Hector's eyes widened with anger. A moment later, the arena floor cracked beneath his feet.
Boom!
His large body shot forward with frightening speed, crossing the distance between them almost instantly. The dark scales covering his right arm shifted as the muscles underneath tightened, and Hector drove his fist straight toward Knox's face without holding anything back.
Knox's reaction was different from before. Instead of receiving the attack with an open palm or turning his body to redirect Hector's strength, he brought both gauntleted hands closer to his upper body. His elbows stayed relatively close to his sides, while his weight shifted lightly between his feet as Hector entered his range.
Just as the fist was about to reach him, Knox moved his head aside.
Whoosh!
Hector's fist passed beside his cheek, giving Knox the opening he needed to immediately step forward and drive his left fist into Hector's abdomen.
BANG!
The violet gauntlet slammed against the dark scales with enough force to bend Hector's body slightly, but before Knox could follow with another strike, an arm came swinging toward his head. Knox raised his right gauntlet and caught the blow against it.
Bam!
The impact pushed his arm back, but Knox used the brief contact to shift his body sideways. His right foot slid across the ground as he moved around Hector's front, and his left fist came forward again, this time aimed at the ribs.
This time, Hector twisted his torso and blocked it with his elbow. Their arms collided, and neither stayed still afterward.
Pressing forward immediately, Hector threw another straight punch, followed by a heavy hook from the opposite side. Knox slipped past the first, caught the second against his forearm, and answered with two compact punches of his own.
Bam! Bang!
The first struck Hector's guard. The second slipped underneath it and landed against his body.
Hector grunted, but his response came almost immediately. His knee rose toward Knox's abdomen, forcing Knox to pull his body away before the strike could connect.
The small retreat created just enough room for Hector to follow with his claws, five dark tips immediately sweeping through the air.
Knox leaned away from them, and just as the claws passed in front of his chest, his body continued moving with the retreat rather than stopping. He turned through his hips and brought one leg around in a fast kick.
BANG!
His shin struck Hector's side, and the impact shoved him several steps away. Before Knox could create any more distance, however, one clawed foot planted firmly against the floor and stopped Hector's retreat.
Refusing to let the exchange end there, he charged again, and the two collided in the middle of the arena.
This time, Hector didn't simply throw one heavy attack after another. He used his physical strength to pressure Knox at close range, alternating between punches, elbows, knees, and the claws covering his hands whenever an opening appeared.
Knox answered in kind. His movements had become much more compact than during the first part of their duel. Both gauntlets remained close enough to protect his upper body, but the moment Hector left an opening, one of them would shoot forward with little wasted movement.
A straight punch struck Hector's guard, and another fist immediately followed toward his body. Hector blocked it and swung back, only for Knox to duck beneath the incoming arm.
As he passed underneath, Knox pivoted around his lead foot and brought his heel around toward Hector's ribs.
BANG!
At the last second, Hector raised his arm. The kick crashed against his scales and pushed him sideways, yet he immediately forced himself back toward Knox. His fist came down from above with enough strength to crack the floor when Knox stepped away from it.
Fragments of stone jumped into the air. Before they could fall, Knox was already moving back in.
His left fist struck first, only to be stopped by Hector's guard. Knox's shoulder turned immediately afterward, sending his right fist toward Hector's face. Hector tilted his head aside, and the violet gauntlet barely missed his cheek before he answered with a punch of his own.
Knox caught it against both arms.
BANG!
The force pushed him backward, his boots sliding across the arena floor. Seeing his chance, Hector immediately rushed after him.
"Don't run!"
Another fist came swinging toward Knox, but instead of retreating, he stepped diagonally and allowed the punch to pass beside him. His fist immediately drove into Hector's ribs, followed by another strike toward the abdomen before he shifted his weight onto one leg.
His other leg snapped upward.
BAM!
The kick caught Hector beneath the chest and forced him backward.
His claws scraped across the floor as he recovered, and for several seconds, neither fighter managed to completely overwhelm the other. From the stands, their exchange looked almost even.
Whenever Hector forced Knox back with raw strength, Knox slipped around the next attack and answered with a combination of punches and kicks. Whenever Knox began building momentum, Hector's scales and physical power allowed him to endure the blows long enough to force his way back into the exchange.
"Whoa..."
