I ran, leaving both Senior Alister and Miss Scarlet behind. I scanned my surroundings — they had boxed us in near a forest, dense with trees, bushes, and thick vegetation. I climbed a tree with the briefcase clenched between my teeth, struggling for a few seconds before hauling myself onto a branch. I leaned the briefcase against the trunk, then climbed back down and moved to a different position nearby.
Someone burst out of the tall bushes and drove a punch into my stomach that sent me flying into a tree. "Ackkk — damn it!" I looked up at the one who had hit me and recognized the lion mask.
"All that talk, and you're this weak." He advanced toward me with heavy, deliberate steps, clearly trying to intimidate me. I stood up despite every part of my body screaming in protest, raised my arms, and mimicked a boxing stance.
'I just need to buy time until Senior Alister and Miss Scarlet get here.' Fueled by that thought alone, I faced him. He looked at my state and laughed.
"Hahahaha — you think you can buy time against me? Keep dreaming, weakling."
He lunged with extreme speed. Knowing I couldn't track him properly, I backed up against the tree to cut off my blind spot and curled my body inward to tighten my defense. He unleashed a barrage of jabs and hooks, hammering at my guard. The pain was intense — my arms turned red from absorbing the hits, and my back was getting scraped raw against the bark every time the impact shoved me into it.
"For a weakling, you've got some tenacity. Let's try this then!" He channeled celestial energy into his fists, and a single enhanced punch collapsed my guard entirely. The tree behind me cracked from the impact as I crumpled to the ground, gasping.
"Don't be such a baby — I barely hit you." He grabbed me by the jaw and lifted me off the ground.
"Tell me where the artifact is and I'll let you live, weakling."
'Am I really going to die here? I barely even got started. But what can I do — he's on a completely different level. Is it time to give up? Have I struggled enough?'
'Like hell it is. I just barely made it to the starting line. If the world wants to throw everything it has at me, then I'll conquer every bit of it. The path doesn't matter — I need to win. I must win. I will win, no matter what. Even if I have to crawl to survive.'
"F... you." I muttered.
"Hmm? Say it louder!" He leaned in — and I used that opening to bite off his thumb and jam my fingers into his eye. He released me with a howl, staggering back from the shock of losing his right eye and a finger. While he was stunned, I dove at his legs and used every ounce of strength I had left to drag him down to the ground.
With him on the ground writhing in pain, I punched, punched, and kept punching until my knuckles cracked. He managed to land a left hook on me, but I grabbed his right arm and held on to keep from being sent flying again. I gritted my teeth through the pain and coughed up blood but didn't stop. He retaliated with his left, hitting me back with every exchange.
Eventually we were both spent. I couldn't feel my hands anymore. But he was still alive, and I couldn't give him a moment to recover. I pulled my head back and drove it straight into his face.
'My head is on fire. Doesn't matter — die. Die. Die. Die already, you tough bastard!'
He funneled his remaining celestial energy into his head in defense. I didn't care. I headbutted him again. And again. Ignoring the searing pain, over and over, until the grip on his right arm went slack and the strength drained out of him completely.
I looked at his face. It was bloodied and caved in from the repeated impacts. I had beaten him. The relief hit me all at once, and I collapsed onto his body as the darkness swallowed my consciousness. In the distance, I could hear Senior Alister's and Miss Scarlet's voices closing in.
— Alister and Scarlet POV —
"Scarlet — handle the backline! I'll take the front!" Senior Alister lunged at the group of black-clad fighters. They swung their swords at him and he deflected every strike, grabbed one of them by the arm, took his sword, and hurled him back into the others. He then cleaved through them in a single horizontal sweep, simultaneously slicing apart the bullets flying toward him. The remaining fighters regrouped and encircled him.
"Men — don't be afraid. I'll deal with him myself." A lean figure in black stepped forward from the group.
"Oh — it's you. Let's get this done, Bull Mask." Senior Alister extended his hand and curled his fingers in a slow, deliberate taunt.
"You'll regret provoking me, commoner!" Bull Mask roared.
"Yeah, yeah — whatever you say, noble wannabe." Senior Alister picked at his ear in boredom. The entire group charged at him and was cut down in an instant, leaving only Bull Mask standing.
Meanwhile, Miss Scarlet was tearing through the backline. They opened fire with celestial energy-reinforced bullets, but she dodged each one without difficulty. Then the barrage intensified, forcing her to leap back and land on a tree branch — and suddenly a gun barrel was pressed against the side of her head. The figure behind it revealed herself and spoke with a mocking edge.
"Where's that mouthy kid you were guarding earlier?"
"Who knows, Miss Antelope?" Scarlet replied, matching her tone with a smile.
The Antelope Mask pulled the trigger. At the same moment, a shadow surged forward and took the shot in Scarlet's place. The shadow then reshaped itself into a long blade and took Antelope Mask's head in a single strike.
"Finally done over here." Miss Scarlet stretched out her arms and surveyed the surrounding area — bodies and blood as far as she could see. Then she heard an explosion from the direction where Arron had gone to hide. She sprinted toward it and noticed Senior Alister already heading the same way.
When they arrived, what they found brought them both to a halt. Arron had used his own head as a weapon, driving it into his opponent's face over and over — against someone who was clearly in an entirely different league. The sight triggered an involuntary surge of bloodlust from both of them, rooting them in place as they watched Arron attack like a cornered animal, headbutting relentlessly until the enemy stopped moving. The bloodlust faded only when Arron lost consciousness and collapsed onto the body.
Senior Alister crouched down and studied the man on the ground. 'By my estimate, this guy was around D-ranked or barely into C-ranked territory — and Arron killed him with zero combat experience.'
Miss Scarlet lifted Arron into a princess carry and made her own silent assessment. 'Most of his bones are either cracked or broken. He survived all of that — through sheer stubbornness, no technique, no skill, just his own body. What kind of person throws himself into a fight like this?'
She snapped back to the present and looked at his injuries. "Senior Alister — we need to get him to a healer right now. His life could be at risk if we wait!"
"Don't worry — I've got this." He produced a bottle with a thin gold band around the base, the liquid inside a deep swirl of red and gold. He tilted it carefully into Arron's mouth and Arron swallowed it down even while unconscious. A golden light enveloped his body, held for a moment, then slowly faded. His injuries were gone — but his eyes stayed shut.
"Why isn't he waking up? The potion worked, didn't it?" Miss Scarlet looked to Senior Alister for an answer.
"He must have exhausted his mind during the fight as well as his body. Given who he was up against, I can't blame him." He paused, then glanced around at their surroundings. "The barrier is still up though — meaning someone in this area is still maintaining it."
He turned and threw his sword into the bushes. A cry of agony rang out. A figure stumbled out from the undergrowth, the blade driven through his neck, and managed a few steps forward before pitching face-first to the ground. The fall drove the sword deeper, and he didn't move again.
"Scarlet — get Arron back to the car. I'll contact the guild to send a cleanup team."