She Used Me for a Dare… Now I Own Her Mother - Chapter 258: Battle Sense
Chapter 258: Battle Sense
Alex stood before the mirror, staring at skin that showed no trace of the brutal fight thirty minutes ago.
But the physical healing didn’t erase the memory of struggle. Of Adrian’s superior technique. Of strikes that connected because Alex couldn’t read the combinations fast enough. Of nearly losing despite his overwhelming power advantage.
Alex turned on the shower, letting hot water run until steam began filling the space.
“Lilith,” he said quietly, watching blood-stained water swirl toward the drain. “Why couldn’t I defeat him the way I thought I could?”
Silence stretched for several heartbeats.
Then laughter filled his mind… not mocking or cruel, but genuinely amused in the way someone might laugh at an earnest question from a child.
“You’ve never lifted a finger in your life before today, do you? ” Lilith’s voice carried exasperation mixed with entertainment, like a teacher explaining obvious truths to a brilliant but inexperienced student.
“Be grateful you’re not thrown away like trash like that guy.”
An image flashed through Alex’s consciousness… Adrian’s broken form slumped against the warehouse wall, cultivation base shattered, barely conscious.
“I know,” Alex said quietly, watching steam fog the mirror. “But I felt like I could have done better. Should have done better.”
“So what do I need?” he asked, already knowing the answer but wanting confirmation. “How do I actually use this power properly?”
“Training.”
The single word landed with finality.
“Real combat experience against varied opponents.”
“You have raw power, yes. More than enough to crush Peak Enhanced cultivators like insects if you knew how to use it properly.”
Her tone shifted, becoming almost instructional.
“What you lack most critically is battle sense. The ability to read your opponent mid-combat… predict their next move from body positioning, recognize patterns in their attacks, exploit openings before they close. It’s the difference between reacting to what’s happening and anticipating what will happen.”
A pause that felt weighted with significance.
“Think of it this way: You’re a nuclear reactor operating at maybe ten percent efficiency. Still enough output to overwhelm coal-fired plants through sheer power differential. But if Adrian had been smarter, more experienced, less consumed by emotion…”
She didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
Alex understood perfectly.
He’d won because Adrian had fought stupidly.
Burned through energy with rage-fueled attacks. Fallen for an obvious feint because emotion had overridden combat sense.
Against a disciplined opponent of similar cultivation level, Alex would have been destroyed.
“I need to get stronger,” Alex said quietly, more to himself than to Lilith.
“You need to get better,” she corrected. “Strength you already have. What you lack is the skill to use it properly.”
The water ran clear now, all traces of blood washed away.
Alex turned off the shower and stood there dripping, staring at his perfectly healed body in the steam-fogged mirror.
Raw power. Tactical intelligence. Enhanced regeneration.
But no refinement. No combat instinct. No muscle memory built through thousands of repetitions.
By the time Alex emerged from the bathroom looking completely unmarked, he’d already decided.
This victory changed nothing about his fundamental weakness.
If anything, it exposed how much he still had to learn.
He opened the door, steam trailing behind him as he stepped into the bedroom.
Victoria was there, perched on the edge of the bed with tension radiating from every line of her body. The moment she saw him, she stood and crossed the space between them in three quick steps.
“Let me see,” she said, hands already moving toward him before he could respond.
Her eyes traced over him frantically, searching for the injuries she’d watched him sustain. Cracked ribs. Shoulder damage. The cuts that had drawn blood across his face and arms.
Her fingers pressed gently against his bare shoulder where the elbow strike had landed, then moved carefully to his ribs where Adrian’s knee had connected with bone-breaking force.
Nothing.
Victoria’s hands stilled, confusion flooding her features as she found only smooth, unmarked skin.
“How…” She pulled back slightly, eyes wide with disbelief. “Alex, I saw him hit you. Multiple times. You were bleeding. Your ribs cracked so loud I heard it from inside the car.”
She gestured helplessly at his completely healed body.
“There’s nothing. Not even bruising. How is that possible?”
Alex laughed, the sound carrying genuine amusement mixed with unmistakable satisfaction.
“Didn’t I tell you not to worry about it?” He flexed his shoulder deliberately, the one that should have been useless for weeks. “Enhanced regeneration. One of the perks of being… well, me.”
He couldn’t keep the smugness out of his voice.
***
Somewhere else.
The lavish bedroom was all silk sheets and dim lighting, expensive furnishings cast in shadow as two bodies moved together in calculated pleasure.
The woman lay beneath him, legs wrapped around his waist, her position shameful yet thrilling as he drove into her with practiced precision. Her nails dug into his back, not from passion but from the building pressure coiling tight in her core.
Both of them were lost in it… so completely that everything else dissolved. There was no room for thought, no space for consequence. Only sensation remained, rising and tightening, drowning out reason until nothing mattered beyond the moment they were sharing.
Romance didn’t cross their minds. Neither did meaning. What bound them now was simpler, rawer… the need to feel, to chase the pleasure building between them and surrender to it fully.
Her breath came uneven, words slipping out between shallow gasps.
“Almost,” she murmured, voice strained and unguarded. “I’m almost there…”
They clung to that edge together, careless of anything beyond it… wanting nothing except the release waiting just a heartbeat away.
His rhythm shifted, angling deeper, chasing his own edge while ensuring hers came first. Strategic. Efficient.
The tension wound tighter. Tighter.
Her breathing hitched, body beginning to tense…
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Sharp. Insistent. Shattering focus.
“No,” she hissed, trying to hold onto the sensation.
But the rhythm had broken. The moment fractured.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Louder. More urgent.
“Fuck!” The woman’s scream tore through the room, equal parts rage and sexual frustration as the orgasm that had been right there slipped away. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”
The man above her snarled, movements stopping completely as fury replaced arousal.
He exhaled sharply and pulled away, reaching for the first piece of clothing within reach and securing it around his waist. His voice was calm again, edged with dry amusement as he glanced back at her.
“Looks like your husband is hellbent on disturbing us at a moment like this.”
She didn’t answer. She only smiled… slow, knowing…her eyes following him as he crossed the room.
He straightened, the trace of anger gone as if it had never existed. By the time his hand reached the door, his face was composed, unreadable. He opened it without haste.
“Yes?” he asked coolly. “What seems to be the matter, Mr. Steele?”
Not a flicker of frustration remained… only polite curiosity, perfectly in place.
