Now back on his feet, Kade gazed through his raised guard and at his opponent. The legacy of the Han-li clan, Caster. He looked pristine from a distance, but up close, the damage was clear: a swollen red bruise spread across his abdomen, and his hands were covered in gashes.
But Kade stood despite the beating.
'That was embarrassing, really. I haven't been beaten on like that in years and years.' Kade frustratedly mused. The only times he remembers being abused like this were by his father and opponents in the child fighting ring. Since then, he hadn't fallen.
He would in any other circumstances. If not for the itch of [Battle Lust] that clawed for his mind to wake or the drive of purpose and energy from [Never Ending Fury]. Even that surplus of energy was being drained faster and faster, as he overstimulated his brain from the pain and restored the accumulating fatigue.
'I've really got to ramp my game up.' He couldn't come back to Dawn with his beaten face; the thought irked him completely. 'Then I've got to make sure Caster ends up much worse!'
That might restore some of the dignity he had just lost.
Caster broke from his surprise, the air roaring once again as the legacy blurred before him. His Jian aiming straight for the neck.
Kade smirked, the familiar power of [Vigilance] aiding him in a time of need.
"Vicious, aren't you, golden boy!" Kade laughed; despite the alarming speed, the attack was slower than his peak.
Kade could tell.
Unlike him, Caster grew tired.
Kade jerked his head back, narrowly avoiding the strike.
Caster gritted his teeth, moving back into the dominating sword style of the Han-li clan.
The green trail blade danced for blood, Kade using the training from Nephi, ducked, dodged and wove between the Jian. Now that Caster was somewhat exhausted, his speed had diminished to the point that Kade could react a hell of a lot better.
Not that the legacy didn't land hits. The blade still nicked and cut wherever it could, drawing lines of red across Kade's skin.
Any attack that would prove dangerous failed to connect.
Despite the newly adorned cuts, Kade kept his bloody smile, much to the distress of the legacy determined to cut him down.
"You should have stayed down, mongrel," Caster hissed. His Jian tracing one again like sweet death towards Kade.
Kade brought the red gauntlets formed by his rings and parried the blade away, the red construct shattering from the strike. "And miss my sweet revenge? NEVER!"
Caster stepped back away from a retaliatory jab, Kade's knuckles stopping inches before his head. Kade continued the momentum, using the other gauntlet against Caster's retaliatory slash, closing the distance between the two in an instant.
"Tsk." Caster clicked his tongue, suddenly rocketing backwards with a quick step, his feet skidding against the floor of the locker room.
Kade scoffed at the retreat; he cracked his knuckles and paced slowly towards the legacy again. Summoning his very trusty coat back into his soul sea.
Revealing the menacing figure of a shirtless Kade, Lean and not overly bulky, but cut like a carbon that had been crushed by the pressure into a glimmering diamond. hints of red lifeblood tracing down his figure.
"Scarred? It's nothing new to me... In fact, it's exhilarating coming from a proud legacy like you," Kade remarked.
Caster grimaced.
"Of a rat like you, I'll be dead before that would ever occur."
Kade shook his head. "Ok, then do me a solid and keel over."
With his aspect, Caster sped forward, like a bullet towards the brawler, ready to cut him down.
And Kade simply grabbed the bench next to him and hurled it at the path of the legacy.
Casters view darkened, the shadow of the projectile blinding his view for an instant. He ignored it and burst through the makeshift throw. But as he emerged from the other side, he couldn't see Kade.
'Wha-'
Lying low just under Caster, Kade took the opportunity to extend his leg, catching the heel of the speeding Legacy.
Caster lost his footing completely, carried by his own speed through the air, the crowd watching quickly darting away as he crashed into the line of spectators. He scrambled to get up, his diligence and agility allowing the legacy to spring back onto his feet.
Yet with his damaged grip, he had dropped his sword in the fall.
"Damn it!" He spat, eyes snapping up.
Just in time to see an entire locker soaring through the air.
He had barely a second.
Instinct kicked in. Arms raised, legs braced, he caught it overhead like Atlas. And slammed it down to the ground in a guttural grunt.
Thud.
Then footsteps.
Closer and fast.
Before he could react, a singular crimson gauntlet punched straight through the locker he held.
They clamped onto his skull.
And yanked.
Crash!
Caster's body was ripped clean through the locker as Kade, grinning ear to ear like a devil, dragged him in.
"Hello again!"
Kade's right hook detonated into Caster's jaw.
Caster's head jerked to the side; gritting his teeth, he responded with a jab to Kade's head.
and answered with a savage knee to the gut.
Caster grunted but didn't falter. Pain ignored, he unleashed a flurry of punches that hammered into Kade like a hailstorm of lead. Each hit slammed into the brawler's body like bullets against reinforced steel, forcing him back.
But there was nowhere to go.
The metal wall of the locker boxed him in.
Kade coughed, a trail of blood forming down his chin.
Yet still, he smiled.
"Good old cage fight," he rasped, eyes wild. "No running this time!"
Kade broke through the fury, charging through the fury of blows, and latched onto Caster, grasping his throat in vice grips and using his right to pummelled the legacy in the head. It was a violent brawl that lacked any skill, with simple brutish fighters bashing each other in a place they couldn't escape.
Kade thrived in the chaos.
Caster did not.
The legacy's strikes began to slow, his limbs growing heavy. His breath came in short, panicked gasps as Kade's grip tightened around his throat, cutting off precious air.
