[Red Hollow Pit – 12:03 AM]
The ring was quiet now.
Four men on the floor. Blood cooling in slow arcs. Lights above flickered less like bulbs and more like dying nerves.
Eli stood in the center.
He didn't pace. Didn't pant. He just stood, hand clenched, eyes lifted to the dark glass above — where someone was watching.
Then the speaker crackled again.
Gilwoo's voice was almost gentle this time.
"You've survived the rhythm. Beaten the body."
"Now, let's test the blood."
A new door opened. Metal groaning, not like a fight announcement — like a tomb disturbed.
Eli turned. Slowly.
From the shadows stepped a figure.
Thin. Unassuming. Calm.
But the moment Eli saw him, his smile vanished.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
"...You're not Drift," Eli said.
The man didn't answer.
But he walked like he wasn't afraid of dying.
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[Flash Recognition – Eli's POV]
The memory wasn't clear — not fully. It was fragments:
A rooftop, long before Dogsung
A broken arm on a rainy morning
A burned flag, trampled by boots
A crew screaming as it dissolved under Eli's fists
The Namgang Blade.
The name hadn't been remembered.
Not by Eli.
Not by anyone who walked upright anymore.
But now here was one.
Still carrying the scar under the jaw.
And the hate behind the eyes.
"Seong Gihun," Eli said, stepping forward. "Last time I saw you, your mouth was wired shut."
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No feints. No crowd noise. No countdown.
Gihun struck first.
Quick. High jab. Body shot.
Eli absorbed the first two. Blocked the third. Slid to the right.
This wasn't about rhythm. It was pure heat.
Gihun fought like he'd been training just for this. Like his muscles carried Eli's name in them.
Sharp. Efficient. Measured revenge.
Eli caught a heel to the chest, stumbled back two steps.
But he was smiling again.
"You got better," he said.
"You stayed the same," Gihun replied, and came again.
Then the glint.
Same trick as Ho-bin. Small blade tucked behind the wrist wrap.
But this time, Eli didn't flinch.
He stepped into the slash, let it graze his shoulder.
"Yours?" Eli asked.
Gihun hesitated, confused.
"You brought that on your own?"
Gihun didn't answer.
"That means Hyosang didn't think you could finish me clean."
Eli's tone turned strange now—loose, amused, sharp.
"You know what I miss about your crew?" he asked, ducking under a hook.
"They screamed in sync."
Left elbow. Right jab. Gihun landed a cut above Eli's brow.
Eli wiped the blood with the back of his hand, smeared it across his jaw.
"You came to test me?"
Step in.
Knee to ribs.
Twist. Break.
"You're not a test."
"You're the memory of a mistake."
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Gihun roared now.
No technique. Just rage.
He rushed Eli with everything left — blade raised, teeth clenched.
Eli didn't stop him.
He stepped past the blade, grabbed Gihun's face—
And drove his head into the cage wall.
Gihun fell like a shelf collapsing.
He didn't move.
Eli stood over him.
Breathing heavy now. Shoulder sliced. Lip split.
But he was smiling again.
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Two Drift lieutenants watched from the steel corridor.
One leaned close to the other.
"Who the hell was that?"
The other Drift lieutenant frowned. "Namgang Blade? Who the hell are they?"
Eli turned slowly. Blood still drying in his hair.
Looked straight at them.
"A name no one remembers."
A pause. Then Eli added, softer:
"But I remember the man behind them."
His voice dropped to a grin.
"And I remember how hard he hit before I dropped him."
He paused.
"He's still out there, isn't he?""Good. Make sure he hear this: next time, I won't just stop at collapse."
"I will completely erase him."
Then turned to the nearest camera.
He stepped closer.
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[Final Scene]
Eli wanted Gilwoo to see.
He knelt at the edge of the pit.
Blood dripping onto the cement.
He dipped his finger into the pool by his elbow. Wrote slowly across the floor.
"Who's Next ?."
Then he walked out.
Didn't wait for applause.
Didn't look back.
The silence followed him like a shadow that remembered his name.