Chapter 144| Arena 3 (I)

Chapter 144: Chapter 144| Arena 3 (I)

Zane woke at 6:10 AM, clean as a reset.

No stiffness, no ache in the legs, nothing left over from last night’s sprint for a rental scooter. Accelerated Recovery had done its job again.

Across the room, Dex was still down. Face in the pillow, one arm hanging off the mattress, snoring in a slow, steady rhythm that overlapped Gerald’s wheeze every twenty minutes like a bad duet.

Zane stepped over a stray boot and headed for the bathroom.

He took his time. Hot water first, then cold to wake the skin, soap, rinse, done. By the time he came out, the sky through the blinds had gone from grey to pale gold.

He stood in front of his clothes and thought about it.

Plain training gear, or the suit?

The Code Zero suit hung on its hook, dark green, contact reinforcement at both palms, the NSA emblem sitting quiet on the left chest.

’Nyx will be in her hero suit,’ he thought. ’She doesn’t do half measures.’

『 System Note: The host might be correct. 』

’Then it’s only fair I show up properly dressed.’

He pulled it on. The material settled over his shoulders and down his arms like it had been waiting. He flexed his fingers inside the palm reinforcement and felt the output channel line up. Good fit.

Dex snored on.

"Rest well," Zane muttered, and slipped out.

_ _

Arena 3 was smaller than Arena Two. Tighter floor, higher walls, a single observation window on the far side with the blinds drawn. The kind of space built for two people who didn’t want an audience.

He arrived at 7:48 AM. Early, for once.

Nyx was already there.

She stood in the centre of the floor with her back to him, rolling one shoulder, and then she turned.

Zane stopped three steps inside the door.

Her hero suit was black with steel-blue lines running along the ribs and down both arms, matching the blue of her hair. It was cut close, a second skin from the collar to the ankles, and it showed every curve it covered. The material strained across her chest, her large breasts filling the front of the suit with no room to spare, the seam at her waist pulling tight above the curve of her hips. When she shifted her weight, the whole figure moved with a slow, deliberate balance.

He had to remind himself to breathe.

’Right on the money,’ he thought. ’I knew she’d be in the suit.’

『 System Note: The host is staring. 』

’I’m assessing.’

『 The system will log it as assessing. 』

"You’re early," Nyx said.

"You’re earlier."

"I booked it." She tilted her head. "No instructors. No output logs. Just us."

"That was the deal."

"Good." She dropped into a low stance. "We don’t have much time, so let’s kick it off. Don’t hold back."

_ _

They started slow.

Zane activated Overdrive at B-rank 10%, a thin hum under his skin, the window opening and the floor sharpening around his boots. Anything lower would insult her. She was B-rank, and holding below that wouldn’t be a spar, it would be a courtesy, and she’d see through it in three exchanges.

He moved.

First strike, a straight jab at her shoulder. Nyx stepped aside by an inch and turned his arm with two fingers, a soft push that carried his whole weight past her.

He recovered. Came again. Low this time, a sweep at her ankle.

She lifted the leg half a beat before he committed. His own momentum swung him into a spin.

’She read that before I moved,’ he thought.

Third exchange, fourth, fifth. Each time the same result. His strikes slid off her like water off glass, redirected a few degrees, a few centimetres, enough that nothing ever landed and nothing ever needed to be blocked.

"You’re predictable," Nyx said, not unkindly.

"I’m holding back."

"You are." She circled him. "But it’s not the holding back. You telegraph through your shoulders. Left side, always."

He glanced at his left shoulder.

"I did not know that."

"Now you do."

He shifted his weight and she smiled. A small, barely-there thing, the kind that probably took her effort.

"Better," Nyx said.

Zane rolled his neck and reached for the third slot.

Kinetic Force sat quiet in his chest. Zero percent, no handle, no switch. He pulled anyway. It was like reaching for a light in a room with no wiring.

’Not yet,’ he thought.

He raised his palms.

Impact Breaker at B-rank 10%, controlled. A narrow shockwave aimed low at the floor between them, enough to unbalance, not enough to hurt.

Nyx stepped into it.

She didn’t dodge. She stood there and held out one hand, flat, palm forward.

The wave hit.

And stopped.

For half a second the air between them pressed like a held breath. Zane saw her forearm tremble, her jaw set. She was taking all of it.

Then she turned her palm outward.

"Catch," Nyx said.

The shockwave came back.

It hit him square in the chest. His boots left the floor. The world tilted, the ceiling swung past, and the mat caught him across the back with a heavy slap that knocked the breath from his lungs.

He lay there staring at the ceiling lights.

"Ow," he said.

"Good." Nyx’s voice came from somewhere above him. "You’re learning."

He turned his head.

She stood over him, one hand on her hip, blue hair swinging past her shoulder. The suit hugged her waist and thigh in a clean line, and the lights caught the steel-blue seams.

『 System Note: Let me spice things up. 』

Zane’s stomach dropped.

’Oh damn,’ he thought. ’I don’t like the sound of that.’

『 NEW QUEST UNLOCKED 』

『 Task: Touch Nyx Hale’s butt 』

『 Reward: +15% Gacha meter 』

『 Time limit: 24 hours 』

『 Penalty for non-completion: Accelerated Recovery suspended for 72 hours. All Sigil output ceilings capped at C-rank 0% during that period. 』

He stared at the notification.

’Seventy-two hours,’ he thought. ’No recovery, capped output. And she just threw me across the room.’

『 The system does not make threats. The system outlines consequences. 』

’Same thing.’

『 The system disagrees. 』

’Although,’ Zane thought, ’this is the first penalty you’ve given me that’s actually normal. Fewer consequences than usual.’ He frowned. ’But the reward is filling my Gacha meter?’

『 Only genuine intimate interactions fill the Gacha meter. Be happy the system is being of assistance. The system is being considerate for once, with a simple quest and minor backlash. Take this as a freebie. 』

’You call touching a girl’s ass simple?’ Zane thought, a short smirk tugging at his mouth.

Nyx tilted her head.

"Calloway," she said. "You look like you’re doing arithmetic." Cutting Zane’s conversation with the system.

"Just resting." Zane replied.

"Get up."

He lay there another second.

’This is going to be a very long spar,’ he thought.