Chapter 217: Choice!
THUD!
As Ren's heel slammed down, blood erupted from Dorian's nose and mouth, spraying
outward in a fine mist before falling like heavy raindrops.
Drip... drip... drip...
Tiny crimson flowers bloomed across Dorian's bloodshot vision. In the next
heartbeat, his glazed eyes suddenly snapped into focus. His massive frame drove
off the ground, lunging forward with the primal ferocity of a wild beast.
"GRAAAH!"
Dorian drove his back foot into the asphalt, roaring as he unleashed a
desperate, heavy-handed punch.
But Ren Shiroki was ready. He raised a knee to parry the blow, immediately
pivoting to swing his right elbow horizontally, catching Dorian flush on the
jaw.
[DRIVE IMPACT: TIGER'S RETRIBUTION]!
CRACK!
A hairline fracture spiderwebbed across Dorian's mandible. He stumbled back
several paces, his balance shattered. With a heavy THUD, he collapsed onto his
back.
"Hm—"
Gaolang looked up, studying Ren's form with intense focus. He couldn't help but
offer a word of praise. "Clean Muay Thai. But unlike mine... his style is far
more radical. It's aggressive to the point of obsession."
Retsu Kaioh added from the side, "And he's doing all this while still under the
influence of hypnosis. He's fighting a 'Stronger Phantom' in his mind—he hasn't
even begun to unleash his true potential against the real Dorian."
"Allow me to break the trance—"
Retsu prepared to clap his hands to snap Ren out of it, but he was suddenly cut
off by a sharp roar.
"RETSU-SAN! DON'T!"
Ren Shiroki's hands reached forward into the empty air, performing a "clinch" on
a ghost. He twisted his core, shaking the "Phantom Dorian" violently to destroy
its center of gravity.
"Breaking a hypnosis with someone's help? Where's the fun in that?!"
[ENGINE]—MAX OVERDRIVE!
Ren's pupils vibrated with terrifying intensity. A few drops of blood leaked
from his nose as the red veins in his eyes tightened like iron chains. His
conscious will reached its absolute peak.
By completely purging his "unconscious self," the illusions before him began to
wither. The silhouette of the "Phantom Dorian" grew blurred and translucent.
Using the hypnosis as a catalyst, the ink-wash lines of the Hub swirled,
outlining Dorian's form only to be shattered by Ren's violent shaking.
"TAKE THIS!"
BOOM!
Ren drove a knee into the face of the "Phantom Dorian" and slammed it into the
ground. A massive wave of ink-wash lines erupted from the impact.
...
Because it was a phantom, there was no sound in the real world.
But in Ren's eyes, the silhouette of the phantom had finally merged with the
real Dorian on the floor. Their movements, their wounds, and even the
bloodstains were now perfectly synchronized.
"Hah... hah..."
Ren panted heavily. His head felt like it was filled with lead, the manic
adrenaline finally beginning to taper off. "The hypnosis... is broken."
"..."
Dorian rose slowly, clutching his blood-slicked nose. His entire body was
screaming in pain. He spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at Ren with a look
of pure, unadulterated confusion. He couldn't comprehend how someone had broken
his hypnosis through sheer, individual willpower.
Especially a fighter with such a hyper-vivid imagination!
"Nothing to be surprised about, Dorian-dono."
Ren tapped his temple, his bloodshot eyes wide and focused. "It's a crowded
house in my head. Your level isn't high enough to sign the lease!"
Dorian, baffled by the explanation, instinctively moved to counter. He drove his
back foot into the pavement, lunging with a straight punch.
Zip!
The moment Dorian swung, Ren performed a sliding evasion. He met the attack with
a horizontal straight, his fist smashing into Dorian's face. Before the giant
could even recover, Ren exploded forward again.
[DRIVE RUSH]!
WHOOSH!
