"GLORIOUS!" a booming voice roared from outside the building. The shout was filled with pure, unbridled joy
'Wasted too much time. There might not be another chance for them to make their escape.'
The Beastkin leaped back up through the shattered window frame and crashed heavily onto the carpet. "EVEN THOUGH YOU LOOK WEAK YOUR TECHNIQUE MORE THAN MAKES UP FOR IT! I CAN SMELL THE BLOODLUST RADIATING FROM YOUR PORES! COME, GIVE ME MORE!"
I cracked my neck slowly. "Huh. It really has been a few centuries since someone openly called me weak to my face. The last person who did that was Lord Cocytus during a sparring match and even he apologised afterwards. Maybe this will be a highly educational learning moment for you after all."
And then we finally engaged in our bout with the seriousness it deserved.
His ungodly physical strength and ferocity were far greater than anything I had regularly sparred against back in Nazarick. But I could also vividly sense this dark and potent curse draped heavily over the Beastkin's soul, fueling his insatiable bloodlust. A curse of eternal war.
But it wasn't like I'd never faced such a massive chasm of physical strength before. I wasn't called the last line of defense for the Great Tomb of Nazarick for nothing.
As an unarmed combatant, the martial arts techniques I have honed over the centuries were not just for show. Every single one of his world-shattering punches was expertly deflected by the palms of my hands. Every brutal kick he threw was fluidly dodged. I engaged my Ki to make my strikes sharper than the strongest of blades. I even managed to slip past his guard and find a couple of critical weak spots. I bypassed his dense muscles and delivered sharp nerve strikes that made him grunt in pain.
'I must admit this fight is surprisingly fun.' I thought to myself.
It reminded me of my intense sparring bouts with the Floor Guardians. This beast was truly something else and even I could clearly see the thrilling smile stretched across the Beastkin's bloody face.
The Beastkin blurred across the room with a speed that defied human comprehension. He swung his heavy mace in a brutal downward arc aimed directly at my skull.
I activated my defensive skill, Iron Skin, raising my left forearm to block the massive spiked weapon.
The mace collided directly with my bare sleeve. The supersonic kinetic impact created a shockwave that shattered the remaining concrete pillars in the room, but my bones were surprisingly broken from the sheer force behind the mace.
I activated my Ki's healing ability to mend my arm, snapping the bones back in their place.
He roared in triumph and leaped backward to create distance. "YES! FINALLY! A CHALLENGER WHO DOES NOT BREAK UPON THE FIRST STRIKE!"
But I didn't forget my Master's primary orders to ensure the family's safety. By now, the boy in the orange suit and his cloning teammate managed to drag the bodies of their fallen members to the room housing the hostages. They had been fighting their own battle against a man in a tacky purple suit.
The man was actively teleporting across the room and moving directly toward the injured heroes who were desperately trying to escort themselves, and mother-daughter pair out the front door.
I fluidly dodged a sweeping backhand from the beast and quickly cocked my right fist and executed a flawless one-inch punch directly into the empty air.
BOOM
The concentrated strike sent a highly compressed shockwave of air rocketing across the room. It struck the purple man directly in the chest and knocked the wind completely out of him, successfully drawing his attention away from the fleeing civilians.
The teleporter recovered quickly and started flash-stepping rapidly all around me in a chaotic pattern. He was trying to confuse me and land a few cheap hits on my blind spots.
'Another wasted potential.'
It was not like I'd never fought spatial manipulators back at Nazarick. I closed my eyes and used my refined ki to track his life force. I perfectly anticipated his chaotic movement pattern and calmly positioned my hand exactly where he was about to materialize.
He appeared out of thin air right in front of me. I immediately struck forward with my hand and precisely clawed out a vertebra in his lower spine.
"Gahhhh!!"
He cried out in sudden agony and collapsed flat onto his stomach. The poor lad was paralyzed from the waist down and unable to move a single muscle.
The cyborg man sitting at the desk yelled with outrage in a syntonised voice. "hEy old MAan! You just ruiNed my favorITe mode of tranSPortation! Do you eVen know the current MArket rates of telEportation? It's tEn fuckiNg million doLLars for each port and I hAd it exCLUsively contracted with Isotope!"
