Chapter 36: Worthy Opponent

The underground base breathed in silence, a subterranean layout of cold steel and concrete hidden beneath the frantic pulse of Astoria. It was 04:30 AM. Above, the city was dead, suspended in the quiet twilight before the morning smog rolled in. Below, Neiry stood dead center on the main training ring, the matte-black mask catching the pale green glare of the primary training console.

His sharp fingers flew across the modified engineering grid. With a sharp tap of his fingernail against the tactile glass, he overrode the base's automated ventilation protocol. Upgrading the environmental refinement, a low-frequency vibration rattling the heavy steel rafters overhead.

The humidity from yesterday's exercise has been reduced to exactly twelve percent, Neiry read from the computer, his eyes scanning the structural readouts. Good. Kaleb shouldn't just rely on high amounts of his own pre-existing condensation in the atmosphere to control. If I want to push his power it would be good for him to create his own—after all his physiology was rewritten from my Infinity spark—his body is probably capable of learning to draw moisture exclusively from his own internal metabolic process then condense it under extreme duress. This is my way of pushing him.

He tapped the screen again, raising the secondary grids. Heavy, carbon-reinforced partitions hissed upward from the perimeter of the mat, locking the combat zone into a strict fifty-foot square. Next, he calibrated the kinetic sensors embedded beneath the rubber flooring.

Hmm Mia's solar manipulation works in a different sense compared to Kaleb's. Her powers mainly scale regarding her emotional state, Neiry thought, his expression tightening slightly as he remembered her previous training session where she had nearly melted the reinforced metal wall. Her strength is definitely undeniable but, If she relies on raw magical output without a tactical focus, she will cause more damage than good. She treats her light like a torch; she must learn to treat it like a scalpel. I don't want her ending up like her brother.

Neiry stepped back, his boots making no sound against the rubberized mat. He held his mask, letting the cool, dry air hit his features. A rare trace of anticipation flickered in his chest. For centuries, the conflicts of his home were strictly solved with battles to the death and had been governed by power. How strong you are, what you have laws of mana control—spells, incantations, and bloodline attributes just planning this had him feel the familiarity he felt engaged. The only difference was 2 humans with superpowers and an Angel. 

It was chaotic. And Neiry was ready and excited. He reached into his pocket, pulled out his device, and checked the tracking ping he secretly placed. Volt is precisely four minutes away. Just almost ready to go.

Two miles away, the shrill chime of an alarm clock cut through the darkness of Kaleb's bedroom.

Kaleb snapped awake, his heart instantly hammering against his ribs as if he were still on the training mat. He lay frozen for a moment, staring up at his ceiling fan spinning in the dark. Every muscle in his upper torso burned with a deep, throbbing ache. When he tried to push himself up, a sharp spike of pain flared through his shoulders—a brutal reminder of Valerie's relentless jabs from the night before.

Keep your eyes on all of me, not just my hands, her voice echoed in his head.

Kaleb sat up, groaning as he reached for his glasses on the nightstand. The world sharpened, but the anxiety in his stomach didn't fade. Yesterday, he was bragging. He had been riding the high of a single, lucky punch against a pro hero who was actively holding back. But today? Today there would be no holding back. Neiry's words during their lunch break hung over him like a shroud: You have not survived a true fight just yet.

He looked down at his palms. He flexed his fingers, trying to feel that heavy, dense energy resting right beneath his collarbone. It was quiet now, sleeping within his body. Tomorrow, you face each other on the mats, Neiry had warned. Kaleb swallowed hard, pulling all his training gear into a bag. He couldn't figure out his way out of this one. He had to trust a power he was still learning to understand.

Across town, Mia stood in front of her bathroom mirror getting ready, she practiced a punch in her room. Her movements were sharp, precise, and aggressive.

Every time she closed her eyes, she could hear Kaleb's voice echoing from the school courtyard: "I threw my arm forward, and the entire high-velocity stream just uncoiled like a whip blast... I landed a perfect left hook."

A golden, liquid spark rippled across over her knuckles, instantly singeing the air. She gathered herself to fix off her sheets. Mia gritted her teeth, forcing her breathing to slow. She wasn't jealous—she was ecstatic that Kaleb had finally cracked the code to his powers—but the fierce, competitive fire was roaring in her chest. She had been training for weeks, pushing her mana to the absolute limit, and she had no intention of letting the water boy outpace her in front of their leader Neiry.

"Let's see how that Tidlebreaker handles against me," she had told him. She meant every word. She wasn't going to hold back. If Neiry wanted an unbreakable three-man team, she was going to prove that her corner was the brightest.

At the edge of the industrial district, Valerie was driving her motorcycle through the empty, foggy streets, yawning loudly inside her helmet. Her knuckles occasionally popped with tiny, emotional grit—a physical reflex of her lingering irritation.

I can't believe I let that brooding shadow kid talk me into an early morning sparring match, she grumbled internally, leaning into a sharp turn toward the location of the base that served as their entryway. "A boss fight. The guy actually offered himself up as a prize just to get me out of bed. If these kids don't show some serious skin on the mat today, I'm going to shock Neiry's boots clean off his feet."

The elevator hissed open at exactly 05:45 AM. Mia and Kaleb stepped out into the training bay simultaneously, their eyes immediately locking onto each other. The tension between them was palpable—a silent, mutual acknowledgment that the friendly high school dynamic had been left right at the door.