Ren's hands locked behind Dorian's head. He drove a rising knee upward, the
impact launching the massive convict into the air. Dorian's huge frame hung
suspended in the night sky for a heartbeat.
"HYAH!"
Ren timed the descent perfectly. He lunged forward before Dorian could hit the
ground, driving a mid-air knee strike directly into the giant's solar plexus.
BANG!
"GUUGH—!"
Dorian vomited blood, his eyes rolling back. Ren caught him in a clinch again,
shaking him violently to break his recovery frames before tucking the giant's
head under his arm.
"—!"
Lihito gasped. "Is that a Wrestling Guillotine?!"
"No. It is a technical clinch from the inner-circle of Muay Thai," Gaolang
explained, his hands mimicking the motion. "The left arm threads under the
opponent's armpit to control the shoulder, neutralizing the arm's ability to
defend the torso."
"The right hand controls the neck, while the chest is pressed tight against the
back of the opponent's head, driving it downward."
"In this position, the opponent's abdomen is completely exposed. The only
follow-up... is the Knee!"
"DIE!"
Ren unleashed two consecutive knee strikes to Dorian's gut, each hit heavier
than the last.
Ultimate Art: [SAGAT'S TIGER BRUTALITY - SWING]!
THUD! THUD!!
Ren finished the sequence with a hip-twist throw, slamming Dorian into the
ground behind him.
CRASH!!
Dorian's body slammed into the corner of a courtyard wall. The entire structure
groaned under the impact, masonry crumbling and burying the giant under a pile
of bricks.
"Gah... hk...!"
Dorian coughed up a spray of crimson, leaning trembling against the ruins of the
wall. Through his blurred vision, he could see the masters in the Hub.
His gaze settled on Doppo Orochi.
Dorian had thought that if he fought the "Bushin"—the man who had dedicated
every second of his life to Karate—he could finally achieve his dream. He wanted
a defeat so absolute that there were no "what ifs." He wanted to accept reality
with a clear soul.
But now?
Now... this?!
Dorian tightened his fists, pulverizing a brick in his grip. He glared at Ren
Shiroki with pure hatred. This "collector" of styles was, in Dorian's eyes, his
"same kind"—a man who sought strength through a vast repertoire of techniques.
Dorian absolutely refused to lose to someone like Ren. To lose to a "mirror" of
himself would be a humiliation he couldn't survive!
"This... this kind of..."
Dorian's voice was a raspy, bloody croak. He didn't finish the sentence. This
isn't the defeat I wanted! I want to accept reality, not be humbled by a junior
who uses the same methods as I do!
"Hyaaa!"
Dorian swung his limbs wildly as a distraction. Suddenly, he leaned forward and
spat a mouthful of blood and broken teeth directly at Ren's face.
Splurt!
Dozens of jagged tooth fragments whistled toward Ren, but the youth raised his
forearms in a tight military guard, blocking the biological shrapnel. A few
shards embedded themselves in his skin.
"Heh... a CQC defensive posture. How nostalgic..."
Dorian panted, a dark realization forming in his mind. "I've always wondered..."
He wiped the blood from his lip, locking eyes with Ren. "What happens to a
'Special Move' after it's been broken once? Does its effectiveness simply
vanish? Or... does the encore carry more weight?"
Ren tilted his head. "Why don't you try it and see? It would be a shame to let
your masterpiece die of loneliness."
"As expected of you."
Dorian tuned his breathing and snapped his fingers. "Then let us resume... my
Hypnosis."
SNAP!
At the sound, the "Dorian" in Ren's eyes moved. He lunged forward with a heavy
punch.
Zip!
Ren sidestepped and dropped into a crouch, evading a follow-up scan-kick. After
two exchanges, the ink-wash lines began to swirl. Ren's pupils quivered as he
tried to merge the hallucination with reality. He saw through the lie and
tracked Dorian's real movement.
But in that exact micro-second, Dorian's hand swept across in a spear-strike.
