It was almost evening. This sun was still glaring brightly, but was on a path to sunset. This was the last match of the day.
The arena shifted.
What had once been an open stadium fractured into a segmented battlefield, stone plates sliding and locking into place with a low, grinding hum. Pillars rose from the ground in uneven intervals, some thick as watchtowers, others thin enough to shatter under a heavy blow. Shallow trenches cut through the terrain, filled with fine gravel that shifted underfoot.
The sky above remained open, but the walls surrounding the combat zone rose high enough to trap sound inside.
Solace stepped forward with his team, sword resting loosely in his right hand.
He rolled his shoulder once, feeling the familiar weight of the blade.
Across the field, Kang's team emerged from the opposite gate.
Yes He was facing Kang and his goons.
The air changed the moment Kang took his first step.
Kang stood at the front, sword resting against his shoulder. The blade was thick, wide, built for cleaving rather than finesse. He didn't bother raising it.
Behind him, A red haired girl named Selene shifted her weight from foot to foot, eyes constantly flicking between targets. Rhek rolled his shoulders once, fingers flexing like he was testing invisible threads. Varo crouched slightly, coiled and eager, grin sharp as broken glass.
Bru quickly gazed at them and analyzed them, prying their weakness. "I can't say for the red-haired girl and the Kang guy, but Rhek has body strengthening, and the guy beside them can store kinetic energy."
Solace nodded
Then he raised his sword slightly. "Since we are Prey I suppose we should play this smart. In fact, if we play this well, we have a chance at getting extra points. Instead of facing them, we will defend and survive, saving our essence. This way, we can end things decisively in the Hunter round."
The rest of his team shared the notion and nodded.
Before he could say any further, all sounds present in the arena stopped at once. Solace tried to voice something, but quickly realised that Kang had put up a barrier. This was one of his abilities; he could mute all sounds in a limited area.
And since his abilities were related to vibration and sound, he was a formidable enemy.
The host signaled, and the match began.
Selene vanished.
One moment she stood near Kang's left flank, the next she was simply… elsewhere.
Bru snapped. She tried to say something, but nothing came out.
Solace pivoted just in time as Selene appeared inside their formation, her presence like a skipped heartbeat. Leon moved instinctively, stepping between her and Pons.
Too slow.
Selene brushed past Leon, fingers grazing his shoulder.
The world stuttered.
Leon's movement hitched, just for a fraction of a second. Enough.
Rhek was already there.
He lunged low, hand snapping out and catching Leon's wrist. There was no visible glow, no flash of energy.
Leon screamed.
His arm locked mid-motion, muscles seizing as if every tendon had been pulled taut at once.
"Leon!" Solace shouted.
Solace moved.
Chains burst from his left arm, arcing toward Rhek in a wide sweep. Rhek twisted aside, the chains scraping against stone instead of flesh.
Kang stepped forward.
The pressure doubled. He let out a screeching sound that produced an immensely dense shock wave.
Solace's knees buckled for half a heartbeat. His chains dragged, suddenly heavier, links grinding against the ground.
Kang didn't rush.
He raised his sword and brought it down in a clean, brutal arc.
Solace barely parried.
In this interaction, he viewed their abilities. Selena had a movement-related ability and was honestly quite a nuisance. Rhek had an ability similar to body strengthening, and Varo could store momentum and kinetic energy.
The impact rattled up Solace's arms, numbing his fingers. He slid back several meters, boots carving lines in the gravel.
Bru lunged, rapier flashing toward Selene's side. Selene flickered, appearing behind Bru mid-thrust. Bru twisted, blade barely grazing Selene's sleeve.
Between this, Varo moved.
He launched himself off a pillar, momentum snapping forward like a released spring. His fist slammed into Bru's ribs.
The second hit came faster.
Then faster still.
Each strike carried more force than the last. Bru skidded across the stone before crashing into a pillar hard enough to crack it.
"Bru!"
She rolled, coughing, but got back to her feet.
Barely.
Pons darted forward, daggers flashing as he marked Selene and Rhek in quick succession. A pulse of emotion rippled outward.
Fear.
Rhek staggered for half a step.
Kang's gaze snapped to Pons.
"You," he said.
The pressure shifted.
Pons felt it immediately, like invisible hands pressing down on his chest. His breathing hitched, legs trembling.
"Back!" Solace ordered. But his voice didn't reach Pon's
Too late.
Kang crossed the distance in three heavy steps. His sword swept low.
Pons raised his daggers, screaming as he tried to deflect.
It crushed.
Pons slammed into the ground, body skidding, daggers flying from his hands.
Eliminated.
The bracelet on his wrist flared red.
Silence hit Solace harder than the blow.
One down.
Only minutes had passed.
Leon roared, ignoring the locked arm, and slammed his free fist into the ground.
