From the moment his foot left the ground, seeking the alignment before the movement instead of during it.

She stepped back a step and a half.

She’s adjusting her defense to compensate for the Qi.

The next combination — jab, elbow, knee — with Qi in all three.

Three different responses to three strikes. All new.

---

[Survival points accumulated: threshold reached]

[External Qi — Beginner Level → Level 1]

Kai read the notification between movements.

Resonant Impact was Qi dispersed inward into the target. This is the opposite — Qi concentrated on the external contact point.

Lira blocked it with her forearm.

She looked at her forearm.

[GarcíaFTW: THREE STEPS]

[DragonicLegacy: the system said he didn’t need to buy it. HE UNLOCKED IT JUST BY SURVIVING.]

[Mist_Of_Death: Lira looked at her own forearm for the second time. KAI IS MAKING HER DOUBT.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ PENETRATING STRIKE ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ WITHOUT BUYING ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

Lira lowered her forearm.

Then at Kai.

She lunged.

Kai felt it before he saw it.

Lira had been at thirty percent.

The strike was to the right side.

Kai dodged it.

The graze was enough.

It was the outer edge of Lira’s palm passing through Kai’s side at the wrong angle — not cutting, but with enough drag force that the skin split in a five-centimeter line over his ribs.

He brought his hand to his side.

Alright. Not deep.

---

She was three meters away, in the position she’d been after the strike, her eyes fixed on Kai’s side.

On the blood.

She brought it close to her mouth, smelled it, and for a moment something in her changed and she quickly licked the blood from her hand.

Lira’s pupils dilated.

Her nostrils flared slightly.

"The scent," she said.

"It’s different from the others." Her eyes didn’t leave his side.

"Pure."

Slowly. Without looking away.

Kai didn’t answer.

---

[StreamerHunter: "pure. no residual from criminal systems" — Kai’s blood is different because he’s not a criminal]

[Jac_Moore: Lira describing Kai’s blood like a sommelier describing wine.]

[xSorinx: Serah heard that. Her markings pulsed at maximum intensity.]

---

Her arms responded badly and got her onto her knees before she could complete the movement.

The silver markings glowed with an intensity that had nothing warm about it.

"I heard," Kai said, without looking at her. His eyes on Lira.

"Working on it."

Lira lunged.

Not at sixty percent.

Kai processed it in the first exchange.

The impact moved him two meters back.

The third arrived before he could get up.

It cost twice what it normally would.

[NocheEterna99: TWO METERS WITH THE FOREARM BLOCKING]

[StreamerHunter: "from zero to full speed" — went from 30 to 60 and beyond in seconds. LIKE 0 TO 100.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘ KAI HOLDING ON ε=ε=ε=ε=┌(; ̄◇ ̄)┘]

"Your body is interesting," Lira said, between the fourth and fifth exchange. "Most collapse before this point."

Lira stepped back one step. Returned immediately.

"Twelve years." Kai blocked. Dodged. "Why do you ask?"

Kai felt the blow against the wound.

"I know."

---

[GarcíaFTW: while trying to drink his blood. LIRA IS UNIQUE.]

[xSorinx: Serah tried to stand again. Her arms trembled. Still not yet.]

---

’Not as a distraction — genuinely. It’s predator instinct.’

’Half a second isn’t enough for a full counterattack.’

Kai dodged another strike.

’To reposition.’

Lira threw a new combination — three quick strikes, the third targeting the wound on his side.

He took the third on his left arm instead of his side.

But it wasn’t the wound.

’I have an idea.’

---

[NocheEterna99: KAI HAS A PLAN]

[Jac_Moore: he’s not going to say. He never says the plan.]

---

Stone. Solid. The kind that had been holding the weight of the city above for centuries.

’From here, an angle of about forty degrees.’

’With enough exit velocity.’

Serah watched him from the edge.

"Kai."

He launched himself toward the ceiling.

Kai took a running start from the floor — two steps, the second with all the strength of his legs and Qi active from hip to feet — and jumped.

He reached the ceiling in two seconds.

The stone gave way.

Kai went up through the hole.

The Valdris guild had its windows boarded up since Lira arrived the previous night.

The interior was in semi-darkness — the emergency torches Aldric had lit before all the staff went to the shelters, leaving enough light to see but not enough for anyone outside to know if anyone was inside.

With a cup of coffee.

The guild floor exploded upward.

He held it with both hands as the section of floor three meters from his desk fragmented and from the rubble emerged Kai.

"Mr. Aldric," Kai said.

A pause.

---

[NocheEterna99: HE DIDN’T SPILL THE CUP. HELD THE COFFEE WHILE THE FLOOR EXPLODED.]

[Jac_Moore: Fifteen years as guildmaster prepared him for everything. EVERYTHING.]

[Pedro_Sierra: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ALDRIC THE ETERNAL ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]