The arena shook long before the crowd realized why. A low metallic rumble rolled through the colossal superstructure as thousands of builder bots swarmed across the battlefield like a steel tide, tearing up entire platforms, welding new foundations in place, and reconfiguring the terrain with frightening speed. Towers rose, collapsed, and reformed in new shapes before anyone could blink. Segmented bridges spiraled into impossible configurations. Anti-gravity wells opened and closed like giant invisible lungs. Rivers of molten energy snaked beneath translucent floors as if the ground itself were alive and hungry.
For a moment, even the spectators were silent, simply watching the mechanical storm unleash its fury.
Then the announcer lights flared, and the air cracked with holographic shimmer as Arcturus descended above the evolving battlefield—golden, radiant, self-important as ever. His voice boomed with the power of a hundred amplifiers.
"WARRIORS OF THE COSMOS! THE TOURNAMENT FORMAT… HAS CHANGED!"
The crowd erupted into an explosion of cheers, gasps, groans, and scattered panic. Julian, sitting at the commentator booth, slammed his hands on his datapad so hard the device sparked.
"Why does EVERYTHING change EVERY TIME DANNY ENTERS THIS TOURNAMENT?!" he shrieked.
Jimmy leaned back in his chair, utterly delighted. "Because change is FUN, Julian! You should try it sometime!"
Julian stared at him as though he'd just announced he was made of bees.
Meanwhile, down on the arena floor, Danny stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the chaos with mild interest. His expression barely shifted as a collapsing tower crashed mere inches beside him—he simply took one small step forward, letting the debris fade into dust behind him. His presence radiated a quiet, suffocating pressure. Nearby fighters instinctively gave him a thirty-foot radius, as if invisible walls surrounded him.
A particularly bold fighter tried to maintain bravado, walking up to Danny with a grin far too confident for someone suicidal. "You're the famous Danny? Well, I guess—"
Danny looked at him.
Just looked. Casual, almost polite.
The fighter crumpled unconscious to the ground, eyes rolling back. No one else stepped forward after that.
Across the battlefield, the Wolf King cracked his neck, the sound echoing like stone splitting. His golden eyes burned with anticipation as he watched Danny from afar. Of all the souls here, he alone seemed excited—alive with the thrill of a hunt long overdue.
"Finally," the Wolf King murmured with a low, rumbling grin. "I was beginning to think there wasn't a worthy opponent left in this plane."
Jake, watching this from behind a shattered barricade, gulped loudly. "Uh, Swift? Is it just me or is the Wolf King… smiling at Danny like he wants to fight him right now?"
Swift didn't take her eyes off the two titans. "He does. And we want to be nowhere near the blast radius when that happens."
They wisely backed away from both monsters at once.
Shadeclaw, crouched low on a rising obsidian spike, flicked her tail irritably. "They're going to tear the arena apart before the match even starts."
Jade, polishing the edge of her crystalline blade, frowned. "Let's focus on survival. We won't last two minutes if we're caught in their shockwaves."
Craterfist cracked his granite knuckles, each pop like cannon fire. Ember Claw ignited both hands, flames spiraling into twin vortexes. Tundra Lynx slashed frost into the air, freezing a passing builder bot by accident. Giga-Ronin stood perfectly motionless, radiating the stillness of a mountain awaiting an avalanche.
Above it all, Arcturus continued, clearly savoring the drama.
"THE BRACKET IS GONE! THE PLANNED MATCHES ARE VOID! TODAY—ALL FIVE HUNDRED OF YOU SHALL FIGHT, NOT ROUND BY ROUND, BUT ALL AT ONCE!"
Julian choked on his own spit. "WHAT?! THAT'S NOT A TOURNAMENT—THAT'S A MASS EXTINCTION EVENT!"
Jimmy nodded thoughtfully. "Technically, it's still a tournament if there are winners."
Julian threw a datapad at him.
"All fighters will enter the battlefield simultaneously!" Arcturus continued, his voice swelling with theatrical energy. "Magic! Technology! Strength! Strategy! Everything at your disposal! The last sixteen fighters standing will advance! The rest… shall fall!"
The crowd roared like a living hurricane. Holographic displays across the coliseum flashed Battle Royale Mode Activated, accompanied by dramatic fanfare that made even the builder bots pause in appreciation.
Jimmy reached for his cup—only to find a warm weight sitting in his lap.
He blinked. "Uh… Julian?"
