The System wasn't just controlling his movements anymore. It was teaching him how to think like a fighter, how to read intentions, how to anticipate an opponent's next move before it even began. Every exchange, every reaction was carving new instincts into him.

  Arnold froze.

  Pain twisted his expression as realization hit him. Fai had forced him into doing something he never wanted to do. He had hurt his own teammate. His own comrade.

  Anger, guilt, and a dangerous glint of anguish filled his eyes.

  "Dian!!" he screamed, as if shouting her name could somehow reverse what had already happened.But deep down, he knew it wouldn't.

  "You bastard!" Arnold roared, turning toward Fai, his eyes red with fury and grief. "Look what you've done!!"

  'Me?' Fai argued silently in his mind. 'You're the one who hit her.'

  He wanted to say it out loud. He wanted to explain, to shout back, to tell Arnold the truth. But it was impossible. The System didn't allow it. His mouth remained sealed, his voice trapped inside his own head.

  "Don't you have a heart?" Arnold demanded, his voice trembling.

  "What did we even do to you?" he continued.

  That last question struck Fai harder than any punch had.Arnold was right.What had they done to him?Nothing.

  They hadn't attacked first. They hadn't provoked him. Fai had been the one to initiate the fight. Yes, the stage demanded that participants collect coins from others, but nothing said it had to be done through violence. Nothing prevented him from approaching them and talking instead.

  If he had done that, they wouldn't be here now.

  That realization cut deep.

  Fai suddenly understood something frightening. His hunger for experience points had already begun to blind his judgment. He hadn't even considered other options. As long as he gained EXP, it didn't matter how he did it.

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  That thought unsettled him.

  "I'm going to make you pay for this," Arnold said coldly. "I'll teach you a lesson you'll remember even a hundred years from now."

  Carefully, he held onto Dian's body and lowered her gently to the ground. Once she was settled, Fai jumped backward and landed a few meters away. Though close-range combat favored him earlier, the System seemed to judge that distance would be better for what came next.

  After placing Dian down, Arnold stepped forward again.

  The next moment, he kicked the air in front of him hard.wind erupted beneath his feet.

  "Wind Kick!" he screamed as he completed the motion.

  The air he kicked formed into a spinning wave of compressed wind, spreading outward along the ground at incredible speed. It expanded similarly to Wind Swipe, but this time it traveled low, hugging the surface, threatening to sweep anything in its path.

  Fai reacted instantly, jumping upward to avoid being knocked off his feet.

  The moment Arnold unleashed the Wind Kick, he followed up immediately. Sprinting forward, he closed in on Fai with blinding speed. Once close enough, he went in for a powerful kick, aiming to crush him midair.

  Fai's body twisted gracefully in midair, narrowly evading the attack. He landed with cat-like precision, absorbing the impact smoothly and instantly transitioning into motion.

  Without hesitation, his body launched into a flurry of strikes.

  Arnold's fists and feet moved in a continuous, flowing pattern as he responded. Each motion was calculated, each attack perfectly timed. His knuckles and legs remained coated with spinning currents of wind, each strike carrying the intention to cause devastating damage upon contact.

  The clash between them intensified, the air between their bodies vibrating violently as skill, speed, and power collided head-on.

  Fai's body twisted midair as he narrowly evaded Arnold's incoming attack. His torso bent and rotated with unnatural flexibility, allowing the wind-coated strike to pass just inches away from him. As his feet touched the ground, he landed with cat-like precision, knees bending slightly to absorb the impact, and without even a moment of pause, his body flowed directly into a flurry of strikes.

  Arnold did not retreat.

  His fists and feet moved in a continuous, flowing pattern, each motion chained seamlessly into the next. There was no wasted movement, no hesitation. Every punch carried force, every kick followed a precise trajectory, and every shift in his stance was deliberate. Spinning currents of compressed wind wrapped tightly around his knuckles and legs, screaming through the air with every swing. The intention behind each attack was clear—to cause maximum damage the moment contact was made.

  The Auto Fairy Defence skill was working at an impossible level.

  It was building muscle memory at a speed that defied logic. Fai didn't need to think about what to do next. His body already knew. His arms moved instinctively, parrying and deflecting Arnold's attacks with just the right amount of strength and angle. Every block was efficient, redirecting force rather than meeting it head-on. Every deflection minimized damage while creating just enough space to survive the next strike.

  But it would be a lie to say it was effortless.

  Arnold was no longer calm or calculated. The man before him was fueled by rage, and that made him far more dangerous than before. Fighting Arnold when he was still composed had already been difficult. Now, facing him in this furious state was an entirely different matter.

  When people fought with rage, they fought like they had nothing to lose.

  Pain no longer slowed them down. Fear no longer held them back. Their anger burned so intensely that it became fuel, driving them to push beyond their limits and drag others into that same suffering. Arnold's eyes burned with that exact kind of fire, and every strike he threw carried the weight of grief, guilt, and hatred.

  Still, Fai endured.