The system prompt faded just as fast as it came.

But Damien's smile lingered.

Subtle. Lopsided. Almost smug.

He had been waiting for this. Not for the rewards—though those were generous. Not for the title, or the evolution, or even the experience points.

He wanted the challenge.

He wanted her.

To best the kuudere maid who had stood as an impenetrable wall since the day he began training. The woman who moved with cold perfection, whose strikes were as measured as her words. The one who never flinched, never stumbled, never let herself get pulled into his rhythm.

Elysia had become his ceiling.

And the system had just told him to shatter it.

A pulse of anticipation buzzed in his blood, faint and electric. He flexed his fingers again, just to feel them move.

Across from him, Elysia shifted—not visibly, not overtly—but enough that he knew she'd caught something. The uptick in his focus. The subtle tension in his shoulders. The gleam behind his eyes.

She said nothing.

But she noticed.

Of course she did.

She always did.

They began again.

The spar resumed—fluid, brutal, relentless.

And for the next two hours, Damien was taken apart.

Her heel struck just above the knee, folding his stance.

Her elbow met his guard with the force of a driven spike.

A sweep sent him crashing onto the mat again, air forced from his lungs in a rush.

He didn't land once clean.

Not a single strike connected.

She read him like a script, moved like smoke, slipped through every angle he tried to press.

And yet—

He didn't break.

He didn't slow.

Every fall was a lesson. Every dodge she made, a pattern burned into his mind. Every failed strike, a data point.

He was watching.

How she stepped between strikes instead of after. How she rotated her weight before shifting her stance. How she never fought his force directly—but redirected it, twisted it, used it against him like a blade of her own.

He saw the way her hips tilted when she prepared to counter.

He noticed how she never let her back foot drift off-angle.

How she created openings not with brute power—but with denial.

She didn't control the pace.

She controlled him.

And as he took hit after hit, Damien's mind kept parsing it—breaking it down, building internal scaffolds around her techniques.

His Neural Synchronicity was working.

Not fast enough to bridge the gulf.

Not yet.

But it was catching up.

And through it all, he didn't curse.

He didn't cry out.

He smiled.

Blood on his lip, bruises blooming under his skin, shoulders screaming with strain—but that same smile remained.

A whisper of a grin that said:

"I see you."

Because Damien knew—

This wasn't just about strength.

This was about becoming someone who could match her.

And if the quest was to beat her by midnight—

They stepped back onto the mat.

The faint hum of the overhead lights buzzed above them, casting clean, sterile light over bruised skin and the glint of sweat. The air was thick with tension, not anger, not competition—but purpose.

Damien exhaled once, sharp through his nose.

His feet slid into stance—shoulders square, hands up, weight balanced evenly on the balls of his feet.

Elysia mirrored him. Relaxed. Unhurried. Her arms low at her sides, hands open. The stance of someone who didn't need to guard.

Damien moved first.

A quick jab.

WHIP.

His fist shot forward like a piston, fast and clean—aimed at her shoulder, not her face. A probe, not a threat.

And just as he expected—she didn't block.

She redirected.

Her wrist snapped outward.

TCH.

She slapped the outside of his forearm with surgical precision, not stopping his strike, but pushing it just enough off-course to open his side.

'There.'

He twisted.

Shifted his back foot—

Ducked the counter-blow he knew would come—

WHOOSH.

Elysia's elbow missed his temple by half an inch.

He had read it.

But she wasn't finished.

Her knee snapped up.

THMP.

Pain flared through his side. Damien grunted, stepping back, but didn't fall.

'She changes levels mid-flow. That's how she cuts rhythm. Above, then below—disrupt the pattern.'

He moved in again.

Low feint—left shoulder dipping.

Elysia stepped forward.

TAP.

Her heel touched the inside of his lead foot.

His balance faltered just slightly—enough.

Then—

CRACK.

A palm strike to the chest. Enough force to rattle his ribs.

Damien slid back, gasping. His stance cracked but held.

'She's testing. Not going full power. She's still… gauging me.'

Another step. He twisted his hips, aiming a roundhouse to her left flank.

SWOOSH.

