He threw his head back and screamed.
"Haaaaaaah!"
The ground split beneath his boots as his black‑and‑red aura exploded upward in a storm, dust and stone whipping into a vortex around him. His throat tore with the force of it, a sound halfway between fury and defiance.
For a heartbeat, it looked like he was charging up for a desperate clash.
Then Knox blurred, aura collapsing into a tight streak as he launched himself across the horizon, vanishing into the distance in a sonic crack of flight.
'Yeah, right,' He thought sarcastically. 'Does she think I'm that much of a dumbass? I'm not fighting someone more than twice as strong as me!'
His power level had increased from learning flight and how to blast, but he was still only at 576. Even Goku, with superior techniques, martial arts, in a two versus one, nearly lost to Raditz because of that same difference in raw power.
Knox wasn't going to stand a chance, and he wasn't about to die here for some stupid reason like pride or whatever.
He didn't look back.
Every instinct screamed the same thing: Survive. His aura was locked tight to his body, reducing drag, every scrap of Ki funneled into speed as the landscape blurred into a smear of earth and sky.
'Faster. Faster. Faster!'
Skill [Ki Flight] Rank increased!
+1 SOUL multiplier for increasing from F to E.
But that buzzing pressure didn't fade. The weight of a predator's gaze clung to his spine no matter how far he shot across the planet.
A crack split the air behind him.
His eyes widened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a white streak carve through the sky at his flank. The black ant was just there, her aura trailing behind in rippling contrails.
"Son of a-!" Knox twisted violently, Ki bursting from his palms as he barely deflected the first strike, a swift blow that could've caved his ribs outright. The shockwave alone sent him tumbling through the sky.
He caught himself mid‑spin, teeth bared, aura snapping back to life around him.
'Well, that didn't fuckin' work. She's far faster and stronger than me. Honestly, I should've expected that. I'm like Krillin going up against Frieza. Or Tien going up against-
Knox froze mid‑thought.
'Tien.'
His eyes widened, the manic grin twitching back onto his face.
"It'll be difficult," he muttered under his breath, heart spiking with a different kind of thrill. "But I should theoretically be able to pull it off. Just like how I pulled off flight."
The ant floated in front of him, simply watching him talk to himself.
"What are you babbling to yourself about?" She asked, low and suspicious.
Knox didn't answer. He just snapped his gaze skyward.
With a thunderous crack, he rocketed straight up, a streak of black‑and‑red carving into the clouds.
The warrior sighed and followed unhurriedly, white contrails chasing after her. "This is a waste of time!"
Knox's pulse hammered in his ears. His teeth clenched as the world narrowed to a single gamble.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered.
Then, twisting in midair, he snapped his body downward. His palms shot to his face, Ki surging to a needle‑point in his mind's eye.
"SOLAR FLARE!"
A miniature sun tore into existence between his hands, bursting outward in a searing detonation of white light. For an instant, the sky became pure illumination.
But sadly-
"GAAH!" Knox screamed, clutching at his own eyes. His body twisted violently as the brilliance stabbed into his retinas like hot knives. His aura sputtered, flight wobbling as he tumbled end over end.
Then he remembered he had [Pain Suppression] and promptly turned that pain into nothing.
It was still annoying, however.
"What the fuck?!" he howled, half‑blind and flailing in midair. "That wasn't supposed to-was I supposed to aim it? Aghh, fuckfuckfuck!"
The black ant's silhouette cut through the blinding haze, unflinching, her compound eyes glittering like unbroken glass. If anything, she looked even less affected than Knox himself.
"...This is just getting sad," She droned.
Knox groaned, still pawing at his seared vision as he tried to steady himself. "Dammit, Tien made that look way easier than it actually is…"
The air above him cracked.
He barely registered the movement before both of the alien's hands clasped together, aura flaring in violent white.
WHAM!
The attack came down like a falling mountain. Both fists crashed into Knox's head, the impact detonating a shockwave that boomed across the skyline. He accidentally bit into his tongue as his body was spiked out of the sky like a volleyball.
The ground rushed up before he could even react. Knox slammed into the street hard enough to crater it, the pavement spiderwebbing beneath him as a plume of dust and debris shot outward in every direction.
He lay there for a moment, twitching, his aura flickering weakly around the edges. A wet cough rattled out of his throat, blood dribbling from his lip.
