BOOM.
That was the only sound that registered in the ears of the gathered hunters, but it wasn't a sound that followed a motion. It was the instantaneous, violent roar of two forces colliding or rather, one force absolutely obliterating another. The shockwave was so immense that the reinforced glass of the observation booth groaned under the sudden shift in atmospheric pressure.
Before the word "Go" had even fully left the referee's lips, the center of the arena detonated in a cloud of pulverized synthetic flooring. To the S-Rankers watching from above, it was as if a white-and-blue flash had simply erased the physical space between the Japanese starting line and the massive, armored frame of Master Ma Dong-Wook.
Ma Dong-Wook, a man revered in Korea as the absolute pinnacle of Korean defensive power, a human fortress capable of weathering the strikes of S-Rank dungeon bosses didn't even have the luxury of a microsecond to brace himself. His legendary instincts, which were usually sharp enough to detect a needle dropping meters away, were rendered useless by the sheer, impossible velocity of the assailant.
Grimmjow had sonido'd in front of the man. His face was contorted into a devious, toothy grin that promised nothing but carnage. He didn't waste time with a taunt; he didn't wait for the big man to find his footing or reinforce his body with mana. Without a single word, Grimmjow drove a straight, piston-like punch directly into Ma's solar plexus.
Spittle flew from the giant's mouth as his eyes bulged and the light in them flickering as his nervous system buckled under the load. A visible shockwave erupted from Ma's back sending a cone of concussive force through the air behind him. His massive, three-hundred-pound frame didn't just fly back; it folded completely around Grimmjow's fist, his ribs groaning as his body was forced to occupy the same space as the strike. Every hunter in the room watched in frozen horror as the "unbreakable" Master Ma's body rippled and warped, seemingly on the verge of shattering into pieces from the sheer, unadulterated physical displacement.
The sound of the impact reached the other hunters like the structural failure of a collapsing skyscraper. Ma Dong-Wook, the human mountain, was blasted backward; his massive body skipped across the synthetic floor for fifty meters like a stone over water before he slammed into the reinforced wall of the dome with a sickening, metallic thud.
"Heeeh," Grimmjow chuckled, casually shaking out his hand as the dust settled. "That's one."
The Japanese hunters stood with smug indifference, while the Korean side was paralyzed. They looked on in absolute surprise and shock, their minds failing to process how their primary tank, a man who had survived the heaviest hits of Rank-S monsters had been neutralized in a literal blink.
The silence that followed lasted for less than a heartbeat before the arena exploded into a frantic, disjointed chaos. Kumamoto and Tawata blurred toward Cha Hae-In and Lim Tae-Gyu. Even in unarmed combat, the Japanese S-Rankers were moving with a lethal, synchronized precision. They were fast, but the air was still vibrating, heavy and thick, from Grimmjow's overwhelming presence.
On the other side of the training ground, Baek Yoon-Ho was operating on pure adrenaline. Though his mind was reeling in shock, 'What the fuck? How did he do that to Master Ma?' his body was already moving and didn't stop as Tanaka closed in on him, but his eyes suddenly widened.
His animalistic instincts, far sharper than any human hunter's, began to scream at him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as the air pressure behind him shifted. Without a prompt or any visible indication, Grimmjow appeared in his blind spot, moving through the space as if he had simply been erased from one point and rewritten in another.
The blue-haired Espada smirked, his eyes glinting with a savage joy, and spun into a devastating roundhouse kick.
CRACK.
The sound of the impact on Baek's guard was like a gunshot. The force was so immense that it launched him. His bare feet carved deep, smoking furrows into the high-tensile floor as he struggled to maintain his balance, his arms vibrating so violently that he nearly lost feeling in his hands.
"Hooo," Grimmjow's eyes sparked with genuine amusement as he landed softly, his hands already finding their way back into his pockets. "That's good. Your body moved before your brain did. I like that. Maybe you won't be as boring as the big guy."
——-
The air in the observation room had turned cold, the high-ranking officials and hunters standing frozen as they watched the decimation below.
Hunter Choi Jong-In adjusted his glasses with a trembling hand, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. His analytical mind was struggling to process what his eyes were seeing, "Unreal," he muttered, his voice barely audible. "He took out Master Ma in a single blow... and now he's pressuring Baek as if he's a mere hobbyist."
