Lira didn’t move her heel from where it was.

She looked at Kai with narrowed eyes — not hostility.

"Tell me," she said, "what exactly do you plan to do?"

Kai didn’t answer.

"Given the state you’re in..." Lira closed her eyes completely, head slightly tilted, assessing the situation with so little interest she didn’t even need to look at it. "Split lip. Shoulder at a questionable angle. Side that probably protests every time you breathe." A pause. "I find it hard to believe you have what it takes to face a high-class vampire."

She opened her eyes.

Kai wasn’t looking at her.

He was kneeling beside Serah.

---

Lira looked at him.

She watched Kai kneeling beside Serah.

She looked at him again.

The expression that crossed her face lasted exactly two seconds before she controlled it.

Kai had one hand on Serah’s shoulder.

"The shoulder?" he said.

"Both," Serah said. Her voice was steady but lower than usual. "The powder interrupts the connection between aura and body. The arms aren’t responding well yet."

"How long until it dissipates?"

"Depends on the concentration. Half an hour. Maybe less."

Kai looked at the chamber floor — where traces of the original blood cloud remained, mostly frozen but with areas where the ice had given way during the fight.

"Silver mixed into the cloud from the start," he said.

"Yes."

"Cliché."

Serah looked at him.

"What?"

"From my world." Kai kept assessing her shoulder with care. "They said a silver bullet could finish off a wolf. A werewolf, specifically. It’s a movie cliché."

Serah processed this.

"I don’t know what a bullet is," she said. "But it’s not that easy to finish off a primordial wolf with silver." A pause. "It weakens us. Interrupts the aura. But to finish..." The markings pulsed irregularly. "It would take a considerably larger amount." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Can you stand?"

Serah tried.

Her arms didn’t respond for the push.

"No."

---

[GarcíaFTW: KAI COMPLETELY IGNORED LIRA’S SPEECH]

[NocheEterna99: HE WENT STRAIGHT TO CHECK ON SERAH. WITHOUT LOOKING AT LIRA.]

[StreamerHunter: Lira spoke with her eyes closed being dramatic and when she opened them Kai was already with Serah. LOL]

[xSorinx: "cliché" — Kai connected the silver powder to movies from his world]

[Pedro_Sierra: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Lira with a face like "he ignored me" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

[DragonicLegacy: just got to the stream someone explain everything]

[Jac_Moore: bro there’s an SS vampire, an SSS wolf on the ground, and the rankless guy just ignored the vampire to check on the wolf.]

[Mist_Of_Death: did I arrive at the right time or the wrong time?]

---

"At the right time."

Kai carried her.

Not dramatically — with the efficiency of someone solving a logistical problem.

One arm under her knees, the other on her back, lifting her off the ground with care.

Serah didn’t protest.

She looked at him from Kai’s arms with an expression the irregular markings couldn’t completely hide.

He carried her to the edge of the chamber — far from the center, far from the area where the silver powder had been most concentrated, next to the wall where the stone was dry and the floor was clean.

He placed her with her back against the wall.

"Stay here," he said.

"I can’t move anyway."

"I know. But stay here anyway."

Serah’s markings pulsed.

"Kai."

"What?"

"Be careful."

Kai looked at her for a second.

"Always."

He turned toward Lira.

---

Lira had watched it all.

Without moving.

Without speaking.

Arms crossed, with the expression of someone reconsidering several things simultaneously but with no intention of showing which ones.

Kai stopped five meters from her.

He looked at her.

"If you attack me," he said, "I’ll have to come for you."

Lira looked at him.

"Is that a threat?"

"It’s a description of what’s going to happen."

---

[NocheEterna99: "IT’S A DESCRIPTION OF WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN"]

[GarcíaFTW: he didn’t say "I’ll beat you." he said exactly what he’d do. NO BOASTING.]

[StreamerHunter: viewers: 5,100,000. FIVE MILLION.]

[DragonicLegacy: THAT GUY IS F-RANK???? HE’S TALKING LIKE THAT TO AN SS????]

[Jac_Moore: bro he’s been doing exactly that for weeks]

[Mist_Of_Death: the one at the edge of the chamber with the glowing markings is an SSS?? AND SHE’S ON THE GROUND??]

[Pedro_Sierra: yes. The vampire used silver powder the whole time. That’s Serah. She’s Kai’s girlfriend.]