In the world of pain, Caster made sense of the violence with a presence, the soon-forming memory of his Jian returning to his grasp; as soon as it solidified, Caster roared with newfound defiance.
The crowd watches as the shaking locker riddled with dents suddenly cleaves into two after a flash of green, a beaten and bloody Caster discarding the top half of the locker, chest heaving and mad beyond belief.
The Brawler had crouched below the line of separation, looking like a walking casualty, yet with exhilaration clear on his face. Then rocketing back up with a vicious uppercut to the legacy.
WHAM
"Had to cut that one short, didn't you? Do you have no taste, you pompous ingrate!" Kade roared. [Battle Lust] Itching away at his sensations, urging the heart of chaos to mutual destruction. To satiate its urge for violence.
Caster reeled back, spitting fresh blood on the floor. His expression like a storm of pure fury, seemingly at every moment twitching in withheld explosiveness.
"I've had enough of you speaking!" Kaster hissed. "You say one more word, and I'll cut your tongue from your mouth, you COCKY LITTLE SHIT!"
Kade smirked, taunting.
"Someone's mad—"
In an instant Caster's Jian flashed with ruthless speed, barely missing the tongue of the brawler and instead slicing deep into his upper lip.
Kade didn't get the time to respond; Caster exploded in a speed that outshone even his first showing.
First slash: Kade narrowly avoided – second downward slash: Kade traced down his chest--third horizontal slash Kade blocked with the blood-red gauntlet. The formation is crumbling once again.
Caster danced in unrelenting desire to kill, and Kade was caught in the storm.
The fourth strike, Kade parried with his remaining gauntlet, but Caster continued the momentum, flowing past Kade's defence, the blade of the Jian slipping through.
then white-hot agony.
Steel slid through his chest, piercing bone, muscle, and something deeper.
Kade's breath caught. His heart.
It twitched.
He felt the Jian pulsing inside him with each heartbeat, the silver like a cold, frigid grasp on his life. The blade exited through his back as Caster plunged it deeper.
The crowd gasped and screamed, all frozen in the moment.
Caster twisted the blade deeper and went face-to-face with Kade.
"That is the consequence of your actions. An outcome you get for your humour's Heart of Chaos"
Kade looked down at the blade and then back to Caster. And spoke calmly.
Kade glanced down at the blade, then back at Caster. His voice was calm.
"Poetic, huh? I really fucked up."
Caster raised an eyebrow.
"That's all you have to say?"
Kade laughed, blood sputtering between his teeth.
"No..."
He leaned closer, eyes gleaming through the red.
"Just that you've fucked up too."
Before Caster could respond, Kade raised his arms and slammed Caster down. It felt like a mountain crushing down upon the legacy; he cratered down on the floor. his bones shuddering from the impact.
And despite the sword still buried in his chest, Kade descended like a rabid beast crashing atop him.
"HOW—"
Caster's cry was cut short as Kade's fist smashed into the bridge of his nose, blood spraying from the impact.
Kade continued to revel in the moment, feeling the Caster's body break under his fists. It was euphoric.
[Vigilance] granting him strength beyond common sense, he felt as if he could chuck entire ATVs at crowds of nightmare creatures, that the solid world would break under his eternal fury.
After all, he did have a sword through his heart.
A brutal crack followed his right hook. Kade smirked and then began to monologue between blows:
"Why do we even have a heart? To pump blood, carry oxygen, fuel, and life to muscles, bones, brain, and everything."Wham!
"And oxygen?" Crack. "It powers ATP. Makes energy."
Another strike. Caster's blood sprayed.
"No oxygen, no ATP. No ATP, no strength. No strength—"
Boom. A blow that shook Caster again.
"You die in minutes."
He leaned close, blood dripping from his lip.
"But me?"
His smile was pure mania.
"I make my own."
Caster shivered, squinting past his broken, swollen face and at his crazed attacker.
That was a short version of what [Never Ending Fury] was accomplishing; he had tested and experimented with what exactly his aspect did in his free time, and it didn't really have a solid basis.
It simply gifted his body energy. Where that concept bent and supported him was up to Kade.
Right now, he was using it to allow his body to function despite the Jian wretched in his heart.
Not to say he could keep it up for long; [Never Ending Fury] had a reserve, after all, and it was draining at an alarming speed. Soon he would lose it entirely and perish.
Striking the fallen Caster, Kade felt his bones break and snap under his fury, so he aided by [Vigilance]; he didn't stop.
The crowd of sleepers at this point couldn't have been any more surprised; the walking corpse that should have been Kade suddenly turned the tables, and now Caster was being broken beneath him.
Kade didn't stop, he just kept punching again and again. The legacy couldn't speak or move under the assault; his fingers twitched at times, but he was as good as done.
The walking corpse of a brawler had won.
After another minute, Kade began to throw another hook but halted.
Caster had stopped moving; he could still hear the legacy breath, but he was starting to become unrecognisable. As much as [Battle Lust] urged him to go further and cease the life of the legacy, Kade stopped himself.
He was about to run out of energy; if he followed through, he would die.
Kade now needed to save every single bit of energy.
He exhaled, rising shakily to his feet.
'This is not really a win.'
The sword was still embedded in his chest, after all. Despite all his posturing, the fight had been close. Against anyone else, he would've been dead five times over.
Kade could at least accept that.
He looked down at Caster's motionless body, then gave it a dirty kick.
The legacy twitched… but stayed still.
Silence swallowed the changing room. Not a single sleeper spoke.
Kade coughed. Then raised his voice.
"Could someone fetch me a healer? It's starting to hurt, you know."