Chapter 69: The Beast Gauntlet
At The Prime Zone estate.
Holden stood in the living room, still wearing the black-and-silver uniform that had cost him everything. The Aegis Ward hummed softly along the walls. Maeve’s door was closed. She’d gone to bed an hour ago, unaware of what had happened at the academy.
He stared at his hands.
They were steady. He’d trained them to be steady. To not shake when it mattered. To calculate and strike and survive no matter what.
But tonight they felt useless.
He replayed the courtyard scene in his head for the hundredth time. Renna’s red eyes. The crack in her voice. Emric’s quiet disappointment. The way they’d walked away without looking back.
Maeve’s words echoed like a curse.
He grabbed a glass from the kitchen counter and threw it at the wall.
Crash!
The sound was sharp and satisfying. Crystals sprayed across the floor.
He stood there, breathing hard, staring at the mess.
It didn’t help.
Nothing helped.
His mind kept circling back to the same thought. He could kill monsters. He could fix mercenary problems. He could calculate a killing blow in a fraction of a second. But he couldn’t say the right words to the people who mattered.
He looked toward Maeve’s door. She needed him to be smart. To survive. To keep them safe.
But right now, he needed something else.
Something violent.
Holden moved to his room. He stripped off the elite uniform and pulled on his dark clothes. The gold mask went on last, sealing away Holden Voss and leaving only Asura.
He slipped out the front door into the night.
The Blood Colosseum was louder than before.
Word had spread about the masked newcomer who’d destroyed Varga. The underground crowd was bigger now, hungrier. They wanted more blood. More violence. More of the silent ghost who’d torn through the tournament like a natural disaster.
Holden walked through the gambling floor without acknowledging anyone. His cloak swallowed the firelight. His mask reflected nothing.
He found the bookmaker’s station near the back.
The scarred old man looked up from his ledger and smiled greedily when he saw the mask. "Asura! Back so soon? We weren’t expecting you until next week’s tournament cycle. Looking for another quick match? I’ve got a line of fighters who’d pay triple to..."
Thud!
Holden slammed both fists on the desk hard enough to crack the wood.
The bookmaker flinched. His smile vanished.
"I want," Holden said, his voice coming out as that cold, distorted growl, "the hardest thing you have."
The bookmaker blinked. "Hardest? What do you mean?"
"Monsters. Beasts. Something that fights back."
A new voice cut in from the shadows. The promoter stepped forward, a short man with too many rings on his fingers and a smile that showed too many teeth.
"Oh, now this is interesting." He clasped his hands together. "The champion wants the Beast Gauntlet?"
The bookmaker went pale. "You can’t be serious. Nobody survives the Gauntlet."
"Nobody worth watching, perhaps." The promoter’s eyes glittered with greed. "But Asura here isn’t nobody, is he?"
He turned to Holden, spreading his arms wide like a showman on stage.
"You want death, Asura? We will give you death! The Beast Gauntlet! Six imported Rank 2 underworld beasts, starved for three days, locked in the main cage! No weapons allowed! No rules! Just you and them until only one side is breathing!"
Holden said nothing.
He just stared through the mask.
The promoter took that as agreement. "Perfect!! The odds are going to be insane!"
The main cage was bigger than the tournament pit.
Iron bars formed a dome overhead, reinforced with glowing containment runes that pulsed with sickly green light. The floor was stained dark in patches. Old blood. Lots of it.
Holden stepped through the gate.
Across the cage, six metal chutes lined the far wall. Heavy grates covered each one, and behind those grates, things snarled and clawed and paced.
The crowd packed every inch of the colosseum. Thousands of voices screaming for blood. They’d bet heavily against Asura tonight. The Gauntlet was a death sentence. Everyone knew it.
The promoter’s voice echoed from above.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! TONIGHT’S MAIN EVENT! THE BEAST GAUNTLET! ONE FIGHTER! SIX BEASTS! NO WEAPONS! LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN!"
The grates lifted.
Six creatures poured into the cage.
Two massive wolves with scales instead of fur, their jaws dripping venom. A four-armed gorilla-like brute with bone spikes jutting from its knuckles. A serpent with a head on each end, both hissing. A pair of leopards that moved like liquid shadows, their claws leaving trails of acid on the floor.
All of them Rank 2.
The wolves attacked first.
Holden didn’t move.
Clang!
Jaws clamped down on his raised forearm. Venom sizzled against Iron-Body skin and did nothing. The wolf’s eyes went wide with confusion.
Holden grabbed its skull with his free hand.
Crack!
He threw the body aside without looking.
The second wolf lunged for his throat. He caught it by the jaw, pried its mouth open until bones snapped, and tossed it into the serpent’s path.
The four-armed brute charged next, all four fists swinging. Holden walked straight into its guard.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Bone spikes shattered against his chest, his shoulders, his arms. The impacts thundered through the cage. Each one would have killed a normal Rank 2 fighter.
Holden didn’t flinch.
He activated Asura’s Ignition.
Red-gold energy erupted across his body like flame. Heat poured off him in waves.
His fist slammed into the brute’s chest.
Boom!
The creature flew backward and crashed through the cage bars, bending them inward. It didn’t get up.
The acid leopards circled, cautious now. They’d seen what happened to the others.
Holden turned toward them.
The red glow around his body intensified. His eyes burned behind the gold mask.
He moved.
Whoosh!
The first leopard didn’t even have a chance to move. He caught it by the throat and crushed it, completely ignoring the acid that bubbled harmlessly against his fingers. He threw the body into the second leopard to stun it, then followed up with a powerful palm strike that left both creatures dead on the floor.
The two-headed serpent coiled and struck.
Holden caught both heads in his hands. Red energy pulsed through his grip. The serpent thrashed, writhed, then went limp.
He dropped the body on the ground.
The colosseum was completely silent. Thousands of people stared at the masked man in the cage with six dead beasts around him. His cloak was torn. Acid had burned holes in his clothing. But he wasn’t breathing hard.
He wasn’t even scratched.
[Ding!]
[6 Rank 2 Underworld Beasts Defeated!]
[Base Reward: 2,500 KP]
[Beast Gauntlet Bonus: +1,500 KP]
[Solo Completion Bonus: +1,000 KP]
[2x KP Booster Applied!]
[Total: +10,000 KP]
[Current Balance: 29,790 KP]
Holden stared at the notification. The number was good. Moving him closer to his goal.
But the hollow feeling in his chest hadn’t changed.
The cage door opened. Handlers approached cautiously, terrified to get near him. The promoter was already screaming about payouts and record-breaking odds.
Holden walked past all of them.
He collected his winnings in a heavy leather bag, pulled his cloak tighter, and climbed the stairs out of the colosseum.