The giant stone arena stretched beneath a gray sky, as if the clouds were holding their breath, waiting to see who would live and who would be erased.Fourteen other survivors stood at the edges, watching.
In the center of the arena, John Smith stood in utter silence, his back straight, his head tilted slightly as he usually did when evaluating his prey.No emotion appeared in his eyes.Just a pristine coldness, as if his soul had lost human warmth long ago.
To his right stood Oro Lex, his black hair and eyes glowing like molten copper.In his breath there was a firm tension…A tension not without absolute determination to survive.
Jimmy Froth, the sneeringly smiling director, announced:
"John Smith… the cold experimenter.
Special ability: none.Acquired ability: control over metallic particles in your body and surroundings.John Smith— a useful ability.
Oro Lex… the survivor from the slums.
Special ability: the element of cutting.Acquired ability: manipulation of surrounding heat.
Remember: the winner gains one of the dead man's abilities.The loser… is nothing but another corpse."
Silence for a few seconds, then he added as he looked at Oro:
In Oro's eyes, there was a strange spark between anger and challenge.He whispered:"I don't need your pity… nor the sympathy of this audience."
As for John… he didn't utter a word.He merely raised his right hand, as if testing the density of the air between his fingers.Fine threads of iron dust slowly rose around him, then settled again upon his skin.One calm movement, but it was enough to freeze everyone's breath.
The two exchanged a long gaze:
Oro clenched his fist, a miniature sun glowing behind his back.
John watched with eyes that did not see an opponent but an equation.
This was the first round… and survival belonged to whoever deserved both ability and memory.
Jimmy Froth raised his hand slightly, then dropped it into the frozen air:
"Begin."
At that moment, silence spoke louder than any cheer or scream.In the eyes of the others, one question gleamed:Which of them would be the first to be erased… and the first to inherit the other?
In that suspended gray silence, Oro Lex stood trying to catch his breath.His body's heat was still high after summoning the sun sphere. His arms trembled from the strain.And yet…He was not ready to retreat.
He looked at John, who stared back with that same provoking coldness.He saw in his eyes the absence of any emotion, the absence of any interest even in life or death.He remembered the moment in his childhood when he sat near the corpses of his parents, unable to understand why he felt a void greater than grief itself.
He inhaled slowly.
(If I don't use it now… I won't get a second chance.)
He stretched out his right hand before his chest, as if catching a thin thread no one else could see.At that moment…The temperature around him rose slightly, but it was different from the flame of the sun.This was a sharp heat… a heat that melted things from within.
In his mind, one thought:(If I don't cut everything around me… I won't survive.)
John, meanwhile…Watched the subtle shift in his opponent's aura.Iron particles moved slowly around his forearms, ready for any new wave of attack.
Oro muttered in a voice only he could hear:"…I came here to change everything."
Then he slowly raised his eyes, and in his rough voice declared:"Cut."
No light exploded.No flame ignited.No sound resounded.
Only…The air itself split into two layers.A thin line cleaved the distance between them, from beneath Oro's feet to the edge of the arena.It was nothing but a blade of air unseen…But sharp enough to slice through iron, stone, and flesh alike.
John understood it in less than a second.
In the blink of an eye, he compressed all the iron and lead particles toward his body, forming a hazy shield whirling around him at great speed.The thin line pierced the shield…The metal cracked, shattered into flying fragments, but the momentum slowed just enough for John to bend sideways and avoid the cut to his neck.
Still, a strand of his white hair was sliced and fell gently to the ground.
He stepped back half a pace, silently watching Oro.The fight had risen to another level.It was no longer an exchange of crude attacks, but a duel of wills.
In John's mind, his analytical voice flowed:(Solar heat… then the cutting element… most likely he can merge them.Remaining energy in his body: less than 20%.But one wrong step… ends the fight.)
As for Oro…He felt sweat trickling beneath his neck.Summoning the cut had burned half his energy at once.If his opponent didn't fall quickly… he wouldn't have the strength for another strike.
But his eyes hadn't lost their gleam.
"This is the distance between us…" Oro whispered."…And I'll shorten it, even if I tear everything apart."
He raised his palm again.This time, the cutting thread repeated in another direction, angled toward John's thigh.