Stone surged upward, forming a crude wall between Kang and the others.
Then, not giving them a moment, Kang put his palm against the wall and sent out a large amount of essence.
Soon, the whole wall started vibrating, cracks formed, and in a few seconds, the crude wall began to fall.
"Move!" Leon barked.
Solace grabbed Bru's arm and dragged her behind as Selene reappeared on top of the wall, blade slicing downward.
Solace raised his sword and met her strike, sparks flying. She vanished again before he could counter.
Varo slammed into the wall shoulder-first, and the accumulated momentum shattered it completely.
Leon tackled him mid-break; the two crashed into the dirt. Leon's fists hammered down, bare-handed and desperate.
Varo laughed, blood trickling from his mouth.
Ignoring the chaos
Kang stepped through the debris.
Solace felt his vision narrow, pressure building behind his eyes.
Think.
He flashed light from his Thread of Glass, the sudden glare forcing Selene to flinch as she reappeared.
Bru moved in that instant and pierced Selene's shoulder with a rapier.
This forced Selene to hiss and vanish again, reappearing farther back, clutching the wound.
"Good," Bru breathed.
Kang swung.
Leon took the hit squarely, stone coating his forearms at the last second. The impact hurled him backward like a rag doll.
Solace's breath came fast.
Five minutes gone.
Bru circled, eyes locked on Rhek.
Rhek mirrored her, movements precise and predatory.
She lunged and attacked him with her rapier
But instead of damaging He caught her blade barehanded.
Pain flared across Bru's senses as her wrist locked, muscles screaming. Rhek twisted, forcing her to her knees.
Bru stabbed anyway, desperately scraping across his ribs.
Varo hit her from the side.
Bru's bracelet broke.
Eliminated.
Solace stood alone.
Kang approached slowly.
They clashed.
Every breath harder.
Solace used Still.
Kang's leg froze for two seconds.
Solace struck, blade biting into Kang's shoulder.
Blood.
The crowd roared.
Kang grunted,
Then the pressure tripled. He was doing some bullshit with the air, and it was costing solace.
Solace hit the ground on one knee, lungs screaming.
Kang raised his sword.
But before that, the horn blared.
Time.
The match ended.
***
Second Half: Hunter
Bru and Pons were gone.
Leon and Solace remained. Solace had a hard time finding rhythm in this fight. He needed to somehow counter the constant pressure Kang put out, but the thing was, they were at a disadvantage. Inside the arena, Kang muted all the sounds so they couldn't communicate with each other properly.
Across the field, Kang's team was missing Selene.
Leon cracked his neck. "Hey, help me with that Rhek guy."
Solace nodded.
The horn sounded again.
The arena had gone quiet in a way that felt unnatural.
Even the crowd seemed to sense it. Tens of thousands of voices reduced to a low murmur, like the sea holding its breath before a storm.
Stone dust drifted slowly through the air, catching the sunlight in lazy spirals.
Leon charged. While pacing towards Rhek, he shot [Rock]. He shot multiple small bullets at an impossible speed towards Rhek.
Then, getting close enough, he connected his hands to the ground.
Stone erupted beneath Rhek's feet, throwing him off balance.
Solace followed. He immediately summoned chains and slithered them across Rhek's body, binding him momentarily.
Leon, taking advantage of the moment, grabbed his wrist and twisted it with all his power.
Rhek screamed while his Bracelate broke off.
Solace stood near the center of the field, sword angled downward, chest rising and falling hard enough that he could feel his heartbeat in his throat. Sweat ran down his temple and into his eye, stinging.
Not unhurt. Solace had seen the blood earlier, had felt the resistance when his blade bit into Kang's shoulder. But Kang carried pain the way mountains carried rain.
Without acknowledgment.
Kang lifted his sword and rested it on his shoulder again, casual, almost bored.
"You're that fucker from before, right?" Kang said.
Solace didn't answer immediately. He adjusted his grip instead, fingers tightening around the hilt until the leather creaked.
"Yeah," Solace said finally.
Kang smiled faintly.
Then the world shifted.
The air itself began to hum.
At first, it was subtle, like standing too close to a massive engine. A low-frequency vibration that settled into Solace's bones before he consciously registered it.
His teeth clicked together.
His sword trembled in his hand.
Kang hadn't moved.
Solace took one step forward.
The ground resisted him.
Every movement felt like pushing through water thickened with sand.
So that's it, Solace thought.
Kang wasn't crushing him with strength. He was tuning the battlefield itself against him.
Solace exhaled slowly through his nose and raised his sword.
"Still going to just stand there?" he asked.
Kang's eyes sharpened.
"No," Kang said. "I was giving you time."
He stepped forward.
The vibration spiked.
Solace moved at the same time.
