Amid the atmosphere of shock and numbness, the next team of participants slowly walked onto the arena.
Their appearance once again stirred up a commotion throughout the venue.
They were the legends of the "mercenary world"—
The Ikari Warriors!
"Ohhh! It's the Ikari Warriors! Those badasses who actually kill people on battlefields!"
"Holy crap! This year's Ikari Warriors look different? Where's their one-eyed captain Heidern? Why isn't he here?"
"Is that the point?! Look! Look at that blue-haired girl in the squad! She's so cool! My god! That face, that aura, she's just... perfect!"
Everyone's gaze was unconsciously drawn to the ice-blue figure emanating a "keep away" aura like an eternal glacier!
She wore a clean, sharp blue military vest and green combat pants, outlining her athletic figure—full of power and beauty—to perfection.
Her ice-blue short hair reflected a cold light like shattered ice.
That exquisite face, like a sculpture carved from ice and snow, showed not a trace of emotion.
Those ice-blue eyes were like two unfathomably deep frozen pools, as if they could freeze someone's very soul.
She was the Ikari Warriors' newest member, and Heidern's adopted daughter—
Leona Heidern!
She was like a razor-sharp military dagger just tempered in ice water, her entire being radiating a suffocating beauty!
"It's her..."
From the "Sugar Daddy's Husband" seat, Cloud looked at the ice-cold girl whose aura had become even more "sharp" and "confident" compared to a few months ago, and a smile appeared on his face.
He knew this "military flower," who had struggled in darkness and pain, was finally ready to bloom on this brightest of stages.
...
The Ikari Warriors' opponents were a team from South America—samba danc... er, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team.
First match: The "iron-blooded hardman" Ralf faced a Brazilian beauty with a smoking hot figure whose dancing could give any man a nosebleed.
Everyone expected this to be a "fan-service"-filled, "hormonal" visual feast.
But the result was full of "steel" and "straight-guy" cruelty.
Facing the Brazilian beauty's "seductive" close-range attacks, Ralf—this meathead who had been "enlightened" by Cloud—didn't even bat an eye!
"Flashy nonsense!"
He growled, executing the "serpentine footwork, fists like art" theory Cloud had taught him to perfection!
His movement became strange and tricky!
His punches were like cannon shells—simple, brutal, unreasonable!
In the end, with a "steel straight guy" Super Argentine Backbreaker, the poor Brazilian beauty was tossed like a sandbag from one end of the arena to the other, crying for her mother on the spot.
The scene made every male spectator in the venue flip Ralf off.
"Destined to be forever alone, bro!"
...
But what truly showed everyone the terror of the "new Ikari Warriors" was Leona's appearance.
Her opponent was the Brazilian team's captain—a jiu-jitsu master who had also awakened to the Absolute Domain.
Yet when Leona slowly walked onto the arena and fixed her emotionless eyes coldly on her opponent—
An icy, sharp, purely murderous aura instantly enveloped the entire ring!
She hadn't even activated her Absolute Domain!
Just through that purest soldier's killing intent, honed in mountains of corpses and seas of blood—
She made her opponent feel a soul-deep shudder!
"Match, begin!"
The moment the referee's voice fell—
Leona's figure vanished.
Yes, vanished.
No warning, no energy fluctuation.
She simply disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Wha... what?!"
Her opponent, the jiu-jitsu master, went pale with horror!
He spun frantically, trying to catch that ghostly figure!
But it was too late.
A cold voice, devoid of emotion, like a death sentence, whispered beside his ear.
"Too slow."
The next second, an ice-blue crescent-shaped slash, carrying the supreme sharpness to tear through anything, silently flashed past from behind him!
"V-Slasher!"
SPLURT——!
The jiu-jitsu master didn't even have time to scream before a massive V-shaped wound appeared on his chest!
Blood gushed forth!
His body froze mid-air for several seconds.
Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, he slowly collapsed to the ground, completely stripped of combat ability.
Instant kill!
Another clean, efficient instant kill!
The entire venue fell into deathly silence.
Everyone was utterly... shocked by Leona's "artistic" and "violently aesthetic" terrifying assassination technique!
"So... so fast..."
"I... I couldn't even see how she attacked!"
Only a handful of top-tier fighters in the competitors' area could barely catch Leona's ghostly movements.
"Military... assassination arts?" Kyo Kusanagi's eyes were grave. "Perfectly fusing qi and killing intent... This woman is a born assassin!"
And in the Yagami Team's rest area—
Mature and Vice, these two "Orochi secretaries" who were "slacking off," showed extremely interested expressions the moment they saw Leona!
"Sister, did you feel it?" Vice's voice was still ice-cold, but carried a barely perceptible excitement.
"Mm." Mature licked her sensual red lips, her emerald eyes gleaming with a serpent-like light. "It's very faint, but... that aura can't be wrong."
"She smells like... one of us."
...
Just as the venue was still immersed in the shock of Leona's "ice-cold blossoming"—
The next team's appearance pushed the atmosphere to an entirely new peak, filled with "gossip" and "gunpowder"!
They were this KOF '96's biggest "dark horse" and the team with the "hardest" background—
The Iron Fist Team!
Leading them was a sinister young man radiating royal aristocratic energy.
He wore a golden martial arts outfit. His features were handsome, but his eyes were filled with an innate arrogance and cruelty that looked down on everyone.
He was the current Emperor's most beloved son, the Crown Prince of Japan—
An'un!
Behind him followed two "palace masters" in imperial-exclusive martial arts uniforms, their auras as solid as mountains.
When this team, radiating "money power" and "political influence," appeared on the arena, every spectator unconsciously held their breath.
No choice—their background was simply... too massive!
...
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