"I’LL KILL YOU!"
The words exploded from Adrian’s throat, raw and venomous.
He couldn’t endure it anymore. The humiliation. The mockery. A re gigolo standing there taunting him like he had any right...
Adrian’s cultivation base detonated outward.
Peak Enhanced power flooded every muscle, every nerve, compressing into a single devastating strike aid directly at Alex’s skull.
Crush. Kill. Destroy.
One move. That’s all it would take to end this insult.
"ALEX! WATCH OUT!"
Victoria’s scream tore through the air... desperate, terrified.
But Adrian’s fist never connected.
It stopped. Mid-strike.
Three inches from Alex’s face.
Caught in Alex’s hand like it was nothing.
"What?" Adrian’s eyes went wide with sothing beyond shock. Beyond surprise.
Absolute, reality-shattering disbelief.
’How?’
’How can he... ’
A re mortal. No cultivation signature. Nothing that suggested power beyond baseline human capability.
’How can he stop ?’
This wasn’t a glancing deflection or lucky block.
This was his full-force, sure-kill attack... the kind of strike that could shatter concrete, pulverize steel, end fights before they began...
Stopped cold.
By bare hands.
Alex’s feet had slid back several steps from the impact, boots scraping against cracked asphalt.
Surprise flickered across his face... genuine, montary shock at the force behind Adrian’s attack.
But his hand didn’t budge.
Didn’t tremble.
Just... held.
***
Alex had been waiting for this mont since he’d spotted Adrian blocking their path.
Sothing had stirred inside him that had nothing to do with fear or anger. It was fighting spirit... pure, instinctive, eager. He’d never fought a real opponent before, never tested himself against soone genuinely trying to kill him.
All his power... everything Lilith had given him, everything the system promised... remained theoretical.
Untested.
Unknown.
And he needed to verify Lilith’s claims. If he could fight well against a Peak Enhanced cultivator near Apex breakthrough, then her promises had substance. If not... better to learn his limits now than discover them later against sothing worse.
And who could be a better opponent than Adrian?
Peak Enhanced. Less than a year from Apex breakthrough.
’Perfect.’
He’d already instructed Viktor, who was following from behind, to intervene only when absolutely necessary.
***
Adrian’s Enhanced perception imdiately swept outward, spiritual senses running over Alex’s body with desperate intensity, searching for any trace of cultivation energy, any hint of realm advancent, any explanation for what had just happened.
Nothing.
Still mortal. Still baseline. Still showing absolutely no cultivation signature whatsoever.
Then how?
Is this an illusion? So kind of trick?
But the evidence was right there... Alex standing calm and composed, hand still raised from catching the strike, not a single tremor of strain visible despite having stopped a Peak Enhanced attack cold.
Who is this guy?
And if he’s the sa realm as ... Peak Enhanced... then how is he completely unknown?
Adrian’s mind raced through possibilities, each one more disturbing than the last, trying to reconcile what his senses told him with what his eyes had witnessed.
"What?" Alex’s voice cut through his spiraling thoughts, dripping with contempt. "That’s it? That’s all the great Peak Enhanced prodigy has to offer?"
He tilted his head, smile widening with deliberate provocation.
"I almost believed you yesterday when you were boasting about being the Blackwell heir, about how powerful you were, how I should stay away from Catherine..." Alex’s laugh was soft and cutting. "You made yourself sound like you were actually soone important. Soone dangerous."
His smile turned razor-sharp.
"Turns out you’re just another arrogant child playing dress-up in daddy’s reputation."
The taunt landed like gasoline on smoldering coals.
Adrian’s vision went red at the edges, rage consuming every rational thoughts.
He didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care who this man was or what power he possessed or what it ant.
Just kill him.
Kill this insulting bastard and everything will be alright after that.
"YOU BASTARD!" Adrian snarled, his cultivation base surging higher as denial hardened into murderous fury. "I’LL RIP YOU APART!"
He launched forward again, faster this ti, more vicious. No more testing. No more probing for weakness. Just pure, relentless assault fueled by the desperate need to prove this was so trick, so illusion, sothing other than genuine inferiority.
His fist blurred through air...
Alex’s hand deflected it by milliters, redirecting force rather than absorbing it directly.
Adrian’s knee ca up toward Alex’s ribs...
Alex twisted, the strike grazing past instead of connecting solidly.
Elbow aid at Alex’s temple...
Blocked. Countered. Forced back.
They moved through the empty street in a deadly dance, Adrian’s Peak Enhanced speed creating afterimages as he attacked from every angle with increasing desperation.
And Alex...
Alex was struggling.
He could feel it... the gap between Adrian’s refined combat experience and his own complete lack of practical training.