His sharpened fingernails caught Ren's chest.
SHINK!
Thanks to his reflexes, the cut was shallow, but a thin red line appeared across
Ren's torso, beads of blood beginning to well up. Dorian had spent years filing
his nails into surgical blades—a hidden trick he had saved for the finale.
"You saw through it in only two moves?"
Dorian nodded, his tone shifting. "In other words... the hypnosis isn't
'ineffective.' It still forces you to process a lie, slowing your judgment. I
have all I need now."
The masters in the courtyard realized the danger instantly. Dorian was going to
use a continuous stream of hypnotic cues to saturate Ren's mind, creating a
blizzard of feints to mask one lethal, finishing blow!
Doppo narrowed his eyes. "The essence of Dorian's hypnosis is the exploitation
of a fighter's psychological gaps. To a man like Ren-kun, it's not hard to
break. But..."
"Even so, the influence remains. If Dorian uses rapid-fire cues, Ren will see
dozens of phantoms simultaneously. Identifying the real strike amidst a forest
of lies... that is the challenge!"
Dorian pressed the assault, his fingers snapping repeatedly, weaving a tapestry
of illusions around Ren.
Bang-pow-thud!
A three-hit combination of heavy punches began to dismantle Ren's guard.
Finally, at the moment of a perfectly timed hypnotic cue, Dorian found the
opening he was looking for.
"Hah!"
BOOM!
A Horse-Stance Shield Strike buried its palm-root into Ren's stomach. Ren was
launched backward, his spine slamming into a street-side lamppost with a
deafening metal groan.
CRACK!
The concrete base of the post shattered. Ren clutched his gut, a metallic taste
filling his mouth as he coughed up a spray of blood. A Kaioh's palm-strike was a
terrifying thing; the force had penetrated entirely through his body, leaving
his mind in a daze.
"Hah... hah..."
Ren spat out a blood clot, his consciousness accelerating to the point of pain.
"I decided I wasn't going to let the 'Satsui no Hado' haunt me... but at this
stage, it wouldn't hurt to be a little bit more cunning, would it?"
"The Satsui no Hado... the resolve to end a life."
"I can face it now. I can look it in the eye."
Ren's bloodshot eyes widened, tracking Dorian's every micro-twitch. The convict
snapped his fingers again, an ambiguous cue that could have been another
illusion. Dorian stepped forward, his blade-like nails ready to carve Ren open.
But Ren felt it!
In that moment, a thousand different counters flashed through Ren's mind—until
they all coalesced into a single, singular Straight Punch.
This punch was saturated with the Satsui no Hado. It carried the absolute,
unwavering resolve to terminate the life before him.
Yet, that resolve didn't command him. Nor did he resist it. It simply... was. It
existed as a fixed point in his soul. Using that point as a coordinate, an
infinite map of possibilities opened up before him, waiting for his command.
This was the "Choice."
"HYAH—!"
Ren used that dark resolve as a lens. He saw through the flickering illusions of
the hypnosis, tracking Dorian's real hand. He fired a perfect "Straight Punch."
The strike tore through the hypnotic mist, colliding directly with the four
extended fingers of Dorian's left hand.
36 trillion cells fired in a perfect, cellular symphony—[STRIKE AT THE APEX]!
BOOM!!!
Dorian's fingers were pulverized instantly. He let out a shriek of pure agony,
clutching his mangled hand as he stumbled back.
STOMP!
Ren's foot hit the pavement. A thousand techniques flashed before his eyes, but
the fog of hypnosis was gone. He felt incredibly clear.
The "Resolve to Kill" born of the Satsui no Hado had become his reference
point—his "zero coordinate." From that origin, he could see every path, every
branch, and every counter. He could now freely select the exact outcome he
desired.
He used the "Killing Intent" to see the enemy's end, but he remained the one
holding the wheel.
Therefore, this technique was named... [SATSUI CHOICE]!!
(End of Chapter)
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