**This Chapter is longer because I couldn't separate it into two chapters; thus, it's the final one of the Volume. ENJOY!**
Back and forth, Cynrik and Brance move swiftly around the training room, with the only sounds bouncing off the metal walls being the sound of flesh meeting flesh and Cynrik's taunts.
"You never listen, Brance; I won't even bother talking about how useless all that muscle is since you can't hit me, but you'd think that after all this time, you'd at least be able to land a single blow on me." Cynrik snorted as he spun away from a leaping overhand right hook.
"SHUT UP!" Brance roared as every muscle in his body bulged slightly with strain as he tried to keep up with Cynrik.
"No, little brother, I won't shut up," with little effort, Cynrik moved so fast he left a trail of afterimages and appeared behind Brance before kicking him behind the knees and dropping his younger brother to the ground.
"The fact that you are this angry is a testament to the fact that you can no longer keep a level head and see that my actions were correct." Even though Cynrik had his brother exactly where he wanted and could end this farce of a fight, he didn't. Instead, Cynrik hopped backward and put some distance between himself and Brance.
"If I have one job in this life, it is to make up for the shortcomings you present. I do the things you would never be able to bring yourself to!" Jumping up, Cynrik avoided a sweeping kick and pushed on Brance's arm, redirecting a punch into the ground before flipping away.
"You were WRONG, Cynrik, WRONG; how can you be so blinded to your ideas that you cannot see the potential outcome of your actions?" Kicking off the ground, Brance reengaged in combat, swinging wildly at first, but over time, his attacks became more refined as he slowly reeled in his anger.
[That's your bloodline talking, Brance, not you. You were always hardheaded and had a decent sense of right and wrong. Things are different now; the line between the two has been blurred with the introduction of Mana and Systems.] Flicking his eyes to the glass window separating the training room and the spectator room, Cynrik switched from talking aloud to using the mind link.
But as he had since Brance first stepped foot in the training room, Cynrik's words carried almost no emotion, and he spoke flatly, without arrogance or even disappointment.
[On Earth, it was easy to differentiate between the two ideals; however, since anyone and everyone can become absurdly strong here, that line no longer exists and instead is replaced with a murky grey mire of inconclusiveness.]
BOOOOM
Tilting his head to the side, Cynrik avoided a right straight punch with so much power behind it that not only did it create ripples in the air and practically break the sound barrier, but it created a massive dent in the training room's walls.
[BULLSHIT! You can't justify destroying children's minds no matter what world we live in. I can let what you did to the leader of Romeoville slide since I understand your reasoning. But not the rest of the team. They were innocent, and you have toyed with their lives, causing irreparable damage to their minds.] Gritting his teeth, Brance didn't falter and immediately disengaged his hand from the wall before delivering a savage hook into Cynrik's ribs.
Contrary to every time Brance had previously attacked, Cynrik didn't bother dodging or blocking this time. Instead, he felt the crunch of his ribs as Brance connected cleanly, catapulting his body across the room.
Seeing that his attack landed, and devastatingly so because he could feel just how much damage he had caused internally on his brother, Brance froze momentarily.
"You idiot…cough…were you even paying attention to that fight at all." Struggling to his knees, Cynrik coughed a mouthful of blood onto the pristine white tile.
"Sure, I scared the crap out of those kids, but I gave every one of them a quick death. Apart from numbing their bodies with my Mana, I didn't take my time with them as I did with their Captain." Gripping the tile, Cynrik pushed himself up and stood unsteadily while holding his injured right side.
"If they cannot recover from such a little mind game, how can they expect to live the life of a Reaver? Don't forget, everyone in this tournament has that as their End Goal. We aren't dealing with little kids who want to work in convenience stores for a living; we are dealing with people who, when they graduate, will enter into Egresses to protect the people of our nation."
"If they can't deal with a little setback such as the loss I handed them, they will only become liabilities. Tsss." Finishing his statement with a sharp his, Cynrik pressed down on his rib cage and used a combination of Fire and Umbra Mana to fuse the bones and stop his internal bleeding.
"Now, I am done with this farce. I gave you one free hit; now it's my turn to knock some sense into you. But remember, even if you win today, it won't change me in the least. I will continue to do the things you are too fucking weak to execute. And if that means taking lives or breaking minds, then so be it."
"If, at the end of the day, that turns me into someone you can't stand to look at, well, that's on you because, in the long run, at least you will still be alive to chastise me."
Once again dropping into his fighting stance, Cynrik waved Brance toward him, taunting him to attack.
---
In the viewing room, Selene and Gabby had their hands covering their mouths as Geralt and Garrison watched with frowns on their faces.
Aside from the statements made in the mind link, they had heard Cynrik's side, and after everything, they could faintly understand his reasoning. Whether or not they agreed with it was entirely different, but as adults who were wise to the world, Geralt and Garrison could not find many flaws in Cynrik's way of thinking.
