One thing about the fight for an invite was simple. There were no limits.
Anyone could join.
Unlike the Paragon Battle Royal, which demanded four participants at stage four or below, the fight for the invite card had no such rules. It didn't care about balance. It didn't care about fairness.
The strongest person in a clan could step in.
Leaders could fight. Rank didn't matter.
Only the result did.
Right now, two clans were locked in a direct clash, just one fight among many scattered across the grounds. Qi flared everywhere. Shouts echoed. The air felt heavy with tension and killing intent.
At the center of it, Lucius stood still.
He faced the leader of the Khyphon Clan.
She was a woman, that much was clear from her frame. Slim, controlled, with strength hidden beneath smooth lines. Her upper body and hips carried quiet confidence, not excess, just balance.
She wore the same hooded white cloak as the others. The hood swallowed her face in unnatural darkness, hiding her expression completely.
The water threads she had wrapped around Lucius moments ago were already gone. Destroyed. Torn apart with surprising ease.
But she hadn't reacted.
Instead, more water particles began to appear in the air around her. They formed slowly, thin and sharp, circling her like a silent warning. Each droplet vibrated with controlled pressure.
Lucius raised his remaining hand.
"Give up the card," he said, his voice steady.
He took a step forward.
"My clan will perform far better than yours in this event," Lucius continued. "And if you hand over the card now, I will allow your clan to merge with us."
The water around her shifted slightly.
"You'll still get the benefits of this event," Lucius said. "You won't be left behind."
He didn't sound desperate.
He sounded practical.
This was an offer. A final one.
He wasn't the leader of the Wyndhams Clan.
Yet here he was, standing his ground and making an offer that only a clan head should be bold enough to make. Lucius didn't hesitate. He didn't correct himself either. Right now, authority came from strength, not titles.
The lady said nothing.
Lucius stared straight at her. Even with his spiritual sight active, her face remained hidden behind that unnatural darkness. Still, he felt it. A faint pressure. A quiet confidence.
It felt like she was smirking at him.
"You really think your clan will outperform ours?" the lady said at last.
Her voice was calm. Too calm.
"Why don't you take a look at how your people are handling just one of mine," she added.
Lucius felt the pull to turn around.
Just for a moment.
He wanted to see it. To confirm whether things were going well or falling apart. But he stopped himself. Turning his back now would be suicide. It would hand her a clean opening.
He stayed focused.
Still, sounds carried. The dull thuds of impact. Short shouts. The clash of qi. Enough to tell him the fight behind wasn't going smoothly.
His remaining hand tightened into a fist.
Lucius moved.
He dashed forward in a blur, closing the distance in an instant. His body twisted as he unleashed a storm of punches, each one heavy, sharp, and fast.
The lady reacted immediately.
Water formed in front of her hands, thin barriers snapping into place at perfect timing. Each punch met a wall of compressed water. Bang. Crack. Smash.
The barriers shattered one after another, exploding into mist with every hit.
But they worked.
Each one slowed his fist just enough. Stopped it just short. Kept his hand from reaching her body.
Lucius kept attacking anyway.
The lady kicked off the ground and shot backward, forcing space between herself and Lucius.
She didn't retreat clumsily. It was clean. Controlled.
Lucius chased her immediately, his feet tearing across the ground as he followed. He didn't give her time to breathe.
Midair, the lady flicked her wrist.
A small paper slip appeared in her palm, etched with tight, intricate runes. It lit up blue.
Then it detonated.
Water burst out in a violent surge. Not a splash. Not mist. Whole volumes of it, as if several tanks had been smashed open at once. The water spread fast, filling the space around her.
'This person is strong. I can't rely on pulling water from the air alone,' the lady thought.
As a water mage, she had limits. The surrounding moisture could only take her so far. That was why she prepared these. Special enchantments. Stored water, released on demand.
Before the water touched the ground, it halted.
Suspended.
Then it moved.
The mass twisted and gathered, flowing together into a single crushing wave that rushed straight at Lucius.
It hit him head-on.
But Lucius didn't slow down.
He ran straight through it.
Qi flared around his body, glowing and dense, pushing the water aside as if it were nothing more than heavy rain. The wave split around him and crashed behind, failing to stop him.
'How… he's stronger than that,' the lady thought, a chill running down her spine.
Her heart thumped once.
'Is he a stage seven warrior?'
The thought scared her, but she didn't freeze.