Chains erupted from his arm, snapping forward in a wide arc, not aimed at Kang's body but at the space around him. The links screamed as they cut through vibrating air, their motion slightly distorted, like looking through rippling glass.
Kang swung.
The sword didn't whistle.
The moment the steel cut the air, the vibration condensed into a visible distortion. The shockwave hit the chains mid-flight.
They shattered.
They came apart as if shaken loose at the joints, links flying in all directions like shrapnel.
Solace felt the feedback immediately. His arm went numb from shoulder to fingertips.
He didn't stop.
He lunged.
Steel met steel.
The impact rang through the arena like a struck bell.
Solace's arms screamed as the vibration traveled through his sword, into his wrists, up his elbows, rattling his shoulders. He gritted his teeth and twisted, sliding his blade along Kang's to redirect the force.
Kang adjusted instantly.
He didn't overcommit.
He pressed.
Each step Kang took sent ripples through the ground, micro-vibrations that threw Solace's balance off by just enough to matter. Solace stumbled once, boots skidding on loose stone.
That was all Kang needed.
Kang kicked.
Not hard.
Precise.
The vibration concentrated at the point of impact.
Solace felt his ribs sing.
He flew backward, crashing into a half-broken pillar hard enough to crack stone. Dust exploded outward.
Solace coughed, blood spraying across the ground.
The crowd roared.
Kang walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
"You adapt fast," Kang said.
Solace pushed himself up on shaking arms.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Unfortunately."
Kang raised his sword again. Then he once again performed his screech, and a shock wave descended on Solace.
The hum deepened.
'Stop moaning, my guy,' Solace voiced internally.
Solace felt it now everywhere. In his skull. In his spine. In his teeth. The vibration wasn't just external anymore. It was inside him, disrupting muscle coordination, making his limbs feel half a second behind his thoughts.
Solace realized late that Kang's Moans were really bad
So that's the real danger, Solace realized.
If this dragged on, his body would simply stop responding.
He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second.
Think.
Sound is vibration.
Vibration needs a medium.
He opened his eyes.
Light flashed.
[Flash]
The sudden reflection of sunlight off shattered stone and glass fragments detonated across the field. Kang flinched, just barely, his eyes narrowing.
Solace moved.
Chains manifested again, this time fewer, thicker. He reinforced them, pouring essence in, accepting the backlash. The chains slammed into the ground instead of Kang, anchoring themselves.
Kang frowned.
Solace pulled.
The chains didn't move Kang.
They moved Solace.
He yanked himself forward, using the anchored chains like grappling lines, slingshotting his body through the vibrating air before Kang could retune the frequency.
For the first time, Kang's eyes widened.
Solace closed the distance and struck low, blade aimed at Kang's knee.
Kang shifted his stance.
Too slow.
Steel bit flesh.
Not deep. But enough.
Kang grunted and responded instantly, shoulder-checking Solace with a burst of focused vibration.
The impact felt like being hit by a collapsing wall.
Solace hit the ground hard, vision swimming.
Before Kang could follow up, Solace used [Still].
The vibration around Kang's torso froze.
Two seconds.
Solace forced himself up, ignoring the screaming pain in his ribs, and drove his sword forward with everything he had.
The blade pierced Kang's side.
Deep.
Blood poured.
The crowd exploded.
The vibration shattered violently as Kang roared, the backlash throwing Solace away again, his sword ripped from his hands.
Solace skidded across the ground, rolling to a stop on his back.
His chest burned.
His arms felt useless.
Kang staggered.
For the first time, he staggered.
He looked down at the wound, then back at Solace.
Solace laughed weakly, blood on his teeth.
Meanwhile, another elimination occurred.
Leon took care of that other guy, it seems
Kang raised his sword with both hands.
The hum became a howl.
This was it.
One strike.
Solace couldn't block it.
Couldn't dodge it.
He had one thing left.
[Cancel]
Kang swung.
The vibration condensed into a single catastrophic wave, air collapsing inward—
—and vanished. A pure white light overcame everything.
Gone. The pressure lifted, and the wave disappeared as if it never existed.
The sword passed through empty resistance, its momentum abruptly robbed of consequence.
Kang's eyes widened in genuine shock.
Solace moved.
He didn't think. Didn't hesitate.
He surged forward, grabbed Kang's wrist with both hands, and slammed his forehead into Kang's face.
"Moan now, fucking Asscrack."
Bone cracked.
Kang reeled.
Solace drove his knee into Kang's wounded side.
Once.
Twice.
Then he wrenched the sword from Kang's grip and turned it.
The blade stopped an inch from Kang's throat.
Silence.
Kang froze.
The bracelet on his wrist flared red.
Eliminated.
For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.
Then Solace let the sword fall and collapsed to one knee, hands shaking violently.
The stadium detonated into noise.
Cheers. Screams. Disbelief.