The arena opened up and fighters started pouring in from every direction. Some came from the sides of the arena in groups, some came alone; those who came alone seemed to have better gear. The ground trembled beneath their boots. Some grouped up in cautious clusters, while others stood alone, silent and alert, watching every movement around them.
The arena lights dimmed. The crowd's roar faded into a low, rumbling hum. Then, a booming voice erupted from above, the holographic dwarf announcer, spinning in mid-air with his golden teeth gleaming under the red haze.
"We have new warriors!" he shouted, his voice echoing through every wall. "New blood comes for the glory of battle, to challenge the champions of the Battle Class!"
The crowd screamed, stamping and chanting.
He raised his tiny metallic arm. "For those who are new to this, let me explain how it works. It's straightforward. Hundreds of you will be dropped into the arena. You fight. You survive. You either knock your opponents out… or kill them." As each fighter stepped into the arena, a faint projection blinked to life above their heads, a glowing number showing the value of the bet placed on them.
100,000 drakons. 1.2 million. 5 million. 10 million.
The crowd erupted in roars as the higher-valued warriors appeared, their armor gleaming, their limbs replaced with cybernetic prosthetics humming with power. Some had fully mechanical torsos, their eyes burning with synthetic light. They were killers built for sport.
Kurogami stood among them, plain compared to the rest. His readout glowed "100,000 Drakons." The lowest of them all, He wore no armor, only his cargo pants, white shirt, and the black mask clinging to his face like a living shadow. With barely 12% Khaos energy. Barely anything.
He closed his eyes briefly, tapping into his Chaos sense. The sea of energy was calm like a river, moving gradually "I wonder what I'm capable of doing with this amount of Khaos energy." When he opened them, his pupils glowed faintly, the world around him shifting. Streams of colored Chaos essence flowed from every warrior: blue, red, green, and shades between. The colors twisted around their cybernetics, feeding into the metal and amplifying their bodies.
Then, something caught his eye. Two figures standing side by side in the opposite lane. One had crimson-red hair, the other dark blue, a girl with a cold, confident aura. Both wore matching half-masks covering their faces from nose to chin, similar to Kurogami's, but with different internal designs. Unlike the others, they had no visible prosthetics, just raw presence.
Their betting numbers hovered above them: 500,000 Drakons each. Their weapons were drawn, chaos-infused blades, one humming with energy so dense it bent the air around it.
Kurogami's gaze lingered. He didn't know why, but a strange sense of familiarity hit him, faint but real. "Have I seen them before? " He thought.
Across the battle zone, the girl Kaia noticed him too. Her eyes widened beneath the mask. She whispered to her companion, Shin, "That face… could it be… Kurogami?"
Shin glanced over, frowning. "It can't be. Not here. What would he be doing in a death arena like this?"
Kaia's grip on her weapon tightened, unease flashing through her eyes. She remembered him, his aura, his calmness, the faint trace of chaos she'd once felt before. But here? In City Z's blood arena? Impossible.
Kurogami didn't move. Their eyes met for a brief second, tension sharp enough to slice the air.
Then, above them, the dwarf's laughter echoed again. He continued with the rules
"Every time you take an opponent down, their precious drakons get transferred straight into your account, and this is based on who gets the last hit."
He chuckled, spinning midair again. "So simple, right? Kill, and collect. At the end, when only one of you remains… You face something special."
The crowd quieted.
He leaned forward, whispering through the speakers like a devil's hiss."You'll face The Hollow Reaver."
A tremor rolled through the audience, half excitement, half fear.
"Yes, yes, you heard me!" he laughed, eyes burning red. "The Hollow Reaver, our precious mid-boss, the butcher of six hundred men! If you win against him, the payout multiplies depending on your odds. One fight… could make you rich for life."
He paused, expression twisting into mock disappointment. "But lately… people have been redeeming early. Cowards, the lot of you. Snatching your credits and running before the fun begins."
