--- [Victor’s perspective]

Finally my turn to fight…

To be honest, I’m a little nervous.

To Lett I’m the stronger older brother, and to Alex I’m his teacher.

If I lose…

No, I can’t let that happen!

No matter what, I’ll make sure to win!

“Next is one of the matchups I’ve been looking forward to the most!” – Bob

“The man who knocked out all his opponents in a single hit, up against the man who refused to go down no matter what! Victor vs Diego!” – Barbara

“Let the match begin!” – Bob

I can tell just from looking at him that there’s a fire in his eyes.

The determination is radiating from him; I don’t think everything they said about him was empty praise…

Before I can make a move, he’s already charging straight towards me.

As he’s approaching, he’s yelling out, making everyone in the audience gaze at him.

Putting no effort into feeling me out first, he instead goes right on the offense.

As soon as I’m within range, he swings.

Like the announcers said, he doesn’t seem to be greatest in terms of physicals; dodging his attacks is trivial.

Yet after every miss, he just throws another punch.

It’s an endless barrage of blows, yet all of them are blocked, parried, or dodged.

Eventually, I see an opportunity to strike back, and I take it in a heartbeat.

My fist drills into his chest, knocking him over.

As he’s about to stand up, my specialty kicks in.

Ten echoes, all equally strong as the initial hit, repeatedly dig into his body.

By the time it’s finished, multiple rips are broken, leaving him in terrible shape.

Back when I trained Alex, my limit was a lot lower.

I could only make five echoes, but now, that number has doubled!

This is why I could knock out all my opponents in the preliminaries in one hit; landing one punch means ten more will follow shortly after.

I’m essentially just 11 times stronger than anyone else at the same level of BDM as me…

And I’m no slouch when it comes to BDM either!

He’s in horrible shape, but he still gets up.

“Is that all you’ve got!?” – Diego

With seemingly no regard for his injuries, he rushes towards me yet again.

Despite having multiple broken rips, his movements don’t seem to have slowed down at all; he’s still at full power.

Of course, that’s not enough.

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Just like before, I stop all his attacks in one way or another; none of them land cleanly.

“You’re not winning this. Give up before your injuries become so severe the healers can’t help you.” – Victor

It’s honest advice, but I don’t think he’ll heed it.

I know I wouldn’t…

As expected, he doesn’t halt his attack, but his reaction is still strange…

He didn’t get mad, and he didn’t get motivated…

No, he simply laughed.

It’s like my advice was just a joke to him and doesn’t fuel him in any way.

He already had his mind set on winning, and nothing I say can sway him.

Not for the better or worse.

If that’s the case, then I’ll simply have to beat it into him!

Instead of waiting for an opening like before, I decide to take one of his hits head-on, and deliver a counterattack at the same time.

His attack hurts, but it isn’t enough to slow me down; not in the slightest!

I shove my fist into his stomach and propel him into the air, making him cough up blood.

Before he begins falling to the ground, my hit repeats.

He gets launched higher and higher into the air with each echo.

All of them deliver significant damage; I wouldn’t be surprised if some of his organs got ripped apart.

He slams back into the ground, and the crowd goes silent.

“Oh my god…” – Barbara

As he lays on the ground lifelessly, it looks like the announcers have come to the conclusion that the match is over.

“And the winner is-” – Bob

Before he can finish his sentence, Diego gets back up on his feet.

“Not… Yet!” – Diego

With the same look of determination and confidence he had before, he yet again charges right at me.

“I can’t believe it! He’s still able to fight!” – Bob

He shouldn’t be able to stand, let alone fight!

The announcers might not see it, but I do…

His condition is really bad.

They should just call the match off already…

But there’s something I’m still confused about…

“Why are you not using your specialty?!” – Victor

He willingly answers as he continues his assault…

“Because it has no combat application!” – Diego

!!

A specialty can be absolutely anything; it’s a complete gamble.

Because of that, there are many cases where the specialty turns out to not be combat oriented at all, or at least are very hard to utilize in combat.

That in and of itself is not uncommon, but to think he made it all the way to D-rank…

He’s not even all that strong…

Is it really all because of his determination…?

Either way, it doesn’t matter.

I need to put an end to this before it goes too far.

A solid hit to the head should knock him out; determination alone can’t stop that.

Just as before, I take another one of his hits to land one of my own.

Somehow, his fist feels heavier this time…

Despite all his injuries, he’s even stronger than before!

However, it still is not enough to stop me.

My fist lands right on his temple, but instead of stopping there, I follow through with the attack and smash him down into the ground.

The hits repeat, and his skull starts cracking up more and more.

That should not only have knocked him out, but given him a solid concussion as well…

I didn’t really want to go that far against a guy who could barely even hurt me, but he left me no choice…

“Is that it?!” – Diego

“What?!” – Victor

How is he still awake?!

He gets back up, but his whole body trembles.

His eyes look unfocused, and he doesn’t appear to even be looking at me.

His legs wobble as he yet again rushes at me.

No matter what I throw at him, he just simply refuses to go down!

If I really wanted to, I could kill him, but I’m obviously not going to do that…

Not only because it would be wrong, but it would also defeat the purpose of doing it all together; if I kill him, I get disqualified.

How am I supposed to win?!

“You better surrender already, because there’s no way in hell I’m losing!” – Diego

I punch him in the shoulder, dislocating it.

I kick him in the knee, snapping his leg.

I grip his hands, crushing his fingers.

Despite all of that, he’s still fighting…!

I…

I can’t win…

He just simply does not go down…

No matter how many injuries he suffers, no matter how much pain I inflict…

He refuses to lose…

The determination in his eyes burns just as brightly as before; the only way for me to put him down is by killing him, and that’s not happening.

He’s going to win…

“That’s enough! Victor, you advance to the next round.” – Bob

What…?

For the first time ever, he finally stops his attack.

He looks directly over at the announcers, and starts yelling at them.

“What do you mean?! The fight wasn’t over yet, I didn’t surrender!” – Diego

A healer shows up and tries to heal him, but he slaps away their hand.

“Don’t touch me!” – Diego

“I’m sorry Diego, but this is our call. We’ve deemed you unfit to continue.” – Barbara

“This is bullshit! I would have won!” – Diego

“Please leave the stage.” – Bob

The healer forcefully grabs him, and doesn’t let go.

I don’t know what their rank is, but it’s clearly higher than ours; Diego can’t break free.

They pick him up and carry him away, healing him while walking.

He tries resisting, but it’s futile against someone that much stronger.

All while this transpires, I’m just left here in awe of what just transpired…

I would have inevitably lost, either from surrendering, or accidentally killing my opponent while trying to knock him out.

Yet they called the match in my favor before that could happen.

Wow…