Baki stepped out of the banquet hall into the night. A full moon hung overhead, casting silver light across the compound. Cold wind bit at his wounds—the destroyed shoulder Hou Qing had shattered, the burns across his chest, the countless cuts and bruises from fighting through dozens of guards.
He closed his eyes and let the wind wash over him. For a moment, there was only the sound of his own labored breathing.
Then screams echoed in the distance.
Baki's eyes snapped open. The screams weren't the panicked chaos of fleeing guests—they were death screams. They were short, abrupt, and final.
He walked toward the sound, each step sending spikes of pain through his broken body.
The closer he got, the quieter it became. By the time he reached the source, there was only silence.
Bodies lay scattered across a stone courtyard. Dozens of them had fallen there. They wore the formal attire of wealthy heirs—the other "suitors" Wang Wei had invited. Their guards lay nearby, weapons still in hand, having died trying to protect their charges.
Baki's eyes narrowed. This wasn't a fight—this was an execution.
In the center of the massacre stood a man.
He was massive, easily seven feet tall with a build like a bear. Long hair fell past his shoulders. His bare torso was covered in intricate tattoos, but one dominated all the others: a dragon that coiled around his entire upper body, its head resting over his heart, its tail wrapping around his back.
The man was cleaning blood from his hands with a silk cloth. His movements were methodical and professional.
Behind him, Wang Wei cowered behind two masked bodyguards. When Wang Wei saw Baki, his face twisted with rage and fear. "You! You're still alive?! Tianho! Kill him! I'll pay you double—no, triple! Just kill that bastard!"
The man—Long Tianho—didn't look at Wang Wei. His eyes stayed fixed on Baki as he dropped the bloodied cloth.
"You're Baki Hanma." It wasn't a question—it was a statement.
Baki met his gaze. "And you are?"
"Long Tianho. Leader of the Red Dragon." He gestured at the bodies around them. "I was hired to protect my client and eliminate potential threats. I heard you were one of the threats? These men here were planning to use this marriage arrangement to absorb T Group's assets. But alas! Now that I am here, nothing will work."
Baki glanced at the corpses. "Efficient."
"It's what I'm paid for." Long Tianho's expression didn't change. "You defeated Hou Qing."
"He was strong. I thought of finishing him, but fighters like him are rare. So I spared him."
Something flickered in Long Tianho's eyes—too quick to read. "Good." He rolled his shoulders. "But I won't be able to show you the same mercy."
"Wang Wei hired you to protect him," Baki said. "I'm here to kill him. So there's no need for your mercy. After all, it's all professional, isn't it?"
Long Tianho smiled slightly. "Normally, yes. But you've complicated things by defeating Hou Qing." His hand clenched into a fist. "That's my younger brother you put in the ground."
"So this isn't business anymore."
"Oh, it's still business. Wang Wei is paying me ten million dollars." Long Tianho stepped forward. "But now I have a personal reason to make sure you don't walk away from this."
Wang Wei laughed nervously from behind Long Tianho. "You hear that?! The Dragon of Heaven himself is going to kill you! You should've stayed dead, you bastard!"
Baki ignored him. His eyes stayed locked on Long Tianho. "The Dragon of Heaven. That's a heavy title."
"I earned it." Long Tianho lowered into a fighting stance. "Show me the strength that brought down my brother."
They moved simultaneously.
Long Tianho's fist came at Baki's face like a wrecking ball. Baki raised his guard. The impact drove him back three feet, his boots carving furrows in the stone. His forearms went numb.
"His raw strength is even greater than Hou Qing's," Baki thought.
Long Tianho closed the distance immediately and threw a straight punch at Baki's chest. Baki sidestepped and countered with a hook to the ribs. His fist connected—and it felt like punching concrete. Long Tianho didn't even flinch.
Long Tianho's backhand caught Baki across the face. Stars exploded in Baki's vision. He tasted blood.
Baki spun with the momentum and delivered a spinning back kick. Long Tianho blocked with his forearm. The impact echoed like a gunshot, but Long Tianho's arm didn't give an inch.
"You're fast," Long Tianho said. "But speed without power is meaningless."
He stepped forward and drove his fist down in an overhead strike. Baki rolled aside. The punch cratered the stone where he'd been standing. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the impact point.
Baki came up throwing rapid combinations—jab, cross, hook, uppercut. Each strike was precise, targeting joints and pressure points. Long Tianho blocked or absorbed them all with minimal movement. His defensive positioning was flawless.
Then Long Tianho's hand shot out and grabbed Baki by the throat.
He lifted Baki off the ground one-handed. Baki grabbed Long Tianho's wrist with both hands, but couldn't break the grip. Long Tianho pulled him close.
"My brother is strong," Long Tianho said quietly. "If you beat him, you must have something special."
He threw Baki like a javelin.
