Read Novel Full Chapter 475: Unbecoming [II]
Chapter 475: Unbecoming [II]
People don’t change.
They may grow and put on appearances, they may get better at pretending to be something they are not, but down at the very core, in the quiet places where no one else can look — they remain precisely who they have always been.
Their instincts don’t change.
They can bury them beneath layers of discipline and education, morality and experience. They can convince themselves that they are different now, that they have evolved beyond the person they used to be.
But when the right moment arrives and when the right pressure is applied, their mask begins to crack and their real self underneath always reaches out.
That was why, no matter how much Ivan seemed like he had changed, no matter how much strength he had gained, and no matter how majestic he looked in the crushing depths of the Great Divide—
Viktor still recognized him.
He was surrounded by more than a dozen unconscious bodies floating all around him. All those people would soon be extracted from the warzone before they could drown.
All those people were eliminated by Ivan. Alone. But Viktor did not see a monster. He saw the same wimpy little boy with all the same weaknesses he always had.
The Ivory Navy was more or less wiped out.
The least Viktor could do was take out the young man responsible for it.
Ivan sensed his childhood friend’s gaze and turned to look at him. He was a few meters away, willingly in the water with every Card in his Arsenal glowing behind him.
The currents stirred between them, full of silt, floating debris, and the pale specks of dissolving Essence from a dozen defeated Cadets.
Ivan’s breath was almost gone. His chest burned, his wounds bled crimson ribbons into the brackish river, and his vision swam.
He was running on fumes, but his grip on the silver-blue trident never loosened. He stared at Viktor.
There was no taunting smirk now. No performative bravado. Only the silence of two boys who knew every single flaw, every scar, and every ugly truth about each other.
Viktor didn’t speak either. He couldn’t speak down here anyway. Instead, his red eyes burned brighter in the murky gloom as he unleashed two needle-thin red lasers.
Ivan answered by bringing his trident forward and spinning it into a churning wheel before him.
The twin beams of crimson light collided with the spinning trident.
It looked as though the laser beams had struck a wall, the dispersing heat from them turning the surrounding river into a squall of bubbles.
The silver-blue trident moved faster and faster before Ivan shot forward, closing the distance between them in an instant.
And as soon as he was in striking range, he swung with his fist. But Viktor was already expecting this.
Both in life and in combat, Ivan always had the habit of overcommitting. So if he could be predicted, he could be dodged.
Viktor ducked low under where he expected the swing to be, then reached up to lock Ivan’s forearm with his own before slithering around to come up behind him.
Underwater maneuvers weren’t too different from how he was already used to moving in the sky, and Viktor had spent years perfecting aerial grappling.
He used Ivan’s movement against him, driving a knee sharply into the small of his back while wrenching the boy’s arm into a painful joint-lock.
Ivan gasped, and before he could do anything else, Viktor shot two lasers directly into the side of his open neck.
Although the intensity of Viktor’s lasers had dampened underwater, the heat was still searing, burning straight through Ivan’s skin and cooking the flesh beneath.
A cloud of red blood and white steam bubbles burst into the dark water as Ivan thrashed, refusing to let the joint-lock hold him.
After a brief struggle, he gave up trying to pry Viktor’s grip off and instead brought his trident around, now aiming to stab the annoying childhood friend clinging onto his back.
Viktor ceased his attack and moved away just in time for Ivan to whirl around, lashing out with his divine weapon in a horizontal arc.
The trident itself never hit Viktor, but the water did.
Ivan had expected him to dodge the weapon. That was the obvious move. Viktor was always the first to move away from danger, then look for an opening.
Here, it worked against him.
The moment the weapon carved through the water, a high-pressure wave expanded outward.
The impact to Viktor’s chest was like a muffled cannon blast beneath the waves. The force blew him backward, cracking his chest-plate armor and forcing the air out of his lungs.
Viktor went spinning out of control through the water, the sudden trauma to his ribs was too much to bear for a second.
But then that second passed and he forced himself to regain control, kicking his legs hard against the drag to arrest his backward spin.
Groaning, he looked back at Ivan… only to see a trident flying toward his face. Viktor moved his head out of instinct.
The trident whistled past him, missing the corner of his vision by mere inches and escaping the river.
Normally, he would’ve sighed in relief. However, that was a feint and he knew it.
Ivan tackled him. His shoulder crashed into Viktor’s chest with enough force to send them both bursting out of the water.
All of a sudden, the world became nothing but blinding sunlight and roaring wind. The whiplash was jarring.
One second they were drowning in the depths of the Great Divide. The next, they were hurled into the open air.
Water exploded upward beneath them like the river itself had spat them out. Droplets scattered in every direction, catching the grey light of the overcast sky like shards of glass.
Both boys tumbled through the air.
Viktor was still reeling from the sudden change in environment, his lungs desperately dragging in fresh oxygen after minutes of underwater combat.
He was also very confused.
Why did Ivan do this? Why did he throw away his only advantage? Sure, he needed to breathe soon. But he still seemed to have at least a few seconds left.
Shouldn’t he have tried to stay in the water for as long as possible?
Because now that they were in the open, Viktor was not going to let go. He grabbed onto Ivan’s shoulders and prepared to fly higher, a manic grin on his face.
His crimson eyes grew brighter and brighter still. Out here, one shot of his laser beams would be enough to eliminate Ivan.
“You dumb— Gaaah!” Viktor started.
Thwaaam—!!
But right then, something came slamming into the back of his head.
For a long, shameful moment, Viktor didn’t even understand what had happened.
Then he realized.
What had hit him was the cold, metallic shaft of the trident Ivan had thrown just seconds earlier, returning to its master.
That heavy hit at the base of his skull was enough to disorient Viktor. He instantly blacked out. When he came to his senses next, they were back underwater.
And Ivan’s fist was speeding toward him.
KABOOM—!!