(Part I: Dawn Against the Crown)
The arena knew it was doomed.
Not metaphorically.
Not theatrically.
The arena—the stone, the runes, the steel supports, the spiritual anchors—had begun actively pleading for its life.
Builder-bots scrambled across the fractured floor, their eye-lights flashing the machine equivalent of sobs. Structural integrity runes flickered like overworked heart monitors. The barrier spat sparks every few seconds, auto-correcting micro-rifts forming along the curvature.
The arena had survived Jade.
It had survived Shadeclaw.
It had survived Ember Claw.
It would not survive this.
Jimmy slammed both hands onto the console. "JULIAN. WE NEED THE DIMENSIONAL EMERGENCY THING. THE—THE BIG ONE."
Julian didn't even look up from the glowing sigils he was arranging. "Already on it, darling. Protocol 017: 'Dragon Problem.' I told you we'd need it again."
Jimmy's eyes bulged. "AGAIN—?! WHAT—WHO DID WE USE IT ON LAST TIME—?!"
But the runes pulsed, humming in a way that reached into the bones of every spectator. Light cascaded around the arena like someone was pouring silver water over an invisible dome.
Then—
SHOOOOM—
A dimensional bubble dropped into place.
The air bent.
The ground deepened.
Space folded, stretching inward while staying anchored outward.
The cheering crowd existed now in a safer, separate-but-connected vantage—like watching two gods battle inside a glass sphere.
Floating cameras materialized—runic lenses, framed in shimmering gold and blue. They rotated, adjusted focus, and found their targets.
A random spectator in the nosebleed section groaned miserably.
"I lost every coin I had betting on Shadeclaw," he told his friend. "If Danny wins and my wife finds out I gambled on a wolf, I'm dead. If Wolf King wins and she finds out I bet on Shadeclaw, I'm even MORE dead. WHY DO I LIVE LIKE THIS?"
His friend patted his shoulder. "You've made bad choices consistently for twenty years, Lionel. This is simply the harvest."
Lionel sobbed.
Jimmy wiped sweat from his brow. "Good news, folks! We now have ultra-safe dimensional observation capability! Bad news! I don't think it's enough!"
Julian smoothed his jacket and smiled warmly. "If the bubble collapses, our deaths will be quick."
"THAT DOES NOT HELP ME, JULIAN!"
A hush fell.
The bubble finished forming.
The stage was ready.
And Danny stepped into the light.
The floor beneath him wasn't stone anymore.
Inside the pocket-dimension, the ground became a smooth crystalline surface—golden-silver, shifting like sunlight on flowing water. It pulsed faintly with Danny's aura as he walked, responding to him as if greeting a long-forgotten friend.
He exhaled.
Golden light rippled out from his chest, subtle but steady. Not the unstable flare he'd unleashed against Jade. Not the terrified burst he fought against when confronting Sedge Hat.
This was different.
Centered.
Alive.
His.
He rolled his shoulders, feeling the warmth of his own power without fear of it consuming him.
Jake's voice echoed in his mind. "You're unstoppable, bro."
Swift's steady encouragement.
Jade's rough-edged honesty.
Shadeclaw's predator's respect.
Ember's pride in climbing his mountain.
Danny took another step, and the crystalline floor answered him.
The dimension around him pulsed.
He wasn't shaking.
He wasn't scared.
He was ready.
A breath.
A heartbeat.
A shift in the air.
And then fire.
The Wolf King entered like a verdict.
A wall of blue-gold flame unfurled at the far end of the dimension. It parted cleanly, and he stepped through—tall, composed, bathed in the glow of ancient authority.
Every step left molten pawprints in the crystalline floor before it rapidly healed itself. His fur shimmered like starlight caught in midnight water. His eyes were bright gold—hotter than the flames tangling around his arms.
The crowd went silent.
Not afraid.
Awed.
Here was a king.
Not by title, but by nature.
The Wolf King stopped a few paces from Danny.
Heat radiated from him in waves that made the dimensional bubble tremble.
Danny met his gaze without flinching.
A slow smile touched the King's lips—not mocking, not cruel. Interested.
"Danny of Golden Blood," he said, voice steady as mountains. "You stand here not as a child, not as a wanderer… but as a force."
Danny inhaled.
"I'm still learning. But I'm not running anymore."
A ripple moved through the crowd even outside the dimension.
Wolf King inclined his head. "Good. Kings do not chase cowards."
Danny's aura flared a fraction—warm, bright, confident.
"Then let's see if you can keep up."
Julian slapped Jimmy's nearest arm. "HE DID NOT JUST—HE DID."