Julian looked at him with the exhausted resignation of a man who'd already dealt with too much nonsense today. "Please tell me that is not the same—"
Jimmy lifted it.
The waffle.
Still golden.
Still warm.
Still humming.
Julian screamed. "WHY IS IT BACK?! WHY IS IT HUMMING?! WHY DOES IT HAVE RUNES?! WAFFLES SHOULDN'T HAVE RUNES!"
Jimmy stroked the waffle thoughtfully. "This one does."
The waffle glowed softly. Runes shifted along its surface like living script. It made a noise suspiciously like "whomp." Then—just as suddenly—it vanished into thin air, leaving behind a trail of sparkling crumbs that drifted upward instead of down.
A faint tremor shivered through the sky. Lightning crackled in a pattern too deliberate to be accidental. Far above, just for a moment, a tear in reality flickered open like a blinking eye.
Julian pointed at it frantically. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Jimmy grinned. "A sign that breakfast is destiny."
Julian screamed again.
Down on the battlefield, no one noticed the disturbance. They were too busy watching the construction finish.
The arena stabilized with a final tremble. What had previously been a singular battlefield was now an impossibly layered hellscape:
A central chasm spiraling infinitely downward.
Floating ruins drifting in lazy orbits.
Lava channels weaving like angry serpents.
Wind tunnels roaring like dragons' lungs.
Invisible gravity pulses distorting the air.
Platforms rebuilding themselves mid-collapse.
Obelisks crackling with raw electric fury.
Mist zones swallowing entire squads whole.
It was no longer an arena.
It was a battlefield designed to kill gods.
Julian stared, pale as chalk. "This place is going to get someone disintegrated."
Jimmy nodded. "That's the spirit!"
Arcturus raised a hand. "FIGHTERS! ENTER THE FIELD!"
All 500 warriors stepped forward.
Danny walked with no urgency, drifting to the exact center of the arena. The ground around him seemed to relax slightly as he arrived, as if the battlefield itself accepted his authority. Fighters parted instinctively, avoiding eye contact. Even the more confident ones refused to stand within the invisible pressure zone around him.
Wolf King took position on a high platform overlooking Danny, like a predator circling prey that might be equally dangerous. His smile was feral and genuine.
Sedge Hat hopped across a floating sequence of planks, chattering to himself, "Battle royale, battle royale, five hundred fighters, what a delight! They're all going to underestimate me. Good. Good."
Shadeclaw narrowed her eyes, stretching her limbs. Jade crouched beside her, focused and calm. Jake and Swift found a defensible elevated point and prepared to survive the first onslaught.
Craterfist cracked his knuckles again, causing three fighters near him to stagger from the shockwave.
Mira-the-Silent simply melted into a shadow, instantly gone to all but the sharpest senses.
Danny, hands still in pockets, exhaled softly.
The countdown chimed through the coliseum.
30 seconds.
Julian: "Thirty seconds until every fighter here becomes confetti!"
Jimmy: "Confetti is festive!"
20 seconds.
A faction formed to Danny's left—at least a dozen fighters plotting to swarm him first.
Another dozen immediately backed away from them, shaking their heads.
15 seconds.
Swift pulled Jake behind a rising shield wall. "Don't look at Danny. Don't look at Wolf King. Just focus on staying alive."
10 seconds.
Wolf King stared at Danny with a grin that could split mountains.
Danny glanced back, expression unreadable.
5 seconds.
The waffle reappeared behind Jimmy's head with a bright chime.
Jimmy: "Oh hey, it's—"
It vanished again.
Julian: "WHY?!"
4 seconds.
Jade tightened her grip on her blade. Shadeclaw's tail slowly curled.
3 seconds.
Craterfist roared.
2 seconds.
The ground trembled. Energy flared. Every fighter powered up at once.
1 second.
Danny took a single slow breath.
Arcturus raised both arms, voice cracking reality itself.
"BEGIN!"
Five hundred fighters surged forward in a symphony of chaos—beautiful, violent, catastrophic.
The sky lit with spells.
The ground split under shockwaves.
Blades screamed.
Claws ignited.
Explosions bloomed everywhere at once.
Danny disappeared.
Not teleported.
Not phased.
Just moved faster than sight.
Screams filled the air as the first wave of fighters were thrown aside by something they couldn't even see.
And above them all, the portal in the sky flickered again—just once—like something imprisoned was starting to stir.
The battle royale had begun.