Valerie was already there, leaning back against a structural pillar with a steaming travel mug of coffee in her hand. She wore her casual athletic gear, her sharp eyes tracking the teenagers as they walked toward the center ring.

Neiry stood at the edge of the mat, his arms crossed, his face an unreadable mask of absolute.

"Shocker everyone is on time," Neiry's gravelly voice boomed, cutting through the low hum of the environmental dampeners. "You two inside the boundary."

Mia and Kaleb walked onto the thick rubber mats, taking their places on opposite sides of the white center line. Kaleb kept his distance, dropping into the lower, more grounded crouch Valerie had taught him. Mia stood tall, her feet perfectly aligned, her hands relaxed but hovering near her hips—the traditional stance of a solar vanguard.

"Listen closely to the parameters," Neiry commanded, his eyes sweeping over them. Kaleb's left shoulder is dropping—lingering muscle fatigue from Valerie's drills. Mia's respiratory rate is elevated—anticipation, adrenaline.

"You guys can look at this like a game, it's as simple as a measurement of your output," Neiry explained, his voice smooth and dangerous. "In the field, villains you fight will not engage you one by one. They will exploit your blind spots. They will use your relationships against you. Therefore, the rules of this engagement are absolute: There are no rules. You will fight until one of you is physically incapacitated, driven out of the fifty-foot boundary, or yields."

Kaleb blinked. "Incapacitated? Neiry, we're a team."

"Yeah and this is a sparring match. Look when we're sticking our necks out there saving people, if you're working with someone who can't handle the full force of your attacks it means you have to hold back," Neiry countered flatly. "If Mia can't break your defense, then she is too weak to protect you when it'll matter if you two are in an actual situation. If you can't reach her, all that power means nothing. Valerie here will act as a third fighter. And if I see anything lethal in any of your techniques, I will intervene. Otherwise, the mat belongs to you."

Valerie took a slow sip of her coffee, offering a sharp, feral grin over the rim. "You heard the guy, kids. Don't worry about breaking the floor. Just worry about breaking each other. Show me what that midnight oil bought you."

Neiry stepped back, his cloak billowing slightly as he cleared the stage. The psychological stage is set. Kaleb must overcome his fear of hurting his teammate; Mia must overcome her pride. Let the two collide.

"Match one," Neiry called out. "Begin."

For the first three seconds, neither of them moved. The air in the fifty-foot square grew stiflingly hot as Mia's mana began to circulate. Tiny, brilliant flecks of golden light began to drift off her skin like burning embers.

So she's starting off with a mana cover, Neiry observed from a few feet away, his eyes tracking the energy spikes at the monitor next to him. An offensive technique meant to flush out targets touching you. Inefficient for a stand off like this one, but effective for intimidation.

Kaleb didn't wait for the heat to rise. Remembering Valerie's advice, he closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, reached into his chest, and engaged the biological node beneath his collarbone. "Tidalbreaker," he muttered internally.

With a sharp, pressurized hiss, the moisture in his own sweat and the residual air rapidly condensed over his forearms. The deep, ocean-blue fluid locked onto his knuckles, forming a thin, humming gauntlets of high-velocity water. He didn't try to calculate the flow rate—he just felt the physical weight of it.

"Not bad, Kaleb!" Mia shouted.

In a flash of golden light, she dashed. "Sunstride" Her footwork was a blur—. She materialized five feet to his left, her right hand uncoiling into a swift, descending palm strike enveloped in a searing aura of light.

thirty-two meters per second, Neiry calculated instantly. Kaleb's biological reaction time must trigger within zero point twelve seconds to reflect the strike. Interesting to use that move first knowing she can't use it for some time

Kaleb didn't look at her hand. He watched where the light was. The moment her left hip pivoted, his human reflexes took over. He dropped his weight into his heels, executing a clumsy but effective back-slip he almost slipped. Mia's burning palm grazed the air just inches from his nose, the heat radiating off her skin singing the fabric of his collar.

"Woah, that was fast!" Kaleb yelled, a surge of adrenaline fueling his confidence.

He drove his right fist forward, the Tidlebreaker gauntlet roaring to life as the pressurized water expanded outward. But Mia was already gone. She slipped beneath his looping punch with effortless grace, her feet sliding across the rubber mat as she repositioned behind him.

"You're still pushing it, kid!" Valerie called out from the sidelines, leaning against the pillar.

Mia didn't give him room to breathe. She drove a sharp, burning kick directly into Kaleb's exposed ribs. Kaleb scrambled to bring his left forearm down, the dense blue fluid of his gauntlet using his forearms as a makeshift shield. The impact was deafening—a sharp, explosive crack of vaporized water and golden sparks echoing through the bay.

The kinetic force sent Kaleb skidding backward across the mat, his feet rubbing violently against the rubber. His arm throbbed with a burning ache where Mia's light had met his water, but the Tidlebreaker had held. The fluid was shivering, but controlled.

Kaleb prioritized density over keeping a defensive surface area, Neiry thought, his eyes narrowing as he watched Kaleb fix his stance. A critical error. If Mia scales her output by another fifteen percent, the kinetic shockwave will pass his shield.

