"Defeat my technique with technique?"
Hearing Jaden say this, Kaku Kaioh was stunned for a brief moment.
Then he laughed.
"You stinking brat... aren't you underestimating me a little too much!"
As his words fell, Kaku Kaioh leapt upward.
Mid-air, his body curled instantly into a tight ball. His knees rose to his neck, his arms spread wide, and for a moment, it looked as though he had simply lifted off the ground.
His movement was extremely fast.
To an ordinary person, it would have been impossible to clearly see what he was doing.
But Jaden saw it clearly.
Kaku Kaioh's upper body was leaning backward.
Both feet had aligned, toes pointed straight at Jaden's throat.
Aiming for the Adam's apple.
But-
This was not a simple kick.
Even as his torso arched back unnaturally, Kaku Kaioh's eyes never left Jaden.
His un-stressing strike had connected earlier and failed. That single exchange had already told him everything he needed to know.
At first, he thought Jaden's deflection was crude.
A very low-level application.
Complete relaxation. Pure reaction speed. No consideration of force direction. Just throwing the force aside.
Something anyone with good instincts could do.
But then he realized something.
Jaden didn't fully deflect the force.
He only redirected part of it.
The rest-
He endured.
He used the momentary un-stressing created by deflection to instantly activate an unknown hardening method and absorb the remaining impact.
Only then did Kaku Kaioh understand.
Jaden's deflection wasn't low-level.
It was deliberately simplified.
So-
Against such deflection, striking techniques were meaningless.
If un-stressing strikes failed, then most of his conventional blows would also fail.
In that case-
He would use the true inheritance of their side.
The Fist Arts.
His toes shot forward toward Jaden's throat.
At that instant, Jaden retracted his hands.
Kaku Kaioh seized the moment.
In mid-air, he kicked off his shoes and twisted his feet toward Jaden's hands, his toes hooking precisely around Jaden's little fingers.
At the same time, Kaku Kaioh's body shifted.
His hands formed a horse-stance guard.
His upper body sank sharply, as if crushed by a massive weight.
Meanwhile, his legs became weightless, flipping upward as his torso dropped.
Using his waist as the axis, he drove his weight downward.
With his feet gripping Jaden's hands, he pulled.
Jaden was yanked off the ground.
"Let me show you-"
Kaku Kaioh moved faster than his voice.
The moment Jaden lifted, Kaku Kaioh released his grip, drew his legs back to his chest, and completed a full backward rotation in mid-air.
Then-
Facing Jaden head-on-
He struck.
A punch straight toward Jaden's groin.
-An un-stressing attack.
Kaku Kaioh was confident.
Even suspended mid-air, even without footing, Jaden would still reflexively activate deflection.
His physique could endure most strikes.
But the groin?
Surely not.
Jaden's hand dropped, blocking the punch's path.
And Kaku Kaioh smiled.
-I was waiting for that.
His fist opened instantly, grabbing Jaden's wrist.
In that moment, he moved like a monkey.
Using the pull, he climbed onto Jaden's upper body before Jaden could land.
His knee pressed down on the shoulder of Jaden's defending arm.
One foot pinned Jaden's forearm.
The other foot snapped out, striking the inner elbow joint of Jaden's free arm.
Jaden's limbs were sealed.
At the same time, Kaku Kaioh clenched his fists.
Fist Arts required support.
And in this instant, Kaku Kaioh created it.
Jaden had no footing.
Kaku Kaioh, however, used Jaden himself as support.
His legs braced.
That force traveled through his waist, his spine, and into his arms.
Now-
All that remained-
Was to punch.
The window was fleeting.
But one moment was enough.
A double strike.
One fist smashed into Jaden's philtrum.
The other struck his glabella.
-Still un-stressing.
Kaku Kaioh believed he had seen through everything.
Jaden's deflection was crude because he didn't need refinement.
The strong didn't need high-level techniques reserved for the weak.
Crude deflection plus overwhelming physique was enough.
It allowed instant counterattacks.
No need to fully disperse force.
No risk of deflection failure due to power or space.
For the strong-
This was optimal.
But-
Martial arts are the claws used by the weak to defeat the strong.
The strong may wield those claws too.
But that doesn't change the fact that the weak possess them.
So-
Fall.
Strong One.
Kaku Kaioh was certain.
Jaden's hardening couldn't protect the philtrum or the glabella.
This strike-
Was decisive.
But then-
Something felt wrong.
The instant his fists landed, all his support concentrated on Jaden-
His center of gravity shifted.
The spectators had already realized it.
They were already preparing to shout a warning.
Kaku Kaioh couldn't see it clearly from his position.
But everyone else could.
The moment his punches landed, Jaden's body-still suspended-tilted backward.
But he wasn't deflecting like Kaku Kaioh.
Instead-
Using the Niko Style Secret Technique: Demon's Bane-
He redirected the force.
Straight down his torso.
Into his legs.
Kaku Kaioh had pinned Jaden's arms.
That much was true.
And Jaden had no intention of tearing free with brute force.
Nor did he activate Armament Haki.
Nor did he release stored energy.
But for Kaku Kaioh to believe Jaden's legs were also restrained-
That was a fatal misjudgment.
Jaden's right leg snapped upward like a scorpion's tail.
It struck the crown of Kaku Kaioh's head.
Pfft.
Blood sprayed from Kaku Kaioh's ears.
From his nose.
From the corners of his eyes.
His mouth flew open, blood spilling out.
His vision blurred.
The world distorted.
In that instant, Kaku Kaioh abandoned offense.
He pressed his entire weight onto Jaden.
His legs retracted.
His elbows flared outward, hooking tightly behind Jaden's wrists.
He dropped into a horse stance guard, clamping Jaden's arms against his waist.
His hands locked onto Jaden's hips, anchoring himself.
His forehead slammed into Jaden's sternum, preventing a headbutt.
His legs stepped down, pinning Jaden's knees and forcing him back to the ground.
Only after doing all of this did Kaku Kaioh begin to pant.
His brain was still shaking.
He needed time.
He had clamped Jaden's arms at the points of force generation.
At this distance-
Jaden couldn't unleash an inch-power strike.
At least-
That was how Kaku Kaioh understood it.
No matter how simplified inch power was, it still required contact.
A fist pressed against the body.
But-
Jaden didn't need that.
His hands were clamped.
So his fingers curved.
They retracted.
At that moment, Kaku Kaioh's danger sense screamed.
But it was already too late.
-Finger Gun.