Isla felt Rhyssa's strength the moment she pulled on the cable.
First, the line was ripped out of his grip.
Then, with that same force, his feet were dragged off the ground, throwing his body backward and nearly smashing him into the dirt.
His back never touched the ground.
The cable stayed tight and kept pulling, dragging him straight toward Rhyssa like hooked prey.
Isla reacted quickly.
As his body flew toward her, he twisted his waist and aimed both feet at her head. He planned to use the momentum against her and land a crushing kick.
A smart move.
Too bad it was against the wrong person.
Rhyssa raised one hand and slapped both legs aside with sharp precision.
Thwack!
His attack was broken instantly.
With his body now wide open, Isla was pulled the rest of the way in.
Rhyssa's hand shot forward and clamped around his throat.
Her grip was tight. Cold. Absolute.
She lifted him half off the ground with one arm, then drove him downward.
Boom!
She slammed Isla into the soft earth below.
They stood in a marsh-like wetland where the surface looked dry in places, yet the soil beneath was damp and loose.
The dirt sank under the force of the impact.
Isla's body buried partly into the ground as the shock traveled through his bones and muscles.
'How... how...? This isn't the strength of a Stage Four warrior...' Isla thought, fear rising fast.
Rhyssa kept her hand around his throat.
She did not loosen even a little.
She held him down like a hunter pinning an animal.
For a moment, Isla's mind spun from the slam.
Then reality snapped back.
His airway was blocked.
Her fingers were crushing tighter around his neck.
He clawed at her wrist.
His chest burned.
Breath would not come.
'shit... I have to do something,' Isla thought.
His vision was beginning to blur.
Air would not enter properly, and every second under Rhyssa's grip made things worse.
He raised both hands and grabbed the wrist choking him.
Then he pulled.
He tried to tear her hand off his throat by force.
It did not move.
Rhyssa's grip was iron.
Isla lay flat on the ground, half sunk into the soft dirt, while Rhyssa knelt beside him with one knee planted firm for balance. She looked completely in control.
"What do you think you are doing?" Rhyssa asked coldly.
She raised her free hand.
Then she started punching.
Bang!
Her fist crashed into Isla's cheek.
Bang!
Another hit landed on his jaw.
Bang! Bang!
She kept striking his face with short, heavy punches.
The blows were hard. Strong enough to rattle most people senseless.
But there was one problem.
The ring.
Isla could barely feel any of it.
Pain did not register properly. The impact was there, but the suffering behind it was muted to almost nothing.
Because of that, he did not panic.
He did not flinch.
He did not waste time trying to block the punches.
Instead, he focused only on the hand around his throat.
He kept pulling.
Muscles in his arms tightened.
Veins rose.
His fingers dug deeper into her wrist.
Slowly... very slowly...
Rhyssa's grip began to weaken.
A thin line of air slipped back into his lungs.
Isla dragged in a rough breath.
Rhyssa noticed it at once.
Her eyes narrowed.
For the first time, surprise crossed her face.
She punched harder.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Still, Isla kept pulling.
Then with one sharp jerk, he ripped her hand off his throat.
He rolled his neck and sucked in air greedily.
Without giving her time to react, Isla twisted his body and drove his elbow upward like a hammer.
Bammm!
The strike smashed straight into Rhyssa's face.
Her head snapped backward from the impact.
Pain flashed across her expression.
Being quick with his movements, Isla pulled one leg back and kicked forward with all his force.
Boom!
His foot slammed into Rhyssa's chest and knocked her off him.
She slid backward across the soft ground, dirt scattering behind her.
Isla rolled to the side and sprang up at once.
His face was swollen.
Bruises had formed around his cheek and jaw. Small cuts marked his skin where her punches had split flesh.
He might not feel the pain, but the damage was real.
Blood still ran.
As Rhyssa steadied herself, Isla's thoughts raced over what he had just learned.
'This ring... it doesn't give strength.'
'It doesn't give speed either.'
'But it removes one of the biggest limits people have.'
'Pain.'
His eyes sharpened.
'Since I can't feel pain right now, I can push my body beyond what I normally allow.'
'I can swing harder.'
'I can run faster.'
'I can force my muscles past the warning point.'
'I can keep going when others would stop.'
The realization hit him hard.
If not for the ring, there was no way he could have strained himself enough to tear Rhyssa's hand from his throat.
His own body would have stopped him first.
But now those limits were blurred.
Meanwhile, Rhyssa had already recovered.
She planted one foot, kicked off the ground, and created distance between them in a single smooth motion.
Then she stopped and stared at him.
There was a thin line of blood running from her nose to the corner of her lips.
