The woman leaped
Her movement was fluid, almost graceful, as she propelled herself upward with a force that seemed to defy normal physics. She hung in the air for a moment, suspended like something not quite bound by the rules that governed normal bodies, her white and gold armour gleaming under the arena lights. Her crimson hair streamed behind her, a scarlet banner against the pale sky. Then she hurled the spear
The motion was casual, almost gentle. A flick of her wrist as if she were tossing something trivial. But the spear accelerated through the air with terrifying speed, leaving a trail of distorted air in its wake
The Umbrax roared and twisted to dodge
The spear missed the creature by inches but barely. As it embedded itself into the arena sand, the impact was apocalyptic. The ground fractured like porcelain beneath it, spreading outward in a network of cracks that resembled a miniature earthquake. Dust exploded upward. The crowd's screams intensified, a primal reaction to witnessing something that shouldn't be possible
The announcer's voice cut through the chaos with theatrical delight: "What a SPECTACLE!"
'At least she looks strong.' The thought drifted through Soren's crazed mind like smoke. 'Killing this big fox should be easier now,' he said with a little giggle at the end
It was the observation of someone running on fumes, someone whose consciousness was fragmenting into cold calculation and animal instinct. No wonder. No awe. Just utility. One more tool in a fight he had to win or die trying
The woman, suspended in the air, didn't fall
Instead, she seemed drawn toward the spear like a magnet, her body pulled forward by invisible force. The Umbrax, recovering from its dodge, saw her trajectory and reacted with predatory intelligence. Its massive tail whipped upward, a scorpion's strike aimed at the floating woman
The tail connected
But not cleanly. The woman's body bent backward with an impossible grace as she twisted mid-air, the barbed appendage missing her by inches but still catching her enough to send her flying. She careened through the air, her body arcing in a direction that should have sent her crashing into the stone walls
Instead, she slowed
Gradually, inexplicably, her descent became controlled. The air around her seemed to resist, to slow her momentum. And as she fell, her hand extended upward. The spear, still airborne and still traveling, curved through the air in a perfect arc that defied gravity
Her fingers closed around the shaft mid-air
She landed in a crouch, spear held perfectly balanced, her green eyes blazing with serene intensity. There was no strain in her expression, no sign of exertion despite having just done something impossible
'She must be a Rank 2 then,' Soren's fractured thoughts continued their scattered observations 'Both of us. Good, good, good'
There was something deeply wrong with his assessment, something hollow and detached about it. But his mind had retreated into a place where nothing mattered except survival. The woman was strong. That was all he needed to know. Strong meant the creature would have to divide its attention
Divided attention meant an opening
The creature's focus snapped back toward Soren, its yellow collar flaring brighter, its muscles tensing. The Umbrax had seen him standing still, watching. Had registered him as the weaker prey
Soren's eye widened
He had perhaps a second before the creature charged again
His body moved on pure survival instinct
He raised both hands, not thinking, just reacting. Blood began to pool in his palms, drawn from his own body by sheer force of will. His blood magic responded to his intent with terrifying immediacy. Every wound on his body contributed to it. His destroyed face, his old injuries, the fresh cuts from the Umbrax's claws
The crowd sensed what was coming
The noise shifted, became anticipatory. The sense of something building, something explosive
Soren fired
His blood railgun erupted from his palms like a cannon shot, a compressed cylinder of blood and magic that tore through the air with a sound like shattering glass. The very air seemed to bow before it, bending around the sheer force of the attack
The Umbrax opened its mouth
A purple light began to coalesce deep in the creature's throat. It grew brighter, more intense, the yellow collar around its neck flaring in synchronization. The creature was channelling its own power, drawing on the magical enhancement to create a counter-attack
The purple beam erupted outward
Soren's blood railgun and the Umbrax's beam collided in the centre of the arena pit
For a moment, they contested for supremacy. The two forces met in a brilliant explosion of purple and red light, a collision that sent shockwaves across the sand. Dust billowed upward. The crowd screamed. Even Cassian's voice was momentarily swallowed by the sound
But then the purple beam began to push through
It overwhelmed Soren's attack, the creature's magical enhancement proving superior to raw willpower alone. The blood railgun fractured, dissipating into red mist. The purple beam continued its trajectory, burning toward Soren's position
He was already moving
Not because he planned it. Because his body understood survival before his conscious mind registered the danger. He rolled sideways, his damaged face screaming in protest, his balance compromised by the swelling around his eyes. The purple beam seared past him, singing his torn clothing, leaving the smell of burned fabric and charred flesh in its wake
And then the woman moved again
She advanced toward the creature from an angle, spear ready, her movements deliberate and purposeful. Not coordinated with Soren. Not synchronized. Just happening at the same moment it mattered
'If I make a single mistake I'm dead. I guess I just have to be perfect,' The thought was ice cold, utterly detached from any gratitude or recognition. It was the calculation of someone who had already accepted that he can only rely on himself here, for in Soren's eyes trusting anyone else at this point would be the same as throwing away your life
The Umbrax had perhaps a moment to recognize the danger of having two opponents before they began their assault.
