To the finish.

As they watched Reta, the newbie and the other members set off towards the auction house, Shrarld and Veeno were left waiting for their challenger. The hero to save the day, or to save them form their boredom at the very least.

Shrarld and Veleno had only been waiting for three minutes before the sky was lit up with a fiery hue, outlining the edges of the clouds, and a hero came crashing down. Engulfed in flames, the hero's figure plummeted toward their location, landing elegantly. His flames dimmed and retreated into the ground.

"Ǹg, suǒyǐ nǐmen jiùshì bǎngfěi."

(Huh, so you guys are the kidnappers.)

Upon reassessing the appearance of the two villains, the hero switched languages.

"Are you the ones who have my sister?" His voice was youthful yet carried a dangerous amount of curiosity. It felt as if any hesitation in answering would lead to immediate action. He quickly checked a small device, and read both their profiles cautiously.

{Name: Shrarld}

{Rank : (S-RANK) 13th V-Rankings Global}

{Power(s): Extreme physicality, shadow control}

{Name: Veleno}

{Rank: (S-RANK) 37th V-Rankings Global}

{Power(s): Poison control, Poison creation, speed amp}

Veleno blinked twice, awkwardly styling his acid hair. He had to rack his brain, unsure when he had last taken his medication. The figure before him had outlandish fluffy brown hair, a charming grin, two maroon eyes where gold bled at the core, and a red suit carefully tailored to his liking. Above all, he wore a shining red fedora, which he pulled off flawlessly. Instead of hands, he had bird-like claws, and where his cheekbones should have been, glistening ruby scales adorned both sides of his face.

It was the last person they would've wanted to be here. Fire Dragon, the second-strongest hero in China, ranked fourth in the world.

"I guess answers must come from blood," he said, unsure if his opponents even understood him.

Veleno spoke lowly, so only Shrarld could hear him. His tone mixed exhaustion with apprehension. "You know who he is, right?"

Shrarld nodded.

"They really expect us to stall this guy out..."

As Veleno and Shrarld spoke, Fire Dragon, a.k.a Hangwei, received a message in his earpiece.

"Nǐ de duìshǒu shì děngjí 37 dú tiānshǐ hé děngjí 13 xū, yīdìng yào xiāomiè diào."

(You are against Rank 37, Poison Angel, and Rank 13, Shrarld. They must be eliminated.)

Fire Dragon grinned. "I remember you..."

His expression darkened. "You murdered the Venezuelan Council of Heroes. I arrived a minute too late, and they were all dead from poison. I will avenge them here. Prepare yourself."

Shrarld stepped forward immediately, his massive body nearly twice as large as Fire Dragon's. "Just because you're the king of this continent doesn't mean you should forget reason. You'll have to fight me first. The strongest."

"The strongest at what?" Fire Dragon cackled.

"This cocky—" Shrarld's outburst was cut short as Veleno raised his right arm.

"Don't speak, Shrarld. A few cuts, and this fight is over. It doesn't matter that he is strong, even Gods bleed. Just restrain him for me. Don't get in my way either. His firepower should be enough to overpower us both, so we need to end this quickly."

Fire Dragon exhaled flames, which the wind carried away in thin wisps. "My sister is such a troublemaker. If I lose here, she'll be taken somewhere far beyond my reach. The stakes are truly motivating!"

Shrarld instantly burst forward with monstrous speed. His usual blitz left opponents dumbfounded and crippled, but Fire Dragon merely empowered his right claw with flames, stepped aside, and flipped Shrarld onto his back. Before Shrarld could react, Fire Dragon unleashed a torrent of fire from his mouth, the flames devouring Shrarld's skin.

Shadows cloaked Shrarld like armor. With frightening agility, he leapt up and wrapped his right fist in shadows to match Fire Dragon's fiery strength. The two exchanged fierce blows—Shrarld relying on brute force, while Fire Dragon's lethal claws tore at his flesh, burning him to the core.

In the first exchange, Fire Dragon's fedora was reduced to ashes. In the next, his suit was ripped in half, leaving only his trousers intact. Upon examining Fire Dragon's physique, Shrarld felt sick—no scars. His clean body didn't represent a lack of experience but an overwhelming prowess in battle.

As their thunderous blows echoed through the night, Veleno darted in from behind.

"Shrarld, do it now."

Shrarld commanded all nearby shadows to ensnare Fire Dragon. Within his new prison, Veleno found it laughably easy to impale Fire Dragon from behind with a poison blade. A squelching sound cut through the night, followed by Fire Dragon's grunt of pain.

"GUN KAI!"

(Get away!)

A small orb of flames was formed in Fire Dragon's palm but it held insurmountable power, he detonated it to create distance from his opponents,

BOOM.

A wave of flames spread out in all directions consuming the shadows and incinerating everything in a vast radius.

The pristine village landscape was now a flaming battlefield. Despite maintaining control, Fire Dragon stumbled. Veleno's poison was working.

