Talia looked at the walking Hayden. ‘From the look of it, his ability has something more to do than just his body, otherwise his clothes would have shredded by the blow. He also look like a entirely different person than before.’

Talia changed her clothes with her earring and was now wearing her black battle armor. Hayden grinned with an intoxicated face. His figure suddenly disappeared creating a web pattern crack on the floor. The normally sturdy material could not resist the monstrous leg power.

Hayden was like a lightning strike. His blurry figure appeared in front of Talia and his punch was flying furiously in her direction! Talia slightly moved her body, making the destructive punch passing just in front of her eyes. The time seemed to have slowed down between them. She could completely see Hayden’s smile deepening in joy.

Talia stuck him with an uppercut in the stomach, bending his body and sending crashing toward the high ceiling. Hayden rotated during the ascent in order to touch the surface of the roof with his feet. He bent his knees, building energy and caused damages to the ceiling. He jumped to the ground and put his right leg behind him like a spring. A split of a second later, as he was just in front of Talia, he released his leg, delivering a round kick.

The kick split the sound barrier, resulting in a sonic boom that shook the whole building! Talia evaded the kick with her overwhelming speed. Hayden’s kick stuck the floor. The generated shockwaves caused it to split, creating a meter in radius crater. Hayden looked around in a hurry as he lost Talia’s sight. His heart was beating so fast that it seemed it was about to erupt.

All of sudden, he felt all his senses screaming. He bent his body. immediately after, a punch passed just over his head, grazing his hair. The punch was so fast that another sonic boom spread. Hayden’s eardrum shook in pain, making him a bit dizzy. He didn’t wait a second before retreating dozens of meters away. He tried to find Talia, but her figure was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a hint of blue appeared in his field of vision, causing cold sweats to form on his back. He sent a sidekick by reflex. He then turned his head, only to see Talia who had evaded his desperate blow. Her body was just in front of him, and her supersonic punch was aiming for his face. Hayden’s vision of the world slowed down. This punch seemed very dangerous.

He took the blow directly in the head. His body was starting to spin because of the great force, but Hayden used this to prepare a rotating kick. The moment he did an entire turn, he sent his own supersonic attack. Talia blocked it with a round kick, but she lost in the contest of strength as she was pushed back a few meters away.

The confrontation stopped for a second as both of them looked at each other. Hayden spat a broken tooth and some blood. It was the first time since the beginning of this fight that he was injured. He wiped the blood and smiled like a crazy person.

“It’s the first time...The first time that someone went through my aura.” Talia seemed to have understood something when she heard it.

“As I thought, your ability is not really limited to your body, it’s more like a surf-”

“Less talking! Let’s fight!”

Hayden disappeared and appeared just in front of Talia. He started to shoot a barrage of punches, making the winds swirl due to the pressure. His fists were like a gatling with unlimited ammo. However, none of them hit the target.

Each time a punch was approaching her, Talia slightly moved her body to avoid it. When there was no room to do so, she would deviate it with her palms to make it hit the air. She was perfectly controlling the situation, overwhelming Hayden both in strength, speed, and technique. He was maybe extremely powerful and swift, but he was just like an unchained beast. He lacked real techniques and experience. However, he didn’t stop.

The one-sided furious attack increased in speed. Hayden sped up the rate of his punches with gritted teeth. He felt like his soul was burning and his ability was overheating. But, none of this made him stop. He savored each moment of this fight and at the same time, he wanted to surpass the person in front of him!

Suddenly, Talia’s eyes narrowed, sending a warning to Hayden’s intuition. She avoided one of his punch, then placed her left foot forward and brought her right fist backward.

“!”

Hayden knew that her movement created a possible opening, but his body desperately moved to the side. Talia released her punch. Its speed was already beyond the speed of sound, spilling the air mercilessly. It stopped just before the place where Hayden had been standing a fraction of second ago. He thought that he had avoided it, but he felt an acute pain on the side of his body. The air pressure generated by the punch grazed him and overpowered his defense, injuring him. He also could not see it, but the wall behind him was carved in by a few centimeters deep.

