Vera immediately snapped her head around to look at Shooting and Sarah, her eyes bulging so hard they looked as if they were about to pop clean out of their sockets. She couldn’t believe they had just suggested such an insane thing.
Abby was already having a fundamentally hard time dealing with the sheer weight of this situation and pretending to be Vera. In terms of her actual fighting ability, she was still clumsily getting used to the biomechanics of her new, heavily altered body. While she had somehow managed to handle quite a few low-level mob members and street thugs since her awakening, it hadn’t been down to refined martial arts technique. Instead, it was almost an erratic form of muscle memory that wasn’t even hers to begin with, a remnant of the real Vera’s brutal past.
Now, however, her own people wanted her to fight in front of an entire hall of witnesses, where she wouldn’t be able to hide her lack of sharpness or her internal clumsiness. And worse, she was being forced to stand against Max, the one person in this world she wouldn’t have ever dared to strike under normal circumstances.
She didn’t even know how to formulate a denial that wouldn’t make her look weak to the other two enforcers. Looking around, all she could see were the massive, bloodthirsty grins plastered across the faces of the Fallen Rose members.
"You show him, Vera! Show him exactly why the women of the Rose are never to be underestimated," Sarah said, flashing a confident thumbs-up from the sidelines.
All Abby could do now was pray to whatever gods were listening that Max would decline the invitation to bleed, but she knew that a refusal might put him in a terrible tactical pickle as well, fracturing his authority in front of his newly consolidated gang.
"Hmm," Max mumbled, his eyes narrowing as he looked over the raucous group of sword-wielding women. "Alright. I don’t mind a quick spar, if it will solve whatever misunderstanding is going on here and establish the baseline for our talks."
"YEAHH!"
The Fallen Rose members erupted into a unified cheer, their wooden swords banging against the floorboards. In response, those from the Billion Bloodline group raised their own voices, cheering as well, although their shouts carried a distinct undertone of nervous tension. Not everyone in the current roster had actually seen the Boss fight with their own eyes.
There were those who had only heard the whispered, near-mythical rumors of his strength from the streets of Notting Hill, but there were also many who had only known him during his brief, bizarre stint as part of the Fortis Group’s office staff. They had been deeply surprised when the quiet corporate intern turned out to be the absolute warlord of the entire place, or at least, the man they thought was just an intern. After Sheri had discovered the truth of his identity, Max had decided there was no longer any point in hiding his status from his inner circle.
"Are you... are you really sure you want to fight?" Abby asked, her voice faltering slightly as the fighters from both sides began clearing the elevated platform stage. The crowd moved back, forming a giant, tense square around the perimeter of the polished floor.
Max didn’t answer right away. He started to twist his neck from side to side, a series of sharp, audible cracks echoing through the quiet hall as he stretched his muscles. He radiated next to no fear at all. It wasn’t because he underestimated his opponent; it was actually the exact opposite. He fully expected this to be a grueling, high-caliber fight.
’This is the absolute leader of a Syndicate-level group that is known strictly for its fighting capabilities,’ Max thought, his tactical mind assessing Vera’s relaxed posture. ’To be able to rise that high up the Underworld ladder with just raw combat alone, she has to be a monster. This is the Apex predator of their group, and I can’t imagine a pack of wolves like that serving a weak alpha.’
Max’s gaze hardened. ’I understand their group’s reluctance to do business with a leader they deem physically inferior. It was part of the exact mistake I made in my past life. I was skilled, I was incredibly talented, but as I rose through the ranks of management, I forgot about maintaining my own personal strength. Instead, I focused entirely on gathering elite soldiers around me.’
His thoughts drifted back to the shadows of his previous existence. ’I had gathered the best young fighters out there, the Cubs, in order to allow the White Tiger group to rise to supremacy. So, in order to eventually dismantle the very machine I built with my own hands, I need to make sure my own raw strength is code-high enough to crush the Cubs.’
"Are you certain you don’t want to use a weapon to balance the reach?" Abby asked, her fingers tightening nervously around the hilt of her bokken .
"My only weapons are my fists, my shins, or whatever environment I can weaponize around me at the time," Max answered flatly. "In the real world, I don’t usually get the privilege of a countdown before a fight starts, and I don’t carry a blade with me everywhere I go. So don’t worry about me. Just bring everything you have."
Ramon was still actively working on fabricating the custom exoskeletons for the inner circle, but it wasn’t something Max wanted to rely on today. He worried that using a mechanical crutch too early would hamper his natural physical growth and mask his true limits.
"Alright. If you won’t make the first move, I’ll bring the fight to you!" Max shouted.
He lunged forward, his boots exploding against the wood as he rushed ahead with terrifying velocity. The moment he crossed into her guard, he pivoted his hips with immense force, throwing a brutal spinning side kick aimed straight for the center of Vera’s stomach.
It required minimal, fluid movement on Vera’s part to survive. Guided by that strange, dormant muscle memory, her body side-stepped the incoming heel perfectly, her dress fluttering as the kick whistled past her ribs. Sensing an opening, she swung her heavy wooden sword upward in a counter-strike.
At the exact same instant, Max had already predicted her evasive maneuver. She had to dodge a linear strike like that to even exist at the Syndicate tier. Utilizing the momentum of his missed kick, Max didn’t stop his rotation; he transitioned into a high wheeling kick aimed directly at her temple.
Vera’s sword arc met his incoming shin mid-air.
A loud, thunderous thud reverberated through the rafters of the training hall, sending a shockwave of wind across the polished floor. Both fighters bounced back, a flash of surprise crossing their features.
"She... she actually managed to clean-block one of Max’s high kicks?" Wolf muttered from the sidelines, his jaw dropping slightly. "I could tell by the velocity of his spin that there’s even more raw power in his legs than during the university raid. And she held her ground without her guard collapsing."
While the Bloodline was stunned by Vera’s defense, the members of the Fallen Rose were experiencing their own wave of disbelief. They stared at Max’s leg, shocked that the powerful, bone-shattering swing of Vera’s heavy bokken hadn’t snapped the freshman’s shin in half.
Quickly pulling his leg back into a balanced stance, Max planted both feet firmly on the floor and let out a rare, genuine smile. The blood in his veins was beginning to boil with excitement.
"Yes... this is exactly the kind of test I needed to measure my limits," Max said, his eyes locking onto her with predatory focus.
’Oh no...’ Abby thought, her heart sinking as she realized she had accidentally convinced him he could go all out.