Chapter 48 - Brutal Humiliation Yuhiko did not leave the stage after winning she stood there staring at a person in front. Everyone followed her line of sight and noticed she was staring in Gustav’s direction. "Gustav, I challenge you to a duel!" She voiced out while giving Gustav an intense glare. ’Oh, finally she’s making her move,’ Gustav stared at Yuhiko with an aloof expression while internally he was smiling. Chatter! Chatter! Chatter! The surroundings became noisy as everyone heard that. They had not expected Yuhiko to suddenly challenge Gustav but this was a battle they wanted to see. Every one of them on the second to the last floor had heard about how Gustav easily defeated Masuba. They didn’t have access to the third floor so none of them even had the chance to see Gustav talkless of seeing him battle. They wanted to see with their own eyes if the claims of him being strong was authentic. Most of them after seeing Yuhiko’s battle with Masuba believed that Gustav wouldn’t be able to win while some of them didn’t jump to conclusions yet after comparing the time it took both battles to finish. They all stared at Gustav with anticipation waiting for him to accept. "I refuse!" Gustav stated and turned around to head towards Masuba. "Eh?" The sudden refusal shocked everyone. -"He refused the duel?" -"I guess he’s too scared after Masuba got defeated," -"I would be scared too if I had to go against Yuhiko!" -"What a coward! why is he called the strongest then?" Voices of displeasure could be heard coming from the crowd as they stared at Gustav who was standing in front of Masuba at the moment. Surprisingly Gustav was not in any way moved by their comments and glares. He stood in front of Masuba who had just regained consciousness and was still seated on the ground. "My pay," Gustav stretched out his hand towards Masuba as he spoke. Masuba nearly fainted again, ’At least show a little concern, I’m just regaining consciousness,’ Masuba was speechless. "How much is it?" Masuba questioned while gulping down spit. "Precisely two hundred and thirty-six seconds, which is approximately four minutes. That brings the entire amount to thirty thousand Rad," Gustav held his chin as he spoke, "I wish you’d have lasted longer in the battle but I guess I’ll just have to make do with this," Gustav added with a slight look of disappointment. Masuba almost puked out blood on hearing that. "Pay up, you’re wasting my time," Gustav shamelessly demanded. Masuba nodded and brought out a blue cube-looking device. He handed it over to Gustav after standing to his feet. "Gustav you coward accept the duel," Keira the chestnut-haired girl shouted out from behind. "Not worth my time," Gustav voiced out as he turned back around. Yuhiko could see the aloofness on his face which annoyed her even more. "Duel with me you trash, are you scared of losing?" Yuhiko finally snapped and shouted out. "Why is she barking?" Gustav said with a casual tone, "Unfortunately I don’t have time to play fetch," His manner of talking was so smooth that his statement didn’t even sound like an insult which made Yuhiko’s face twist even more. ’This...? When did he become like this?’ Yuhiko couldn’t understand and she kept staring at Gustav like she was seeing another person entirely. "You... you..." She gritted her teeth in anger as she pointed at Gustav. Gustav walked past the stage ignoring her actions. It would seem he was heading back upstairs. "What would it take for you to duel with me?" Yuhiko turned around while asking as she stared at Gustav who paused in his tracks after hearing the question. "Finally speaking like someone who has a little brain," Gustav grinned as he turned around. "My demand is very simple," Gustav started speaking causing everyone to place their attention on him. ’He probably will ask me to go out with him... I just have to make su...’ Before she could complete her thought process she heard Gustav speak again. "Money!" Gustav answered bluntly. Silence! The whole place became silent again after hearing Gustav’s reply. Yuhiko felt her intelligence was being toyed with. ’Is he being serious right now?’ Everyone had a thought similar to this running through their minds. "How about we make a bet," Gustav added with a charming smile. --- Five minutes later Gustav was standing on the stage. In front of him was Yuhiko. They were positioned about twenty feet away from one another. Yuhiko glared at Gustav intensely while Gustav returned her glare with a calm stare. Supervisor Bola asked if both of them were ready which they reacted to by nodding. "Let the duel begin," Supervisor Bola said with an authoritative tone. Everyone had their eyes intensely focused on the stage. "I won’t waste time in crushing you," Yuhiko who seemed to still be greatly mad at Gustav had a pebble in her hand from before the duel even started. Immediately the go-ahead was given she threw out the pebble with speed towards Gustav. Shhwwii! Unlike her duel with Masuba, she threw the pebble not only with more force but also increased the size of the transformation. It had only been a second since the battle began yet a large boulder had already covered almost half of the entire stage. The bolder was as wide as the stage and the speed didn’t slow down as