Ribbing ruthlessly, two felines cut each other off and bickered worse than brothers as they went about proving their point of pride through their recurring flare-ups. Black and gray fuzz flew into the air as they wrangled and wrestled their way in an attempt to subdue the other, and in that process, they put in an appearance at the entrance of the test hall.

Though the room abounded with howling men, and a vicious mist-storm was also harassing its way through all obstruction, the two cats still didn’t have a care in the world and clawed each other’s blood out as they rolled on the floor, trying to get under the other.

As the cats were preoccupied with their expeditious clash, the storm swallowed them both in two shakes of a grimlakin’s tail, yet it couldn’t stop their scuffle. Despite being blinded by the swirling jets of mist blowing in their faces, each cat’s claws still sought their recognized adversary.

All the grasses, which used to be in the cat ring, now viciously drifted through the wind and cut those who bore smooth skin. The cats, however, nibbled on the flying grass in the middle of the fight.

At the moment, inside the test hall, that wasn’t the only impetuous battle in existence.

“How are you going to take on the two of us at a time, huh?” Muttia snickered as he approached from Hardy’s left rather cautiously. “Though I don’t have any clothes that fit someone your size, I still have to try and see if the extra-sized, elastic underpants from my collection will fit you or not.”

Hardy’s attention, however, shifted toward Murugan, who closed in at an excellent speed. “You brought Hardy’s blood out. I shall bring yours, too!”

“My blood can burn this wood,” retorted Murugan. “I don’t think you can handle it, either.”

“Nothing’s too hot for Hardy,” he raised his fist to meet Murugan’s incoming spear attack.

“Got you, nudist,” Muttia’s voice came from Hardy’s back, startling him as he didn’t expect Muttia to close the gap in such a short time. “Shadow Stripping Stab Series!”

A chain of spear-like hand thrusts converged on Hardy’s back, and Hardy, whose hand was already in motion, had no time to react, except turn his head back a bit.

“Got you, too!” a voice that came from Muttia’s side made him glance to his left when a foot came out of nowhere and smashed him in the face, causing him to crash back down to the floor.

“Ngh?” when Muttia immediately stood and looked, a young boy was now standing behind Hardy. The sudden change of events also made Murugan stop in his tracks. “What’s your problem, baby gear?”

“My problem is not your problem,” suggested Lirzod, stroking Leggy under the chin, “Just go away.”

Hardy, on the other hand, couldn’t swallow saliva down the throat, “Why, why did you help Hardy?”

Lirzod tilted his head up by degrees and glanced up at him, “I had to.”

Hardy’s fists tightened into rocks, and by this point, he smelled hostile. “Why?”

“To beat you,” Lirzod responded in a pressing tone with no emotion on his face.

With Lirzod being so close, Hardy’s breathing became more audible by the second. “Hardy delights in dry humor, but not when he’s the target of it.” All the anger he had forced to sit still in his stomach now snapped.

A ball of bitterness—Hardy’s fist—went for Lirzod’s face.

With a spry leap, Lirzod dodged the attack and landed atop Hardy’s hand, and after a quick hop on the arm, his foot hacked into Hardy’s jaw in a resounding bang.

Hardy’s neck twisted more than ninety degrees from the jolt.

As Lirzod landed behind Hardy, both Murugan and Muttia had somewhat surprised looks on their faces.

A momentary silence followed, and Hardy rubbed his jaw softly, for a contusion as large as his eye came to light. A smile came after. “So you can confront hostility after all. Hardy takes back his armchair speculation that thought otherwise, but still, a lizard will always be a lizard. It can never turn into a dragon,” he raised his fist and punched the floor. “Mega Melt!” a shockwave burst forth in every direction and slightly pushed objects back a bit, but Lirzod wasn’t affected to any extent. Hardy glanced at the mist-storm, which then diffused throughout the hall and spat the groups of people, creatures, and objects and pushed them to random spots.

Jehez, who banged into a wall, somehow managed to stand, but he felt like his head was spinning. His vision was too blurry to see anything. “What the hell happened?”

Most other people and creatures were in a similar situation, with some having suffered worrying wounds.

The visibility in the room has reduced remarkably from how it was only moments ago, but still, it wasn’t foggy enough to not be able to see things close enough to reach in a dozen steps.

The entire hall would’ve gone silent if not for the two cats that were involved in an affray and some men who cried out in distress.

“Those two are...” Some nearby men recognized the cats right away. “Bruiser and Gray!”

“Don’t tell me—those two were fighting in that storm as well?”

“Are you freaking kidding me?”

Awe took over men’s faces, for they weren’t sure if they could ever fight in such a manner, and all they could do was watch as the cats kept running to and fro, shedding more fur and blood. An animated discussion sprang to life among the crowd of onlookers, whatever was left of them.

Still and all, everyone’s attention slowly but surely turned toward a spot where two figures fiercely fought in the mist and provoked unease among the spectators.

One had a fist the size of a lion’s head whereas the other had but that of a regular human’s hand, but both fought tooth and nail. Having blocked some oppressive punches, Lirzod’s right hand discolored as time went by. Every fiber under the skin ached, but he had no time to loosen up. He could only shake his hand in the time between the exchange of punches to ease the muscles.

“Wehaha, what’s wrong? Is your arm already giving up?” Hardy looked as if he was getting a great thrill out of it, “Throw that shitty cat away and use both your hands or this fun would be over soon.”

