Terrifying Strength

On the other side, thanks to the continuous attacks from Albert and the constant harassment from the group of people below chasing and cursing, the situation had shifted.

Taking advantage of this moment, Ryuen Kakeru had already arrived at an excellent, hidden vantage point.

Looking at the man in the tree who was still busy admiring himself, Ryuen Kakeru's eyes turned fierce. He didn't want to give his target even the slightest chance to escape. He cocked the tranquilizer gun in his hand, the black barrel protruding through the grass, aiming directly at the man's head.

"Heh, Koenji, no matter how tough your physique is or how agile your movements are, if I hit you there, even an elephant would have to go down."

"Die!"

"Bang!"

The gunshot was deafening; its power was so great that even pedestrians on the other side of the street could hear it clearly.

Because it was a specialized tranquilizer gun used by the school Security Department to prevent unexpected violent incidents, while it was ostensibly for sedation, its penetrating power was no weaker than that of a standard firearm.

As the white smoke dissipated, Ryuen Kakeru immediately looked toward the target area, unable to wait. Although he had aimed as carefully as possible, he was always extremely cautious and would never feel at ease until he saw the body.

"Hmm? Where did he go?" Ryuen Kakeru stared for a while, unable to hide his confusion.

There was no sign of Koenji in the tree, and there was no news of victory coming from his subordinates below.

For some reason, at that moment, he suddenly felt the surroundings become deathly quiet, as if the entire world had fallen into silence after the gunshot.

"Hey, where are you guys? Say something to me!" Ryuen Kakeru tried shouting loudly.

"..." However, after waiting for a while, he could no longer hear a single sound from his subordinates.

Instead, the surrounding darkness only made that terrifying, heavy silence weigh more and more upon his heart.

"Something's wrong!" Ryuen Kakeru immediately sensed a faint, lingering feeling of danger.

"Whoosh~" A cold wind blew past.

As he stepped back, carefully observing his surroundings, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a glint of light. Looking closer, he discovered a small shard of a mirror stuck to a large tree just a few steps in front of him.

"Hmm~ How did this get here..."

"Boom!"

Before he could finish his sentence, a black shadow with flowing blonde hair suddenly struck from the darkness with a heavy, violent punch. It was so fast that it was invisible to the naked eye; before his senses could even register a hint of movement, the overwhelming force had already landed.

Caught completely off guard, Ryuen Kakeru's tall body was sent flying backward.

"Pfft~"

Because the blow was aimed at his chest, the visible indentation caused him to spray a splash of blood from his mouth.

"Who... who is it? What just happened? Tell me, tell me, damn it, cough, cough~"

Lying on the ground, Ryuen Kakeru clutched his chest, his eyes wide open, unable to believe what had just occurred.

The impact felt as if he had been hit head-on by a small car; if not for the intense, searing pain radiating from his chest, he would have assumed he was dreaming.

"Could it have been Koenji..." Ryuen Kakeru muttered to himself in a daze.

"No... impossible, absolutely impossible!"

The more he thought about it, the more he denied it. How could human strength be so absurd? That speed and power completely defied common sense.

Just as he was lost in confusion, a black shadow with glowing golden eyes walked out of the darkness on the other side, heading toward Ryuen Kakeru with an expressionless face.

But after taking only a few steps, a sudden, unnatural gust of cold wind blew by, and the figure abruptly stopped.

"Heh heh, Koenji~ you can stop now."

The cold, chilling voice seemed to come from all directions at once.

The blonde-haired man seemed to sense something and whipped his head around. When he saw who it was, his face was filled with astonishment.

"Rinya?" Koenji's eyes narrowed, his expression one of pure disbelief.

It wasn't that he was surprised by the person's presence; what made his heart skip a beat was that in a place covered in gravel and weeds, this person had managed to walk up behind him without making a single sound...

This guy is not simple.

That was the first thought that crossed Koenji's mind.

Even so, the moment he realized someone had intended to kill him tonight—a matter that completely crossed his bottom line—he knew he would not let the other party off easily, no matter what.

Staring at Rinya, Koenji revealed a grave expression for the first time since enrolling: "Rinya, could you please step aside? I cannot forgive that guy's ugly behavior."

"Wait a moment, Koenji~ you don't seem to have heard what I said clearly."

