The massive digital displays surrounding the central arena chimed in unison, flashing high-frequency holographic banners across the skies of the Hidden Maliqun territory.
"PHASE TWO INITIAL ROUNDS COMPLETE," the automated system announced, its voice ringing clearly through the stadium. "ANNOUNCEMENT: DUE TO AN OVERWHELMING EFFICIENCY INDEX AND ABSOLUTE CLEARANCE METRICS IN PHASE ONE, PARTICIPANT ARSH-AL-QUR-HAQUE FREAK HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY PROMOTED DIRECTLY TO PHASE THREE."
A collective murmur erupted through the spectator stands. Skipping an entire duel phase was a rare, almost unprecedented event in the history of the board's examinations.
Down on Team Thunder's bench, Thunder stared up at the board, his jaw set firm.
"He bypassed the duels completely," Thunder said softly, his eyes narrowed. "That means he gets to conserve one hundred percent of his energy reserves for the open brawl while the rest of us exhaust ourselves here."
"His energy output during Phase One didn't even register a spike," Mark noted, analyzing the public metrics on his cybernetic visor. "If we face him in Phase Three, raw power alone won't bridge the gap. We'd normally rely on pushing our Bijoyi Abha to force a suppression field, but..."
Thunder held up a hand, stopping Mark mid-sentence. "We can't rely on Abha right now. The spatial frequency in this arena is acting up, and attempting to draw on Abha under these localized conditions risks destabilizing our core control before the final phase even starts. We fight with pure tactical skill and precise energy management."
"MATCH NUMBER TWO INITIATING," the arena system boomed. "NINTEN OF TEAM THUNDER VS. SHAN OF TEAM BISHOP!"
Ninten stood up from the bench, cracking his neck and tossing his head back with a casual grin.
"Shan, huh?" Thunder turned to Ninten, his voice turning dead serious. "Listen to me, Ninten. Shan hails straight from Team Bishop in Lumeinein City, down in the Castrophireal District of the Castrophireal Division. He's a top-tier dual-dagger assassin. His attack vectors focus on speed, concealment, and sudden precision strikes. Don't play around."
"Relax, Captain," Ninten stretched his arms, his eyes flashing with digital light. "I'm gonna try out a new transformation setup today. Ever heard of Gear 5 from Grand Piece Online? I'm thinking of bringing that absolute ridiculousness right onto his head."
Mark adjusted his visor, throwing a cold, warning look at Ninten. "Don't be reckless. Shan is extremely clever. One misstep, and he can wipe your defense grid out before you even process the hit."
Ninten snorted, waving a hand dismissively as he walked toward the stage. "Nah, don't worry about it. I'll break him in five minutes."
***
The combat platform raised high above the main stadium ground, locking Ninten and Shan inside a reinforced containment barrier.
Shan stood silently across the ring. He held two dark, slender daggers resting loosely at his sides. His eyes were cold, unreadable, and completely locked onto Ninten's movement.
"BEGIN!"
SWOOSH!
Before the sound of the signal could fade into the air, Shan vanished entirely from sight.
Ninten's eyes widened slightly, but before he could raise a defense, a thin silver blur flashed past his face. A shallow, clean cut opened along Ninten's cheek, dripping fresh blood. Shan re-emerged three meters behind him, spinning his left dagger around his finger without taking a single breath.
"Fast," Ninten muttered, reaching up to wipe the cut.
Instantly tapping into his gamer sub-interface, Ninten invoked the passive restoration matrix of Floryn from Mobile Legends. A warm, green light washed over his face, stitching the skin back together in a fraction of a second.
"Need a bit more utility on the field," Ninten grinned. Tapping two rapid commands into mid-air, he summoned two full support avatars directly behind him—Angela and Mathilda.
"You two keep the shields up, boost my movement speed, and lock down the healing loops, got it?" Ninten ordered.
"Understood, master!" both support avatars chimed in unison, instantly casting overlapping golden light barriers around Ninten's body.
Shan lowered his daggers slightly, a faint, mocking smirk appearing on his lips. "Turning a one-on-one duel into a three-on-one? Classy."
"I can bring out way more if I want to," Ninten chuckled.
Without warning, Ninten's energy profile shifted violently. The casual gamer aura vanished, replaced by an crushing weight of dark red fury. Drawing on the character profile of Asura from Asura's Wrath, four massive, glowing golden arms erupted from Ninten's back.
"HYAAAH!" Ninten roared, slamming all six fists directly down onto the metallic arena stage.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sheer kinetic impact shattered the high-density floor plates into thousands of flying fragments. Massive shockwaves ripped across the platform, threatening to tear the stage apart from raw physical force.
Shan didn't panic. Dodging through the debris with terrifying grace, Shan coated both of his daggers in a dense, dark aura—Astrager Abha.
THWIP!
Shan blurred through the falling rocks, passing straight through Ninten's gold-armored form like a phantom.
Ninten gasped as a sharp, agonizing sensation surged through his chest. Shan had cleanly pierced straight through Ninten's torso, ignoring the golden barriers entirely. Before Ninten could counter-attack with Asura's arms, Shan executed a rapid sequence of micro-thrusts, carving through Ninten's shoulders, legs, and side within a three-second window.
With two precise, blinding strikes, Shan extended his daggers outward, slicing through Ninten's summoned support units. Both Angela and Mathilda shattered into light particles, instantly dissolved by the Astrager Abha residue.
"Gah!" Ninten stumbled backward, collapsing onto one knee as blood soaked through his combat shirt.
"Your transformations are flashy," Shan said coldly, stepping over the broken floor tiles toward Ninten. "But flashy means open. You rely too much on automatic healing to cover your tactical errors."
Shan raised his twin daggers, cross-locking them in front of his face as his dark energy flared to its absolute limit.
"SHADOW OF OBSCURITY: INFINITY DEATH SLASHES!"
The arena light vanished. Hundreds of jet-black energy arcs erupted simultaneously from every angle, raining down on Ninten in an inescapable hurricane of dark steel.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Ninten screamed as the blades cut deep into his body. The Astrager Abha infused within the attacks burned through his internal energy channels like liquid fire. He tried to trigger Floryn's healing matrix again, but the dark Abha actively corrupted the healing mana, turning the process into agonizing torture.
Down on the sidelines, Mark stood up from his seat, his hand tightening around the railing. "Ninten!"
On the elevated stage, Ninten lay flat on his front, breathing heavily in a pool of his own blood. His body twitched as the dark aura continued to eat away at his wounds, blocking every attempt at natural recovery.
Shan stood over him, his daggers glowing with dark energy, pointing the sharp tip of his blade directly at the back of Ninten's neck.