Finally, fresh air.
The light from the surface pierced through the treetops, bringing a brief sense of relief after the tortuous climb from the abyss.
I ran through the dense forest at high speed, heading straight toward the colossal tree I had noticed earlier.
Halfway there, I was forced to stop for a moment.
The wound on my left arm throbbed as if a rusty blade were buried beneath my skin.
Hard fragments of the rock that exploded in the ravine were still lodged in my flesh.
Breathing heavily, I used my fingertips to pull out the stone shards, one by one. The moment I yanked out the last piece, blood gushed violently.
I tore what was left of my training shirt—now nothing more than dirty rags—and, using my teeth and right hand, tied the cloth tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding.
"It's not perfect..." I muttered, panting, feeling the sharp pain burn through my nerves.
"But it'll have to do."
I needed a few seconds to rest.
My entire body trembled from exhaustion and adrenaline; my lungs burned.
It felt like all the air in the world would never be enough.
"Those sons of bitches..." I cursed under my breath, leaning against a tree.
"Why the hell did they attack together? Is it because I'm Silver's disciple? Shit... this is getting way too heavy."
I remembered the monstrous impact Kimiko had hit me with using that axe; if I hadn't defended, I probably would have died right there.
"Kimiko... that girl is a monster of brute force. I'm going to need a better strategy to deal with her."
I let out a huge sigh, controlling the pain, focusing on regenerating slowly—Silver always forced me to do that constantly.
I sat down on a fallen log, pressing my hand against the improvised bandage while trying to organize my thoughts and formulate a plan to kill them individually.
*Lend me your strength, Susen...* I thought.
For a brief moment, everything seemed calm.
The wind blew softly. The leaves swayed delicately, as if the forest itself were granting me a single minute of peace before the massacre.
But the truce ended.
Kaichin emerged from the shadows of the trees with a venomous smile and silent footsteps.
"So this is where you were hiding," his voice sounded cold and provocative.
I slowly raised my eyes. I didn't say a word.
Kaichin narrowed his gaze. The tension around him intensified instantly, making the dry grass beneath his boots wither.
"It looks like your left arm is practically useless..." his sadistic smile grew. "This is going to be much easier than I thought."
His voice exploded in murderous fury:
"YOU'RE NOT MAKING IT OUT OF HERE ALIVE!"
I forced a dark, crooked smile as I slowly stood up, gripping the hilt of my sword with the only 100% usable arm I had left.
"I expected something like this from you."
My aura began to leak into the environment, rivaling Kaichin's.
"And I also don't have the slightest patience to chat with someone who's already dead," I said, letting the anger drip through my voice.
Without any warning, Kaichin advanced.
His twin daggers sliced through the air with murderous precision. Every strike he delivered aimed directly at my throat.
I backed up as much as I could, blocking the deadly slashes using only the strength of my right arm. The impact of his lunges dragged me several meters backward across the dirt.
Defending that sick flow of attacks with only one arm was a nightmare.
I could feel the muscles in my right shoulder screaming in pain. My arm almost gave out.
I couldn't just stand there blocking. I needed to use the environment.
I changed tactics and turned the forest into my second arm.
On the next attack, I spun my body and slid behind a massive trunk.
Kaichin's daggers tore through the thick wood at the exact spot my head had been a fraction of a second earlier, sending huge splinters exploding into the air.
I took advantage of the millisecond his blades scraped against the tree bark.
I stepped on the trunk to gain momentum, leaped over a raised root, and unleashed a diagonal slash aimed at his neck.
Kaichin retreated by a hair. My steel only cut a few strands of his white hair, leaving a superficial cut on his nose.
He clicked his tongue, annoyed, and advanced again. But I kept moving in a constant zigzag between the century-old trees.
I used the hard wood as a natural shield. I positioned my body so Kaichin was forced to attack me through narrow spaces between the giant trunks.
In those tight corridors of the forest, wielding two daggers at the same time hindered the rotation of his shoulders.
He sliced through thick branches as if they were paper. He shredded the scenery in a cold, relentless fury trying to reach me.
Until, using a broken tree as a barrier, I used the weight of my own body in sync with my injured arm and pushed the sword against his daggers with enough force to create a tiny opening in the boy's stance.
And then I counterattacked in the exact same millisecond.
I swung my sword top-down in a devastating vertical strike.
