"Enough talk—"

A fist slammed into Francis before his trajectory reading could even register it. He still managed to barely cross his arms in time, but the impact sent him skidding back.

His guard tightened instantly as he studied his opponent.

Vance’s skin burned with a green aura, light pulsing off him. What remained of his clothing clung in torn strips, barely holding over the mass of muscle pushing beneath it.

Francis could feel the overwhelming pressure coming off his opponent. It wasn’t as sharp as Lex’s, but it was heavy.

’How did he—’

His trajectory reading failed again. No warning. No pattern.

So he relied on his other talent—vibration sense—to get a general idea of where the attack would come.

Francis turned just in time to block it, but the force still sent him skidding back twelve steps across the ground.

’He’s faster and stronger than I expected.’

He took a deep breath. That attack had actually broken his bones, even with his kinetic damper reducing the impact by half.

That meant each of Vance’s attacks hit with the force of a sniper round, strong enough to pierce metal.

’I thought he was just exaggerating, but there’s no doubt about it. He’s the real deal. A generational talent like Lex.’

Vance didn’t press his attack right away. He stood there, clenching his wrist as he adjusted to his body.

"Is this the effect of the drugs you injected into yourself?"

Vance stopped looking at his hand and turned his attention to Francis.

"Yes, even I’m surprised by the effect. The power coursing through my body is overflowing, and it’s still rising... Now I can kill you."

The moment Vance moved, Francis met him head-on.

Fist against fist.

The shockwave that followed tore the ground between them apart. Concrete dust burst outward in a wide ring, and the hanging lights overhead swung violently on their cables.

Francis’s feet carved two shallow grooves across the ground before he regained his footing. His arm was numb from the wrist to the shoulder.

’His raw physical stats are insane.’

No technique behind the punch. No redirection. No feint.

Just pure, straight force delivered at a speed that barely gave his cognitive talent enough time to process it.

"You blocked that, huh. Good reflexes."

Vance spoke between breaths, his chest rising and falling harder than before, the strain clear in every word.

"You’re not too bad yourself. With this much power, you could’ve joined the others earlier—but you didn’t. That means this power-up is a one-time thing."

Francis rolled his wrist once and felt the joint crack back into alignment.

"Let me see how fast you really are."

Both of them vanished from their spots, and shockwaves rippled outward as their attacks collided head-on.

The first impact cracked the pavement.

The second sent a blast rolling across the yard.

The third shattered nearby cover into fragments.

They kept moving, disappearing and reappearing in split seconds, and every exchange ended the same way—an explosion of force.

Unlike before, Francis was now using more of his talent just to keep up with the insane speed of their fight.

Meanwhile, Vance was growing impatient. He still couldn’t land a killing blow. Every time he thought he got a chance, Francis’s speed increased just enough to dodge it.

At this rate, he would end up dead first from the backlash.

But it wasn’t just him.

From the corner of his eye, Francis could see his energy draining faster and faster.

[Energy: 29/70]

’I’m burning through my reserves fast. I can’t even use Chain Drive because I can’t get a combo started.’

Francis realized just how much he had underestimated the fighters in this world. He thought that with a high-quality body and a set of innate talents, he could casually wipe out anyone.

But Vance was proving him wrong. Drugs or not, his innate talent was even better than Lex’s when it came to fighting humanoid opponents.

[Energy: 20/70]

He needed to slow the pace down for a few seconds, and rethink his strategy.

Vance didn’t give him the option. He covered the distance between them in half a second and threw a straight punch directly at his face.

Francis slipped right, tucked his chin, and let the fist pass half an inch from his ear.

Then he grabbed the extended arm at the wrist and elbow, dropped his weight, and hit the joint.

CRACK.

Vance’s elbow bent slightly the wrong direction.

He yanked his arm back and kicked, but Francis had already jumped ahead of time.

The two paused and faced each other, resetting their stances.

Vance rolled his damaged shoulder. The arm came back into line.

"I know it..." Vance gritted his teeth. "I won’t be able to beat you without sacrificing everything."

Just as the last words left his mouth, his aura intensified again.

The air around him changed first.

Francis felt it before he saw it.

His Vibration Sense picked up the shift — a deep pulse rising from his opponent’s body, irregular and building fast, like a drum being struck harder and harder until the skin was about to split.

Then the cracks appeared.

They started at his knuckles.

Thin at first. Hairline fractures spreading across the skin the way ice breaks when pressure builds beneath it.

The dark patches crawled up his forearms and reached his shoulders within seconds.

Wherever they touched, the skin went rigid. Dense. The texture changed completely — no longer flesh, but something between metal and stone.

"Let’s end this once and for all." Vance said. His words came out slower, even speaking took more effort now.

Francis said nothing and released his own aura. Deep Crimson—the color of blood—materialized around him.

Unlike Vance, his transformation was stable. No strain showed. No overflow. He didn’t need to push it that far.

In the first place, his bottleneck was his energy reserves, not his attributes.

Vance stepped forward. The ground cracked under his foot without a stomp.

Francis set his feet.

"You’re not moving," Vance observed.

"No."

"Why?"

Francis’s lips curled. "Because I want to break you after you show me everything you’ve got."