CONFLICT II

Not wanting to waste any more time to gain an advantage in the brawl, Stare dashed toward Raziel. He immediately aimed his right hand at Raziel's face upon getting close. However, Raziel managed to block his attack with his left hand while delivering a punch to Stare's unprotected belly.

Stare intended to retreat a few steps upon realizing he had taken the first hit, but Raziel swiftly grabbed his head and pushed it down, smashing it against his raised knee.

Stare could have sworn his nose broke even more from the impact, feeling increased pain and difficulty breathing in that area.

He still intended to take a few steps back to recuperate, but Raziel, just as fast as before, had already grabbed his hand, throwing him over his shoulder and toward the ground with full force. More blood forced its way out of his slightly open mouth as he groaned in pain upon forcefully hitting the ground once again.

Stare attempted to push himself off the ground, but Raziel wasn't allowing him any time to recuperate; he was already standing over him, trying to forcefully press his feet against Stare's face. Despite this, Stare managed to roll over to the other side, avoiding the stomp. He then pushed himself off the ground with all the motivation and strength he could muster.

With no other attacking tactics in mind, he rushed towards Raziel, attempting to capitalize on the brief moment he had gained from avoiding the stomp. However, he ended up being struck on the chin by Raziel's knee, causing his head to jerk back a few meters. Still, Raziel didn't allow him to fall freely this time. Instead, he pulled him closer, immediately landing a punch on his face before allowing him to collapse to the ground.

With a resounding bang, Stare found himself on the ground, immersed in a pool of his own blood, with only the blurry image of Raziel in his sight. He could hear whispers emanating from around him, mostly from the students, but couldn't discern what they were about.

Coughing out another mouthful of blood, he forced his mouth slightly open.

"Just like that?" he muttered in a tone only audible to himself, his confusion evident in his voice.

Stare couldn't comprehend how…

How could Y-204 match him so effortlessly and suppress him in just a matter of minutes, not even giving him a fighting chance?

Such an outcome wouldn't have been farfetched in previous cycles, but this cycle was different. With the accumulated battle knowledge he had acquired from previous cycles, he should have been able to at least maintain a stalemate. Yet, Raziel still managed to outmatch him.

He forced his half-closed eyes open and glanced towards Raziel, seeing that sadistic expression from before.

""This... Fucker," Stare forced himself to say, spitting out some blood in the process. He then sighed, looking upward before flashing a small, painful smile.

"Regardless, I can't afford to offer such a disappointing fight. How could I face myself later on? Even if beating him seems impossible now, I might as well give him some trouble."

With that, Stare slowly and painfully pushed himself up, his eyes still intensely fixed on Raziel, a small smile still on his face.

Perhaps he had been approaching this all wrong; maybe he had been too reliant on his accumulated combat knowledge and had forgotten to actually try fighting.

Let's give this another shot...

Wiping some of the blood from his nose, he clenched his fists once more, but this time, he didn't rashly rush in for the first blow.

He instantly noticed the sadistic expression Raziel grew a lot more apparent with him now back on his feet.

Slowly he approached Stare, each step seemingly menacing.

As Raziel got a lot closer to Stare, who still maintained his stance, he suddenly launched his clenched fist towards Stare's face. However, this time Stare managed to evade the punch, moving his head to the opposite side.

'Fast…' was the thought that instantly flashed Stare's mind.

However, he knew he needed to capitalize on Raziel's miss. He quickly sent his leg flying towards Raziel's unguarded stomach, but Raziel also quickly managed to block his kick with both hands crossed.

Undeterred, Stare immediately followed up by sending his head flying towards Raziel's mouth with force, bruising his lips in the process.

For a moment, the entire hall of students was stunned to the core as they all stared blankly at Stare, their eyes wide and their mouths slightly open.

"He... managed to bruise him?" One of the students amidst the shocked crowd managed to mutter.

However, Raziel calmly rubbed the blood from his lip with his pale finger before fixing his gaze back on Stare, hostility now evident in his eyes.

He then raised his hands, prompting dark fog to once again gather under Stare's feet.

Stare's eyes quickly darted to the dark fog gathering underneath him before swiftly returning to Raziel with revulsion.

"You're going to be a coward?" Stare said in an abhorrent tone, but he was only met with silence and an unsettling smile on Raziel's face, which seemed to convey, 'In the end, you'll be dying in the hands of a coward.'

The next moment, his fingers were squeezed, causing the dark fog to quickly rush into Stare's mouth and nose, bringing back the heavy feeling and dizziness from before.

'Shit,' Stare's mind raced in a frenzy.

He needed to come up with another method to bypass the fucker's fief.

He tried shaking off the feeling, attempting to free himself from Raziel's influence, yet nothing seemed to work.

Stare, however, persisted in resisting the sensation, his consciousness barely holding on, and his eyes no longer open.

Eventually, he slowly succumbed to the fog until he couldn't move a muscle anymore. It was at this point that a familiar feeling washed over him.

It was a tingling, strange sensation that began at his toe and gradually spread throughout his entire body.

In that moment, Stare felt as if there was suddenly light in his dark fate. However, just as the sensation was about to grow into something useful, his mind shut off abruptly.