Shinya lunged forward once more, as if trying to cast off the weight of the past. His invisibility was no longer as fluid as it used to be; his body flickered in and out of sight, moving in a disjointed manner under the dim streetlights. His rage was forcing his ability to its limits, making his attacks unpredictable yet equally unstable.
Sard, however, remained purely on the defensive. He evaded Shinya's air-piercing punches and sharp kicks with small, subtle body movements. There was neither fear nor seriousness on his face; his gaze was entirely focused on his opponent, yet it held no emotion. Every move Shinya made missed its mark, and Sard slipped away from strike range every time with an unshakable calmness.
After several failed attempts, Shinya thought to himself, "Why... Why can't I land a single blow on him?" Grinding his teeth, he lunged again, but the result remained the same. Finally, he roared in fury:
"If you're so damn good, why aren't you fighting back?"
Instead of evading another punch coming toward him, Sard caught it in mid-air this time. The hand that gripped Shinya's wrist instantly halted his opponent's entire movement. Sard slowly turned his gaze to Shinya's eyes and began to speak with his habitual coldness.
"I don't crush those who are weaker than me, unlike you."
Shinya was momentarily stunned by these words. Sard suddenly released Shinya's wrist. Driven mad by the impact of this heavy insult, Shinya began to throw both his fists one after another, but now Sard was intercepting every blow in mid-air.
"Pathetic," Sard said, his voice carrying the tone of a lecture. "You are so inexperienced and so foreign to your own ability, Shinya... You haven't even noticed that you haven't been invisible for a while now. You are completely visible right now."
Shaken by what he heard, Shinya scrambled back quickly. He was out of breath, sweat streaming down into his eyes. He looked at his trembling hands; he had indeed lost control of his ability. "Do you think you're superior to me?" he asked, a short, irritating laugh escaping him as his voice quivered. "We are both B-Rank. How much of a difference do you think there is between us?"
Sard stood his ground, maintaining the distance between them. "You still haven't understood how your own clan works. You couldn't have failed to notice how those who offer unconditional obedience are rewarded, while those who are truly strong are kept down just because they don't obey."
Grinding his teeth, Shinya shouted, "What are you rambling about?" but his voice no longer sounded as certain as before.
"Do you really believe you are B-Rank, Shinya? The only reason is that Alric likes you. Everything was done just so you could maintain your authority over me and so that your loyalty to him wouldn't waver. That rank is a gift given to you." Sard paused for a moment, the disgust in his gaze deepening. "But then again... you already knew all of this. You were right at the center of all that filth, all that evil. You are at the very top of those who crush people."
Shinya's face turned stony. As he retreated into the shadows, Sard asked:
"What are you going to do now, I wonder?"
At that moment, a metallic glint appeared in the darkness. The instant Sard noticed the light at the tip of the barrel, he pivoted with a sudden body maneuver, moving to the side.
BANG!
Sard had narrowly avoided the bullet, but it tore through the fabric on his shoulder. Sard stopped and looked at his torn clothing. The fact that Shinya was still resorting to such foul, demeaning ways turned his disgust into a cold anger mixed with pure hate.
Driven by madness, Shinya screamed, "Die!" as he began to pull the trigger repeatedly.
Sard began to run in zigzags toward Shinya to evade the bullets in the narrow alleyway. Just as he was about to come face-to-face with Shinya, he leaped with a powerful move and landed on Shinya's other side. He landed right next to the motionless bodies of Fast and Lena.
Shinya stopped abruptly. He had lost his target, but this time he pointed the barrel not at Sard, but at Lena lying right beside him.
"Let's see what you'll do now!"
In the split seconds before the trigger was pulled, the gap between them vanished as if it had never existed. When Sard reached Shinya's side, he swung his right hand like a sharp whip against Shinya's gun-holding hand. The sound of bones cracking broke the silence of the street as the gun flew out of Shinya's broken fingers and vanished into the darkness.
Shinya stumbled back in pain, staring at Sard in absolute terror. Sard, fixing that dark gaze into Shinya's eyes, spoke his final words:
"It ends here. You won't be able to hurt anyone anymore."