080 FIGHT THE BASTARD
The crowd's murmur swelled into a cheer as the name was called.
"Look… it's Kairo Zetheris," someone announced. "The strongest meta among the young Zetheris."
"The strongest in school."
"Take revenge for us."
Shawn Zetheris whooped from the stands. "Beat him to death!" he shouted, his voice cracking with bloodthirsty excitement.
Zairgid leaned in to Damen, with urgency in his whisper. "Don't fight him. With the points you've made, you've already won the School Challenge even if you quit now. No point risking it …. you've done more than enough."
"Err…", Damen thought about stepping away.
The tally system rewarded endurance and count; he had earned enough points to top the leaderboard. Letting the last challenger go would still secure him the prize.
But Kairo's voice cut through the moment — sharp and contemptuous. "Are you a coward? You don't dare fight me?"
Damen met the taunt with a slow, amused smile. "Only a coward calls someone who has beaten a hundred students names. Go beat a hundred people yourself first, then talk."
Kairo sputtered, momentarily at a loss for words.
The crowd shifted.
Even they hadn't expected Damen to last this long. That was the whole point of the Challenge. It was about scoring, not about a fight to the end.
Freeland Veyran's voice floated down from the pavilion, cold and formal. "If you quit now, Damen Dark, you must return half of your winnings. That's under the rules."
"Yes," came a chorus from the fallen challengers. "Return our GenSyn quotas!"
Damen's eyes flicked over the crates of vials and his stacked score on the board. He'd amassed nearly the entire school's injection supply for half a year—losing half now would sting.
A small, sharp grin tugged at his lips. "Fine," he said. "If this is the game, I'll play it properly."
He stepped forward and adjusted his repaired suit with casual care. "You asked for a fight, Kairo. Let's see if you're worth the noise you are making."
The arena tightened with expectation.
The last duel would decide more than a score — it would settle the humiliation the elites had hoped to deliver.
But Damen was ready.
-----
Kairo Zetheris wasn't an heir of the Zetheris family — he was a bastard. But he had something even the pure-blood heirs lacked: talent.
He was the most gifted meta-user of his generation, so much so that even the patriarch had to acknowledge him.
Yet, no matter how brilliant he was, a bastard remained a bastard.
He followed orders. And right now, those orders came from Shawn Zetheris.
"Crush him," Shawn screamed. "End Damen Dark now. He's in the way of Eryn accepting me."
Kairo had watched Damen fight through a hundred challengers. He had seen his rhythm, his breath, his habits. Every dodge, every counter, every moment of hesitation was burned into his mind.
He believed he had Damen's entire playbook memorized.
And he had a plan.
Damen, meanwhile, was… taking pictures.
"What's he doing again?" someone in the crowd muttered.
"Does he plan to turn this into a scrapbook and sell it?"
Damen didn't respond. He was busy scanning his opponent.
Name: Kairo Zetheris
Rank: D
Strength: 68 | Charm: 11 | Meta: 126 | Command: 121
"Rank D, huh…" Damen murmured.
From the stats alone, he could tell that Kairo's physical strength came almost entirely from GenSyn Genomics, not from actual combat training.
But his meta skill on the other hand? That couldn't be underestimated. His energy control and power were both formidable.
"This would not be an easy fight," Damen admitted.
Damen was still only E-rank, a whole tier below him but he merely smirked. "Alright. Let's see what a major family genius can do."
The referee called out, "Begin!"
Kairo didn't hesitate. A radiant surge erupted from his palms — a beam so bright it sliced through the air like sunlight through crystal.
His strategy was speed. He must end this fight quickly before Damen had a chance to get close to him.
"The Ray of Brilliance!" someone shouted from the crowd.
"That's the Zetheris family's secret art!"
"The range of the ray is so wide it covers a quarter of the arena!!"
Damen shielded his eyes and yelled back, "Ray of Brilliance, eh? Where did I put it… ah, here it is!"
He pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on.
The crowd roared with laughter. Even some teachers smirked.
Kairo, on the other hand, looked like he was about to explode. He launched another wave of rays …. faster, hotter, and more furious.
But Damen moved like smoke. Every beam missed by inches. His body twisted and slipped through the barrage, hugging the outer rim of the arena while Kairo stayed fixed at the center.
That was when Kairo realized his mistake.
The Ray of Brilliance was devastating up close but the farther it traveled, the weaker it became. Damen was staying just outside the optimal range, even when he was struck, the rays couldn't harm him much.
"You can't dodge me forever!" Kairo barked, his voice trembling with rage and exhaustion.
"Who says I have to?" Damen called back, half-grinning. "If the timer runs out, this becomes a draw."
He pointed his middle finger toward Freeland Veyran, who was lounging smugly among the spectators. "And if it's a draw, the rules say we both keep our winnings. Isn't that right?"
Freeland's face darkened. He knew Damen was right.
Zairgid leapt to his feet, laughing wildly. "You're a genius! You found the loophole in this bloody challenge!"
The rules for a draw were simple: Each contestant gets to keep their original quota of injections before the fight started.
In Damen's case it was all his winnings to this point. His only loss was not taking Kairo's injections as well.
Damen gave a small shrug, smiling under the ash-stained lights. "Why fight harder when you can fight smarter?"
He wasn't planning to win this match. He was waiting for the timer to run out.
Kairo's composure shattered. His voice cracked as fury spilled from him.
"Damen Dark, you shameless coward! You think hiding on the edge makes you clever?" he roared, veins bulging at his temples. "You're nothing but a bastard—"
Damen didn't even flinch. "You may call me what you want," he said, smirking, "but I'm still less of a bastard than you, the bastard of Zetheris."
The words struck harder than any meta blast. The crowd gasped. Even the referees froze.
Kairo's face twisted with rage.
He screamed and unleashed another volley of Rays of Brilliance, each beam stronger and hotter than before. The entire arena flared with light as radiant energy slammed into the ground where Damen had been standing seconds earlier.
But Damen had already moved again, slipping between the rays like a shadow flickering through fire.
While dodging, he glanced at his phone, half-distracted.
He was checking readings from the arena scan — he didn't expect to find anything new.
Then his eyes widened.
"What the hell…?" Damen muttered, slowing mid-step. His heart skipped. "How did this happen?"