Adrian’s strikes ca with practiced precision, each one flowing into the next with the fluidity of soone who’d spent decades mastering martial arts.
Alex’s responses were... instinctive. Reactive. His body moving faster than his conscious mind could process, guided by sothing deeper than training.
But not refined.
Not optimized.
Not skillful.
Adrian’s fist grazed Alex’s cheek... too close, drawing a thin line of blood.
His knee connected with Alex’s ribs... not full force but enough to crack sothing, pain blooming sharp and imdiate.
Elbow strike caught Alex’s shoulder... numbing impact that made his arm drop slightly.
’I’m weaker than him.’
The realization hit with cold clarity.
Not in raw power... Alex could feel the strength in his body, the potential lurking beneath the surface.
But in technique. In experience. In the thousand tiny optimizations that turned power into devastation.
’But I have more stamina.’
Alex’s breathing remained steady even as Adrian’s began to rasp.
Peak Enhanced or not, Adrian was burning through energy at an unsustainable rate, each attack fueled by rage and desperation rather than calculated efficiency.
’Let him exhaust himself.’
’Then end it.’
***
Adrian couldn’t understand what was happening.
His attacks weren’t connecting properly.
Every strike that should have crushed bone only grazed. Every combination that should have ended the fight got deflected or absorbed.
"Why won’t you DIE?"
His cultivation base cracked audibly, power flooding outward in uncontrolled surges as fury overwheld discipline.
And that’s when he saw it.
An opening.
Alex’s guard dropped fractionally on the left side... fatigue? Injury? It didn’t matter.
Adrian’s fist rocketed forward with every ounce of strength he possessed...
And hit nothing but air.
Alex had feinted.
Deliberately created the opening.
Waited for Adrian to commit.
Then moved.
Alex’s counter-punch ca from an angle Adrian’s Enhanced perception should have caught but didn’t... too focused on the attack, too blinded by rage.
The fist connected with Adrian’s jaw.
Not a glancing blow.
Full. Force. Impact.
The world exploded into light and pain.
Adrian’s body lifted off the ground, launched backward by the strike’s montum, hurtling directly toward Victoria’s parked sedan...
A hand caught his ankle mid-flight.
Alex.
Moving faster than Adrian’s tumbling vision could track.
"Not the car," Alex said quietly.
Then he threw.
Adrian’s body changed trajectory violently, spinning through empty air before slamming into the side of an abandoned warehouse fifteen feet away.
Brick crumbled. tal groaned.
Adrian’s cultivation base destabilized completely, power flickering like a dying fla as his body slid down the wall and collapsed onto cracked pavent.
***
Alex stood in the middle of the road, breathing hard.
Blood soaked through his shirt... so his, so Adrian’s.
His ribs throbbed. His shoulder ached. Cuts decorated his face and arms where Adrian’s strikes had connected.
’I almost lost.’
The thought settled cold and certain.
’If the fight had lasted longer... if Adrian had conserved energy... if he’d been less emotional and more tactical...’
’I would have lost.’
But underneath the analytical assessnt, sothing else stirred. Sothing primal and eager.
He’d had fun.
Real, genuine enjoynt in the chaos of combat, in testing himself against lethal opposition, in pushing his limits and discovering what he could do.
And he definitely wanted more.
Alex turned toward the car where Victoria still sat frozen in the driver’s seat, tears streaming down her face as she stared at him with an expression caught between relief and horror.
He moved back slowly, each step careful despite the pain.
The mont he reached the door, Victoria burst out and threw her arms around him, not caring about the blood soaking his shirt or the damage he’d taken.
"You’re hurt," she said, voice breaking as her hands imdiately began checking his injuries with frantic precision. "You’re bleeding... are you okay? Alex, are you..."
"Relax," he interrupted gently, catching her hands. "I’m alright. Better than alright, actually."
He smiled despite the pain.
"I feel... good."
Victoria pulled back slightly, staring at him like he’d lost his mind.
But beneath the disbelief, relief flooded through her... he was alive, standing, talking.
That was what mattered.
Then the relief twisted into frustration.
"You could have let Viktor handle him! Why take that risk?"
Alex’s smile softened, becoming sothing warr and more serious.
"Viktor won’t be with every ti," he said quietly. "And how could I keep you safe if I remain weak?"
He leaned forward and kissed her cheek gently, then guided her toward the passenger seat.
"Co on. Let drive."
Victoria opened her mouth to protest, then closed it, recognizing sothing in his expression that said this wasn’t negotiable.
She moved to the passenger side while Alex slid carefully into the driver’s seat where she’d been sitting, wincing slightly as his ribs protested the movent.
The engine started smoothly.
Alex pulled the car forward, steering around debris and Adrian’s broken form slumped against the warehouse wall.
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