From Bullets To Billions novel Chapter 186

Chapter 186: A Reason To Fight

"So, I wanted to ask... what did you say to Mayson before he stepped into the cage?" Aki asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

She knew that the students from Seaton and Konsoon weren’t as close to Max as the others by his side. In truth, they were more like auxiliary members, there to fill numbers rather than play a central role. Still, Aki didn’t mind. Despite that fact, she was genuinely glad to be here.

She wanted to make herself useful. If her turn to fight came, she hoped she could do something impressive, something that would make Max remember her, maybe even consider her for something more next time.

"Did you give him some kind of tips?" she asked again, tilting her head with genuine interest.

She had seen it herself, right before Mayson had gone into the cage, Max had pulled him aside and whispered something into his ear.

"I had a feeling they might retaliate after my little display," Max said calmly, his arms folded. "Rick’s the kind of guy who doesn’t let things slide, so I figured they might send him out directly."

He turned his eyes toward the cage, where the next match was already heating up.

"So yeah," Max continued, "I gave Mayson a few simple words of encouragement. Nothing fancy, just enough to fire him up."

Eventually, Gi came to.

When he woke up, he was lying on the ground just outside the cage. He groaned, clutching the side of his face, which still throbbed painfully from the hit that had taken him down.

"Right... that Max guy took me out," Gi muttered, his pride a little bruised. "What’s going on now?"

As he sat up and glanced into the cage, his eyes landed on a familiar face, Mayson. The same student from Konsoon Academy.

"Huh? That guy?" Gi said, eyebrows raised. "He goes to that snooty school, Konsoon, doesn’t he? This fight’s gonna be over in seconds."

"Right, right," one of the students nearby chimed in. "That school only has a handful of delinquents, right? We’re about to see the same thing that happened to you, happen to this guy too."

Just as the two were laughing and talking trash, a heavy shadow suddenly loomed over them.

A chill ran down their spines as they slowly turned their heads.

Gi was standing right behind them, towering over them like a storm cloud ready to burst.

The two students gulped, immediately silenced by his intense glare.

"Don’t be so sure of that," Gi said firmly, his voice laced with conviction. "There’s a reason Bekert hasn’t been able to deal with Konsoon."

He took a step forward, eyes narrowing as he looked toward the fight.

"You need to think about it. A school like Konsoon, with so few delinquents... why would someone even choose to be one there? Why become a fighter in a place like that?"

His voice dropped, more thoughtful now.

"There has to be a reason why those few stand out. Why that kind of situation even exists in the first place."

"There are two reasons for that," Gi said, his tone steady. "First, they’re naturally strong. Even in an environment like that, they stood out, they knew they were the strongest among the people around them."

He paused for a moment, his gaze distant as if recalling something personal.

"And the second reason? They don’t just fight with their fists... they fight with their minds. They figure out what you’re trying to do, and they use anything and everything, especially things you wouldn’t expect, to make the fight feel off. Awkward. Uncomfortable."

If Gi had said all this before getting knocked out in two clean hits, maybe his words would have carried more weight. But now, after what happened in the cage, his credibility had taken a serious hit. The respect people had for him had visibly diminished.

"Alright, let’s get this damned fight started already!" Rick shouted, full of pent-up energy and arrogance. He raised his hand high into the air, as if waiting for someone to slap it. Then slowly, dramatically, he curled in his fingers one by one until his hand formed a tight fist.

The crowd watched with bated breath.

The moment the last finger closed in, the fight began.

Rick didn’t waste a second. He took a quick hop to his side, winding up his arm like a baseball pitcher preparing to throw a fastball.

There was only one thing Mayson could do in that instant, react.

His instincts kicked in as he brought both arms up, guarding his face tightly.

’There’s a low chance I’m going to win this fight,’ Mayson admitted to himself, his thoughts clear even in the chaos. ’If we go head-to-head, I probably won’t even land a decent hit. He’s stronger, faster, maybe even more experienced.’

His grip tightened as he braced himself.

’So all I can do... is survive. Block as many of his hits as I can. Make him waste energy. Make him tired. Then, when the time is right... when he finally slows down, I’ll give it everything I’ve got and throw the strongest hit I can manage!’

A crack echoed in the air, a sound that made several students wince. Some even claimed they saw a faint ripple in the air, a shockwave created from the sheer force of the hit.

The crowd exploded in cheers, voices rising in a wave of excitement that surged through the arena. Rick stood at the center of it, the crowd roaring his name like a battle cry. If Max had taken out his opponent in two hits, Rick had just one-upped him, knocking Mayson down with a single punch, and that was with a block in place.

Even the boys from the Bloodline group winced when they saw Mayson hit the ground. Some of them even flinched, those reactions weren’t limited to Konsoon students anymore. The power behind that hit had shocked everyone.

"Man," Joe sighed in relief, "I was actually getting worried there for a second. Max was talking like he had everything figured out, predicting this and that. I thought maybe it was all sounding a little too good to be true."

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