Chapter 323: An Unmatched Struggle!
"What a magnificent declaration!"
The Kure announcer stared with her black-and-white eyes wide, her own [REMOVAL]
active at a low output just to ensure she didn't miss a single micro-adjustment.
She gripped the microphone, her voice vibrating through the plaza.
"Whether Raian Kure unleashes pure, unadulterated violence or his inherited Kure
techniques—Ren Shiroki has declared it irrelevant! He has called out the man
himself!"
"In all the centuries of this Summer Festival..."
"There have been those who spread the word of Budo! Those whose virtue inspired
awe! Those whose feats shook the soul! And those whose will brought tears to the
eyes!"
"But this... THIS is the peak of the festival! This is the raw, red-hot energy
we crave!"
"Two titans, using their 'Strength' as a measuring stick, are about to decide
who owns this ring!!"
The announcer took a massive, lung-stretching breath.
"The outsider, the [SOUL COMBATANT], has thrown caution to the wind! He has
issued a final ultimatum to the [DEVIL]!"
"WHO WILL MOVE FIRST?!"
The previous exchanges had allowed the non-Kure spectators to finally grasp the
true terror of Raian Kure. It was because they understood his power that the
current stalemate was so staggering.
"They're actually going toe-to-toe?!" Jun Sekibayashi crossed his arms, leaning
forward with intense focus. "Just what kind of monster has Ren-kun become?"
Jaku Kaioh swallowed hard, a bead of cold sweat rolling down his brow.
"It doesn't matter what he calls it," the Master whispered. "There is one
undeniable truth written in the sand of that ring."
He looked at Raian, seeing the veins erupting across the Devil's purple-red
skin. "Ren Shiroki is currently matching that monster blow-for-blow. They are
Unmatched!!"
As the Master spoke, the red veins in Raian's eyes began to glow.
[REMOVAL]—100% RE-ENGAGED!
"Kukuku..."
A low, vibrating rumble escaped his lips. The next micro-second—ZIP!
Raian launched forward. He abandoned all tactical pretense, relying on pure,
world-ending torque. His silhouette became a hazy blur, his mass hitting the air
with the kinetic force of a high-speed vehicle.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR PHILOSOPHY!"
BANG!
Raian's heavy right fist fired toward Ren's face. Ren twisted his neck at the
exact millisecond of impact, using the [ENGINE] to shed the force. The hit was
technically "Clean," but the damage was minimized.
Raian's left fist was already coiled, firing a follow-up.
Zip!
But as the punch reached its extension, Ren's core tightened. He pulled both
fists back to his waist, palms facing inward. He drove them forward in a
synchronized, horizontal strike.
The explosive output was so intense it lifted Ren's feet off the sand.
[SAGAT'S TIGER TWIN TOWERS]!
POW!
The dual-fist Drive Impact caught Raian square on the nose and mouth. Blood
sprayed in a wide arc, painting the air like a blossoming red flower.
"Ren landed a counter!!"
The announcer tried to keep up, but the frames were moving too fast. "Ren!
Raian! Ren—DAMMIT! It's too fast! I can't call the hits!!"
Raian took the twin impact to the face, letting the blood spray as the acid-like
sting flooded his senses. He didn't retreat. He fired a rising right uppercut.
Ren sidestepped laterally.
BANG!
The fist caught Ren on the inside of his left bicep. Ren gritted his teeth,
veins throbbing on his forehead as he absorbed the shock.
Seizing the proximity, Raian spread the fingers of his left hand into five
lethal, rigid blades. He reached for Ren's throat.
"—!!"
Ren dropped into a deep crouch.
SHINK!
Raian's pinky finger grazed the crown of Ren's head, slicing through several
strands of hair.
Sensing the miss, Raian performed a rapid-fire back-hop. He immediately pivoted,
launching a high-roundhouse scan-kick with enough force to decapitate a bull.
WHOOSH!
