"Looks like you're not alone in this labyrinth after all," Kai said, his voice calm, trying to crack a joke, though failing miserably. He coughed, clearing his throat, embarrassed, as Nova followed suit and stood right beside him.

The French Guild now had a choice: stand their ground against the duo, or take their chance and venture into the twisting labyrinth, which would only anger Kai even further. And if they were to choose the second option, despite their current conditions, it wouldn't be an easy task to get rid of the duo. They might even encounter another monster while they're at it.

"Hand over the core that you stole," Kai said, his hands in his pockets, looking like one of those manhwa main characters, with his broad shoulders and a neck tattoo. "And I promise you I won't hurt a single one of you. But if you don't, I will eliminate you from the tournament."

Then there were some murmurs from the French guild. The leader tilted her head, smiling slightly, glancing over at Nova, realizing who he was.

"Hey, you," she said. "Aren't you with the American Guild? The one we stole this core from." She revealed the core, which instantly made Nova's nerves tingle. "Huh. So, it is you."

"Just hand it over," Kai said, getting irritated. "We don't want any fights. And it doesn't seem like you can fight, seeing how you couldn't even single-handedly fight that lousy monster."

"Espèce de petit fils de pute coréen, enfoiré." she said in fluent French.

"The fuck does that mean?" Kai was baffled by the words uttered from the French leader's mouth.

"It means: 'You little Korean son of a bitch, motherfucker.'" The leader smirked at them.

Kai wasn't happy; he cracked his neck, and the sound of bones crunching didn't feel like human bones. His eyes burned with a cold fury that promised death upon the French leader. His blood manipulation ability was flickering into life around his fingertips.

Nova felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere, Kai revealing his extreme bloodlust that he had tried to hide from Nova when he first laid eyes on the French leader.

He placed a hand on Kai's arm, not to stop him, but to remind him they weren't savages, they were still human. "Easy," Nova said, his voice low. "We get the core, and the core only. I don't want us to gather, especially me, to gather anymore bodies."

But Kai shrugged off the touch. He cracked a slight devilish laugh, then said: "I don't give a shit if I have bodies on me or not. My job is to protect my people back in my home country, not these international wannabe thugs. I'll kill them if I have to."

His gaze locked onto the French leader, who stood her ground despite the blood trickling down her thigh from the monster's graze. Her smirk hadn't fully faded; if anything, it sharpened, daring him to make a move.

The whispers among her team grew louder and sharper, a mix of French curses and hesitant glances. The French leader raised a hand, silencing her team, before they could make any sort of moves.

Her eyes went from Kai to Nova and back, looking at all her possible options. The core she had stolen from Nova was pulsing in her palm, the light overtaking the darkness near her.

"You think threats scare us, Kanghee?" We've danced with the devil himself, way worse than a bloodsucker and a Yankee sidekick." She put the core in her pocket slowly. "But that's fine. You want it? You have to earn it properly. No cheap tricks. A duel between you and me. Winner takes the prize."

Nova's nerves tingled again at the sight of the core vanishing into her pouch, but he held his tongue. A duel? It was a stall, a desperate bid to buy time or turn the tide. But in the labyrinth, which was a cold-hearted construct, anything could go.

Kai's laugh was short, bitter, devoid of humor. "A duel? With you? I'd end it before you summoned a breeze." He stepped forward, the hovering blood droplets coalescing into thin, razor-edged needles that spun around him. "But if it makes you feel less like the thief you are, then fine. One strike. Land it on me, and you keep your toy. Miss, and it's mine, along with your pride."

The French leader smirk twisted into a genuine grin. "One strike? That's generous. I like it." She cracked her knuckles, lifting stray hair and gathering the dust from the fallen monster's corpse with her wind ability.

Her team backed up, forming a loose circle, eyes wide but weapons ready, just in case. Npva summoned his daggers as well, just in case anything were to go south.