Jimmy screamed, "DANNY, BABY, YOU GOTTA STOP ANTAGONIZING MONARCHS—"
But the Wolf King smiled faintly.
"Arrogance suits you," he said. "Control it—or it will kill you."
Danny grinned.
"We'll find out."
The first punch wasn't thrown.
It was decided.
They moved at the same instant.
Danny's golden aura surged.
Wolf King's flames tightened.
The air collapsed between them.
BOOM—
Danny's fist shot forward like a comet—gold light trailing behind his knuckles, the crystalline floor spiderwebbing under the force.
The Wolf King's forearm, coated in blue flame, met Danny's punch with a clean, crushing block that sent shockwaves rippling outward.
Crystalline shards burst from the floor like exploding diamonds.
The next exchange blurred.
Danny pivoted, sweeping his leg in a golden crescent of force.
The Wolf King jumped, spinning, flames igniting behind him like a comet tail.
Danny ducked under a flaming backfist and drove a palm strike into the King's ribs—
The King's aura hardened, absorbing most of it but still sliding back half a step.
The crowd roared.
Danny's eyes widened.
He had… moved the Wolf King.
Not much.
Not meaningfully.
But enough to know one thing:
He could do this.
His heart pounded—not with fear.
With exhilaration.
But the Wolf King was already back on him.
His claws flashed toward Danny's throat in a clean vertical line—
Danny bent backward, the tips clipping golden light off his aura instead of flesh. He slammed a knee upward—
Wolf King twisted his hips mid-air and tanked the knee, bringing both fists down in a double hammer strike—
Danny crossed his arms to block, the impact sending him flipping across the crystalline floor.
He landed in a crouch, sliding back several feet.
Julian fanned himself dramatically. "I cannot keep up with this ballet of violence!"
Jimmy's hands flew everywhere. "THE CAMERAS CAN'T—THE FEED—JULIAN HELP—THE FIGHTERS ARE TOO BEAUTIFUL AND TOO DAMAGING—"
Floating cameras scrambled to refocus.
The dimension itself warped, stretching subtly as if trying to absorb the impact.
Danny and Wolf King circled.
Danny wiped a trickle of blood from his lip—his first real hit.
Wolf King adjusted his footing—his fur slightly singed from Danny's counterburst.
They stared.
Danny's aura pulsed in warm, rhythmic waves.
Wolf King's flames coiled like a serpent preparing to strike.
Then they clashed again.
This time, Danny forced the pace.
He leapt forward, wings snapping open in a golden burst, propelling him past visible speed. His fist shot downward in a gravity-assisted strike—
Wolf King sidestepped, grabbed Danny's forearm, and used his momentum to throw him across the field—
Danny shifted mid-air, braced off the dimension wall, and shot back like an arrow—
Only for the King to intercept him with a perfectly-timed front kick that cratered Danny into the crystalline floor.
But Danny wasn't done.
He exploded upward, golden aura blasting the shattered ground aside.
His roar shook the dimension.
Wolf King answered with a roar of flame—two primal forces colliding in pure sound and fury.
The dimensional bubble warped violently.
The crowd outside jumped, several spectators falling backward as reality itself rippled like disturbed water.
One camera spontaneously combusted.
Jimmy screamed. "JULIAN, WE LOST CAMERA FIVE!"
Julian calmly adjusted a rune. "Deploying replacement camera with reinforced fire seals. Try not to panic."
"TOO LATE—"
Inside the bubble, Danny's foot collided with the King's ribs in a flying kick—
Wolf King slid back three feet, claws gouging grooves into the crystalline floor before he stopped himself.
The King looked at Danny with something new in his eyes:
Excitement.
"Good," he said. "Very good."
Danny rolled his shoulders, chest rising and falling with intense breaths. "Didn't know if that'd hit."
Wolf King's flames flared in agreement. "Your instincts sharpen as we fight."
Danny smiled faintly. "So do yours."
They rushed each other one more time.
Their auras spiraled—
Gold and blue-gold mixing in violent swirls—
Flames bending—
Light roaring—
A sphere formed in the center of the battlefield—
Growing—
Shrinking—
Twisting inward—
Brightening to unbearable brilliance—
Julian's voice cracked. "THEY ARE ABOUT TO UNLEASH LEVELS OF POWER NO LIVING ENTITY SHOULD—"
Jimmy shrieked, "WE'RE ALL GONNA—"
The dimensional bubble screamed.
The sphere pulled tighter—
Flames collapsed inward—
Gold condensed—
Space warped—
Then—
B A N G—
White swallowed everything.