My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 36: The first special bond exam (22)

"Haa..." Kai sighed, walking toward Alexander as if bored.

"Because of you, I had to leave my date early."

He raised his fist.

Colors erupted across his knuckles, twisting violently: red, blue, gold, violet, shifting like a storm trapped beneath his skin. The air around his hand warped, trembling under the pressure.

"So you better make this a once-in-a-lifetime duel!"

[ Skill activated ]

Spectrum Fist — Lv. 17

Kai stepped forward and drove his fist down.

The world detonated.

The ground collapsed where his strike landed, stone shattering into fragments as a thunderous shockwave tore through the forest. Trees bent violently, bark ripping apart. The air itself burst outward with a deafening roar.

But Alexander was already gone.

The blind mercenary slipped away at the last instant, the devastating blow missing him by a breath.

Dust and debris rained from the sky where Kai’s fist had carved a crater into the earth itself.

"You wanna play hide and seek?" Kai looked around the forest.

He could hear the sound of bushes rattling and branches breaking.

"Fine, you hide. I’ll be the seeker..."

Kai, though, wasn’t worried. The reason Marcus invited him to the student council was not because of his devastating offensive skill,

but because Kai can see color in its truest form.

He closed his eyes and took a breath; everything seemed to slow down around him.

After that, he opened his eyes, which revealed spectrum pupils.

Kai could see all the flying electromagnetic spectrum in the forest.

He then spotted a guy jumping from branch to branch, running away from Kai.

"There you are!"

Kai then closed his eyes and shook his head, opening his eyes again. The spectrum had faded, returning his original eye color.

"Ouch... Every time I use this, it always hurts my head." He touched his forehead.

Kai noticed the big fallen tree that he had punched.

He smirked and grabbed the huge tree, placing it on his shoulder. The tree weighed like nothing for Kai as he casually carried it.

Kai then screamed into the forest.

"Your ten seconds are up! Ready or not, here I come!"

---

"Shit!" Alex jumped from tree branch to tree branch.

He was running so fast while sweating hard.

"Can’t believe Kai is here! They told me that he wouldn’t be present in this fight!"

Alex pulled out a strange-looking caterpillar with many glowing purple eyes.

"MYA!" He screamed at the bug, and the caterpillar twitched violently. It closed its eyes and looked at the worried Alex.

"You told me that Kai wouldn’t be here! Send Giant asap!"

He then put the bug in his pocket. Again, he kept running from tree to tree like a monkey.

"Damn it! If only I were with Tina, she could’ve easily defeated him." Alex kept on complaining.

Until Alexander suddenly heard Kai’s voice behind him.

He turned—

and saw Kai already charging straight at him.

His body shifted through violent colors: blue, green, violet, ruby. Light rippled across his skin like a living spectrum.

A massive tree rested across his shoulder, its roots still tearing clumps of earth as he ran.

"Yo, cat!" Kai shouted.

"CATCH THIS!"

He swung the tree upward.

The sheer force ripped nearby trunks from the ground. Surrounding trees snapped and toppled like fragile twigs as Kai hurled the massive trunk forward.

Branches shattered. Wood splintered. Air screamed under the weight of the flying tree.

Alexander sprinted, feet barely touching the ground—but the shadow of the trunk swallowed him.

Then the tree crashed into his back with crushing force, launching him violently through the forest.

His body tore through branches and splintering wood, bark ripping against his skin as he was driven deeper into the wilderness.

Trees collapsed in succession. One after another.

A straight path of destruction carved through the forest: shattered trunks, broken branches, and torn earth marked the trail of the blow.

Alex felt utterly defeated. He was stuck in all the different branches that were penetrating his skin.

Blood sprayed everywhere on the ground from all the injuries that Alex had.

He just sighed; he didn’t care anymore.

But despite all of that, he still had his blindfold on.

He didn’t care about all the holes and injuries in his body. He just kept the blindfold from dropping.

Kai finally caught up to the destruction he had caused.

He rubbed the sweat off his forehead.

"WHEW! This suit definitely isn’t fit for running!"

He straightened his sleeve while rubbing dust off everywhere, then stared directly at Alex.

"Anywho...." He climbed up the broken branches to reach Alex.

He finally saw the result of what he had done. The lower part of Alex’s shirt had ripped apart, only leaving the collar with the flower imprint on it.

There were also many branches penetrating through his stomach, with blood painting his abs.

Finding Alexander in this pitiful state, Kai almost felt bad.

"Ouchie, that doesn’t look too good." Kai said while smiling.

He expected the blind mercenary to react. Maybe look annoyed or even mad at Kai.

Instead, he just displayed his usual stoic expression.

"Okay, dude, you really don’t know what situation you’re in, huh?"

Alexander just sighed, hearing Kai. He finally spoke.

"There’s nothing to think about anymore.... It’s clear that colors beat total darkness. Guess I was doomed from the very beginning...." Alex said almost lazily.

Kai frowned. He wanted to rage-bait Alex before he went to prison,

but turns out it wouldn’t work with this black cat.

"Anyway, I’m heading back—"

SCHLIK

All of a sudden, Kai felt a wet, sickening crunch behind his back.

He felt whoever stabbed him pump something inside of him, and he started feeling dizzy.

"What the..." His vision began to blur as he staggered on his feet.

Darkness completely consumed his vision, and he passed out on the ground.

Alex’s eyes widened, seeing the girl.

Tina had stabbed Kai with her Crimson Siphon skill. Her hair was all over the place, with the red needle inside it.

"Surprised you came...." Alex said with zero enthusiasm.

Tina rolled her eyes. Her hair returned to normal, and she lifted Alex up, ignoring all the branches that were penetrating through his body.

Pulling him from the spikes made a wet crunch, but she successfully did it and put him on her shoulder.

"We don’t have time. My smoke has almost completely engulfed this forest; you’ll also be caught by it."

Alex didn’t respond to Tina’s words. She couldn’t care less and walked inside the forest, both of them completely disappearing.

The Broker left the cruel and vicious battlefield that they had created.

This day was supposed to be the first-year students’ special bond exam. But instead, it had turned into a complete bloodbath, with only 100 students surviving this brutal massacre.