Hayden placed his hand over the injury and clenched his teeth in pain. He was not bleeding or anything, but he was sure that he at least had one or two broken ribs. He retreated a bit and stared at Talia with heaving shoulders caused by his deep breaths. The earlier barrage of attacks drew a lot of stamina. He also pushed the limit of his ability, which also drained his endurance. His face was drenched in sweat.

Meanwhile, Talia was gauging Hayden’s capabilities. ‘...He is really something. 50 years ago, I already knew that S-ranked abilities users were strong, but this is beyond what I thought. There is plenty of stronger people in other worlds, but for a world that had its World Transition 40 years ago, this is quite a feat. However, his case should be special. If I remember correctly, there are only 13 S-ranked and not all of them are battle oriented. This is a shame that the strongest man is a muscle brain.’

Talia crossed her arms as she looked at Hayden’s held side. “Do you want to stop here?”

Hayden gave her a piercing glare.

--------------------------------------

“Stessie! What the hell is going on with the Test Chamber?!”

“I-I don’t know, sir!”

Inside the control room of the Research and Development. There was a group of people looking agape the monitors that were showing inside the Chamber where were Talia and the others. Suddenly, the sliding doors had opened and a man had entered the room. He was around in his forties with a bald head and a shaved chin, making his brown skin shine under the spotlight. He was tall and seemed quite muscular. He was wearing a yellow Hawaiian shirt under his open lab coat with rolled-up sleeves. The identity card pinned on his chest had a photo of him with the name ‘Alan Seddon’ on it.

The moment he entered the room, he took large strides toward the monitor panel while shouting at the woman named Stessie. His frowned eyebrows were fixed on one of the monitors. “There was no scheduled test today. Who is in there?”

One man used his computer for a moment before looking at Alan with sweat on his forehead. “It’s the Minister of Interior, George Keller. He made a reservation in the afternoon.”

Anger built up on Alan’s face. “This is not some renting thing! This is a reinforced Chamber used for experiments!”

His eyes swept over the different monitors before stopping on one, making them wide open. The screen was showing the zone behind the glass panels. There were all the ministers with their face filled with shock and traces of fear. The guards were also dumbstruck. Same for Darius. Same for Yui. The only one that already recovered from the shock was-

“...Sanya? What is the little miss doing here?” Then, something caught his attention on another screen. It was someone that he had not seen for a week. He was absolutely shocked when he turned his head.

“I think I’m still sleeping. Why is Haydi fighting Talia? No, wait. When did Talia come back? No, no. The real question is how come Talia is currently beating Haydi?” He leaned on the control board to see Talia wiping the floor with the supposed strongest man on earth.

Alan was so shocked that he stayed in front of the screen with his mouth open. Suddenly, the sliding doors once again opened. The sound of calm footsteps resonated through the room. The atmosphere inside instantly changed. It was like cold water pouring on the previous hot situation. “Alan.”

Alan turned around to the call. He faced the newcomer, who was also his old friend, with a lot of surprises. “Explain what is going on, Demetrio.”

--------------------------------------

Talia waited for Hayden’s decision, but his reply really surprised her. “Are you holding back? That punch just now was totally different from the precedent ones.”

She scratched her head with a troubled face. “...Well, of course I do. Otherwise, you will have been killed since the beginning.”

Hayden gritted his teeth until they were at the limit of breaking. His face was distorted in anger. “I don’t want to fight with someone that is holding back!”

Talia sighed while closing her eyes. “So,”

Lightning arcs cracked the air around her. Her eyes opened. They were absolutely different from before. They were the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. Someone that would not blink in front of death. “You mean you don’t care if you get killed by any chance, right?”

Talia held her left hand in front of her. The space distorted for a moment until something was left behind in her hand. Something that gave everyone presents an irrational need to stay away from it, except for the user of the Radiant Bell. Something that had slain countless foes.

Talia was holding her sword.