[Mist_Of_Death: GIRLFRIEND???? HOW MUCH DID I MISS]

---

Kai shook out his shoulders.

He twisted his neck — the specific sound of joints that have taken too much and need to remember they still work. He moved his arms in small circles, his elbows, his wrists.

The kind of warm-up you do when your body is already hot for other reasons and what’s needed isn’t temperature but reminding the nervous system that the next movement is going to be different from the previous ones.

He did two small hops in place.

He set his stance.

Not the standard guard he’d used from the first day — feet apart, weight distributed, elbows in.

This one was different.

Lower.

Left foot forward with the toes turned inward, right foot back at an angle, hands at chest height with fingers extended instead of closed fists.

Muay Thai. The specific stance he’d developed for when he needed all his hip in every strike from the first contact.

Lira looked at him.

"Curious," she said.

Kai lunged.

---

The first strike was a kick to the side — not for power, for speed, the kind that seeks to establish distance and rhythm before committing more.

Lira dodged it without moving from her position. She just twisted her torso five degrees.

The second was a jab straight to the center.

Lira deflected it with two fingers.

Didn’t block — deflected. The difference was blocking required mass and deflecting required only the angle, and the angle of Lira’s two fingers was enough to redirect Kai’s jab outward without her needing to commit anything.

Kai felt the deflection in his wrist.

She didn’t block. She deflected.

That means she doesn’t need strength to handle my strength.

The third strike was the elbow — the one that had worked against everything from the A-rank bear to Eris.

Lira dodged it by leaning her body back exactly enough.

The elbow passed three centimeters from her chin.

"Good," Lira said, from those three centimeters. "For a human."

---

[GarcíaFTW: "FOR A HUMAN"]

[NocheEterna99: Lira dodged three of Kai’s attacks without committing anything. THREE.]

[StreamerHunter: the deflection with two fingers. TWO FINGERS. To redirect a jab from Kai.]

[DragonicLegacy: wait he beat an S-rank vampire with his shoulder and now an SS is dodging him with TWO FINGERS????]

[Jac_Moore: @DragonicLegacy that’s the jump from S to SS bro. It’s brutal.]

[Mist_Of_Death: the power difference here is ENORMOUS]

[xSorinx: Kai knew it. He’d already calculated it before lunging.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=( º _ º)ε=ε=ε=ε=ε= Kai knew this would happen]

---

Kai stepped back two paces.

Not to flee — to assess.

Three attacks. Three effortless dodges. Without counterattacking yet.

She’s letting me attack first. Why?

To read the pattern. Same as Eris at the beginning.

Difference: Eris took several exchanges to adapt. If Lira is SS, she probably takes less.

How much less?

He lunged again — different combination, without the pattern of the previous three. Low kick to the thigh, immediately elbow to the shoulder, no pause between them.

Lira dodged the kick with a lateral step.

The elbow she took.

On the shoulder. With two fingers again — this time at the exact point of the deltoid where pressure interrupts the nerve that coordinates arm movement.

Kai’s right arm went numb for two seconds.

Not magic. Pure anatomical pressure. The kind of knowledge that comes from centuries studying human bodies from every possible angle.

Kai shook his arm. It responded.

Two seconds. She knows human anatomy like I know beast anatomy.

---

[NocheEterna99: TWO FINGERS ON THE NERVE. ANATOMICAL. NO MAGIC.]

[GarcíaFTW: Lira studied human anatomy for centuries. That’s worse than magic.]

[StreamerHunter: Kai shook his arm and it responded in two seconds. He registered the point and continued.]

[DragonicLegacy: that guy is amazing but the vampire is making him look like a beginner]

[Jac_Moore: @DragonicLegacy that’s exactly what’s happening yes]

[Mist_Of_Death: and he KNOWS it’s happening. I saw it on his face.]

[xSorinx: Kai is overanalyzing. You can tell by the speed of his attacks — slower, more calculated.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (°ロ°) when Kai overanalyzes he loses speed (°ロ°)]

---

From the edge of the chamber, Serah watched him.

"The third one," she said.

Kai glanced at her without stopping moving.

"What?"

"The third attack. The elbow to the shoulder." The markings pulsed — still irregular, but a little more stable than before. "You executed it well."

