Child of Destiny

…

The battle between David and Gamma already lasted for three minutes. And neither of them got the upper hand. The latter might have the advantage in terms of raw strength and powerful attacks, but the former had a solid foundation and multiple techniques and styles that he could switch to during the battle.

David seemed to be continuously absorbing all of the data that he was getting from his opponent and constantly adapting to it in response. His style and technique applications seemed to be evolving as the progress went on.

This ability from David was not an exceptional talent and was entirely different from Battle Genius Talent that Shin had. It was a systematic process where he studied his opponent thoroughly during the battle before adjusting his style accordingly.

He called it Adaptive Evolution. It was a battle style where he was constantly adjusting and evolving his way of fighting for the sole purpose of defeating his opponents.

He had developed this technique after traveling around the world and challenging multiple talented individuals of the same generation or old veterans who no longer had the ability to break through the Ethereal Opening Stage or peak of the Grandmaster Realm.

Since he was constantly challenging different people with different styles and sets of skills, he would always be facing an opponent that he did not have any knowledge.

Everyone had a unique way of fighting which corresponded to their strengths and talents. But no matter how strong and how powerful they were, there would always be a weakness in their style just like everyone had a weakness.

Strength-based styles which focused on brute force and straightforward attacks were weak against the style which focused on evasive maneuvers and quick movements. They were also weak against people who focused on counterattacks. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒏𝒆𝒕

Speed-based styles which focused on moving around and confusing the opponent with movement techniques and fast attacks were weak against opponents with high defense and solid guard. They were also weak when facing an opponent who focused on control such as a Mentalist, who was capable of large-scale attacks and controlling techniques, or a Martial Artist majoring in grappling skills and takedowns.

Defense-based styles were weak against opponents who majored in control-type techniques and skills. They would also be in trouble when facing strength-based styles with decent mobility since they were no different from sitting ducks waiting for the opposing side to hit them.

These were just a few examples that the adaptive evolution was targeting. With his knowledge of different styles and his experiences when dealing with them, David was able to constantly find a way to counter his opponents and adjust his style that completely suited every situation.

The adaptive evolution took some time to study his opponent, but after familiarizing himself with the process, it became his second nature whenever he was fighting someone.

And with this, David seemed to have understood the style of his opponent completely and started dominating the battle one-sidedly in the span of three minutes.

But despite that being the case, he was still wearing a solemn look on his face. It was because using adaptive evolution was extremely taxing for his mind.

Observing his opponent, monitoring their movements, then predicting their next moves, then looking for the appropriate counter inside his head – these were the usual process when using adaptive evolution. It was extremely accurate after familiarizing himself with it.

But constantly using it in the battle put a lot of burden on his mental strength which was extremely exhausting.

And if he added the fact that he was constantly suppressing the Divinity Grade Mental Energy from getting out of control for an extended period of time, the mental and physical burden that he was currently suffering far surpassed his current limit.

But he did not have the choice. He had to persevere until everything was over.

He even forgot the consequence of being in the state of Limit Break for a long time. He just focused on the fight and poured everything into dealing with what was in front of him. He could think of what would happen to him later, but for now, he had to take down his giant as soon as possible before looking for Shiella.

During this moment, David’s extreme focus was starting to affect the battle. And he unconsciously built up a mental suppression that was unseen by him, by his opponent, and by the agents spectating the fight.

On the other hand, Gamma was starting to feel strange as the battle went on. He was clearly in a better state compared to David, but his brain could not process why he was on the losing end.

David was clearly in an extremely exhausted state while he was in his peak condition when the fight started. He should have the advantage and control the battle phase, especially when the time was against his opponent’s favor.

He could not understand how David was able to keep his calm while fighting someone like him. Especially when he was currently surrounded by his enemies from different directions.

Moreover, Gamma was starting to lose the fight as the battle progressed. He could not even land a clean hit on his opponent despite their current state.

Bang!

He was pushed back once again, forcing him to take a couple of steps back to stabilize his footing. He was about to charge back at David when he felt an intense chilling running through his spine.

Raising his head, he saw something that made his body freeze momentarily. He saw David’s eyes, which had mandala patterns on them, staring at him with a calm yet cold gaze.

Gamma felt that he was being seen through.

He felt that he could not hide anything from that gaze.

He felt that all of his secrets were being revealed one after another.

He felt naked in front of such a cold gaze.

He felt transparent.

He felt that he could not hide anything in front of David.

He did not know what was happening and could not process how it was happening. His mind was being influenced by the aura that David was emitting. He was being suppressed completely.

As an agent of the Hextech Laboratory, he was extremely confident in himself. Especially when he became one of the successful subjects of their experiments.

He was one of the strongest forces within the organization when facing people on the same level. He already accomplished a lot of things and even defeated a lot of talented individuals from different places.

And this was just one of his accomplishments, especially when he was facing the younger generation of some prestigious families.

Aside from that, he also developed his own martial path that completely compliment his strength. And with the help of his Evil Qi, he would be able to achieve greater things.

But all of it was nothing in front of David.

Every attack, every defense, every evasion – all of these crumbled in front of David. He was mercilessly being crushed one-sidedly.

Gamma could not understand. It was as though every movement David was taking was made to defeat him. Every step, every shift, every swing or thrust, even the slightest and tiniest details on his movements such as twitches were being seen through.

Whatever he did, David would always counter it with the simplest move and response. This was what the people watching the fight were seeing.

But from Gamma’s perspective, his flaw, his imperfection, and his weakness were coming to life. It was starting to hunt him as the fight went on.

He felt that David was able to see through his martial art and denied his martial path. Denied his success, accomplishments, and martial art.

His pride was slowly being crushed bit by bit.

His confidence earlier when he first challenge David was crumbling. He started to feel despair.

The true despair!

From Gamma’s perspective, David seemed to become the embodiment of his fear.

This phenomenon was not David’s intention. It was just the product of his adaptive evolution that countered his opponent and the mental suppression that he was releasing subconsciously during the battle.

Due to Gamma being countered constantly, the effects of the mental suppression took a massive effect on his mentality.

He was starting to lose his will to fight and was slowly giving up.

Bang!

Another attack crashed into Gamma’s gut, sending him flying away at tremendous speed. He collided with the edge of the crater, half buried in it.

Thud!

Slowly, his body slipped away from it before falling to the ground.

He still picked up his body and stood up due to his instincts and the influence of his evil qi. But instead of charging back to his opponent and resuming the battle, he just stood on his spot and stared blankly into the air.

He completely lost the will to fight.

He did not care anymore.

He had lost more than just the battle.

He was waiting for David to finish him off so that he could finally escape from this pit of despair. He wanted to end this suffering and horror.

David had no idea what happened to Gamma, but he did not refuse the ‘offer’. It was convenient for him, so he quickly charged forward and gathered his mental energy to his fist, planning to launch a powerful attack to end this.

He had to move fast since the opposing party had no intention of retaliating. He had to make it quick before the agents surrounding them and that guy with the alias of Hakuna recovered themselves from the shock and interfered.

Boom!

A spiraling punch packed with powerful force and dense mental energy landed on Gamma, who welcomed it with open arms.

The storm-like mental energy shredded Gamma’s body, turning it into a mist of blood. The punch also pushed forward and shattered the evil core that Gamma had, making sure that he would not be able to recover.

Then, silence enveloped the whole area as everyone stared at the scene with absentminded eyes. The agents did not know nor comprehend what happened to Gamma.

They could only stare blankly at David, who was the only one left standing in front of them. Even Hakuna could not understand what happened.

But one thing was for sure.

David had become something that they could not afford to fight.

……