"The rules are simple!" The announcer's voice boomed over the arena. "Thirty fighters enter. Eight leave. The last ones standing advance to the Quarter-Finals!"
He raised a flag.
"Battle Royale... START!"
*GONG.*
The sound reverberated through the stone floor.
Usually, in a Battle Royale, fighters circled each other. They assessed threats. They formed temporary alliances.
Not today.
Today, twenty-eight pairs of eyes turned instantly toward one spot.
Kaelen.
He was the anomaly. The cripple. The stain on the Vane family's honor. And more importantly, taking him down was the easiest way to suck up to the Frost Sect.
"Get the trash!" a disciple from the Li family shouted. He wielded a pair of hook swords. "Break his legs for Master Jian!"
"He's mine!" another roared.
Six cultivators charged at once. They were all **Body Refining Stage 5**. The cream of the crop for Silver City's younger generation.
Elara, watching from the VIP box, looked away. She didn't want to see him die.
Jian Chen stood still, arms crossed, waiting for the show.
Kaelen sighed.
"Predictable."
He didn't take a stance. He didn't channel Qi.
He gripped the handle of the **Nameless Slab** with one hand.
The Li disciple reached him first. "Die!"
The hook swords slashed toward Kaelen's neck.
Kaelen spun.
He didn't swing the sword like a blade. He swung it like a tennis racket.
*WHOOSH.*
The slab moved so fast it created a vacuum.
*CLANG-CRUNCH.*
The slab hit the hook swords. The swords shattered into shrapnel.
The slab didn't stop. It hit the disciple.
It was like a semi-truck hitting a pedestrian.
The disciple didn't scream. He was launched. He flew thirty feet through the air, over the heads of the other fighters, and smashed into the arena wall. He stuck there for a second, like a crushed bug, before sliding down.
Silence.
The five other attackers froze mid-charge.
Kaelen rested the slab on his shoulder.
"Fore," he deadpanned.
"Monster!" one screamed. "Attack together! Flank him!"
They rushed in. Qi flared. Fireballs, wind blades, steel fists.
Kaelen didn't dodge.
**Body Refining Stage 8: Steel Bones.**
A fireball hit his chest. It singed his robe. It did nothing to his skin.
A sword struck his back. The blade chipped.
Kaelen grabbed the swordsman by the face.
"Too weak."
He threw him.
He threw the man *into* the fireball user. Both tumbled into a heap of groaning limbs.
Then Kaelen started walking.
He walked through the melee.
Every time someone got close...
*SWING.*
*CRUNCH.*
*FLY.*
It wasn't a fight. It was housekeeping. He was sweeping the trash out the door.
On the other side of the arena, Jian Chen was putting on a different show.
He drew his sword. It was made of translucent blue crystal.
"**Frost Lotus Dance.**"
He moved gracefully. Every slash released a trail of ice crystals. He froze his opponents' feet to the ground, then casually kicked them out of the ring.
"Elegant!" The crowd cheered. "Truly a genius!"
Jian Chen basked in the adulation. He froze the last opponent near him—a Zhou family heir—turning the boy into a statue.
Jian Chen looked across the arena.
He expected to see Kaelen dead.
Instead, he saw bodies.
Piles of them.
Kaelen stood in the center of a clearing. The ground around him was cracked. Weapons lay broken in shards.
Twenty fighters were down.
Only two remained standing in the center.
Jian Chen.
And Kaelen.
The crowd went silent. The contrast was jarring.
Jian Chen was spotless, surrounded by beautiful ice sculptures.
Kaelen was covered in dust, standing amidst broken bones and shattered dreams.
"You have brute strength," Jian Chen admitted, his voice carrying over the silence. "But you lack finesse. You fight like a beast."
Kaelen dragged his slab across the stone, closing the distance.
"And you fight like a dancer," Kaelen retorted.
Jian Chen's eye twitched.
"Referees!" Jian Chen shouted. "There are only two of us left standing! Declare the end of the round!"
The announcer scrambled. "Wait! Count the fallen! We need eight for the quarter-finals!"
He looked at the carnage.
"Uh... most of them have broken ribs... or concussions..."
"I don't care," Jian Chen sneered. "If they can't stand, they are out. It's just me and the trash."
"Actually," Kaelen interrupted.
He pointed his slab at the far corner of the arena.
Hiding behind a pile of crates, trembling, was a fat boy from a merchant clan. He had fainted from fear at the start of the match and had just woken up.
"He's standing," Kaelen said.
The fat boy squeaked.
"Good," Kaelen nodded. "That makes three."
Kaelen looked at Jian Chen.
"I'm bored of waiting. Let's skip the quarter-finals."
Kaelen stomped his foot.
*BOOM.*
The impact shook the entire stadium.
"You and me," Kaelen declared. "Right now. To the death."
The crowd gasped.
It was against the rules. It was against protocol.
But the bloodlust in the air was palpable. They wanted to see it.
Jian Chen smiled. A cruel, arrogant smile.
"You are in a rush to die?" Jian Chen raised his ice sword. "Fine. I accept."
The Patriarch stood up in the VIP box. "This is highly irregular! The brackets—"
"Sit down, Father," Jarek whispered, pulling him back. "Look at the crowd. If you stop this now, you'll cause a riot."
The announcer looked around nervously. He saw the anticipation.
"Very well!" the announcer screamed. "An impromptu exhibition match! The Pride of the Frost Sect versus The... uh... The Vane Family Exile!"
"FIGHT!"
Jian Chen didn't wait.
His aura exploded. **Qi Condensation Stage 5.**
The air in the arena dropped to freezing point. Frost crept up the walls.
"**Ice Dragon's Breath!**"
Jian Chen slashed.
A massive wave of jagged ice spikes erupted from the ground, rushing toward Kaelen like a tsunami.
It was fast. It was lethal. It covered the entire width of the arena. There was nowhere to dodge.
Elara covered her mouth. *He's dead.*
Kaelen watched the wall of ice coming.
He didn't step back.
He gripped the Nameless Slab with both hands. His muscles coiled. His veins turned steel-grey.
"System. **Overdrive**."
He swung.
Not a slash. A vertical smash. Straight down into the ground.
"**Earth-Shaker.**"
*KA-BOOM.*
The slab hit the floor.
The shockwave didn't go out. It went *forward*.
The stone floor rippled like a carpet being flicked.
The force collided with the ice wave.
*CRACK-SHATTER.*
The physics were simple. A shockwave through a solid medium shatters brittle structures.
The ice tsunami didn't just stop. It exploded into a million glittering diamonds.
The blast continued. It tore through the ice and rushed toward Jian Chen.
Jian Chen's eyes bulged.
He raised an ice wall.
*SMASH.*
The shockwave hit the wall. The wall crumbled. Jian Chen was blown backward, skidding fifty feet across the arena.
He dug his sword into the ground to stop himself. He looked up, hair disheveled.
The dust settled.
Kaelen stood there. Unharmed. Flicking ice chips off his shoulder.
"Is that the 'Dao of Ice'?" Kaelen asked.
He lifted his heavy sword, pointing it at the genius.
"It feels more like the Dao of Glass."