The Hollow Pit felt like a pressure cooker. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and the mechanical hum vibrating from Magnus's body. As the giant entered his "Overdrive" mode, his skin turned a dark, angry red, and steam hissed from the vents in his shoulders. He wasn't just a man anymore; he was a biological furnace.
Ren stood his ground, his breathing shallow. His ribs were screaming in pain from the previous hit, but his mind was working at a frequency he had never reached before. The medicine from the Billionaire had changed him; it had sharpened his logic into a razor-colored blade.
Magnus moved.
He didn't run; he vanished. The speed was impossible for someone of his size. In a split second, a massive fist was inches from Ren's face. Ren dropped to the floor, the wind from the punch nearly knocking him unconscious. The stone floor behind him shattered as Magnus's fist buried itself six inches into the solid rock.
He's not just strong, Ren thought, rolling away. Every movement is calculated by an AI chip. He's reacting to my muscle twitches before I even move.
Magnus pulled his arm out of the stone and swung a heavy leg. Ren tried to "Twist" the giant's knee, but it felt like trying to bend a steel girder with his bare hands. Magnus's nervous system was so heavily shielded that Ren's power was bouncing off.
The kick caught Ren in the side. He flew across the platform, hitting the ground and sliding toward the jagged iron spikes at the edge of the pit.
"Ren! Get up!" Dante's voice echoed from the tunnel, filled with a desperation Ren had never heard before.
Ren coughed up blood, his vision swimming. Magnus was already walking toward him, each footstep sounding like a hammer hitting an anvil. The crowd in the balcony was silent, mesmerized by the one-sided slaughter. The Billionaire Boss leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Think, Ren. Think! Ren screamed at himself. If I can't twist his muscles, and I can't twist his nerves... what is left?
He looked at Magnus's glowing red eyes. They weren't natural. They were optical sensors. Magnus was "seeing" the world through a digital filter.
Magnus reached down and grabbed Ren by the hair, lifting him up. The giant's grip was like a hydraulic vice. He pulled his other fist back for the killing blow.
"You... are... obsolete," Magnus's voice rumbled, a synthesized sound that didn't come from a throat.
In that moment of absolute terror, Ren stopped fighting Magnus's body. He closed his eyes and focused his "Twist" on the light itself.
He didn't attack Magnus. He attacked the refraction of light in the air between them.
Ren used his power to vibrate the dust particles and the steam in the air, creating a localized "mirage." To Magnus's optical sensors, Ren suddenly appeared to be three feet to the left.
Magnus's fist flew forward, striking nothing but empty air. The sudden momentum of his own massive strength, combined with the missed target, threw the giant off balance for a micro-second.
That was all Ren needed.
As Magnus stumbled, Ren dropped to the floor and focused every ounce of his Twist power on Magnus's inner ear. Even a shielded giant needs a sense of balance. Ren sent a high-frequency vibration directly into the fluid of Magnus's vestibular system.
The effect was instant. To Magnus, the entire world began to spin at a thousand miles an hour.
The giant let out a distorted, metallic groan. He clutched his head, his massive legs shaking. He tried to strike Ren, but he was hitting the air, his coordination completely destroyed.
"You rely too much on your sensors," Ren hissed, standing up despite the stabbing pain in his chest. "But even a machine needs to know which way is up."
Ren didn't stop there. He knew Magnus's AI would eventually compensate. He had to end this now.
He looked at the floor of the platform. It was made of heavy, reinforced stone slabs. Ren ran toward Magnus and slid between the giant's legs. As he did, he used his Twist on the friction of the stone. He made the surface beneath Magnus's right foot as slippery as ice, while making the surface beneath the left foot as rough as sandpaper.
Magnus, already dizzy and confused, tried to steady himself. His right foot slipped forward with incredible speed, while his left foot stayed stuck to the ground. The giant's own weight did the rest.
CRAAAACK!
Magnus's hip joint, made of titanium and reinforced bone, snapped under the unnatural tension. The giant fell to one knee, a sound of grinding metal echoing through the reservoir.
Ren didn't show any mercy. He jumped onto Magnus's back, his hands glowing with a violet light. He pressed his palms against the base of Magnus's skull—the only spot where the shielding was thin to allow for neck movement.
"This is for Carlos. This is for the Diamond Tower. And this... is for me," Ren whispered.
Ren didn't just twist the nerves. He sent a "Twist" pulse into the electronic signals between Magnus's AI chip and his brain. He created a feedback loop, a mental virus that forced Magnus's own systems to attack his heart.
Magnus's body began to convulse. Sparks flew from his neck and eyes. His heart, a bio-mechanical pump, began to beat at four hundred beats per minute, then five hundred...
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-BOOM.
The pump exploded inside Magnus's chest. The giant went rigid, his red eyes flickering one last time before turning a dull, lifeless grey. He crashed forward, his massive head hitting the stone with a sound that signaled the end.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Ren stood on top of the fallen giant, his clothes torn, his body covered in blood and oil. He looked like a demon born from the ruins of technology. He looked up at the Billionaire Boss's balcony.
He didn't say a word. He didn't have to. The violet fire in his eyes said everything: You're next.
The Boss didn't look angry. He looked delighted. He stood up and began to clap, a slow, solitary sound that echoed through the Hollow Pit.
"Magnificent," the Boss whispered, though his voice was carried by the speakers. "You didn't just win, Ren. You evolved. You are exactly what I hoped you would be."
Ren's legs finally gave out. He collapsed onto the cold metal of Magnus's back, his vision fading into black. The last thing he felt was Dante's strong arms catching him before he hit the stone.
The fight was over. But as the crowd began to murmur in the shadows, everyone knew that Ren hadn't just won a match—he had declared war on the gods of the city.
[TO BE CONTINUED...]