Chapter 278: First Trial (2)

The incense continued to burn at a steady pace. A little less than a third of the coil was already ash.

The third warrior, the technician, stepped onto the active part of the slab without any wasted motion.

His stance was relaxed, almost inviting. Kane rolled his neck once, felt the controlled thread of Rage still sitting quietly under his skin, and settled into his own ready position.

Marisa’s voice carried faintly from the edge of the floor, just loud enough for him to catch.

"Three more. Stay clean."

Kane didn’t look at her. His eyes stayed on the technician.

"I know."

Kane kept the Controlled Berserker Output throttled at a steady thirty percent, enough to sharpen timing and add weight to every strike without flooding the slab with killing intent.

The technician opened with a probing combination, feints toward the eyes, a low kick to check distance, then a sudden straight blast aimed at Kane’s still-bruised ribs.

Kane caught the wrist, turned it, and answered with a short elbow that split the skin above the warrior’s brow.

Bam.

Blood ran freely down one side of the technician’s face.

He didn’t slow down and stepped in closer, trying to trap Kane’s arms and force a grappling exchange where reach and leverage would favor him.

Kane let him close the distance, then dropped his weight and drove a knee up into the technician’s midsection hard enough to fold him.

A clean follow-up strike to the side of the neck dropped the warrior to one knee. Kane locked the arm, applied pressure just short of dislocation, and waited.

The technician’s free hand slapped the pale stone twice, sharp and clear.

Kane released him and stepped back.

"Three."

[Controlled Berserker Output: 32%]

[Opponent 3: Submitted]

[Minor damage taken: bruised forearm]

A low ripple of comment moved through the terraces.

The pure-blood heads looked tighter around the mouth. Vorra’s representative leaned forward slightly.

The fourth warrior stepped onto the active floor before the technician had fully cleared it.

Tall, rangy, scarred across both arms and one shoulder, the endurance fighter. He carried no weapon either, only the kind of dense, tireless muscle that won by refusing to stop.

He came forward in a steady, grinding advance, absorbing a testing jab from Kane without visible effect and answering with a heavy series of body blows aimed at the same ribs Grathak had already damaged.

One of those punches landed solidly.

Pain flared bright and deep across Kane’s side.

He exhaled hard, felt the Controlled Rage rise another fraction to compensate, and shifted his angle.

The endurance fighter pressed, trying to keep him on the back foot, trading shallow cuts and bruises for the chance to wear him down. Kane stopped giving ground.

He stepped into the next exchange, took a glancing blow across the cheek that split the skin, and answered with a precise, powered strike to the fighter’s floating rib.

"AH—"

Something gave with a dull crack.

The rangy warrior’s breath left him in a rush. Kane followed immediately: sweep, mount, forearm across the throat, until the second set of open-handed taps hit the stone.

Kane stood, wiped blood from the cut on his cheek with the back of his wrist, and rolled the aching ribs once.

"Four."

[Controlled Berserker Output: 38%]

[Opponent 4: Submitted]

[Damage: rib contusion re-aggravated, facial laceration]

The incense coil had burned past the halfway mark.

Pale smoke continued to rise in a thin, steady column.

The watching council had gone quieter. Even the more hostile pure-blood voices had stopped their low commentary.

They were measuring him now in earnest, how cleanly he finished, how much damage he was willing to absorb without escalating to crippling force, how the throttled Rage never quite tipped into the uncontrolled killing pressure they had expected from a barbarian.

The fifth and final warrior stepped onto the slab with a restless, almost eager energy.

Smaller than the others, light on his feet, throwing knives already loose in his hands, the dirty-tricks specialist.

He didn’t wait for a formal nod.

The first knife left his fingers while he was still closing distance, aimed at Kane’s lead thigh.

Kane turned the blade with the flat of his forearm, felt the edge kiss skin and draw a thin line of blood, and kept moving.

The second knife came low. The third followed in a high feint. The smaller warrior used the throws to mask a sudden drop into a sliding takedown attempt aimed at Kane’s knees.

Kane hopped the sweep, caught the incoming wrist, and twisted.

The remaining knives clattered to the stone. The dirty-tricks fighter tried to bite, to gouge, to drive a thumb at Kane’s eye, exactly the kind of desperate, rule-bending scramble the style was built on.

Kane shut it down with brutal efficiency: a short knee to the solar plexus, a controlled elbow that opened the brow, and a final locking hold that put the warrior face-down on the slab with both shoulders pinned and no leverage left.

The taps came quickly this time, almost frantic.

Kane held the position a full second longer than strictly necessary, then released and stood.

"Five."

[Controlled Berserker Output: 35% → 0%]

[Opponent 5: Submitted]

[First Measure: Complete]

[Time remaining on incense: sufficient]

[Damage summary: facial cut, re-aggravated rib contusion, minor forearm and thigh lacerations]

[Assessment: Control maintained. Excess force minimal.]

Silence held across the terraces for a long moment.

Then the murmurs returned, lower, more thoughtful, edged with reluctant recalculation.

Vorra’s representative allowed herself a thin, satisfied smile.

One of the pure-blood line heads spat over the terrace rail but said nothing. Several war-chiefs who had been openly skeptical now watched Kane with the flat, professional attention reserved for someone who had just become a real variable, not a loud outsider.

The overseer stepped onto the edge of the slab, voice carrying cleanly.

"First Measure is concluded. The outsider forced submission from all five within the incense time, with no permanent crippling. No kills. The council has seen."

Kane bent, picked up one of the discarded throwing knives, and flipped it once before tossing it back toward its owner’s reach.

Blood still ran in a thin line from the cut on his cheek and from the shallow slice on his thigh. His ribs ached with every deeper breath. He made no move to hide any of it.

"Still standing. Still controlled. Still interesting. Go clean the blood off, barbarian. The second Measure will not be so tidy."

Marisa waited at the edge of the approach as Kane climbed the short steps back up from the slab. Her eyes flicked over the fresh cuts and the way he favored the left side of his ribs, then returned to his face.

"You stayed clean."

"That was the point."

"The pure-bloods wanted you to lose control. You didn’t give them the excuse."

She glanced toward the high seat where Grathak still watched.

"He is entertained. That is both useful and dangerous. The second Measure will be designed to push harder."

Kane accepted a clean cloth from a waiting attendant and pressed it to the cut on his cheek.

"Let it. I’m not finished yet."