CHAPTER 200: A LITTLE WAKE-UP CALL [3]

The virtual training field stretched out in all directions. An endless plain of dull gray under a cloudless, artificial sky.

The light was bright and clean, like someone had scrubbed away all imperfections until only this sterile imitation remained.

Kyle stood at its center, still as a statue. His tachi—black as a starless night—rested against his shoulder.

Reo groaned, pushing himself up from the crater his body had left in the ground.

His face ached where Kyle’s fist had landed. The phantom sting lingering even after the simulation’s safety protocols had erased the damage.

He spat to the side, tasting metallic of blood, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His lip was split. Just a little, just enough to remind him how badly he had been outplayed.

"Damn it," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. His grip tightened around his spear, knuckles turning white.

The frustration wasn’t from the hit. It was from how easy it had been. One second. Kyle was across the field. The next, his fist was already there.

Luna wasn’t doing much better. She rolled onto her knees. One hand pressed against her stomach like she was holding herself together.

Her shortswords lay beside her. The frost coating their blades already dissolving into nothing. She’d blocked. But it hadn’t mattered.

Kyle watched them. His blue eyes glowing faintly in the artificial light. His expression gave nothing away.

"Get up," he said, voice flat. "We don’t have all day."

Reo’s jaw clenched. "The hell was that? You moved faster than—"

"Than a Bronze-rank should?" Kyle tilted his head slightly, just enough to make it feel like he was looking down at them.

"I am Bronze-rank right now. The simulation’s enforcing it. Same stats. Same limits."

He tapped his temple with one finger. "Stats don’t mean shit if you don’t know how to use them."

Luna forced herself to stand, fingers curling around her swords again. "You’re saying we’re weak."

Kyle didn’t blink.

"I’m saying you’re not strong enough."

The words hung in the air, sharp and final. A moment of stillness.

Then.

Reo struck.

His spear flashed forward. A streak of silver wrapped in howling wind, aimed straight for Kyle’s throat.

Kyle didn’t flinch. He tilted his head, just slightly. And the blade passed by, slicing nothing but empty air.

His free hand shot up. Fingers crackling with jagged arcs of blue-white lightning, with tiny black sparks. He caught the spear mid-thrust.

Reo’s breath hitched.

Then Kyle pulled.

The sudden force wrenched Reo forward, throwing him off balance.

Before he could recover. Kyle’s knee drove into his ribs.

Crack.

Reo gasped. The air punched from his lungs, but Kyle wasn’t done.

A flick of his wrist, and the hilt of Zalrielle smashed into Reo’s temple. His body crumpled, hitting the ground in a motionless heap.

Luna didn’t wait.

While Reo had attacked. She had been weaving her spell.

Now, the air behind her shimmered as dozens of jagged ice spears materialized. Their edges glinting like broken glass. A sharp gesture sent them flying toward Kyle’s back in a deadly rain.

Kyle didn’t turn.

His tachi moved in a blur of black, intercepting each projectile before they could touch him. Ice met steel, shattering into harmless mist.

Luna’s fingers twitched, already summoning another spell.

But then Kyle vanished.

Her eyes darted left, then right.

"Where—"

BZZZZ!

A crackle of electricity.

She looked up.

Kyle dropped from above. His leg wreathed in writhing blue-white lightning. A dropkick aimed straight for her skull.

Luna barely threw herself back in time. His foot slammed into the ground where she’d been standing. The impact cratered the virtual earth. Dust and debris erupted in a shockwave, forcing her to shield her face.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" she shouted.

Kyle’s reply was calm, detached. "You won’t die here."

Another BZZZT of electricity.

He reappeared behind her before she could react.

His palm pressed against her back—

Then lightning erupted.

The force blasted her forward, sending her body skidding across the dirt until she finally came to a stop, limp and unmoving.

Reo was already attacking again.

The air hummed as he blurred behind Kyle. His spear tip glinting as it aimed for the blind spot between his shoulder blades.

Kyle didn’t turn. Didn’t flinch. His tachi angled backward with eerie precision, steel meeting steel as he deflected the thrust without even looking.

Kyle’s foot snapped backward in a whip-fast kick.

Reo barely raised his spear in time. The shaft trembled against the impact. The force rattling his bones. Before he could recover. The ground beneath him erupted.

Crunch.

