Lucius regained consciousness mid-air and blinked several times before his brain fully caught up with what was happening.

"Am I… in the sky?" he muttered aloud, his voice nearly lost to the wind screaming around him.

His stomach twisted from the sudden rush of air.

He blinked rapidly, trying to focus as his surroundings came into view.

There were clouds everywhere so it was definitely the sky.

The sunlight was painfully bright, scattering across the blue expanse like shards of glass.

He wasn't just in the sky.

He was way up, so high that the ground looked like a hazy watercolor painting below.

"…Oh, hell no," he breathed out, watching the world spin beneath him.

His body was descending, but not quickly enough to calm him.

Every part of him hurt.

His armor creaked, small cracks forming on the chestplate where that monster of a man had hit him.

'Damn,' he thought with a grimace, 'what did I even do to make that guy so mad?'

His brain was foggy, replaying the last few minutes of the spar… there was a hit and then suddenly, he was airborne.

He rubbed his forehead, trying to piece together what led up to that ridiculous punch.

The more he thought about it, the more his face scrunched in confusion.

What did he do to turn a regular spar into something like this?

Then, all at once, realization clicked.

"Oh," he muttered, blinking. "Oh, oh."

He slapped a palm to his forehead and let out a groan.

'I remember now. He's that tall-ass guy who has a crush on Vanessa.'

He groaned once again.

'So this entire spar… was because of that? Are you serious? This is attempted murder! We're fighting because of a woman? Isn't this 2025? Have we really gone back to caveman logic?'

Lucius tilted his head back, staring at the sky in pure disbelief.

The wind tugged at his hair, and he just floated there for a few seconds falling slowly but processing the absurdity of the situation.

"Superior Man, huh…" he muttered under his breath. "More like Insecure Man."

The numbness on his chest finally started fading, at least his regeneration was doing it's job.

Before he could even assess the damage properly, something appeared in his peripheral vision — a small dot rising rapidly from the ground below.

He squinted. "What's that?"

At first, it looked like a bird.

Or maybe a drone.

It was too small and too far to tell.

But as seconds passed, it grew larger and faster.

The speed at which it was moving at was terrifying.

Lucius frowned. "…Wait."

The dot began to take shape… it had shoulders… legs… a torso too…

His expression froze.

'No. Don't tell me.'

He focused, his eyes narrowing against the sunlight. And then he saw the unmistakable silhouette.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me."

That wasn't a bird.

It was a man.

It was Superior Man.

The bastard was soaring to him like a damned rocket.

Lucius's eyes widened in disbelief.

'What the hell is wrong with these S-ranks?!'

He flailed slightly, twisting mid-air in a sharp side stroke motion, almost like swimming through the wind.

A thunderous boom echoed a heartbeat later as Superior Man rocketed past him, the shockwave nearly sending Lucius spinning.

"Son of a—" He stabilized himself, gritting his teeth, his whole body trembling from the pressure of the air blast.

He glanced down just in time to see the S-rank twist mid-flight, defying every rule of aerodynamics known to mankind.

The man's body slowed as if some invisible force caught him. Then, impossibly, he spread his arms out and stopped all that force...

'You've gotta be kidding me,' Lucius thought. 'This guy just… paused in the sky?'

And before Lucius could even process that insanity, Superior Man's booming voice tore through the air.

"YOUNG MAN!"

Lucius groaned, dragging a palm down his face. "Oh great, he's yelling now."

The booming voice echoed like a sermon.

Superior Man shifted slightly, as he began dropping once again.

"Oh, no. Don't you dare—"

He did.

He shot toward Lucius and the young man sighed, performing a swimming motion to the right now, dodging Superior Man again.

'I don't want to be dealing with this hulkish monstrosity.' He thought.

But apparently the man wasn't done yet…

The S-rank ripped the black tracksuit top clean off his body and threw it downward.

Lucius blinked, dumbfounded. "…Is he stripping mid-fight?"

The shirt fluttered for a second, spinning in the air.

But the moment it passed beneath him, Superior Man stepped on it.

Lucius froze.

"…No way."

The man used the floating shirt as a foothold and launched himself again.

Straight at Lucius.

Lucius's jaw dropped. "He just… jumped off a shirt?! A shirt?!"

It wasn't even logical.

The shirt weighed nothing!

You couldn't even stand on a floating plank, much less thin fabric, yet there he was… flying toward Lucius like a goddamn missile.

Lucius threw his head back, laughing once in disbelief. "S-ranks, man. They don't even operate under physics anymore!"

He stopped dodging this time.

Enough was enough.

As Superior Man closed in, Lucius let out a sharp breath and steadied himself mid-air, both hands glowing with spatial energy.

The pressure around him intensified, distorting the sunlight like a heat haze.

"You wanna play rough?" Lucius muttered. "Fine. Let's play."

The S-rank slammed into him like a cannonball.

The collision ripped through the clouds, leaving a shockwave that sent air spiraling outward in all directions.

Lucius grunted, catching the man's arms instantly, locking both forearms in a tight hold.

Superior Man's muscles tensed, bulging like steel cables as he tried to overpower him.

Lucius grinned.

"Not this time, big guy."

He infused his grip with spatial mana… invisible pressure that warped the air and locked everything into place.

The S-rank's eyes widened slightly. "You…"

"Yeah," Lucius said, smirking. "Me."

Superior Man tried to move, but every muscle locked in place. Even the air around him refused to shift.

Lucius tilted his head, studying him. "You're strong, I'll give you that. But strength isn't everything."

He released one hand and the man didn't move.

Lucius's eyes glimmered. 'He doesn't even have resistance to magic. All that power, and no control. He's just like a Martial artist in a world of magicians.'

He hovered slightly above, positioning himself as the man remained frozen.

"Now," he muttered, "my turn."

Lucius drew a deep breath and let mana flood his right leg.

The power traveled from his core down through his thigh, crackling at his heel.

The space beneath his foot warped and shimmered, a distortion of pure energy gathering like a whirlpool.

"Let's see if you can take this one, Superman."

Then he kicked downward.

The world exploded.

A blinding flash engulfed the sky as he broke the sound barrier.

The deafening BOOM that followed rolled through the clouds like thunder, scattering them apart in a circular shockwave.

Lucius's entire form became a blur of light and pressure, cutting through the air at supersonic speed.

The kick connected squarely with Superior Man's chest.

The impact wasn't just powerful… it was cataclysmic.

The shockwave burst downward, fracturing the clouds below like shattered glass.

The rippling force created a visible ring expanding across the sky, so bright that it looked like the heavens themselves cracked open.

The instant Lucius's foot struck, the full power of the kick was discharged freely.

The result was devastating.

Superior Man rocketed downward like a meteor, trailing smoke and light behind him.

The sky thundered in protest.

Lucius hovered there, breath uneven, hair fluttering in the violent afterwind.

He stared down at the streak of golden light shooting toward the earth and smiled faintly.

"Ah," he said softly, "sweet, sweet revenge."

All the irritation, the ridiculousness, the frustration… all of it melted away as he watched that living rocket plummet.

Lucius stretched his shoulders, exhaling a laugh.

"Man," he muttered, shaking his head. "It's really good to be me."

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