Kaichin crossed his daggers in an "X" in front of his face and blocked at the very last hundredth of a second.
A shower of sparks erupted from the collision of our metal.
Kaichin didn't back down after the block.
Instead, he slid the blade of one of his daggers down the steel of my sword, making the metal screech, and bypassed my guard.
It was too fast.
Before I could pull the sword back, his free hand shot out like a viper.
But he didn't aim for my neck. He aimed for my weak point.
His fingers dug like claws straight into the blood-soaked bandage on my left arm.
He squeezed the open wound with all his might, sinking his fingers into the flesh torn by the shrapnel.
The pain exploded in my mind like an electric shock. My knees almost buckled.
"Slow," Kaichin whispered, his face inches from mine, his gray eyes overflowing with sadistic pleasure.
Then, he cocked a straight punch aimed at my face.
I didn't scream, and I didn't try to dodge.
Using his own momentum against him, I jerked my body forward brutally and delivered a monstrous headbutt straight into the middle of the bastard's face.
*CRACK!*
The sound of breaking cartilage echoed through the forest.
Kaichin let go of my arm and stumbled backward, blood gushing from his nose, his mask of coldness shattering right along with the bone.
I didn't give him a millisecond to breathe.
I stomped forward and cleaved the air in a horizontal arc. He raised his daggers, blocking the weight of my sword, but the force of the blow made his boots sink into the mud.
Kaichin retaliated instantly, spinning his body and throwing a lethal elbow aimed at my temple.
I dodged by millimeters, feeling the wind scrape my ear, and responded by driving the pommel of my sword straight into his ribs.
He let out a grunt, but he didn't stop.
The pain only seemed to make him faster, and the forest turned into a slaughterhouse.
He tried to slice my legs; I answered with heavy knees to his stomach.
He threw a closed fist that tore my cheek; I retaliated by driving my boot into his chest, launching him against a tree trunk.
He used the tree itself for momentum, launching back at me like a missile.
Our blades crossed again, and again, and again.
Sparks illuminated the shadows of the woods with every impact.
The shrill sound of metal buzzed in my ears. The murderous inertia of that dance was destroying everything around us.
Despite bleeding from the face, Kaichin was a monster of endurance. He kept pressing frantically, relentlessly exploiting the slowness of my left side, forcing me to retreat with every violent charge.
Step after step, we were pushed to the edge of the woods.
Until our weapons collided in one last colossal clash, and the shockwave violently pushed us apart.
We broke the tree line and emerged into an open plain of the arena.
There was no cover there, no trees to deflect the blows.
No shelter.
*Shit... I'm way more exposed out here. This won't work, he's too fast... and my movements are still limited,* I thought.
And to make matters worse, Hesiod's shrill voice echoed through the arena skies, dripping with pure sadism through the speakers:
"LOOK AT THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE DIVINE REALM! THE WOODS ARE OVER!" The narrator practically cackled.
"Lavinsk's aberration managed to stay alive using the trunks as makeshift shields, but his natural protection has gone up in smoke! Now he is completely naked in the open plain! And with only one usable arm to face Kaichin's relentless blade!"
High up in the stands, Laura was practically hanging over the concrete parapet, ignoring the dirty looks from the minor gods around her.
Her red eyes moved frantically, tracking every spark of metal down below at combat speed.
Her hands shook, not out of fear, but from an absurd urge to jump that barrier and tear Kaichin apart with her own claws.
She twisted her own body instinctively with Suki's every millimeter dodge, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
"Move, dodge, Suki you idiot! Don't stand still in his line of sight!" she hissed through clenched teeth, her voice hoarse with pure tension.
"You survived a fight with me! You're better than this! React, damn it, wipe the blood from your eye and kill this bastard!"
Kânia glanced at the girl, surprised by the intensity of that savage cheering, while Silver simply kept his gaze fixed on the battlefield, arms crossed.
Kaichin smiled openly the instant he noticed my obvious terrain disadvantage.
*Think, Suki. Think. Where is there a flaw? If I back up ten steps to the diagonal left, the slope of the earth might give me a second of height advantage. If I blind him with the sun's reflection on my blade... I can force him to jump. If he jumps, I spin, drop my guard for a millisecond, and cut his planted leg. I just need one route. Just a single mistake...*
My mind started spinning a thousand miles an hour, calculating dozens of scenarios, trajectories, and possible twists to turn the game in my favor.
