Leon walked to the arena feeling hollowed out and razor-sharp. But the calmness he saw on the crowd's faces tore at him a little.
Then, as he moved to where the light touched, the crowd's noise hit him like a wall of jeers and mocking laughter, piercing through his skin and vibrating in his bones like a bomb blast.
This event was the one everyone had been waiting for. The very fight all the proctors, both male and female, wished to see.
The Dusthollow rat versus the undefeatable, manic Kang, T (Tiger). As he tore his gaze to the crowd, he noticed the empty seats he saw at first now occupied.
Not only was he amazed by the occupied seats, but by the number of people he saw standing at the pathway, pointing their arms at the arena and smiling.
'So, everyone wants me dead. Huh!' He thought as he saw Zoe's face through the crowd. "I can see they want to see me get slaughtered instead of fighting." He sighed and shook his head.
Slowly, he placed his right foot on the platform. In that instant, the silver lines that didn't glow glowed faintly beneath his feet and hummed with a mixture of alien and familiar pulses of energy.
The barrier shimmered into place and sealed him in. Raising his head, Leon saw Tiger, swaggering like a predator standing atop its prey.
Upon every hand Tiger raised, the crowd roared in adoration. The moment Leon's eyes locked onto Tiger's, he saw a wide smile tear across Tiger's face.
Slowly, Leon began to move, one step after another. But with every step he took, the crowd's insults kept on rising, almost as if moving forward was fuel powering them.
Their words weren't affecting him until he heard them mention his mother and little sister.
In that instant, he paused and shifted his gaze swiftly toward the angle from which he heard it and frowned.
"I hear your little sister has her mother's eyes," Tiger's voice echoed in a conversational and vicious tone.
"The blind one. I wonder if she'll scream when I pluck them out." Tiger gestured toward Leon with two spread fingers. "Will she even see it coming?"
Leon's heart skipped, causing his skin to dry up instantly. The words that seemed to be for his ears struck him in the soul and mind.
An image flashed in his mind: helpless and terrified Lily. Just as it faded, the golden energy within Leon roared to life like a fury begging to be unleashed.
Swiftly, light flickered around his knuckles, followed by a crackling sound as he clenched his hands into fists. The more he forced himself to contain the fear and power in him, the more the crowd's laughter grew.
As he tried to forget about his family and the crowd, Mr. Lee's voice echoed in Leon's head in a clear tone. He will speak of them. Your anger and pain are his fuel. Don't allow him to use them against you.
"What are you doing? Are you calling on your father's dried bones to come and help you?" Tiger's voice echoed, followed by laughter that sounded like a holy chime.
After hearing it, Leon's heart heaved, yet he didn't burst out with his own energy or anger; he just pulled them all in—just as he had learned through Mr. Lee's help.
"How I wish you were there to see your father's face as the plane hit his scaffold," Tiger said as he clutched his face with his palm while he moved forward sideways.
"I wasn't there, but I can just picture how much he thanked the gods for killing him." He paused, placed his hands at his waist, and stretched himself.
"That's what everyone will wish for after becoming the father of a rat and a husband to a snake. Naa, a snake is even useful. What animal can be used to describe your mother?"
Tiger laughed loudly as he saw how the boy's face was shifting with emotions—as if he were a human chameleon.
Leon tightened his fists so hard blood seeped out of his palms and dropped on the platform like beads.
Mocking laughter surged from the crowd, followed by fingers that pointed in Leon's direction like tree branches.
"…how can he fool himself? Those who used power weren't even able to defeat our incredible Kang T."
"…I'm sure he's destined to die early."
"…Isn't he the one who struggled so much as he fought against the boy who just got killed easily by Kang T?"
"…Who are you referring to? Is it Malphas? That guy was a really good fighter, but when you're destined to die in Kang T's hands, even the gods can't stand on your behalf."
"…Yeah. Even if you were once a god."
Leon saw a smirk falter on Tiger's face as his eyes met his. The falter in Tiger's smirk alone gave Leon a foolish courage.
But as he moved forward, he noticed that the faltered smirk was instantly replaced by a flicker of genuine impatience.
Before Leon could blink, Tiger moved at high speed. One second, Leon saw Tiger ten feet away, but the next he saw a fist pushing his head aside.
The impact sent Leon skidding across the rune-etched stone, shoveling dust, and barely keeping his stance.
Air leapt out of his lungs in a whoosh as he stopped a few meters away from the centre.
His vision exploded, turning into a mixture of white and yellow light, and a black, shadowy figure that moved like lightning.
The crowd roared, their faces shimmering with great joy while clapping hastily. He could hear them but had no time to think. Tiger was already an inch away from him.
A kick moved toward his knee that got parried, but the wind the kick carried flew across his skin like a blade.
Thinking he was slightly winning, an elbow moved toward his throat, which he also deflected with a forearm that immediately went numb.
At that point, Leon knew he was purely on a defensive stance, almost like a leaf in a hurricane. The kicks came in over and over, but with the lessons Mr. Lee taught him serving as the only thing keeping him standing.
Leon parried, slipped, and used Tiger's own momentum to avoid the worst of the impacts. But each glancing hit sent shockwaves through his body, and he was being worn down fast.