Chapter 74: [CHALLENGE ACCEPTED]

As soon as Kairo stepped out into the hallway, his stride was steady, gaze fixed forward. He didn’t need to look to the side to know—someone was there.

Someone waiting.

“Must you still be here?” Kairo muttered, sighing as he dragged a hand through his hair, black eyes narrowing.

His voice was cold, clipped, the kind that should’ve ended the conversation.

But Caelen thrived on pressing buttons.

“Why would I leave right away,” Caelen drawled, tone obnoxiously light, “when I know you’re going to get pissed if I’m still here?” He leaned casually against the wall, bandages still visible across his temple, but his molten gaze burned with mischief.

Kairo’s jaw tightened. Normally, he had endless patience when it came to this man, years of practice ignoring Caelen’s taunts—but today?

Today, Caelen was dragging fire out of him in ways no one else ever had.

“And it’s so interesting to me,” Caelen continued, voice dipping with amusement, “that the great Kairo—the hunter who never lets anything get to him—I’ve been trying to break that composure for years… and yet I’ve never seen you this mad.”

The words dug deeper than Kairo wanted to admit.

His eyebrow twitched. His voice, low and controlled, came out like a blade’s edge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned, long strides carrying him down the corridor, the fluorescent lights above painting his shadow sharp and long.

But of course—Caelen wasn’t going to make it easy.

Footsteps followed. Steady. Deliberate. Mocking.

Kairo’s shoulders stiffened, every sound of Caelen’s boots echoing too close, too loud. The man’s presence was like a thorn stuck beneath skin—impossible to ignore.

’Every single time.’ Kairo thought, an irritated groan rumbling in his chest.

But damn it, Caelen wasn’t wrong. That truth only pissed him off more.

Because Caelen usually never got under his skin. No matter the smirks, the jabs, the petty competitions—they were rivals, but it never went beyond that.

Until now.

Now it was different. Now it was personal.

Kidnapping Elione. Claiming credit. And then appearing smug and smirking in the very same room where Kairo had intended to offer him a place in Twilight Guild.

The timing. The audacity. The nerve.

It was annoying.

It was infuriating.

And it was starting to get old.

Kairo’s hand twitched by his side, the faint metallic scent of blood brushing the edges of the air—the subtle sign his power was reacting to his temper.

Behind him, Caelen’s chuckle slid down the hall like oil. “Ah, so it is about him after all.”

Kairo stopped mid-stride.

The air seemed to tighten around him as he slowly turned, crimson eyes locking onto Caelen with a glare sharp enough to cut steel.

The atmosphere shifted instantly—electric, suffocating.

Caelen only chuckled at the weight of it, whistling low as though impressed. His smirk curved wider, arms folding across his chest with deliberate ease.

“Now, that’s quite the gaze,” he drawled, molten-gold eyes gleaming. “Is that really how you look at your older brother?”

Kairo scoffed, the sound low and cold. “Since when did you consider yourself my brother?”

“When it’s convenient, of course,” Caelen answered without hesitation, tilting his head just slightly, like a predator teasing its prey. His smirk sharpened. “And right now? It’s very convenient. Because I’m interested in Eli.”

“And I can tell,” his gaze narrowed, “that you’re interested in him too.”

Kairo’s jaw clenched, arms crossing tightly against his chest. ’Speaking as if this is some high school romance.’ His dark eyes narrowed further, disdain dripping off him.

Caelen, unbothered, leaned in slightly, lowering his voice into something laced with amusement and provocation. “It’d be interesting to have a little bet between us, no?”

Kairo’s brows furrowed. “A bet?”

“Brother to brother,” Caelen said smoothly, his tone rich with mockery, “on who could reel in that little fish first.” His smirk widened, voice dropping lower, darker. “We both know—whoever gets him on their side will already be guaranteed the strongest S-Class rank. Considering his ability… and that brilliant brain of his.”

Kairo’s bloodlust spiked, thick and heavy, his power coiling at his feet like rippling shadows. His voice, when it came, was a blade coated in venom. “You’re treating him like he’s some prize to win at an auction.”

Caelen’s laugh echoed down the hall, low and arrogant. “Oh, no. He’s better than that. That’s why only the two of us have the right to vie for him.”

Golden sparks crackled faintly around his shoulders, his aura humming alive in response to Kairo’s bloodlust.

The hallway felt like it was moments from collapsing under the weight of two monsters pressing against each other.

Kairo’s eyes narrowed. “Is that why you discredited him? To keep others away?”

He didn’t even need Caelen’s answer. The other man just laughed louder, tilting his head back as if mocking the very idea of being questioned.

Finally, Caelen turned, his coat sweeping as he began strolling the opposite way, his smirk still carved into his lips.

“Caelen,” Kairo’s voice rumbled, low, dangerous.

But Caelen only raised one hand lazily in a mock wave, his voice echoing back down the corridor, smug and certain.

“I really wonder…” his golden eyes glinted as he looked back briefly, “…which one of us that little kitten will choose.”

’Judging by his tone, he thinks he’s already won.’

Kairo exhaled slowly through his nose, a sigh cutting sharp through the tension as he turned his back on Caelen’s retreating figure.

His boots echoed against the polished floor, each step measured, deliberate.

“Alright,” he muttered, voice calm, yet carrying the gravity of steel unsheathed.

He didn’t like humoring Caelen’s games—never had.

For as long as he could remember, Caelen’s favorite pastime had been prodding, poking, trying to twist his patience into breaking. An endless cycle of provocation and arrogance.

But this time… it was different.

Kairo’s black eyes narrowed, his thoughts circling back to the B-Class Hunter. Elione.

Elione, who had walked willingly into an S-Class dungeon at risk of death.

Elione, who had stood beside Caelen, of all people, and still managed to contribute.

Elione, whose ability—so deceptively simple on paper—had the potential to overturn everything they knew about combat and survival.

’Not just useful… not just rare. He’s… intriguing.’

Kairo had never been interested in anyone before. Never cared enough to let another person claw into his focus, let alone distract him from his path.

Yet Elione Ahn—Eli—was different. His instincts screamed it, the way they always did when facing something worth acknowledging.

And Caelen had noticed too. That, more than anything, made Kairo’s blood run hotter.

’He thinks he can snatch him up, like everything is already his. Typical.’

Kairo’s jaw tightened, the faintest curl of a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

The thought of finally wiping that insufferable grin off Caelen’s face—of beating him at his own game—was enough to set his pulse thrumming.

Crimson energy flared briefly around his frame, invisible to anyone without mana sensitivity, like a promise laced with violence.

’So be it.’

He would accept this challenge.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep