The rain beat down harder, as if the sky mourned in advance.
Ryo and Lysa stood side by side in the mud, broken, bleeding, shivering—but still standing. Their breathing came in ragged gasps. Bones cracked with every movement. They had no chance. No plan.
But they had rage.
And that would have to do.
Virex stepped forward, blades extended, crimson glow pulsing from his arms. The raindrops hissed as they hit his frame.
> "Termination Required. Resistance: Futile."
His foot touched the ground.
Kineta activated.
Ryo bolted forward again, dragging his ruined body, accelerating, each step doubling his speed. The Kineta Drive kicked in with every joint screaming, power coiling through his muscles. He became a blur, a line of motion, fists flashing like lightning.
He threw a punch.
Virex leaned one inch to the right.
The punch missed.
He slammed his knee up.
Virex shifted back by one inch.
The knee missed.
A spinning heel came in from above.
Virex ducked under with zero effort. His palm caught Ryo's ankle mid-kick and snapped it with robotic precision.
> "Human Predictability: Confirmed. Tactics: Insufficient."
With a flick of his wrist, Virex hurled Ryo into the side of a stone lantern, the structure shattering from the impact.
Lysa moved next—tendrils of purple lightning sparking along her broken limbs. Her daggers came alive, twin arcs of buzzing death.
She attacked from all angles, teleporting with short-range bursts of electricity.
Virex didn't block.
He redirected every attack with mechanical grace, letting her strikes glance off precise spots—like parries designed at a molecular level.
One jab struck center mass.
He rotated his chest two degrees.
It missed the heart by half an inch.
And he punished her.
Virex slammed his elbow into her mouth, dislocating her jaw again. Then, a sweep of his leg shattered her shin. She collapsed with a howl before he stomped down on her ribs, caving them in.
> "Lethal Resistance: Ineffective. Pain Threshold: Exceeded."
He turned back to Ryo.
> "End of Line."
But Ryo was laughing.
Blood in his mouth. Vision blurred.
Still laughing.
Virex paused, scanning.
> "Emotional state: unstable. Analysis: Confusion."
"You think you're perfect," Ryo spat blood. "You think just because you can't miss… that makes you a god?"
> "Statistically accurate."
"No…" Ryo coughed. "It makes you a weapon. But even weapons have weaknesses."
And then he vanished.
Not physically—but to Virex's predictive algorithm.
> "Error. Momentum trace lost. Visual lock... compromised."
Kineta had activated beyond safe limits.
Forbidden Acceleration.
Ryo's entire body glowed a deep crimson. He moved not by force, but pure inertia. He was no longer using motion to generate strength—he was becoming strength itself.
He was burning his body down, move by move, for one last strike.
A suicidal override.
And it worked.
Virex turned—but too late.
BOOM.
Ryo's fist struck Virex's cheek.
For the first time in recorded memory…
The machine bled.
A hairline crack splintered down the metal. Sparks flew. One eye flickered.
Virex stumbled.
The rain seemed to pause.
> "Damage: Critical. System lag detected. Predictive failure—0.9 seconds."
Ryo's eyes widened. "It worked…"
Virex's head slowly turned back to him. The crack along his face sealed itself with a hiss of nanomachines. His eye reactivated.
> "Threat Level: Elevated. Initiating Full Suppression."
He drove his fist forward.
Ryo couldn't move.
He'd burned too much of his body in the last hit. Kineta had pushed him to the edge—his muscles locked, his spine crying out in agony. His legs buckled.
And then…
Lightning roared.
Lysa, barely alive, screamed as she threw herself in the way.
The punch struck her chest.
Her heart stopped.
She flew across the field like a broken doll, her body skipping across wet stone.
Ryo screamed.
> "No… Lysa!!"
The machine turned.
> "Target Eliminated. Resuming Prime Objective."
But something changed in that moment.
Ryo's body, nearly torn to ribbons, responded again—but this time, it wasn't motion that fueled him.
It was wrath.
Pure, undiluted, soul-crushing fury.
A second wind of impossible power exploded from his core.
> "Kineta Overflow… Detected," Virex said.
> "Warning: Unstable anomaly."
Ryo walked forward slowly.
Bleeding from every pore.
His eyes glowing gold.
And then he said one word:
"Aim Assist."
Virex froze.
> "Impossible. No confirmation of system activation. Human physiology—"
SMASH.
Ryo's fist connected again. A full-powered hook to the side of Virex's skull.
Not by luck.
Not by prediction.
But by Aim Assist.
For thirty seconds, Ryo's strikes could not be dodged.
And he was going to use every single one.