Beside him, Chairman Go Gun-hee gripped the railing so hard the metal began to groan. "The speed," the Chairman breathed, his eyes wide.
Sung Jinwoo didn't join the conversation. His pupils had contracted, glowing with a faint, spectral blue light as he tapped into his heightened perception, trying to map the movements of the feral Espada.
'What... was that? Ma Dong-Wook was neutralized in a single moment. He moved so fast I almost completely missed the point of impact.' He furrowed his brow, his heart hammering against his ribs. 'He isn't using a movement skill that I recognize either. There's no mana trail, no activation delay. It's almost as if he is literally folding the space between steps to move.'
Jinwoo's hands tightened beside him, he had fought the Demon King Baran and survived the weight of that entity's presence. But Grimmjow was different. He moved with the violent grace of a hurricane focused into a human shape, chaotic, destructive, and utterly relentless.
Jinwoo's gaze momentarily flickered to Ulquiorra, who stood a few feet away. The dark-haired man wasn't even looking at the arena with focus; he watched with a profound, chilling disinterest, as if he were watching rain hit a window.
——-
"How about this, then?" Grimmjow taunted, his voice echoing in the vast dome. He lunged. Grimmjow didn't lead with a standard hunter's stance; he entered a savage, high-speed boxing rhythm that looked more like an execution than a spar. He moved into Baek's inner circle with a spinning step, his body becoming a blur of white and blue.
Grimmjow fought like a street brawler possessed by the power of a beast. He didn't use finesse because it didn't suit his aggressive style, he used momentum instead.
He snapped out a left jab that Baek barely parried, only for Grimmjow to use the momentum of the parry to pivot 180 degrees. As he spun, he unleashed an aggressive right hook that carried the weight of a freight train. Baek dipped his head, the wind from the punch shearing a few strands of his hair.
Before Baek could counter, Grimmjow dropped low with his hand touching the floor for balance and swept his leg in a wide, vicious arc.
The low-sweeping kick was so fast it whistled. Baek was forced to leap backward, losing his footing for a split second and Grimmjow didn't give him an inch. He surged forward again, raining down a flurry of strikes while alternating straight punches that targeted Baek's face and throat, forcing the Korean hunter into a frantic, desperate defense.
Baek's arms were blurring as he attempted to block, each impact sounding like a hammer hitting an anvil. He was the "Beast" of Korea, but right now, he was being hunted by something far more predatory.
Baek's golden eyes bled into a deep, predatory amber as the fur along his forearms bristled. He let out a primal roar that rattled the light fixtures of the dome, lunging at Grimmjow with a ferocity that finally matched the pace of the fight. His clawed hands moved in a blur of golden mana, aiming to shred the blue-haired man's chest.
Grimmjow grinned in absolute approval, jumping back twice before settling into a low, coiled crouch.
"Quite the beast you have hidden in there, isn't it?" Grimmjow's voice was a low rasp. As Baek swung a lethal overhead strike, Grimmjow didn't dodge; he reached up and caught Baek's clawed wrists mid-swing, his grip like iron manacles. "I can tell from the look in your eye you're the type to tear his enemies and prey apart."
His grin widened, splitting his face in a way that felt distinctly inhuman. "Wanna see mine?"
Before Baek could even think to pull away, Grimmjow's hands began to change. The skin became a deep, obsidian hue, slick and hard like armor. His fingernails elongated into blackened, serrated claws that seemed to hum with energy.
Baek's eyes widened to the size of saucers, 'What?! He's a transformation type as well? If he's a shifter, how the hell has he been keeping up and overwhelming me this whole time in his human form?'
Grimmjow didn't give him time to solve the puzzle. He wrenched his arms to the side and swung his claws in a wide, horizontal arc.
SHRA-KOOM!
Four deep, jagged gashes appeared instantly, tearing through the air and erupting into the ground and the far wall. Baek managed to throw himself backward, but the sheer vacuum of the strike left three shallow, bleeding cuts across his chest.
Up in the observation deck, Goto narrowed his eyes until they were mere slits. 'Those aren't mana-claws. That's a physical manifestation. So, he's showing more of his true nature huh, good show me more.'