Rick had already moved to the edge of his seat as he continued following their rapid exchange.
"So he can still keep up with Knox."
"Don't sound so surprised." Meilyn kept her eyes on the arena. "He's Hector Moore."
After following Knox's movements for a while longer, Serene couldn't help but voice her admiration.
"Still, Knox's close-quarter combat... or rather, his martial arts are as amazing as ever."
Hearing that, Lorain gave a smug yet proud nod, clearly sharing the same opinion.
"Of course! Knox's martial arts have already reached the level where they could be considered an art."
Meanwhile, Simon remained silent. Rather than joining their conversation, his attention stayed fixed on Knox.
There was something noticeably different about the way his friend was fighting now. During the earlier exchange, Knox had repeatedly turned Hector's own strength against him, but after putting on that violet armor, he had stopped doing so almost entirely.
Now he was meeting Hector much more directly, yet even that didn't mean he was simply trading punches.
Knox constantly changed the distance between them, slipping around Hector's fists before stepping back inside to strike. His hands did most of the work at close range, but kicks were mixed naturally into the combinations whenever Hector adjusted his guard too high or tried to force him backward.
As Simon continued observing the difference, another collision rang through the arena.
BANG!
Hector's fist crashed against Knox's gauntlet, and this time he managed to force the white-haired boy back several steps. Instead of chasing immediately, Hector took a moment to reset his footing, breathing heavily through his nose as Knox stopped a short distance away.
Knox didn't attack either. For the first time since the second round of exchanges began, several meters of empty space separated them.
Hector rolled one shoulder and exhaled. The dark scales covering his arms had taken countless impacts from the violet gauntlets. Small wisps of steam still occasionally escaped between them from the heat released earlier, but the scales themselves remained intact.
As he caught his breath, Hector happened to glance upward. His eyes landed on the barrier gauges, and the first thing he noticed was that his own had decreased.
That wasn't surprising. Knox had landed several clean blows, and even with the protection of his scales, the barrier equipment still registered the impact.
But when Hector looked toward Knox's gauge, his breathing stopped.
It hadn't decreased at all.
"..."
His eyes narrowed as he looked down at his own hands before slowly raising his gaze toward Knox. He had forced Knox to block several times. Their fists had collided directly, and he had even managed to push Knox backward through sheer strength.
Yet none of it had counted for anything. Meanwhile, his own barrier had continued to fall.
As that realization sank in, Hector's expression slowly changed. His teeth clenched as the claws at the ends of his fingers curled inward, while Darkness began gathering around his scaled arms. The frustration he had been suppressing throughout the exchange finally started showing openly on his face.
"Don't fuck with me..."
The words came out low at first, but Knox remained where he was. Neither of them moved to resume the fight.
Hector's breathing grew heavier as he stared across the distance between them. Seeing Knox standing there without even a single point missing from his barrier only made the anger burning inside him worse.
"Just because you've already fought someone from the Moore family..."
Several spectators who had been talking among themselves gradually fell silent as Hector raised his head. His glare locked onto Knox.
"...doesn't mean you can play with me like this!!!"
The words echoed across the arena, immediately drawing confused looks from the spectators who had been following their fight. Soon, murmurs began spreading through the stands.
"Someone from the Moore family?"
"Knox fought one of them before?"
"When did that happen?"
Most of the students had never heard anything about such an incident. The same was true for many of the nobles and outside guests, and soon people were turning toward one another in search of an answer.
However, there were several people among the spectators who showed no surprise at all. Jane had heard about it, Jean knew, and so did Tenerife and Princess Molly.
And among the distinguished guests in the VIP section, one man knew the incident better than almost anyone present.
That man was none other than the head of the Moore family, who remained silent as the murmurs continued spreading around him.
Hector's father was a broad-shouldered middle-aged man whose stern features made his relationship with Hector immediately obvious. He carried himself with the composed dignity expected from the head of an old noble house, and even as the conversations around him grew louder, his expression barely changed.
Only a quiet sigh escaped him as his gaze remained on the arena, but his thoughts had already returned to the report he received after that 'incident'.
His nephew had survived. His condition, however, had been severe. Even now, Hector's father could remember that particular section of the report.