The cyborg man was suddenly silenced as the Beastkin blurred past me and casually swiped his massive claws through the air.
SHHHLK
His Metal Head was effortlessly cut completely detached from the neck.
The Beastkin picked up the severed metal face and crushed it in his palm before turning his golden eyes back to me.
"Do not let these pathetic insects interrupt our glorious clash!" the Beastkin growled low in his throat. "You're the only interesting prey on this miserable planet. Finally, I can let loose and enjoy a fight."
In a sudden flash of movement that surpassed my own top speed he appeared right beside me and swung his heavy mace in a brutal upward arc aiming directly for my kidneys. I was quick enough to block the spiked metal with my forearm again but he had significantly increased his physical output.
CRUNCH
The bones in my arm fractured audibly under the crushing kinetic force. The massive chasm of his alien strength could not have been more obvious.
I immediately channeled my ki and forcefully healed the pulverized bone back together. But the Beastkin's assault became entirely unrelenting. As the physical fight dragged on, the gap of physical strength became worse.
I found myself caught in a brutal pattern of my body breaking and instantly healing but I was now running dangerously low on stamina reserves.
"Stop taking me for a fool and stop taking me so easy, warrior!" the Beastkin roared as he slammed his fists into my crossed guard. "Unleash your other half! Let me truly enjoy the climax of this battle!"
I slid backward across the ruined carpet. My face was bloody and my perfectly groomed white hair was matted and ruined. I stood up straight and lowered my hands.
"Taking you easy?" I spoke softly but my voice carried the weight of intimidation . "No. You are the one who is taking me easy. My name is Sebas Tian. The one who gave me my name is the strongest warrior. The Master I currently serve will one day become a Supreme Being himself. But I can clearly see it is completely useless to speak of their greatness to a cursed Beastkin such as yourself."
I closed my eyes and let my restrictive human shell completely fall away.
"I grow incredibly tired of talking. Let us finish this."
With no other way to distract the beast warrior, I unleashed my true Dragonoid form.
'Lady Nakime, whatever happens, don't let master come for me. It's been a pleasure serving alongside you.'
The air pressure in the penthouse instantly collapsed into a suffocating vacuum. The ambient light in the room warped and bent away from my body. Thick and impenetrable purple scales violently erupted across my skin and completely shredded my ruined suit. A massive, heavily armored tail whipped out from behind me and shattered the concrete floor into dust. Immense, leathery dragon wings tore through the fabric of my coat and stretched wide to cast a terrifying shadow over the entire room.
My highly disciplined rationality began to violently slip away. The calm, calculated logic of a butler was rapidly replaced by the cold, overwhelming instincts of a primeval apex predator.
My aura exploded into a physical manifestation of pure dread. The unstoppable terror radiating from my draconic presence cracked the remaining reinforced walls and turned the heavy wooden desk into splinters just from the pressure alone.
The Beastkin did not cower from the overwhelming Intimidation. Instead, his golden eyes widened with absolute, euphoric joy. He finally bared his fangs in a massive, bloodthirsty grin.
"YES!" Battle Beast roared. His voice was full of pure vindication. This was what he'd been searching for. "A TRUE MONSTER!"
TWANG
Outside the room, in a lower floor the civilians had escaped to, a familiar sound rang out, intentionally ignored by the beast, as I felt gates open below, pulling the broken heroes and company to safety.
The Beastking ignored them with all his attention on me.
There was no need for any more words.
Our fists met in the direct center of the room. The collision rang out in a sonic boom that shattered every window in a three-block radius. Car alarms went off across the street and birds took flight in panicked flocks. The shockwave rippled outward in a visible wave of compressed air.
The impact created a catastrophic explosion of pure kinetic energy that completely obliterated the floor we were standing on, turning hardwood and concrete into powder. The structural supports gave way as the ceiling cracked and we both plummeted into the building below, surrounded by a rain of debris and dust and the screams of people who had no idea what was happening above them.
We fell together. Still fighting. Still grinning.
This was what warriors lived for.
[A/N]: If the fight was Glorious!! Dorp them Stones!
If it wasn't, well even then Drop them Stones!
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