Chapter 82
The cage was bathed in red and gold light as the two auras pressed against each other, and the air between Elijah and Jack grew thick with the weight of their power.
The Vice Leaders had pressed themselves back against the walls, their faces illuminated by the glow, their eyes wide as they watched the two young men who stood at the center of the storm.
Jack moved, and the difference between his enhanced speed and his unenhanced speed was immediately apparent to Elijah because the punch that came at his face was faster than anything Jack had thrown before.
Elijah's Ki sense screamed at him, and he threw himself to the side, the fist passing through the space where his head had been with enough force to make the air crackle.
He answered with a punch of his own, his red aura flaring as his fist drove toward Jack's ribs, but Jack's body twisted away from the strike with a fluid grace that seemed almost effortless.
The gold aura around him pulsed with each movement, and his red eyes tracked Elijah's every shift of weight with an intensity that made Elijah's Ki sense hum with warning.
They clashed in the center of the cage, and the sound of their fists meeting echoed through the room like thunder.
Elijah's enhanced strength pushed his effective stats to ninety, but Jack's effective stats were one hundred and ten, and that twenty-point difference in Strength made itself known with every exchange.
When Elijah blocked Jack's punches, his arms rang with the impact and his bones ached from the force.
When Jack blocked Elijah's punches, his guard held firm and his expression did not change.
Elijah threw a combination of his own, a jab and a cross and a hook that he had drilled thousands of times during his weeks of training.
The jab glanced off Jack's shoulder, the cross hit his forearm, and the hook caught him on the side of the head.
The impact was solid, and Jack's head snapped to the side, but he turned back immediately with a smile on his face and a gleam in his red eyes that spoke of enjoyment rather than pain.
He answered with a kick that caught Elijah in the thigh, and Elijah's leg buckled beneath him as the force of the blow traveled up through his hip and into his spine.
He dropped to one knee for a moment before pushing himself back up, and his Ki sense warned him of the next attack before Jack's muscles had even finished contracting.
Elijah raised his arms to block the punch that came at his face, and the impact drove him back three steps toward the ropes.
He caught himself before he hit the steel mesh, and he pushed off with everything he had, throwing himself at Jack in a desperate counterattack that caught the larger man off guard.
His fist connected with Jack's stomach, and Jack exhaled sharply as the air left his lungs.
His next punch caught Jack on the jaw, snapping his head to the side and sending a spray of blood from the cut above his eyebrow.
His third punch hit Jack in the chest, and Jack stumbled back a step, his gold aura flickering for just a moment.
Elijah pressed his advantage, driving forward with a series of punches that came faster and faster as his adrenaline surged.
He was faster than Jack now, his Agility of one hundred and three giving him an edge over Jack's one hundred and ten because the seven-point difference was smaller than the twenty-point gap in Strength.
His fists found openings that should not have existed, slipping through Jack's guard to land on his ribs and his stomach and his shoulders.
Jack retreated toward the ropes, his gold aura flickering with each hit, and for a moment Elijah believed that he might actually win.
He threw a punch at Jack's face with everything he had left, and the impact was solid and satisfying and Jack's head snapped back and his eyes went wide.
Then Jack's hand shot out and grabbed Elijah's wrist.
His grip was like iron, and his gold aura flared bright as he stopped Elijah's momentum completely.
Elijah tried to pull back, but Jack held on, and his red eyes burned with an intensity that made Elijah's Ki sense scream with warning.
Jack pulled Elijah forward and drove his forehead into Elijah's face.
The impact was brutal, and Elijah's vision went white as pain exploded through his skull.
His nose cracked, and blood poured down his face, and his grip on his Ki sense faltered for a crucial moment.
Jack released his wrist and drove his palm into Elijah's chest, and Elijah flew backward across the cage, his body bouncing off the canvas before he came to a stop against the ropes.
He pushed himself up, his hands shaking, his vision blurred, his blood dripping onto the canvas beneath him.
Jack stood in the center of the cage with his gold aura blazing and his red eyes fixed on Elijah, and he was not even breathing hard.
"You almost had me there," Jack said, his voice calm and steady. "For a moment, I thought you might actually win."
Elijah did not answer because he could not. His nose was broken, and his ribs were screaming, and his body was telling him to stay down. But he pushed himself to his feet anyway, and he raised his fists, and his red aura flickered around him like a dying flame.
Jack attacked again, and this time there was no testing and no holding back. His fists came at Elijah in a blur of motion, each punch faster and harder than the one before, and Elijah's Ki sense screamed at him to move but his body was too slow to follow.
He blocked some of the punches and dodged others and took the rest, and each impact drove him closer to the ropes and closer to defeat.
A punch caught him on the cheek, splitting the skin and sending blood spraying across the canvas.
A kick landed on his thigh, buckling his leg and sending him stumbling sideways. An elbow drove into his chest, and he felt something crack inside him as the air left his lungs.
He fell to one knee, his hands pressed against the canvas, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
His red aura flickered and died, then flickered back to life, then died again as his body struggled to maintain the enhancement that was pushing it past its limits.
Jack stood over him, his gold aura bright, his red eyes looking down at Elijah with something that might have been respect. "Get up," he said.
Elijah pushed himself up, his legs shaking, his arms trembling, his vision swimming. He raised his fists, and his red aura flickered around him like a candle in the wind.
Jack attacked again, and Elijah's Ki sense read the trajectory of the punch that came at his face. He ducked under it, drove his shoulder into Jack's chest, and wrapped his arms around Jack's waist. He lifted with everything he had left, and Jack's feet left the canvas, and Elijah drove him backward into the ropes.
The steel mesh groaned under their combined weight, and Jack's gold aura flared as he tried to push Elijah off, but Elijah held on with a grip that was desperate and fierce and unwilling to let go. He drove his knee into Jack's stomach once, twice, three times, and each impact made Jack's aura flicker and his breath catch.
Jack brought his elbow down on Elijah's back, and the blow drove Elijah to his knees. Jack brought his elbow down again, and Elijah's vision went white. Jack brought his elbow down a third time, and Elijah's arms loosened and his grip failed and he fell forward onto the canvas.
He lay there with his face pressed against the bloodstained canvas, his body broken and his aura gone and his breath coming in shallow gasps.
He tried to push himself up, but his arms would not respond. He tried to move his legs, but they were dead weight beneath him. He tried to summon his Ki, but his chest was empty and cold.
Jack stood over him, his gold aura fading, his red eyes soft. He was bleeding from a dozen small cuts, and his breathing was heavier than it had been at the start of the fight, but he was standing and Elijah was not.
"You fought well," Jack said. "Better than anyone I've faced in a long time."
Elijah did not answer because he could not. His body had nothing left to give, and his mind was swimming in darkness, and the only thing he could feel was the cold canvas beneath his cheek and the warmth of his own blood spreading across the floor.
The Vice Leaders were on their feet now, their voices distant and muffled, their faces blurred shapes in Elijah's fading vision. Kai was shouting something, and Henry was trying to climb through the ropes, and Aurora was holding him back with her arms around his chest.
Jack knelt down beside Elijah, and his red eyes were close now, close enough for Elijah to see the exhaustion hidden behind them. "Rest now," Jack said. "You've earned it."
Elijah's eyes closed, and the darkness took him, and the last thing he heard before the world went silent was the sound of Jack's footsteps walking away across the canvas floor.