Chapter 97: Replay

Chapter 97: Replay The holographic video displayed an image of two people staring at each other on the stage.

Each contestant bearing a different demeanor. Richard’s attention quickly felt his opponent and went to the crowd who were screaming and shouting cheers of different kinds, with reddish faces filled with excitement.

His opponent on the other hand, Mark

Jones, the current 86th ranked recruit stared looked at Richard in a playful manner.

"Another one of those Prideful pillars!"

Mark sneered seeing Richard’s attention still away from him—he was now observing another one of the fights that had yet to start on the side.

"Well, makes it fun to put them in place"

"He sis have a point. You talk too much!"

Richard’s voice, filled with unprecedented pride and disdain, cut into Mark’s words, interrupting him.

Looking into his disdain filled eyes, Mark let out a chuckle, shaking his head.

"Who do you think you are, branch kid?!"

"You aren’t the same as her, you never will, Scarlet!"

Richard’s eyes and demeanor darkened at Mark’s words, he seemed to have hit a sore spot, but Richard closed his eyes, ignoring him further.

’Hmm!’

Kieran was surprised to see Richard’s reaction, especially when he was outrightly being taunted. He wasn’t one to take a loss in any way.

Mark, still unsatisfied by the reaction he had gotten, pushed further.

"I bet your family must be really disappointed, but the again. It isn’t too surprising, considering all I’ve heard about you!"

Mark slowly said the last part in a tone filled with venom, hinting at something that Kieran didn’t know about. It seemed that he had come very prepared to diss Richard.

The silence around Richard had grown heavy, his face and aura having grown dark, but still he held it in and maintained his calm, raising his head to look at Mark with his eyes that now shone Scarlet.

"You should learn to keep your mouth out of matters that don’t concern you! You just might get into trouble"

He replied in a murderous tone and Mark laughed having won the fight of words—at least in his opinion.

BEEP!

Fortunately for Richard though, he didn’t have to keep his anger within for long as the sound signifying the start of the fight was heard.

Almost immediately, he caught flames; his shoes blasting to pieces and his arms coated in flames as he flashed in front of Mark, planting his face into the ground in one move, with a splatter of blood and flesh beneath him.

BANG! SPLURT!!

’!!!’

Kieran’s eyes widened at those move.

A single strike had made understand how much Richard had gone easy on him back then. Rather than that, he did it because he was out to satisfy himself. One shotting Kieran would have never done that.

That strike could kill Mark if he couldn’t manage to do something. Judging from the sight in the crater after Ricahard removed his hand, still wet and sticky with blood—a face burnt beyond recognition, and a disturbing mess of flesh and blood. Kieran’s mind churned, fearing that the recruit had died.

But when he looked down, the video was still in its opening phase, far from ending, which means something happened.

"Aren’t you enthusiastic! Hehehaha!"

A voice came from Mark’s body sounding dry and distorted, like he was missing some vocal cords.

Richard paused, the flames on his arms lighting up once again as he and everyone who happened to be spectating, including Kieran were forced to witness one of the most disturbing scenes they had probably ever seen.

Mark’s arms propped his self up, out of the crater and his skull bobbed forward almost as if it was about to swing off his neck.

As he slowly got to his feet, Kieran’s expression hardened as he watched as parts Mark’s blackened skull fell off in thin flakes, revealing white bone behind it.

From there, his muscles and veins were seen, growing back from his neck to encase the whole skull, speeding up as the process went on; only taking a few seconds before skin covered the whole image, giving him back the same look as at the beginning of the fight.

"Why don’t we start this again Scarlet kid!"

Mark declared with a smile to Richard who watched the whole scene calmly and unbothered.

He was knowledgeable about his opponent after all, the same way Mark had happened to male his research on him.

Mark Jones, ranked 86th, was a physical ability user with enhanced regeneration. Ot wasn’t like the increased healing or recovery ability that people like Kieran, Jake or Kael possessed.

He could basically regenerate whole parts of his body. The advanced healing and recovery that Jake had was like a joke when compared with what he could do.

Like every other person, his ability also influenced his fighting style; adopting a bare handed approach, unbothered by the injuries he could get from those who weilded weapons of different kinds.

Interestingly, Richard also happened to be in a similar situation. The violent way in which he used his ability had left him with no other way than to specialize in hand to hand combat, just like Mark.

Kieran was sure both oppeonenets were happy about their fighting style, especially Ricahard.

"Now that I’ve felt it, I can say for sure. You’re nothing compared to her!"

Mark spat in Richard’s direction.

’Just who is she?’

Kieran’s thought wandered back to the female Scarlet Mark had mentioned, gaining such a reaction from Richard.

The hate in Richard’s eyes had multipled at that comment.

"YOU REALLY DON’T LEARN D–"

The video was was paused by Kieran who couldn’t hold in his curiosity anymore.

After a few minutes of looking around on what he could get about a female Scarlet who seemed to have passed through the camp before he and Ruby, Kieran managed to find somethings.

But what he could find was rather limited, like someone had made an active attempt to cover up most of the information related to her, only leaving the less important ones laying around.

Fortunately, a picture of her was part of those less important pieces of information.

The moment he took a look at her appearance, he had pretty much figured out their connection for the most part.

’So he had a sister?’

Richard was a splitting image of the person he haf just seen on his screen, like a male, and shitty version of her.

He had no idea what could have happened between them to provoke such a reaction from him at the mention of his sister though.

Now that he had managed to get rid of the itch of curiosity for the most part, Kieran continued the video.

"YOU DON’T LEARN, DO YOU?!"

Richard’s face was twisted as he appeared in front of Mark once again, aiming for his face again. He seemed to have an issue with the sparky express on the recruit’s face, wanting to burn it to a crisp again.

Mark, despite the confident expression on his face, didn’t take the blow head on, pushing his arm to the side, the blast of hot flames that came a second after, claiming a few stands of his hair.

"I thought you didn’t feel any pain, huh? Come at me, I need a punching bag!"

Ricahard taunted Mark who had gotten the reputation of someone immune to pain.

His ability, while extremely helpful, if in the hands of a random person, would have ran he/she mad long ago—due to the amount of pain they would have to through.

The process wasn’t as smooth and easy as Mark made it seem anytime he pulled it off.

The pain from gutting his muscles stretch and reattach themselves, his bones cracking back into place and veins making their way to place, could easily drive one insane.

But Mark had been going through that process each time he used his ability, the pain level increasing exponentially depending on the type of injury, yet he had done it without showing any sort of reaction, earning himself a reputation.

Whether he didn’t feel the pain, or if he just didn’t show it was unknown and Richard sure didn’t give a fuck about that, as his arms tried to make their way to his face, ignoring all other opportunities.

This only made him predictable, as Mark dodged or redirected all his attacks and attempted a couple strikes of his own.

All of which Richard somehow manged to deflect, showing that he hadn’t completely lost it yet, buried within his rage.

Seeing his approach going no where, Richard changed the direction of his palm that Mark had redirected, sending a wide blast his way.

There was no way Mark was going to escape such an attack at such range.

The red flames covered his figure, removing him from the eyes of the audience.

Kieran’s eyes narrowed seeing Richard’s still in an alert position.

His suspicions were confirmed when the flames died down and he spotted, Mark’s hand still holding onto Richard with an iron grip while the burnt part of his body regenerated.

Somehow his clothes managed to survive the onslaught of the flames.

He didn’t just make his research, he also took some measures.

"Haha!"

Kieran let out a small chuckle thinking about how funny it was that someone who wasn’t afraid of being burnt to a crisp was afraid of being naked.