I was processing every inch of that plain to create the perfect trap.
And that was my biggest and most fatal mistake.
I got lost inside my own head. I became so obsessed with the chess match and tactics to survive Kaichin with only one arm, that I let my peripheral instincts shut down for a mere fraction of a second.
I forgot the number one rule of that hell.
The rule of numerical disadvantage.
THAT WAS WHEN THE ATTACK CAME.
The air to my right simply tore open.
A sonic boom exploded near my ear, bursting my eardrums and displacing the oxygen around me.
When my left eye finally focused, Kimiko was already there.
She appeared inches from my blind spot like the personification of a natural disaster. The colossal girl had her muscles bulging, veins popping along her neck and arms, while the tribal tattoos of the Family of Strength glowed with a raw, savage, suffocating energy.
She twisted her waist, torquing the entire weight of that giant body into a single movement of pure violence.
The immense battle axe ripped through the air toward me. The pressure and kinetic force accumulated in that strike were so colossal, so absurdly inhuman, that the solid metal shaft of the weapon was visibly bending backward, groaning under its own G-force as the thick steel blade caved in the atmosphere.
My eyes widened.
My instincts screamed in pure panic.
But my body was frozen in my own unfinished strategy. I didn't even have the chance to raise my sword to defend.
The axe collided against the side of my chest.
The sound of the impact was like a mountain crumbling. The pain didn't even have time to register in my brain.
The entire right side of my body was crushed instantly by a force that shattered the laws of physics.
My body turned into an inert projectile.
I was hurled across the entire open field in a flash until I collided with inhuman violence against the stone wall of the stands.
The stands trembled from the impact.
Part of the thick stone wall collapsed and caved in from the force. My body sank painfully into the shattered rocks.
Kimiko erupted into a hysterical cackle, her eyes gleaming with pleasure and sadism.
"DIE, YOU BASTARD!!!" she screamed, salivating.
Hesiod's voice blasted through the arena's speakers, bordering on absolute madness.
"A DEVASTATING HIT!! THE BRUTE FORCE OF THE VANGOR FAMILY JUST CRUSHED LAVINSK'S ABERRATION LIKE AN INSECT! SURVIVING AN IMPACT LIKE THAT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE, GENTLEMEN!!"
The entire arena seemed to collapse.
Millions of spectators roared in unison, forming a deafening sea of pure bloodlust.
They stomped their feet on the bleachers, screamed Kimiko's name, and went into total delirium at the spectacle of carnage.
But, high up in Silver's section, the mood was one of pure terror.
Laura punched the containment parapet with such violence that a web of cracks spread across the magically armored surface.
"NO! SUKI!!!" she shrieked, her voice cracking and her heart skipping a beat. Her red eyes widened in pure panic as terror froze her blood upon seeing his body sinking into the stones.
Beside her, Kânia's always warm and serene posture simply vanished.
She jerked forward abruptly, her nails digging into the armrests of her chair until the fine fabric tore.
Her bright eyes now reflected a dark, icy tension, frantically scanning the dust cloud below, trying to sense if there was still any spark of life beneath the rubble.
Down below, the air left my lungs. The world spun, and my thick blood dripped from the corner of my mouth, falling onto my torn chest.
My entire body trembled from the traumatic shock.
Up above, Laura began descending the empty steps with slow, threatening paces. Each of her footsteps echoed across the stone like a rhythmic war drum.
The moment she reached the glass parapet overlooking the destroyed area, the gods around her began to react, leaking threatening pressures into the air.
"What does that little girl think she's doing?"
"Is she planning to interfere with the climax of the fight?!"
"Insolent."
An unknown god with gold-covered skin released an aura so dense the floor cracked beneath his sandals.
"None of you dare touch her," he threatened. His eyes turned into two stones of ice.
"She is also Silver's direct disciple."
Silence weighed over the noble area of the arena.
"And I have no intention of starting a divine war today..." the god muttered. "Not while *he* is watching."
Laura stopped at the edge of the destruction.
Her sharp, red eyes burned with absolute irritation, and then she opened her mouth, and her voice exploded like a sonic boom across the entire arena.
"SUKI!!! WHAT THE HELL!! CAN YOU HEAR ME DOWN THERE?!"
Her voice crossed the arena air like the roar of a dragon.
