Jax let out a raw, guttural scream as he threw his shoulder directly into the buckling frame of his thermal shield, absorbing a crushing double-lance strike from Marcus.
CRACK!
The top plating of Jax's shield shattered into hot metal shrapnel, slicing across his cheek. "Go, Caine! I can't hold this defensive line!" Jax yelled, his legs trembling violently under the weight of Section 1's assault.
Lyra, forcing herself through the blinding headache of her core feedback, locked her eyes on Marcus. She over-clocked her focus rod, sacrificing its internal power crystal to throw a raw, unrefined acoustic shock directly into Marcus's vision field.
Marcus flinched, his tracking vector slipping for two vital seconds—giving Caine the narrow opening he needed.
Caine exploded forward, his boots kicking up quartz dust as he bypassed the outer suppressive fire.
Darius didn't retreat. Seeing Caine closing the distance alone, the Section 1 captain stepped into his guard, his golden Aegis Radiance flaring to maximum intensity. He brought his solar plasma sword down in a broad, brutal arc designed to vaporize any incoming strike and trigger his barrier's reactive shockwave.
"You're wide open, baseline!" Darius yelled.
Caine didn't draw a weapon. He didn't manifest an aura.
Instead, he stepped straight under the descent of the plasma blade, raised his right fist encased in the matte-black Conductive Weave glove, and drove sixty percent of his compressed, unlit Phase 1 density straight into the center of the golden sphere.
BOOM!
The impact didn't sound like crystalline energy. It sounded like a hydraulic demolition hammer striking solid granite deep underground.
The moment Caine's glove touched the outer layer of Aegis Radiance, no light exploded outward. The golden sphere warped inward at the point of contact, bending unnaturally beneath Caine's unlit physical weight.
Darius's confident expression shattered.
"What... what is this weight?!" Darius gasped, his arms locking up as a terrifying wave of pure kinetic pressure traveled up his plasma blade, popping his right shoulder out of its socket with a sickening crunch.
Aegis Radiance required light energy to trigger its explosive counter-blast. But Caine's glove carried zero light bleed—the volatile Jahgred fluid inside the lining absorbed every micro-particle of friction, leaving only dense, unyielding mass.
Without light to absorb, Darius's barrier was forced to take raw, concentrated physical force.
Inside the glove, the Jahgred fluid reached its maximum thermal limit. An agonizing, acid-like heat instantly flared across Caine's palm and wrist, scorching his skin beneath his sleeve. Caine gritted his teeth so hard his gums bled, holding his form through the blinding pain.
"Break!" Caine growled.
CRACK-THWACK!
The golden sphere shattered like brittle glass, and Darius's plasma blade exploded into harmless white sparks. The remaining kinetic shockwave slammed directly into Darius's chest guard, lifting him off his feet and hurling him twelve meters backward across the arena floor.
Darius hit the quartz hard, tumbling violently before skidding to a halt near the boundary line, coughing up blood as he clutched his broken shoulder and ruined chest armor.
The entire Colosseum plunged into an absolute, breathless silence.