"Send them all," Rudy said.
The Clan Leader frowned. "What?"
"The Butcher. Your bodyguards. Your reserve fighters. The monsters in the cages." Rudy yawned, stretching his arms. "Send them all in. If I take more than sixty seconds to kill them, you win."
The crowd went dead silent. Even the Butcher looked confused.
"You have a death wish, boy?" the Clan Leader spat.
"No," Rudy smiled. "I have a schedule."
"Fine!" The Leader roared, his face turning purple. "Empty the cages! Kill him!"
Klaxons blared. The gates around the arena slamd open.
Now, it wasn’t just the Butcher. Three Hell-Hounds, a massive Ogre, and a dozen ard Awakened rcenaries flooded the arena, surrounding the lone figure in the center.
Maria gripped the railing, her knuckles white. "He’s insane."
"Watch," Lilim whispered, her eyes widening.
The Butcher charged first, raising his hamr. "SQUASH!"
Rudy didn’t move or even look at him. He waited until the massive hamr was an inch from his face.
Then, he snapped his fingers.
BOOM.
There was no magic spell. No flashy incantation. Just pure, unadulterated kinetic force released from a single point.
The Butcher didn’t just die... he evaporated. The hamr shattered into shrapnel that flew outward like a shotgun blast, tearing through the Ogre and the Hell-Hounds instantly.
The shockwave hit the barrier, shaking the entire subway station.
Rudy stood amidst the red mist, untouched. He dusted off his shoulder.
The rcenaries who were still alive froze, staring at the empty space where their champion used to be.
Rudy checked an imaginary watch on his wrist. "Three seconds. You guys are wasting my ti."
He looked at the rcenaries. "Well? Are you going to die, or are you going to run?"
The silence in the subway station was absolute. The dust from the vaporized Butcher hung in the air like a shroud.
The twelve remaining rcenaries looked at the empty space where their strongest tank had stood a second ago. Then they looked at Rudy, who was checking his cuticles.
Clang.
One rcenary dropped his rifle. Then another. Within seconds, it was a cacophony of steel hitting concrete as the Iron Blood Clan’s elite fighters threw down their weapons and sprinted for the exit tunnels. They weren’t paid enough to fight a natural disaster.
"Smart choice," Rudy muttered.
He looked up at the Iron Blood Clan’s VIP box. The Fat Leader was trembling, his cigar fallen from his mouth, burning a hole in his expensive pants.
"You..." The Leader stamred, his voice amplified by the microphone but shaking. "Who... who are you?"
Rudy raised a hand, forming a finger gun. He pointed it at the glass box.
"Bang."
He just pushed a tiny, concentrated needle of air pressure forward.
The reinforced glass of the VIP box shattered. The Leader’s head snapped back, a neat hole appearing in the center of his forehead. He slumped over the railing, dead before he hit the ground.
"The Iron Blood Clan is dissolved," Rudy announced, his voice carrying effortlessly to every corner of the silent arena. "Their territories, their assets, and their debts now belong to the Obsidian Ross Syndicate."
He turned his gaze to the announcer, who was hiding under his desk.
"Is that a win?" Rudy asked.
"Y-Yes!" The announcer squeaked into his microphone. "W-Winner! The Obsidian Ross Syndicate!"
Rudy didn’t wait for the applause. He vanished, reappearing instantly inside Maria’s private box.
Maria flinched, nearly dropping her clutch. Lilim stiffened, her instincts screaming at her to defend her mistress, but the Command in her blood forced her to stand down.
"That took four minutes," Rudy sighed, sitting in the plush leather chair. "I got distracted by the monologue. I’m getting sloppy."
"You..." Maria stared at him, her eyes wide. "You just conquered the Eastern Sector. Single-handedly. In four minutes."
"I told you," Rudy said, standing up and offering her his arm. "Speed run. Now, let’s go sowhere quiet. We have a lot of paperwork to catch up on."
They took the private elevator back up to the Obsidian Club’s penthouse office. The sound of the chaos outside was muffled by soundproof walls.
Rudy locked the door and closed the blinds. The room was bathed in the soft, ambient glow of the city lights filtering through the slats.
Maria stood by her desk, hugging her arms around herself. She looked at Rudy—really looked at him—trying to piece together the puzzle. He was a stranger, yet he knew everything. He was terrifying, yet he had handed her an empire on a silver platter.
Rudy walked over to the minibar, pouring three glasses of expensive amber liquid. He didn’t turn around as he spoke.
"You have questions."
Maria stood by her desk, her hands gripping the edge of the mahogany until her knuckles turned white. She looked at the man who had just dismantled her biggest rival in four minutes.
"Questions?" Maria let out a shaky laugh. "I have a million. Who are you? Why did you help ? And why does my bodyguard..." She glanced at Lilim. "...why does she look at you like she wants to... submit?"
Lilim stood by the door, her hand hovering near her holstered weapon, but her amber eyes were wide, fixed on Rudy’s back. Her demon instincts were screaming conflicting orders: Kill him and Obey him.
Rudy turned around, sliding a glass across the desk to Maria. He walked over to Lilim and held the second glass out to her.
"I’m not a stranger," Rudy said softly.
He took a sip of his own drink. "In another life—the one you’ve forgotten—we were family. You, Maria... you were my ’Sugar Mama’. My gambling buddy. The girl who bet her life on ."
Maria frowned, confusion warring with a strange sense of deja vu. "Gambling buddy? I’ve never gambled with you."
"Not in this tiline," Rudy corrected. He looked at Lilim. "And you... you were the bad girl who liked to be punished. The one who called ’Daddy’ when Maria wasn’t looking."
Lilim’s face flushed a deep crimson, her composure cracking. "How... how do you know that word? I have never used it with anyone!"
"Because I was the one you used it for."
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