He slammed his tiny fist down. "So the Reaper Gang has decided, new rules tonight!"
The lights flickered crimson.
"When one person remains, you CANNOT exit. You CANNOT forfeit. If you refuse to fight The Hollow Reaver… your entire earnings will be erased. Every single drakon."
Gasps echoed across the stands. Even the fighters stiffened, glancing at one another.
"Oh, don't look so shocked," the announcer sneered. "The Reaper Gang wants blood, and you're the entertainment. There'll only be a handful of survivors tonight… and that's how we like it."
He threw his arms wide, spinning in glee. "So, my beautiful monsters, are you ready to make me proud? To make the floor shine red?"
He laughed wildly, his golden teeth glinting under the light.
"Splendid! Let the battle BEGIN!"
The crowd exploded in madness, chants, roars, and the rising metallic clang of the arena gates unlocking.
The battle as begun A fist flew through the air, smashing into someone's face with a crack so sharp it silenced the first few seconds of the arena. Blood sprayed, a tooth spun midair, and the crowd screamed in delight.
The man who threw the punch stood tall, his betting value flickering 1.5 million drakons above his head. He stared down at the corpse of his former ally, who barely had 200,000.He grinned, wiping blood from his knuckles."Easy money."
Then he turned, laughing wildly, and charged straight into another group.
Explosions flared. Metal clashed. The arena became a blur of flashing lights and screams. Cybernetic limbs twisted and snapped. Chaos essence rippled like shockwaves across the field.
The scoreboard above ticked down fast:100… 95… 90… 70.
Bodies hit the floor as fast as bets changed hands.
Across the battlefield, Kaia and Shin moved together like shadows woven in rhythm. Kaia, a twin blades shimmered in arcs of cold silver light, swift, calculated, beautifully merciless. She darted between three opponents in a zigzag blur, slicing one throat, spinning low, then cutting upward in a clean vertical slash that left another bisected. Blood mist filled the air like red smoke.
Her final opponent swung a cyber-blade toward her head. She caught his wrist mid-strike, twisted, and in a flash of motion, his hand, legs, and neck dropped all at once.
Shin's greatsword roared through the chaos beside her. His swings were heavy, deliberate, filled with controlled destruction. One wide arc split a cybernetic brute clean down the chest, the same brute who'd betrayed his allies earlier. Sparks and blood sprayed together as the metal giant crashed to the floor.
All around, the crowd screamed their approval.
Kurogami, however, hadn't moved. He stood still, his white shirt fluttering from the pressure of nearby blasts. The small number above his head, 100,000 Drakons, made him invisible to the predators around him. No one wasted time on cheap prey. Perfect.
He watched. Calculated. His eyes flickered faintly with Khaos essence, reading the battlefield like a map.
Different colors of power bled across the warriors' bodies: blue for lightning, red for combustion, green for organic growth. And beneath those, faint threads of impurity twisted inside the cybernetics.
Then, in the distance, the ground shook.
A massive fighter roared, his arms snapping open to reveal twin chainsaws. The whir of the blades screamed over the noise. He charged, cutting through men like paper. Flesh and steel sprayed as he spun the blades in circles, forming a whirling sphere of death. Every strike carved the air into ribbons, each swing faster, heavier, louder.
Ten men fell in seconds.
The chainsaw-wielder grinned a metallic sound rumbling in his throat. He clenched his jaw, and suddenly the saws broke apart into dozens of smaller spinning chains, whipping around him like fiery serpents.
Anyone who stepped close was shredded in an instant.
Kaia and Shin landed nearby, their blades humming with Chaos essence. They locked eyes with the monster.
He towered over them, his cybernetic plating glowing with overdrive energy. His right hand folded inward, then reformed into a massive cannon.
With a mechanical hiss, it charged.
BOOM.
A beam of searing light exploded from his arm, tearing through the ground toward Kaia and Shin, and the next phase of the blood war began.