Chapter 250: A Thousand Techniques!
"Heh..."
Hearing Gaia's analysis, Ren Shiroki's lips curled into a predatory grin. A thin
trail of steam escaped the gaps in his teeth.
As expected of the 'Deity of the Earth.' This is getting interesting!
The disadvantage Ren faced wasn't a gap in physique or raw technical skill. It
was a fundamental "Compatibility" check—a hard-counter at the core of his combat
philosophy.
"There's no need to continue this, is there?"
Gaia offered a serene smile, his voice dropping into a deep, authoritative
register. "The commands you give to your own body... I've already read them
all!"
"AHA—!!"
The words had barely left Gaia's lips when Ren drove his heel into the floor,
lunging forward with explosive speed.
[DRIVE RUSH]!
WHOOSH!
In a heartbeat, Ren performed a mid-air vault, twisting his body to build
torque. The moment his toes touched the carpet, he adjusted his angle and fired
a rapid-fire back-fist.
[CAMMY'S QUICK SPIN KNUCKLE]!
BANG!
The punch, as expected, "passed through" Gaia's frame, coming to a halt an inch
in front of the soldier's face. It was a complete miss.
But that was just the opening act!
Since a frontal assault was useless, Ren tried a different vector. He hopped
backward, dropping into a deep crouch to coil his power before leaping again. He
bunched his body together, diving toward Gaia in a deceptive aerial arc.
[CAMMY'S HOOLIGAN COMBINATION]!
ZIP!
Despite the high-altitude leap, Ren didn't initiate an attack until the very
last frame of his descent. The moment he touched down, he dropped into a sliding
crouch and whipped his leg around in a low-level horizontal sweep.
[RAZOR'S EDGE SLIDE]!
SCHWING!
A feinted punch, followed by an aerial distraction, all to set up this singular
low-level strike. But as Ren's shin swept across the floor, it hit nothing but
air. He "passed through" Gaia's legs as if the soldier were a hologram.
High, mid, and low—every attack was failing!
"DIE!"
Ren roared, gritting his teeth as he sprang up, his arms spreading wide as he
marched toward Gaia.
If feints and strikes didn't work, he would use a grapple!
[ZANGIEF'S SIBERIAN EXPRESS]!
WHOOSH!
Ren's arms crossed in a crushing embrace, but for the third time in a row, he
simply "slipped through" Gaia's body. His momentum carried him past the soldier,
leaving him standing with his back to his opponent.
Ren spun around, his eyes wide with shock. The observers—both in the hallway and
at the monitors outside—stared at Gaia in disbelief.
Even Wrestling techniques are useless?!
Gaia's expression remained calm, as if he were delivering a final victory
proclamation. "Ren Shiroki... your attacks will never reach me!"
"..."
Ren Shiroki's grin widened. A single bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Outside the perimeter, the spectators were paralyzed. A man like Ren Shiroki,
who had brought down world-class fighters and death row convicts, was anything
but weak. Seeing him systematically neutralized like this was nothing short of a
miracle.
Gaia scanned the room, his gaze locking back onto Ren. "Allow me to tell you
why—"
"Years ago, during the reign of the 'Man-Eating President'—the infamous Idi
Amin—the nation of Uganda was torn apart by civil war."
"I was a young mercenary back then, honing my craft. I was contracted by the
anti-Amin resistance to infiltrate a high-security zone. I earned my first
'Kill' there. I tasted the intoxicating wine of slaughter for the first time."
Gaia drifted into the memory.
"Knives, crossbows, firearms, CQC... The joy of unleashing my technical mastery
clouded my judgment. I became addicted. I grew careless."
"In my hunger to drink more of that 'wine,' I walked straight into a trap. I was
captured by the Amin loyalists."
"The Geneva Convention forbids the torture and summary execution of prisoners of
war. But as you know... that protocol doesn't apply to 'Mercenaries'."
"I was sentenced to death on the spot."
Oliva and the others listened intently. Gaia's grin turned jagged as he
tightened his fists.