"Heavens," Minoru whispered, "That strike...was pure physical destruction."
"Yeah, no shit," Kei added, his face uncharacteristically grim. "That would have cut Hunter Baek in two if he hadn't moved out of the way. He's playing with a live grenade."
In the background, a thunderous roar echoed through the dome. Ma Dong-Wook had managed to find his footing. Instead of hitting the wall flat, he had twisted his massive body in mid-air, slamming his feet against the reinforced alloy to absorb the impact. The momentum had cracked the wall, but he was back in the fight. His chest was bruised a deep, sickening purple, but his pride was screaming for blood.
He was intercepted by Tanaka, who had been stalking toward the wounded Baek. Their collision created a shockwave that sent a cloud of dust billowing toward the ceiling.
But the main event remained the blue blur. Grimmjow was moving again, his speed increasing as he circled Baek and cackling in a high-pitched, mocking sound that echoed off the dome's walls.
Grimmjow vanished. The sharp static of a Sonido left a vacuum in his wake, and he reappeared instantly behind Baek. Before the Korean hunter could pivot, Grimmjow drove the heel of his boot into Baek's lower back with a sickening crunch.
"Tch," Grimmjow spat, hovering over the staggering hunter. "This is too easy. Come on, Kitty-cat! Transform fully! Show me that monster you're so scared of, or I'll kill you before you even get a chance to growl!"
The spectators gasped, but not because of the strike. Grimmjow didn't descend. He remained suspended three meters above the ground, his feet planted firmly on the empty air as if it were a slab of reinforced concrete.
Jinwoo's eyes widened, the bluish glow in his pupils intensified 'He's standing on the air? How is he doing that? There's no platform, no visible mana construct, and definitely no wind magic.' His breath hitched as he focused his perception. 'He's... he's literally compressing the energy beneath his feet to create a solid foothold. Is that even possible? Who the hell are these people?'
Below, the chaos intensified. Cha Hae-In was being ruthlessly boxed in by the Japanese duo after taking out hunter Lim. Her movements, which were usually fluid and elegant, had become ragged and desperate as she struggled to parry two sets of S-rank strikes simultaneously.
Seeing her falter, Baek Yoon-Ho's restraint finally snapped. A gutteral, earth-shaking roar erupted from his chest. His eyes turned a brilliant, blinding gold, his hair bristling into a mane as his muscles surged and expanded.
The White Tiger had emerged.
"There it is!" Grimmjow's voice was ecstatic with a manic edge to his laugh.
He dropped from his aerial perch like a meteor. As Baek lunged with a massive, mana-clad claw, Grimmjow twisted in mid-air, catching the strike with his forearm and slamming his other hand into Baek's face in a brutal, clawed slap. The sound was like a whip cracking with a sharp THWACK that sent a spray of blood across the white floor.
Grimmjow didn't stop there. He moved with a feral, jittery speed, his body flickering as he delivered a flurry of obsidian-clawed strikes. He buried a knee into Baek's ribs, then immediately followed with a double-handed rake across the tiger's chest, leaving glowing trails of blue energy in the air. To the spectators, the human elements of the fight had vanished; it was simply two apex predators tearing at one another in a blur of fur, teeth, and blue sparks.
On the sidelines, Ippei leaned toward Akari, his eyes never leaving the carnage. "He's enjoying this way too much," he muttered, "Look at him. He's not even using a stance anymore. He's just... fighting like an animal."
Akari popped the lollipop out of her mouth and her expression was uncharacteristically serious, "Like an animal, perhaps you haven't noticed his personality literally screams of bestial energy. Not so shocked he's letting loose like that on another person who can come close to his type of energy." She said, "I just hope the Korean doesn't actually manage to bite him."
But then, the air suddenly changed.
The chaotic roar of the battlefield vanished, replaced by a high-pitched, crystalline whine that made the teeth of every hunter in the room ache. Grimmjow stopped dead in mid-air, his boots hovering over nothingness. He looked away from the battered, panting form of Baek Yoon-Ho and turned his head toward the observation booth, his gaze locking directly onto Sung Jinwoo.
With a slow, deliberate motion, he raised a single finger, pointing it like a barrel at the transformed Baek. At the tip of his finger, a spark of crimson light began to condense, swirling into a dense, vibrating sphere of pure destruction.
