Chapter 400 The Price of Fairness
The arena was tense.
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The instant Melody had her fingers pinching at Rosen’s vital pulse, she realized she’d left her unguarded back open to Jake.
At this moment, if Jake assaulted her from behind, she would have no way to counter him.
However, Jake had just taken a brutal punch from Rosen himself, nearly breaking his ribs. He might not even have the strength to fight her.
Even so, just as Melody was starting to feel wary, she heard the unmistakable sound of Jake’s slow, steady steps approaching her from behind.
Her heart clenched. She drove the slender silver needle into Rosen’s heart point without hesitation, striking just the right spot. The crowd looked on in stunned silence as the towering, muscular three–time champion and an expert in Adaptive Combat, collapsed before the petite, coolly composed Melody.
He didn’t even have a chance to struggle.
As Rosen’s body hit the ground, Melody deftly retrieved her silver needle, then turned, fixing her gaze on Jake, who was still dragging himself toward her, each step as heavy as the last.
She knew everything about Jake.
His profile was etched in her memory.
Before the tournament, she’d made a point to investigate Robson, the infamous deadly fighter who’d clawed his way to notoriety in the underground fighting scene.
He was known to rise stronger against powerful opponents, and his fighting skills were nothing short of brilliant.
Many times, he’d been knocked down only to stand up again, completely unfazed. There was even a match where he’d outlasted an overwhelmingly strong opponent, wearing him down until the man was forced to concede defeat.
Jake’s stamina was, without a doubt, remarkable.
This was why Melody hadn’t underestimated him for even a moment.
This was also why she was taken aback when he unexpectedly walked over to help block Rosen’s powerful strike just now.
To the audience, Jake had always been a detached, calculating figure, someone who understood every advantage and kept emotion out of the equation.
However, Melody had changed that perception in the eyes of the crowd.
As she turned back, a rare smile touched her usually impassive face. “Jake, you want to win the championship too, don’t you?” she asked warmly.
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Chapter 400 The Price of Fairness
“Then let’s compete fair and square.”
At that moment, Melody stood alone in the center of the ring.
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This was the so–called “International Underground Boxing Tournament“. A stage boasting the best facilities money could buy, along with a fiercely loyal, powerful audience.
Of course, there was not a trace of fairness here.
Now, Melody had declared she wanted a fair fight with Jake.
Her words almost seemed like a joke. But no one in the audience dared to laugh.
In that heavy silence, a single thought resonated, “You may choose silence, but do not mock or scorn those who are braver than you, for the light they strive for may one day shine on you.”
They were in one of the world’s darkest and most ruthless arenas, a place dominated by Gregoria’s relentless manipulation, where rules were bent to the breaking point with a smug disregard for justice.
Yet even here, someone had defied their unfair power, declaring that fairness could, in fact, exist.
The audience was stunned, and the shockwaves rippled far beyond them, reaching the very core of the Gregorian organizers.
Jake simply nodded, his gaze fixed intently on Melody as if no one else mattered.
Melody’s smile widened, softening with a warmth like a spring breeze. “Then, let’s return to boxing itself,” she said.
“This is, after all, a boxing match at its core. Those who rely on Blaze Combat, or any other combat style, do so because their boxing alone falls short. They turn to other techniques to cheat.
“It’s a shame that your so–called ‘stronger‘ combat methods don’t stand up well against Cleussau’s martial
arts.”
Her words cut like a blade, directly challenging the Gregorian organizers.
No matter if it was Merck’s targeted counterattack against martial arts or Rosen’s violations of rules to enter the Cleussau finals this year despite him being a three–times–championship winner.
These were undoubted because Gregoria’s organizers deliberately erased any fairness behavior.
The tournament organizers had trampled on fairness itself.
They were also trampling on the right of other countries to speak, and trampling on the brave voices of other countries, trying to break them into silent submission to conquer them.
This was virtually de–domestication.
What they didn’t understand was that in the land of Cleussau, there would always be people fighting for justice!
No matter how dark the path, as long as there were Cleussauan people, they would forge ahead and defy the odds.
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Chapter 400 The Price of Fairness
“D*mn, our Lady Mel is too cool!” someone shouted from the crowd.
“Melody is legendary. Calling her husband‘ isn’t even a title, it’s practically an adjective now!”
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“I love how she just hits the Gregorian organizers right where it hurts. Three sentences in, and bam! She’s smacking down their ugly cheating faces left and right. Their moves are just disgraceful!”
“Thanks to our incredible Lady Mel, I’ve had a real epiphany. Just like she’s standing for fairness, we can call her Melody or Lady Mel however we want.
“Titles don’t define us. ‘Brother‘ doesn’t only mean a man, and ‘sister‘ isn’t restricted to women.
“Spiritually, we respect the freedom of a person’s soul. And in our actions, we uphold that freedom within boundaries, rooted in law.”
“True! Lately, it’s all about this trend. People of all ages called themselves in whatever they wanted. If that’s not an unbreakable definition, what is? I’m about to shout it from the stands, Lady Mel is awesome!”
In the VIP viewing box above the audience, Robson stood by the panoramic window in a sharp suit, his gaze fixed on Melody, now with a touch of admiration.
He respected her boldness, her fearlessness in defying every injustice and arbitrary restraint thrown her
way.
Unfortunately, even as he admired her, he couldn’t ignore one painful reality. His daughter was lying in a hospital bed, desperately waiting for a cure from the Veinspire Codex.
He could not allow Jake to lose this chance.
