SAI SHINU
The dust stung my eyes as I landed hard, my breath ragged in my chest. Their circle closed around me again—nine pairs of eyes, confident, merciless. I could almost hear their thoughts, unspoken but clear: this is no contest.
They had reason to think so. Their coordination was terrifying. When one stepped forward, the others flowed around them like water, covering every angle, leaving no gap. If this was a dance, then I was the lone, clumsy stranger trying to keep pace with a family born of rhythm.
But I wasn't without rhythm of my own. I'd lived in battle longer than I had lived in peace. And I had borrowed the strength of others.
The next attack came from the Hifumi twins—wind and water binding together into slicing torrents. The air itself screamed as blades of ice formed midair, whistling toward me. I crouched, forced my focus into my hands, and pushed fire forward with everything I had.
The impact was violent. Steam erupted as ice and fire met, shrouding the arena in a burning fog. The crowd gasped as the white mist spread, swallowing the battlefield. For a heartbeat, none of us could see clearly.
That heartbeat was mine.
Shadow-step—no, not yet. Too suspicious. I pressed wind beneath my feet, sliding low, circling the perimeter of the mist. My heart hammered against my ribs as I spotted one of the Tsubasa boys, earth already forming at his palms. He hadn't realized I'd moved.
I shaped fire into a whip and cracked it across his shoulder. He screamed, the first sound of pain I had pulled from them, and staggered.
The crowd roared—not for me, but for blood. They didn't care whose.
The other Tsubasa brother bellowed, earth breaking around him in jagged shards as he tried to pin me down. But I was moving now, no longer caught in their rhythm but forcing my own. I slid under a pillar, swept water around me, and froze it with a touch of wind. The shards flew back at him like blades, nicking his arms and forcing him to stumble.
For the first time, two of them looked shaken.
"Don't falter!" one of the Asuka boys barked, his voice sharp as the shadows he wielded. The nine regrouped instantly, their formation shifting—now tighter, more cautious.
They were adjusting to me. Good. That meant I was no longer just prey.
I inhaled sharply, tasting iron in my mouth, and pushed harder. Fire roared at my fingertips, water coiled like a serpent, wind circled my body. I had three elements singing in my veins, and for the first time, I didn't simply react—I attacked.
A whip of water lashed outward, cutting across the Hifumi girl's leg. She staggered, her enhancer's aura flickering. At the same moment, I slammed a burst of fire into the ground, scattering the Asuka brothers before they could close in.
The crowd gasped again. They had expected me to fall quickly, to be overwhelmed. But I was not just defending anymore. I was carving space for myself.
Still, their strength was overwhelming.
The enhancer from the Tsubasa trio came barreling at me, her body glowing with earthen strength. I barely caught her fist on a wall of compressed wind, but the impact cracked against my ribs, even through the barrier. Pain jolted down my side.
I staggered back, fire flickering at my palms to keep her away.
The Asuka enhancer replaced her instantly, shadows lengthening her stride, her fists cutting toward my face. I ducked, whipped water upward, and smashed her chin with a jet of ice. She grunted, stumbling back, blood at the corner of her mouth.
The crowd's cheers rose again, feeding the chaos, but I barely heard them. All I heard was my own pulse, the rasp of my breath, the crackle of elements screaming against each other.
I was bleeding from a dozen cuts, bruises darkening under my skin. My blood veil shimmered faintly, absorbing some of their blows, but it was thinning—I could feel it. Every clash chipped away at it, every dodge cost more focus.
The nine pressed again, relentless.
Fire surged, wind screamed, water crashed, earth split. A world of elements descended upon me, a storm of power that would have crushed anyone else. And it almost crushed me.
But I refused to be crushed.
I forced my fire into a spinning shield, water condensing around me into spikes, and wind coiling beneath my feet like a spring. I launched myself upward, high above them. For a heartbeat, I was above the storm, suspended between sky and earth.
And from up there, I could see them—all nine.
Nine proud heirs. Nine flawless fighters. Nine targets.
I hurled fire down like meteors, wind feeding the flames until they exploded in bursts that shook the arena floor. They scattered, forced to retreat under the rain of fire.
The crowd was screaming now—whether for me or against me, I couldn't tell. It didn't matter.
I landed hard, rolling to my feet, chest heaving. My arms trembled, sweat and blood mixing down my face.
Six of them bore wounds now—cuts, burns, bruises. Nothing fatal, but they were no longer untouchable.
And in their eyes, for the first time, I saw something that looked like doubt.