The center of the battlefield cracked open like a bleeding scar.
Magma, real or conjured, oozed through shattered stone. Wind howled in unnatural vortices. Static snapped along fractured ley lines as containment wards flickered under strain.
Four remained in the heart of the storm.
But only three were still standing.
Sera Jinn came in hard, a triple-spiral flame wheel spinning from her gauntlets, her lion aspect roaring behind her in full fury. Her target was Theren, whose barrier had faltered under Cael's last counter-displacement.
She didn't see the trap.
Not until it closed.
Cael had laid a spatial anchor ripple, subtle, invisible unless you felt the mana's twist. Sera's momentum caught it mid-air. Her wheel of flame collapsed inward, detonating in a burst that reversed her kinetic force.
She spun.
Slammed into the stone spine of a broken arena pillar.
Rolled.
Didn't rise.
The lion blinked once.
Then faded into embers.
"Combatant Sera Jinn eliminated."
Freya saw it from across the field, mid-dodge as Dalron swung a pillar-sized boulder at her like it weighed nothing.
She grit her teeth. "She's out already?"
Dalron grunted. "Too much fire. Not enough structure."
"I'll show you structure."
She dashed in again, this time not just with flame, but with controlled compression. Her phoenix wings folded inward, channeling heat along her arms like forge coils.
When she punched, it wasn't a fire blast.
It was heat density.
Dalron actually stumbled.
"That's new."
Freya landed and skidded backward.
"Still figuring it out."
Back at the crater's heart, Theren Lucal straightened, bruised but not broken.
His wind serpent was coiled again, less show, more precision. It wove behind his shoulders like an extension of thought.
"You've played enough," he said, stepping toward Cael Soren. "Now let's see how long you last when someone fights you like a strategist."
Cael smiled faintly. "You think I've been using power."
He raised a hand slow, calm.
"No," he whispered. "I've been watching."
The clash between them was unlike any other so far.
No wild flares. No exploding spells.
Only manipulation.
Wind against displacement. Traps within traps. Decoys. Misdirections. Both fighters moved in complete silence, their aspects responding not to commands but to intent.
But Theren's serpent was reactive.
Cael's techniques were foundational.
One was reading his opponent.
The other was rewriting the battlefield.
Kairo stood just outside the radius.
He hadn't moved in over a minute.
Only watched.
The lightning koi swam slow loops around him, quieter now, as if conserving itself. The stone beneath his boots remained dry, unburned. His breathing stayed even.
But around his back,
something stirred.
Not seen.
But felt.
A hum that wasn't electrical.
Atop the viewing platform, Elira turned sharply.
"Do you feel that?"
One Magisterium evaluator paled. "That's... a secondary resonance."
Another whispered, "He's suppressing a matured awakening. In the middle of combat."
Elira's voice went cold. "If it forces itself out, and the others are too close."
"We'll have a detonation-level flame surge."
Freya's battle with Dalron raged on.
She bled now, just a cut across the cheek, but symbolic.
Dalron had taken multiple hits, but still fought like a moving wall.
"Come on!" he bellowed. "Show me what makes you Vale blood!"
Freya screamed, and the phoenix responded.
Wings doubled in size.
The color of her flames turned brighter, more refined. The silver threads in her fire expanded Ascension Flame: Stage One.
She moved.
Dalron's boulder shattered under her next strike.
Cael and Theren's fight ended with a singular clash, a wind-drill spiral aimed at Cael's head and a spatial fold feint that redirected the attack behind Theren instead.
Cael turned his hand.
Stopped the strike inches from Theren's throat.
"You lose."
Theren coughed once.
Then dropped to one knee.
"Combatant Theren Lucal eliminated."
Four remained.
Kairo Vale – untouched, but too quiet.
Cael Soren – unreadable, now pacing around Kairo again.
Freya Vale – ascension flame active, battling bloodied but determined.
Dalron Vex – wounded, but unshaken.
Kairo finally exhaled.
"Four left," he muttered.
His lightning koi rose higher into the air, crackling quietly.
But below it… something began to smolder.
The ground beneath Kairo's feet darkened not from shadow.
But from heat.