EVIL SYSTEM

"Alright." Ben walked slowly. "Now you've pissed me off."

In a blink, he appeared in front of the guy with the red fists and threw three punches.

Punches the guy managed to dodge, even landing a counterattack. But Ben slammed his legs, knocking him to the ground.

With two more punches, he left him unconscious.

"Bastard!" The girl raised her hands, trying to cast her spell.

A fierce heat began to sweep through the stadium as a massive amount of magic gathered.

Ben hurled the guy toward the girl's attack, and she panicked.

"Damn it!" She raised her hands and redirected her spell skyward.

A blast of yellow fire shot from her hands, soaring into the sky where it exploded into a small mushroom cloud.

The power of the explosion was so intense that several spectators had to shield themselves.

Ben seized the distraction to dart past the two guys in front of him and reach the girl.

She caught her teammate with one hand while firing a fireball at Ben with the other.

Dodging her attack, he closed in fast and drove a punch into her stomach.

The girl dropped her teammate, clutching her stomach in pain as she sank to her knees.

"Bastard! Don't you see I'm a woman?" she scolded, pointing at him.

Ben laughed, crouched down, grabbed both of her breasts, and started kneading them. "Yeah, I noticed you're a girl."

His grin widened as he felt the firm mounds, racking up evil points with every second.

"You son of a bitch!" Her face turned red, and she tried to hit him, but Ben met her with five punches to the body, sending her flying out of the arena.

"I know you're a woman, but I'm all about gender equality."

The crowd booed Ben, but he didn't give a damn. He cupped his hand to his ear, taunting the audience without a shred of shame.

Seeing the guy he'd thrown at the girl lying on the ground, he kicked him out of the arena and turned to face the last two standing.

The captain and the guy who hadn't made a single move until now.

They locked eyes and nodded in sync.

Blue lightning began to crackle around the silent guy's body. On the captain's side, a massive amount of earth started gathering around him.

"This is getting interesting." Ben eyed them both, not interrupting their preparations.

The captain's body was encased in what looked like stone armor, holding a shield in one hand and wielding a spear in the other.

The lightning-element guy glowed with golden bolts, his hair rising against gravity.

In a flash of yellow light, the guy vanished from his spot and reappeared near Ben, raising his fist.

Ben's body reacted on its own, raising an arm to block the blow. The force was so great it bent his stance and cracked the ground beneath his feet.

Ben's eyes flared with a red glow, and he raised his other hand, catching another of the guy's punches.

The guy's eyes widened in shock. And why wouldn't they? His speed surpassed the wind-element guy, and his strength outmatched his red-fisted teammate.

But Ben, who'd struggled against him before, was now anticipating his attacks with ease.

The captain joined the fray with a thrust of his spear. Ben grabbed the spear and yanked hard, pulling him in and landing a punch that the captain blocked with his shield.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the shield, but the captain's magic quickly repaired it.

Kim, the lightning-element guy, appeared behind Ben and threw a kick. Ben's ears twitched slightly, and without turning, he grabbed Kim's leg and hurled him at the captain.

Ben's eyes burned with a sinister red glow, and he stared at them both with a smile.

His body pulsed with a mysterious energy as his eyes blazed and his heart pounded like crazy.

He could feel it… He'd reached the second stage of his martial art.

Movements that were impossibly hard to track before now played out in his eyes like slow motion.

His hearing sharpened, and he could sense his opponents' presence and attacks before they landed.

Kim and the captain charged at Ben simultaneously, and Ben welcomed it with open arms and a grin.

The spectators' eyes widened at one of the best fights they'd seen so far.

Ben was attacked at once by the captain and Kim. Kim vanished with his speed, striking from impossible angles, while the captain moved with unbelievable agility despite his heavy armor.

His spear was like a stalking serpent, probing for weaknesses in Ben, who defended against both at once using nothing but his fists and martial arts.

