Chris, the hungry wolf, and the challengers, three cornered dogs, faced each other with greedy and wary looks. However, they couldn’t maintain the stalemate for too long. Well, the challengers wouldn’t mind stalling until challenger one recovered, but that was also why Chris wanted to fight as quickly as possible.

As long as challenger three was out of it, Chris could ignore the numerical disadvantage. But only if he didn’t make any mistakes or hasty decisions. The last round had shown that challengers one and two could suppress Chris if they worked together.

In fact, if they had kicked Chris instead of punching, the battle might have already ended. However, since they tackled Chris off of challenger one in their urgency to save challenger one, they ended up sitting on the ground. And instead of wasting time and revealing an opening to stand up, they imitated Chris and just punched their opponent.

But if the two challengers and Chris ended up in a similar position, Chris wasn’t sure the challengers would let him defend himself or get up.

Due to how Chris grabbed challenger three and slammed him to the ground, the challengers didn’t have as much confidence in their ability to team up and beat Chris. But they were far from giving up. After all, the damage they had done to Chris, no matter how superficial, was proof that they could win.

Finally, after several slow moments of watching each other’s movements, the challengers revealed an opening. Challengers one and two had solid positions as they waited for Chris to make a move since he was the one who obviously wanted to end it as quickly as possible.

However, their guards crumbled when challenger three faltered. Chris’ tackle, body slam, and subsequent beating had done damage that couldn’t be ignored, and it showed. Challenger three couldn’t remain upright, which was obviously a weakness for the challengers.

When challengers one and two instinctively hurried to catch challenger three, they looked away from their opponent. A fatal mistake, even more so when their opponent was skilled enough to take advantage of it, in addition to being physically overpowering when compared to the challengers.

Chris didn’t hesitate as he rushed forward as soon as he saw challengers one and two look away from him. The thought that it was a trap crossed his mind, but he didn’t have the leeway not to take the chance. If it was a trap indeed, it was evidence that challenger three was in better shape than he looked. In that case, Chris was already at a disadvantage.

Chris’ only hope was to attack. And if it was a trap, he just had to break through it by surpassing the challengers’ expectations.

However, Chris stepped within range of the challengers, and they looked up in shock. With that, Chris could confirm that he hadn’t fallen for their trap. Not that he actually thought they had somehow managed to prepare one for him. The most they could do was launch a combined surprise attack by taking advantage of his straightforward charge.

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But they didn’t.

Challengers one and two were completely unprepared for Chris’ sudden charge. And challenger one only had less than a second to think about how foolish it was of them to look away from Chris for even a moment before he caught a knee to the face. They should have just let challenger three, who was nothing more than deadweight at the moment, fall to the ground, even if it meant giving up some of their numerical advantage.

Challenger two, who wasn’t targeted by Chris, dropped challenger three to the ground and had a few more moments than challenger one to lament about how stupid a sense of camaraderie was since that was why they had caught challenger three in the first place.

After flying into challenger one’s face knee-first, Chris wanted to continue pummeling him into oblivion. But there was the risk that challenger two was quick to react and would pull Chris off of challenger one. Challenger two didn’t look like he was good enough to pull off a chokehold that Chris couldn’t get himself out of. But it was impossible to know.

Besides, even if challenger two got Chris off of challenger one, that would open up for the two of them to tag-team him. So, after crashing challenger one into the floor with his knee, Chris instantly stood up and turned around to lunge at challenger two.

Challenger two had stood like a deer caught in headlights after Chris attacked challenger one. But when Chris looked at challenger two directly, challenger two felt his survival instincts trigger, and adrenaline surged through his body.

Challenger two let out a worryingly high-pitched war cry as he charged toward Chris in a spurt of desperation.

Chris and challenger one hadn’t flown very far after Chris’ attack. So, Chris turning his head and standing up was enough of a delay for challenger two to cross most of the distance between him and Chris and build momentum.

Left without a choice, Chris faced challenger two’s tackle with one of his own. Chris was more cool-headed and experienced, and he succeeded in grabbing challenger two around the waist.

Challenger two instinctively realized what was about to happen and hurried to unleash punches and elbow strikes on Chris’ back. Chris just gritted his teeth and bore with it as he took a step forward and pushed back challenger two.

Challenger two’s expression paled as he could sense his feet slowly losing connection with the ground. He tried to bend down and grab Chris around the chest. But he was too slow and, most of all, weak.

Chris lifted challenger two up before using his core to spin and slam him down into the floor, similar to what he had done to challenger three.

Challenger two was left reeling. His mind swam, and his vision blanked.

Challenger three was defenseless due to the accumulated injuries from round one. Challenger two was hovering on the verge of unconsciousness. And challenger one was struggling to rise unsteadily after getting knocked out by Chris’ knee strike.

The winner was practically decided.

The Cube overflowed with the crowd’s excited cheers.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Almost as if someone had told him to, Chris held up one hand. He clenched all of his fingers except his thumb, which stretched out horizontally.

Chris’ hand tilted downward, and the crowd booed, but they cheered when his thumb pointed up. The outcome of the opening battle of the Cube’s battle arena had been decided.