The underground throne room trembled with the force of our first clash.
My claws sparked against his concrete arm, tail snapping across his ribs. His counterpunch landed like a landslide, flinging me across broken tiles. The impact rattled my bones. Dust poured from the ceiling like the city itself was choking on the fight.
I groaned, rolling to my feet, body already throbbing with bruises.
Su-Bin straightened, every inch of him wrong—his body rippling like clay, skin sprouting stone one moment, crackling with fire the next. He wasn’t a man anymore. He was a stitched-together mess of stolen lives.
"You think you can take me on, freak?" His jaw jutted as concrete formed along it, teeth grinding like rock on rock. One fist blazed to life, molten and merciless. "I built this city’s defenses with my blood. Without me, Seoul would’ve burned on day one!"
I wiped the blood off my mouth with the back of my hand. Pain lanced through my ribs every time I breathed, but I still smirked.
"Congrats. Want me to buy you a medal? Or just slap your face on the next missing poster?"
His eyes flared an unnatural red, glowing like stolen embers.
"Die."
He blurred. My gut clenched too late.
One heartbeat, he was across the room. The next, his fist buried itself into my chest with the weight of a battering ram. My ribs screamed, air ripping from my lungs in a choking gasp.
I hit the ground, vision sparking white. Instinct saved me—tail snapping out like a coiled whip, forcing him back just enough to buy me air. My claws dug into the cracked floor, dragging me upright.
"Okay... yeah, that one stung." I spat blood onto the ground, grinning wider through split lips. "But at least now I know you’re compensating. That many powers? You hiding something, Su-Bin? Short legs, maybe?"
His expression twisted, half fury, half madness.
Flames erupted from his shoulders, flaring like twisted wings. He looked less like a man and more like a devil perched on a throne he thought he deserved. His laugh was guttural, cruel, cracking through the chamber like thunder.
"You mock what you don’t understand. I’m a collector. A king. Every ability I take becomes mine to wield. I am Seoul’s salvation. I am its ruler. And you..." He pointed, flames licking down his arm. "...you’re just a mutation waiting to be put down."
"Funny." I crouched low, Junior’s energy pulsing hot through my veins. Every nerve sang with heat, every muscle coiled tight. "I was about to say the same thing about you."
I lunged.
Claws slashed through fire. My tail whipped out, cracking against his shin. He blocked with stone, but I twisted mid-swing, tail hooking his ankle. He stumbled. Perfect. My claws raked his chest, sparks flying as they tore through the ice armor forming too slow to stop me.
Blood spilled. Hot, real. His blood.
Su-Bin staggered back, eyes wild, and roared like a cornered animal. His chest flared with light—then *beams* of pure energy ripped out, scorching across the throne room.
"Whoa, what the—?!" I ducked, rolling aside as one beam sliced a support pillar clean through. Concrete groaned. "Lasers?! Really? What did you do, mug a superhero on your way to brunch?"
He stalked forward, beams firing wild, slicing walls and floor.
"Every man who fell became mine. Fire. Ice. Lightning. Speed. Stone. Even gifts that defy reason. I carry them all. And soon—" He sneered, his body glowing with overlapping sparks, frost, and stone. "...you’ll join the collection."
I vaulted high, claws digging into the ceiling, clinging like a spider. My lungs heaved, but adrenaline kept me sharp. I hissed down at him, grin feral.
"Difference between us, pal—you steal to survive." My claws flexed against the stone. My tail lashed. "I *evolve* to win."
I dropped like a meteor. Tail-first, claws forward.
Impact. The floor cratered beneath us. Dust blasted out in a storm. My tail smashed against his shoulder, claws ripping down his side. He screamed, voice warping—half beast, half tyrant.
But he didn’t fall.
His skin rippled again, stone sealing wounds, flames cauterizing gashes. The stench of burning flesh filled the air. His grin split wider, blood sizzling down his chin.
"See?" His voice was jagged, a fractured echo of every man he’d stolen from. "I can’t be killed."
I wiped blood off my cheek with a trembling hand. My ribs ached, my arms burned from his fire, but my grin sharpened.
"Good. Means I can keep hitting you until I get bored."
He lunged again, faster than before, speed surging through him. His punch slammed into my jaw, the impact rattling my skull. Stars burst across my vision.
But I forced my head back, blood dripping from my split lip. My grin never left.
"Nice. But you telegraph, dumbass."
My tail hooked his wrist, yanking him sideways. His balance broke. I ducked under his wild swing, claws slashing up. Flesh tore. More blood spilled.
He bellowed, heat erupting outward. The throne room became an inferno. Sweat poured down my face, fur singed. My lungs seared with every breath.
"Burn!" he howled, flames consuming him as he charged.
I staggered, vision wavering. Then Junior’s voice rang in my chest—steady, firm. *Don’t flinch. Don’t give him ground.*
I roared back, clawing gouges in the floor to anchor myself, then I surged forward. Fire licked my arms, burning deep, but I ignored the pain. My tail cracked like thunder, smashing against his skull.
Stone shattered. Blood poured down his temple.
He reeled, flames flickering. The stolen abilities faltered for a heartbeat.
I rasped through smoke and pain, grin sharp and unyielding.
"Still breathing? Good. Round two."
I lunged again. Claws against concrete. Fire against fur. His beams scorched walls, my tail deflected, my claws ripped through stone armor like wet paper. Every strike rattled the chamber, dust raining down from the ceiling.
Every blow wasn’t just survival anymore.
I wanted him broken.
I wanted him to feel fear. To realize Seoul didn’t need a king shackling it.
It needed monsters like me—monsters who tore tyrants from their thrones.
The ground split beneath us, cracks spiderwebbing like veins across the floor. Our roars drowned out everything—the prisoners screaming in their cages, Ji-a’s distant battle, even the collapsing ceiling.
And through it all, I knew—Han Ji-a was still fighting, still freeing them.
So all I had to do... was keep this bastard here.
No matter how much blood it cost.
Because if I fell, all of them fell.
And I wasn’t about to lose to a concrete clown with a god complex.