Shrarld seized the moment, thundering forward with a devastating punch aimed at Fire Dragon's head.

Fire Dragon reacted instantly, using jets of fire from his feet to propel himself into the air. Clamping his claws around Shrarld's neck, he rocketed them both skyward. As they ascended, Shrarld struggled, but Fire Dragon's grip was unbreakable.

"Yùjiàn dìyù."

(Meet hell.)

At terminal velocity, Fire Dragon ignited his legs with full force, accelerating their descent. A trail of fire painted the night sky as they plummeted. Upon impact, the ground cracked beneath them, as Shrarld was sent head first into a world of unbelievable agony. Shrarld lay motionless, gasping for air as his mind took a momentary wander into the realm of death. 

As the heavy smoke subsided, for once Shrarld was the one beating beat to a pulp. Having anticipated their return, Veleno had crafted a highly poisonous sphere, one meant to kill.

Veleno fired the poison shot like a bullet. Fire Dragon merely lifted Shrarld's limp body, using it as a shield. The poison seeped into Shrarld's skin, causing him to twitch violently.

Without hesitation, Fire Dragon exhaled a constant stream of deadly blue flames, flooding over Shrarld's body. The temperature in the area skyrocketed. Veleno retaliated, forming a thousand poison needles and launching them forward. Fire Dragon countered with a wave of fire that repelled them all.

Then, the unexpected happened.

Shrarld surged up once more, bare-boned and broken but still able to fight. He and Veleno exchanged glances. They just had to redo their initial strategy, now that the flames in the vicinity had subsided and the shadows had returned.

Fire Dragon smirked, but inside, he felt himself slowly breaking. Fighting Shrarld was manageable, but Veleno's poison was steadily killing him. It was just like back then...

The two charged at him with lethal intentions, he felt himself just moments from becoming a corpse, his bones creaked loudly in his mind.

Knowing he couldn't last much longer, he activated his final move.

"Túshā lǐngyù."

(Realm of Carnage.)

A dome of flames expanded rapidly, knocking aback the two villains and trapping all three fighters inside a swirling inferno. The unbearable brightness eradicated all shadows, rendering Shrarld's powers useless.

The people of China watching the fight from afar recognized this sight immediately—Fire Dragon's ultimate move.

Shrarld and Veleno howled in pain as blisters formed across their skin. Fire Dragon coughed up blood, his organs failing from the poison.

Knowing their time was short, all three charged in.

Shrarld launched himself forward with reckless force. Fire Dragon leapt above him, suspending himself midair with fire blasts from his feet. He then exhaled an enormous firestorm below, forcing Shrarld to stumble.

Veleno took the opportunity to hurl more poison needles skyward. Several hit their mark, searing into Fire Dragon's skin. His body pleaded for defeat, but he refused to fall, no one else in the world could save his sister but him,

Realizing he had no more time, Fire Dragon used his flames and blasted through the air with maximum force, grabbing Veleno by the neck and dragging him across the ground at blinding speeds. The sound of bones breaking filled the air as Fire Dragon kept moving, unrelenting.

A flicker of hesitation crossed his burning eyes as he felt more pain with every beat of his heart, every breath took his lungs closer to collapse. Not yet, the poison would have to drag him to the point where his soul broke if it wanted to take him down.

Veleno's body twisted under the strain, his screams muffled by the dirt. Shrarld, barely conscious, clenched his fists, he needed to just wait out this domain of flames, so that he could use his shadows once more. 

It felt unnatural, although Shrarld believed he was the strongest, he felt like a warrior naked or a human with no joints, incapable of doing anything but feel humiliated by the futility of his actions. The poison from Veleno in his back from earlier wasn't helping...

This wasn't over.

(Flashback: Venezuela, four months prior.)

Fire Dragon arrived too late, despite his hands being scorched from the fire-power used to fly to the scene. The Venezuelan Council of Heroes lay motionless, their bodies contorted in agony. The room stank of poison and corpses. At the center stood Veleno, unfazed. Alongside him, was a man with a tophat.

"You're late," he said, his voice dripping with mockery. "They lasted 8 minutes. I wonder how long you'll last."

Fire Dragon's claws clenched. "You'll pay for this."

But before Fire Dragon could unleash any meaningful attack, he felt his mind plummet as the sensation of piercing filled his heart. He looked down and saw a needle twisted into his skin, he soon became drowsy and struggled to breathe.

Enraged, he ran outwards in a drunken stupor but just as he was about to claw Veleno's face apart, both Veleno and his top-hatted friend were engulfed by a neon-blue pillar and instantly teleported away. His powered charge led him to crash into the wall, bitter tears met his lips, causing him to taste his own failures. That day the poison-angel had won, leaving an entire country in despair.

Now, in the present, his fury reignited once more.

"No more games."

All the flames roared.

The end was near.