The smell of scorched sand and ozone hung in the air. Su Chen stared at the blood on his fingertips, his face twisting into a mask of pure, disbelief-fueled rage. He had built his entire reputation on the perfection of his vision, yet a Level 1 boy had just proven him wrong.
"Tie! Lin! Kill him!" Su Chen screamed, his voice losing its polished calm.
Stone-Crusher Tie didn't wait. He let out a roar that shook the very foundation of the arena, his granite skin turning a deep, obsidian black. He charged like a falling mountain, each footstep cracking the stone floor.
Snake-Tongue Lin vanished. She moved like a streak of green lightning, circling around Han Sen's blind spot with her poisoned daggers raised.
Han Sen stood still. To the crowd, he looked like a statue waiting to be shattered. But his mind was a storm of calculations. He could feel the vibration of the heavy footsteps and the slight disturbance in the air where Lin moved.
[Skill Active: Diamond Body Protocol]
[Skill Active: Puppet Master's Sovereign Strings]
Tie reached him first. The massive warrior swung a fist the size of a boulder, aimed directly at Han Sen's chest. There was no room to dodge. The crowd gasped, some people turning their eyes away from the expected gore.
CRACK.
The sound wasn't of bone breaking. It was the sound of granite hitting a diamond. Tie's massive fist stopped an inch from Han Sen's ribs, held back by an invisible, impenetrable pressure.
[HP: 10/10]
[Damage Received: 0.001 (Rounded to 0)]
Tie's eyes went wide. He felt the shockwave of his own punch travel back up his arm, shattering the stone plating on his elbow.
"My turn," Han Sen whispered.
He didn't move his arms. He only twitched his index finger. One of the blue needles hissed through the air, moving so fast it created a vacuum. It didn't aim for Tie's chest. It aimed for the center of his forehead.
Tie raised his arms to block, but the needle didn't hit him. Because of the [Causality Paradox], the needle appeared behind his guard before it had even passed his hands.
It didn't draw blood. It tapped the center of Tie's forehead with the weight of a falling star. The massive man's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into the sand like a puppet with its strings cut.
Before the dust could even settle, Han Sen spun on his heel. He didn't look at the empty air, but he flicked three needles toward the space behind him.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
Snake-Tongue Lin appeared out of thin air, her daggers shattered into a thousand pieces. She stared at the blue needles hovering an inch from her throat, her face turning a sickly shade of grey. She couldn't move. Every time she tried to twitch, the needles followed her with perfect, terrifying synchronization.
"Stay," Han Sen commanded.
Lin dropped to her knees, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She looked at Su Chen, her eyes pleading for help.
Han Sen turned his gaze toward the Young Master. He walked through the sand, his steps silent and balanced. The blue needles followed him, orbiting like a miniature galaxy.
"Two champions down," Han Sen said. He stopped ten feet away from Su Chen. "Are you still seeing seventeen versions of the future, or has it gone dark?"
Su Chen stood up, his white robes stained with the dust of his fallen comrades. His aura flared, a blinding gold light that tried to push back the encroaching cold of Han Sen's presence.
"You are a freak," Su Chen hissed. "A Level 1 shouldn't exist like this. It's an insult to the heavens!"
"The heavens don't care about your levels," Han Sen replied. "And neither do I."
He raised his hand, and the ten needles converged into a single, blinding point of blue light. The air in the arena began to scream as the physics of the world struggled to contain the power of the Star-Fall metal.
The face-slap was no longer a metaphor. It was a physical reality. The Level 1 boy was standing over the pride of the Heavenly Beast Sect, and for the first time in history, the predator was the one who was afraid.