The training grounds buzzed with a strange mixture of tension and excitement as Alex strutted back to Team Raven, flexing his arms as he had just finished a casual warm-up instead of demolishing an opponent.
Darren, on the other hand, was seething.
His team had already lost two rounds. One more loss and their humiliation—their loss—would be complete.
His fists clenched hard, his nails digging into his palms.
'I've had enough,' he growled inwardly as he could feel two pairs of eyes on his back, the owners of both were people he couldn't afford to offend.
Without waiting for a discussion, Darren stormed forward, stepping into the ring with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Enough of this nonsense," he barked. His gaze locked onto Raven. "You. Get in here."
The audience fell silent, a strange anticipation filling the air.
Were they finally going to see the rumored guy in a fight?
Such a thought passed through everyone's head. Even Damien and Vance, seated in the judges' positions, shifted on their seats.
"Oh?" Raven, however, tilted his head, his expression as lazy as ever. "Me?"
"Yeah, you, coward," Darren sneered. "You keep hiding behind your little team. What, afraid to step up? Or do you only talk big when you're in the shadows?"
Raven merely blinked at him, looking utterly uninterested. 'Why would I step up when I'm trying to make my team stand out, you dumb buffoon?'
Then he turned his head slightly. "Clara."
That one word was all it took.
Clara smirked, stepping forward and rolling her shoulders. "Finally, my turn?" She mused, cracking her knuckles. "I was starting to think you'd developed feelings for me, wanting to keep me by your side forever."
Hearing those words, Raven inadvertently imagined a scenario with Clara as his girl. But as he recalled her sadistic personality, he quickly shook his head. 'Nah. No way.'
In the dueling circle, Darren's face twisted in irritation. "You're sending her? Figures. You're just going to throw another sacrificial piece—"
Raven interrupted him by yawning. "Are we fighting, or are we giving speeches?" His voice held a bored drawl.
The audience erupted in murmurs.
Some wondered why Raven didn't step up while some snickered at Darren, whose face looked darker than a burned pot bottom.
Instructor Gale stepped forward.
"Third match—begin!"
Whoosh!
Darren launched forward instantly, wasting no time.
Clara didn't even move.
Instead, she smiled. "Ah, eager, aren't we?"
Darren's punch came fast, but Clara swayed to the side at the last second, dodging effortlessly.
"Tsk," Darren clicked his tongue, immediately twisting his body into a spinning kick.
Swoosh!
Clara stepped back just enough to avoid the hit, her smirk widening. "Missed again."
A muscle in Darren's jaw twitched.
From the sidelines, Jake muttered. "She doesn't have her dagger."
"Meh, she'll be fine," Alex muttered, still rubbing his jaw from his last match. "Ever seen her enter a losing fight?"
In the judges' area, Vance sat with his arms crossed, his glare locked onto the match.
He was expecting Raven to step up, but since he didn't, it was better. At least the chances of them losing this match had decreased.
Damien, meanwhile, watched with mild amusement.
"So, how confident are you?" He asked, lazily shifting his gaze toward Vance.
Vance scoffed. "Darren is nothing like his pathetic teammates. He's strong, and—"
Damien suddenly cut him off. "Ah, that reminds me of something interesting."
Vance gritted his jaw, his scowl deepening. "What?"
"The caretaker of Team Raven," Damien mused. "I told you I had a little chat with him, right? Do you know what he said? Among Raven's group, the one he called the most dangerous wasn't Raven." He paused, letting the words hang.
Vance frowned, irritated but interested. "Then who?"
Damien smirked. "Clara."
Vance's eyes snapped back to the fight, studying Clara more closely.
So far, it looked like she was barely keeping up with Darren. She was moving defensively, dodging but not attacking, as if she were being overwhelmed.
It was natural though. She was an assassin and Darren was a striker. It was the worst match-up for Clara.
But then—
Damien chuckled. "Look again."
It was as if he had understood what Vance saw.
Vance's frown deepened. And when he did look again, his eyes widened.
Clara wasn't struggling.
She was playing.
Every movement, every dodge, every smirk—it was all intentional.
She was making Darren think he was in control.
She was toying with him, subtly leading him in circles, frustrating him enough that he stopped thinking and started reacting.
'She's manipulating him,' Vance realized. And that was dangerous.
"The caretaker called her—" Damien trailed off.
At that moment, far from the judges' area, Alex completed those words, still lost in thought.
'—venomous.'
Clara was like a snake hiding its fangs.
If Raven were to call her something, he would call her a genius. She learned everything he taught her. She even modified them.
She had learned Krav Maga and her mastery was above Jake's, but she never used it. Not because she couldn't but because she didn't find it necessary to reveal how much she had learned.
She liked hiding her capabilities until it was absolutely necessary to reveal them.
Clara was the type to play with her opponent's mind.
'And she's strong.' Raven thought.
It was to the point that even he didn't know all of her skills. He only knew that she still wasn't strong enough to face him.
As he observed the match, he saw how Darren was trying hard to land a hit on Clara, who made it seem like she was avoiding his strike because she was lucky.
'The match had started from the moment I called her out to fight you, you dumb buffoon.'
Raven shook his head as the match escalated.
Darren, now visibly enraged, went all in.
His strikes were faster, more aggressive—but also sloppier. He was lashing out instead of fighting smart.
And the worst thing? He didn't realize that at all.
As for Clara?
She was grinning. She was enjoying the look on Darren's face.
'Damn, sadist,' Raven hugged himself on the inside, wondering why everyone around him was so strange.
"You're so predictable," Clara taunted Darren, easily slipping past another punch.
Darren snarled. "Shut up!"
"Hit a nerve?" She tilted her head. "Not my fault you fight like a brainless brute."
His fury reached its peak. He roared, summoning all his strength into a devastating strike.
Clara let him.
For the first time in the match, she stopped dodging. She made it look like she couldn't dodge, making Darren grin for the first time.
"Got you, bitch!" Said the dog.
The audience gasped as Darren's punch connected—
—except it didn't.
At the last second, Clara redirected it, spinning with the force and twisting Darren's arm in an instant counter.
Before he could react—
WHAM!
Darren's own momentum sent him crashing onto the ground, his body hitting the dirt hard.
Silence.
Then—
"…Did she just—?"
"She didn't even hit him—he took himself out!"
Vance's hands clenched into fists.
Damien chuckled. "The caretaker wasn't wrong, was he?"
Darren groaned, struggling to push himself up, but before he could, Instructor Gale stepped forward.
"Winner: Clara."
The match was over. It was a victory by default because Darren was thrown out of the circle.
And just like that—Team Raven had won.
Clara dusted off her hands and turned to Darren, who was still on the ground, his pride shattered.
"Well," she mused, smirking down at him. "That was easy."
Darren's fists trembled, but he couldn't do anything.
With so many people present, he couldn't try anything funny.
Raven, meanwhile, turned away, gesturing for his team to follow. "Let's wait for our next match."
As Team Raven walked off to a corner, the realization sank in.
They had won.
And Darren's team had been humiliated.
But Raven wasn't done watching.
His eyes flickered to Vance.
He could already see the guy staring at another student from his class, but this time, his expression was apologetic.
It seemed like he was apologizing to someone in Darren's stead, or trying to put all the blame on Darren's head.
Raven didn't really want to know what that guy was trying to do anyway.
What he wanted to know, however, was something completely different.
'When are you going to make a move, you snake-like bastard?' He mused, glancing at a boy from the same class as Darren.