Chapter 72: Milkshake22 Vs Popo (Brothers)

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Milkshake22 Vs Popo (Brothers)

Victor stood at one end of the cleared ground, Popo at the other, a loose ring of all the barbarians gathered around to watch.

This was an important battle. No one would miss it.

A battle between two brothers, sons of a dead king.

According to Barbarian culture, the children of a king or chief carried his glory in their veins.

However, only one of them would inherit the position of chief.

Kiki stood off to the side, arms crossed, ready to officiate the match.

Coco approached Victor first, holding out a axe, "it’s Jaja’s. He asks that you honor him by using his weapon."

Victor looked towards Jaja in the audience. The man had a focused gaze on him. Victor nodded and took it from her, testing its weight in his grip.

Oh yeah.

Kiki had been right about the axe he got from Hook’s shop.

This one felt entirely different, balanced properly, with an edge honed for cutting through flesh and bone.

He gave it a slow practice swing, nodding to himself.

Across the ring, Popo took a goblet from Foto’s offered hand, drinking deep, then smashed the cup against the ground without a glance at where the pieces scattered.

Foto smiled at this, edging him on, "finish this quickly and I’ll please you all night."

Popo stepped forward, raising his axe toward Victor.

"Brother... No... Milkshake22. Today I send you to meet our father."

"Today," Victor replied, settling into a loose stance as thought to him by Kiki, "I teach you a thing or two about restraint." His eyes fell on Foto.

That look pissed off Popo, he didn’t wait for anything further. He surged forward, axe already swinging down in a brutal overhead arc.

Victor threw his own weapon up to block.

BOOM.

The impact sent a shockwave through his entire frame, the recoil throwing him backward off his feet, his body hitting the dirt hard and rolling several feet before he came to a stop.

The Crowd roared at this, excited and thrilled.

Kiki frowned. The result was not anything lower than she had anticipated, but seeing it tugged at her chest.

Jaja had a worried expression on his face as he leaned forward but Coco gripped his arm, comforting him.

Popo stood exactly where he’d started, chuckling.

"You’ve gotten stronger. I’ll give you that." He rolled his shoulders, unbothered. "But you’re nowhere near where I’ve reached."

He wasn’t wrong. A Level 5 Barbarian against a Level 2 wasn’t a fair fight by any reasonable measure.

Victor pushed himself up slowly, axe gripped tight in hands that wouldn’t stop shaking, the vibration from that single block rattled through his bones.

Whatever confidence he’d carried walking in here, meeting Popo head-on like that had just made one thing brutally clear.

This wasn’t going to go anything like Jaja’s fight.

Victor’s eyes flicked toward Kiki for a split second, catching the tightness already forming around her mouth. Good. That was the reaction he was expecting.

He let the thought settle somewhere at the back of his mind, as he raised his axe, screaming a war cry as he charged again.

Popo blocked with one hand this time, barely bothering to brace, clearly having already measured exactly how much strength his younger brother was working with. He pivoted and backhanded Victor across the face.

Victor hit the dirt, blood spraying from his mouth.

Popo laughed.

"GET HIM! BEAT HIM PROPERLY!" Foto’s voice cut through the crowd, shrill and gleeful.

Victor spat blood onto the ground, pushing himself up on shaking arms. His eyes swept across the gathered crowd. Jaja’s face was unreadable. The man was clearly holding himself back from interrupting the battle.

Unlike Victor, he had more honor.

Then Victor turned to Kiki again. Her composure had began to crack just slightly around the edges.

Victor got up, and attacked twice more.

Popo didn’t even reach for the axe this time, a casual kick to the stomach dropped Victor, which was followed by a second to the leg that put him flat on his back.

Murmurs rippled through the barbarians watching. They had began doubting if this had been a duel from the beginning or a big brother beating common sense and respect into his younger brother.

Victor lifted his head anyway, a bloody grin spreading across his face.

"This is a fight to the death, brother." He spat again. "Feels like you’ve gone soft."

"Soft?" Popo’s foot connected with his skull a second later, snapping his head sideways.

Victor crawled, trying to drag himself upright. "I will win... I can’t fail here." His voice came out ragged.

"The only one who’s ever actually failed is you." Popo spoke up, "look at you. Just look at the disgrace you have become. It started from always running off chasing girls, then drinking yourself stupid, while I covered for you. Trained in your place when you couldn’t be bothered. And now you stand here, challenging me for what’s rightfully—"

Popo’s foot came down again. And again. Each kick landing harder than the last, blood pooling beneath Victor with every strike.

Through it all, Victor’s eyes stayed locked on one person... Kiki.

Every single hit made her flinch, her jaw tightening harder each time, her hands curling into fists at her sides. But she couldn’t intervene. She wasn’t allowed to. All she could do was watch.

Victor forced his head up one more time. "Exactly. Because now I know you don’t deserve this position."

Something snapped in Popo’s expression entirely. The desire to teach his brother a lesson had disappeared.

Now, he would end him.

He roared, axe raised, bringing it down in a killing blow.

Victor spun, a full rotation, his own axe meeting Popo’s mid-swing, deflecting it clean, and followed through with a kick that caught Popo square across the jaw.

The crowd gasped as one. Popo went flying, skidding hard across the dirt, barely catching himself before he hit the ground fully, hand flying to his own mouth.

Blood.

He stared at his fingers in disbelief.

Victor rose slowly, a cocky grin spreading across his split, bloodied lip.

Confusion rippled through the watching crowd.

Kiki was no exception. ’Wasn’t he just being beaten half to death?’

What none of them could see was the information flickering silently across Victor’s vision.

[Heartbound Mimicry — Resonance Threshold Reached: 20%]

[Target: Kiki]

[Physical capabilities unlocked: ALL known combat techniques, reflexes, and muscle memory]

The unique skill that allowed him temporarily copy the physical skills of a person depending on the emotional resonance he had with them.

Yes, Heartbound Mimicry had been climbing throughout the fight.

It started at zero, then one, three until it arrived at twenty percent.

Normally, this skill should not work on Kiki. After all, she was the kind of person that suppressed her feelings.

But that was why Victor had planned for it from the very beginning.

It started from the twelve days of training.

Learn to fight and beat Popo in twelve days?

What a load of bull crap.

The only way Victor was closing the gap between a Level 5 Barbarian and a Level 2 was by cutting corners.

And in this case, Kiki was his shortcut.

He used the twelve days to create a bond he...

(Author’s note: I fear I might get stabbed while I sleep because of this cliffhanger.)