"Is that all you got from your training with Volt?" Mia taunted, her hands glowing like twin suns as she stepped forward, her competitive drive completely taking over. "I thought you said you were a brawler now! You're barely even a fighter"

Kaleb wiped a smear of soot from his cheek, his teeth gritting behind his glasses. The weight of feeling inadequate tried to creep back into his mind, but he forced it down. No force required, he reminded himself. Let the body adapt.

"I'm just getting started," Kaleb muttered. He unlocked his fingers, letting the water gauntlets loosen into a fluid, sweeping current around his wrists. He locked his eyes onto Mia's chest, waiting for the next pivot.

"Match two," Neiry's voice cut through the steam. "Adjust yourselves. Advance."

Mia didn't hesitate. Recognizing that Kaleb's reaction speed had drastically improved, she abandoned the straightforward palm strikes. She raised both hands above her head, her mana flaring into a brilliant, blinding sphere of pure solar radiance. The training bay lit up as if a sun had been detonated inside the concrete walls.

"Blind spot!" Kaleb muttered, instantly raising his gauntlets to shield his eyes from the white-hot glare.

Nice a classic tactical subversion, Neiry noted, his fingers tapping the console to adjust the sensor filters. Mia is using sensory deprivation to mask her physical movements. Kaleb cannot read her if his optic nerves are overwhelmed. He must rely on secondary senses —auditory tracking.

Through the blinding light, Kaleb heard the sharp, distinct squelch of a rubber mat shifting under immense weight. It was coming from his right.

Driven by pure survival instinct, he didn't try to dodge. He threw his right arm out blindly and unflexed his fingers.

"I see you!" he roared.

The dense blue water around his knuckles violently uncoiled, shooting through the golden glare like a high-velocity liquid lasso. The pressurized stream cut directly through the thermal field, its immense tensile strength searching for a target.

Splank!

The water punched wrapped securely around Mia's leg just as she was about to execute a flying crescent kick.

"What?!" Mia gasped, her concentration breaking as the blinding solar light instantly dissipated.

Kaleb didn't give her time to recover. With a fierce, physical yank of his shoulder, he locked his focus and pulled back with everything he had. The muscle group in his chest roared with power, he created a water rope holding her as it forcefully dragged a startled Mia right out of the air.

She hit the mat hard, rolling backward to absorb the impact, but Kaleb was already closing the distance. He surged forward, his boots pounding against the floor, his left fist completely re-enveloped in the dense, humming Tidlebreaker fluid.

His speed increased. Neiry analyzed, Kaleb has successfully changed the tactical dynamic. However, he is rushing too much because of his overconfidence. Mia's recovery is quick; she does not shut down when she is grounded. Good.

As Kaleb drove his fist downward, aiming a decisive blow at the mat near her head to force a yield, Mia's eyes flashed with pure fire. She didn't try to stand. Instead, she slammed both her palms flat against the rubber floor.

"Solar Burst!" she screamed.

An explosive wave of heat erupted from her hands in a perfect circle. The sheer force instantly vaporized the front edge of Kaleb's Tidlebreaker gauntlet into a massive cloud of scalding steam. As she pushed herself up the shockwave caught Kaleb squarely in the chest, lifting his feet off the floor and throwing him backward through the air.

He crashed heavily onto the rubber mats, skidding over the white boundary line and colliding with the carbon-reinforced partition wall with a dull, painful thud. His glasses flew off his face, scattering across the concrete floor.

Kaleb lay there, He tried to push himself up, but his limbs felt loose.

Valerie stepped forward, checking her watch. "Well he's out of bounds and down. Match two goes to the light girl."

Mia stood up, panting heavily, her hands glimmering from the residual heat. She offered a tired, respectful nod toward Kaleb as she wiped the sweat from her eyes. "Good pull, Kaleb. Seriously. I didn't see that lasso coming through the light."

From the edge of the ring, Neiry walked over, picked up Kaleb's glasses, and handed them back to the teenager as he helped him to his feet. "That offensive switch was exceptional, Kaleb. But you assumed her position not realizing your movements meant defeat. You can never let your guard down, always have a back up plan. Nonetheless I'm proud of you man."

Neiry turned his sharp, unblinking gaze toward the center of the ring, where Valerie was currently stretching her arms, twisting her body, a wide, dangerous grin breaking across her face.

"The evaluation for the preliminary rounds are complete," Neiry announced, his voice echoing with a new, chilling intensity. "Now... the final battle begins."

Valerie tossed her empty coffee mug onto a dry table, her entire body suddenly coming alive with jagged, high-velocity streaks of bright yellow electricity. The air in the base immediately grew heavy with the sharp, metallic scent of ozone.

"Alright, kid," Valerie said, her voice dropping into a low, rumbling hum as they crackled across her jawline. "The kids did their part. Now it's time for the main event. Let's see if that shadow power of yours can actually handle a real electrical current."

Mia and Kaleb scrambled off the mat, taking their places behind the safety glass of the console observation deck above, their exhaustion completely forgotten as they watched the two powerhouses square off.

Neiry walked slowly to the opposite side of the center line. He didn't drop into a crouch, nor did he assume a similar rigid stance like Mia. He simply stood tall, fierce and strong, his hands resting loosely at his sides, his eyes fixed entirely on Valerie.

