Chapter 82: A Friend? In a Place Like This?

After Joshua left my apartment, I sat there on my bed, cross-legged, breathing and controlling my thoughts.

There were no monster crystals for me to absorb anymore, but for some reason, the maturing of my bloodline was messing with my thoughts.

All my thoughts were scrambled. I couldn’t focus on one thing. My mind would drift between different thoughts.

It didn’t take long for my mind to start aching. A headache, of course. That was exactly what I needed.

One…

After one hour passed, the system warned me that my bloodline was in the process of maturing. I had no idea what that was about, and I thought I’d just wait and see, but no.

I passed out. Or rather, my body was still moving somehow, but my mind and senses weren’t mine anymore. Like that primitive state I had entered before.

I woke up after who knows how many hours, probably not more than 5, since Joshua hadn’t shown up yet to call me for the fight.

My mind was still aching so much. I placed my hand on it, blinking a few times, trying to adjust my vision again. It was all blurry for some reason.

But then I realized my vision was much better than before. I could zoom in and see things from farther away, and I could even hear the guards in the corridor breathing.

When I looked down, the scars around my feet, where they had stitched them back after I cut them off, had vanished completely. Not just that, but my skin was… flawless?

It was like a baby’s skin, as if I had just been born and hadn’t suffered any pollution.

I got up from the bed and shadowboxed briefly just to see how my body felt. It felt much lighter. This couldn’t be just the increase in attributes from the monster crystals. The bloodline certainly improved my attributes again.

And I had no handcuffs on. Must have taken them off during the bloodline maturing process or something.

However, when I turned around, I saw how my bed looked.

Gross.

Dead tissue, like skin and even organs, was lying around. The skin-changing process was actually changing everything, not just my skin!

I was reborn, a completely renewed body! How could this be?

Joshua could show up any moment and see that mess and wonder what the hell was going on. I couldn’t let that happen.

Luckily, after my bloodline matured, I’d gained complete resistance to the liquid they injected to block my abilities.

So all I had to do was put all that mess inside my pocket dimension. There’d be no way for Joshua to find anything.

I aimed my palm at the bed and sucked all the skin and organs into the pocket dimension. The bed was partially clean, since there was no getting the blood out of the blanket, but that was easy enough to explain.

Joshua showed up an hour after I woke up. He was still anxious about the fight, scared I was going to lose. I, on the other hand, was completely confident. With my current power, killing 2 hunters at that level would be a walk in the park.

Before he arrived, I put the handcuff back on to pretend I hadn’t been able to get it off.

“What’s all this blood?”

That was the first thing he said when he walked into the apartment. Joshua frowned, immediately worried I was hurt.

“Relax, I’m fine,” I told him, calming his nerves. “It was just a test to check my vitality. I cut myself with my nail and waited for it to heal.”

Joshua remembered how I’d fought last time, so he knew my nails were more like claws.

“That’s crazy,” he said. “But looks like it worked. I don’t see any wounds on you. Impressive…”

“Anyway, ready for the fight? It starts in 5 minutes.”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

Joshua took me to the arena, stopping in that hallway right before the entrance. There, as usual, the referee and another guard came over to make sure I wasn’t going to try anything.

They injected that liquid to remove the ability blocker’s effect, which already had no effect on me anyway, so it was completely pointless.

“And now, the fight everyone’s been waiting for.”

The announcer, microphone in hand, began addressing the crowd.

“On one side, a fighter who only recently started but already has a passionate fanbase, and who displays exceptional and rather… peculiar abilities.

“The Basilisk.”

The referee shoved me into the arena the moment the announcer called my name. I walked in slowly and even waved to the crowd, who were cheering like crazy.

He was telling the truth. Apparently I’d picked up quite a fanbase after my first fight. I guess ripping someone’s head off in a place like this tends to make you popular.

“On the other side, two experienced fighters who are here today to test whether The Basilisk is as good as his fans think he is.”

“Stone Hands and The Midnight Stalker.”

That second name was pretty weird, honestly. But you know what was worse? I knew him…

The goddamn Midnight Stalker was none other than my good friend Ethan, who’d been with me back at the academy…

When our eyes met, the shock on his face was clear as day. Apparently he hadn’t seen my first fight, and I hadn’t seen his either.

How the hell was he here? Damn.

This changed everything. I’d gone into this fight planning to kill both of them and then find a way to escape. Ethan had probably gone in wanting to kill me and escape too.

But now we were facing each other. Meaning the fight couldn’t end the usual way. We’d have to find a way out without killing each other.

“All fighters here are exceptional, and even though it may seem like The Basilisk is at a disadvantage, we believe the fight is fair,” the announcer said. 𝖿𝖗ⅇℴ𝑚

My mind was racing, trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. And how the hell did Ethan already have power on par with a Rank A hunter? That’s what Joshua had told me.

If it was actually true, then he’d been hiding his power very well, and maybe he wasn’t a regular student at the academy. Was he some kind of infiltrator? Could I even trust him?

“Get ready, fighters. The match begins on my signal.”

There was nowhere to run. I kept my eyes on Ethan, trying to communicate something to him. From his expression, he wasn’t there to kill me.

“Fight!” The referee shouted, signaling with his hand as the match began.

The moment the referee gave the signal, Stone Hands showed everyone exactly why he’d earned that nickname.

His ability let him create rocks around his body, increasing his size and turning him into something like a golem. I could’ve sworn I’d seen something like that in a movie somewhere…

He came charging at me, each step booming across the arena floor. Just by looking at him, I knew I’d lose in a straight-up strength contest. Trading punches probably wasn’t the best idea.

But speed? I had him beat by a mile. Maybe because of the weight, but every one of his movements was way slower than mine.

Not to mention my senses had improved a lot after the bloodline maturation. I was a completely different person now.

He came at me and threw a punch. Light as a feather, I jumped straight up, used his head as a springboard, pushed off again, and sprinted toward Ethan.

I was so much faster than before, which threw the crowd off. They were used to seeing me fight at a certain level, and now I was clearly stronger.

“How is that possible? He got that much stronger in just a few days?”

“Maybe he was hiding his speed in the first fight? It’s not that unusual for fighters to do that.”

Theories were already flying around. I locked my focus on Ethan. I closed the distance fast and faked a claw strike.

I slowed it down enough for him to dodge or block, of course. Ethan conjured an illusion shaped like a shield, and it was so convincing it actually blocked my attack. His creations could already take physical form.

Was it something like my cube? Or maybe the illusion was just that good, and everyone thought a real shield had blocked me when it actually hadn’t. That was possible. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more that felt like the better explanation.

The moment I got close to him, Ethan whispered, “lower your mind’s natural defenses. If you do that, I can talk to you.”

Right. My bloodline was actively blocking any mental interference. I hadn’t even noticed, it was automatic.

Ethan created another illusion, making the ground beneath my feet look like mud, slowing me down.

And at the same time, naturally, he used his specialty and turned invisible.

Stone Hands had already closed in on where I was standing and hit me square in the back. I flew across the arena and slammed into the glass wall.