The air had grown thinner. Every breath Kael drew scraped down his throat like sand, hot and ragged. Sweat trickled from his temple, stinging his eyes. His ribs throbbed, every shallow cut left by Dorian’s blade humming like a curse beneath his skin. His fists trembled—not from fear, but from the weight of keeping his aura compressed, condensed tighter than ever. Dorian’s grin, infuriatingly calm, had only widened. The faint shimmer of Voidfang still wavered along his sword, an edge both unreal and undeniable. “You’re slowing, Kael,” Dorian said, almost gently. “Your body can’t keep up with your fury.” Kael’s jaw clenched. He blinked sweat from his lashes. “Keep talking. It won’t make your cuts deeper.” But his voice—low, strained—betrayed the truth. Dorian moved again, too fast, too clean. A blur of moonlit steel carved across Kael’s vision. Kael twisted late. The

The air warped.Voidfang hummed with killing intent, Dorian’s aura condensing into a blade so sharp that even space itself seemed ready to tear. He raised it high, movements elegant, precise, the culmination of technique and bloodline power.“This ends here,” he said, voice cold as steel.Kael swayed on unsteady feet. His arms hung heavy, his chest heaved. Blood trickled down his cheek and side, dripping steadily onto the stone floor. Every nerve screamed at him to stay down, to surrender.But surrender had never been in him.Move.His mind whispered, cracked, desperate.Move!He forced one foot forward. It scraped stone, weak but defiant. Then another.The pressure of Dorian’s killing intent bore down like a mountain. His knees trembled. His vision flickered black.But inside, something stirred.Something deeper.Kael’s thoughts stuttered. If I fall now, I die. If I die, they

The arena had gone quiet.It wasn’t silence, it was anticipation, the breathless stillness before a storm.Kael’s aura filled every inch of space, pressing against the reinforced wards like an untamed beast pacing its cage. Dorian stood opposite, chest heaving, Voidfang trembling faintly in his hand. His once-calm composure was fractured, his elegant stance marred by blood and dust.Yet his eyes burned, not with surrender, but with something darker.“…You think you’ve won,” Dorian said, voice ragged.Kael’s lips curled into a faint, bloodied smile. “You’re already retreating. That’s all the answer I need.”A ripple went through the crowd at his words.But Dorian didn’t move back. Instead, he closed his eyes for a heartbeat. His aura condensed, pulled inward until even the spectators blinked in confusion. For an instant, it seemed as though his presence had vanished.Then....CRACK.The stone beneath him shattered as a wave of unnatural cold spread outward.Selene gasped, hand clenchin

The arena shook again as Voidfang smashed down, black light splintering off its blade. Stone cracked, dust billowed, and Kael staggered back barely. His right arm throbbed from deflecting the impact, his muscles screaming.But his eyes bloodshot, narrowed were clear.Dorian ripped the blade free, snarling. Shadows writhed around him like a storm of snakes, snapping and wriggling in hunger. He swung again, wide and reckless.Kael sidestepped, just a heartbeat earlier than the strike. The blade slammed into the stone, sparks flying.And Kael struck.His fist smashed into Dorian’s ribs. The sound was muffled but sharp, like breaking timber.Dorian grunted, stumbling a step sideways, his aura flaring in shock.The crowd roared in disbelief.“He hit him!”“He actually landed a clean strike!”“Impossible, nobody can touch someone using Shadow Unbound!”Dorian’s grin twitched, faltering. For the first time, his teeth clenched together, jaw tight. He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth,

The arena floor was wrecked. Craters gaped where shadows had chewed into the stone, and pillars cracked as if from an earthquake. The air reeked of iron, sweat, and the sour stench of corrupted energy.Kael could barely stand. His knees wobbled, one arm hung useless, and blood slicked his chest in dark rivulets. Every inhale scraped his ribs like knives.Dorian wasn’t better. He swayed on his feet, his body splitting in places where the shadows themselves seemed to tear through his skin. His aura burned like a wildfire, powerful, but wild, burning itself out.And yet, both refused to fall.The silence in the crowd was suffocating. Even the Elders didn’t speak. They simply watched.Kael coughed, spitting red. The taste of iron clung to his tongue. His vision doubled for a moment before sharpening again. Don’t fall now. Just one more breath. One more step. One more strike.Across from him, Dorian laughed a hoarse, broken sound. His eyes bulged wide, his pupils swimming in darkness. “You