"WHAT AM I SEEING?!" The announcer clutched his head in disbelief and excitement. "WHAT A DISPLAY OF STRENGTH! SKILL! POWER!"

The crowd roared, cheering for their favorite fighters.

Though by a slim margin, the crowd was on Ben's side. His shameless, even slightly cheating move of throwing the guy into the girl's spell might've rubbed some wrong, but there was no denying his power and skill. He might act arrogant, shameless, and provocative, but that only made him more intriguing and entertaining.

With every passing second, Ben felt ecstatic. His reflexes sharpened. He could see attacks with crystal clarity, and his strikes carried more force.

But he started to notice something… His opponents were getting weaker and weaker.

Then he realized that while he was fighting with just his hands and physical strength, relying on his abnormal endurance, his opponents were using powerful magic and spells to keep up.

Obviously, their energy was running dry, and out of respect for them, Ben wanted to end the fight while they were at their peak, not when they were exhausted.

Ben gritted his teeth and overcharged his muscles. He waited for Kim's attack but didn't dodge or block this time—he let the blow hit his body.

Blood spurted from his mouth, and he felt excruciating pain.

His body flew toward the captain, crackling with lightning, which should've slowed him down, but when he reached the captain, Ben unleashed five punches that shattered his shield. Before he could reform it, Ben grabbed his spear and yanked it away.

He swung it behind his back, where Kim appeared, and the spear struck him, sending him flying.

The captain tried to intervene, but Ben seized his head and smashed it with his knee, destroying his stone helmet.

Ben couldn't let Kim rejoin before neutralizing the captain. Pushing his muscles to their absolute limit, he began throwing punch after punch with all his might.

Each fist left cracks in the captain's armor until all that remained was the bruised body of the man.

"Leave him alone!" Kim shouted, lunging at Ben.

Ben deflected Kim's attack, leaving him wide open. Seizing the moment, Ben landed an uppercut to Kim's chin.

His breathing steadied as he began spinning on his axis, building momentum and power.

Suddenly, he stopped, and his arms lashed out like whips, striking Kim and the captain simultaneously.

Both bodies flew out of the arena, leaving Ben's figure to slump heavily onto the trembling platform.

Ben took a deep breath and let out a loud sigh. His hands and legs shook, but he forced himself to stand and thrust his hand firmly into the sky.

*Ahhhhh!*

*Yesssss!*

*What the hell?!*

*I can't believe it!*

*This is insane!*

The uproar was immediate, thousands of flashes raining down on Ben's upright figure.

*Rubicon!*

*Rubicon!*

*Rubicon!*

"INSANITY! COMPLETE INSANITY! RUBICON ELIMINATES FLORENCIA WITHOUT USING A SINGLE ELEMENT OR SPELL! THIS IS ABSOLUTE MADNESS!" The stadium announcer was leaping at his podium. "Who is this student? Someone tell me, please!"

With his hands still trembling, Ben lowered his arm and pointed at the Dragon Raider.

"You're next!"

---

In an abandoned warehouse on the city's outskirts, Holgram sat tied to a wooden chair.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break free.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, watching his partner a few meters away, pouring a can of gasoline across the floor.

"I didn't want to do this," the man said, continuing to spread the gasoline around the warehouse without changing his expression. "But you got bitten by the curiosity bug. Haven't you heard the saying: curiosity killed the cat?"

"What are they trying to do? How much are they paying you?" Holgram shouted.

"You don't get it." The man pulled the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it to the ground near Holgram. "Nobody's paying me."

The fire ignited fiercely, quickly engulfing the place, especially Holgram's gasoline-soaked legs, which burst into flames in a blink.

*Arghhhh!*

Holgram's screams of pain echoed through the warehouse, and the man kept his gaze fixed on Holgram's agonized face.

"Just following orders."

++++++

Interesting things are coming, and I'll just say one thing that's already clear by the end of this chapter: No one, no one, is exempt from dying. Anyone can die from what's coming.

What did you think of the fight?