My Seven Wives in One Body and Me, her Manager-Chapter 84: Round Three Part Two : Bullet vs Shadow

Harumi and Kimberly walked to the center, both of them staring each other down. Kimberly could see Harumi smiling behind her mask, which naturally made her blood boil. The referee stepped into the middle of the arena and stood between them.

"How about it? Do you both want to continue the match?" the referee asked.

"Of course, sir. Please, let’s start," Kimberly answered.

Harumi didn’t say a word, but she gave the referee a nod. The referee then turned back toward the control room above and signaled with a nod of his own. The alarm blared, signaling that the second match was about to begin. The referee explained some additional rules after noticing a belt full of secret weapons wrapped around Harumi’s waist and several knives on the belt Kimberly was wearing.

"Sorry, before we begin, let me check what’s on your waists," the referee said.

"Go ahead, sir," Kimberly and Harumi replied.

Then the referee turned back, and two female guild staff members stepped up onto the arena floor. They immediately approached Kimberly and Harumi to inspect the belts at their waists. It turned out that all the secret weapons and knives they were carrying were made of plastic and were permitted for use, as they still fell within the hunter guild’s competition regulations.

Once the two staff members confirmed everything was in order, they headed back down. The referee stood between the two girls again and asked them to bow—a request that was, of course, completely ignored by both of them. The referee simply shook his head and raised his hand.

"The match begins," the referee said, dropping his hand.

Before the referee even had a chance to step back and get down, "swooooosh," Kimberly immediately unleashed a silver energy aura, and Harumi did the same, releasing a purple energy aura, which sent the referee tumbling backward. Without a moment’s delay, they both lunged forward. Kimberly ran in a circular pattern, firing both of the carbines in her hands toward Harumi, who flickered in and out of sight to dodge the shots while closing the distance to Kimberly step by step.

Then, "clang," Harumi, who was already right in front of Kimberly, attacked with a short sword from her waist, which Kimberly parried using one of her carbines. Both appeared to be smiling, even though Harumi was wearing a mask. Kimberly twisted her hand to shoot Harumi at point-blank range, but Harumi vanished and reappeared behind Kimberly. However, Kimberly aimed one of her carbines backward over her shoulder, right at Harumi’s face.

"You think you can attack me from behind, huh?" Kimberly asked, glancing back with a smile.

"Hoho... impressive. It turns out you’re extraordinary, and this is going to be fun," Harumi replied, pulling down her mask and smiling back.

Harumi backflipped to create space, her hands quickly forming symbols to unleash her ninja techniques. "Bwoooosh," Harumi spat a stream of fire from her mouth toward Kimberly, who instantly spun around, swiping the flames aside with one carbine while firing at Harumi with the other. Harumi dodged again, then hurled kunai and shuriken at Kimberly, who parried them with her carbine rifles and maneuvered out of the way.

After that, Harumi sprinted in circles around Kimberly, launching shuriken and kunai like a machine gun, clashing against the shots from Kimberly, who spun in place to track Harumi’s movements. The fight continued and became a bit surreal. Harumi lunged forward to attack and then vanished, while Kimberly used both of her carbines with martial arts movements to parry and strike back at Harumi, who was moving so fast she seemed to be flickering in and out of existence.

After clashing several times, the two finally leaped backward to keep their distance. Their breathing was starting to pick up, yet they both seemed to be smiling, enjoying the fight as they locked eyes with sharp gazes.

"You’re as great as your senior, Hyunjin. I’m truly impressed, but that’s enough for a warm-up," Harumi said with a smile.

"Thanks. You’re great too, and you’re right—the warm-up is over," Kimberly replied casually, smiling back.

Harumi immediately used a technique to split herself into ten clones, surrounding Kimberly and trapping her in a circle. Then, all of them together hurled bombs toward Kimberly. "Blam!" Every single bomb exploded in the center, creating a deafening blast.

Seeing his wife in the middle of the explosion, Jason immediately stood up from the audience, his face pale with anxiety.