I know Valerie's voltage output is currently scaling at four hundred thousand volts, Neiry calculated, his inner dialogue shifting into a cold, absolute. Her physical control currently surpasses Mia's sunstride not by speed more like by usage. Her powers act like a literal conductor. At this rate I know I'm stronger. To beat her, I could fight the electricity.

"Whenever you're ready, Valerie," Neiry said softly.

"Keep your eyes peeled and don't blink," she warned.

In an explosive crack of thunder that rattled the entire facility, Valerie vanished. She didn't just move—she dashed, converting her physical form into a jagged bolt of pure, blinding blue-yellow lightning, tearing across the fifty-foot mat in a microsecond.

She moved directly in Neiry's blind spot, her right elbow driving forward in a high-velocity strike meant to shatter his balance.

But Neiry hardly turned around. He didn't need to read her physical movements. The moment the air pressure shifted, he could sense her and he responded.

"Please at least make this fun if anything," Neiry murmured.

A solid wall of absolute strength erupted from him. Valerie's lightning-infused elbow connected with the hero's defending hand, but instead of an explosion, there was an eerie, suffocating silence. The power behind the strike was completely absorbed, the electricity grounding out into a vacuum.

Neiry thought, his eyes tracking her residual lighting trail. She drops onto the balls of her heels to anchor herself before having to dash. Okay a three-millisecond delay.

Valerie's eyes widened in surprise as her strike was completely shocked. "Wow you blocked that, what the hell are you made of?!"

Neiry didn't answer right away. His unblinking eyes remained fixed on her as he sensed her, his breathing perfectly measured despite the static pins dancing just inches from his nose. "I can't tell if you're really trying, Valerie," he murmured, his voice dropping an octave. "Don't make me bored."

Valerie let out a sharp, breathless laugh, bouncing backward on her heels to create distance. The jagged, blinding yellow arcs of electricity dancing across her forearms suddenly changed rhythm. The frantic, explosive snapping settled into a low, deep hum that vibrated through the rubber floor mats. She was adapting.

Their energy output is more condensed, no longer bleeding into the air, Neiry observed, his mind recording the shift in atmospheric pressure. She knows I've seen her predictability. Hmm condensing her voltage, changing her response. 

"Alright, kid," Valerie said, her eyes flashing a brilliant, solid gold as she dropped into a dangerously low, athletic crouch. "Let's try something else."

In an explosive crack of thunder, she vanished again. But this time, she didn't strike in a straight line.

Slam!

A brilliant yellow flash detonated against the left carbon-reinforced wall. Valerie didn't pause; using the sheer kinetic recoil of her electrical current, she bounced off the wall like a high-velocity pinball, redirecting her entire momentum toward the ceiling.

"Pinball Blitz"

Slam!

She struck a heavy iron structural beam overhead, her body instantly absorbing and re-channeling the impact to drop straight down on Neiry from above. She descended like a falling lightning bolt, both fists wrapped in heavy, high-voltage lightning bursts chained together to create a concussive shockwave.

BOOM!

As her speed multiplied, Neiry's eyes flared with an uncharacteristic, excitement of his own. The faster she went, the more his combat instincts took the wheel, forcing his body to fluidly accelerate to match her geometry. He didn't just become a shield this time; he moved with her.

With a sharp, mocking laugh that echoed darkly through the cavernous base, Neiry spun entirely on his heel, his training outfit cutting through the air like a blade. "Is this the pinnacle of your speed, Valerie?" he taunted, his voice sharp with a rare, competitive thrill. "I've fought way stronger. If this is all your lightning can do... then you've disappointed me!"

BOOM!

Valerie's combined downward strike "LIGHTING HAMMER" slammed into the rubber mat exactly where Neiry had been standing a second prior. The chained lightning bursts rippled outward in a dazzling display of fractals, illuminating the entire base in a blinding strobe effect, but Neiry had already glided seamlessly outside the blast radius, his feet skidding to a halt with effortless grace.

Valerie didn't give him a single millisecond to breathe. The moment her feet touched the mat, she utilized the residual static feedback to execute a lightning-fast feint. She lunged hard to the right, her shoulder dipping violently as if she were unleashing a heavy right cross to his ribs.

Kaleb, watching frantically from behind the safety glass, gripped the console edge. "Neiry, watch out! On your right!"

But Neiry didn't fall for the trick. His eyes remained locked entirely on Valerie's hips, ignoring the flashy, deceptive dip of her shoulder. He saw the subtle, micro-flicker of her left heel anchoring into the rubber mat.

"So predictable!" Neiry laughed, the sound gravelly and mocking as he deliberately leaned his upper torso backward, entirely unfazed. "Your body screams your intentions before your mind even processes them!"

Sure enough, Valerie's right cross vanished into thin air. She used the momentum of the fake lunge to spin on her heel, striking instantly from a completely opposite, blind angle on his left with a rapid succession of three chained lightning jabs.

Neiry's excitement only heightened as her velocity pushed him further. He didn't try to overpower her. He didn't summon a massive wave of darkness to swallow the ring. He matched her accelerating tempo move for move, weaving his upper body through the electrical current. He dropped his weight heavily into his knees, executing a fast pace sequence of microscopic slips and ducks. Valerie's crackling knuckles cleaved through the empty air just millimeters from his hair, the wind of her movement whistling past his ears.

