The arena still burned with the ghosts of Swift's defeat.
Every breath tasted of scorched metal. The stone floor was a patchwork of freshly repaired plates, some still steaming, some still glowing faintly where the Wolf King's flames had liquefied the surface. Builder-bots zipped frantically between fractures, welding and sealing cracks, but even their metallic chirps sounded nervous.
The stands buzzed with an anxious electricity. Nobody spoke at full volume anymore. Even the bravest spectators whispered now—afraid of a misstep, afraid of drawing the attention of any fighter who could, on a whim, break the entire arena open.
Danny stood at the edge of the platform, head lowered, hands loosely at his sides. His golden aura pulsed gently around him, but the pulses were wrong—irregular, trembling, like a heartbeat skipping beats. The light flickered, dimmed, flared. He could feel Swift's blood on the floor, the echoes of Jake's pain, the way the Wolf King's presence still lingered like a clawmark across the battlefield.
He could feel memories drifting just beneath his skin, drifting like smoke trying to escape cracks in old walls.
The old man's voice.
The empty houses.
The places he tried to make into homes.
All ashes.
His fists tightened.
The announcer's voice trembled as it rose through the speakers. "NEXT MATCH—DANNY versus JADE KILLINGTON!"
The name snapped Danny out of his trance.
Jade leapt from the fighters' platform like a shot from a cannon. He twisted midair, flipping, rotating, and landed with a violent crack that spread tiny fractures across the floor. He straightened, rolling his shoulders, arms already coating themselves in vibrant, explosive chi.
"Oi!" Jade grinned wide, cracking his neck. "Bout time I got a scrap with you, mate!"
Danny didn't move.
His aura flickered again.
Jade cocked his head. "You alright? Lookin' a bit… haunted."
Danny said nothing.
Julian adjusted his microphone, eyes darting nervously across several readouts. "Danny's vitals are extremely unstable. Emotional contamination from the previous match remains high. We may be approaching a critical threshold."
Jimmy swallowed audibly. "Critical threshold as in… meltdown? Explosion? Golden dragon apocalypse? I need to know how many emergency exits we have."
"None that would matter," Julian said.
Danny finally stepped forward, sliding into the arena. As he did, the floor beneath him cracked—lightly, like it feared pressing too hard. His golden aura rose and fell in uneven breaths.
Jade snapped his chi-loaded fingers, the energy climbing his arms in fiery spirals.
"C'mon then," Jade said, stepping lightly. "Let's give the crowd a show. Been dyin' for a good punch-up."
Danny lifted his head slowly.
His eyes were dim.
Unfocused.
Lost.
Jade frowned a little, but didn't stop smiling. "None of that. Don't gimme the sad dragon act. Fight me proper."
Still no answer.
Wolf Queen leaned forward. Ember Claw's ears twitched. Shadeclaw narrowed his eyes. The Wolf King watched without blinking.
Jake, half-conscious in the med tank above, squinted. "Danny… don't… zone out…"
The memories hit Danny like a fist to the back of the skull.
He blinked—
—and instead of Jade, he saw another scene bleeding through his vision:
Flashes of broken windows.
A fallen picture frame.
Silence in a place once filled with laughter.
Burnt wood.
A familiar old man walking away into the fog.
Danny's breath hitched.
Not here.
Not now.
Jade saw the hollow look in Danny's eyes.
He didn't like it.
"Oi," Jade said sharply. "Look at me."
Danny blinked. His gaze drifted forward.
Jade snapped his fingers in Danny's face—the sound cracked the air.
"HEY. Stay here, yeah? Don't disappear on me. I didn't sign up to fight a ghost."
Danny inhaled shakily.
The bell rang.
Jade blurred.
He slammed into Danny with the force of a bomb.
The impact detonated like thunder—Danny skidded back, feet digging into the stone. Jade followed, palms flaring with chi, raining down explosive shotgun bursts.
A palm to the ribs—Danny staggered.
A knee to the gut—Danny wheezed.
An elbow across the jaw—Danny's head snapped sideways.
Two rapid-fire detonations against his forearms—light erupted in sparks as Danny blocked.
Jade's grin widened. "There he is!"
But the grin faltered. Danny's expression didn't change. No anger. No determination. Just that distant, haunted glaze.
Jade hated it.
He pivoted back and launched a spinning chi kick that sent Danny crashing into a chunk of broken floor.
Danny pushed himself upright, slow and shaky.
Jade bounced lightly on his feet. "Mate… if you ain't gonna fight, I'll knock you awake proper."
Danny didn't answer.
His aura flickered again—gold shifting like fire trying to catch.
Jade spat on the floor. "Fine. Be like that."
He charged.
His fists turned into artillery as he pummeled Danny with a barrage of strikes. Danny blocked poorly—he may as well have not been there. Jade hammered him across the arena, each hit cracking the stone, each explosion sending up plumes of dust.
Danny finally hit a pillar of repaired stone and slumped forward, dazed.