Ren tilted his head back, feeling the wind from the sole of the boot ruffle his
eyelashes.
He drive off his heels, his right elbow snapping horizontally toward Raian's
temple.
[SAGAT'S TIGER RAZOR]!
Zip!
Raian dropped into a crouch to evade. He chose not to rise, instead planting
both palms into the sand and using his freakish core strength to perform a
low-level spinning heel-kick.
Zip-BANG!!
Ren arched his body to evade the first sweep, but the second caught him square
in the solar plexus. The force upended him, launching his 101kg frame toward the
sand.
"DIE!"
Ren roared. He didn't fight the fall; he drove both palms into the sand to use
his back as a pivot. He unleashed a series of continuous, mid-air spinning
kicks.
[JAMIE'S EXPLOSIVE FLARE]!
Slap-slap-slap!
Raian was hit by a sequence of rhythmic strikes. His face contorted with rage as
he tanked a kick to the ribs just to launch himself forward in a full-body
tackle.
At this extreme proximity, Ryu's Shoryuken wind-up was too slow. Ren abandoned
raw power for technical efficiency. He snapped his arm upward, his shoulder
muscles providing the torque for a point-blank uppercut.
[CAMMY'S SPIKE ARROW]!
It was the signature strike of Delta Red—built for close-quarters lethality in
confined spaces.
BOOM!
The fist caught Raian flush on the jaw. Blood and saliva sprayed from his mouth
as the force straightened the giant's posture.
Ren bolted upright, a guttural growl vibrating in his chest. He snapped his left
elbow upward.
[SAGAT'S TIGER STONE]!
THUD!
The lightning-fast Muay Thai elbow caught Raian on the chin for the second time
in two seconds.
Ren's eyes flared with a golden light, two burning trails of data carving the
air. He funneled his willpower into the dark impulse.
[SATSUI CHOICE]!
"HYAH!"
Ren didn't stop the momentum. He used the recoil of the elbow strike to drop his
weight. From the low position, he drove off the balls of his feet, his right
fist coiling and then firing upward in a localized explosion of torque.
[SAGAT'S TIGER GENOCIDE]!
BOOM!
Raian's jaw took a third heavy impact. His feet left the sand, his body pitching
into an awkward, defensive-less stance.
Ren capitalized instantly. He performed a mid-air rotation, his back-fist
tracking a horizontal arc that caught Raian for a fourth consecutive time on the
jaw.
BANG!
Raian stumbled back, his boots dragging through the sand.
Ren's combination had enough power to end a standard Kengan match five times
over. But the monstrous Kure biology refused to shut down. Raian remained on his
feet, clutching his jaw as blood leaked from his mouth.
"Is that... all you've got? Hah?"
Raian bared his teeth in a bloody grin. He looked at Ren, but his expression
suddenly shifted to one of pure shock.
In his vision, the world had begun to tilt and warp. Ren Shiroki and the plaza
around him were swaying like reflections in a pool of water.
Gouki Shibukawa recognized the look instantly.
The Master arched an eyebrow. "Oho? He's mastered the rhythm already? His timing
for the 'Concussion Lock' is impeccable!"
Raian, a veteran of a thousand bloodbaths, realized the truth a heartbeat later.
Hah! My brain is rattling inside my skull—!
The accumulation of Ren's precision strikes to the chin had triggered a Grade-2
concussion. Raian's equilibrium was shattered. He felt a sudden, sickening urge
to vomit.
"It's working...!"
Ren spat a mouthful of blood and prepared to follow up. But a sudden, violent
gust of wind hit his face.
It was Raian's fist!
Even with his vision reduced to a kaleidoscopic blur, the Devil didn't stop. He
treated the distorted world as a target-rich environment, unleashing a wild,
chaotic barrage into the void.
Zip-zip-zip!
One of the blind strikes caught Ren on the forearm.
In that instant, Raian used the tactile feedback to triangulate Ren's position.