"Come on faster, Volt!" Neiry taunted, his eyes gleaming wildly under the strobe of her lightning. "You're supposed to be a pro, yet you can barely trace me! Push yourself!"

Valerie was relentless. Infuriated and exhilarated by his absolute evasion, she began bouncing off the partition walls in a frantic, non-stop rhythm—left wall, back wall, floor, right wall—striking from multiple angles in a dizzying blur of yellow streaks. To Mia and Kaleb, she looked like five different people attacking the dark prince simultaneously. Faint yellow arcs chained together across the mats, creating a literal grid of electricity.

Yet, the faster and more chaotic she became, the more Neiry moved, his body flowing like silk through the cracks of her lightning grid. He was entirely in his element, grinning like a mad sovereign as he dismantled her strategy piece by piece, matching her high-velocity chaos with absolute, taunting perfection.

"You really are a piece of work, Dark" Valerie's voice rumbled, sounding less like a person and leaning more with Neiry's competitive attitude. "But even the strongest break when I set to a high enough frequency!"

Suddenly, her pattern broke. She didn't bounce off the walls anymore. She slammed down into the center of the mat, her feet anchoring hard. Instead of throwing another jab or executing a flashy multi-angle dive, she clamped both palms together directly in front of her chest.

Neiry paused, is she gonna try and accumulate all her energy? Neiry's analytical mind immediately registered the threat. No it can't be. She's exposing herself it would be a waste—

Before his prediction could land, Valerie didn't shoot a beam or a bolt. She intentionally discharged a massive, spherical static EMP outward from her body. It wasn't meant to injure; it was designed to ionize the very air surrounding Neiry.

The invisible, crackling magnetic field instantly wrapped around him. Like a conductor drawing a lightning rod, Neiry's aura became a literal magnet for her current.

Neiry's grin vanished as his body suddenly felt ten times heavier, the ionization locking his limbs in a micro-paralysis of pure static pressure. A magnetic anchor, he realized with a sharp intake of breath. She didn't miss her previous strikes—she was placing atmospheric charges.

"Look at that gotcha," Valerie smirked.

In a blinding flash of fury, she closed the distance. She didn't use a feint this time. She surged straight towards him, her velocity breaking past her previous limit. Neiry forced his left hand upward, trying to materialize darkness to deflect her trajectory, but the ionized air short-circuited his mana, causing the dark barrier to flicker violently.

Valerie's right fist, cloaked in a high-voltage lightning burst, cut cleanly through the unstable shadow.

Thwack!

The heavy kinetic impact connected squarely with Neiry's right shoulder. The sheer physical force, backed by a hundred thousand volts of raw electrical power, pushed against his defensive stance entirely. Neiry's breath caught in his throat as the blunt force spun him half a turn to the left.

He didn't even have a millisecond to rethink his balance before Valerie capitalized on the opening. Sliding her back foot forward, she chained the momentum directly into a brutal, upward left uppercut.

Neiry instinctively crossed his forearms downward to form a cross-block, but Valerie's physical burst was too explosive. Her fist crashed through his guard, the heavy impact snapping Neiry's head back and lifting his feet completely off the rubber mat. A sharp blast of yellow sparks detonated at the point of contact, sending a pressurized shockwave echoing through the concrete rafters.

Neiry skidded backward across the mat, his feet digging deeply into the rubber flooring as he fought to stabilize himself. He managed to plant his feet just inches from the carbon-reinforced boundary wall, his outfit smoking from the raw heat of the exchange. He wiped a thin trail of blood from the corner of his lip, his chest heaving as the residual electricity hissed across his skin.

Behind the safety glass, Kaleb and Mia stood completely frozen, their jaws dropped. The untouchable prince had just taken two clean, devastating blows to the jaw and shoulder.

Valerie didn't pursue him. She stayed in her stance, her hands casually resting near her hips as the yellow lightning crackled triumphantly across her knuckles. She offered him a fierce, mocking wink.

"How's that for a spark, hero?" she taunted, breathing heavily but wearing the proud grin of a veteran hero who had just broken a king's rhythm. "I thought you could read my movements, but you can't out class me! So what do you give up now?"

Neiry chuckled, he stood frozen by the boundary wall for a long, heavy beat. The thin trail of blood at the corner of his lip stood out sharply against his skin. Then, slowly, his shoulders began to hitch. A low, gravelly sound vibrated in his chest, growing louder until it erupted into a genuine, echoing laugh that sent chills down the spines of the teenagers watching behind the glass.

"Give up?" Neiry asked, his eyes snapping open, gleaming with a terrifying, ecstatic hunger for combat. He rolled his bruised right shoulder, the joints popping with a loud crack. "Valerie… Excellent. Show me more. ."

In a sudden, violent eruption, Neiry's mana tore out from his body. He didn't just summon a wall; his entire silhouette fractured into a dense, swirling cyclone of absolute black smoke "black gas". The pale overhead lights of the base were swallowed by the smoke dim.

"I've never seen that," Kaleb whispered behind the safety glass, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the console. "He's not just thinking anymore. Look at his energy on this monitor—the spikes are completely off the chart!"