Dozens of ice spikes burst upward. Razor-sharp, mercilessly piercing through flesh from every angle.

Blood sprayed.

Reo’s breath choked in his throat as pain lanced through him. His body jerking like a puppet with its strings cut. His vision blurred. Then, darkness.

He collapsed.

Less than a minute had passed. Both of them were down again.

The simulation flickered. The blood vanished. Wounds sealed themselves as if they had never existed.

Kyle lowered his tachi.

"Again," he said, voice flat. "Same time."

Reo pushed himself up slowly. His hands trembled. His lungs burned, even though his body was unharmed.

The phantom pain of those ice spikes still lingered, like ghosts digging into his skin.

He glanced at Luna. She was staring at her hands, fingers flexing like she didn’t recognize them.

"What the hell happened?" Reo muttered. "We have fought him dozens of times. It was never like this."

Luna’s fists clenched. "He’s different now," she said softly. "After the Black Gate... something changed."

Across the field. Kyle watched them. His face gave nothing away. Zalrielle rested against his shoulder. The blade humming faintly, like a beast waiting to strike.

"Stop talking," he called. "Start fighting."

Reo gritted his teeth. His spear rose again, grip tightening until his knuckles turned white. Luna exhaled sharply, twin swords materializing in her hands, frost creeping along the blades.

A silent understanding passed between them.

This time. They moved together.

Reo lunged low, spear whirling in a dizzying pattern, feinting left before twisting his body into a brutal thrust. Straight for Kyle’s heart.

At the same instant. Luna circled wide, footsteps silent as shadow. Her swords flashed, unleashing a wave of freezing magic. The air turned sharp, jagged ice shooting up from the ground, encasing Kyle’s legs in a prison of frost.

For a heartbeat, everything was still.

Then...

Kyle moved.

One moment he was there. The next he had simply stepped between the attacks. His body moved like blur.

Reo’s spear thrust found only air as Kyle twisted past it. His tachi flashing upward to deflect Luna’s follow-up slash.

Before either could react. Kyle pivoted and drove an elbow into Reo’s solar plexus, following up with a lightning-wrapped fist to his jaw that sent him spinning to the ground.

Luna tried to retreat. But Kyle was already inside her guard. His hand clamping around her wrist like a vice. Yanking her forward as his forehead smashed into her nose.

Crunch.

She staggered back her vision swiming just in time to see Kyle’s spinning kick connect with her ribs.

They hit the ground together. The simulation resetting their injuries almost immediately.

Kyle stood over them. His tachi still resting on his shoulder like he hadn’t just dismantled them again with effortless precision.

"Your teamwork is predictable," he said bluntly.

"You telegraph your moves three steps in advance. Your spells take too long to cast. You rely on the same patterns every time."

Reo pushed himself up slowly. His pride stinging worse than any virtual injury. "Then show us how it’s done, damn it!"

Kyle’s eyes narrowed slightly.

For the first time. Something flickered in their blue depths of his eyes. Something that might have been satisfaction.

"Finally," he murmured. "Some fire."

He lowered his tachi into a ready stance.

"Watch closely. You won’t get this demonstration twice."

What followed was a masterclass in combat efficiency. Kyle moved with a precision that made their previous exchanges look like child’s play.

Every motion served multiple purposes. A deflection that positioned an opponent for the next strike. A dodge that put him in perfect counter position. Attacks that flowed together like water.

He wasn’t faster. Wasn’t stronger.

Just... better.

Every movement calculated to maximum effect. No energy wasted. No openings given.

After what felt like hours but was likely only minutes. Kyle stepped back.

Reo and Luna lay on the ground once more. Breathing hard despite the simulation’s lack of true exhaustion.

"Again," Kyle said, and this time there was the faintest edge of something resembling approval in his voice.

"But this time, think."

Reo wiped sweat from his brow and nodded slowly. Luna took a deep breath and adjusted her grip on her swords. They shared another look. This one different from before.

Something had clicked. Something had changed.

As they prepared to attack again. The air between them hummed with new understanding. The lesson was far from over. But for the first time since they’d entered this virtual battlefield. They felt like they might actually be learning something.

Kyle watched them ready themselves, his eyes unreadable. Zalrielle pulsed faintly in his grip, the blade humming with anticipation.

The next round was about to begin.

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