Chapter 64
Ken Noma did not deny my reasoning. The one backed by Kinuan wasn’t Tora—it was Ken.
I didn’t know much about Tora. But Ken Noma seemed to. He had mastered Akies combat techniques to a considerable level. There weren’t many in the lower district who could stand against him.
From what I had investigated so far, Tora didn’t seem to have the capability to command Ken Noma as a subordinate.
Kinuan exerted influence over the lower district through Ken Noma, and Ken Noma put Tora forward as a boss, using him as a shield.
This was the relationship diagram that formed in my mind.
‘There are countless ways to kill Ken.’
I saw myself smashing Ken’s skull over and over again, like an afterimage repeating endlessly.
No matter how skilled he was, he was still in a ruined state, his brain forcibly awakened through drugs. His limbs were standard-issue prosthetics, and his proficiency in Akies combat techniques wasn’t higher than mine.
But there was nothing to gain from killing Ken. Capturing him alive was the only benefit.
Even with beasts, capturing them was much harder than killing them. If the target was human, it went without saying.
Kiiing!
Ken steadied his sword with both hands. The blade traced the arc of a half-circle before coming down cleanly to the ground.
Ken’s stance was precise. Before he had fallen into ruin, he must have been an exceptional fighter. I was curious about what means Aleph had used to subdue him. It was probably something underhanded. That’s why Ken was grinding his teeth like this.
Thunk!
I kicked off the ground and surged forward.
Swinging my Crucius, I aimed to break Ken’s sword. His blade was decent, but my Crucius was a high-compression, heavyweight weapon forged in an imperial workshop. If they clashed, Ken’s sword would shatter like glass.
Whoosh!
Ken was a seasoned swordsman. Instead of clashing blades, he dodged my attack with the smallest possible movement. His ability to read my moves was remarkable. Whether that was his natural talent or the effect of the drugs, I couldn’t tell.
Swish!
Ken’s thrusts were sharp, targeting only my organic parts. The tip of his blade slipped through the gaps between my limbs.
‘Maybe I should just kill him.’
Ken was such a troublesome opponent that the thought crossed my mind. At this rate, I might be the one to fall.
“Akies?”
Ken’s question went unanswered.
Only now did he seem to recognize it from my movements. Even among Akies combat technique users, those with high-performance prosthetics displayed its distinctive movements less frequently.
Ken had learned Akies combat techniques from Kinuan… That made us fellow disciples in a way. Though, thinking about it like that was ridiculous.
‘What a waste of talent, Ken.’
If he had used that talent to serve the Empire, he could have risen quite high.
Our fight was different from an ordinary battle. Both of us had a high level of mastery in Akies combat techniques. Our attacks and defenses aligned as if we were moving in perfect sync. Since we could anticipate each other’s moves four or five steps ahead, our positioning wouldn’t make sense through normal intuition.
Even Grace, a former cadet of the Imperial Guard, wouldn’t fully grasp our fight. Let alone Gabriel.
‘To capture Ken alive, I need to see farther, read deeper, move higher… I need to grasp the flow.’
I accelerated my thought process.
I recalled Kinuan’s advice. I still wasn’t using my brain to its full capacity. To operate the Legion, an ultra-high-performance exoskeletal prosthetic, Imperial Guards had to drastically expand their neural resources and bandwidth. I had trained for nearly four years to achieve that.
I could push further. Scrape the bottom, squeeze out every last drop.
Within the field of perception I had already established, I was processing every piece of information at full capacity. And yet, there was still untapped cognitive potential.
A method came to mind.
‘…Dual thought.’
I created a second thought process, like using my left and right hands independently.
But this was a difficult technique. The human brain wasn’t a computer. Consciously dividing cognition to process two separate thoughts simultaneously was extremely challenging.
That was why the second thought process needed a set of rules and symmetry. It had to be a simpler, derivative form of the first. The secondary thought couldn’t be entirely separate from the main one—it was more like an auxiliary thought.
‘The first thought will handle the immediate battle in front of me.’
The second, auxiliary thought would focus on the broader flow.
The auxiliary thought would analyze environmental data gathered from my sensory organs to devise more efficient combat strategies. It was an extension of the three-dimensional spatial map I had already constructed. Within that map, I simulated both my movements and my enemy’s in real-time, continuously running predictive calculations. At the same time, the auxiliary thought remained linked to the primary one, integrating real-time updates from the battle to correct any discrepancies between simulation and reality.
There was nothing particularly special about this. It was simply the method of Akies combat techniques. The only difference was that by separating the auxiliary thought process, I could calculate outcomes faster and consider more possibilities. Most importantly, no matter how many calculations were being processed, they wouldn’t interfere with the battle-oriented cognition that required immediate responses.
…Even if the explanation was long, the summary was simple. I had completed the optimization.
Pat!
Ken’s blade sliced across my chest.
I was too slow to evade. I couldn’t completely avoid being cut because I had been too focused on restructuring my thought process instead of staying fully engaged in the battle.
Drip.
Blood flowed from my chest, soaking into my clothes.
‘The original first thought process is the combat cognition. It handles the battle in front of me, reacting quickly while predicting two or three moves ahead.’
‘The second thought process is the tactical cognition. The immediate combat reactions are left to the first thought. The tactical cognition draws the bigger picture, calculating not just two or three steps ahead, but up to three or four seconds into the future.’
I wasn’t sure if this dual thought method was the next step Kinuan had spoken of. But at this moment, this was the best I could come up with.
