CHAPTER 50: KAI!!!!

Chapter 89

Renji was down for the count, lying face-first on the ruined floor.

Dust swirled in the air like smoke from a dying fire.

Lucas and Kevin stood on the other side of the room, backs pressed to the cracked wall, their chests heaving with exhaustion.

Their clothes were torn, soaked with sweat and blood.

Their Ki reserves were dangerously low—barely enough to move, let alone fight again.

Gunshots still echoed from the lower levels of the hotel.

Occasionally, a scream cut through the air like a blade, sharp and sudden.

But there was one small mercy—they had gotten the civilians out.

The children, the women, the elders—none of them were in the building.

That had been handled before all hell broke loose.

Lucas stared at the unmoving body across the floor. But then—just barely—he saw it.

A twitch.

Renji’s hand.

It moved.

Lucas’s breath caught in his throat, a cold sense of dread curling through his gut.

’If this guy stands up... we’re dead.’

That thought echoed like thunder in his skull.

It wasn’t a guess.

It was a certainty.

The Ki pulsing from Renji’s body was still strong—too strong.

That monster was nowhere near finished.

And right on cue, Renji pushed himself up, wincing, groaning as if waking from a rough nap.

"Damn... you guys hit me good," he muttered, rotating his shoulders with a bone-popping stretch.

Lucas didn’t respond.

Couldn’t.

’Why? Just tell me why...’ he screamed internally, fighting against the ache in every fiber of his body.

Kevin, hunched with one knee to the ground, was too tired to even curse out loud.

Damn. I need a hot girl after this... and I’m gonna beat the shit out of Jack. I swear on my life. Just please, Kai... get here already.’

He thought about the call he’d received earlier.

Kai was on his way but where the hell was he?

Their men were still fighting below, struggling against the Tiger Gang, whose leader had finally revealed himself.

And here they were barely standing, against a guy they couldn’t seem to put down.

Renji looked at the two of them, shaking his head slowly, like a disappointed teacher.

"You guys should know it’s impossible to defeat me. So why keep standing?"

Lucas raised his head.

He wanted to reply.

He really did.

"Who told you—"

But his words were cut short.

Renji vanished in a blur of speed, Wind Ki swirling around his arm like a mini cyclone.

In the next instant—

BAM!

Lucas’s eyes went wide as Renji’s fist buried itself into his gut.

There was a sickening crunch ribs, probably as he was sent flying across the room.

His body hit the wall like a wrecking ball, cracking the concrete on impact before he crumpled to the ground, unmoving.

Kevin barely had time to register what happened when Renji appeared again, this time behind him.

A sharp kick to the side of his face sent him soaring backward.

Straight toward the window.

He was out cold before he even hit the glass.

"Kevin!!" Lucas shouted, forcing himself to lift his head.

SHATTER.

The window exploded as Kevin’s limp body was thrown through it.

They were four floors up.

Kevin’s body spun uncontrollably as he plummeted toward the street below.

Renji didn’t stop.

He no longer needed to focus on defense he had shifted entirely to offense.

Wind Ki danced like angry spirits around his fists, coating his body with a visible shimmer.

Every movement sent gusts whistling through the room.

The battle had reached its final act, and he intended to finish it.

Lucas didn’t care about strategy anymore.

Pain screamed through every part of his body, but he forced himself up, stumbling toward the shattered window.

He had to save Kevin.

Had to try something.

But Renji was there again.

Faster than before.

A sudden knee slammed into Lucas’s jaw, launching him upward.

His body floated in the air, weightless for a second—and that was all Renji needed.

BAM!

One punch to the ribs.

BAM!

Another to the side of the skull.

Lucas’s body shot sideways like a cannonball, crashing into a broken pillar.

All of it happened in just thirty seconds.

Outside.

Kevin’s eyes fluttered open as his body tumbled through the air.

’Damn it... I didn’t even get that hot girl.’

That was his first thought.

The wind roared in his ears as the ground rushed up to meet him.

His limbs were numb.

He couldn’t summon Ki his body was too broken.

’My Ki’s too low... there’s no way I survive this.’

He felt a strange calm settle over him.

This was it.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Maybe he’d go out dreaming of that girl from earlier—soft smile, short hair, trouble in her eyes.

And maybe Tristan... maybe he was safe.

Kevin could only hope.

He didn’t even know his best friend was fighting for his life, too.

The pavement drew closer.

He closed his eyes.

’This is it.’

But then—

A blur.

A shadow, blue as the ocean, cut through the air like lightning.

Strong arms caught Kevin mid-fall, cradling him like a sack of feathers.

They crashed through the second-floor window.

SHATTER.

