21: 21/Is the Show Still Boring?
21: 21/Is the Show Still Boring?
Chapter 21 Roxy didn’t so much as blink.
Instead, her side-smile widened into a sharp, icy smirk.
She pushed her hands deeper into the pockets of her skirt, holding her ground without backing down a single millimeter.
“Fangs don’t make you a master, Caden…” She tilted her chin up, looking down at him one last time.
“…they just make you wilder inside your cage.
See you at the banquet.” Roxy turned on her heel with a rhythmic, confident stride, completely ignoring the silent shock plastered across the students’ faces as she withdrew from the top of the bleachers.
Before she could finish her turn, a sudden crack echoed through the air like stone shattering.
In the blink of an eye, Caden launched himself from the center of the pit with terrifying force.
He cleared the high stone barrier in a fraction of a second, shattering every law of physics like a ravenous beast breaking its leash.
Before the students could even scramble backward in panic, his massive, powerful hand wrapped with absolute authority around Roxy’s narrow waist.
He didn’t give her a second to think or react.
Sweeping her up with one arm as effortlessly as if she were a feather, he dropped back down into the heart of the stone arena amid a rising cloud of dust.
Roxy’s feet hit the solid stone floor, landing firmly in the middle of the open pit.
Caden stood directly behind her, the searing heat of his bare chest and his erratic, heavy pulse invading the narrow space around her.
His wolf, **Volcano**, howled in his mind with wild, savage triumph: *(Welcome to the animal cage, human!
Now you’re on our turf…
Let’s see how you enjoy watching from this close!)* Roxy didn’t fall, nor did a single scream escape her throat.
She planted her stance with supernatural stability.
She turned around slowly to face him, the scent of dirt and faint blood clinging to his skin filling her lungs.
She raised her steady gray eyes to meet his burning emerald gaze.
Even as the heat of his hand left a scorching imprint on her waist, she tilted her head, a cold, unmerciful smirk curving her lips.
“Using brute force to drag your opponent down into your pit, Caden…” Her voice dropped bone-dry, sharp, and cutting.
“…doesn’t prove a thing.
Except that you couldn’t stand looking up at me from below.” Caden’s fingers clamped tight around her waist for one tense, agonizing second, his scorching breath fanning across her cool cheek.
He stared into the steady gray depths of her eyes at point-blank range, desperately hunting for a single flicker of fear to bleed out from her icy features.
He found nothing only a quiet, towering arrogance that ignited a powder keg of rage inside his veins.
Inside his mind, **Volcano** roared in a dark mixture of savagery and disbelief: *(You hear what she’s saying, Caden?!
She accuses me of weakness because I dragged her down into the dirt!
This human knows how to twist her words like poisoned daggers…
Do not let her go until she begs for mercy for this pride of hers!)* Caden didn’t pull back.
Instead, he angled his harsh face closer, his emerald eyes narrowing with suppressed fury.
A low, gravelly rasp vibrated through his bare chest: “Looking up at you?
Don’t flatter yourself, human…” He leaned in until his shadow swallowed her whole.
“…Monsters don’t look up out of submission.
They spring to drag their prey down.” The corner of Roxy’s mouth twitched into an unshakeable, mocking smile.
Despite the crushing grip of his massive hand locked around her waist, she raised her index finger with absolute composure.
She pressed it against his bare chest, pushing him back just an inch to clear her breathing space.
“Your little analysis doesn’t mean a thing to me, Caden…” Her tone was smooth, measured, and razor-sharp.
“…but you just proved to everyone up in those bleachers that a mere human without fangs managed to rattle the wild Alpha—making him jump like a child just to get her attention.” The students watching from above froze, a suffocating silence falling over the stone arena like lead.
Caden slowly released her waist, taking a single step back without taking his emerald eyes off her face.
Then, he let out a booming roar that shook the very foundation of the stone bleachers: “Since you consider strength such a boring show…
then let’s start a real fight!” At that exact second, one of the academy’s strongest Betas a hulking male bursting with dense muscle leaped into the arena at record speed.
He assumed a combat stance and charged toward Caden, letting out a sharp growl to challenge him in front of everyone.
Caden didn’t even turn his body.
He didn’t adjust his stance.
In the blink of an eye, before the Beta could even finish his initial burst forward, Caden moved with a terrifying speed that blurred past human vision.
He launched a devastating, straight punch square into the middle of the Beta’s chest, immediately following it up with a lightning-fast leg sweep.
*THUD!* The powerful Beta slammed hard onto the stone floor, knocked unconscious in less than a second.
A fresh storm of dust swirled into the air, leaving every single student in the bleachers paralyzed in absolute shock.
Caden turned a sharp, lethal glare back toward Roxy, who stood just a few paces away.
He wiped a streak of blood from his hand, his gravelly voice dripping with pure challenge: “Now, human…” He stepped over the unconscious body.
“…is the show still boring to you?” Roxy completely ignored the Beta lying motionless between them.
She slowly raised her head, her gray eyes widening as she launched a methodical, sweeping scan across the upper edges of the bleachers.
Amid the dense crowd of students, her eyes locked onto two specific males the very same thugs who had dared to tie her wrists and lock her in the dark cleaning closet just a short while ago.
The corner of her lips curved into a warm-looking smile that reeked of hidden malice and cunning, a swift vengeful scheme taking root in her mind.
She brought her gaze back to Caden standing in the middle of the swirling dust.
Raising her index finger, she pointed steadily toward the top tier, breaking the silence with a quiet, icy composure: “I want you to fight those two.”
Give me more motivation!