I was declared the winner of that round, but for a solid few seconds, it didn't even feel real.
The umpire—who had been standing just outside the Guardian the entire time—looked like someone had just pulled the ground out from under him. He didn't move. He didn't blink. He just stood there, stiff as a statue, staring at the aftermath of the fight like his brain was still trying to catch up with what his eyes had already seen.
It wasn't just surprise.
It was shock.
The kind of shock that hits when something way beyond your expectations unfolds right in front of you. A fight of that caliber, that intensity, that sheer dominance, that wasn't something you saw every day. It wasn't even something you saw every year.
And it had just happened.
The spectators were no different.
At first, there was this strange silence hanging over the arena. A heavy one. As if everyone was collectively asking themselves the same question: Did that really just happen?
