The Feeling Is Here!

After the gunfire briefly stopped, Shiraki Uke felt no relief. Instead, he was seized by intense dread.

He looked closely and saw a dagger flying toward him, thrown with all its wielder's strength.

Smack!

Shiraki Uke struck diagonally with the edge of his hand, knocking the dagger down.

But what appeared before his eyes immediately afterward were the soles of two enormous feet.

Lodem sprinted forward, then leaped into a flying kick with both feet!

Boom!

Shiraki Uke had no time to block. Lodem's feet struck him square in the face, and the combined force of his momentum and monstrous strength sent him flying backward.

Whoosh—crash!

The blow sent Shiraki Uke straight into a window. The glass shattered instantly, and he flew through the opening and fell from the building.

Chapter 32: The Feeling Is Here!

"Not bad, not bad! What a beautiful flying kick, Lodem!"

Q Dalang couldn't help clapping and laughing, praising him again and again.

Beside him, Yagyou narrowed his eyes slightly and thought, So that's how it is?

Lodem's "nature" was different.

He was neither a martial artist who founded his own school nor a fighter from the underground world. He was a battlefield killer who, under Q Dalang's orders, wanted only to kill.

Against an opponent who "only wanted to kill," merely "wanting to win" was nowhere near enough.

It was precisely this misjudgment that had put Shiraki Uke in such a situation!

Perhaps he really could have put up a fight against Lodem if they were unarmed, but the "battlefield" would give Shiraki Uke no chance to find out.

This was a fight to the death. If bare hands couldn't make up the difference against weapons, then a knife had to be used, and a gun had to be fired!

Huff—huff!

The window was shattered and empty, with the cold night wind blowing in from outside.

Facing the window, Lodem panted out hot breaths as he waited for Q Dalang's next order.

"Three more people after this... right?"

Q Dalang chuckled slyly, then abruptly changed tack. "I'm not going to get carried away. Lodem, approach the window slowly!"

His words made Yagyou think a little more highly of Q Dalang.

As expected of a former mercenary, Q Dalang's hunting style was remarkably cautious. He had to see his "prey's" corpse with his own eyes.

"Heh heh, there are three possibilities now—"

Q Dalang patiently explained, "First, Shiraki Uke has fallen from the sixth floor and smashed into the ground;"

"Second, he's outside the window, lying in wait to ambush us;"

"Third, he's badly injured and hanging outside the window, struggling to hold on..."

"As for falling from the building—the bet was that you'd 'step out' of this building alive. Even if you're only half dead from the fall, it doesn't matter. That can't be considered your victory!"

"Hahaha!"

Q Dalang clapped and laughed. "Lodem, approach carefully. We father and son are invincible!"

"..."

Lodem picked up the dagger from the floor and walked forward slowly.

As he walked into the cold night wind, each of Lodem's steps was firm. His eyes darted about behind his mask, fully focused on guarding against anything by the window.

Just as Lodem reached the window and was about to stick his head out to look, suddenly—

Whoosh!

Lodem kicked hard off the windowsill and leaped backward, taking cover in the shadows inside the building.

"...?!"

He turned to look and saw a gunshot wound on his arm. But because he had dodged in time, the bullet had only grazed his upper arm, taking off a small piece of flesh.

Lodem shook his arm and stammered, "Huff... hurts, but I'm okay..."

"Very good, Lodem! Nice dodge!"

Q Dalang showered him with encouragement over the Transceiver, but his expression grew increasingly grim.

"Tsk, the hunt was so entertaining that I actually forgot about that 'supporter'!"

On a tall building somewhere to the southwest, Shiraki Uke's supporter—the sniper from the Kure Clan—was outside, keeping the entire Ninefold Tower in her sights.

And the direction Shiraki Uke had fallen was precisely southwest!

"What a nuisance. With a sniper rifle watching from outside, Lodem can't see out there either..."

"Back away quietly, Lodem."

Q Dalang directed him. "The sniper outside can't see you. Don't reveal your whereabouts, and we'll still have the initiative..."

At the same time, atop the building to the southwest.

"..."

The smile had vanished from Kure Fusui's face. Veins bulged around her eyes as she unleashed herself to her maximum limit, her white pupils set against black sclerae fixed on the sniper scope.

"He can even sense the killing intent from a long-range sniper? He's a monster through and through..."

"Bai Mu, dear? How are you? Are you still conscious?"

Kure Fusui lowered her scope slightly.

Outside the shattered window, Shiraki Uke clung to the building's outer wall, both hands reaching out and all ten fingers gripping the window's outer edge, his body suspended in midair.

He was facing inward, so his face couldn't be seen, but he was most likely bleeding. Drops of bright red fell from the air.

Q Dalang's guess was undoubtedly correct.

The flying kick had struck Shiraki Uke square in the face and broken the bridge of his nose. He had tumbled out the window, his brain shaking back and forth inside his skull, nearly knocking him unconscious. He could only hang on to the outer wall and struggle to hold on.

"I'm... okay. Not bad..."

Shiraki Uke clenched his teeth as blood flowed unstoppably from his nose and the corners of his mouth—whether from the beating or the aftereffects of his consciousness running wild, he couldn't tell.

"I drove that monster away from the window. He's not nearby now."

Kure Fusui contacted Shiraki Uke and said seriously, "But I can't rule out the possibility that the monster is watching from somewhere close by. There are blind spots from my position, so I can't see the whole interior."

"Mm..."

Shiraki Uke answered softly, feeling an indescribable nausea, probably caused by his brain shaking inside his skull.

Wave after wave of dizziness washed over him, nearly making him let go.

But "falling from the building" was not a good choice. Leaving aside whether he could land unharmed, though he could argue over the outcome of the bet, Shiraki Uke had come tonight to "win," not to "run."

A clever little trick wouldn't work. He had to win!

In his daze, Shiraki Uke seemed to see an apparition of Zangief leaning out of the window, clapping vigorously for him.

Compared with Ryu's quiet, subtle guidance, Zangief's teaching style was noticeably more enthusiastic.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

With each clap of encouragement, Shiraki Uke's brain finally stopped shaking and began working at a furious pace, his thoughts racing beyond their limits.

The feeling—it was here!

Scene after scene from his fight with Lodem accumulated and settled in Shiraki Uke's mind, ultimately producing a kind of "qualitative change"—feeding back into his brain and body.

Whoosh!

Shiraki Uke pushed himself up from the windowsill with both arms and flipped back into the building.

Kure Fusui was a little worried. "Bai Mu, dear, how do you feel?"

"Not bad..."

Shiraki Uke rolled his neck and shoulders. His earlier fatigue had vanished completely, and the excitement in his mind had dispersed the intense pain in his face.

But breathing was uncomfortable—

Shiraki Uke felt his nose and found that the bridge had been kicked crooked, making it difficult for him to breathe.

"..."

He looked up and saw Lodem standing not far ahead, right in Kure Fusui's sniping blind spot. He had evidently been waiting there for some time.

"Not bad. Fantastic!"

Shiraki Uke spoke again.

He pinched his nose and gave it a hard twist. With a crack, he forcibly snapped his crooked nose straight!

Then he blocked one nostril at a time and blew hard, clearing the blood clots from his nasal passages. He immediately felt relieved.

Shiraki Uke looked up at Lodem and gently tapped his own head.

"—But I still need to think it over a little longer before I can get used to Zangief's feeling."

"..."

While he went through this series of actions, Lodem remained motionless.