"I was tied to a stake. Over a hundred rifles were aimed at my chest. The terror
of facing a hundred muzzles... the absolute certainty of my impending death...
it caused every fluid in my body to leak out. My clothes were soaked with my own
cold sweat."
"The executioner began the countdown. Three. Two. One—"
Gaia suddenly reached up and ripped off his bandana, revealing a perfectly
smooth, hairless scalp—there wasn't even a trace of a hair follicle.
"In that final second before the trigger pull, the reality of my death ground my
nervous system into a razor's edge. And in that heartbeat... I felt something
slamming into my body!"
"Battle Spirit? Killing Intent? There are many names for it—"
"But ultimately... it is the 'Will' a human radiates before they act!"
"I felt that 'Will' hitting me with a hundred times the normal concentration. It
hammered against my hyper-sensitized nerves."
Gaia gave a faint, chilling smile.
"The bullets were never fired. The resistance forces arrived just in time,
launching a surprise raid on the execution grounds and saving me in the final
millisecond. I had walked through the gates of Hell and returned. The trauma was
so absolute that it didn't just 'scar' me—it caused my hair to fall out
permanently."
He tied the bandana back in place.
"I spent years savoring the memory of those 'Hundred Killing Intents' that hit
me before the bullets did. Eventually, I found the frequency. I learned to
isolate it."
"With that event as my catalyst, my intuition for danger became... divine."
"An enemy's tactics, their battle spirit, their resolve—all of it became
meaningless before my eyes."
"In a blade-fight, I am untouchable. Every strike aimed at me is a move I've
already seen. I don't dodge the punch; I dodge the intent."
"I was reborn."
Gaia narrowed his eyes at Ren.
"The reason your attacks and Ohma's 'pass through' me is simple. I'm not a
ghost."
"I simply perceive your 'Will' before you move. I read your next step before
your brain even finishes sending the signal to your nerves—"
"Because of that, I can move with minimum effort, evading every strike as if
I've already rehearsed the fight a thousand times. To a bystander, it looks
like you're punching smoke."
Gaia's explanation was clinical and precise. Even Kazuo Yamashita could
understand it. And that realization filled Kazuo with terror—he couldn't fathom
a human being like Gaia existing in the same world as him!
Meanwhile, Ohma Tokita had reached a conclusion of his own.
"I see..."
Ohma looked at his fist, remembering the single blow he had managed to land on
Gaia. "It's like a boxer who gets hit and throws a counter instinctively,
without thinking. The only reason I touched him was because, in my near-death
state, my body moved with pure, unconscious reflex. I didn't have any 'Battle
Spirit' for him to read!"
Outside, Fusui Kure's brow was deeply furrowed. She watched the monitors, her
heart sinking. She realized the trap Ren was in: Ohma's accidental success was
something Ren could never replicate. Ren's entire style was built upon the
foundation of high-intensity, hyper-focused Consciousness.
Ren used his will to dominate his biology. He purged the unconscious to achieve
the [ENGINE].
But in a fight against Gaia's "Killing Intent Perception," that level of focus
made Ren look like a neon sign in a pitch-black room. He was being read
with 100% accuracy!
"The [ENGINE] is being hard-countered?!" Fusui whispered, her knuckles white.
"Ren-chin's entire playbook is useless!"
17th Floor.
"If we continue, I'm going to start hitting back," Gaia warned, standing calmly.
"Do you still wish to play?"
Ren didn't answer with words. But through his stance, his expression, and the
soaring heat of his battle intent, Gaia saw the answer clearly.
"Understood," Gaia murmured.
The next second—WHOOSH!
[DRIVE RUSH]!
Ren lunged forward, closing the gap. He fired a rapid [LUKE'S MUZZLE] straight,
but Gaia slipped it with effortless grace.
I see you—
Gaia's eyes flickered. His face suddenly twisted into a mask of malice. He
unleashed a horizontal back-fist that caught Ren flush on the jaw.
BANG!
