High above the roaring, packed amphitheater, the air buzzed with electricity.
Tens of thousands of spectators leaned over the iron railings, their voices merging into an overwhelming roar that vibrated through the reinforced stone foundations.
Suspended in a private, shadow-veiled VIP balcony overlooking the arena floor, Trace Falger rested his chin on his gloved hand, his sharp, calculating eyes locked onto the stage.
* NAME: TRACE FALGER
* TITLE: Master of the Tournament / Cruel Commander
* THREAT LEVEL: Fatal
“Let’s see this battle,” Trace murmured, a faint, cold smile creeping onto his face.
“Let’s see how Tez fights when everything is on the line.”
Down on the main combat floor, the central stadium announcer floated above the center ring on a mechanical platform.
He raised his voice into a magic-amplified microphone, his words echoing across the entire stadium.
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!” the host shouted, waving his hand toward the two fighters.
“In the blue corner, we have the rising wildfire—TEZ! He enters this ring with an immaculate record of 5 battle wins and 0 defeats! And in the red corner, his opponent—the lethal sniper of absolute precision—HUMA! She also boasts an unbeatable record of 5 wins and 0 defeats! Both candidates stand as equals… but after this match, one of their undefeated streaks will be shattered forever!”
The crowd erupted into deafening cheers.
On the field, Tez stretched his arms, adjusting his headband as his heart hammered against his ribs.
Cold sweat trickled down his neck.
[ STATUS WINDOW: TEZ ]
* RECORD: 5 Wins / 0 Losses
* CLASS: Flame Brawler
* STATE: Nervous / Maana Normal
Why am I getting so nervous all of a sudden?
Tez thought, taking a deep, steadying breath.
I’ve fought tough opponents before, but something about her energy feels completely different.
Across the ring, HUMA cracked her knuckles, her eyes flashing with pure aggression as she locked her sight onto Tez.
She adjusted her dark combat gear, taking a heavy stance.
[ STATUS WINDOW: HUMA ]
* RECORD: 5 Wins / 0 Losses
* CLASS: Lethal Ordnance / Laser Master
* WEAPON: Heavy Firearms / Laser Blood
“I am gonna crush you!” HUMA declared loudly, her tone leaving zero room for doubt.
“ALRIGHT!” the host bellowed, dropping his arm.
“LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!”
Before the announcer’s voice could even echo out, HUMA acted with frightening speed.
In a blur of motion, she summoned a massive, heavy sniper cannon to her shoulder.
She aimed instantly at Tez’s chest and pulled the trigger.
BOOOOM!
A heavy, explosive projectile tore through the air, breaking the sound barrier as it hurtled straight toward Tez!
Tez’s instincts kicked in just in time.
He threw his body to the left, narrowly dodging the blast.
The heavy bullet grazed the magical protection shield surrounding the arena ring.
The moment it hit the barrier, the enchanted shield reflected the bullet straight back into the ring with 2x SPEED!
“What?!” Tez gasped.
The reflected bullet zipped back toward him like a streak of lightning.
Tez twisted his torso violently, dodging the returning round roughly as it slammed into the stone behind him, detonating into a crater of fire and dust.
Without giving him a single second to breathe, HUMA racked the bolt of her sniper cannon and began shooting continuously at Tez.
Heavy armor-piercing rounds rained down across the arena floor, forcing Tez to vault, roll, and leap frantically across the shattered cobblestones.
“HEY!!” Tez shouted, leaping over another explosive trail.
“GO EASY ON ME!”
As he ducked behind a falling stone pillar, Tez’s mind raced.
If I get shot by even one of those bullets, it’s going to be impossible to stand up after that kind of blast!
I can’t stay on the defensive!
Tez stopped in his tracks, slammed his right fist directly into the ground, and channeled his heat energy downward.
[ ABILITY ACTIVATED ]
* SKILL: MAGMA BURST
* USER: TEZ
* EFFECT: Converts nearby terrain into erupting magma blocks to crush enemy weaponry.
CRACK!
BOOM!
The ground beneath HUMA split open violently.
Molten, glowing magma blocks erupted from the earth right beneath her feet, surging upward like a fiery jaw.
HUMA reacted instantly, backflipping away into the air—but the intense heat and rising lava blocks caught her heavy weapon, crushing and melting her sniper cannon into useless scrap metal!
HUMA landed lightly on her feet, kicking away the melted remnants of her cannon.
She looked up at Tez with a calm, dangerous glare.
“Do you really think you can stop me like this?” HUMA sneered.
