The moment the announcer's voice faded the match began.
Ruqqaya moved first.
She crossed the distance between them in an instant and drove her fist into Leona. No Raiki. No technique. Pure brute force. Leona took the first hit. Then the second. Then the third. Each one landing clean, each one pushing her back a step further.
Then Leona caught one.
Her hand wrapped around Ruqqaya's fist and she held it there. "If you don't use your Raiki," she said quietly, "you're finished."
She drove her free hand forward.
Ruqqaya took it clean across the face.
In the same moment, Agnis moved on the other side of the arena, her ice Damik erupting outward, sharp crystalline formations launching themselves toward Mimi from every angle. Mimi was already moving — snow pulling in from the air around her, dense and soft, absorbing each spike before it could land, burying the attack completely.
Agnis steadied herself. "Not bad."
Mimi landed and looked back at her. "You too."
Meanwhile Ruqqaya and Leona hadn't stopped.
They moved around each other like they'd been doing this for years — trading hits, reading each other, adjusting. From the crowd Benjamin leaned toward Zain. "Why isn't Leona using her Earth powers?"
Zain watched the fight without blinking. "She's studying her. Getting used to Ruqqaya's movements before she commits to anything."
Rika glanced over from the side. "That's sharp thinking."
Ruqqaya twisted — a flip, a twirl — and launched a kick from above. Leona raised her arm to block it, earth from her Damik hardening across her hand and forearm in an instant forming a dense shield.
Ruqqaya whispered, "Stage 3 enhance."
The Raiki coating her leg surged. The kick landed and the earth shattered completely.
Leona pulled her arm back, eyes narrowing.
On the other side of the arena the pressure had been building steadily. Agnis and Mimi had both pushed to Stage 3 of their Damik powers simultaneously, the air between them thickening with competing energy. Agnis gathered everything she had — ice pulling in and sharpening, compressing into a perfect jagged sphere humming with Stage 2 Raiki, cold enough to freeze the air around it. Across from her Mimi had drawn every particle of snow from the surrounding sky downward, shaping it into a single massive wave, her own Raiki running through every flake of it.
They launched at the same time.
The attacks screamed toward each other across the arena.
Then — nothing.
Both Ruqqaya and Leona had gone still. Their eyes narrowed at the exact same moment. Then widened.
Both of them whispered at once.
"Descending presence."
A shockwave detonated outward from both of them simultaneously, rolling across the entire arena in every direction. Agnis and Mimi dropped instantly — both of them unconscious before they hit the ground. The ice sphere shattered mid air. The snow wave dissolved into nothing before it could make contact, drifting down like powder.
Silence.
Then Hana let out a slow breath from the crowd. "Well. I'll be damned." She shook her head. "That could be a fluke. But what they just did takes an insane level of control."
Ali stared at the arena. "It's just descending presence. That's Stage 1."
"No." Zain's voice was flat. "It's not just that." He kept his eyes forward. "When someone uses descending presence for the first time they knock out everyone within range. Everyone. These two only knocked out those two." He paused. "If that wasn't a fluke — if they intended to do exactly that — then this fight is going to end with one of them permanently injured."
Zack said quietly, "And he means that physically and mentally."
Abraham turned. "Can't we do anything?"
Kaisen shook his head. "We're spectators. If we interfere we get banned from this island for life. All of us."
Aisha stared at the arena, jaw tight. "If they're capable of this then I don't even want to think about what Sulaiman and Scarlet are going do on the other side." She shook her head. "Watching these two is already making me nervous."
Rimazu said under his breath, "Let's hope some threat shows up so we have a reason to step in."
Ryo looked at the arena. Ruqqaya and Leona stood across from each other in the silence left behind by the shockwave, both of them breathing, both of them still standing. Neither one looked like they were done.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "But until then — let's just hope neither of them ends up permanently hurt."
The announcer's voice rose above the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen — what a moment! This fight appeared to have reached its peak — but it hasn't. What we just witnessed tells us one thing. The real climax is still coming." A pause. "Who will walk away from this? Ruqqaya — or Leona?"