Darius had calculatingly taken the opportunity created by the chaotic standoff in the gym to proceed forward alone. He had keenly noticed that even though there was a highly skilled operative wearing a specialized Silver Jacket holding the line, that fighter was the absolute only person left in the room.
There were no other regular members of the Billion Bloodline group acting as a buffer, which logically meant the Syndicate vanguard had to be incredibly close to the top floors—close to exactly where they needed to be.
And Darius was supremely confident. He had personally fought against Max before and walked away victorious, so he figured he just needed to execute the exact same strategy again to end this corporate war.
As he walked through the heavy double doors, he found himself heading down a long, well-lit tunnel until he eventually stepped out into a sprawling, cavernous space. It was the Fortis indoor stadium, complete with different tiers of brightly colored seating meant for company events and large-scale training exhibitions.
Then, looking right ahead, standing dead center on the elevated dueling platform, there he was. Max himself was standing there in absolute silence. He was wearing his signature jacket, the dark fabric catching the stadium lights, projecting an aura of quiet authority.
"We meet again!" Darius shouted, his voice echoing across the empty seating tiers as he walked confidently toward the ring. "Did you honestly not think I would make it this far, or are you just surprised that it’s me you’re seeing right now instead of Ramon?"
Darius stepped up onto the padded platform and stopped a few yards away, eyeing Max carefully. Since the Chairman was standing completely out in the open, Darius was highly suspicious, wondering if this was some kind of elaborate trap.
This was the wealthy Chairman of a rising empire, a man who commanded so many strong people, including that lethal man dressed in Silver downstairs. To have absolutely no one standing by his side as a bodyguard? Not many sane leaders would ever do that.
"No, we fully expected someone to break through and get here," Max said, his voice perfectly level. "We specifically decided to let you guys push through the lower floors so each of us could isolate and deal with the troublesome ones individually. I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance that I would end up facing you at the end of this. And in a way... I’m quite happy that it’s you standing here and not Ramon."
Darius couldn’t help but laugh out loud as he heard those confident words.
"You sound quite cocky for a dead man. You were barely able to survive the Black Hounds last time we clashed, and now you have the entire weight of the Gilt Rats and the Hounds crashing down on your back," Darius sneered, adjusting his stance. "You should have stayed down. You should have stayed quiet and paid your taxes just like all the other organized groups in this city. But you had to cause a mess of my venues and foolishly escape that day."
Now it was Max who was laughing.
"Right. The incredibly dangerous Black Hounds. A syndicate so terrifyingly dangerous that they had to run crying to daddy and ask for the Gilt Rats’ help just to raid one building," Max mocked, shaking his head. "But don’t worry, Darius. I’ll gladly teach you a lesson today. I’ll beat you down first, and then I’ll go downstairs and deal with your daddy."
Max then smoothly dropped into a calculated fighting stance. Darius immediately did the same, his eyes narrowing.
"You should know already that the gap in skill between you and me is far too wide!" Darius yelled.
He sprinted toward the center of the platform, and Max mirrored the charge.
When the two of them met in the middle, Darius took the first blistering swing. Max effortlessly avoided the strike, stepping cleanly sideways twice, and then threw a lightning-fast high kick aimed right at the side of Darius’s head.
Darius managed to block the heavy strike with his forearm, gritting his teeth at the unexpected impact force. He immediately lunged forward to grapple and grab Max’s jacket, but Max quickly shifted his weight and slipped to the side like a ghost.
When Darius went in for a second assault, he unleashed his signature technique. The exact same optical illusion that had overwhelmed Max in their previous fight was happening again. Max’s vision blurred, and he almost thought he saw a phantom kick flying toward the side of his head while a punch aimed for his ribs.
Max didn’t know for sure which strike was the real physical threat and which was the fake. So, instead of guessing, he simply moved faster. He lifted his hand up and batted the illusionary space aside. Darius saw a perceived opening and came in hard from the side—until a heavy, reinforced fist crashed squarely into his face.
The counter-punch came out incredibly fast, completely shattering Darius’s rhythm and causing him to flinch in sharp pain.
Through his watering eyes, Darius then saw Max lifting his leg. He reflexively went to catch the incoming kick, but he was entirely too slow. Max’s boot buried itself deep into Darius’s stomach with devastating kinetic force.
The breath was completely driven from Darius’s lungs. He was sent skidding backward, sliding aggressively across the padded floor until he eventually came to a grinding halt near the edge of the ring.
Darius’s eyes were watering profusely, and his stomach lurched. He felt like he might actually throw up. He clutched his abdomen, gasping for air.
"What the heck... how is this even possible?" Darius wheezed, staring at the Chairman in absolute shock.
"I’ll admit, I still can’t quite read through your visual tricks. It seems my mind still naturally thinks your phantom strikes are actually trying to hit me," Max said calmly, lowering his fists. "But I realized there’s a very simple solution to that problem. I’ll just make sure I’m fast enough to block absolutely all of your strikes—both the fake and the real ones.
"And I’ll be strong enough to effortlessly break through any of your defenses," Max continued, his eyes cold and unyielding. "Darius... the person you’re fighting right now is completely different from the person you were fighting before. This fight is not going to end the same way."
Max: $1,576,380,000