“Give your stinky mouth some rest,” Lirzod maintained steadiness in his voice even though he was on the back foot. “You are fighting with one hand, so I’ll take you on in the same way.”

“Don’t give Hardy that commiserating crap!” His punches became increasingly, intensely heavy. “You brewed this contempt in Hardy, so now, you either shall bear it or be laid waste by it.” With the mist around them condensed rapidly, Lirzod found it hard to continue to eat away his opponent’s attacks. At the same time, he couldn’t throw back as many punches in reciprocation either.

“Disrobing Dawn Course!”

“Orken Spyd!”

A chain of Muttia’s palms pounded on Hardy’s ribs from his right, and a glowing spear pierced through his left calf, startling both Hardy and Lirzod.

As Murugan pulled his spear out, Hardy’s knees banged onto the floor. His calf began to bleed profusely. Many russet bruises surfaced on his ribs. The pain in his leg and torso ached his mind, and his pupils changed quickly changed shape into ‘∞’ and came back to the usual round shape just as fast.

“Oow,” Muttia softly blew air to cool his palms, “quite some sturdy muscles you got there, macho man. It’s time you gave up and let me dress you up as a child would.”

“You two,” Lirzod had a baffled look, “what have you done?”

“We, no, I haven’t done anything yet,” Muttia kissed his own fingers and smirked before resuming to speak, “not until I also give you a good grounding smack.” He leaped toward Lirzod, who readied himself to block the attack; however, something caught Muttia before his hands reached Lirzod.

Muttia’s body lifted, and his feet were no longer on the ground. “What the—” he had no idea what was happening, but given how bits of mist swirled around his waist, it seemed like the mist itself grabbed him tightly.

Another jet of mist tried to curl around Murugan, but he efficiently swayed his spear and immediately jumped back a few steps, thus avoiding the mist.

“Why am I floating in the air? Why is this mist so hard?” Muttia was utterly perplexed, but when he realized that Hardy was standing right behind him, dread seized his heart, and sweat showed up on his face. Hardy, with a dark shade to his eyes, seemed unapproachable. He grabbed Muttia tightly. “W-Wait. Put me down, and we’ll forget this ever happened.” His words brought not the slightest change in Hardy’s expression. “O-Oh, right. I-I will give you a pair of underpants for free. No cost whatsoever. H-How’s that? Finding underpants of your size won’t be—”

Even so, the grip tightened, and Muttia’s ribs cracked, and he struggled like a mouse scuffling at the jaws of a mouser. With every passing second, the squashing only got worse, and before he could hope to do anything else, he even failed to take a decent breath. He desperately looked at Murugan and squeezed out a couple of words. “Do something…”

Murugan, however, neither moved an inch nor changed his facial expression for a few seconds. “It’s getting too cold here to take a chance,” saying that he turned back and ran away in haste. “You can keep the full reward to yourself.”

Muttia, at the moment, regretted teaming up with the desert dweller and for having the fallacious assumption of outsmarting and outwitting Hardy, but it was too late as it looked like he was going to get squeezed to bits and pieces. A tear streaked down his face, for all he could do was howl in agony, which only worsened with time.

Lirzod bent his knees and leaped off the ground. “Let him go!” His foot darted straight toward Hardy’s face, but a gust of gray wind swept him aside. Though he landed safely, he fell near two familiar cats. “These are…” The two cats, however, were too busy fighting to notice him. As they rolled past him, making irritating noise, Lirzod lost his composure. “Enough!” he booted on Bruiser’s butt, sending the feline flying into Hardy’s face. The other cat, though startled, it sprang and lashed its paw at Lirzod’s face, but he grabbed it in a flash. “You too!” he tossed the cat aside with a swing of his arm and dashed toward Hardy.

Bruiser, meanwhile, scratched Hardy’s nose and cheeks. Though the mist tried to wash over the cat, it climbed up to the top of Hardy’s head and put its claws to use. This time, Hardy sure felt the itching and let go of Muttia. “You shitty thing!” A burst of mist blew in Bruiser’s face, and though the cat sought for purchase, the baldness made it almost impossible, and it eventually got blown away to a great distance.

Muttia, on the other hand, collapsed on the floor while panting with extreme pain, and though he tried to crawl away, Hardy’s reddened fist came down like a meteor of death, carrying heat and verve too overwhelming to fathom. It looked like he was going to die for sure this time, but a blurry figure came out of nowhere and took the fist head-on with his own.

BAM~~!!

Without any warning, there was a boom so loud and sonorous that Muttia’s body contracted, and his teeth vibrated from the sharp concussion of it. Dark gray fog, much compact and iniquitous than ever before, gushed forth out of Hardy’s fist and swallowed up the hall and chilled men’s spines. The world of everyone else in the hall briefly stopped as daunting vibrations drummed through the air and agonized men’s eardrums. Even clamping one’s ears did no good. The fog was so thick that people failed to see anything, and to add to their dismay, the sound of a few windows collapsing into a shower of glass was heart-halting. Every strand of hair on their bodies now tingled from the nightmare that was upon them.

Driven by darkness, Hardy roared and pressed on nevertheless. The mist at their feet subtly took action and made a foot lose balance. As the opponent’s foot slid back, Hardy’s fist hard-pressed his foe’s fist and pushed it away and later pummelled the face, producing a loud sound that boomed through the hall.

The enemy, as apparent in Hardy’s eyes, got dispatched rearward, and four blood-bathed teeth flew up into the air.