Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Coming from someone who loved every advantage he could get, Dave doubled— no, tripled-down just to obstruct Benjie's vision. And with the psycho already extra aware of a flying shoe due to me, instead of blocking them with his arms, he instantly tried to jump back as he backpedaled. However, Dave jumped forward at the same time and he landed on Benjie's right foot.

And almost at the same instance, he finally clocked Benjie's face with a solid right hook because the guy was momentarily pinned in place.

Benjie's whole body buckled as his face got jolted but he had already wound up his left arm to send a compact hook on Dave's jaw. The punch made him dazed for a second and it was all that Benjie needed to get his foot from under him.

And to Dave's surprise, Benjie was falling forward but what came after him was his right heel from a sudden front flip. He took Benjie's full weight with his head before he got dazed a second longer and his face was red from the pain.

Most people would've lost consciousness from their brains getting shaken over and over but Dave just held on.

He tried to kick Benjie who rolled to the side as he landed but all it did was send more dirt his way.

The two were far apart once again but it didn't take long before both of them tried to bridge the distance in an instant.

This time, Benjie was a tad faster and Dave's left calf just received a solid low kick though it looked like it didn't do much damage. However, a low kick wasn't a finishing move that was supposed to take down their opponent in a single strike but it was more like having shots with your friends.

The first few wouldn't knock you out—though sometimes they may sting or burn—but once you reached your limit, you would hit the floor faster than a sack of bricks.

With that said, I was surprised Benjie didn't opt for more illegal moves while Dave was doing his best to acquire whatever advantage he could get his hands on. To be fair, this wasn't an "official" fight where rules needed to be followed—aside from not killing each other in this setting, but Dave's mistake was using illegal moves on a person that would almost always opt for illegal moves.

Benjie knew where to strike where it would hurt the most and he also knew to defend where it hurt the most.

He wasn't part of the clan that could almost see in a third-person view to dodge or redirect everything so he'd just take a few hits where he could take it. However, he started to look annoyed when he kept defending himself from the attacks he was supposed to be dishing out so he went with a simultaneous hit when the opportunity presented itself.

Dave was aware that Benjie was a tad faster than him so like the low kicks he was receiving, he also sent body blows to slow his opponent down.

It's just that when he connected with a solid punch, Benjie's thumb had also dug deep into his sides.

Benjie aimed for the spot right below Dave's ribcage and blood just spurted out when he pulled his thumb out.

It caused an uproar among the audience but Mr. Cuervo's guards didn't do a thing because Dave was far from dead. Granted he started to breathe heavily by the second, but he still continued his rush toward the opponent he was trying to take down. However, a bullet whizzed past between them when he tried to catch his breath and he found out that the De Leon Family threw the towel for the second time.

Dave never looked so infuriated but once he saw the amount of blood he was losing from the big screen, he just sighed heavily before his gaze landed back on Benjie.

With that said, Benjie had a few bruises from getting caught off-guard but the thing that sucked was that Benjie wasn't even out of breath. Sure, he was breathing a little faster than normal but it didn't take long before his breathing returned to normal once again. He even yawned as he walked closer to his family's spot to signal someone from the viewing platform and everyone saw one of his goons throw his dagger over to him.

Dave was getting looked at by the medical team that arrived but Benjie was already gearing up for his next fight.

And this time, he looked a little excited as he drew his newly cleaned dagger from its sheath.

He was already exuding faint amounts of killing intent and I decided it was time to give my two cents to Quinn.

"Once Dave is carried out of there and Number 69 enters the play area, you can't throw any more towels… Better quit now because your guys barely did anything to him…"

"..."

"I don't wanna say that your guy's weak but—"

Quinn instantly cut me off, "Shut up."

"I'm just saying…"

"You don't understand—"

"I do. It's pride and stubbornness talking for all of you—"

"Then why don't you challenge him, huh?! If you're that good—"

"I did, actually."

"Wai— Huh?! You did? When?!"

"When Mr. Cuervo looked at me, right before your guy challenged me earlier. Did you think I'm gonna wait for the final stage to get to him? He's unstable and dangerous. You don't make them swing their dick around like they could do whatever they want. I would've done something already in Jericho's game if I wouldn't get a bullet in the head for it…"

"..."

"But as luck would have it, all of your requests came first…"

"Shit…"

Quinn's face just looked somber but she didn't do anything about the situation. No, more like she couldn't do anything because even if she forbade Number 69 to walk inside the play area, she'd just get completely disregarded. And the same thing would happen even if their head would ask for the same thing.

Getting the chance for payback was something almost everyone would never pass up and some people were willing to risk their lives for it.

With that said, the audience was getting riled up once Number 69 and Benjie were face to face because everyone wanted to see blood. Number 69 was holding his two curved, steampunk-style swords while Benjie was casually holding his short dagger.

From a normal or conventional point of view, reach was something to take into account—even in barehanded fights—because even a katana wielder had to be a few dans above a spear wielder for it to be an even fight.

It's just that this match wasn't normal or even conventional.

Everyone had already seen Benjie move and he didn't even look fazed about his opponent's swords.

There were these few seconds of weird silence—even when the background music was building up—before the two met at a single point.

However, unlike the first two fights we just witnessed, the third fight was the shortest one.

There was this instant when metal clashed against metal and the next thing we knew, blood was just spraying out of Number 69's neck. A huge gash enough to fit an oven mitt was present from where his Adam's apple was located right up to his nape. And unlike a certain someone who nicked his jugular vein from firing faulty ammo, he couldn't plug it with his thumb. The wound was far too wide and visceral to do anything about it and the best thing to do was to completely end his suffering.

At this point, the big screen displayed the few seconds Number 69 was still twitching before Benjie sunk his blade into his temple.

It prompted cheers and applause from the stands but it was totally different from our side.

Quinn was just shaking her head as the rest of her crew was this fucking close to jumping over the railing and lynching Benjie but their family would cease to exist once they did. Some of them even tried to send more challenges to Benjie but Mr. Cuervo wouldn't accept the challenge from the same family anymore.

They had three chances to avenge their own but they lost even more while achieving next to nothing. Granted Dave landed a few solid hits, but those can easily be remedied by ice.

I didn't even dare to tell the De Leon Family that I warned them because I'm 100% sure they knew full well about this blunder. Not even taking into account the loss they incurred from losing three times, two more injured individuals and the death of a comrade was something anyone would have a hard time bouncing back from.

But right at this moment, something seemed to have happened to the Castillo Family's side because their cheers suddenly stopped like a machine was plugged off.

Each and every one of them was standing like statues and Mr. Cuervo was the one who broke the news since he forgot to mute his mic.

[WHAT?! MR. CASTILLO IS DEAD?! HE WHAT?!]