"He's going on the offensive," Mia added, her voice tight with an equal mix of awe and sheer dread. "I've never seen him let out that much darkness at once. Valerie pushed him over the edge."

Before Valerie could even adjust her stance, the black smoke hissed. Neiry used his newly developed Tenebris Piercer—. He raised both hands, and from his palms, dozens of thick, razor-sharp darkness tendrils whipped outward like a nest of awakened hydras. They tore through the rubber mats, ripping the flooring to shreds as they lunged toward her from multiple trajectories.

"I can't see anything!" Valerie yelled, her instincts screaming as she executed a blind, high-velocity back-flip.

The tendrils slammed into the concrete beneath her feet, leaving deep, jagged craters. Valerie didn't have time to land properly before Neiry materialized directly out of the black smoke right in front of her. His speed wasn't just accelerated; it was entirely unbelievable.

He thrust his left hand forward, firing a rapid barrage of dense, compressed darkness shots "black bullets"—spheres of high-velocity energy that screamed through the ionized air. Valerie twisted her torso mid-air, a stray darkness shot grazing her thigh. The sheer pressure of the passing sphere tore a clean hole through her athletic pants.

He's too fast! Valerie realized, her heart hammering against her ribs as she hit the floor skidding. And it's not just his powers—

Neiry closed the distance in a microsecond, his face cast in absolute, terrifying shadow. He drove a straight, left jab toward her guard. Valerie brought both her forearms up, channeling her maximum electrical voltage to form a high-density kinetic block.

BANG!

When Neiry's fist connected with her arms, Valerie felt the air leave her lungs. It wasn't an explosion; it was pure, unadulterated, freakish physical power. The sheer pressure behind his punch felt like a runaway train striking her bones. The brute strength alone shattered her guard, the shockwave forcing her knees to buckle as she was propelled ten feet backward across the ruined mat.

"Holy crap!" Kaleb shouted from the deck, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "Did you see that? His strength is literally insane! He's hitting her with the force of a truck!"

"And that Darkness I can really see why they call him Dark," Mia muttered, her skin prickling with goosebumps. "It's not just because he commands those shadows. It's because when he decides to hunt, he completely eclipses everything in the room."

Valerie desperately bounced off the rear wall, chaining three rapid lightning bursts "OVERCHARGE" together to create a defensive perimeter, but Neiry was already weaving through the sparks. He was grinning, completely in his element, throwing darkness tendrils and heavy physical strikes in a seamless, devastating rhythm that left her with absolutely no room to counter.

"You wanted to see the depth of my power right, Valerie!" Neiry taunted, his voice echoing from every shadow in the room as he drove her further into the defensive corner. "Do not slow down now! Show me how a pro survives!"

Valerie staggered back, her chest heaving as she barely ducked beneath another whistling darkness shot that exploded against the far wall behind her. Her athletic gear was frayed, her skin was smudged with black soot, and her hair was wildly charged with static electricity. But now she could finally see Neiry—smoke was dissipating in a terrifying, swirling vortex—her expression hardened. The playful smirk vanished, replaced by a cold, razor-sharp intensity.

"Alright..." Valerie breathed, her voice dropping into a terrifyingly low, rumble that made the metal ceiling beams overhead vibrate in a harmonic frequency. "Enough playing."

She planted both heels firmly into the ruined rubber mats. Deep within her, her body didn't just generate electricity she started getting tired. The faint yellow arcs crackling across her knuckles violently shifted, turning into a blinding, white-hot blinding brilliance.

Six hundred thousand volts, Neiry realized instantly, then a green hud on his nearby console flashing a violent, crimson warning. She is pushing her conduction to its absolute theoretical limit. The thermal output alone is vaporizing the ambient moisture in the room.

"Haha I can finally take this seriously".

"Lightning slam!" Valerie roared.

She slammed both palms flat against the floor. A colossal, hemispheric dome of pure, unadulterated electric force detonated outward from her center. It wasn't a standard shockwave; it was an omnidirectional tsunami of continuous lightning arcs chained together so tightly they formed a literal wall.

Neiry didn't hesitate. He thrust both hands forward, pouring his mana into the space before him to manifest a triple-layered Umbra Shield. The absolute darkness rose, meeting the white-hot tide.

CRACK-BOOM!

The collision was deafening. The sheer, relentless pressure of the six hundred thousand volts ground against his shadow barriers with a sickening, screeching friction. For the first time in the entire engagement, Neiry felt a sharp, cold spike of resistance. Deep within his core, his mana suddenly throbbed with a sudden, draining ache. 

My mana... It's emptying too quickly, Neiry realized, his teeth gritting as a drop of sweat mixed with the blood on his lip. I guess this seal that was placed on me seems to lower the amount of mana I'm able to … I never realized how weak I got. I can't simply over power her.

Recognizing the exact millisecond his darkness began to flicker, Neiry made a brutal, split-second tactical choice. He completely pulled back letting the flow of mana come back. 

"Giving up, kid?!" Valerie shouted through the blinding glare, already surging forward behind her pulse, her right fist coiled like a loaded spring.

"I don't know how to," Neiry hissed.

Instead of panic, his eyes flared with that manic pride. If his magic was restricted by the limits of a seal, his natural abilities would have to bridge the gap. Relying entirely on his freakish, uncoupled strength, he dropped his center of gravity. As Valerie materialized out of the white electricity, her fist whistled toward his sternum.