Cynrik had knowingly painted a massive target on their backs by exposing their strength to the world. Sure, there were multiple different approaches he could have used to address this issue; however, neither man could say the one he landed on was the wrong course of action.
While Garrison and Geralt were lost in thought, Gabby and Selene desperately struggled not to rush into the room and break up the fight, especially Selene. Upon seeing her boyfriend get flung across the room like a dog toy, she dug her nails so deeply into her palm that blood began trickling onto the floor.
Gabby, on the other hand, felt tears begin streaming down her cheeks; this wasn't the Brance she knew, the Brance she knew was a warm and kind-hearted person. Yet she had watched him completely devolve into something akin to a madman driven by anger, and the sight worried her to no end.
---
Meanwhile, after goading Brance in for a fight, Cynrik finally went on the offensive, and in doing so, the one-sided game of cat and mouse shifted drastically.
Cynrik had accounted for something like this happening the moment he learned about bloodlines and, as such, knew precisely how to handle Brance in a one-on-one fight without the aid of skills, weapons, or Affinities.
Although Brance was quick on his feet, unlike Benny, he wasn't nearly as agile, and against a fighter of Cynrik's caliber, who relied on speed and reflexes, Brance was bound to struggle.
Like a bull who suddenly remembered he was trapped, Brance rushed forward, only instead of wildly swinging as he had previously, his attacks were well times and executed without flaw.
The only unfortunate downside was that Cynrik could easily read his every move, so for each punch thrown by Brance, it would be redirected before his abdomen was peppered with light but accurate jabs.
The impact of Cynrik's attack was negligible at best, but this was because the bulk of Cynrik's attack power revolved around using a bladed weapon and Affinity Skills.
When it came to the physical attack category, to say he was lacking would be an understatement; thus, he compensated for this weakness by laying on a flurry of blows; like this, Cynrik could begin stacking up the damage.
Back and forth, the brothers glided across the room. Still, unlike previously, where Brance could not land a single blow, several times, he would catch Cynrik after a flurry and land a heavy blow, rocking him and causing the eldest Jetlensr brother to spit blood.
Yet, even under the heavy blows, Cynrik never faltered and would instantly be right back in the fight as if he didn't feel pain.
In this way, over an hour passed before the two brothers could be seen lying in heaps beside each other, bloodied, bruised, and gasping for air.
"Feel…huff…better now?" Cynrik asked as he tried to ignore the sharp pain coursing through his body.
"No, not…huff huff…in the fucking least." Turning his head away from his brother and meeting Gabby's tear-filled eyes, all the pain in his body faded, and a stronger one gripped his heart.
"Brancie, I will never do anything that crosses my bottom line. I only strive to keep us all alive so that we can live out the lives we want to. If that means I need to bash a few skulls along the way, I have no reason not to, but even so, I wouldn't stoop so low as to destroy someone I view as innocent." Finally catching his breath and weakly pouring a batch of potions down his throat, Cynrik rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up to all fours.
In the corner of his vision, he could see well over a hundred notifications, all of which were damage related, and upon looking at his status bar, his Stamina and HP were under 15%.
"Have some fucking faith in your big brother; I am not some psychotic murderer, even I understand when I am taking things too far." Rolling his eyes and reaching over, Cynrik caught Brance by the face and forced him to drink a cocktail of STAM and HP potions.
"That's not what the doctor said; if I remember correctly, you have the same disorder serial killers have, making you a sociopath." Snorting and feeling the life return to his limbs, Brance sat up and retorted snarkily.
"BAH, what the fuck do shrinks know? They're full of hot fucking air." Cynrik snorted before glancing at the viewing room and sighing heavily.
Unlike Gabby, who looked like an emotional mess, Selene had tears in her eyes, but under those tears was a fire that was screaming she was going to give him a piece of her mind later.
Smirking at her in his usual way, Cynrik stood up and extended his hand to Brance to help him back up to his feet.
"I still won't admit you were right, but at least this quenched my rage…for now. But if you push the limits again, you better make damn well sure the person deserves it…GOT IT?" Finishing his statement with a snarl, Brance caught Cynrik's forearm and stood up before using his dirty shirt to wipe the blood from his face.
"Whatever you say, Lord Brancie," rolling his eyes, Cynrik prepared himself for the assault he was sure to receive from his girlfriend and walked toward the door with Brance in tow.
"I'm serious, I can look the other way on some things, but you know how I feel about you hurting kids."
"Yeah yeah, I got it, don't hurt kids if they don't deserve it, but if they do is up to my discretion."
"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT, CYNRIK, AND YOU KNOW IT!!!"
"BAHHAHAHA!" Breaking into a sprint, Cynrik burst out laughing as Brance chased after him.
To anyone who hadn't seen the last hour's events, no one would have known that the two had been at each other's throats minutes ago and ready to tear the other limb from limb.
END OF VOLUME 5
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