Kai dodged a pressure strike from Lira — two fingers to the neck this time, which he dodged by the reflex of turning his head that he’d developed since Chapter two.

"Thanks," he said.

"But you’ve been analyzing too much since the fourth one."

Lira launched another pressure strike — this time to the solar plexus. Kai blocked it with his forearm. He felt the impact up to his shoulder.

Stronger than Eris with two fingers than Eris with a closed fist.

"I know," Kai said.

---

[GarcíaFTW: SERAH GIVING HIM FEEDBACK FROM THE GROUND]

[NocheEterna99: "you’ve been analyzing too much since the fourth one" — Serah is coaching him IN REAL TIME]

[StreamerHunter: Kai said "I know" like it was a normal training session]

[DragonicLegacy: the girl with the silver markings is giving him fight advice while she’s on the ground unable to move. WHAT STREAM IS THIS.]

[Jac_Moore: @DragonicLegacy the best one. Welcome.]

[Mist_Of_Death: Serah has more composure than me watching this from here]

[xSorinx: Lira is looking at the two of them with a new expression]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ Lira observing the Kai-Serah dynamic in the middle of the fight ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]

---

Lira stopped.

She didn’t step back — she simply paused. She looked at Serah. Then at Kai.

"Interesting," she said.

Kai didn’t lower his guard.

"What?"

"That she trains you from the ground." Lira crossed her arms. "And that you listen."

"It’s practical."

"No." Lira looked at the two of them with something that wasn’t the expression of tactical assessment. "It’s something else."

Kai threw a jab without answering.

Lira deflected it with the same angle as before — outward, without committing anything — and returned a pressure strike to the left shoulder. The damaged one.

Kai felt it down to his spine.

He stayed on his feet.

---

The left shoulder, he thought as he repositioned. She found it the same way Eris found the nerves. In fewer exchanges.

Between S and SS there’s no step. There’s an abyss.

Not of power — of everything. Speed of analysis, speed of adaptation, precision of execution.

An S-rank hunter takes several exchanges to map a new opponent.

Lira took four.

And she still hasn’t attacked seriously.

---

[NocheEterna99: "she still hasn’t attacked seriously"]

[GarcíaFTW: Kai knows it. Lira is letting him move to map him. Same tactic as Eris but faster.]

[StreamerHunter: between S and SS it’s not a step. It’s an abyss. Kai is feeling it in real time.]

[DragonicLegacy: but he beat an SS before right? Eris?]

[Jac_Moore: @DragonicLegacy with a bought technique and his shoulder. Technically yes. Practically it was the hardest thing he’s done.]

[Mist_Of_Death: and Lira is an older SS with more experience than Eris probably]

[xSorinx: Mist_Of_Death is right. Eris is the right hand. Lira is the one who commands her.]

[Pedro_Sierra: (°ロ°) KAI NEEDS SOMETHING (°ロ°)]

---

Lira launched another two-finger strike — this time to the right side, the one that had been bruised since the A-rank vampires.

Kai dodged it.

By ten centimeters.

He counterattacked with a knee to the thigh — the move that had worked against everyone from the A-rank bear to Eris.

Lira didn’t dodge the knee.

She stopped it with the palm of her hand. Without moving from the spot. Absorbing the full momentum of Kai’s knee with an open palm like someone catching something that fell off a shelf.

Kai felt the knee stopped in the air.

She stopped the knee.

With one hand.

Without moving.

Lira looked at him from above her extended palm.

"Do you have more?" she said.

It wasn’t cruelty.

It was a genuine question. The kind asked when you want to know if the opponent has something they haven’t shown yet or if this is it.

Kai pulled back his knee.

He repositioned.

And began to search.

---

[GarcíaFTW: SHE STOPPED THE KNEE WITH ONE HAND]

[NocheEterna99: WITHOUT MOVING. WITH A PALM.]

[StreamerHunter: the knee that knocked down A-rank vampires, that damaged the S-ranks, stopped with one hand by Lira.]

[DragonicLegacy: THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN S AND SS??????]

[Jac_Moore: @DragonicLegacy millions of miles bro. That’s how they describe it here.]

[Mist_Of_Death: millions of miles between S and SS. I get it now.]

[xSorinx: "do you have more?" — it wasn’t mockery. It was genuine. That’s the worst part.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ kai searching searching searching ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]