The silence Kael left behind did not linger, it suffocated.
For a single heartbeat, the entire arena held its breath—not out of anticipation, but instinct. Something had changed the moment he stepped onto the field. It wasn't just power. It was presence. A distortion, subtle but undeniable, like reality itself had shifted to accommodate him.
Then the ground beneath his feet cracked. Not from impact, From pressure. Thin fractures spread outward in slow, deliberate lines, carving through the obsidian floor as heat shimmered faintly in the air around him. A dull red glow began to bleed through those cracks, pulsing like a heartbeat beneath the surface. Kael didn't move. He didn't need to.
Across from him, Levi's hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. To his side, Nara's gaze sharpened. They both felt it. This wasn't someone you tested. This was someone you take care of immediately. Levi spoke first, his voice low, controlled. "…We deal with him first." Nara didn't hesitate. "Then we finish this." No argument. No pride. Just understanding.
Kael smiled faintly beneath his hood. "Good." The word had barely left his mouth—and Levi disappeared. The arena detonated beneath his step. A vacuum implosion marked his acceleration, collapsing the air behind him as he crossed the distance in less than an instant. His blade left its sheath with a sound so sharp it seemed to split the air itself. He didn't aim for Kael's body. He aimed through him. A single horizontal strike. Clean. Absolute. For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then—The world split.
A line carved across the arena, perfectly straight, stretching from one end of the colosseum to the other. The reinforced obsidian—layered with centuries of enchantments—offered no resistance. It parted cleanly, as though reality itself had been sliced open. A deafening roar followed as the two halves of the battlefield shifted apart by mere inches, the cut so precise it took time for gravity to catch up. Gasps erupted from the stands. Even the Year 2 students fell silent. That wasn't a strike meant to injure. It was a declaration. Kael stood at the center of it. Unharmed.
The space around him shimmered—warped—not like a shield, but like the strike had been forced to bend around him, its trajectory subtly altered at the last possible moment. His head tilted slightly. "…Fast."
Levi was already behind him. A second strike descended—vertical this time, aimed to cleave him from shoulder to waist. Kael moved. Not fast. Not sudden. Just enough.
His body shifted a fraction to the side as his hand rose lazily—and caught the flat of the blade. The impact didn't ring. It exploded.
A violent shockwave tore outward, cracking the already fractured arena further as Levi's momentum drove into Kael's single raised hand. For a moment, the two forces locked—speed against weight, precision against overwhelming density.
Then Kael pushed. Levi was thrown back. Not sent flying—forced back, his boots grinding into the ground as he absorbed the force, carving deep trenches before stopping. A faint burn mark trailed across the blade of his sword.
Behind Kael—Nara had already begun. The air around him distorted, not with heat, but with collapse. Fragments of stone, dust, and residual energy lifted from the ground and froze midair, suspended in a silent field of control. Then they broke apart. Not shattered. Reduced.
Each fragment decomposed into finer and finer particles until they resembled a dark, drifting mist surrounding him. Nara raised his hand. And the world followed.
The entire section of arena in front of him warped inward, as if pulled by an invisible force
Kael stood at the center of it.
For the first time—His smile widened. "…Now that's better." The red glow beneath his feet surged.
No— It ignited.
Flames erupted. Not wild, not uncontrolled, Focused, they wrapped around his body in slow, coiling streams, clinging to him like living fire. The ground beneath him blackened instantly, melting at the edges as heat distorted the air in violent waves.
Then he stepped forward, everything stopped, Nara's compression stalled, Levi's next movement halted not physically, instinctively, because the moment Kael moved—the pressure spiked.
BOOM.
He vanished, the crater he left behind collapsed inward as the air detonated outward, and in the same instant, he appeared in front of Nara, a single punch, no technique, no flourish, just raw force wrapped in burning red.
Nara reacted instantly. His arm came up, coated in that dense, black layer of condensed energy—and the collision shattered the ground beneath them.
A shockwave erupted outward, flattening everything within a twenty-meter radius. The split arena widened further as both halves shifted violently under the impact.
For the first time—Nara moved, not by choice, he slid back, his feet dug into the ground, leaving deep grooves as he absorbed the force, his arm trembling—not breaking, but pushed.
Kael didn't follow; he turned, Levi was already there, their clash was silent, too fast.
Blade met flame in a blur of motion that twisted the air itself. Levi's strikes came in rapid succession—each one precise, lethal, aimed for vital points with surgical intent. Kael didn't block them all, he didn't need to, some he deflected, some he avoided, some he simply let graze past, the heat around his body distorting their path just enough to keep them from landing clean.
Then—He grabbed Levi's wrist; the motion was abrupt. Final, Levi's eyes sharpened—and Kael drove his knee forward, the impact detonated like a cannon.
Levi was launched backward, crashing through broken stone before regaining his footing mid-slide, his blade dragging across the ground to stabilize himself, a thin line of blood traced from the corner of his mouth.
Silence fell again. Brief, heavy, then Levi exhaled, "…Yeah." He straightened. "That's not normal."
Nara stepped forward again, his presence stabilizing the space around him as the fragmented particles reformed, orbiting him in tighter, denser patterns. "We end him first." Levi nodded once, no hesitation, no pride left, only intent. Across from them—Kael rolled his shoulder slightly, as if loosening it, "Finally." The flames around him intensified, rising higher, burning hotter, their color deepening into a violent, molten red, "This is what I was waiting for." The ground beneath all three of them gave way, not from damage, from pressure,
Then—They moved, Levi struck first, his blade carving a diagonal arc that tore through what remained of the arena floor, sending a massive slab of obsidian into the air. Nara followed.
His hand closed—and the airborne mass compressed instantly, collapsing into a dense, spinning construct before being launched forward with devastating force, Kael stepped into it, not away.
Into it, his fist ignited brighter—and he shattered it.
The explosion that followed consumed the center of the battlefield, sending fire, debris, and shockwaves tearing through the arena in all directions.
From within the chaos—three figures emerged, unharmed, unstoppable.
And now—serious, the real fight had begun.
End of chapter 20