328 The End ?

Inspector Ho raised his head to take another glance at the Headless Horseman. He had never felt more relieved than he did now with the country's softer approach towards supercats and their apostles.

There were unimaginable powers out there, the kind that the authorities would not be able to control.

The Headless Horseman, for example, could chalk up far more destruction than any military or satellite missile. He could do way more than cause explosions because he had all kinds of support skills at his disposal.

The worst? He was human and he had the mental capacity of one. He could think and that meant that he could strategize

His ability to teleport was the biggest pain in the a**.

Someone of his caliber was capable of wrecking havoc in the city. He could easily assassinate anyone or sneak into any building, destroying everything in his path as he pleased.

The Inspector scanned the Headless Horseman's application details.

"King George...of Utopia District?"

His eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"If I don't recall wrongly...someone else lives in that district…and his powers are not to be trifled with either…"

*

The battle arena was dead silent.

A dense, black cloud wafted from behind the trees and into the clearing. It was accompanied by black shadows that darted into the foreground. They looked eerily like spirits and were moaning like them as well.

Zhao Yao spun around. He watched the scene with, brows furrowed.

"What the hell..?"

The other opponents could not help looking at the approaching spirits as well. Goosebumps were raised on the surface of their skin.

Was this a new contender?

They had no clue that this was actually a display of Nekomata's spectral powers. He could conjure a thousand ghouls to appear. They were, however, all bark and no bite. They looked scary but could do nothing else.

The spirits moved aside to reveal that a girl had been standing among them.

She looked absolutely ghastly. There was no color on her face, except for the blood red that stained her lips.

"Jesus Christ! It's Carrie!"

"No, it's Sissy Spacek!"

"Are you guys blind? That's obviously Chloe Grace Moretz."

And so it was. The girl did look exactly like Chloe Grace Moretz, which made things less terrifying.

Nekometa's power allows its user to alter his or her appearance when in spirit form. To conceal her identity, Xiao Yu chose to adopt Ms. Moretz as a facade.

She was the first thing that Explosive Man saw as he started to stir.

He clutched onto the back of his head and got to his feet gingerly. He had been unconscious for most of Zhao Yao's epic showdown.

"What's going on?" he murmured.

Xiao Yu turned to him and raised a hand. She activated her spectral power, which worked like telekinesis, to grab him by the neck.

The poor man had barely come to, so he was completely unable to respond as she choked him and rendered him unconscious once more.

The contestants watched in silence.

"Where's Daniel Wu?" Xiao Yu asked them.

Some promptly pointed in his direction.

The Cat King of the North scratched his chin gently with his claws.

"First, we had Daniel Wu. Now, there's Chloe Grace Moretz. Who's next? Jackie Chan? Oprah Winfrey?"

Xiao Yu's gaze followed their fingers and landed on a headless Zhao Yao.

"Your head got chopped off?!"

She recovered from the shock that paralyzed her and darted towards him.

"I've only been gone for a moment! How did you lose your friggin' noggin' already? This is bad. We can't even bury you whole."

Xiao Yu came to a sudden halt.

"No, that cannot do. We must find your head. Where is it?"

Zhao Yao stared at her wordlessly.

He paused for a beat before speaking, "I think most people would exact revenge first, then find the dislocated head. Your priorities aren't quite right, I feel."

Xiao Yu jumped in surprise.

"You can still speak?!"

"Seeing that I'm not dead yet, yes, I can still speak."

Zhao Yao pointed at the now peaceful, but completely destroyed, surroundings, "See this? My handiwork. I've wiped out anyone who poses a threat to us. We're the final three."

Xiao Yu's eyes lit up.

"Really? Does this mean the house is mine?"

Noodle the Husky and Matcha had appeared next to them as well. They issued punches and kicks

at the concussed Butcher gleefully.

Noodle raised a hind leg, then yelled, "Have a taste of my Juice of Justice!"

Matcha backed away instantly. He cast a look of utter disgust at the husky.

"Dogs are disgusting."

While they bullied the Butcher, Xiao Yu listened intently to Zhao Yao's recount of the battle.

When it was over, she eyed him with disbelief.

"You're that powerful?"

Like the Explosive Man, she had missed most of the showdown. Before Zhao Yao canvassed the area for his battleground, he had first found a safe place to hide her. He had robbed her of all senses, causing her to black out instantly.

Xiao Yu only woke during the final fight with the Butcher, when the entire island shook from its impact. She transitioned into spirit form and rushed here to see the trees torn from their roots and the ground shattered into uneven bits.

To hear that Zhao Yao was behind this level of damage was a shock. If it were true, he was much stronger than she had thought.

It was obvious that the competition had ended. There was still time left from the one hour they were allocated, but no one dared to take Zhao Yao's sapphires or go anywhere near him.

The contestants were scattered across the clearing, resting and talking among themselves. They would look to Zhao Yao from time to time.

He was similarly seated on the ground. He had deactivated his supercat armor and sent them back into the belly. He had been busy fighting and plotting since 2 pm. It was exhausting.

Tired as he might have been, he still noticed the many stolen glances that the other contestants threw him. The attention gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"They must think that I'm so cool. I sense a fan club in the making. The Headless Horseman is going to be known throughout the city," he thought happily.

This made him sit up straight. He very much wanted to sprawl on the floor and rest his aching body, but he had an image to maintain.

Xiao Yu drifted around him, eyes wide and alert.

Zhao Yao studied her.

"Why are you using Chloe Grace Moretz's appearance? It's a bit extra, don't you think?"

Xiao Yu shot him a side-eye glance.

"And why did you call yourself Daniel Wu?"

Zhao Yao looked back at her wordlessly.

He did not want to continue talking with this precocious primary school student. Instead, he occupied himself by analyzing Xiao Yu's power.

"It sure is similar to Nekomata's spectral abilities."

He remembered the Nekomata that Ho Hao Cang owned clearly. It was the only one of his supercats whom had evaded him.

Zhao Yao looked at Xiao Yu's spirit form, then turned to the husky.

"Is that cat using the dog as a host?" he wondered.

He was going to grill Xiao Yu about this once the contest was over.

*

Back in the elimination zone, Fish Ball was busy tooting his own horn again.

He pointed at Xiao Yu, who was projected on the large screen.

"See? I told you Daniel Wu would win. I know this girl too. She used to clean up my poop all the time," he said.

"Really?"

"Wow, Mr. Fish Ball, you're so cool!"

Fish Ball laughed jovially, patting his ardent fans on the back.

"Well, what you see is nothing, really. If it were me up there, let's just say that the contest would've ended sooner."

One of the supercats seated nearby could no longer stand his big talk.

"Are you quite done? You girls must be brighter than this! How can you believe any word that comes out his mouth?" the cat said.

"Yeah. All you can do is shoot lights from your paws and yet, here you are, talking trash. What a loser," another cat chipped in.

Fish Ball let out a quiet laugh, then turned to the unhappy cats.

"Who gave you permission to look at me?"

In the next moment, his entire body released bright beams of light that shot right into the cats' eyes.

The glare was so intense that most of them had no choice but to lower their heads to avoid it. Some refused to give in and continued staring at Fish Ball defiantly.

Soon, however, their eyes started watering and twitching from the light. It was a matter of time before all of them lowered their heads, as if in a bow.

The group of not-so-bright female cats let out a collective gasp of awe.

"Fish Ball is too cool!"