Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 78: Clash of Titans (1)

The wind across the field died, leaving a silence so profound it seemed to press on Leon’s eardrum. His side throbbed with an insistent pain, a steady leak of warm liquid soaking through his black shirt.

Before him, the five figures stood as a curated execution squad.

Tiger cracked his knuckles with a series of pops that echoed like gunshots. Jade stood motionless beside him, his expression one of detached superiority.

Vera danced on her toes a few paces away, a cruel smile playing on her lips as dark, void-like energy whispered around her fingertips.

And on Zoe, Leon’s breath hitched. Her silver-grey eyes met his for a fraction of a second, then flickered away, giving her the look of a stranger.

The fifth figure, the B-ranked female proctor, didn’t bother with a stance. She simply watched, her arms crossed, her gaze cold, almost as if Leon were a specimen about to be dissected.

"Leon, Leon, Leon," Vera singsonged, her voice slicing through the heavy, silent air. She took a few skipping steps forward, her arms unfolding to a splendid gesture at the carnage around them.

"Guess your little winning streak is over. We’re here for you, just like I promised. Remember?" A dark, shimmering void like a tear in reality rippled into existence behind her. "Haha!"

Leon’s mind scrambled, his grip tightening on the blue-flamed sword. Its hilt hummed with a sickly heartbeat. He forced his breathing to slow and held the sword awkwardly in his left hand. ’I don’t hit ladies. How do I even...? Think, think!’

He focused on Vera. But as Vera’s playful stance coiled into something deadly, a shift occurred to her left.

A radiant pink light erupted around Zoe. Without a word, and without a glance at the others, she blurred into motion.

She moved at a terrifying speed. A streaking comet of pink energy closed the distance to Leon even faster than Vera’s malicious advance.

Leon’s eyes bulged. ’She’s... attacking me? No.’

CRASH!

A concussive bang of colliding energies shook the ground. A dome of brilliant pink light flared to life directly in front of Leon, intercepting a spear of condensed black energy that Vera had launched.

The impact sent shockwaves through the air, forcing Leon to cross his arms over his face while closing his eyes, the blue sword held out defensively.

The world dissolved into a blinding light and deafening noise. ’Am I dead?’ he thought as the loud ringing in his ears subsided to a high-pitched whine.

Leon cracked his eyes open, saw himself not dead, but instead inside a shimmering, translucent pink dome.

And in front of him, her back to him, arms outstretched and trembling with strain, was Zoe.

"Zoe?" Leon said in disbelief.

Zoe turned her head slightly, her palms sharp against the glowing shield. A faint, strained smile touched her lips, then vanished. "I had to join," she gritted, forcing the words to echo between clenched teeth.

The veins in her neck stood out like cords. "To save you."

’Save me?’ Leon’s brain stuttered. "Why?"

Before she could answer, Vera’s furious shriek pierced the air. "TRAITOR!" More bolts of void energy slammed into the pink shield, making it flicker and sending cascades of sparking pink dust into the air like dying fireflies.

Zoe turned her full attention back to the barrier, gripped her right wrist with her left hand as if to steady it.

She took one trembling step forward. "I make a promise!" she shouted over the din in a strained voice. "To your father! To help you... to give you what he kept secret!"

Leon’s heart stopped. Outside the pink dome, all the expressions receded.

"Enough of your pathetic love affair!" Vera roared. She ceased her barrage, whirled around, and then shot vertically into the air with a burst of dark power.

She hung for a moment, then descended like a meteor, a wheel of crackling black and white lightning forming around her.

Zoe’s eyes widened. She pushed more energy into the shield, the pink light blazing incandescent. "LEON, GET READY!"

The descending wheel of lightning struck the dome’s top. A sound like a silent, vacuum-like pop, then a thunderous KABOOM as the pink energy shield disintegrated into a million glittering, harmless motes.

The force threw Zoe backward. She skidded across the torn earth, one knee hitting the ground hard, her arms flung out to catch her balance.

Vera landed in the newly formed, smoldering crater, laughing in a manic tone. "Now you die with him!"