He dumped his entire remaining stamina into a localized blitz, raining blows on
Ren's guard.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Under the 100% [REMOVAL] output, a tidal wave of fists and feet crashed against
Ren. He ignored the misses, focusing entirely on the strikes that hit home.
He gave in to the savagery, showcasing his inhuman explosive power and homicidal
intent!
Ringside.
The burly Horiuo Kure spoke in a deep, analytical tone. "The 'Street Brawl'
format favors monsters like Raian..."
"In a standard tournament, you have to worry about injuries and stamina for the
next round. You have to fight with economy."
"But here? The intervals are long. Some fighters don't have to worry about
tomorrow. They can spend their entire soul in a single night."
"Raian is a specialist in that kind of expenditure. He only cares about the
'Now'."
Horiuo let out a heavy sigh. "The more I see it, the more I realize: this format
is designed for a bloodbath. Whoever created these rules... is a man who truly
loves to see the earth turn red—"
Tokyo, Tokugawa Estate.
Mitsunari Tokugawa let out a massive sneeze.
"Ren took a hit to the left shoulder—!" "Raian's head is wide open!" "Ren's high
sweep—Raian ducks, rising uppercut! A grapple attempt—BROKEN! It's too fast! My
tongue is going to tie itself in a knot!!"
The Kure announcer was giving it her all, but her speech was lagging behind the
combatants' reality.
In the span of a single heartbeat, the two traded a dozen counters!
The chaotic rhythm was finally broken by a violent swing from Raian.
Zip!
The fist didn't connect with Ren, but it whipped the blood from Raian's wrist
directly into Ren's eyes.
"How's that for a 'Special Move'—?! As I thought! Useless!!"
Raian answered his own question.
Ren was in the [ENGINE] state. His consciousness was overriding his biological
blink-reflex. The "Blood Blindness" trick didn't slow him down for a single
frame.
But the trick had provided the split-second Raian needed to shift his style. The
pure, unrefined violence vanished, replaced by technical precision.
The Kure Family Traditions—UNLEASHED!
A rising left-elbow strike: [Kure Tradition: Buddha Killer]! Ren caught it on
his crossed forearms.
A high-torque shoulder-check: [Kure Tradition: Hard Slam]! The impact shattered
Ren's defensive posture.
A spinning back-kick that moved with terrifying velocity: [Kure Tradition:
Leg-Spear]! It tracked straight for Ren's solar plexus.
This was a lethal move designed to pulverize internal organs.
But as Ren had said, whether Raian used violence or technique, he was still
fighting "Raian." As long as that core truth remained, there were no
"surprises."
[DRIVE PARRY: SONIC BLADE]!
"SHINK!"
Ren swung his left fist in a horizontal arc, his elbow joint locked. He used the
torque of his massive chest and lats to strike Raian's attacking ankle
mid-swing.
Ren's reinforced knuckles slammed into the side of Raian's ankle, tearing the
skin open.
BANG!
The spinning kick was swatted aside, blood spraying from the fresh gash on
Raian's foot.
The announcer finally caught her breath. "Raian has unlocked the Family
Traditions, but Ren Shiroki wasn't bluffing!"
"He has parsed the Devil's rhythm! Whether facing raw power or technical
secrets... for Ren Shiroki, the answer remains the same!!"
Zip!
Before she could finish, Raian performed a sliding lateral dash. He circled to
Ren's rear and brought a hand-sword strike down toward Ren's spine.
CRACK!
Ren took the hit to his back. A deep red gash appeared across his skin, and he
was pitched forward.
He gritted his teeth, using the momentum to pivot. He fired a reverse-hand
back-fist that caught Raian flush on the face.
Splurt!
A fresh storm of blood sprayed between them. It was impossible to tell whose was
whose anymore.
Fists and feet continued to trade.
Ren and Raian shared a singular, soul-deep sensation:
THIS IS EXHILARATING!!!
(End of Chapter)
☆☆☆
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