She closed her eyes for a split second, drawing deep from her internal energy pool.
[ SPECIAL POWER ACTIVATED ]
* USER: HUMA
* TYPE: Innate Bloodline Fusion
* EFFECT: Converts blood into superheated laser energy to empower weapons.
Raising her fingernail, HUMA slashed a deep line across her palm.
Crimson blood welled up from the cut, but instead of dripping normally, it glowed with a blinding, incandescent red light.
Tez gasped, taking a step back.
“What are you doing?!”
“SPECIAL ART: LASER BLOOD TECHNIQUE!” HUMA cried out.
She slammed her bleeding palm onto a standard secondary firearm.
The moment her glowing blood touched the metal casing, the weapon absorbed the divine laser energy.
The entire gun transformed, radiating an intense, high-frequency red aura that hummed with fatal power.
[ WEAPON CREATED ]
* ITEM: LASER PISTOL
* USER: HUMA
* ATTACK TYPE: Piercing Light
“LASER PISTOL!” HUMA shouted, raising the weapon and firing instantly!
PEW!
The beam moved faster than normal perception.
Before Tez could even register her movement, a beam of superheated crimson light pierced straight through his left shoulder!
“WHAT?!” Tez cried out, staggering backward as smoke rose from the burning hole in his shoulder armor.
“That’s so fast… and it hurts like crazy!”
HUMA didn’t slow down for a fraction of a second.
She materialized an M4A1 RIFLE into her right hand with a crazy, wild smile spreading across her face.
She poured her LASER BLOOD across the rifle’s barrel, empowering the automatic weapon.
TAK-TAK-TAK-TAK-TAK-TAK!
Thousands of glowing red laser bullets erupted from the barrel in an overwhelming, inescapable wave, sweeping across the entire arena floor toward Tez!
Tez pushed his body to its absolute limit, dodging the incoming barrage very roughly—sliding under beams, flipping off falling rocks, and twisting his frame.
Yet, the sheer density of the attack was too high.
Multiple laser rounds scraped his arms, legs, and torso, leaving painful, searing burns across his body.
From her position in the stadium, HUMA kept the pressure on, her voice carrying over the sound of gunfire.
“Just abort the match, Tez! You have no chance against this volume of fire!”
Up in the spectating stands, Weza watched the battle with his jaw slightly open.
“Oh shit! That is… so cool!”
Rihasa, sitting beside him with his arms crossed, turned around and smacked Weza on the shoulder.
“What do you mean cool?! Your comrade is balancing between life and death right now and you think it’s cool?!”
Meanwhile, back in the arena medical wing, Sha lay on a hospital bed, watching the match on a floating crystal projection screen.
He leaned forward, squinting at the screen.
“Wow… That girl is totally crazy… but I think she’s severely underestimating Tez.”
Back on the burning battlefield, Tez gritted his teeth, feeling the intense burn of the laser wounds.
He knew he couldn’t keep taking direct hits.
Pushing his internal energy, he opened his skill tree.
[ COMBAT BUFFS ENGAGED ]
* SPEED MASTERY: 30%
* ENDURANCE MASTERY: 20%
* MAANA COST: 80% OF TOTAL RESERVES
Tez used SPEED MASTERY 30% to drastically boost his reaction time for dodging, while simultaneously deploying ENDURANCE MASTERY 20% to harden his body and reduce the physical impact of the stray laser rounds hitting his skin.
However, the cost was immense.
To maintain these dual physical masteries, Tez was forced to burn through 80% OF HIS TOTAL MAANA in a matter of moments.
Damn it!
Tez thought desperately, his breathing coming in heavy, ragged gasps.
I don’t have much Maana left at all!
If this fight keeps going at a long distance like this, I am definitely going to lose.
I have to do something right now!
Across the field, HUMA was also breathing heavily, sweat glistening on her forehead.
The heavy usage of her LASER BLOOD was taking its toll.
“My Maana is draining fast…” HUMA said, lowering her rifle slightly as she caught her breath.
“Why won’t you just quit?!”
Tez wiped the blood from his lip, his eyes blazing with pure, unbroken determination.
“Because that word is not in my dictionary!”
Gathering the remaining heat within his core, Tez unleashed a massive wave of fire around his body.
[ SPECIAL TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED ]
* SKILL: LAVA TORNADO
* USER: TEZ New chapters come out on g.com first.
* EFFECT: Creates a swirling vortex of molten flame to neutralize all incoming long-range projectiles.
The roaring vortex of liquid fire and wind swept across the ring, completely consuming and dismissing all the incoming laser bullets in a blinding burst of heat!
