Chapter 156| Pressure Wave MAC II

Chapter 156: Chapter 156| Pressure Wave MAC II

The air in Arena One didn’t just shift. It thickened.

Ryan stood with both palms out, and the space around his hands bent like glass under strain. A pale shimmer spread from his fingers and didn’t fade the way the first wave had. It hung there, layered, one sheet of pressure stacked behind another.

"You wanted to see the trial version," Ryan said, his smile sharp. "That was the warm-up."

『 System Note: Ryan Castellan’s output has doubled. The system recommends caution. 』

’Doubled,’ Zane thought. ’So he’s been holding back.’

He didn’t wait to be told. He dropped Overdrive to a steady B-rank 20% and moved.

The first wave left Ryan’s hands thin and fast. Zane saw the ripple, read the angle, and cut hard to his right.

It missed.

Then the floor under his left foot heaved, and the second wave hit him from behind.

It slammed into his back and drove him face-first across the mat. His shoulder skidded, his knee scraped, and the world tilted in a smear of lights.

The gallery gasped.

"That’s the second one," Dex’s voice cried from the stands, thin with alarm. "He hides it behind the first!"

"I can see that," Maren hissed, gripping the rail in front of her.

"Then why didn’t he?" Nil said. She’d stopped smiling. "He saw the first wave and dodged it. That’s the trick."

"It’s a bait," Sera murmured, high on the left, so quietly that nobody heard.

Zane rolled onto his side and spat dust.

’The first wave’s the decoy,’ he thought. ’Dodge it and I’m standing exactly where the second one lands.’

『 System Note: Correct. The first wave carries roughly ten percent of the total force. The second carries the remainder. 』

’Thanks for the early warning.’

『 The system was recording. 』

He stood. Ryan hadn’t moved.

"Still with me?" Ryan asked, almost kindly.

"Still here," Zane said.

"Good." Ryan raised his hands again. "I’d hate for this to end early."

_ _

They went round again.

Ryan fired a thin wave, and this time Zane didn’t dodge it. He took the hit across his forearm, braced his weight, and let it skid him backward a step. The second wave arrived a beat later and met his shoulder instead of his back.

It still hurt. It hurt a lot less than the last one.

’Read it, take it, answer it,’ he thought.

He pushed off his heel and closed the gap in three strides. Ryan’s hands snapped up. A third wave tore across the floor, and Zane felt the charge building in his teeth.

Now.

He triggered Afterimage.

The window opened and snapped shut. A thin copy of him peeled away in mid-stride. The wave struck it and broke the air around it.

Zane slid under the follow-up, came up inside Ryan’s guard, and hit his chest with Impact Breaker at B-rank 10%.

The crack echoed off the walls.

Ryan skidded back four metres and caught himself with one hand on the floor. He coughed once, short and sharp, and a few people in the front row cheered.

"Second hit to Calloway," someone shouted.

"Is there a score?" Nil whispered.

"It’s a practice match," Maren said. "There’s no score."

"There’s definitely a score," Dex said.

Zane stepped back, breathing hard.

『 System Note: Afterimage cooldown has begun. Thirty seconds. The host will not be able to use it until then. 』

’I know.’

『 The system is simply reminding. 』

Ryan straightened. A thin trickle of sweat ran down his temple, and his side was clearly sore. He pressed a hand there and exhaled slowly.

"Okay," he said. "That one counted."

_ _

High on the left, Sera had gone very still.

Her eyes were half-closed, her chin tilted, her whole attention fixed on Ryan’s body. Heat Sense didn’t give her pictures. It gave her trails. Warm blurs of movement and tension that hung in the air like breath on a cold morning.

’There,’ she thought.

Ryan’s hands burned hot in her vision, a bright gold right before each wave. But the left side of his ribs, where Zane’s last hit had landed, ran cooler. Dimmer. He was favouring it. Not by much. By a half-inch of weight.

She lifted one hand and tapped two fingers against her own left ribs, once, slowly.

Down on the floor, Zane’s eyes flicked up for half a second.

He saw it.

He didn’t nod. He didn’t change his expression. But something in his shoulders eased.

’Left side,’ he thought.

『 System Note: Sera Dunne is transmitting intelligence. The system finds this very useful. 』

’She’s a good friend.’

『 She is also a Bound Target candidate. The system finds that very useful as well. 』

’Don’t.’

_ _

Vael hadn’t moved from the centre line.

She stood with her tablet against her hip and her free hand loose at her side. Her eyes followed both fighters without blinking, and her thumb rested lightly on the edge of the tablet where a single tap would call the match.

She’d watched the second layer come in. She’d watched Zane take it.

’He’s holding back,’ she thought. ’Not out of fear. Out of habit. He’s capping himself on purpose.’

She said nothing.

Ryan flexed his fingers and rolled his shoulders. The ripple around his hands returned, slow and heavy, until the air hummed with it.

"You’re better than the trials," Ryan said. "I’ll give you that."

"You’re better than the trials too," Zane said.

"Then we’re even." Ryan’s smile thinned. "Let’s end it."

He brought both hands together in front of his chest.

The air folded in on itself.

A sphere of compressed pressure formed between his palms, small at first, then growing, the surrounding light bending around it like a lens. The gallery went silent. Even the banner fluttering on the stairs seemed to hold still.

『 WARNING 』

『 Pressure Wave — Concentrated Compression detected. Estimated output: B-rank 60%. 』

Zane’s eyes narrowed.

’That’s well past my ceiling,’ he thought. ’Impact Breaker’s capped at ten. Overdrive tops out at forty.’

He glanced at the corner of his vision. The Afterimage cooldown read 11 seconds.

’Not ready.’

Vael’s thumb tightened on the tablet. Her eyes cut toward Zane.

He caught the look and understood it. One word from him, one lifted hand, and she would stop the match.

He didn’t lift his hand.

Instead he dropped into a low stance. He pushed Overdrive up to B-rank 40%, his full ceiling. The window snapped open, the arena slowed, and his heartbeat thundered in his ears.

’If I dodge, he fires again,’ he thought. ’If I wait for the echo, I’m too late.’

Ryan pulled back his arms.

’So I meet it.’

Zane planted his palm against the floor and pressed Impact Breaker down to the full length of his arm.

"Come on, then," he said.

Ryan released the sphere.