As Vera lunged from the crater toward the stumbling Zoe, Leon’s instincts overrode his shock. His gaze snapped to Jade and Tiger.

’Fight them!’ He gripped the blue-flamed sword tighter, its hum vibrating up his arm. He ignored the burning pain in his side and charged on an intercepting path toward Jade and Tiger.

As he neared, a faint, imperceptible sigh escaped from Jade as his eyes focused on Leon. He tapped Tiger once on the shoulder. "He’s yours."

With that, he turned and walked calmly toward the B-ranked proctor.

Tiger’s smile widened into something genuinely joyful. "Finally," he breathed.

Leon closed the last few feet and swung the blue-flamed sword in a blazing arc aimed at Tiger’s neck, putting all his weight and desperation behind it.

Tiger simply closed his eyes and inhaled, as if smelling a delightful flavor. The sword froze in mid-air, just an inch from his skin.

He cracked one eye open, looked at the hovering blade, and chuckled. He raised his right hand casually and flicked his index finger against the flat surface of the sword.

TING.

A spiderweb of cracks erupted from the point of contact and raced across the entire blade.

Then the sword disintegrated, vaporizing into a cloud of ultra-fine, superheated metallic dust that blasted backward. It pelted Leon’s face, hands, and chest with a million searing pinholes.

Leon cried out, stumbling back and swiping at his stinging eyes.

"Do you know," Tiger said in a low, pleasant voice as he began to slowly circle the disoriented Leon, "how much my reputation was damaged when you survived our first fight?"

He leaned in close as he passed behind Leon. "How that single moment of you standing after I hit you made people doubt?"

He completed his circle and faced Leon. "I’ve been dreaming of this. This very moment. This very day."

Then Tiger’s right hand shot out and planted itself squarely on Leon’s chest.

Air exploded from Leon’s lungs in a silent scream. The impact lifted him off his feet and threw him backward as if launched from a cannon. He skidded and stumbled across ten meters of bloody earth before coming to a crumpled stop.

Fresh, hot blood erupted from his mouth and the wound on his side, painting the dirt beneath him. ’Fight them. Fight them. FIGHT THEM.’ The phantom command roared in his skull, louder than the pain, cutting through the dizziness.

Leon gasped, spat blood, and shoved himself up onto his elbows. His vision swam, but he locked onto Tiger, who was now walking toward him with a slow, measured pace.

"Is that all you’ve got, Rat?" Tiger teased and placed his right hand behind his back. He took two deliberate steps to the side, then in a fast motion, his left hand shot out and slammed palm-first onto the top of Leon’s head.

THWACK.

The world turned white, then black. Leon’s body was driven straight down into the earth as if struck by a giant’s hammer.

The ground cratered beneath him; the impact was so severe that he felt stone and compact underneath his back. Dust plumed into the air.

He lay in the shallow pit, unable to move, every breath a ragged, wet agony through his lungs. Tiger knelt at the crater’s edge, reached down, and grabbed a fistful of Leon’s sweat, blood, and dust-matted hair.

He hauled him up until Leon’s limp form was half-standing, supported only by that vicious grip.

"Look at this," Tiger laughed, shaking Leon’s head slightly. "See your little face. All broken." He loosened his grip, letting Leon’s head loll.

"This reminds me of someone. Who was it...?" He pretended to think, then snapped his fingers. "Your sister. What’s her name?"

Leon’s frayed senses sharpened into a single, white-hot point in his gut. His blurred vision cleared in an instant, focusing on Tiger’s grinning mouth.

’Fight them, not with anger, but with a cleansed heart and a calm mind.’ The command reechoed.

’He’ll use your own weakness against him. Don’t give him a chance.’ Mr. Lee’s voice looped in his mind.

’Give the world what they deserve!’ a voice full of vapor boomed in his skull.

"Lily, right?" Tiger continued in a voice filled with faux sympathy. "Cute name. When I’m done here, I think I’ll visit her. And your blind mother—the snake, wasn’t it? I’ll make sure they have a proper reunion with you. In hell."