In the VIP box, Lyra leaned forward slightly, her one clear grey eye brightening with genuine interest. Her scarred face remained impassive, but her body betrayed her engagement. Cane sat rigid, his knuckles white as he gripped the armrests of his chair.
"Come on," he whispered to himself, his yellow eyes tracking the scarred fighter's movements. "Come on, come on..."
The Umbrax's roar echoed through the colosseum as Soren pushed himself forward, his body moving on pure desperation and the fading threads of consciousness that kept him tethered to survival
As he charged towards the Umbrax he could feel his senses heightening and it was as if a few illusional lines converged together from the ground up. The beast's intent, whilst it had its limitations against stronger enemies is still had its uses here and there otherwise it would have been a waste of multiple years of cultivation. It was never the magic that it weak but it's user
The right side of Soren's head started hurting and his eyes scanned around
'Shit, something big is coming!'
Something from below
"Dodge upwards!" Soren screamed the warning, his voice raw and broken from his torn throat
He didn't wait to see if the woman heard him
His hands moved on instinct. The sword bit into his left palm, then his right. The cuts were deep, deliberate, surgical despite the chaos surrounding him. Blood poured from the wounds immediately, hot and urgent. Every drop was fuel. Every drop was power
'It hurts'
The blood hovering in the air before him began to vibrate, responding to his will, to the detonation spell forming in his mind. His palms burned with the effort, blood continuing to stream from the fresh wounds, pooling and gathering in front of him
The ground beneath him erupted
The Umbrax's tail burst from the sand like a snake striking prey, the creature having buried itself partially to use the earth for leverage. The massive appendage was erupting upward with bone-crushing force, the barbed tip carving through the space where Soren had been standing
But Soren was already gone
He detonated the blood
The explosion was controlled, compressed, focused downward and backward. It launched him upward in a half somersault, his body rotating through the air as the controlled detonation propelled him skyward. The force was brutal, savage, using his own life fluid as a weapon against gravity itself
The Umbrax's tail carved through empty space, uprooting an enormous section of the arena floor in the process. Rock and sand exploded upward in a geyser of fragmented earth
But the tail didn't stop there
The creature pulled it free and swung the appendage in a vicious arc. It moved like a whip, deadly and unpredictable, aimed at both targets simultaneously. Soren, suspended in mid-air from his detonation-powered jump, twisted his body desperately to avoid the strike. The barbed tail missed him by inches, the wind from its passage tearing at his clothing
The woman had moved as well
She had understood the warning or anticipated the attack or simply reacted in the way only a powerful mage could. She rolled backward, her body flowing like water, putting distance between herself and the arc of the tail. But the creature wasn't finished
As the tail finished its swing, the Umbrax whipped the barbed appendage downward and expelled something from the very tip itself
Liquid sprayed outward
Corrosive, sizzling, poisonous liquid that burned through the air itself. Where it hit the sand, the ground smoked and dissolved. Where drops landed on the arena walls, stone blackened and crumbled. It was the kind of acid that would have melted flesh from bone in seconds if they had been caught in its path
Both Soren and the woman twisted away from the spray, their bodies rotating in mid-air to avoid the poisonous stream. They remained suspended, neither having yet begun their descent, both still caught in that impossible moment between gravity and will
The crowd was losing its collective mind
The announcer's voice cuts through the air as he waved his cane, ''"TWO SURVIVORS DEFY THE BEAST! TWO WARRIORS SUSPENDED BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY! THIS IS THE SPECTACLE THE COLOSSEUM DEMANDS!"