklings... You couldn't even land a single hit on a bare-handed fighter like me. Is there no one else in this place? I need to fight the strongest guy here! Bring him out now!"
The underground arena was as silent as the grave; the only sound was blood dripping onto the alloy floor. High above, the announcer was trembling like a leaf, his teeth chattering uncontrollably as he tried his hardest to scream into the microphone:
— "THE WHITE... THE WHITE ONI IS THE UNDISPUTED WINNER!!!"
The Apex Predator Arrives
KRA-KOOM!!!
No sooner had Kento's arrogant challenge faded than a terrifying explosion erupted from the mezzanine level of the VIP section. A massive dark shadow plummeted down like a moving meteorite, crashing dead center into the arena. The impact was so violent it cracked the reinforced alloy floor, sending a massive shockwave that blasted the thick pools of blood into the air.
The dust and pressure from the landing cleared, revealing a titanic figure over two meters tall. His muscles bulged like jagged grey boulders, radiating a wild, primal bloodlust that threatened to suffocate everything around him.
The moment the announcer saw that horrifying silhouette emerge, his terror instantly transmuted into maniacal frenzy. He strained his neck, screaming into the mic at the top of his lungs like an absolute madman:
— "HE HAS APPEARED!!! THE GUARDIAN OF THE UNDERWORLD TEMPLE!!! GEN—PRIMAL MAXIMILIAN ORLOV!!! THE MONSTER FROM RUSSIA!!! THE THREE-TIME CONSECUTIVE UNDISPUTED CHAMPION HAS ENTERED THE RING!!!"
END OF CHAPTER 25