Isla noticed it immediately.
'hahh...' he rejoiced inwardly.
For the first time since meeting her, fear loosened its grip.
'Maybe the Synapse Circle are overhyped after all,' he thought.
But then, Isla noticed something.
Rhyssa was staring at him.
Not angry.
Not shocked.
Just watching him for longer than usual, as if she had finished measuring him.
"What?" Isla said with a grin. "You scared to attack now?"
The words had barely left his mouth when her suit responded.
From the metallic frame around her collar, tiny nano bolts shifted and crawled upward.
They spread across her neck, then moved over her face like flowing metal.
Piece by piece, they locked together.
Click. Click. Click.
A helmet formed over her head.
Only two narrow neon eyes remained visible, glowing through the mask like a machine that had chosen violence.
Then she moved.
No warning.
No wasted motion.
She shot toward Isla at high speed.
Fast.
Very fast.
She arrived in front of him and threw a straight punch.
Isla saw it coming.
She was quick, but not beyond what he could track.
He raised an arm and blocked.
Bang!
The instant their limbs met, Isla's expression changed.
The force behind the punch was monstrous.
He was blasted backward, boots carving lines through the ground.
He had barely flown a short distance when Rhyssa yanked the cable still lodged in his leg.
The line snapped tight.
His body stopped in mid-slide.
Then she swung her arm sideways.
Isla was dragged like a chained weapon and smashed into the ground.
Boom!
He bounced and rolled several times through the dirt.
But she did not stop.
Another violent pull came.
His body shot sideways again and crashed into a nearby tree.
Crack!
The trunk bent hard from the impact.
Roots tore partly out of the earth as soil exploded around them.
Before Isla could recover, Rhyssa pulled again.
He was dragged straight toward her through the air.
This time she prepared.
Qi flowed into her leg, and a dim neon light spread across the armor around it.
She twisted her hips and kicked upward.
Boom!
Her foot struck Isla cleanly.
He was launched into the sky like a ball hit by a siege hammer.
He shot upward.
Higher and higher, his distance from the ground widening with every second.
The trees below shrank.
The sky opened above him.
Then the cable around his leg tightened.
Before Isla could even understand what was happening, the line snapped hard.
He was yanked downward.
Fast.
Too fast.
His body became a falling weapon dragged by force.
Wind screamed past his ears as he crashed back toward the earth.
Boom!
Isla slammed into the ground.
The impact shook the wetland.
Dry-looking soil burst apart, but the damp dirt underneath exploded upward in heavy clumps. Mud and dust scattered in every direction, some of it splashing across Rhyssa's armored body.
The crater beneath Isla deepened.
He lay there flat on his back.
Eyes open.
Staring into the sky.
'I can't feel the pain... I can't feel it, but I can tell...'
'Most of my bones are shattered.'
The ring blocked pain, not reality.
He could not move.
Several joints were ruined or dislocated. His limbs refused to answer him.
His body felt distant, like it belonged to someone else.
All he could do was breathe shallowly and look upward.
Then a face entered his view.
Rhyssa stood over him, looking down.
The metallic helmet covering her head began to dissolve.
Tiny nano particles peeled away from the mask and flowed back into the armor around her neck and shoulders.
Her real face appeared again.
Cold.
Calm.
Barely bothered.
"That's a precious item you have there," Rhyssa said.
"But I guess you thought that just because you can't feel pain... you're invincible."
Her voice was soft.
Not kind.
The kind of softness used when speaking to something already broken.
"But you seem to have neglected something. Your ring only cancels pain, not damage. You may not feel the pain of a broken arm, but the damage is still there. Over time, your brain simply stops sending nerve signals to those ruined parts," she explained.
Her eyes then shifted to the wristband on Isla's arm.
'The item is even stopping the band from reading his true body condition,' she thought.
After Isla had suddenly overpowered her earlier, Rhyssa had done the one thing only the Synapse Circle could do.
She called out her system and ordered it to analyze the situation.
The result appeared at once.
[Your opponent is wearing an enchanted ring that cancels pain and slowly heals its wearer from injuries sustained while wearing it.]
That explanation cleared everything up.
Now she understood why Isla had kept moving as if her attacks meant nothing.
Rhyssa looked at the floating message once more, then back at the broken boy lying in the crater.
'With that ring on, the wristband will not remove him unless he activates it himself.'
She crouched slightly, her voice calm, almost gentle. That somehow made it worse.
"I do not like killing people, so I will offer you a deal."
She pointed at the wristband.
"Quit the tournament now. Leave on your own."
Her glowing eyes narrowed behind the fading lines of her armor.
"Or I kill you and send you out myself."