Rinya's eyes gradually widened, and the heart-stopping pressure instantly made the surrounding atmosphere even more eerie and terrifying.

The boy's previously calm expression shifted into something playful: "I told you to stop, but I didn't give you the right to refuse~"

"Hmm~ do you need me to repeat it?"

Hearing this, Koenji, who had never heard such arrogant words, couldn't help but laugh: "Rinya, while you do give me a very unusual feeling, such excessive arrogance is not very beautiful at all~"

"What, are you interested?" Rinya asked calmly, seemingly indifferent to the anger on the other man's face.

Listening to the provocative words, Koenji might not have cared, but when combined with the act that had crossed his bottom line, this battle was inevitable.

"Since you've said as much, then let this beautiful restraint be broken by you!"

"Is that so? Then as you wish~"

"Whoosh~"

As the words faded, the two figures vanished into the black of night. Moments later, a violent gale suddenly erupted, and the ground began to tremble irregularly.

In the endless darkness, a flash of blood-red light and a streak of golden light, moving so fast they were barely perceptible to the naked eye, began to clash violently.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The thunderous sounds, like steel striking steel, served as a testament to the most powerful display of hand-to-hand combat between the two.

Broken branches and shattered stones were sent flying into the air like rain. Under the pressure of their terrifying aura, the scene—reminiscent of a sci-fi film—played out with an eerie sense of reality.

With every limit-pushing collision, their techniques grew increasingly ferocious.

Yet, human strength is ultimately finite... Faced with that seemingly infinite, ever-climbing power, even he, with his superhuman physique, could not withstand a true strike from that force.

Just as Kushida and Ibuki watched on in growing anxiety, a spray of crystalline blood erupted from the golden light after only a few minutes.

At that moment, the outcome seemed all but decided.

Yet, the trembling golden light in the darkness refused to give up. Even as his speed slowed to the point where Kushida and the others could clearly track his every movement, he still attempted to counterattack.

"Things that cross my bottom line, I absolutely, absolutely..."

"Pfft~"

Bathed in the blood-red light, the battle seemed to drag on...

Perhaps he truly possessed hidden potential, or perhaps that youth simply wanted to play a little longer~ no one could say for sure...

But one thing was certain: the person most miserably affected by this great battle was definitely not just Koenji himself. Perhaps there was another man, even more wretched and suffering through torture, though no one knew it.

At this moment, Ryuen Kakeru, lying on the ground with severe injuries, was utterly bewildered.

The ear he had pressed against the ground had initially felt a violent tremor emanating from the earth.

He had originally thought it was the approach of his attacker. At first, it did indeed seem that way, but for some reason, as he continued to listen, the vibrations evolved into the intense sounds of two people fighting.

Yet, the sheer absurdity of those tremors made no sense to him, no matter how he looked at it...

"?"

"Damn it, what the hell is going on? Cough, cough~"

Ryuen patted his aching head, which had been rattled by the tremors. Lying on the ground, he turned the matter over in his mind but arrived at no conclusion.

If he had harbored a subconscious suspicion toward Koenji before—even if he didn't want to believe it—the current situation left him completely baffled, his mind spinning in every direction.

Setting aside the fact that the guy who ambushed him hadn't followed logic by not showing up for so long, could those absurd vibrations really be caused by a fight?

Ryuen Kakeru, a man of profound intellect, had never imagined in his life that he would encounter such a bizarre situation.

"BOOM!!!"

Just then, a heaven-shaking roar, like an earthquake, suddenly erupted into the sky.

Ryuen Kakeru, already severely wounded on the ground, couldn't withstand it and passed out on the spot...

In his dream, Ryuen Kakeru was finally certain he was dreaming~

Unfortunately, this state didn't last long. Only a few minutes later, another massive explosion tore through the air.

Ryuen Kakeru, who had only just entered his dream, was instantly and groggily jolted awake~

Yet, before he could even regain his senses, another deafening boom echoed out...

And so it went, he didn't know how many times.

Until Ryuen Kakeru clutched his chest, his mind so numb he could only struggle to roar: "Ugh... someone... someone tell me what the hell is going on..."

However, this time, the ground suddenly and inexplicably fell into silence.

Just as he worried about the next massive tremor, the continuous vibrations of the ground suddenly and eerily shifted into the sound of light footsteps, gradually approaching his position.