"Take it easy, bro. There’s no way Kimberly goes down that easily," Dennis said.

"I know my wife isn’t going to be fazed by something like that, but still, I’m anxious. That’s my wife in the middle of it; I can’t help but feel worried," Jason replied, trying to stay calm even though his distress was obvious.

Jason was right. Once the smoke cleared, Kimberly was visible, protected by silver holographic barriers that looked like a series of pixelated police shields encircling her body, with her two carbines crossed in front of her face.

Although her armor was a mess from being hit by the blast—even if not directly—her body was completely unharmed. Harumi pressed her attack; the ten Harumis sprinted in circles around Kimberly, with several lunging in for close-range strikes while others pelted her with shuriken.

Kimberly parried everything with her holographic barriers, but she couldn’t strike back and could only defend and deflect Harumi’s sword strikes from up close, as Harumi attacked relentlessly without giving Kimberly a single opening to counter.

"This is bad... dammit... I’m forced to do it," Kimberly muttered in her head.

"Gyaaaah!"

Suddenly, Kimberly let out a scream, and her entire body glowed with a blinding brilliance, like a flashbang thrown at the floor and detonated. An intense light immediately filled the entire arena, to the point where the spectators couldn’t see a thing. The referee and the staff at the edge of the arena were also blinded by the glare, as was everyone in the control room watching the match unfold. Harumi leaped back, her eyes blinded by the light, and "bratat," the sound of gunfire echoed as several of Harumi’s clones vanished upon being hit.

"This is bad... really bad," Harumi said in her head, her eyes still unable to see through the brightness and beginning to water.

The sound of gunfire continued to echo. Harumi could feel several of her clones vanishing, and she leaped far back while disappearing into the shadows. When Harumi finally opened her eyes and her vision returned, she was shocked to see a pair of feet right in front of her. She looked up, and Kimberly was already standing there, leveling the barrel of her carbine directly at Harumi’s face; all of her clones had already vanished and disappeared.

But before Kimberly could pull the trigger, "beeeep," the alarm blared, startling her. Harumi seized the moment, backflipping away to create distance before standing tall. Both of them looked up; the clock showed 00:00:00. The match was over, while the two of them still stood unharmed in the center of the arena.

"Dammit... a draw," Kimberly and Harumi both muttered in their heads, their faces masked with disappointment as they stared each other down, breathing heavily.

The referee stepped up onto the arena floor. He looked at Kimberly, whose clothes were tattered from the explosion although she wasn’t hurt, and inspected her; then he also checked Harumi, whose outfit was covered in bullet marks yet she was completely unharmed. The referee turned again to look toward the operator room, and the match result—a draw—was immediately announced. The referee then asked Harumi and Kimberly to come forward and shake hands.

"That was truly fun. It’s a shame time wasn’t on our side. Fine, I’m backing off; I won’t go after your husband anymore," Harumi said with a smile while shaking Kimberly’s hand.

"Good. And you’re right, our fight was really enjoyable. It’s just a pity we couldn’t finish it. Maybe next time we’ll settle the score," Kimberly replied, smiling as she shook hands with Harumi.

"Of course, whenever you’re ready, I’ll be waiting... friend?" Harumi asked while looking at Kimberly.

"Alright... friend," Kimberly replied back.

The two of them immediately hugged, then they walked out of the arena together, and they were even seen exchanging phone numbers. Jason and Dennis, who were watching from above, sat back down and felt relieved; naturally, Rachel, Sofia, and Margaret felt relieved as well and smiled happily. Meanwhile, Rika and Elisa clapped along with the rest of the spectators.

But despite witnessing all of that, Dennis felt sick to his stomach and his mind started to wander, because next up was the match between his wife and Natasha. He hoped the result would be the same as the match between Harumi and Kimberly, even though his gut told him it would go the other way.

[Don’t worry, master, your wife will be just fine.]

"That’s not what I’m worried about. I just hope she doesn’t get carried away by her emotions and let her six personalities destroy this arena," Dennis muttered in his head.