[A/N]: Since you mad lads went ahead and did it! This bonus chapter is yours, also the next target for another bonus chapter is 300 PowerStones!!
Midday sun streamed through ancient windows as every student, practitioner, and available master gathered in the central combat hall. The air hummed with anticipation. From the youngest novices to the most senior practitioners, all had been invited to observe what the Ancient One proclaimed would be "a demonstration of the eternal struggle between tradition and innovation."
The hall had been prepared with meticulous care. Protective wards lined every surface, golden inscriptions pulsing with contained energy. The stone floor bore intricate mandalas designed to channel massive mystical forces. Even the air seemed thicker, charged with potential.
"Settle yourselves," the Ancient One commanded. She stood at the center, serene and powerful in her yellow robes. "Today you will witness something remarkable. A contest between the refined mystical arts that have protected reality for millennia, and the raw, adaptive power that represents the new generation of protectors."
She gestured to her left, where four figures emerged from shimmering portals. Master Hamir stepped through first, his expression calm but alert, the stump of his missing hand tucked into his robes. His remaining hand already traced subtle preparatory gestures.
Wong followed, and for once, the usually reserved keeper of the library was playing to the crowd. He raised his arms like a wrestler entering an arena, drawing cheers and laughter. His normally serious demeanor cracked just enough to show a grin.
Master Mordo emerged with the confidence of a seasoned warrior. The Staff of the Living Tribunal materialized in his grip with a flash of mystical light. His dark eyes swept the crowd once before fixing on the center of the hall.
Finally came Kaecilius, and his discomfort with the spectacle was written clearly across his sharp features. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his pale eyes darting between the cheering students and the Ancient One.
The Ancient One smiled at their varied reactions, then turned to gesture toward the opposite side. "And now, your fellow student."
Jay stepped through the corridor doorway.
The first thing everyone noticed was the music. A portable speaker rested on his shoulder, blasting an energetic Japanese track. The driving beat and soaring vocals of "Inner Light" from Hajime no Ippo filled the hall.
Jay walked with measured steps toward the center, seemingly unbothered by the hundreds of eyes fixed upon him. When he reached his position, he lowered the speaker and removed his traveling cloak with a dramatic flourish that drew appreciative murmurs.
Underneath, he wore traditional Kamar-Taj robes, but the sight drew gasps of recognition. The fabric was deep midnight blue, nearly black, with silver threading. These weren't student robes. They were the ceremonial garments of a full practitioner.
But it was the weapon across his back that made every mystically sensitive person in the hall take an unconscious step backward.
The katana's presence was like a cold wind through the soul. Even sheathed, it radiated an aura that spoke of violence, of darkness given form and purpose. Several younger students shivered.
The Ancient One's eyes fixed on the weapon with interest, a small smile playing at her lips.
"The rules are simple," the Ancient One announced. "This combat will be non-lethal. Victory conditions are as follows: either the four masters succeed in defeating or forcing the surrender of their opponent, or Jay accomplishes the reverse against all four simultaneously."
She paused. Murmurs rippled through the assembled crowd. Four masters! Simultaneously!
"Additionally, I want every observer to pay close attention to what unfolds here. You are witnessing the evolution of mystical combat, the meeting point between ancient wisdom and adaptive innovation. Learn well."
Without further ceremony, she began weaving the complex gestures required to shift their reality. The air around them shimmered, twisted, and suddenly they were no longer in the normal combat hall. The Mirror Dimension version was vast beyond the original's limits, its impossible architecture stretching away. The assembled observers found themselves seated in tiered galleries that hadn't existed moments before.
Jay set his speaker down carefully, letting his playlist shuffle to the next track. The driving rhythm continued.
"Any last words?" Master Mordo called out, settling into his combat stance.
Jay's response was to reach for his adamantium bullet and activate Carl Creel's power. The transformation was immediate. His entire form shifted from flesh to gleaming adamantium. But he didn't stop there. His arms began to elongate and reshape, flowing like liquid metal until they terminated in perfectly balanced blades.
Then came the tachyon field. Silver distortion wrapped around his transformed arms. The combination was breathtaking and terrifying. Weapons that could cut through anything, wielded by someone whose body was unbreakable.
The four masters exchanged glances.
"Show time," Jay said, his metallic voice ringing like struck steel.
The Ancient One raised her hand. "Begin."