There had been considerable blood loss and wounds across his body, while the Sea Dragon Armor he had relied upon during the battle had been badly damaged. The wings had suffered the worst of it, with parts of them torn away during the fight.
The Moore family had moved quickly afterward. They suppressed the incident as much as possible, both to protect the family's reputation and to prevent one member's actions from staining the entire house. Their efforts had been effective enough that most ordinary people never learned the details.
But suppressing information was not the same as erasing it. Some people had still heard.
And now, the white-haired boy responsible for his nephew's condition was standing in the arena across from his own son.
Hector's father remained silent, his gaze lingering on Knox with a complicated look.
Meanwhile, as questions about the incident continued spreading throughout the spectator stands, a very different conversation had started among Group 7 and Group 8.
"Hmm?"
Cindy looked toward the arena before turning to the others.
"Knox fought someone from the Moore family? How come I've never heard about this?"
"It's true."
Serene answered while keeping her attention on the arena.
"The reason it never spread very far is because the Moore family did everything they could to keep it quiet."
That immediately drew everyone's attention toward her. Lorain, however, merely scoffed.
"Heh. Just a loser who could bark but couldn't bite."
She crossed her arms, irritation appearing on her face at the mere memory of the person they were discussing.
"That man deserved what happened to him. He should be grateful Knox didn't kill him."
Simon blinked at her response. "This... Just what happened, Lorain?"
"Nothing grand, actually." Lorain glanced toward him. "You remember Knox is a bounty hunter, right?"
Simon nodded, and the others quickly followed. Cami, Meilyn, Rick, Cindy, Claudia, and Merida were already familiar with that part of Knox's life.
Apparently, they weren't the only ones.
Several students sitting nearby nodded along without thinking, causing Lorain to slowly turn her head toward them.
"..." The students immediately froze.
One hurriedly looked toward the arena as though he had been watching the entire time. Another suddenly became fascinated by something several rows below, while the student beside him sat perfectly straight and pretended he hadn't been listening to every word.
Rick covered his mouth, barely suppressing a laugh. Lorain ignored them and continued.
"To put it simply, Knox was hunting a smuggler. That bastard from the Moore family interfered and protected Knox's target."
Her expression grew colder as she continued.
"Later, they found out he wasn't protecting the smuggler for no reason either. He had dealings with him."
The conversations around them became noticeably quieter. Even students who hadn't been listening at first were beginning to pay attention now. Nobody openly moved closer, but there were certainly far more ears turned toward Lorain than there had been a few moments ago.
She noticed, but she simply didn't care.
"So naturally, they clashed."
Lorain leaned back in her seat before continuing.
"Knox defeated him and captured the smuggler anyway. By the time it was over, that bastard had been beaten half to death, with severe wounds all over his body."
She paused briefly before adding, "His Sea Dragon Armor was wrecked too. Especially the wings."
Several nearby students visibly winced, but Lorain continued without paying them any attention.
"The incident dragged the Moore family's reputation through the mud, so they tried to suppress the news afterward. They did a decent job, considering how many people here apparently never heard about it."
She gave another dismissive scoff.
"But once something like that gets out, you can't completely bury it."
With that, Lorain's eyes returned to the arena.
"The news still spread. Apparently, the Moore family decided that whatever reason that loser had for protecting the smuggler was still reasonable enough for them to simply punish him and leave it at that."
Her expression gradually turned colder.
"Heh, even a stray dog could tell that the so-called punishment they gave him was nothing more than a formality."
The contempt in Lorain's voice was unmistakable. However, after a brief pause, the irritation on her face slowly disappeared, replaced by something much colder.
"As for why they did that, whether it was because of the influence of another family member, because they wanted to protect their pride, or something else entirely... I don't really care."
As she spoke, Lorain's gaze slowly drifted away from the arena and toward the VIP section.
"Whatever the reason was... that loser attacked Knox."
Her voice grew noticeably colder. "And that reason alone is enough for me, to kill him immediately, if... he ever tries to harm Knox again."
There was no anger or hesitation in her voice when she said those words. It sounded less like a threat and more like a simple statement of what she would do.
Strangely enough, however, Lorain's eyes were now directed toward the head of the Moore family, Darkos Moore.
Or at least, that was how it appeared at first. But upon closer inspection, her gaze wasn't actually fixed on Darkos himself.
It was directed at a man sitting near him.