Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Tatiana opened up with one of her deadly moves and her heel was already this close to hitting Riri's jaw. Everything happened in an instant—and it was supposed to be over from the get-go—but Riri predicted what Tatiana would do and took a half-step in the right direction.

Her hair just blew wildly because of the wind that came with Tatiana's kick but she wasn't aware of the following kick from the same move.

The kick that Tatiana performed was almost the same thing that I used to take down Artem but the second one would come a fraction of a second later.

And since Riri moved forward-right to avoid the blow, her head was turned the opposite way from where the kick was coming. I was already bracing myself to see the impact from Tatiana's foot hitting the back of Riri's head, but to everyone's surprise, Riri avoided the blow completely.

"WHAT?!" Quinn exclaimed from the side.

It was like Riri knew that Tatiana would follow up the first kick with another but even if she was directly looking at how Tatiana's muscles contracted, it would've been a next to impossible feat to avoid the blow in her perspective.

With that said, Riri easily sunk a left hook to Tatiana's torso when she landed and she managed to follow it up with a snapping low kick because Tatiana was still confused as fuck.

All Tatiana could do was jump back and stare at Riri in disbelief, and Riri was acting like she had it in the bag. Despite that, Tatiana wore a devilish smile on her face and she licked her lips before diving in head-first once again.

Once they were in punching distance, Tatiana sent a compact hook to Riri's face but Riri leaned back and snuck in an oblique kick to Tatiana's quads. However, Tatiana quickly retracted her left fist before sending it back with a snappy jab—which Riri also avoided, but once Tatiana retracted it once again and sent it back, a cut appeared on Riri's cheek.

"Oh…" Ruru muttered quietly before touching her cheek as if it was the one that got injured.

A few others haven't realized it yet but the reason Tatiana managed to connect was not because she sent a faster jab, but the attack she sent that made Riri bleed was technically a jab but with an open palm. It was almost like a mix of the movements of a jab and an eye-gouge—though with the use of the length of her fingers and her nails, it made Riri misjudge the distance.

However, right when Tatiana was about to step on her foot, Riri slid her foot sideways before sending a middle kick towards the same spot that she sent her bodyblow.

I doubt Riri knew that Tatiana used to be injured in that spot but for the life of me, it was as if she had an extra pair of eyes somewhere. Granted there was a recent hit that she wasn't able to avoid, but she shouldn't have noticed Tatiana aiming to pin her down with that foot stomp.

'Unless…'

My eyes wandered someplace else and it landed on the person that looked like exactly the one in the play area. She was still looking attentively at the two fighting but I really felt something off. To my surprise, Kaley was also looking at the same person and once we looked at each other, like what I assumed the twins were doing, Kaley and I shared a thought without speaking a word.

'They're speaking to each other!'

Twins doing this sort of thing doesn't actually have solid proof or evidence but there was anecdotal evidence that supported it.

With that said, if the two could actually relay to each other what they were thinking, seeing, or feeling, Tatiana would be at a great disadvantage. Granted Tatiana could probably take on three-to-five people at once, something about this didn't sit right with me.

It would've been different if they tried to fight Tatiana together in which Tatiana knew what was going on but this was a little too sneaky or underhanded in my opinion. Just the psychological effects of seeing an opponent avoid a strike that would've been impossible to dodge was a great blow to one's psyche.

I just turned to Kaley to "telepathically" ask for permission and she quickly gave me one in which I acted on it.

Ruru was still focused on "watching" the match when I held her hand and turned her head to face me.

"Hey."

"H-Huh? What—"

"I love you," I said as I looked her straight in the eye.

Almost immediately, Ruru's face turned red like a tomato and she was BSOD'ing at an alarming rate. Furthermore, I gave her the finishing blow when I pushed her down for a kiss, her hand still held tight, while my free hand wrapped around her body.

Ruru didn't know what to do for the first few seconds but she melted away as cheers erupted from the whole area.

I didn't even know if I evened the odds against Tatiana by doing this but I'm fucking sure that Ruru's focus was on something else. It took her a few seconds to return my kiss but she never looked so disappointed when I broke it off. She looked like she was ready to mount me then and there but the moment she realized I discovered what they were doing, her gaze immediately shifted to the play area.

All we saw was Tatiana helping Riri off the ground but once the instant replay was shown on the big screen, it seemed like what I did was a little too effective.

What happened was that moment I did what I did to Ruru, Riri's face went just as red—but in the middle of the match, and she ate a kick that could've been easily avoided.

Tatiana was still as confused as everyone who was watching but she laughed her ass off once Kaley and I explained what happened. It's just that a few people—Cynthia and Riri—wanted to hear what I said to Ruru to be addressed to them as well.

"C'mon! Just say it! Say it to me!"

"Even if it's a lie, I'll believe it! Whisper it to me and kiss me too!"