Jade strode up, fury in his step. "Oi, look at me!" he barked.
Danny didn't.
Jade grabbed Danny's chin, yanking it upward. "Look. At. Me."
Danny's eyes flickered.
Jade leaned closer. "You ain't the only one who's lost things. But you don't see me starin' off into the bloody ceiling mid-fight."
Danny blinked once.
Golden light flickered behind his eyes.
Jade's voice sharpened. "You wanna know what makes you weak? You're scared of yourself. Scared of what you'll do. Scared of losin'. Scared of tryin'."
Danny's jaw tightened.
For the first time since the match began—
He felt something.
Jade saw it.
He grinned. "There we go. C'mon then. Hit me."
Danny's aura trembled.
He whispered, voice barely audible. "Stop."
Jade scoffed. "Nah, mate. Not stoppin'. You're gonna stand up and fight. Beast to beast."
Danny repeated, louder. "Stop."
Jade threw a punch.
Danny caught it.
The sound of the catch was wrong.
Too heavy.
Too final.
Too powerful.
Golden cracks spread along the floor beneath Danny's feet.
His aura surged, gold spreading outward in ripples. Light flickered violently around him like a flame turning into a wildfire.
Jade felt the shift.
And smiled like a madman. "YES!"
Danny's expression twisted—not into a smile, not into rage, but into the look of someone finally breaking.
The memory hit again—
His first home.
His second.
His third.
All gone when he returned.
All stolen by the same old man's shadow.
Danny roared.
The arena shook.
He lunged.
One strike.
One burst.
One overwhelming blast of creation energy.
Jade crossed his arms, chi reinforcing his bones just in time, but the force still sent him tumbling backward across the arena. He rolled, dug his heels into the ground, and stopped himself with a skidding burn across the stone.
He coughed—blood speckled the floor.
He wiped his mouth.
And laughed.
"THAT'S more like it!"
He launched himself at Danny again, chi flaring brighter than ever. His fists cracked like shotgun blasts, each blow detonating on impact. Danny blocked the first, tanked the second, and smashed Jade with a counterpunch that shattered the air like a dropped star.
Jade cartwheeled across the arena, flipping midair, landing in a crouch.
He was bleeding.
Bruised.
Barely breathing.
But he was grinning.
"C'mon then!" he roared. "Let's go higher!"
He slammed his hands together—chi erupted along his arms like molten thunder.
Danny's aura surged again—
Light burst outward—
The air warped—
Stone turned molten—
Jade sprinted into the teeth of the storm with a wild grin—
And Danny lost control.
A golden blast exploded from him, raw and unshaped, the power of a dragon who didn't know what he was doing, didn't know what he was feeling, didn't know where he was.
The light swallowed half the arena.
Jade dove forward, rolling, ducking under the main beam, using every ounce of street-born instinct and assassin-trained movement to avoid vaporization. The explosion hit the arena wall, shattering the barrier and blowing a pillar of stone into powder.
The entire coliseum shook.
People screamed.
Jimmy fainted for a moment.
Julian shouted alarms into the console.
Danny stood in the center of a crater, chest heaving, eyes blazing with fractured light.
Jade was on one knee, coughing blood, trembling.
He rose.
Limping.
Laughing through pain.
He staggered toward Danny.
One step.
Another.
"Oi… listen, mate…"
Danny flinched as Jade approached, expecting another explosion, another taunt, another attack.
Instead, Jade stopped in front of him.
"None o' that was your fault."
Danny froze.
Jade swallowed, blood dripping from his lip. "You hear me? You ain't broken. You're scared. Ain't a sin to be scared."
Danny's breathing hitched.
Jade lifted his fist weakly.
"Now gimme your best shot, yeah?"
Danny stared at him.
At someone who saw him—not as a monster, not as a dragon, not as a threat—
But as a kid trying not to break.
Danny's fist clenched.
He didn't scream.
Didn't roar.
Didn't explode.
He punched Jade once in the chest.
Not enough to kill.
Just enough to win.
Jade slammed into the barrier, bounced once, and collapsed unconscious, still grinning.
The bell rang.
"WINNER: DANNY."
The crowd erupted into chaos—fear, awe, disbelief.
Danny stood alone in the ruin he'd made, aura flickering, head bowed.
He didn't feel like a winner.
He felt like something coming undone.
The Wolf King watched him with growing interest.
Shadeclaw's tail bristled.
Ember Claw's flames dimmed in caution.
Wolf Queen nodded once—recognition of power.
Danny walked off the arena floor without celebration, each step heavy.
Jade was lifted onto a stretcher, still smiling faintly even in unconsciousness.
The bracket flashed across the sky.
FINAL FOUR:
DANNY
WOLF KING
SHADECLAW
EMBER CLAW
The crowd began chanting:
"FINAL FOUR! FINAL FOUR!"
Danny didn't look back.
He didn't feel victorious.
He felt lost.
More lost than ever.