He drove his own bare left fist straight ahead, meeting her high-voltage strike dead-on in a brutal clash of pure physical frames.

BANG!

The sheer, explosive impact of their knuckles colliding generated a shockwave that blew the remaining rubber mats clean off the floor, throwing a dense cloud of dust and concrete debris outward in a perfect ring. Neiry's feet skidded backward, the raw physical force vibrating through his bones, but his density held him upright. Valerie, too, was forced back by the staggering physical weight behind his punch, her feet leaving deep scorch marks on the concrete.

Behind the safety glass of the observation deck, Kaleb and Mia were completely paralyzed, staring at the ruined crater in the center of the bay.

"They're literal monsters," Mia whispered, her voice trembling as she watched the two powerhouses trade blows at a velocity their eyes could barely track. "Look at the floor. They are literally tearing the base apart with pure muscle and willpower."

"It doesn't make any sense," Kaleb stammered, his fingers flying across his diagnostic tablet, trying to map the readouts. "I've analyzed the power profiles of both these guys before. Neiry's physical density... it shouldn't be biologically possible for someone his size. And Volt... at six hundred thousand volts, she's executing output that rivals top-tier threats and heroes."

Kaleb looked up, his eyes wide behind his glasses as he watched Neiry slip through a massive, lightning-infused hook and counter with a heavy body blow that rattled Valerie's body. "Remember when I studied the hero registries for fun. Titan, the number three hero in the eastern states, has an impact threshold of roughly eighty tons. Neiry... just with that bare-fist clash, his physical ability is creeping right into that bracket. And Valerie's chaining speed? If she maintains this frequency, she easily equals the displacement velocity of Apex or any of the high-ranking syndicates from Iron Veil. They aren't just sparring anymore... they're operating at a tier that could level a city block."

Down on the ruined concrete, Valerie wiped her brow, a fierce, breathless laugh tearing from her throat as she reset her stance. "You're definitely a 1 in a million freak, you know that, kid? Not even using your powers, and you still hit like a falling meteor! Just how many powers do you have! "

Neiry adjusted his collar. His clothes were frayed, but his posture remained absolutely unyielding as he stepped back to the center.

"Haha! You're incredible, Valerie! Your lightning is beautiful... but I already know who's stronger. Come! Let us see who breaks first!"

Valerie stood thirty feet away, her knees slightly bent, her chest heaving with a deep, rhythmic rattle. The blinding white brilliance of her six hundred thousand volts had receded, but it hadn't vanished. Instead, the current was pulling inward, condensing tightly around her heart and lungs until her entire circulatory system glowed like a network of golden filaments through her skin.

"One more, kid," she panted, her voice remarkably steady despite the exhaustion clawing at her posture. A bloody grin broke across her face. "No more warm-ups. No more feeling each other out. This is everything I've got in the tank."

Neiry didn't respond with words. He merely stood tall, watching her stance perfectly, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. He looked small. Normal. Like a mundane teenager standing in a ruined basement.

But his eyes were sharper than they had ever been.

Her heartbeat has stabilized at one hundred and eighty beats per minute. She is just gonna try to overpower me.

Behind the safety glass, Kaleb and Mia didn't dare to breathe. The diagnostic tablet in Kaleb's hand was flickering wildly, unable to register the condensed energetic mass centering on Valerie's position.

"She's going to dash around," Mia whispered, her mind recognizing the sudden, violent compression of energy. "But it's not a normal dash. She's grounding the entire room's potential."

Down on the floor, Valerie's gold-lit eyes locked onto Neiry's chest. I know how he thinks now, she reasoned, her instincts firing at a pro's peak. He reads me somehow. He watches the hips, the heels, the shoulders. If I prompt him, he'll slip it. So I won't give him one. I'm going to move before my own brain even maps the trajectory.

"Hold onto that smug look, Dark," Valerie breathed.

CRACK.

The sound wasn't an explosion; it was the sharp, terrifying snap of a localized atmospheric collapse.

Valerie didn't just move—she shattered the spatial distance between them. She didn't bounce off the walls, and she didn't attempt a deceptive feint. It was a single, flawless, maximum-voltage line of absolute velocity. She incorporated the pinball recoil, the magnetic synchronization, and the raw, overwhelming voltage, channeling it into a singular, devastating point.

To Mia and Kaleb, she simply ceased to exist in one corner of the room and materialized in the center, her right fist uncoiling into a straight, blinding jolt meant to pin Neiry's shoulder to the concrete.

But Neiry hadn't waited for her to arrive.

Centuries before Astoria had ever been built, before human corporations had mapped the human genome to label traits and superpowers, Neiry had studied under the warlords of the lower domains. He had fought entities that did not possess bodies, entities whose attacks were governed purely by intent and conceptual weight. He knew a fundamental truth that Valerie, despite all her professional experience, had forgotten: The faster a storm moves, the narrower its path becomes.

The moment Valerie had anchored her heels to condense her voltage, three seconds before she actually triggered the dash, Neiry had already calculated her exit. He didn't try to read her body. He read the air. He read the precise line where the ozone density was dropping.

