Merun leaned heavily against the coarse granite, listening to the muffled, thunderous echoes of his own name still vibrating through the overhead stones of the tunnel.
"I can take it from here, dude..." Merun muttered, his voice thick and raspy. He gently removed his arm from the squire's shoulders. "Thanks."
The young squire looked hesitant, his eyes darting to the blood still dripping steadily from Merun's right hand, but the look in the powerful warrior's gaze made it easy to give up.
Dude?, He was also a little confused.
He bowed deeply as he retreated back toward the arena, leaving Merun alone in the torchlit corridor.
Once the footsteps faded, Merun dropped his hand.
He inhaled deeply, closing his good left eye and focusing entirely on a slow, rhythmic meditation cycle. The raw, primal rage that had possessed him in his unconscious state began to recede.
Suppression it was one of his specialties, after all.
His torn eye socket slowly regained lost flesh as he focused intently on channeling his ki to prevent the wound from worsening and to bolster his regeneration.
Finally, slowly and carefully, he peeled his right eyelids open.
The world through his right eye was a pink, violently tender, heavily blurred mess.
Shapes and light bled together, but the core structure of the lens was intact. He took three more steady, grounding breaths, watching the crimson haze marginally clear.
Maybe it'd take a few weeks for it to heal completely, and who knows how long for his perfect vision to return.
"...Fuck. Thank God," he whispered to the empty stone.
"You truly believed someone titled 'True Strike' wouldn't pierce your defensive technique? Even being so stubborn as to fight without your Martial Heart to the bitter end?"
The voice was like sharp ice.
Merun didn't flinch.
Master Iaiashin stepped out from the deep shadows of an intersecting corridor, her posture perfectly calm and poised, yet her hands were clasped tightly over her chest.
"You are incredibly lucky to be alive, you arrogant brat," she said, her voice carrying an uncharacteristic edge of urgency.
"Do not just stand there. Hurry. Let us get you to our family healer. If we act immediately, we might still salvage your sight! Come!"
She reached out, but Merun merely let out a weak, raspy laugh.
He looked up, meeting her frantic gaze, and intentionally winked at her with his blurry, blood-rimmed right eye.
Iaiashin froze.
Her eyes widened in sudden realization as she stared at the rapidly clotting tissue.
The panic vanished from her eyes, replaced by composed, quiet amusement. She rested a manicured hand on her chin, analyzing him.
"You learned an advanced recovery technique as well? Or was the wound shallower than it appeared?"
She shook her head, a soft sigh escaping her.
"Hmmmmm. At the very least, you had the foresight to prepare a method of regeneration, Moretsuna. You aren't a total battle idiot after all."
She turned cleanly on her heel, her silk robes whispering against the stone floor.
"Come. You have done more than enough. The nobility will recognize your existence, and the Martial Seniors will be forced to treat you as an equal after watching you completely dismantle Ephraim and Roro."
"Wait..."
"Your family is waiting for you," she continued, not breaking stride. "They are ecstatic to see you."
"Master," Merun said, his voice dropping in seriousness.
"I'm not coming with you."
Iaiashin paused.
She slowly raised a single brow before turning her torso back around to face him.
Merun stood his ground, though his chest still heaved violently as he gasped for air.
"I'm not done yet. I still have a shot at winning this entire tournament."
The atmosphere in the tunnel shifted instantly.
The ambient warmth from the wall torches seemed to vanish, replaced by a deathly, suffocating chill.
Iaiashin's eyes turned entirely predatory.
"Sakuma will kill you," she said, her voice dropping into a flat, lethal register. "And as you are right now, you do not possess the strength required to stop him. Furthermore... if you dare use the Divine Arsenal in that ring, I will be the one to personally step onto that sand to strike you down."
Merun's expression remained intensely focused.
He looked completely unfazed by the explicit threat of execution.
Seeing his stubbornness, Iaiashin fully turned to face him.
She didn't draw her weapon, but she released the crushing weight of a Martial Master's pressure.
The world seemed to bend around her existence as gravity slammed into the corridor, causing the structure to rumble while dust fell from the cracks overhead.
In his severely weakened, depleted state, Merun's knees buckled.
A heavy grunt escaped through his teeth as he was forced down onto one leg. The stone groaned beneath his knee, but he forced his neck to lock, using every ounce of his remaining physical strength to stare directly back into her icy eyes.
"Your death will utterly ruin my plans," she said, her hand coming to rest directly on the gold-leafed hilt of her ornate katana.
"Come to your senses and forfeit. You have already reached your goal."
Her gaze softened by a fraction of a millimeter.
"You have done... exceptionally well. Your family will miss you if you die."
But the monster from the lower realms never relented.
Even with his vision blurring and his muscles screaming under the crushing gravity of her presence, his jaw remained set.
"...I was a warrior," Merun forced the words through his hoarse, dry throat, each syllable a battle against her aura.
"Before I was ever..."
"A sibling... a son... or a hero."
He glared up through his bloodied brow.
"Let me fight."
The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush bone.
Iaiashin's eyes widened, her pupils shrinking slightly as his heartfelt declaration echoed down the empty passage.
She stared at him, searching his soul for any sign of hesitation.
Finding none, she suddenly closed her eyes and let out a long, ragged breath.
The crushing pressure vanished instantly.
Merun slumped forward, gasping as a profound wave of relief washed over his strained muscles.
Before he could pull himself back up, a sound echoed through the tunnel that made his ears twitch.
"Hahahahahahaha!"
It was a hearty, unbridled laugh—loud, booming, and completely uncharacteristic of the refined, beautiful Master he knew.
She laughed until she had to press a hand against her stomach, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Hahaha... wow. Hoooo..."
She slowly composed herself, smoothing down her silk robes, though her eyes still danced with a strange, nostalgic glint.
"Apologies, Moretsuna... I just... suddenly remembered someone."
She looked down at him, her expression completely shifted into one of profound recognition.
"Very well. If you are that intent on throwing yourself into the fire, let me help you live. Tell me... what do you need right now?"
Merun blinked, his left eye widening in confusion at her sudden change of heart, though a profound sense of gratitude quickly washed over his face.
He opened his mouth, but before a word could form—
GROOOOOOOOOOOWWWL.
An incredibly loud, violent rumble echoed out from Merun's midsection.
The intense, warrior-like focus completely vanished from Merun's face.
He looked at her with absolute, deadly seriousness.
"Hehe. I need to eat. Right now."
Iaiashin blinked, utterly thrown off.
"That hungry? What about nutrient pills? Or would you prefer meat at the estate's—"
"Let's go meat. 156 plates."
WOOOOSH.
Before she could even finish her sentence, a vacuum of air snapped in front of her.
Merun had practically teleported across the ten paces of stone, his massive frame now standing directly in front of her, his stomach howling like a feral beast.
Iaiashin stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth slightly open as she stared at Merun.
He looked feral.
She stared at him for three full seconds before slowly turning around to lead the way out of the stadium.
Food-motivated, she noted dryly to herself.
As she led him back to the estate, she began to reminisce.
She remembered another stubborn young man with long hair who would rather die than back away from a fight.
Her heart began to ache... just a little.