She pulled the water back toward herself in a sharp motion. It obeyed instantly, wrapping around her and forming a thick dome. Layer after layer compressed together, solid and heavy.
Lucius reached her just then.
He swung his leg, qi flooding into it, dense and violent.
His kick smashed into the water barrier.
The dome buckled. Cracks rippled through it like glass under pressure. For a brief moment, his leg pushed inside.
Then it stopped.
Held in place by sheer resistance.
Both of them felt it.
Neither backed down.
"Arhh!" the lady screamed as she punched her hand forward.
The dome reacted instantly.
Sharp spikes of water burst out from its surface, one after another. They slammed into Lucius' body, striking his chest, shoulders, and arms in rapid hits.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
But nothing happened.
The spikes shattered on contact, bursting into spray. Lucius didn't even slow down. His expression didn't change.
Panic flickered across the lady's hidden face.
She reached into her sleeve and pulled out another rune paper. The symbols flared bright blue the moment her mana poured in.
It exploded.
Water surged out again, denser than before. The liquid twisted and compressed, pulling together into a single massive spike. It sharpened as it formed, heavy and lethal.
She poured even more mana into it and hurled it forward.
Lucius saw it coming.
Qi surged up his arm, thick and burning. As the water spike closed in, he stepped forward and threw a punch.
His fist met the spike head-on.
The impact was brutal.
The water spike cracked, then shattered apart. At the same time, Lucius' qi burned through it, evaporating the water on contact. Steam exploded outward, mist flooding the space between them.
The attack was gone.
Gone completely.
The lady trembled as she watched it happen. Her breath caught.
She stretched her hand toward the drifting mist.
The water responded.
Tiny droplets pulled together, flowing back toward her like they were being dragged by an unseen force. In seconds, the mist rejoined the dome, thickening it again.
Lucius didn't give her time to recover.
He rushed in and started striking the barrier.
Punch after punch slammed into the dome. Each hit chipped away at it, cracking the surface and sending splashes outward.
But it didn't matter.
Every drop of water that broke free was pulled right back in, snapping into place as if the dome itself was a magnet.
Lucius narrowed his eyes.
The barrier wasn't weakening.
It was recycling.
The mage held the dome steady with both hands.
Her arms trembled.
Each strike from Lucius sent a shock through her body. Sweat poured from her skin and was pulled straight into the dome, merging with the spinning water as if it belonged there.
She was holding on by force alone.
Lucius, on the other hand, was getting visibly irritated.
'If I still had both hands…' he thought. 'This fight would already be over. I would have crushed this dome with a proper technique.'
He stopped attacking.
For a brief moment, he stepped back and studied the barrier still standing between them. The water continued to rotate, dense and stubborn.
Lucius exhaled slowly.
'If I can't use techniques,' he thought, 'then I'll use physics.'
He raised his remaining hand and began to spin it.
Slow at first.
Then faster.
The air screamed as his arm rotated harder and harder. Wind gathered around his hand, tightening into a violent gust. It sounded like a turbine cutting through the air.
Dust lifted from the ground. Loose fabric snapped.
'I'll shred this dome until there's no water left to hold it together,' Lucius thought.
When he felt the pressure peak, he launched forward.
The Khyphon Clan's leader saw it coming. Her eyes widened beneath the hood. She dug her feet into the ground and braced herself, pouring everything she had into the barrier.
Then—
Someone dropped in front of Lucius.
The figure landed abruptly, as if he had fallen straight from above, placing himself directly between Lucius and the dome.
Lucius noticed it instantly.
This one was also from the Khyphon Clan.
He didn't slow down.
His spinning hand shot forward, aimed to hit both the newcomer and the barrier behind him.
The punch landed.
But there was no explosion.
No shockwave.
No sound.
Lucius' eyes narrowed as he looked closer.
His fist had struck the newcomer's stomach. A thin layer of water covered the man's body like cloth, trembling violently from the impact.
The force didn't pass through.
The man looked up.
"Have a taste of your own power," the Khyphon Clan member said.
He swung.
His punch slammed into Lucius and drove him straight into the ground. The impact sent Lucius bouncing across the battlefield.
Before Lucius could recover, a powerful kick followed.
It smashed into his head.
Crack.
The sound of bone breaking rang out as Lucius' body flew through the air, rolling and bouncing across the ground until it finally skidded to a stop.