The Arena Champion moved like nothing Sarnav had ever faced.
One moment it stood at the arena's center. The next, it was among them, a fist the size of a car slamming into Chen Wei and sending him flying across the floor.
"Scatter!" Sarnav shouted.
The team broke formation, survival instincts overriding coordination. Ishani's light blazed, beams striking the Champion's chest. The attack that had vaporized C-class constructs barely scorched its surface.
"It's too strong!" she yelled.
"Keep hitting it! Find a weakness!"
Minji's illusions erupted, phantom versions of them appearing throughout the arena. The Champion paused, assessing, then swept one massive arm through three illusions like they were smoke.
"It's not fooled! My power barely registers to it!"
Jade's voice cut through the chaos. "The core! There's an energy core in its chest! That's the weak point!"
Sarnav flew toward the Champion, drawing its attention. He activated Nisha's nature magic, vines erupting from the arena floor, wrapping around the construct's legs. For a moment, it slowed.
Then it tore free like the vines were paper.
The backhand caught Sarnav across the chest. Even with his B-rank durability, the impact shattered ribs. He crashed into the arena wall hard enough to crater it.
Sarnav! Three mental voices, screaming through the network.
He pushed himself up, coughing blood. The pain was immense, but the network was already working, Ishani and Minji unconsciously feeding him energy through their bond.
"I'm alive. Keep fighting."
Chen Wei had recovered, attacking the Champion's legs with his bare hands. One of the other awakened joined him, their combined assault barely making the construct stumble.
It kicked Chen Wei aside like a toy and crushed the other fighter under its foot.
"No!" Ishani screamed.
The Champion turned toward her.
Sarnav intercepted, flying between them, taking a blow meant for her. The force drove him into the ground, creating a crater. More ribs broke. Maybe his spine.
"Get back!" he gasped. "All of you! Back!"
"We can't leave you!"
"That's an order!"
Through the network, he felt their resistance. Their fear. Their love.
And beneath it all, something else. The dimensional energy he'd absorbed from the rift, stirring in his core. Responding to his desperation.
Use it, the system whispered. The power is there. Waiting.
It could kill me.
Not using it definitely will.
The Champion raised its fist for the killing blow.
Sarnav reached inside himself and pulled.
The energy that erupted from him wasn't cultivation.
It was something older. Wilder. The raw essence of dimensional rifts, the stuff that reality was made of. It flooded his pathways, burning, rebuilding, transforming.
He screamed.
The network screamed with him, his wives experiencing echoes of the agony as his body rewrote itself in real-time.
The Champion's fist descended.
Sarnav caught it.
The impact should have pulverized him. Instead, he held the construct's attack with one hand, dimensional energy crackling around his fingers like purple lightning.
"My turn."
He punched the Champion in the chest.
The arena shook. The construct stumbled back, a crater in its torso where his fist had landed. The energy core Jade had identified flickered, exposed.
"Now! Hit the core! Everything you have!"
Ishani's light blazed, focused into a single beam that struck the exposed core. Minji dropped her illusions, channeling everything into a perception attack that made the Champion's systems glitch. The remaining fighters threw themselves at its legs, keeping it off-balance.
Sarnav flew forward, dimensional energy coating his fist.
He drove his hand into the core and tore it out.
The Arena Champion froze. Shuddered. Then collapsed, its massive form crashing to the arena floor and beginning to dissolve.
[BOSS DEFEATED: ARENA CHAMPION (A-CLASS)]
[ESSENCE GAINED: +125,000]
[DIMENSIONAL INTEGRATION: PARTIAL]
[WARNING: HOST'S BODY IS ADAPTING TO DIMENSIONAL ENERGY]
[ADAPTATION PROGRESS: 34%]
[FULL ADAPTATION REQUIRED FOR STABLE USAGE]
[CURRENT ESSENCE: 418,500 / 500,000 TO SOUL TRANSFORMATION]
The system notifications barely registered. Sarnav fell to his knees, the dimensional energy retreating back into his core, leaving him hollowed out and shaking.
"Sarnav!" Ishani was beside him instantly, her hands on his face. "Are you okay? What was that?"
"The rift energy. I used it."
"That was insane. You could have died."
"I was going to die anyway." He looked around the arena. Chen Wei was injured but alive. Three of the other fighters had survived. Two hadn't. "How bad?"
"Two dead. Everyone else will recover." Jade's voice was clinical, but her hands trembled as she helped him stand. "The dungeon core is destabilizing. We need to claim the rewards and leave before this place collapses."
At the arena's center, where the Champion had fallen, a pillar of light had appeared. Within it floated objects that radiated power.
Sarnav limped toward it.
The rewards were substantial.
Essence crystals, enough to push every surviving team member up at least one rank. Cultivation techniques etched into jade slips. Weapons forged from materials that didn't exist in the normal world. And at the center, a single orb that pulsed with familiar energy.
[DIMENSIONAL CORE (RARE)]
[FUNCTION: ACCELERATES DIMENSIONAL ADAPTATION]
[USAGE: ABSORB TO COMPLETE INTEGRATION]
[WARNING: ABSORPTION MAY TRIGGER BREAKTHROUGH]
Sarnav took the orb. The moment his fingers touched it, he felt the dimensional energy in his body respond, reaching for it hungrily.