"...Ow."
His vision was still hazy, but the black silhouette hanging high above was unmistakable. The ant floated there, still and silent, radiating that predator's weight.
'…Shit. I can't run because she's faster than me. I'm not skilled enough to trick her, and if I go head‑to‑head she'll break me in half. So what the fuck am I supposed to do…?'
His body screamed at him to stay down, but Knox dug his boots into the fractured pavement. One trembling leg straightened. Then the other. Slowly, painfully, he dragged himself upright, swaying like a drunk but still standing.
He raised his hands in front of him, trying to emulate a boxer.
The black ant descended, white aura burning, until its feet cracked the ruined asphalt just a dozen paces away. For a moment she only stared, compound eyes blank, before her voice rumbled out.
"I'm trying to hold back," she said, a bit of irritation leaking in her monotone voice. "But you just don't know when to stay down, do you?"
Knox's lips quirked up as a movie reference popped into his head.
"I can do this all day," he rasped.
The alien tilted its head slightly. Then, almost boredly, it sighed one more.
"Not only is your stance pitiful," she commented. "But your combat skills in general leave much to be desired. I commend your perseverance, but please, just stop."
Knox's lips thinned, then his eyes widened. A thought slithered through his mind, cutting clean through the haze of fatigue.
'Skill… yeah, you're right. I don't have your speed. Or your strength. Or your skills.'
He clenched his fists.
'But unlike you, I'm not limited by logic.'
The black-and-red haze around him hissed, his Ki responding to the shift in intent. His smile spread slow, teeth bared like a wolf.
'And as long as I focus… I can learn everything from you. Your stance, your capabilities, your timing, your tactics.'
The world slowed. His pulse thundered, every detail around him exploding into clarity. Each ommatidia of the bug's compound eyes. The subtle shift of her stance when she moved. The faint ripples in the white aura that betrayed where its weight was about to move.
All of it slowed, stretched, and was parsed in moments.
'And my System will only make me stronger for it.'
The black ant's aura flared, and in the next instant it was on him.
A blur. A fist shot toward him like a piledriver.
Knox barely blocked it. His forearms screamed, bones creaking under the pressure as the shockwave shattered the ground around them. He snarled, twisting his body into a desperate counterstrike, his knuckles cracking against the bug's carapace.
The alien didn't even flinch.
Pain lanced up his arm from the impact, but he didn't flinch. His eyes were wide open, intently watching every movement the alien made.
Another blow came to his ribs. He gagged, his breath exploding from him as he staggered back.
Still, his feet dug into the pavement, refusing to fall.
"Come on," he hissed. "That was nothing."
The ant obliged. Its knee smashed into his sternum, folding him forward. Its elbow cracked against the back of his neck, sending him stumbling. Every strike landed with surgical precision, leaving Knox retching and staggering all over the place.
But through the daze of fatigue, his mind continued to analyze.
The way the ant set its weight before a strike. The faint coil in its hip before a knee. The slight pause in its aura before every burst of speed. The miniscule amount of Ki it used to propel each attack.
Knox staggered upright again, grinning through bloodied teeth.
"There's a fine line between determination and reckless stubbornness," she scolded, raising both hands for a double hammer blow.
For a split second, Knox finally saw it. A flaw in his opponent's movements.
'Chance!'
He slipped into the bug's range, his body twisting just enough to let the strike graze his shoulder instead of letting it crash into his head. Drool fell out of his mouth as his world sharpened to a pinpoint.
The only thing that mattered was his fist uppercutting the face of the creature in front of him.
CRACK.
Skill [Thought Acceleration] Rank increased!
+1 MIND multiplier for increasing from F to E.
Skill [Dodging] Rank increased!
+1 BODY multiplier for increasing from F to E.
[Striking F] skill acquired!
Through observation and replication, you have grasped the fundamentals of delivering a proper strike. Your blows now carry weight, technique, and intent beyond mere flailing.
+1 BODY multiplier for acquiring a physical skill.
His knuckles collided with the bug's mandible, snapping its head upward with a satisfying jolt.
For the first time since the fight began, it staggered back a step.
Knox's chest heaved, his body slowly losing energy, but his smile was all teeth.
"Ha… ha! I've got right where I want you, you bug‑eyed bastard."