it traveled towards Gustav leaving him with no place to run to. Everyone’s mouth was opened wide as they witnessed this shocking scene. This kind of attack would cost a lot of energy and stamina. They stared at Yuhiko like she was a monster but Gustav’s action shocked them. He suddenly dashed towards the incoming boulder. Normally it would be impossible to dodge it but dashing straight into it was also no different from suicide. To their surprise, Gustav’s suddenly accelerated to an insane speed that they couldn’t follow. ’Although this is still in its test phase and will probably drain a lot of energy I will try it out,’ Gustav said internally as he dashed out. He had activated sprint after dashing out and was about to make contact with the huge boulder which was moving towards him in a kind of slow motion. His right hand glowed a milky light as he called out in his mind. ’Atomic disintegration,’ ’Activate chop,’ [Chop has been activated] Gustav raised his palm causing the milky glow to coat his entire right palm before slicing down towards the large boulder in front of him. A white line of energy surged out of Gustav’s palm traveling forward along with his descending palm. Before Gustav’s palm collided with the boulder, the white line was already cutting through the boulder still descending along with Gustav’s palm. Scrreevv! The boulder was cleanly severed in two causing one half to move towards the left and the other to move towards the right. Gasp! The crowd gasped upon witnessing the incredible scene but Gustav didn’t stop moving. He deactivated sprint immediately after dividing the boulder in two since he knew his energy would be completely spent if it remained activated. Even without sprint, Gustav could move fifty feet in a single second so closing the gap between him and Yuhiko was an easy feat. Swoooshhh! He arrived in front of her in an instant and swung out his left arm towards her face. Yuhiko was still dumbfounded by the sudden feat he performed so she was still looking shocked. She could follow Gustav’s normal speed with her eyes but before she could react physically his palm was already in front of her face. Pah! A crisp slap reverberated across the place. Yuhiko staggered towards the side after receiving the stinging slap on her right cheek. She could feel the hot burn which not only caused her cheeks to redden with blood but also made her sight blurry due to the heaviness. Before she could stabilize herself Gustav’s right hand was headed for her left cheek. Pah! Another crisp slap rang out again. "Whhaaa...?" The crowd couldn’t believe what they were seeing and before they could scream out in shock more slaps continued to echo in the vicinity. Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Gustav’s hands didn’t stop moving as his slaps landed on her cheeks alternatively. Yuhiko’s cheeks were already bloodied and swollen yet Gustav didn’t stop. Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! He kept slapping her around. When he slapped her left cheek she would stagger to the right where another slap was waiting to send her back to her initial position. Gasp! The crowd was in shock. -"He is truly the strongest!" -"How did he split the boulder?" -"How can he be so brutal to a female?" -"Does he have no human emotions?" Some of them took their faces away in disgust while some of them continued watching with a look of astonishment. "Supervisor Bola, Supervisor Samsuna, you should stop the duel now, it’s obvious who the winner here is," Keira ran towards the stage while voicing out with a pale look. "As the rules say, the duel cannot end until one of them either passes out or falls out of the stage and neither of that has happened yet... oh before I forget, it would also end if one of them surrenders," Supervisor Bola said while preventing Keira from getting to the stage. "But... but... how is she... supposed to surrender in that state?" Keira stammered with a pale look as she watched Yuhiko’s formerly beautiful face turn into a punching bag or in this case a slapping bag. Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah! ’This will teach you to mind your manners,’ Gustav said internally as he kept slapping Yuhiko’s face. Normally Yuhiko would have passed out if Gustav decided to slap her with his full strength from the start but he was purposely reducing his strength to stop her from passing out. The slaps were painful but due to mixed-blood’s tenacity, Gustav had calculated the right amount of force needed to make sure she receives numerous amount of slaps without passing out. The way he speedily stacked her face with slaps, didn’t give her the chance to surrender so she could only get tossed around while screaming in pain. He was after causing her more pain and humiliation than just having her take an easy way out by passing out in one hit. Pah! Pah! Pah! The supervisors were also starting to get sickened by the way Yuhiko was receiving the slaps but if they tried stopping the duel they would be contradicting their rules. Luckily for them, Gustav didn’t make it any harder than he was supposed to. He stopped after landing another hot slap on her face that sent her crashing out of the stage. "Gu-Gustav wins the duel!" Supervisor Bola swallowed saliva as he spoke.