Isabella stared at him, coughing up seawater. The air-pocket Yuto had created with sheer physical force was holding back the ocean, but he looked terrible. The veins on his neck were bulging, and his right arm looked like it was containing a dying star.
He's taking the full weight of a Tsunami-Class attack just to shield me, Isabella realized, her Tsundere heart skipping a massive beat. He's dying. I can't let him die because he's too stubborn to heal!
Isabella reached into the hidden lining of her gladiator armor. She pulled out a single, glowing pink vial—a [High-Grade Mermaid's Tear]. It was an ultra-rare healing item she had been saving for her brother.
"Human, open your mouth!" Isabella ordered, crawling toward him in the mud.
"I'm fine," Yuto grunted, his boots sinking two inches into the solid stone as he held the Kraken's tentacle above them. "Just grab your swords and—"
"I said open it!" Isabella shouted. She knew he would refuse to drink it. He was a lunatic hoarder. So, she did the only thing a desperate, hot-headed gladiator could do.
She uncorked the vial, downed the glowing pink liquid herself, grabbed Yuto by the lapels of his soaked jacket, and smashed her lips directly against his.
[System Warning: CRITICAL INTIMACY DETECTED!] [Event: Tsundere's Desperate Kiss! Attempting to transfer High-Grade Healing Item via mouth-to-mouth.]
Time stopped for Yuto.
The Kraken above them ceased to matter. The flooded arena ceased to matter. All Yuto could feel were Isabella's soft, desperate lips against his, the taste of sea salt, and the warm, glowing healing magic trying to force its way down his throat.
The System UI exploded in a blinding, flashing neon pink array.
[Milestone Reached! The Blood Gladiator's Devotion!] [Action Required: Accept the Healing Transfer and Claim the Intimacy Synergy Bonus (Multiplier Reset to 0%), or REJECT?]
NO! MY 1.18% INTEREST! MY HOARD! Yuto's inner loot-goblin screamed in absolute, apocalyptic terror.
If he swallowed that potion, the System would log it as spending a resource and completing a romantic milestone. He would lose everything he had saved since Floor 13.
With superhuman, monk-like willpower fueled entirely by financial greed, Yuto clamped his throat shut. He refused to swallow. He grabbed Isabella by the waist, gently but firmly prying her face away from his, leaving a thin trail of glowing pink healing magic connecting their lips.
"Human... what are you doing?" Isabella whispered, her face as red as a tomato, completely humiliated and confused. "Drink it! It will heal your arm!"
"I am lactose intolerant to spent currency," Yuto gasped, his eyes wild and bloodshot.
He didn't just reject her heal. He weaponized his panic.
Turning back to the Kraken's tentacle, Yuto unleashed the sheer, unadulterated frustration of a man who just had to reject a beautiful girl's kiss to save his bank account.
"Withdrawal: Kinetic Spite!" Yuto roared.
He didn't just punch the tentacle; he opened the Vault by a microscopic fraction and let the gravitational pressure of the Mythic Chest and 2,700 Tokens violently decompress into his fist.
The resulting uppercut defied the laws of physics.
The shockwave didn't just blast the tentacle away. It traveled up the beast's appendage, struck its massive, gilded main body, and launched the three-hundred-ton Floor Boss entirely out of the water. The Kraken shrieked as it was rocketed hundreds of feet into the air, smashing directly into the Senator's VIP balcony and shattering the magical shielding of the Colosseum.
The entire arena was engulfed in a massive tidal wave of displaced water.
When the water finally settled, Isabella was sitting on the damp stone floor, completely unharmed. Yuto was standing a few feet away, aggressively wiping his mouth with his sleeve, glaring at the System prompt.
[Intimacy Rejected. Healing Item Vaulted.] [Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Fragments, 2,700 Tokens, 1 Hydro-Core, 1 Mermaid's Tear.] [Multiplier increased to 1.25% due to Extreme Emotional Restraint.] [Vault Pressure: 15%.]
Isabella stared at his back, touching her own lips. Her mind was a whirlwind of absolute confusion, embarrassment, and terrifying awe.
He rejected my kiss... he rejected a legendary heal... just so he could punch a leviathan into the stratosphere with his bare hands, she thought, her Tsundere defenses completely melting into a puddle of infatuation. He really is a god of restraint.
"Master, you are a psychotic cheapskate!" Shion's voice echoed across the ruined arena, the succubus sobbing tears of frustration. "That was a free kiss! You could have fed me! I hate you so much!"