The background cheering noises fueled the opponents against each other. Kicks were thrown here and there, and punches darted to the face as if it were a cultural norm. And every time someone fell to defeat, students compared their gains to their losses by whatever amount they'd gambled on a student.
In just a few months, the arena hadn't only become a room of torture. It was also a room for opportunities. For weaker students who'd rather stay out of sight and bet all their money on who they assumed would win.
Honestly, it was a very lucrative business. The more reason why they all gathered here every Friday night in crowds, cheering on for blood and whatever bone they preferred being broken.
Silvic High students had always been this insane.
THWACK! Another blow to the jaw. I heard it from where I stood, a corner close to the exit door. At least this time, the match was balanced. A B-rank against another B-rank.
If anything, high tiers fought for honour rather than exploitation. To them, bullying wasn't a definition of force, but of ultimate domination. Low tiers wouldn't dare to raise their arms against them, even if they had a death wish.
And while I watched the two high tiers fight— trying my best to stay unnoticed— a bunch of guys walked in. About eight of them. They wore brown and black leather jackets, and oversized boots over pairs of skinny jeans.
Most of them held switchblades, and a few others just rested baseball bats on their shoulders. And leading them in was a guy sucking on a lollipop. Dark hair. Confident eyes. The way he calmly observed the place and smiled told me something about his profile.
They were all gangsters.
"I'm looking for someone!" He yelled as he removed the lollipop from his mouth.
The moment his voice echoed through the arena, the noise stopped. The fighting stopped. And just like that, he earned everyone's attention.
"Sorry to crash your fun." His voice was quieter now, not the least apologetic either way. "But I'm looking for a guy named Ren Mora."
When a group of gangsters walk into a dojo late at night, looking for you and even specifying your name— that's how you know that you're in big trouble. I just paused for a moment, trying to process what could've prompted this. As far as I knew it, I was still weak, too weak to start a fight with a gang.
Except..
Sancho.
Of course. After that one-time knockout hit from Aria, he'd decided to come after me instead for payback. And this time, he sent these guys? Technically, they looked stronger than him. Taller, more fit and mature. There was no way they were also at Sancho's beck and call, right?
"So, have you guys seen him?"
"I'm right here." I presented myself before anyone else could do it for me.
At that moment, I felt more than a hundred pairs of eyes latched onto me as I walked towards their leader. He smiled at me, the kind of smile you'd give after a full appearance assessment. It started to look gay-ish at some point, even the way he walked up to me just so I could see his ugly smile in 4K.
"So, you're the guy who beat up the boss's brother?" The ugly gang leader pats his lollipop on his lips. "Interesting."
The boss's brother huh? So I was right. This was about Sancho after all. Except that these guys were a crew of someone who was much more powerful than Sancho— probably.
"Man, I'm getting tired of this. First, Tyler. Then, Sancho. Now, his older brother?" I groaned and sighed at the same time. "Alright, so get to the point. What do you want?"
Lollipop guy snickered, his eyes widened like someone who sensed defiance. He shook his lollipop into his mouth, let it hang there for some seconds before pulling it out with an exhausted heave.
"Let's go." He commanded, then turned towards the door. "The boss asks me to bring you."
"I don't know whether you guys think you're characters in a book," I said, stopping him amid his steps. "But try using a better keyword, that one's outdated."
He turned to me, his usual halfway smile still plastered to his face. "How about I just beat you up before that?"
His men came forward, switching their blades, tightening the grip on their bats. The first one swung at me, a guy with dyed red hair who looked like he was still in the phase of fitting in. His blade swiped past my chin, missing by only a centimetre.
I dodged his next attempt for my neck, crouched down and threw myself against his torso while keeping my balance. Another guy rushed with a similar blade, aiming for my legs until I sidestepped and gave him a knee jab.
Everyone in the room exclaimed as the hit landed.
The third guy had a bat, and while he swung, strawberry hair was already regaining himself. I dodged the first bat swing, catching Strawberry's hand and knocking the knife out of it.
And then, BAM! A blow that sent him back to the ground. I barely managed to catch a dangerous swing before it hit my head. I pulled myself up and reached my fists for his head.
He yelled in panic, distracted enough for my opening. Then I grabbed his and connected it with my knee with a resounding WHACK!
Three down. Five more to go.
"Impressive." Lollipop's eyes were fixed on me like I was a television show he loved watching. "I can see why the boss wanted to deal with you himself."
I chuckled exhaustedly, arms still raised in the air. "You don't get tired of using the same keywords, do you?"
He signalled to the rest of his guys to come after, which they followed without hesitation. Four guys surrounded me. Two had blades. And the other two gripped onto bats.
I watched closely, my eyes keenly doing a compass study, trying to see who would attack first. And there it was, the twitching of a blade that missed a vital area. I threw my legs out at him, but I was too slow. He grabbed it and, SLICE! drew a sharp cut on my calf.
"Argh!" I groaned, pulling my legs back with whatever strength I had left in me.
I wanted to hold on to the bleeding area, but there was no time. More blades and bats came for me, trying to either slice or swipe me out of the way. I lost the balance on myself immediately, ducking downwards and letting the outcome decide itself.
CLANG! Wood sounded against metal as the knives clattered to the floor. I quickly rolled out from between them, bottling two of them down like bottles in a bowling competition.
As the third tried to reach for a knife, I hurtled myself against him, collapsing to the ground with him where he tried out his last, close effort to grab the knife but failed.
Maybe it was the sudden rush of adrenaline, but I somehow found the strength to turn him over. BAM! A punch followed the next, all aiming at his faintly scarred face. Gangster my foot. There were also a bunch of high schoolers who probably thought that they meant something important and feared.
"Useless, motherfucking bastards—"
CLANG!
The sound rang in my head like a really disturbing alarm. After that, I remembered hearing a loud noise from one side of my brain. My vision blurred and I slowly saw myself collapse to the ground.
The guy who'd hit me with a bat just stared down at me victoriously, probably excited that he got to me before I could knock out a few of his teeth.
"You wanted a cool keyword, didn't you? Well here's one," Lollipop wagged his candy in the air. "You're coming with me to see the boss." Then he looked up at the students who'd just been watching in complete silence. "Sorry for this. Carry on, people."
The moment he turned, two of his men held me up, grabbing either of my arms. BAM! I gave one an elbow jab, tossing a forearm into the neck of the other.
I didn't wait for the rest to come after me before I charged the lollipop guy. Take down the leader, hopefully the rest would back out. I leapt to throw a kick into his face. He grabbed my leg instead and threw me towards the exit door.
I stood, huffing exhaustedly. From behind me, I could hear someone panicking about how dead I was. Not bad. Except that I'd fought against people who were much stronger than him and survived.
Think Ren!
C5.
I lunged at him again, sidestepped his punch by a bare escape. My hand came forth to him, but he caught it and nudged my wrist forcefully. CRACK. I didn't wait for the pain to land, I aimed my left fist towards his torso, where his lower abdomen was supposed to be.
CRUSH! I invested every last energy into that punch, evident by the way his expression became sour. Then angry, the bitter look of a guy who'd reached the peak of his anger.
Then WHACK! I crossed my arms to block his punch's impact, but the force instilled into it still sent me skidding off a few metres from him.
"Maybe it's because you see me with these high schoolers." He said in a sheer attempt to catch his cool. "Is that why you underestimated me?"
"No. You're just weak." A familiar calm voice came from the door. I recognised it so much that it was annoying.
"King?"