Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 936

Chapter 936: Duel in the Basement

The home quieted in layers.

Bastet was the first to go, having located the deepest cushion in their bedroom and begun her nightly descent into it roughly an hour before anyone else admitted to being tired. Calypso followed, yawning wide enough to show every tooth, one arm around Bastet’s waist to keep the sleepwalking felinid from melting into the nearest soft surface along the way.

Nyx kissed the corner of Kaiden’s mouth on her way past, trailing her fingers across the back of his neck. "I’m stealing your pillow tonight," she informed him, and was gone before he could object.

Alexandra cleared the last plate, dried the last glass, hung the last towel with military precision, and paused in the kitchen doorway to bow goodnight toward the table. "Sleep well, everyone."

Alice had to be physically extracted from the chair beside Kaiden’s, clipboard still in hand, protesting that she hadn’t finished briefing him on tomorrow’s waffle standards. Vespera collected her with practiced shadow tendrils while Alexandra provided a soothing murmur about continuing the briefing at breakfast, and the three of them vanished down the hall, Alice screeching nonsense.

Aria lingered a moment longer, pressed against Kaiden’s arm, face buried in the hoodie she still hadn’t taken off. She breathed him in, or the print of him, which she seemed to consider equivalent, and whispered something against the fabric that might have been "goodnight" and might have been "mine." Then she drifted toward the bedrooms, unhurried, already certain she’d be awake when he arrived.

That left Luna.

She was sitting at the far end of the table, one leg drawn up on the bench, rolling an empty glass between her fingers. She was watching the doorway everyone had left through with an expression Kaiden couldn’t quite read, which was unusual, because Luna’s face was usually a bulletin board.

"Everything okay, Luna?" he asked.

"Yes." The glass rolled. "Just wired. Shit-talking and then slapping people all day long has me worked up."

He started stacking the remaining dishes. "I see. We can stay and just talk, how about-"

"Hey." Luna set the glass down. "Spar with me."

Kaiden looked at her.

"I know we just ate, it’s late, others are sleeping, whatever. I need to move. I’m still buzzing. If I go to bed like this I’ll never fall asleep." She hopped off the bench, rolling her shoulders. "Come on. Basement. Ten minutes."

The training room was two levels below the common hall, reinforced for exactly the kind of output awakened combatants produced when they stopped holding back.

Luna was already bouncing on the balls of her feet when he arrived, hair tied back, barefoot on the matting. She’d changed into a tank top and shorts that showed more of her legs than her combat gear ever did, and she was grinning, but the grin had a tension underneath it that he didn’t associate with sparring.

"Rules?" he asked, stretching.

"No mana. No stances. Just hands."

"You want to fistfight me."

"Speed beats everything," Luna informed him smugly, bouncing on her toes. "Doesn’t matter how big you are. Doesn’t matter how strong. If you can’t touch me, you can’t pin me."

"I see." Kaiden rolled his shoulders and stepped onto the mat. "And if I do pin you?"

"You won’t." The grin was all teeth.

A grin of his own responded, embracing the challenge. "Alright."

Luna came in first. She feinted left, darted right, and tagged his ribs with her palm before he’d finished turning, dancing back with her tongue out.

"One-nothing."

He lunged. She wasn’t there. His fingers closed on the air where her shoulder had been and she was already behind him, slapping the back of his head on the way past.

"Two-nothing."

The third exchange earned her a close miss. She overextended on a spinning tag and his hand brushed her wrist, close enough that her grin tightened for a fraction of a second before she ripped free and reset.

"That was close..." She cracked her knuckles, grinning madly.

The fourth exchange she won clean. Ducked his grab, spun behind him, hooked her ankle around his, and when he staggered she tagged both shoulders from behind with her palms, one-two, before vaulting backward off his back.

"Four-nothing! Give up yet?"

"No."

"You sure? This is getting sad."

It wasn’t getting sad. Kaiden had stopped chasing two exchanges ago. He was watching her feet. Luna’s speed was real, world-class, inhuman, but speed was a straight line, and straight lines needed room. Every exchange she won pushed her closer to the wall behind her, and she hadn’t noticed, because she was too busy keeping score and talking smack.

The fifth exchange was the trap.

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