Blood sprayed from Ren's lip. His head snapped back, his pupils quivering from
the impact. Gaia didn't let up. He exploded into a frantic flurry of punches,
his fists falling like a Siberian rainstorm.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"GUUGH—!"
Ren spat blood, the crimson staining his teeth as he roared. He unleashed a
rising elbow.
[SAGAT'S TIGER STONE]!
Zip!
The elbow sliced through a phantom. Gaia had already evaded with a
micro-adjustment.
"Your consciousness is too loud! I can see every 'Page' you're turning!"
Gaia roared, abandoning his restraint. He delivered a heavy straight to Ren's
face, followed by a lead-leg front kick that buried itself in Ren's stomach.
"Pwah!"
Ren was launched backward, blood leaking from his nose. His eyes were bloodshot,
yet the moment his feet touched the floor, he drove forward again, launching
another high-speed charge.
Gaia's eyes were wide, taking in the data. Ren's intense will was manifesting as
a feverish killing intent—a mountain of data that Gaia couldn't possibly miss.
He saw the sequence: High-roundhouse scan-kick, transition to knee-strike,
followed by a headbutt and a flurry of hand-chops.
Muay Thai fused with Wrestling? A good idea! But I see it all! You're walking
straight into my trap!!
Gaia dropped into a crouch. He planned to let Ren's high kick pass over him,
then counter with a low-level heel sweep to break Ren's balance and finish him
on the ground.
But then—WHOOSH!
As Gaia dropped, his intuition suddenly screamed that something was wrong. Ren's
high kick had zero weight behind it. It was as if he were just lifting his leg.
Wait... that's not a high kick!
Gaia looked up. Ren's leg wasn't swinging horizontally; it was extended
vertically toward the ceiling, already at maximum height.
It wasn't a Muay Thai scan-kick. It was a Karate descending "Foot-Blade"!
[RYU'S HEEL DROP]!
SHINK!
The heel descended with the velocity of a guillotine. It caught Gaia flush on
the nose, smashing the bridge and sending a spray of blood into the air as the
force pinned Gaia to the floor.
BOOM!!!
Gaia's body slammed into the tiles, a spiderweb of cracks erupting in the
masonry. He was bounced backward by the recoil, performing a series of frantic
rolls before managing to stop.
"Gah—hk!"
Gaia coughed up a spray of blood. This was the second time tonight he had been
touched—and the first time he had been made to bleed!
I misjudged?!
Gaia stared at Ren, his youthful face a mask of disbelief. A warrior's "Will"
cannot lie. What he had perceived earlier was undoubtedly Ren's true intent—it
wasn't a feint or a decoy.
So why was the physical movement different from the perceived thought?
Gaia scrambled to his feet, blood dripping from his nose and chin. He looked at
Ren Shiroki. "Did you... did you discard the [ENGINE]? Did you switch to
'Unconscious' combat like the Ashura?"
Ren's response defied all logic.
Tch—
Ren spat out a blood clot, a savage grin splitting his face. "Don't be
ridiculous, Gaia-san. Do you really think I'd abandon my best toys?"
Gaia blinked. "Then how...? Your killing intent and your physical body were in
two different worlds!"
Ren had taken several heavy blows to the face; his mind was spinning, and his
voice was a raspy growl.
"It's just... a Choice."
Ren twisted his neck, his vertebrae letting out a series of rhythmic pops. "I
love my techniques too much to miss even a second of the experience. I could
never 'Stop Thinking'—that would be a waste."
"I have so many beautiful ideas in my head. Why would I ever limit myself to
just one 'Killing Intent'?"
"The phantoms in my mind offer me a thousand ways to end you. The 'Will' you
perceived was just one of them. Whether I choose to follow it or pick a
different one... is entirely up to me!"
Ren's gaze locked onto Gaia. He dropped his arms, exhaling a cloud of heat. His
pupils followed the sway of his body, his eyes glowing with an ominous light in
the darkness of the hall.
"Fists, feet, elbows, knees, slams, throws, leaps—"
"A thousand techniques... and they are all mine to command."
"—This is the [SATSUI CHOICE]!"
(End of Chapter)
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you