"THOSE SONS OF BITCHES ARE COMING AT YOU WITH EVERYTHING THEY HAVE!"
That deafening yell reached me while I was still trying to lean on the rocks to stand up.
My chest dripped blood, and I felt my head spinning and spinning, until I used all my strength to scream back in response.
"HOW THE HELL COULD I NOT HEAR YOU?!" I yelled back, coughing up blood. "YOU'RE SCREAMING LIKE A MANIAC!"
I stabbed my sword into the hard dirt and used the blade as leverage to drag my own broken body out of the hole in the wall, falling when I stepped out of the crater.
I was trembling.
Covered in blood.
My aura pulsed very weakly, seeming to almost vanish, like a fire about to go out.
But suddenly, my blurred eyes noticed something beyond Kimiko and Kaichin.
I felt the stares of contempt, as if they were knives hitting an open wound.
*It all makes sense now... them teaming up to kill me in here,* I thought.
I forced a crooked smile.
"Hm... Looks like it's not just them... but rather, all the gods want me dead," I murmured.
High up in the stands, Laura almost jumped over the containment glass to interfere in the battle.
"Holy shit! You still haven't figured it out?!" she let out a nervous, frustrated laugh. "Do you need to get beaten up even more to understand?!"
Then, the girl's expression crumbled.
The anger on her face gave way to bitter hatred directed at the heavens. She clenched her fists on the parapet until her knuckles turned white.
"They don't want to test you, Suki! The gods want you dead!" Her voice dropped in pitch, but the arena's acoustics captured every word.
"They are absolutely terrified of what you might become if you stay alive!"
"Damn it! I don't know why, but I kept hearing this every day while you were away!!!"
"Shit, Suki... get up."
The words seemed to tear through the air of the stadium.
Hesiod's voice swallowed the pause, firing up the spectators. Even though it was awkward that the gods' plans had been discovered, he had to play his part:
"WOOOOOOW!! ONE OF SILVER'S DISCIPLES JUST REVEALED THE RAW TRUTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ARENA!!"
"THIS MASSACRE IS A GAME MANIPULATED BY THE GODS THEMSELVES!!"
The stands exploded violently, against Laura.
"How dare that tramp spread this?!" one of them snarled through sharp teeth.
"Now she makes it sound like *we* are the villains of the story!" another bellowed.
Some remained in absolute silence, just watching.
Not all of them wanted my death, of course, but having their dirty theater exposed like that wounded pure divine pride.
Down below, leaning against the shattered wall, my eyes widened slightly, and then ignited once more.
Fear.
The gods, the most absolute beings in the universe, were afraid.
Afraid of me.
Afraid of what my blood carried.
The weak fire inside me received fuel, and something extremely distorted began to awaken.
Something dark.
Primitive.
And hungry.
"Alright..." I muttered, my voice hoarse and low, gripping the hilt of my sword so tightly that fresh blood began running down my fingers and dripping onto the blade.
"If you feel fear, I'm going to give you reasons to be afraid."
I pulled in the air.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment.
And then... my aura exploded with a cataclysmic violence. That wasn't my ordinary combat energy anymore.
It wasn't just an "aura."
That was pure distortion.
A black energy, absolutely murderous, corrosive, and malignant.
*This is my blood, after all,* I thought.
"It's time to hunt..." my voice sounded consumed by blind fury and insanity.
A slow smile spread across my bloodied face.
"... INSECTS."
The battlefield trembled.
The colossal stands vibrated violently as if an earthquake had just struck the planet.
Dozens of minor gods instinctively took a step back in the tribunes.
They were confused. And, for the first time in their immortal lives, they were terrified.
"HEY... HEY!!" one god yelled. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
A second deity broke into a cold sweat.
"THAT ABSURD LEVEL OF ENERGY ISN'T NORMAL FOR A CHILD!"
A third turned his face in panic, staring at Silver.
"SILVER!" the deity bellowed. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THIS BOY?!"
The entire arena seemed to be breathing in sync with my black aura.
The distorted energy spread in violent waves, visually warping the air itself.
The massive stone tribunes threatened to crack.
The gods, silenced, watched in morbid quiet as that monstrous awakening consumed me.
Hesiod's voice, in absolute ecstasy, cut through the tension of the stadium:
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE DIVINE REALM!!"
"THE TRUE MASSACRE... HAS JUST BEGUN!!"