Chapter 161: Atlas
Kalon pulled out of Thea and let her legs drop.
The bench under her was soaked. Clear fluid mixed on her stomach and thighs. Thea lay there breathing hard, blue eyes half-lidded, cheeks flushed. Her tournament top was still shoved up over her tits. She made no effort to cover herself right away.
Kalon looked down at her for a few moments. There was no denying that it was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen in his life.
Once satisfied, he grabbed a towel from the rack and cleaned himself off first. Then he wiped Thea down between her legs while she watched him. She flinched a little when the cloth passed over her sensitive area, but she didn’t stop him.
"You good?" he asked comfortingly.
"Yeah." Her voice was still rough. "That was... a lot."
Just like that, her virginity had been claimed.
She sat up slowly and started fixing her clothes. Kalon helped her pull her bottoms back into place. Neither of them talked much while they got presentable again. The heat from the match and the sex was still sitting on both of them.
When they opened the door, the corridor outside was empty. If anyone had been nearby, they were gone now.
Kalon didn’t notice the faint trace of someone else’s presence that had lingered by the wall.
He just walked Thea back toward the main backstage area. They split up shortly after, Thea heading to find her mother, Kalon heading for the exit. The second day of the tournament was winding down around them.
...
Elsewhere in the venue, Richard Red had Ruby backed into a quiet corner near the competitor exits.
His face was filled with anger. Ruby’s ginger hair was still tied back, and she looked tired from the previous day’s loss and everything that had followed.
"You asked him to train you," Richard said. His voice stayed low, but it was clear that there was venom on his tongue. "Manchester. The same guy we used to bully and treat him like the trash that he is. Are you stupid?"
Ruby didn’t look away.
"I asked. He said no. That’s it."
"That’s not it. People saw you talking to him. People saw you looking pathetic in that hallway. You’re making yourself look weak. You’re making the family look weak. He’s still the same nobody who got lucky with a couple of affinities. Lighting up the arena with some flashy light trick doesn’t change what he is."
Ruby’s expression hardened as she listened to the words of her brother.
"You’re still talking like nothing has happened. He erased a guy’s arm in front of the whole arena. He has almost ended our bracket path without even needing to fight us. Everyone is laughing at us, Richard. Not him. Us."
Richard stepped closer. His brows furrowed with every word.
"So your answer is to go crawling to him?"
"My answer is that we have to accept reality," Ruby shot back without hesitating. "Kalon is stronger than we ever thought he could be. Stronger than you. Stronger than me. Hell, he might even be stronger than the second and third year students. Pretending otherwise is just going to get us embarrassed again. I’m done doing that."
Richard stared at her for a long second. His jaw worked like he wanted to keep arguing. In the end he just clicked his tongue, turned, and walked off.
Ruby stayed where she was, fists clenched at her sides, the residual shame of the loss and the conversation both sitting heavy on her.
...
The rest of the second day finished without another match involving Kalon.
The remaining brackets played out. Officials cleared the field. Crowds started draining out of The Garden Arena in slow groups.
Announcements confirmed that the semi-finals would begin the following afternoon, and everyone was looking forward to it.
Before heading to sleep in his stadium room, Kalon decided to get some fresh air and go for a walk.
He walked the still bustling streets with his hands in his pockets. The city lights were already on. His phone kept buzzing with new notifications, but he ignored most of them.
The follower count, the contract offers, the messages from people who had never spoken to him before, he decided that all of it could wait for the time being.
As he walked past a specific alleyway, the atmosphere around him changed.
He felt a sudden immense pressure weigh down on his body.
Kalon stopped walking and turned.
A man stood under the nearest streetlight as if he had always been there.
He was tall and lean, dressed in a dark coat that looked expensive. His hair was neat, half black, half white.
His face was calm, almost bored. But the weight coming off him was anything but calm. It pressed against Kalon’s senses the same way a deep body of water pressed against a diver.
This was not a student. This was not a regular organisation fighter.
This was Atlas Greatest.
Kalon had seen the name on rankings and news feeds for years. The head of Atlas Entertainment Cooperation. Father of Sun and Moon. The one who he had once texted online.
But most importantly, one of the very few people publicly known to hold both light and dark affinities.
Meeting him in person was different from reading about him or seeing pictures and videos on the internet. The man’s presence alone made the street feel smaller.
Atlas looked Kalon over once, the same way someone might check the edge of a tool.
"Manchester," he said. His voice was deep and smooth. "You’re the one making noise in the Year One bracket."
Kalon stayed where he was.
"You’re Atlas." He couldn’t help but point out.
"I am." Atlas slipped one hand into his coat pocket. "You’ve been using light. Today you used dark as well. Most people spend their whole careers trying to force a second affinity. You’ve put light and dark in the same body and you’re still walking around with your life."
He said it the same way someone might comment on the weather. Everything about this man was calm and collected.
This is the confidence of a top ranked fighter...
"You’re like me," Atlas continued. "Not in scale. Not yet. But in type. Light and dark in one person is rare enough that I bother to come look with my own eyes."
Kalon didn’t answer right away. The pressure coming off the man made casual conversation feel slightly off-balance. He forced his shoulders to stay relaxed.
"Did you want something from me?"
Atlas’s mouth twitched in something that wasn’t quite a smile.
"Direct. Good. I’m not here to offer you a junior contract or a training stipend. Those are for ordinary prospects. If you can make it to the finals of this tournament, and if you can beat my son and daughter when you get there, I’ll take you into Atlas Corporation myself."
Kalon blinked once.
Sun and Moon. The siblings from the Awakened School.
Not only was Atlas so certain that his children would reach the final, but he also would reward Kalon for beating them.
It wasn’t the standard thing for a father to do, but at the end of the day, Atlas wasn’t standard.
"If you want a real place at my table, you reach the finals and you beat them. Do that, and we talk about your future properly. Fail, and you remain an interesting student with good footage. Clear?"
"Clear," Kalon said, interested in the offer, since he planned on beating them anyway.
"Good." Atlas turned as if the conversation had already taken enough of his time. "Don’t die in the semis. It would be a waste."
The pressure lifted as suddenly as it had arrived. When Kalon glanced down the street again, Atlas was already gone.
Kalon stood there for another few seconds, then started walking again.
...
Back in his academy room, he locked the door and sat on the edge of the bed. The day replayed in pieces.
The darkness erasing an arm, Thea finishing the match, the changing room, Ruby’s earlier pleading, and now Atlas’s offer sitting on top of everything else.
Sun and Moon weren’t the average prospects. They were the children of one of the most powerful men in the country. And the path to a real seat at Atlas Corporation ran through them.
Kalon lay back and stared at the ceiling until the thoughts blurred.
He was too tired to travel that day.
Sleep took him without much resistance.
The next morning he woke to his alarm and the muted sound of other students moving in the hallway.
Semi-finals day.
He sat up, rubbed his face, and checked the time. The mana buff from Daily Blessing had changed to one of agility. His body felt light and ready.
He stood, stretched once, and started preparing for the arena again.
His opponents in the semi finals would surely be the toughest yet.