She stepped inside the arc before it even reached full extension.

SMACK.

Her hand caught his thigh mid-swing, redirected the force downward, and twisted her upper body.

Her elbow flashed again.

THWACK.

Right into his shoulder.

He stumbled, nearly lost his footing.

But he didn't fall.

'She's bending the axis of every engagement. Taking the center before I can even claim it.'

He exhaled hard, refocused.

Again.

He tried something new. A hook—faint, then a shifting step, angling to her weak side.

She turned with him.

SKRT.

Her back foot pivoted fluidly, denying the flank. Her hands didn't rise—she let him swing.

Then caught him mid-rotation.

THUD.

A knee slammed into his midsection. All the air left his lungs at once.

He dropped to one knee.

Panting.

But not out.

Not yet.

'Every time I strike, she collapses the space. She doesn't defend from distance. She smothers. Controls breath. Controls me.'

He pushed himself up, legs burning.

Again.

Jab.

Fake elbow.

Rising knee.

He linked the motion. Smooth. Learned.

WHIP. WHAP. THUNK.

This time, her guard shifted.

She blocked with her thigh—angled her hips—

THUMP.

Then shoulder-checked him backward before spinning, heel raised.

CRACK—

The spin-kick came fast, beautiful in its violence.

But Damien wasn't there to meet it.

Not fully.

Because the moment he saw her pivot—when her heel left the mat and her torso wound into that perfect, coiled strike—he moved.

Not to dodge.

But to close the distance.

Recklessly. Deliberately.

And as her foot blurred toward his head—

He stepped into it.

His body twisted with the incoming force—not away, but into her center.

His arm snapped upward—not to block, but to reach.

SLAP.

Fingers brushed the underside of her jaw.

Then slid up.

And cupped her chin.

Elysia froze.

Just slightly.

Just long enough.

Her heel missed its full arc, clipping past his shoulder instead of striking clean.

And then—

Damien leaned forward.

His breath hit her ear, hot and rough from exertion.

"Elysia," he whispered, his voice low, frayed with pain—but deliberate. Her pupils dilated.

He felt it.

The fractional stiffening in her stance. The barely-there hitch in her breath. The way her spine locked—not in preparation to strike—but in confusion.

Not fear. Not weakness.

But something closer to—

Interruption.

The same kind of pause he'd seen yesterday.

When he'd gotten too close.

Too confident.

When he'd cupped her chin the first time, jokingly—clumsily—barely conscious of what he was doing.

Back when the Old Damien still lingered in his bones like rot.

But this?

This was different.

He wasn't begging now.

He wasn't simping.

He was moving.

Controlling.

Forcing a response.

And for the first time—

Elysia gave him one.

A breath, caught in her throat.

'It worked.'

Damien smiled.

Not the smug smirk of someone chasing approval.

But the sharp grin of someone who knew he had just turned the tide.

Before she could snap back to full form, before her breath could realign, before her mind could suppress the hitch—

He moved.

He dropped his weight and lunged low—slamming his shoulder into her grounding leg.

THUD.

Her balance shattered.

Elysia's eyes widened—not with fear, but with the rare, precise calculation of surprise.

Her heel scraped against the mat, trying to pivot out.

Too late.

Damien was already inside her guard.

Already closing the last inch of distance.

And then—

CRASH.

They hit the mat.

Her back slammed down with a forceful WHUMP, hair fanning around her like a halo of silver and black. The air hissed between her clenched teeth, her body instinctively twisting to absorb the impact.

But Damien didn't let her reset.

He pinned her.

One leg trapped between both of his.

His forearm braced across her upper chest, the other hand planted firm on the mat beside her head.

His body hovered inches above hers.

Breaths heavy. Muscles shaking from strain and adrenaline.

Eyes locked.

She glared up at him—expression composed, yes, but her usual glacial calm had cracked. Just slightly.

Enough.

Enough for him to see the flush climbing her throat.

Enough to see her pupils still fractionally too wide.

Enough to know this position was not neutral to her.

Damien's breath brushed her cheek.

And then—

He whispered again, this time quieter. Rougher.

"…Got you."