EXPLOSION!
A massive blast echoed through the arena, sending a cloud of dense smoke and ash billowing into the sky.
When the haze cleared slightly, both Tez and Huma were visibly exhausted, their shoulders heaving as they struggled to maintain their fighting stances.
Suddenly, Tez burst through the lingering smoke using the absolute last burst of his SPEED MASTERY 30%!
He closed the distance between them in a microsecond, appearing directly in front of HUMA.
Before she could raise her gun, Tez grabbed her arm, pivoted his hips, and threw her forcefully onto the hard stone ground!
THUD!
HUMA hit the stone, gasping for air as her weapon clattered away.
“HEY! What was that?!”
Before Tez could follow up his attack, a strange, unnatural chill settled over the stadium.
FWIIP!
Out of nowhere, a sleek, dark projectile materialized in the air and slammed directly into the center of the fighting ring, pinning itself deep into the stone between Tez and Huma.
[ HAZARD DETECTED ]
* ITEM: BLACK ARROW
* SOURCE: TRACE FALGER
* LETHALITY: FATAL / IMMEDIATE DEATH ON CONTACT
Tez blinked, taking a step back as he stared at the dark weapon.
“Who the hell uses a bow in a match like this?!”
A smooth, terrifying voice echoed down from the high VIP balcony, carrying clearly through the silent arena.
“I thought this battle was actually going to be interesting,” the voice sneered calmly.
“I came here expecting to see many deaths… but you fools are simply not dying! So, I am adding these black arrows to the equation. Whoever gets shot by one… may just die.”
The crowd gasped in shock as the figure stepped into the light of his balcony.
It was TRACE FALGER.
This was the very first time Tez met him face to face.
TRACE FALGER stared down at the ring, his dark eyes locked directly onto Tez’s position.
A twisted, sadistic laugh escaped his lips.
“Continue the fight! Let me see those eyes, children… haha!”
Tez looked up at the high balcony, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists in absolute rage.
“If I wasn’t so tired right now,” Tez growled under his breath, “I would jump up there and kick his entire bloodline’s ass!”
HUMA pushed herself up from the ground, wiping dust from her cheek as she glared at Tez.
“Oh, really?! Hey, Tez! Listen to me! This is a fight and if you want to win, you have to see me as an enemy!”
Tez turned his eyes back to her, his tone dropping into a serious, genuine pitch.
“You are just my opponent, Huma. Not my enemy!”
Turning his head back up toward TRACE FALGER, Tez shouted at the top of his lungs, “THIS IS NOT FAIR TO INTRUDE IN OUR BATTLE!”
Up on the balcony, TRACE FALGER simply smiled, leaning over the railing.
“Oh? Fairness? I only have words for fairness… CARE OR TEAR OUT. The choice is entirely yours.”
Tez stood frozen for a moment, the heavy words echoing in his mind.
“What!?”
Despite the sudden, deadly intervention of the black arrows, the referee did not call off the match.
The magical barrier remained active, locking both fighters inside the hazardous ring.
The battle continued!
“We need to focus, Huma!” Tez yelled, dropping back into a defensive stance while keeping one eye on the sky for more falling arrows.
HUMA retrieved a secondary weapon, her eyes sharp.
“Don’t tell me what to do! I can do whatever I want!”
As they circled each other, Tez’s mind worked in overdrive.
How do I win this battle without getting shot by her lasers?
And more importantly…
I don’t want Huma to get shot by those deadly black arrows either!
At the same time, HUMA was secretly battling her own internal thoughts.
I hold the advantage because I can shoot from a long distance, but if Tez wants to attack, he needs to get close to me.
But… what if Tez gets shot by an arrow?
Why am I caring about him right now?!
Up in his chair, TRACE FALGER grinned wider, resting his head back.
“Now… the battle is finally going to get interesting.”
In the audience stands, Weza and Rihasa stood up on their seats, shouting for the fight to continue!
Tez took a step forward, glaring determinedly at HUMA.
“If you get shot by an arrow, Huma, I am not being a worthy winner! Don’t get shot by the arrow, Huma!”
HUMA blinked in surprise, her cheeks flushing slightly before she snapped back at him.
“WHAT?! Okay, I think it’s right. You also idiot, don’t get shot!”
The air inside the arena grew dangerously dense.
The crackle of laser energy, the glow of lingering magma, and the eerie, pulsing threat of dark arrows hanging overhead wrapped the stadium in an intense, high-stakes atmosphere as both exhausted fighters prepared for their final exchange.
To be continued…..