Nova exhaled slowly, positioning himself at the edge of the opening, his daggers at his side, his fists clenching onto them, but still partially sheathed for now.

"Kai," he called out, though he knew it was pointless. This was Kai's grudge now, layered over Nova's need for the core.

The French leader moved first, her wind ability letting her reach extraordinary Mach speeds, making her seem like she was blurring past. Her hand slashed the air, summoning a compressed gale that hurled forward like a scythe, sharp enough to differentiate skin from bone.

Kai didn't flinch. He raised one hand, palm out, and the blood needles surged into a swirling barrier. The wind pressed against the red wall, creating sparks of energy where they collided, but the blood held, absorbing the force, turning it into tendrils that lashed back like serpents.

The French leader twisted mid-air, her wind boots propelling her into a somersault, evading the counterstrike by inches. The tendrils grazed her boot, slicing leather and drawing a thin line of blood that Kai immediately siphoned, pulling it across the arena to feed his aura.

She landed in a crouch, eyes sparking with a fire, and unleashed her true strike: a pinpoint lance of compressed air, invisible and ten times faster than sound, aimed straight for Kai's throat.

Time slowed for Nova, or perhaps it was just his heightened senses. He saw the air ripple, the subtle distortion hurling toward his newfound ally. Kai's eyes narrowed, a faint smile spreading on his lips as if he'd anticipated it all along.

With a casual flick, Kai tilted his head. The lance whistled past, embedding into the wall behind him with a boom that shook pebbles from the ceiling.

But Kai was already moving, his free hand extending like a conductor's baton. The siphoned blood from the French leader's boot exploded outward, forming a harpoon of solidified crimson that rocketed toward her chest.

She summoned a desperate shield of wind, the air compressing into a dome, but it wasn't enough. The harpoon pierced the barrier with a shriek, shattering it and embedding shallowly in her shoulder. Blood appeared, hers, dark like the centipede lookalike that Kai had killed. Kai yanked it back, the tendril retracting like a fisherman's line, dragging her forward a step before she caught herself.

The French leader staggered, clutching the wound, her face paling as the drain hit her. Her limbs ached, the wind around her dying to a faint breeze. "Bastard," she gasped, but there was no heat left in it, only resignation.

Kai lowered his hand, the blood turning back into droplets that vanished into his skin. His neck cracked again, softer this time, as if releasing the last of his tension. "One strike," he said simply, extending his open palm. "The core."

The French guild froze, their deafening whispers silenced. The French leader's team exchanged uneasy glances, but none moved to intervene.

She reached into her pouch with trembling fingers, pulling out the glowing core. It throbbed in her grip, reluctant to leave, but she tossed it underhand to Kai, who caught it without looking.

Nova stepped forward as Kai pocketed it, relief taking over all the previous tension. "It's over," he said to the French leader, his voice firm but not vulgar. "Go heal up. The labyrinth's got enough graves without adding yours."

The French leader straightened, ignoring the blood soaking her uniform, her eyes meeting Nova's with a sense of respect, or maybe just a lingering spark of fondness.

"This isn't personal, Américain. Just business." She nodded to her team, who fell in behind her, limping toward a side tunnel as the walls rumbled faintly, paths shifting to grant them passage. "See you at the finish line. Try not to choke on your own destiny."

As the French vanished into the shadows of the labyrinth, Kai turned to Nova, then said, "Satisfied?" His tone was back to its cold nature, the bloodlust locked away for now.

Nova nodded, a smile breaking through. "More than satisfied. My team, but mostly me, owes you one." He glanced at the tunnel they'd taken. "But she's right. Finish line's still far. What's next?"

Kai shrugged, already moving deeper into the maze, his broad frame cutting through the shadows like a blade. "Monsters. Rivals. The usual." He paused, tossing the core to Nova without warning. "Hold this. Feels like it suits you more."

Nova caught it, the warmth seeping into his palm. He felt refreshed, as if the core glowed brighter and brighter, the more he felt connected to it. As if the core was made for him, and him only.

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