As her white-hot fist sheared through the empty air where his face had been a microsecond prior, Neiry didn't execute a wide, desperate dodge. He simply shifted his heel backward and tilted his torso by exactly seven degrees.

It was a microscopic, terrifyingly precise displacement.

Valerie's knuckles brushed the fabric of his collar, the immense heat instantly singeing the black threads, but the kinetic force found absolutely nothing but empty air. The sheer momentum of her maximum-speed attack, uncoupled from any environmental resistance, carried her forward into a sudden, irreversible overextension.

She had missed.

Before her reflexes could even register the failure, Neiry acted. He didn't summon a heavy wave of darkness. He didn't use a crushing, brute-force attack that would have shattered her ribs. Instead, he utilized her own tremendous velocity against her.

With a movement as fluid and silent as a closing shadow, Neiry reached out with his left hand, his fingers catching the fabric at the back of her frayed shirt. Simultaneously, he placed the palm of his right hand firmly against the center of her spine.

He didn't push. He didn't strike. He merely provided a new pivot point for her momentum.

With a precise, rotational sweep of his right foot, Neiry guided her trajectory, redirecting the massive, forward-rushing weight of her six hundred thousand volts into a smooth, sweeping arc. Valerie's boots left the concrete, her body spinning through the air in a perfect, controlled circle as Neiry effortlessly absorbed and diverted her kinetic energy.

With a dull, heavy thud, Valerie landed flat on her back in the exact center of the ring.

The white-hot lightning violently discharged from her skin, arcing harmlessly into the cracked concrete floor before fizzling out into a quiet, sputtering hiss. The heavy, pressurized atmosphere of the base instantly settled, leaving nothing but the sound of dripping water from the overhead pipes and the ragged, shallow breathing of the exhausted heroes.

Neiry won.

Neiry stood right beside her, towering over her form. Gasping.

For three long seconds, the underground base was completely silent.

Then, Valerie let out a long, slow whistle, staring up at the stained concrete ceiling. "Well... damn," she muttered, a breathless, genuine laugh bubbling up from her throat. She didn't look humiliated; she looked completely exhilarated. "I really thought I had you on that line. I didn't even telegraph the launch."

"Yeah you did not" Neiry agreed, his gravelly voice smooth and entirely devoid of arrogance as he extended a pale, calloused hand down to her. "Your execution was flawless, Valerie. You did something new; you didn't move with your mind; you moved with instinct. It was an exceptional display of high-velocity adaptation."

Valerie grabbed his hand, allowing the teenager to pull her up to her feet. Her legs were visibly shaking from the massive cellular drain, but she held her head high, wiping a streak of dust from her jawline. She looked around at the ruined training bay—the torn rubber mats, the cratered concrete, the scorched partition walls.

"You're a terrifying piece of work, kid," Valerie said, her tone shifting into something deeply respectful, the casual teasing entirely gone. "I've traded blows with high-ranking heroes from Iron Veil, and I've seen what top-tier villains look like when they're trying to level a district. But you? You just... figured me out."

"I needed to read you. I knew otherwise you wouldn't make it easy, Valerie," Neiry replied, turning his eyes toward the observation deck where Kaleb and Mia were currently scrambling out of the elevator bay. "I'm trying to make sure they have a good example, i dont want them thinking power is just everything, but by the precision of their boundaries. You have earned my respect tonight. You are, without question, one of the strongest protectors this city possesses."

Valerie smiled, a quiet, professional pride settling over her features as she nodded. "Coming from a literal brooding hero, I'll take that as a compliment."

Mia and Kaleb burst onto the floor, their feet crunching against the debris. Kaleb was staring at his diagnostic tablet as if it were written in an alien language, while Mia looked between Neiry and Valerie with a sudden, profound realization gleaming in her eyes.

"That wasn't just a fight," Mia said quietly, her voice echoing in the damp space. She looked at her own hands, then up at Neiry's unyielding posture. "You didn't beat her because you had more energy, Neiry. You beat her because you knew exactly where she was going before she even decided to go there."

"Exactly," Neiry said, turning to face his team, his voice carrying the heavy, authoritative weight of a commander who had just demonstrated the ultimate objective of their training. "Look at this floor, Mia. Look around at the area even Kaleb was tracking. Valerie possesses an output that could have vaporized either of you in a single microsecond. If this were a contest of raw strength, you would both be dead."

He stepped closer, his gaze locking onto Kaleb, then shifting squarely to Mia.

"But mastery is not about holding the largest power," Neiry explained, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. "It is about adaptability. It is about experience, timing, and the cold, unwavering discipline to read the battlefield instead of reacting to it. I believe even you two could take her orn and survive. That syndicate believes they can conquer this city because they have the highest funding and the heaviest tech grids. They think power is a resource to be hoarded."

Neiry reached out, placing a firm hand on Kaleb's shoulder, his eyes gleaming with a rare, quiet pride.

"We will show them otherwise." Neiry smiled "We can be the hope of this world, inspire the people to do better and protect each other. Go home so I can clean up and tomorrow, we can all go on a mission together."

Valerie watched the three of them, a soft, supportive smile touching her lips as she picked up her jacket from the console. The heavy silence of the underground grid returned, but it didn't feel like a hiding spot anymore. It felt like the birthplace of a legend. 

Valerie left with a single thought: These kids are gonna do amazing things.