'What is he doing... the fool.' Ulquiorra's brow furrowed in a rare display of irritation. 'He's going to discharge a Cero in a closed training facility just to sate his stupid bloodlust?'
Ulquiorra shifted his weight to intervene, but he stopped as a blur of a shadow that bypassed the perception of every S-Ranker in the dome erupted from the balcony.
SH-TK.
Jinwoo appeared directly in mid-air in front of Grimmjow. Before the red light could reach its peak, Jinwoo's hand clamped down on Grimmjow's wrist like a vice, forcing the finger upward toward the reinforced ceiling. The crimson glow of the Cero flickered, hissed violently against the pressure of Jinwoo's palm, and then sputtered out into nothing.
Grimmjow didn't roar in anger. Instead, a slow, manic smirk spread across his face, his blue eyes widening with pure delight.
'Oh. So that was your aim, Grimmjow,' Ulquiorra thought, shaking his head slightly.
"Finally," Grimmjow whispered, his blue eyes locked onto Jinwoo's glowing ones. "A real challenger joins the party."
Without a second's hesitation, Grimmjow twisted his torso in mid-air. Using the momentum of Jinwoo's own grip against him, he launched a vicious, spinning back-heel kick aimed at Jinwoo's temple. The strike was so sudden and packed with such raw, concussive force that Jinwoo was forced to release his grip and snap his arms into a cross-guard.
BOOM.
The collision created a shockwave. The two of them were catapulted in opposite directions, sliding back toward the edges of the dome. Jinwoo landed in a low, three-point crouch, his eyes narrowed into slits as his shadow rippled like ink in water behind him. Grimmjow slammed into the far wall, sticking to the vertical alloy surface as if gravity were a mere suggestion, his claws digging deep furrows into the metal.
The entire arena went dead silent. The other hunters Baek, Cha, and the Japanese elites dropped their stances, staring in awe at the two individuals who had just turned a "friendly spar" into a standoff between apex predators.
Grimmjow licked his lips, his voice echoing through the hollow space. "Don't just stand there. I've been waiting all day for someone who doesn't break easily."
Grimmjow's muscles coiled, his eyes glowing with an intent to kill as he prepared to launch himself like a railgun. Simultaneously, Jinwoo's aura exploded into a brilliant blue flame; his hand reached into the air, and a wicked, black-as-night dagger manifested in his grip.
They both moved at once, two blurs of blue and black destined to collide but as they reached the center of the dome, a crushing, absolute pressure descended from the ceiling. It was cold, heavy, and felt like the hand of a god pressing them into the earth.
Suddenly, Ulquiorra was there.
He stood perfectly vertical between them, with his right hand, he caught Grimmjow's obsidian claws mid-swipe, his grip immovable. With his left, he wrapped his pale hand firmly around Jinwoo's fist, halting the strike inches from his own chest.
"This warm-up is enough," Ulquiorra said, his emerald eyes turning cold as he gazed at his brother, "There is no need to escalate things further, brother."
Grimmjow stared at Ulquiorra, his face was of a pure, unadulterated rage for a fleeting second. He looked like he might swing at Ulquiorra himself, but then he saw the absolute lack of hesitation in his brother's eyes. Grimmjow let out a long, frustrated sigh and retracted his claws.
"Tch. Must you always ruin my fun, Ulquiorra?"
Ulquiorra released them both, stepping back as if he hadn't just intercepted two S-Rank projectiles.
From the silence, the sound of rhythmic clapping emerged. Chairman Go Gun-hee stood at the edge of the floor, a grim yet impressed smile on his face. "Incredible. Truly incredible. I think we have seen more than enough to confirm the strength of this joint venture."
Hanakawa let out a long, audible "Whew!" as she wiped sweat from her forehead. "I am so glad that's over," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I thought the roof was going to come down."
She glanced over at Goto, expecting a comment, but the Japanese Guild Leader was standing perfectly still, his eyes wide and fixed on Sung Jinwoo. Without a word, Goto turned around and began to walk toward the exit, his coat billowing behind him.
'Hunter Sung Jinwoo... so he's the one. Mage-type huh. What a joke. That level of raw aggression and physical speed... he's no mage. He's a monster hiding in human skin.'