"Come!" Thor roared, raising his war hammer to the sky. "Thunder of the Nine Heavens!"
Boom!
Nine massive pillars of lightning descended simultaneously from the heavens, each radiating an overwhelming power capable of leveling the world. The bolts crisscrossed in midair, forming a gigantic net of electricity that engulfed the entire battlefield.
"Eye of the Storm!"
Saro crossed his twin blades, transforming himself into the eye of a raging tornado. The storm spun with furious speed, forming a colossal vortex that swallowed every bolt of lightning hurled at him.
Crash! Boom! Boom!
Thunder and wind collided, producing a deafening roar that shook the battlefield. Even the protective barriers began to crack under the strain.
"Reinforce the shields!" the referee shouted urgently. Scores of lord-class warriors leapt into action, finally stabilizing the faltering defenses.
"These two maniacs!" someone in the audience exclaimed. "This isn't a match it's an apocalypse!"
"No wonder this is the highlight of Round Four," Rowen murmured, eyes glinting with admiration. "They're both showing their true power."
The battle raged on. Thor continued summoning skyborn thunder, while Saro manipulated the storm to counter each strike. The clash of such wildly different forces painted a spectacular scene across the battlefield.
"This can't continue," Thor muttered, frowning. "I need to break the stalemate!"
Suddenly, he shifted tactics. Instead of calling down more lightning, he channeled all his power into his hammer.
"Thunderstrike: Skybreaker!"
Leaping high, Thor brought his hammer down toward the heart of Saro's storm, a strike charged with the full force of his power, tearing at the very fabric of space itself.
"Source of the Wind: Ultimate Technique Wrath of the Storm God!"
Saro refused to yield. Fusing his twin blades, he gathered all the wind's energy into a brilliant cyan pillar, meeting Thor's hammer head-on.
Boom!
The instant their powers collided, the world seemed to fall silent. A blinding flash erupted, swallowing the battlefield in light.
"This is bad!" the referee's face turned pale. "Everyone, reinforce the shields to the limit!"
Hundreds of warriors acted in unison, layering protective barriers over the battlefield. Still, the energy waves were so fierce that even the starry arena trembled.
When the light finally faded and the dust settled, the scene left everyone gasping.
The once-flat arena was utterly destroyed, scarred with deep craters and fissures. Thor knelt on one knee, his hammer driven into the ground for support. His lightning-infused armor was battered, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Saro's condition was no better. He half-kneeling across the field, his twin blades shattered, his cyan robes torn and scorched from lightning burns.
"Still… able to fight?" Thor panted, struggling to rise.
"Of course!" Saro stood unsteadily as well, his eyes burning brighter with determination.
"You've got guts!" Thor laughed. "Then let's go again!"
The two warriors surged with their final reserves, preparing to unleash a decisive strike.
At that moment, the referee appeared between them. "Enough! This match ends in a draw!"
"What?" Both shouted in surprise.
"You've both reached your limits," the referee said solemnly. "If you continue, it won't be a match it'll be death. This is a contest, not a battle to the death."
Thor and Saro exchanged a glance, reading both frustration and respect in the other's eyes.
"Next time, we'll settle it for real," Saro said, sheathing his broken blades.
"Deal," Thor nodded.
"This match ends in a tie! Thor of the Black Dragon Empire and Saro of the Sirius Domain both advance!" the referee announced loudly.
The crowd erupted into thunderous applause. The battle had far exceeded everyone's expectations. Both geniuses had displayed awe-inspiring skill.
Rowen and the others in the audience rose to their feet, clapping.
"What a match," Rowen murmured. "Thor's mastery of the Thunder Principle and Saro's Source of the Wind both have reached incredible heights."
"Yes," Hong nodded. "Especially that final strike both of them revealed their ultimate techniques."
"But Thor still held back a card," Luo Feng said suddenly. "His Thunder Principle has actually touched the threshold of the fourth-level secret art, but he didn't use it."
"Oh?" Rowen blinked. "Why?"
"Perhaps he's saving it for later rounds," Luo Feng replied with a grin. "After all, this is only Round Four."
At this point, Thor was escorted back to the audience area by medical staff.
"Good work," Rowen said, handing him a recovery potion.
"Phew…" Thor drank it in one gulp. "That guy was strong… almost lost there."
"You didn't go all out, did you?" Hong asked with a teasing smile.
Thor grinned. "You noticed? Yep, I still had some tricks up my sleeve. But I'm sure he did too."
"The Source of the Wind is tricky," Rowen mused. "Fast, unpredictable… almost impossible to block."
"The scariest part was his Void Strike," Thor admitted. "Elementalizing temporarily like that… it's almost cheating."
"Your Thunder Principle isn't weak either," Hong said reassuringly. "Especially in your Thunder Avatar form your power is terrifying."
"I'll beat him next time!" Thor clenched his fist.
The holographic screen then displayed the next matchups.
"The next highlight," Luo Feng noted, "is Deathbringer Carlos versus the Ice Queen Christina."
"Death Principle versus the Source of Ice," Rowen's eyes lit up. "Another spectacular duel."
While the audience discussed, new figures appeared on the battlefield.
Carlos emerged from the shadows, a black cloak enveloping him, a reaper's scythe in hand, radiating a foreboding aura. Christina, on the other hand, wore an ice-blue gown, holding a crystal scepter, regal and elegant.
"Extremes again," Thor commented. "One represents death, the other life."
"Begin!"
The new battle ignited, the crowd roaring with renewed excitement.
Rowen and the others watched intently, missing nothing. For them, witnessing such top-tier geniuses was a rare chance to learn.
"Tomorrow, we'll have to give it our all," Luo Feng said suddenly.
"Yes," Rowen agreed. "The opponents keep getting stronger. We need to show our real strength too."
