Dragon Raja; Chapter 107: Big Brother (4)

Dragon Raja

The Dictator met one of the three hundred and sixty Mais, the blades clashing with a harsh sound. The other illusions collapsed in that instant. The two of them stood face-to-face, their breaths mingling, all their strength pressed against the blades.

“Not bad. How did you find my real position?” Mai asked.

“How did you make sounds from all directions at once?” Caesar replied.

“Shouldn’t a graceful Italian man reveal his tactical secrets first?”

“Heartbeat—you’ve learned ninjutsu to suppress your heartbeat, but as you moved at high speed, your heart rate involuntarily sped up. In the end, the sound of the ‘butterflies’ wasn’t enough to mask your heartbeat. That’s why I made the agreement with you for three strikes. During the first two strikes, your heartbeat was still hard to catch.”

“Miscalculation… I thought Italian men had no brains beyond wooing women…” In the darkness, Mai pouted.

“Your turn now,” Caesar said.

“Winners don’t need to say much,” Mai replied.

Caesar felt something cold press against his forehead, and he realized—it was Mai’s Glock.

Mai held the blade against the Dictator with one hand, while pointing the Glock at Caesar’s forehead with the other. “Drop the blade. I really don’t know what will happen if I fire a Frigg round this close—it might not vaporize in time and just punch a hole through your head.”

“Hey… we agreed on using blades.” Caesar reluctantly loosened the strength on his blade.

“When did I ever say that? Even if I did, you believe a girl when she says that?” Mai slapped his forehead. “With emotional intelligence that low, no wonder you can’t find a girlfriend.”

“I thought Japanese people adhered to Bushido.” Caesar said, “And I do have a girlfriend.”

Caesar’s grandfather once told him about the outdated Bushido of Japanese warriors. He said that on the Sino-Japanese battlefield, when the Japanese and Chinese soldiers fought with bayonets, the Japanese always followed the “Infantry Manual” by removing the bullets, while the Chinese always kept theirs loaded. When the two sides were deadlocked, the Chinese would pull the trigger… Bang… and then turn to fight the next Japanese soldier.

“With allies like that, it’s no wonder Italy lost World War II!” Caesar’s grandfather concluded.

“You must be talking about Japan from the Meiji Restoration in 1868?” Mai said, pouting.

“Brother.” A childish voice seemed to rise from a deep well.

A searing wind rushed towards them, the bright light hurt their eyes through their closed eyelids, and the air was filled with a burning smell.

Both of them instinctively fell to the ground, as in that instant, something made their hearts nearly stop—an oppressive force a hundred times stronger than the “Blade Vortex Tempest,” so overwhelming it left them breathless.

The oppressive feeling disappeared in a flash, but in that brief moment, they felt as if they were in a burning hell.

“What… just happened?” they both asked.

“No idea,” they both answered simultaneously.

They opened their eyes, and what should have been complete darkness in the hall was now dimly lit. It looked as though a fiery wind had swept through, with thick smoke all around. Rows of oak benches were broken in half down the middle, with jagged, dark red glowing breaks. The hardened old oak was slowly burning; whatever had ignited it must have been powerful, as the oak, after so many years, was nearly as tough as iron.

“Tell your college secretary to turn on the lights!” Mai commanded.

“Halftime break? We haven’t called a truce.” Caesar said.

“I’m at an advantage—I’ll give you a step, third-year.” Mai withdrew the Glock.

“Norma, lights on!” Caesar slowly retracted the Dictator.

There was no response; the hall remained completely dark.

“Norma isn’t responding. I don’t know why.” Caesar tried to stay calm. As an “A”-rank student, he had privileges with Norma, and she had never failed to respond before.

“Did the power trip?” Mai was irritated. “Whoever installed the electrical system at Cassell College must be a third-rate company.”

“No worries. I have a jet lighter for cigars… decent flame.” Caesar said as he pulled a lighter with a pure silver case out of his pocket.

“Get lost, what use are you?” Mai said impatiently, pulling a flare stick from her tactical suit pocket.

The flare stick illuminated the surroundings. Their unconscious companions, knocked out by Frigg rounds, were still lying there silently. Aside from the oak benches being displaced and burning, nothing else seemed amiss.

“Turns out you have so many ‘butterflies’.” Caesar said.

Around them, eight silver butterfly hairpins hung from thread-like lines. Mai had used these hairpins to create the illusion of clones all around her. Mai took down all the “butterflies” and put them away. Caesar reached out to take one for a look, but she glared at him.

“Don’t collect women’s accessories for no reason!”

Caesar shook his head helplessly.

“There’s a hole in the stage floor.” Mai said.

Caesar followed her finger, and saw rows of holes in the stage floor, like… two lines of footprints. But each footprint had burned through the teakwood, exposing the gray cement floor underneath.

Caesar stepped on the footprints to test them. “If these were left by a person, they belonged to someone about 1.6 meters tall, with a stride that’s only two-thirds of mine.”

Mai also tried stepping on them. “Even though I’m ten centimeters shorter than you, the stride is still only two-thirds of mine… Oh, I didn’t mean you have short legs… third-year, follow the footprints.”

“Don’t keep calling me third-year—I’m Caesar, Caesar Gattuso. You should show some basic respect to your enemy!”

Series Navigation

<< Dragon Raja; Chapter 106: Big Brother (3)Dragon Raja; Chapter 108: Big Brother (5) >>