"Later," he muttered, storing it away. "We need to get out first."
The arena was shaking now, cracks spreading across the walls and floor. The dungeon was collapsing, its purpose fulfilled.
"The exit!" Jade pointed to a portal that had appeared where they'd entered. "Move!"
They ran.
Chen Wei carried one of the wounded. Ishani supported another. Minji's illusions provided cover against falling debris. Sarnav flew ahead, clearing a path when necessary.
They dove through the portal moments before the dungeon collapsed entirely.
The airport terminal was quiet.
The team members who'd stayed outside rushed to help, taking the wounded, distributing supplies. Questions flew, but Sarnav was too exhausted to answer.
"Two dead," he said. "Wong and Razak. They fought well."
Silence fell. The weight of loss pressed down on everyone.
"We need to get back," Jade said. "I've been trying to reach the compound. The communications are down."
"Down how?"
"Jammed. Someone's blocking our signals." Her face was pale. "That takes equipment. Coordination. Resources."
The Iron Wolves.
Sarnav felt ice in his stomach. "How long were we in the dungeon?"
"Twelve hours. Maybe more. Time moves differently inside."
Twelve hours. More than enough time for Kane to act.
"We move. Now. Double time."
The journey back was a blur of exhaustion and dread.
Through the network, Sarnav reached for Nisha and Ananya. The connection was there, but weak, like something was interfering.
Nisha. Ananya. Report.
Static. Fragments of emotion. Fear. Pain. Determination.
Then, briefly, Nisha's voice: ...attacked... holding... hurry...
The connection cut out.
"Faster," Sarnav commanded. "Whatever you have left, give it now."
They ran.
The compound came into view at sunset.
Or what was left of it.
Smoke rose from multiple buildings. The walls were breached in three places. Bodies lay scattered across the ground, some in Harmony colors, others in the black and grey of the Iron Wolves.
And in the center of the compound, surrounded by enemies, a dome of green light flickered and pulsed.
Nisha's power. Nature magic, pushed beyond its limits, creating a barrier to protect whoever remained inside.
"They're still fighting," Ishani breathed.
Sarnav saw the enemy numbers. At least a hundred Wolves still standing. Maybe more inside the compound. This wasn't a raid. It was an extermination attempt.
Kane had sent everyone.
"We hit them from behind," Sarnav said. "Hard and fast. No mercy."
"There's too many," Chen Wei protested.
"Then I'll kill them all myself." The dimensional energy stirred in his core, responding to his rage. "Stay here if you want. I'm going."
He flew toward the compound.
Behind him, he heard Ishani curse. Then footsteps, following.
His wives would never let him fight alone.
Sarnav crashed into the Wolf rear line like a meteor.
The first dozen died before they knew he was there. His fists, enhanced by cultivation and dimensional energy, tore through armor and flesh alike. His borrowed abilities created chaos, light and illusions and digital interference scrambling their response.
"B-RANK!" someone screamed. "IT'S THE B-RANK!"
The Wolves turned to face him, abandoning their assault on Nisha's barrier. Exactly what he wanted.
Ishani hit them from the left, her light carving through bodies. Minji's illusions turned their own forces against each other, friendly fire dropping half a squad before they realized the deception. Jade hung back, her power reaching into their communication equipment, cutting orders, scrambling coordination.
The Wolves had numbers. Harmony had him.
Sarnav became death.
He moved through their ranks like a storm, killing everything in reach. The rage of seeing his home burning, his people dying, fueled every strike. The dimensional energy answered his fury, lending power beyond his rank.
When he reached the barrier, dozens lay dead behind him.
Nisha's dome flickered and fell. She collapsed immediately, utterly spent. Ananya caught her, tears streaming down her face.
"You came," Ananya sobbed. "We thought... we tried to hold... so many died..."
"How many inside?"
"Maybe three hundred. We got everyone we could into the main building."
Three hundred survivors. Out of six hundred.
Half his people. Gone.
The rage crystallized into something cold and sharp.
"Stay here. Protect the survivors."
He turned back toward the remaining Wolves.
There were maybe forty left, retreating, trying to regroup. At their center, a man in black armor shouted orders. Not Kane. A lieutenant.
Sarnav flew toward them.
The battle ended twenty minutes later.
No Wolves escaped. The lieutenant died last, begging for mercy that wasn't coming. Sarnav broke his neck and let the body fall.
Silence settled over the ruined compound.
His people emerged slowly, shell-shocked, staring at the carnage. At their leader, covered in blood, standing among the dead.
Ishani reached him first.
"It's over," she said quietly.
"No." Sarnav looked toward the industrial district, where the Iron Wolves made their home. "It's just beginning."
[COMBAT SUMMARY]
[ENEMIES ELIMINATED: 127]
[IRON WOLVES ASSAULT FORCE: DESTROYED]
[HARMONY CASUALTIES: 289 DEAD, 94 WOUNDED]
[POPULATION: 612 → 323 (SURVIVING)]
[ESSENCE GAINED: +15,000]
[TOTAL ESSENCE: 433,500 / 500,000 TO SOUL TRANSFORMATION]
[DIMENSIONAL ADAPTATION: 41%]
[THREAT STATUS: IRON WOLVES MAIN FORCE INTACT]
[VIKTOR KANE: STILL ALIVE]