Thor stretched his limbs. "Perfect! I can't wait to go all out!"
Hong shook his head with a smile. "First, recover from your injuries."
The battlefield shimmered with energy as the two new combatants took their positions.
Carlos stepped from the shadows, his red eyes gleaming from beneath his hood. The scythe in his hand exuded dark energy, veins of crimson running along the blade as if forged in blood.
"That killing intent… it's intense," Rowen frowned. "He's like a demon crawling out of hell."
"He grew up in the Cosmic Mercenary League's assassin academy," Hong explained. "Started missions at ten, has completed over a thousand assassinations by now. His hands are drenched in blood."
"No wonder he mastered the Death Principle so thoroughly," Thor said, tongue clicking. "This power feeds on slaughter and death itself."
Across the field, Christina approached with a serene, measured gait. Her ice-blue gown shimmered with countless tiny crystals that sparkled as she moved. Her golden hair fell like a waterfall, framing a face of exquisite beauty worthy of the title Ice Queen.
Even more striking was her crystal scepter entirely transparent, crowned with a fist-sized ice-blue gem in which snowflakes seemed to dance.
"The Ice Scepter," Luo Feng recognized. "A national treasure of the Stellar Empire, forged from millennia-old ice, capable of channeling the Source of Ice to its fullest."
"The Stellar Empire is taking this match seriously," Rowen noted. "Even their high-tier treasures are on display."
Both warriors took their positions.
Carlos melded with the shadows, scythe angled toward the ground, deathly black energy swirling around him.
Christina stood in the sunlight, pure and untouchable as an ice sprite. She lifted her crystal scepter, and the surrounding air instantly chilled, forming delicate frost crystals.
"Begin!" the referee commanded.
Carlos struck first, a shadowy blur lunging at Christina. His scythe carved a pitch-black arc, the air itself seeming to rot in its wake.
"Touch of Death!"
Spectral skulls erupted along the scythe's edge, mouths agape as if devouring all life.
"Ice Wall!"
Christina remained calm, tapping her scepter on the ground. A thick, crystal-clear wall of ice sprang up instantly before her, smooth as a mirror and gleaming in the cold light.
Crash!
The scythe struck the ice wall, a deafening sound echoing across the arena. Dark death energy collided with her icy aura, hissing like molten metal.
"Interesting," Carlos rasped. "But this level of defense won't stop death itself."
He withdrew his scythe and suddenly split into dozens of shadowy clones, each radiating death energy.
"Death Clones!" Rowen's eyes widened. "Each has thirty percent of his true power!"
The clones attacked from all directions, forming a vast web of death around Christina.
"Ice Domain!"
Christina finally unleashed her full strength. Raising her crystal scepter, a rapidly expanding cyan aura enveloped her. Everywhere it touched, the air froze.
The clones slowed instantly in the freezing zone, black energy sizzling against the extreme cold.
"I've found you!" Christina's eyes narrowed. She pointed her scepter at one clone. "Spear of Absolute Cold!"
A massive ice spear formed, surging with bone-chilling cold. The clone tried to evade, only to find its movements frozen.
Bang!
The spear struck true, revealing Carlos' real body beneath the shadow. His cloak ripped, revealing black armor beneath.
"Sharp eye," Carlos sneered. "But do you think that can hurt me?"
Black energy erupted from him as the Death Principle unleashed fully.
"Death Domain!"
The dark energy surged like a tide, colliding with Christina's Ice Domain. Black and cyan energies intertwined, forming a stark boundary of life and death.
"Domain clash!" Thor exclaimed, rising to his feet. "This is a true battle of masters!"
The battlefield became a war of contrasts Carlos' Death Domain reeking of decay and ruin, Christina's Ice Domain pure and frigid.
"Death Corrosion!"
Carlos intensified the output of his domain, black tendrils tearing at the edges of the Ice Domain.
"Ice freezes all!"
Christina was undeterred, lowering the temperature further. The black tendrils froze instantly upon contact, forming sculptures of ice.
"This won't do," Carlos' eyes gleamed with malice. "Time to use my trump card."
He withdrew his Death Domain and leapt high, scythe raised above his head.
"Death Principle: Ultimate Technique Return of the Fallen!"
Boom!
The battlefield trembled violently. The ground cracked, and countless skeletal arms emerged from the fissures, followed by full skeletal warriors. Each held weapons, their eye sockets burning with eerie green flames.
"An army of the undead?!" The crowd erupted in shock.
"No," Luo Feng shook his head. "These aren't real undead they're energy constructs formed by the Death Principle. Still, their power is formidable."
Hundreds of skeletal warriors charged under Carlos' command toward Christina.
"Interesting tactic," Christina smiled faintly. "But in absolute zero, everything will freeze."
She closed her eyes. Her scepter glowed brilliantly, and her entire presence shifted from noble elegance to icy majesty.
"Source of Ice: Fifth-Level Secret Art Absolute Zero!"
In an instant, the battlefield plummeted to frigid extremes. The charging skeletal warriors slowed, then froze solid, frozen statues in mid-stride.
"Fifth-level secret art… even energy constructs can freeze?" Rowen gasped.
Carlos' face darkened. His death energy was beginning to solidify. The extreme cold exceeded his expectations.
"No more delays!" He gritted his teeth, concentrating all Death energy into his scythe. "Death Bloom!"
Black energy compressed violently on the blade, forming a miniature black hole. Light around it vanished, plunging the battlefield into darkness.
"Glory of the Ice Queen!"
Christina unleashed her ultimate technique. She floated in midair, the crystal scepter merging with her, transforming into a massive ice-crystal greatsword.
Both launched their final strikes simultaneously.
The black Death Bloom clashed with the ice-blue greatsword, sending shockwaves of catastrophic energy rippling across the battlefield.