I would use the tactical cognition to drive Ken Noma into a corner. I would push him to a position where he had no way out, then cut his arms and legs.
Moving in line with my tactical objective of capturing him, I boldly stepped inside Ken’s range, even at the cost of short-term risk.
Clang!
I blocked Ken’s blade with my left arm. Before I could fully trap his sword, he quickly pulled back, retreating with both his body and arm at the same time.
Before I knew it, Ken had been pushed back all the way to the wall. To his left stood a half-collapsed cabinet—he wouldn’t be able to escape that way.
His only options were forward or to the right. I stepped into position to block those routes, swinging my sword in a wide arc. It was a perfect checkmate.
Swish!
Ken suddenly stepped forward, as if willingly offering his neck to my blade. He knew my intent was to capture him alive, so he deliberately exposed his throat.
‘I expected this too, Ken Noma.’
I had anticipated he would make such a move. I had used the same tactic before—against a powerful opponent who sought to capture me alive. My accumulated experience in real combat was proving its worth.
Rick Kaiser—when I fought him, I had intentionally abandoned my safe options and thrown my life on the line. That was the only way to make the enemy hesitate.
Swinging Crucius, a high-compression heavyweight weapon, and then twisting its trajectory was difficult. My body naturally followed the motion of the blade. If I braked improperly, my arm would shatter from the force.
Vwoom!
So instead, I let go of the sword mid-swing. My blade tore through the ground like a boomerang as it flew forward.
Whirrr!
At the same moment, I kicked off the ground. My body shot into the air, swift like a wasp. I soared over Ken Noma’s head, completely surpassing him.
Completely exposed, Ken.
His nape and back lay defenseless before me.
Crunch!
I dropped, driving my knee into Ken’s back. His spine cracked under the impact.
Ken didn’t even scream. He twisted his body, trying to swing his sword at me. But it was already too late.
Crack!
I grabbed Ken’s right arm and twisted it. The sheer output of my prosthetic was overwhelming. Once trapped in my grip, Ken had no way to break free.
Breaking him this easily almost felt unfair.
Had Ken possessed prosthetics on par with mine, he wouldn’t have gone down so easily. A part of me, deep inside, stirred with the desire to fight him at his full strength.
But for now, what mattered was capturing him alive.
Crunch!
Before Ken could attempt suicide, I forced my fingers into his mouth and yanked down on his lower jaw. His jaw joint shattered, and his mandible dislocated.
Ken was neutralized.
“Huuuh…”
A slow breath escaped my lips. A sharp headache pounded at my temples as I lifted my head.
With the battle over, Grace and Gabriel were entering the office. I instructed Gabriel to take Aleph and Ken to the arena’s infirmary.
Gabriel hoisted them onto his shoulders—one on each side—and walked out into the corridor.
“You’re far more skilled than I expected, Lord Luka.”
Grace spoke as she stepped closer.
I sat in a chair, resting. This dual-thought process didn't just double my brain’s workload—it multiplied it several times over. Despite the short battle, the neurological strain had built up to the point that my fingertips trembled.
“…Are you a cadet of the Imperial Guard?”
Grace asked cautiously. As a former cadet herself, she must have sensed something familiar while watching me fight. After all, the principles behind my combat techniques were rooted in both Imperial Guard standard combat tactics and Akies combat techniques.
“You don’t need to know.”
I replied bluntly.
I had already expected Grace to recognize it.
“I won’t tell Diva for now. It seems like dangerous information.”
Grace made her own judgment. She wasn’t just a blindly loyal doll. Rather, she felt more like a guardian who genuinely cared for Martina Diva.
* * *
I had Ken Noma sent to a hospital for detention and treatment. It was one of the few places in the lower district that provided proper medical care.
Ken was locked up, restrained with a gag, and missing all four limbs. On top of that, he was completely delirious from acute drug intoxication. Communicating with him properly would be impossible for a while.
“Ugh, uuu, ah, aah! No, don’t! I said don’t!”
Aleph screamed from his hospital bed.
He was just as broken as Ken. After his torture, his face had been patched together like a ragdoll, grotesquely asymmetric. Whether due to psychological trauma or the damage to his lips, his speech had become slurred.
The sharp opportunist Aleph was nowhere to be seen.
“He’s finished.”
I muttered as I looked at him. Aleph was in no condition to run the arena. Even if he recovered, returning to his position would be nearly impossible.
The arena wasn’t a legitimate business. It was run by a gang. They wouldn’t wait around for Aleph to recover.
A gang was no different from a pack of wild beasts—once a leader weakened, they were cast aside. The moment Aleph became incapacitated, the arena faction had begun to splinter, with the remaining executives scrambling for control.
As soon as they steadied the organization, they would inevitably start fighting over the role of arena manager.
“Can La Vie en Rose take over the arena?”
As I stepped out of the hospital room, I asked Grace. She shook her head.
“There would be too much resistance from within La Vie en Rose. Even though we’re a gang, we have our own traditions and rules. And the moment we take over the arena business, other gangs will move aggressively to counter us. No gang wants to see a single faction grow too powerful.”
“Hmm… Gabriel doesn’t have the skill to run the arena either.”
Gabriel had no business sense. Neither did I.
I pushed thoughts of the arena to the back of my mind. Thinking it over, the future of the arena wasn’t really my concern.
But I had left chaos in the lower district. My interference had shaken the balance of power.