Kaecilius and Mordo exploded into motion. Kaecilius's hands moved in rapid, precise gestures, and suddenly the air around Jay filled with dozens of crackling energy whips. At the same moment, Mordo launched himself forward, the Staff of the Living Tribunal extending to twice its normal length.
Jay's danger sense painted the incoming attacks across his consciousness. He could see every trajectory, every point where the attacks would intersect, every microsecond window of opportunity.
His bladed arms swept in wide arcs, the adamantium blades blocking Kaecilius's energy constructs while deflecting Mordo's staff strike in a shower of sparks. But instead of retreating, Jay pressed forward, his metallic feet leaving deep gouges in the Mirror Dimension's crystal floor.
Mordo barely got his staff up in time to block a strike that would have taken his head off. The impact sent him skidding backward, his boots smoking from friction. Kaecilius conjured a portal directly in Jay's path, but Jay simply sidestepped the dimensional gateway itself.
"Impressive," Wong called out, and suddenly the floor beneath Jay's feet turned to quicksand. "But can you fight what you cannot touch?"
Jay sank up to his knees before his enhanced strength let him leap clear, but the momentary distraction was all the masters needed. Mordo struck from the left. Kaecilius attacked from the right. Both attacks would have connected—
If Jay hadn't suddenly sprouted additional arms.
His adamantium form flowed like liquid metal, creating two extra appendages that caught both masters' strikes simultaneously. The impact rang through the hall like cathedral bells, but Jay held firm, using his multiple limbs to grapple both opponents while his original arms remained free to counterattack.
The crowd erupted in amazed cheers. Several students were openly taking notes.
But while this dramatic exchange had captured everyone's attention, Wong and Hamir had been working quietly at the edges. Their hands moved in perfect synchronization, weaving identical patterns that began to resonate with each other.
Jay's danger sense suddenly screamed a warning. The threat wasn't immediate. It was building, growing, becoming something that would soon be unstoppable.
His enhanced vision swept the hall and found the source. Master Hamir knelt at the far end, his single hand tracing intricate patterns. But Jay's mystical education let him recognize the runes taking shape. Sanskrit characters that pulsed with power drawn from dimensional sources.
The Vishanti. They were opening a conduit to the Vishanti's dimension directly.
Jay's tactical mind instantly grasped the implications. The mystical energy from that realm would create a passive environmental effect that would steadily weaken him while simultaneously boosting every sorcerer in the area. Worse, the energy itself would be toxic to someone without proper mystical defenses.
Most fighters would have panicked, tried to disrupt the ritual before it could complete. But Jay had spent months learning from the Ancient One, and one of her most important lessons echoed in his mind: "Sometimes the best response to an enemy's plan is to let them think it's working."
Instead of breaking off his attacks on Mordo and Kaecilius, Jay pressed harder. His four arms moved in patterns that seemed impossible, striking from angles that shouldn't have been humanly possible while his tachyon-enhanced blades carved through their defenses.
Kaecilius, growing frustrated, decided to end things with overwhelming force. His hands wove the patterns for advanced portal combat, and suddenly, the space around Jay exploded with dimensional gateways. Each one was positioned to create an infinite falling loop.
It was a technique that had defeated dragons and demon lords.
Jay was already moving before the portals fully formed.
His danger sense guided him through the maze of gateways. But instead of simply avoiding them, he struck out with his tachyon-enhanced blades while his evasive dancing brought him directly into Master Mordo's guard.
The Staff of the Living Tribunal came up in a desperate block, but Jay's four-armed assault was too much. Two bladed arms locked the staff in place while the other two swept in from opposite directions. Mordo threw himself backward, but not quickly enough.
Twin lines of crimson appeared across both of his forearms where Jay's tachyon fields had sliced through his defenses and drawn first blood.
The hall fell silent except for the continuing soundtrack.
Wong and Hamir completed their ritual at that precise moment.
Golden light erupted from the sky, bathing the four masters in energy that made them glow like minor suns. Instantly, their wounds healed, their stamina returned, and their mystical reserves refilled. At the same time, a crushing pressure descended on Jay.
His adamantium form began to smoke as the alien energies worked against his enhanced physiology. His breathing became labored, and his movements slowed. The environmental assault was doing exactly what it was designed to do.
The four masters, now refreshed and empowered, moved to surround their apparently defeated opponent. Victory was within their grasp.
That was when they saw Jay's smile.
It wasn't the grin of a beaten man. It was the predatory expression of someone who'd been holding back.
"My turn!!"
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