Once Brad's foot connected with Aaron's ribs, he understood his own power for the first time.
His Soul Qi-protected shoes flew straight through the man's ribs and kicked his lung directly.
It was a gruesome feeling that left him rattled as he watched the man fly a fifty across the arena.
Luckily, the emperor waved his hand and rebuilt Aaron's lung so he could breathe without the threat of dying. However, he stopped there, allowing the soldier to feel excruciating pain.
Before anyone could ask why he stopped at that point, he flew from the hilltop to the arena, bewildering soldiers and elites alike.
Kaze landed next to Brad and touched the troubled teen on the forehead, sending a wave of profound information crashing into his mind.
With his mind unstable, his mind became chaotic, and he hit the ground.
"Someone use Tranquil Sky on Brad!" He ordered aggressively, "He'll need the technique to heal Aaron Levingston!"
All the special forces soldiers turned to the red-haired man, seizing on the ground in between acute screams of pain. Shards of bone fragments ripped into his muscles, making his body a bed of razors.
Everyone believed the test should end right then. Aaron was dying in excruciating pain!
"You honestly want the practice session to continue right now?" Kane scoffed in disdain, "We could hear Major Aaron's ribs crack a hundred feet away!
Now you've healed him just enough so your member can get training? Is this a joke!?"
A small riot broke out, with soldiers screaming at the emperor to end the match.
"Go heal Aaron to the best of your abilities." Kaze instructed Brad, who was even more shaken under the jeers of half a thousand soldiers, "In the real world, he'd die from this pettiness."
The last line helped motivate him slightly, and he nodded, getting up to walk over to the special forces soldier.
"Is he seriously going to practice that fucking healing technique!?"
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"Don't ignore us, Lexicon!"
"Don't use us at your expense!"
"We're not under your authority! This is a crime against Malta!"
"Get the fuck away from him, you blonde freak!"
"I didn't know Immortal Skye was like this!"
The Maltians devolved into a mob when they saw Brad moving to Aaron to practice the healing technique.
Kane was livid, glaring at the emperor, who wasn't watching his student trying to use the technique.
The elites felt their leader wasn't in the wrong, but no one was willing to defend their leader because they thought his behavior was cruel.
Only one person didn't find it cruel or abnormal—and she was furious.
"Hey, Whine Brigade!" Kiera yelled in an ire-fueled rage, making Kaze frown, "Three rules!
First, the fight between [volunteers] continues until someone's injured!
Second, the winner learns the technique [first] and heals the loser!
Lastly, every other noob flake keeps each other calm!
Are you noob flakes really gonna gripe about the rules when you didn't even do your damn part?"
The soldiers' eyes filled with hellfire and indignation.
"This is training!" A male soldier yelled, "Fuck your rules, we're volunteering to learn, not suffer for someone's gain!"
"Ooooooooh! I get it!" Kiera yelled with false enthusiasm, "You recognize that you volunteered for the event and understood the rules.
Buuuuuuuut, angry that our member won! Otherwise, you'll be pissed that we weren't suffering for your gain because you couldn't learn.
What's a good phrase to use? Participation Prizers? Yeah… that captures you perfectly."
"Are you looking for a fight?" The soldier growled.
"I'd love to!" The pink-haired cried excitedly, grasping her hands, "Unfortunately, ya'll can't shut the fuck up long enough to let our peoples heal your peoples.
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And you're incapable of checking the [I agree] box without trying to sue. So it's not legally allowed."
The atmosphere multiplied as the two stared down, with the soldiers getting heated and the elites feeling intense counter-anger.
It felt personal, a problem between Malta and Immortal Skye. Arguments over the rules or situation disappeared; now, it was a nationalist battle. Both fighters were simply martyrs for something far larger.
Kaze rolled his eyes and scoffed, waving his hand twice.
Everyone radiated with green light, calming them down. They turned to the emperor just in time to see a bright golden light around the wounded soldier.
Instant relief washed over Aaron, and he took a sharp breath of air to ease his mind. He had never felt so grateful before.
"Cease this farce, you fools!" Kaze roared, causing everyone to shiver violently. Now that they were calm, they understood their rationality and felt fear of retribution.
"I wondered how long it'd take you to stop complaining and help your comrade." The emperor scoffed, "It turns out you'd let him die. Unbelievable."
The soldiers looked away with feelings of injustice entering their minds.
Kane gave him a stern glare, saying [you're to blame for this].
"I hope you'd accept the situation and become proactive to aid them." Kaze laughed derisively, "Yet you did the opposite.
Not only did you let your comrade die, but one of you also started a fight blindly. In that simulation, you and many other Maltian soldiers died.
How does it feel to have killed your comrades, Lieutenant Samson?"
Hundreds gasped when they heard the emperor's vicious declaration.
The man's heart rate spiked, and he looked at the beautiful yet fiery pink-haired teen. Her appearance confused him.
"Be careful, Mr. Lexicon." Kane warned, "If you let me or anyone else die, it would violate our agreement, and you'd be at war with Malta."
"Hoh? So you are aware of the rules of our agreement, after all." Kaze mused mockingly, "From where I stood, you openly allowed hostility between our countries.
