Chapter 16: Awaking Artillery

’This guy doesn’t look friendly. This fat fuck is insane.’

Scar’s duel kicked off more tense and aggressive than he’d expected. He’d fought people who wanted him dead before, like Amell and Storm, but this guy was a whole other level of crazy.

His weapon was chains with spiked balls at the ends, studded with countless sharp metallic thorns. Matched his huge frame perfectly. Worse, he could make the ground shake in a wide area, like the warning tremors before a massive quake.

Every attempt to close in failed. Scar had no choice but to keep a distance between himself and the brat, but that put him right where the brat wanted him. Those chains could reach nearly four meters.

“Stop running you fucking coward! I can’t lose!”

’What?! Again?! He’s insane!’

The fat guy had been repeating this nonstop, and with each repetition, his attacks grew fiercer, his bloodlust more palpable to everyone watching.

Scar braced himself for the inevitable and charged toward the bastard for a direct assault. He avoided a powerful strike, only for the bastard to make the ground rumble, nearly forcing him off balance.

Scar leapt into the air, readying his sword for a strike, but was met with a powerful kick to the gut instead, sending him slamming into the ground.

Tsk.

’Not again.’

He’d attempted this maneuver before and gotten kicked in the gut for it. Since his new flames burned his skin and he hadn’t mastered them yet, he could only rely on his fists.

“Wow… do you even feel shame? You look miserable.”

Scar taunted, but his loud mouth only brought trouble. The fat guy attacked more aggressively, blow after blow with no breathing room. He was sweating buckets, sniffling like he was on drugs.

’I think this guy is hungry.’

It was ideal for someone to be eager for a win since losing three duels in a row was a gate way to hell. But this was beyond that. The fat dude was practically insane.

The small crowd grew uneasy. Some begged the referee to pause the match, but their pleas went unheard.

This was a duel, and in the Supreme Academy, Akumas’ lives barely mattered. As long as their Inheritances returned later, Akumas were expendable.

“I can’t lose—can’t lose!” The dude roared.

Scar scoffed.

The fat guy looked possessed now, beyond just angry. Drool covered his chin, he kept smearing his nose against his uniform, veins throbbing across his face.

Scar’s condition deteriorated. The bastard combined his Inheritance with the chains, leaving Scar with barely any room to evade.

Quickly, Scar dashed to the other end of the field but the dude ran after him immediately. For a moment, it looked as though they were playing tag.

“He’s showing the same signs as the one from last week. Possession.”

“What’s going on?! This doesn’t seem sports-like at all.”

Actually, this was never meant to be a sport, but the crowd had a point.

Days ago, a similar incident occurred when a student went berserk and deliberately killed his opponent. The kill alone would’ve made them roll their eyes, but what happened after stunned everyone.

The student ate the flesh of the dead, gulping down the corpse like a predator on prey. Though Scar wasn’t dead yet, the hunger in his opponent’s eyes told him everything. He could be fed on too.

’Tch. Julien didn’t say it was this terrifying.’

Julien explained everything to the best of his ability. Scar was the one who dimmed down the terror. Typical of Isaac’s son.

Scar was already wearing down from all the running. He had to keep avoiding the chains while making sure the fat dude didn’t catch him.

The referee, though, watched as if nothing was at stake.

Impatience seized Scar. He scooped up sand from below and hurled it at his opponent. At last, their marathon ended.

While the fat guy scrubbed at his eyes, Scar prepared for another attack, but he didn’t charge immediately. Instead, he slipped into his opponent’s blind spot and struck from there.

But the fat guy reacted like he had ultra instinct. He stopped rubbing his eyes and whipped around toward Scar. Despite the late reaction, he got his chains up just in time to block, but Scar’s blade cut through them easily.

Scar immediately retreated.

“Ha! It’s not effective anymore, is it?”

This crushed the fat dude’s pride. He tightened his grip on the torn chains and charged at Scar like a raging bull, swinging both arms as though he’d lost all patience.

“Holy shit. He can still use them.”

They were running across the field again when the atmosphere shifted.

Mingle entered the arena, whispered something to the referee, and just like that the duel was canceled. Called a draw. Scar was relieved since he had no idea how he’d have killed the bastard anyway, but the fat dude wasn’t satisfied.

He immediately lost it completely. Things got bad enough that tier-6 students had to intervene and put him down. He was chained up and taken to the lab for study.

While all this happened, Scar was with Mingle. Something was off about Mingle though. His usual smile had vanished. Scar barely noticed; he was just relieved the fat guy hadn’t killed him.

HHUU

“I would have died if you hadn’t interfered. Thanks, sir.”

Even that didn’t make Mingle’s expression shift. Scar realized something was strange now. But given Mingle’s obsession with research and knowledge, he assumed Mingle was just impatient to discover what made the fat guy so aggressive.

“No, Scar. This duel wasn’t stopped by my authority. None of us had the power to do that. There’s something you need to know.”

Scar furrowed his brow.

Huh?

Something wasn’t right.

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