Baki's body crashed through a decorative stone arch. The structure collapsed around him in a shower of rubble. He rolled to his feet, gasping. His shoulder—the one Hou Qing had already destroyed—screamed in protest.
Long Tianho walked through the dust cloud, unhurried and professional. "Get up. I know that wasn't enough."
Baki wiped blood from his mouth and grinned. "You're right about that."
He tensed every muscle in his body. His stance shifted as power coiled through his legs, up through his core, into his arms. He channeled everything into one technique.
"Ultimate Fist!"
Baki blurred forward. His fist shot out with devastating speed and force, all his body weight compressed into a single point.
The punch connected with Long Tianho's crossed-arm guard.
Long Tianho's feet plowed backward, carving trenches in the stone. He slid ten feet before stopping. He looked down at his forearms. The skin was red but not broken.
"That technique," Long Tianho said. "Did you use this one against Hou Qing?"
"Your brother went down from this," Baki said.
"My brother is strong. But I'm stronger." Long Tianho smiled. "Show me what else you have."
He exploded forward.
This time he wasn't testing. His fist came at Baki wreathed in pure power—strength, speed, and perfect technique synthesis. The air itself seemed to compress around the strike.
Baki raised his guard. The fist crashed into his arms like a freight train.
Every bone in Baki's forearms cracked. His body shot backward, tumbling through the air. He crashed through a wooden fence, then smashed into the trunk of a massive tree. The tree shook violently. Leaves rained down around him.
Baki slumped to the ground. His arms hung useless at his sides. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.
Endorphin Release.
Baki's body flooded with natural painkillers. The agony dulled to a distant throb. He pushed himself to his feet as Long Tianho approached.
"Still standing," Long Tianho observed. "Good. I'd be disappointed otherwise."
Baki's arms slowly came back up into a fighting stance. His movements were slow—his body refused to withstand anymore, but his willpower overrided it.
"I've fought monsters before," Baki said. His voice was steady despite the blood running down his chin. "You're strong. Probably the strongest person I've fought since coming to China. No, not just in China. You're the strongest of all opponents I face ever faced."
"Then you should know you can't win."
"I never lose."
Long Tianho's expression shifted slightly. Was that respect? "Then let's see if you can back up those words."
They charged at each other.
This time Baki didn't try to match Long Tianho's strength. He became fluid and evasive. When Long Tianho threw a straight punch, Baki slipped to the side and countered with sharp strikes to the liver, kidneys, and floating ribs. He was a knife, looking for gaps in armor.
Long Tianho's defense was impeccable, but even perfect defense could be worn down. Baki landed three hits for every one he took. But every hit Baki took was devastating.
Long Tianho caught him with a hook. Baki's jaw dislocated. He shoved it back into place with his palm and kept fighting.
Long Tianho's uppercut lifted Baki off his feet. Baki twisted mid-air and came down with an axe kick to Long Tianho's shoulder. The big man grunted—the first sign of pain he'd shown.
They separated, both breathing hard.
"You're learning," Long Tianho said. "Using technique to compensate for the strength gap."
"I'm a fast learner."
"So am I."
Long Tianho's fighting style shifted. He began moving in short, explosive bursts. One moment he was still—the next he was in Baki's face, fist already in motion. The transitions were so fast they seemed to skip frames of reality.
Baki took a jab to the face, a hook to the ribs, and a knee to the gut. Each strike landed before he could react.
"He's matching my speed now," Baki realized. "And he still has the strength advantage."
This was bad.
Long Tianho grabbed Baki's arm and yanked him forward into a headbutt. Their skulls cracked together. Baki's vision went white.
Long Tianho spun him and delivered a German suplex. Baki's back cratered into the stone. The ground shattered beneath him.
Long Tianho stood and looked down at Baki's broken form. "You've done well. Better than most. But this is as far as you go."
Wang Wei laughed from his safe distance. "Yes! Finish him! Crush that bastard's skull!"
Long Tianho ignored him. He reached down toward Baki's throat—
Baki's eyes snapped open.
In the half-second gap between Long Tianho's perception and reaction, Baki moved.
To Long Tianho, Baki simply vanished from the ground. Then agony exploded in his ribs as Baki's fist appeared from an impossible angle, already buried in his side.
Long Tianho's eyes went wide. He stumbled back, clutching his ribs. "What—"
Baki was already moving again. He flickered out of existence and reappeared behind Long Tianho, driving a knee into his kidney. Long Tianho grunted and spun, throwing a wild backhand. His fist hit empty air.
Baki materialized in front of him and delivered a vicious uppercut. Long Tianho's head snapped back. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
"0.5 seconds," Baki said, breathing hard. "The gap between unconscious reaction and conscious processing. If I move in that gap, your brain can't keep up."
Long Tianho wiped blood from his mouth. "Invisible attacks." He smiled. "I've heard of such things. But experiencing them is different. Or is it that yours are more special?"
He lowered his stance. "Then I'll have to stop relying on sight."