We didn't break the rules, so your willingness to let it fester could have started a conflict and resulted in natural self-defense."
"I understand your point." Kane replied, "However, this member was not among your elites.
It's not reasonable to send special guests to our training session, then get involved because our soldiers treat her like everyone else.
Are you foolish enough to break our treaty over such a misguided decision?"
Kane's stern gaze triggered their soldiers to express indignation and contempt. Likewise, the emperor's unwavering gaze fueled a similar attitude from the elites, staring at the Maltians in disdain.
"You claim I'd get involved on a [non-elite's] behalf, yet you dare call me foolish?" Kaze asked with a malicious, ridiculing smile, "One needs a poet to label such ignorance."
While his words increased the soldiers' fury, General Michaels and Kane felt electric pulses of raw anxiety assault them. They understood the message.
"How many humiliations must you bear before you break free of your delusions of power?" The emperor asked viciously.
"Let's leave, General Michaels, Coronel Ryker!"
"Immortal Skye has declared war on Malta!"
"Are you going to allow this?"
"I can't believe we're even listening to this!"
The special forces soldiers went ballistic, yelling and jeering at Kaze and his elites and encouraging their leaders to leave.
However, the two men were dry-swallowing nervously, unsure what to do.
They looked at Kiera, who looked ready and confident in fighting every person present.
Her immaturity and unprofessional pink hair made them forget how they had scoffed at Evalyn the day before.
Now, the General and Colonel accused Immortal Skye of breaking the agreement when Kiera would have decimated the soldier and caused a riot because of their actions.
It made them realize that they were to blame.
"Crux, calm down and come over here." Kaze yelled ominously, looking at the prep building in the distance.
The royal beast's eyes flashed with genuine murder. Not at the soldiers, but at Kaze for trying to use her as a pawn to prove his point!
He dared to act like she was indignant about the ants' petty ways!?
Crux stood up and strode through the training ground with passionate steps, ready to yell at Kaze publicly and declare his words a lie. However, before she could—
"Soldiers! Shut the hell up or prepare to be detained for insubordination!" Kane yelled with a sharp, panicked tone, "We were wrong!"
—the people in question saw her.
She was satisfied by their extreme response, feeling vindicated.
"I'm glad these ants know their place." Crux laugh-scoffed, rolling her eyes at Kaze.
She was glad to know that Earth wasn't a backward twilight zone where the second strongest wasn't ridiculed abnormally! It brought her true relief.
However, It didn't take long before she realized the only people who respected her were General Michaels and Kane Ryker.
The soldiers shut down when they heard their panicked tone. When the leader decided their position, they followed without question—and Kane's voice was decisive.
So they stood silent, staring at the cute, hooded cat woman in disbelief. Her dress-sized frog hoodie and beautiful face made her look unbelievably adorable.
Her purple [contact lenses] were also far edgier than Kiera's pink hair. So she was twice as immature in their eyes.
Crux's face turned bright red when she realized that Kaze used her because of her appearance. She immediately turned to him and found him smiling mockingly.
Her eyes flashed with murder, and she turned away, furious. However, when she saw Kane and General Michaels shudder, she realized she got double played!
The emperor was mocking her refusal to drop the hoodie and playing her superiority complex like a flute—as always. It made her flash with anger, and she gritted her fangs.
Kaze turned to the fearful military leaders with a wicked smile. "Hoh? What's the extreme reaction for, gentlemen?
I brought you another cute, fiery woman who wasn't with the elites. You don't think I need to get involved on this one's behalf?"
The military leaders averted their eyes in shame, stunning their members. It also shocked the Immortal Skye elites, who didn't know who Crux was.
"You've made your point, Mr. Lexicon." General Michaels said soberly, expressing his shame.
"Have I?" Kaze asked with a wide grin, "A verified tennis star decimated all of your soldiers yesterday, yet you would [dare] claim that I'd break our agreement over something so frivolous?"
"Coronel Ryker, I'm not sure who this woman is, but we shouldn't let these people mock Malta further." One of the soldiers argued.
A flurry of assenting opinions flew in.
"I agree. They started this nightmare, and now they're berating our country."
"From your expression, it looks like he's threatening us. We can't allow this."
The soldiers decried the emperor's behavior calmly and requested they leave. However, the two men wouldn't budge, confusing everyone.
Their appearance was unsettling to anyone near them. They were white as ghosts.
"Hoh?" Kaze mused derisively, "Aren't you going to justify your meek behavior to your soldiers?
Or will you foolishly continue to let your soldiers deride Immortal Skye as a non-country?"
Waves of anxiety crashed into the two men, whose hearts quickened, panicking.
"Mr. Lexicon, please. Can we put this event behind us?" General Michaels requested hurriedly, "I admit wrongdoing.
I'll take full responsibility for letting my soldiers deface you. Can we drop this?"
All the soldiers gasped in shock at his pleading behavior.
"Your colonel accused me of declaring war, and now your soldiers have war fervor, General." The emperor replied coldly.
"Do you think an apology will reverse the damage from your actions?
You've declared yourself a threat to my country, so defuse the situation accordingly or face the consequences."