His head snapped up, and his eyes widened in disbelief.

There, standing casually with a half-eaten snack held between his lips, was Kai.

"Kai..." Kevin muttered, blinking as if unsure if the sight was real.

Kai took a bite, chewing as he spoke with a mouth half-full. "Sorry I’m late. Needed some food My Ki was running low."

Despite the chaos of battle and the tension still thick in the air, Kevin couldn’t help but laugh under his breath.

"You’re damn late," he said, shaking his head with a tired smirk.

"Now go and save that idiot before he gets himself killed."

Kai’s smirk deepened, the sharp gleam in his blue eyes flashing dangerously as he tossed the last of the snack aside. "Will do," he said, his voice low and resolute.

Then, without another word, he turned to the hallway where gunfire echoed from the far end.

The door stood in his way for only a second then it shattered as he burst through, the frame splintering from the force of his charge.

The air warped around him as he moved, like a blur of shadow and steel.

Tiger Gang members were stationed down the corridor, weapons raised, firing relentlessly toward the stairwell toward Kai’s men.

Bullets ricocheted off the walls and the floor, but Kai didn’t falter.

One man glanced back mid-magazine reload and caught a glimpse of something dark and fast approaching too late.

Kai weaved through the gunfire with eerie grace.

Unlike Elijah, who relied on brute strength and instinct, Kai was a phantom—his Ki sensing sharper, his movement refined to a terrifying elegance.

He twisted around each bullet, not just dodging, but predicting their paths with uncanny precision.

Before the first man could scream, Kai was already upon him.

A flicker of steel.

A gurgle.

A body collapsing.

Another turn, and the second and third Tiger members fell without even processing what had happened—only the cold kiss of Kai’s dagger at their throats.

His own men, having just reached the hallway, raised their weapons in alarm.

But their fingers froze on the triggers as recognition set in.

""

It wasn’t just that Kai had killed three men in a heartbeat it was the look on his face, that calm intensity, that predatory confidence.

The Vice Leader was here.

The tide had turned.

Kai didn’t stop to acknowledge them.

He pushed forward, ascending the stairs in a blur.

On the third floor, more Tiger Gang members waited in ambush—but they never stood a chance.

Like leaves before a blade of wind, they fell one after another, their eyes wide with confusion in their final moments.

Then he saw it.

The gang leader of the Tiger crew—a brute with a jagged scar running down his cheek—was standing over one of Kai’s men, A sword raised, ready to deliver a killing blow.

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

A shadow twitched on the floor behind the man—a perfect outline cast by the flickering ceiling light.

In one swift movement, Kai stepped onto the shadow.

His body shimmered, dark purple Ki coating his form like an ethereal veil.

The light bent around him.

He was gone.

Then—he was behind the leader.

No sound.

No warning.

Just a flash of steel—and a clean cut.

The Tiger Gang leader’s eyes widened as his head slid from his shoulders, his body slumping to the ground in eerie silence.

Kai stood still for a moment, dagger dripping, eyes unblinking.

The dark purple aura around him faded slightly, but it was still there—still hungry.

This was his new power: the Shadow Element.

And it made him nearly untouchable.

He turned his attention upward.

Lucas.

Kai could feel it—his Ki signature, flickering, weakening.

Like a dying flame in a storm.

He sprinted toward the stairs, then halted.

He clenched both daggers, raising them before him.

The Shadow Ki surged again, coating the twin blades in writhing purple-black energy.

With a swift slash in an X formation, two massive arcs of Ki blasted from his blades—a twin crescent of darkness, shaped like two moons crossing mid-flight.

The Cross Dark Moon arcs roared upward, carving through the ceiling like paper.

Dust and debris exploded into the air as the floor above cracked open, revealing the fourth floor: a single, wide room that once belonged to a now-vanquished drug gang.

The twin arcs crashed through, punching a jagged wound through concrete and steel, sending fragments flying in every direction.

Above.

Renji, eyes locked on Lucas’s battered form, was moments away from delivering the killing strike.

His hand was coated in churning winds, sharp enough to flay flesh from bone.

The look in his eyes was cold, methodical—he had no intention of leaving survivors.

Then—his instincts screamed.

Something... no, someone... was coming.

He jumped back just in time, channeling the last of his Ki into his arm, which he thrust outward in a desperate defense.

His hand clashed against the incoming attack just as it arrived.

The twin arcs of darkness struck.

BOOOM.

An explosion of purple-black energy lit the entire floor as the walls trembled from the shockwave.

Dust swallowed the room.

The air became thick with pressure and noise.

The floor cracked.

Wind howled from Renji’s Ki as it clashed with Kai’s Shadow slash, creating a cyclone of colliding energies.