Hearing this, Ryuen Kakeru finally forced himself to stay awake. He realized the person who had ambushed him had finally arrived.

Though he couldn't fathom what those massive tremors were about, he was determined to see exactly who possessed the inhuman strength that had caused them.

He gritted his teeth, trying to rise to look, but that previous punch had been too heavy—so heavy that even his body, which he considered superior to the average person's, couldn't manage to get up.

As the footsteps drew closer and finally stopped nearby, Ryuen Kakeru couldn't catch a glimpse of the person. After waiting a moment, he could feel the person standing right beside him, but lying down as he was, he couldn't see the stranger's face at all.

The feeling was maddening, like ants crawling all over his body. In his desperate struggle to rise, he even forgot the pain for a moment.

"Ugh, ah!"

"Bastard!"

"You hit me, so why don't you have the guts to stand out?"

"Are you gutless, you trash... you piece of garbage!"

Ryuen Kakeru had never feared death; he only feared that the truth he sought was right beside him, yet he was completely powerless to reach it.

He had intended to use his insults to bait the person into attacking him again; if he could just see the face of his attacker, he would die content.

However, reality always seemed to work against him.

Just then, Ryuen Kakeru suddenly felt a chill above his head. Although it felt like a gust of wind, it was clearly the force generated by someone swinging their hand, and it was already right above him.

"Hehe, are you trying to finish yourself off right here~"

"How truly heartless."

Ryuen Kakeru laughed numbly. He could already sense that the person simply wanted to kill him and didn't want him to see anything unnecessary.

But was that really the case this time...

Just as he closed his eyes to await death, he suddenly felt his vision wrapped in a roll of white gauze.

Sensing something was wrong, he immediately opened his eyes. However, the moment he looked, his pupils dilated to their limit, but he didn't see the mysterious powerhouse he had imagined. Instead, he saw the face of an extremely gentle and sweet girl.

"Ryuen-kun, you're so badly hurt, you need to be a good boy and rest."

"Mmph mmph mmph!"

Ryuen Kakeru wanted to speak, but he didn't know when his mouth had been completely wrapped in gauze. The doctors from the Emergency Department had already arrived at the first opportunity and lifted him onto a stretcher.

In a daze, even as he was carried far away, his gaze remained locked onto the figure of Kushida Kikyo, his face filled with disbelief.

However, when the corner of his eye caught sight of a blonde man with torn, bloody skin being rushed into an ambulance even more urgently than him, at that moment, he... was completely stunned.

"Hello, is this Sakagami-sensei from Class C? This is Kushida Kikyo from Class D."

"Oh, is something the matter so late at night?"

"It's like this. Tonight, near a residential area northwest of the school, there was a localized earthquake. About a dozen people from your Class C were present and injured. If you have time, could you please come and take a look, Sakagami-sensei?"

"What~ Okay... alright."

"Thank you for the reminder, I'll be there immediately."

"Beep..."

Looking at the hung-up phone, the girl who had just been sweet and cute suddenly looked worried and dejected.

"Master~ I'm sorry, I didn't do a good job with this operation."

"Me too~" Ibuki Mio, standing beside her, also lowered her head in self-reproach.

Seeing this, the young man before them couldn't help but stretch comfortably, then smiled faintly: "Hehe, who says that... you both did very well in this operation."

"On the contrary, it was me who didn't control my strength well, and even made you fabricate a lie to clean things up properly. It was really a bother."

"No... not at all, that's what we should have done."

Flattered, the two girls hurriedly explained. If it were before, they would certainly have been very happy.

But in the current situation, such slightly distant words actually made them feel as if they had been secretly rejected.

"Then... will Master discard us in the future~" Kushida and Ibuki Mio bit their lips, asking with some trembling in their voices.

After all, they already deeply believed in their master, and after seeing the inhuman, terrifying strength Rinya displayed tonight, even if the two girls were foolish, they should understand who they needed to rely on for the future they pinned their hopes on.

"Hey~ the answer, didn't I already tell you?" Rinya gently lifted the chins of the two girls, his gaze filled with three parts playfulness and seven parts appreciation.

Seeing this, how could the two girls not understand now? They both hugged their master tightly, weeping with joy.

If you can't find the book title, you can try searching for the author; maybe it just changed its name!