Rust & Rhythm

When survival is measured in milliseconds, speed is god. But even gods can be broken. In the neon-drenched, toxic slums of Corvax City, fighters no longer train; they inject. The "Iron Pulse" serum turns ordinary street thugs into blurring, hyper-lethal demigods. Marcus "The Piston" Graves is an analog relic in a digital slaughterhouse. At thirty-five, his knees are shot, and his heavy, attrition-based fighting style is universally dismissed as obsolete. He was content to rust away in the shadows. But when a ruthless Syndicate broker seizes his brilliant younger brother to pay off an impossible debt, Marcus is forced into a corner. To buy his brother's life, he must enter the Apex Tournament—a corporate-sponsored meat grinder featuring the deadliest chemically-altered killers in the Overworld. Outmatched, outgunned, and out of time. Everyone says he needs the Pulse to survive. But Marcus has a different theory—Engines can stall. Hearts can burst. And even the fastest machine has a rhythm waiting to be exploited. What to Expect: Cybernetic Progression: Weak-to-strong power scaling earned through brutal combat, hardware salvage, and gritty cybernetic integration. Grimdark Cyberpunk Setting: Oppressive mega-corporations, Syndicate warfare, and the visceral reality of "High Tech, Low Life." Tactical, Physics-Based Combat: Brutal, bone-breaking fights won through mass, leverage, momentum, and attrition. Dual Protagonists / Multiple POVs: Marcus fights to survive the tournament. Leo fights to dismantle the machine from the inside. The cover is made by AI, of course.