Leo's breath stuttered in and out, blood pooling thick behind his teeth, as the world seemed to blur at the edges—tilting in and out of focus like a camera struggling to hold on.
His knees dug into the dirt. His body trembled under its own weight. His fingers clutched the hem of his enemy's robes—not as a warrior bracing for his next attack, but as a beaten, ruined thing barely clinging to consciousness.
Or at least, that was how it looked.
And that, Leo thought, was the whole point.
Because while his body was indeed broken, and his lungs did scream for air with every breath, his mind— his most dangerous weapon— had never been sharper.
[Monarch's Indifference] dulled the pain and slowed his panic, letting him think with the same calm, calculated malice he had just used to win the Circuit.
And now, with a blade pressed to the back of his neck and the universe ready to mourn him… he calculated that the only way out of this mess for him, was by using the one forbidden technique that he promised himself he would never use in a public setting.
'I don't know if this will work or not.
I have no idea how painful this will be–
I don't even know if it will make a transcendent warrior flinch, or will it just make me look stupid to even try…. But it's my only way out—' Leo thought, his vision narrowing as he subtly adjusted the angle of his fingers.
The move he was planning to use was one he had learned a few months ago while receiving a genetic awakening shot.
It was a perverted move that wasn't designed to kill, wasn't designed to maim, but was rather designed to commit unspeakable atrocities on both men and women.
However, while it was effective on both genders, for men especially— it was designed to humiliate. To incapacitate. To destroy a man's will to continue fighting in a single instant.
A forbidden skill by most righteous martial code standards, named– 'The Ball Buster'.
The move's name alone was enough to earn him mockery should he utter it out loud, so much so that he had never once used it in public.
But now… that embarrassment? That shame?
It didn't matter.
Because, being embarrassed was still better than being dead.
*Shuffle—*
Leo shuffled his grip on the enemy, his arms now holding his robes near his inner thigh, as he looked up, trying to look like a pathetic helpless mess.
"Do you know what hurts a man more than being killed?" He asked at this moment, blood sputtering out of his mouth as he spoke, as Jishan smiled evilly at his words.
"What?" He asked, humoring one last word from Leo before killing him, as Leo closed his eyes and smiled….. before opening them again as he looked into the camera and said.
"I'll show you what—"
Before activating the move [Ball Buster].
—-------------
Leo's arms moved with what little speed left in them, as thankfully he was too close to the opponent for him to react in time to his intentions.
His fingers, once trembling on Jishan's robe, suddenly turned steely and sharp as they slid up the inner fold of the warrior's cloak, his thumb hooking the fabric open just enough for his right hand to snake in like a viper.
As the contact was immediate.
His palm flattened against the groin of his opponent— centered perfectly over the sack— through the thin layer of robe, and for a moment, everything slowed.
Time. Breath. Motion.
And then—Leo's mana surged.
Not as a slash. Not as a blast. But a focused, invasive flow—channeled directly through the core of his palm like a piercing wave, as he pumped volatile mana into the densely packed nerve clusters of Jishan's testicles, embedding it deeper than any physical strike could reach.
The sensation was vile.
Even for Leo, who was not fazed by any amounts of blood or splattered brains, this still felt filthy.
The mana felt wrong in his veins— like pushing raw current into something sacred.
He could feel the delicate tissue throb beneath his palm, the capillaries fluttering like terrified insects as they resisted the invasive energy.
However, they were helpless against him, as before even Jishan realized something was wrong, Leo clenched his fingers, as–
*BOOM—*
There wasn't a sound heard in the air, but there was a reaction that Jishan surely felt straight in his soul.
As from the inside, Leo's mana swelled like an expanding balloon— and burst everything that was most precious to a man.
Capillaries ruptured in dozens. Veins snapped. Tissue imploded under the pressure, as Leo's mana dispersed like shrapnel through one of the most sensitive clusters of nerve endings on the male body.
And the result was instant!
Jishan didn't scream, No, instead, his body underwent a seizure.
Back arched. Eyes widened. A choking gasp escaped his mouth as his legs buckled, his entire frame spasming violently like he'd been electrocuted.
His knees gave in before he could even register what had happened, as
*"Guh—GAAAAAAAAH—AAAHHHHH—!!!"*
He screamed violently, unlike anything Leo had ever heard from a grown man before.
As there wasn't a note of pain in his voice, just pure devastation.
"AIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOO"
A keening wail ripped from Jishan's throat, raw and ragged, as he collapsed backwards, rolling onto his side as he clutched at his ruined groin with both hands— his dagger dropping from his grip like an afterthought.
"WHAT THE FUUUUUCK—!?!"
His voice cracked mid-sentence. His legs kicked helplessly, his heels digging furrows into the dirt as he writhed like a man being pulled apart from the inside.
His mask was still on. But Leo didn't need to see his face to know it was twisted in agony— because no amount of facial control could mask that kind of trauma.
It was beyond torture.
It was an emasculation incarnate.
A blow not to the body, but to the soul.
And for a brief second— Leo just stared, still on his knees, panting heavily, blood rolling down his chin, as he observed a transcendent-level warrior lose all concept of pride.
It had worked!
Somehow, grabbing a transcendent warrior by the balls had worked, and although everything happened too quickly for Leo to properly feel it, as he opened and closed his palms, he felt even his own body shudder involuntarily at his work.
'I think I completely atomized his balls to nothingness…. If someone pushes the flimsy hanging skin back inside his body…. I—I think I might have just created a new hole in his body—' Leo realized, as he felt shivers run down his own spine.
This was a fate he wouldn't even wish upon his worst enemy.
And yet, it had been necessary for him to survive.
'I survived for now, but he's not going to stay down forever—' Leo thought now, as his eyes fell upon the dagger, that Jishan had just dropped a few feet away, lying uselessly in the dust.
His eyes locked onto it like a dying man spotting water in a desert, as with his limbs still trembling, and his balance still uncertain, he crawled towards it with all the strength left in his body.
Each motion felt like dragging a corpse. But he pushed forward regardless, one agonizing inch at a time.
Because he knew.
Jishan wouldn't stay down forever.
And the next time he got up… there would be no second chance or wasted chit-chat.