But John didn't wait.He moved.
In an instant, he pressed metallic particles beneath his feet and surged forward at blinding speed.The cutting thread passed behind him, slicing the earth in silence.
(I'm close enough.)He raised his hand.Iron particles clustered before his fist.
But then he felt sudden heat.
Oro, with a weary smile, whispered:"…And if I merge them?"
With a flick of his hand, the cutting thread ignited with solar heat.
A line of golden light split the air, blazing with a ferocity that nearly blinded the eye.The difference between matter and energy vanished.The cut became… annihilation.The golden thread extended like a continuous lightning bolt, cleaving air and sound alike.For one second, everyone in the arena felt time shrink around that flash.
John had no luxury of retreat.His cold calculation told him if he tried to dodge, he would surely be cut.So…He released all the metallic particles he had compressed into his body, in one burst, across his chest and arms.
A rotating magnetic barrier condensed until it looked like a solid gray mass.
The golden light struck the barrier.No sound of shattering was heard.But a faint echo… like the sigh of an ancient death.
The metal exploded.
Small fragments became red dust swirling around them both.But the strike didn't stop.
The thread of cut and heat pierced the defenses, continuing toward its target.
John twisted his shoulder sharply to avoid a direct strike to his heart or neck.Yet he felt the hot air seep into his ribs.He knew he was wounded.
The last spark tore through half his torso, slicing part of his chest and shoulder.
A thin line of blood etched across his pale skin.He staggered half a step back, his chest rising and falling in uneven rhythm.
Oro too staggered.Merging the cutting element with solar heat had exhausted his heart and drained all remaining energy.He sank to his knees, gasping, pressing his hand against his chest to keep from collapsing entirely.
His vision wavered.He could see nothing clearly except the shadow of his opponent standing amid the cloud of blood and iron.
"It's over…" Oro muttered hoarsely."Whatever the result… I won't regret it."
As for John, he slowly raised his head, his half-dimmed eyes watching his barely-standing opponent.His trembling hands relaxed.
"This… is the first time… I've had to reveal all my cards."He said it with a tone closer to calm astonishment, as if speaking to himself.John Smith planted his feet in the dusty ground, raising his hand as though drawing an invisible circle.He spoke in a low voice, more like recording a note than boasting:
"Iron… lead… they're only the first stage of understanding.Every element carries a spectrum of explosion, every particle capable of fusion.In the first month after I emerged from Seraphin's Gate in the transparent world…I was alone. So I tested everything my body could hold."
His eyes glowed with an unseen light.He had not only controlled metallic particles, but understood their structure.
"Hydrogen… oxygen… sodium."He said it like a code.
He raised his finger, and a small blue flash burst in the air before him, visible only to those who focused.
Suddenly… vision collapsed.Oro found himself in a fog of memories.
Inside his head, as if time was lost.He saw himself standing in a small field behind his father's hut, then a glimpse of fire.His mother's scream, then… silence.
"It wasn't an accident… it wasn't chance… but a message."
A voice inside told him that this grief was the key to his power.He returned from his trance to the crackle of energy swelling in his right hand.
"You're an expert in elements… and I was born to cut them."Oro said, his eyes ablaze.
The Split Cut — first use.
He stretched out his hand, and with only two fingers, drew a fissure in the air…The void itself shrank, as if atom split from atom.
An attack that did not cut flesh… but cut the laws of matter.
John did not smile.He only whispered:
"You fell for the trick."
The mental fog… was a constructed illusion.Part of the hydrogen and oxygen response had turned Oro into a reactive bubble.
Then… sodium explosion.
From beneath him, a pure white flash burst, igniting under his feet like a ground strike.
The heat shattered his balance point.Yet even as he fell, he raised his hand and slashed the air once more.
The arena shook.Particles of light, air, and metal, all fused and interacted in a scene like the inside of a dying star.
John clutched his chest.Another wound had torn his shoulder, but he was still standing.
Oro, however, had fallen to his knees once more, this time drained of his very mental strength.
"I didn't come here to live."He said it while bleeding.
"But… I can still fight."
Silence loomed.Each of them had lost more than half of their strength.But in their eyes… the battle was not yet over.