The atmosphere in the Boro Arena had shifted from mere excitement to a chilling, suffocating dread. Tholac stood in the center, his silhouette flickering like a dying candle in a dark room. With a guttural roar, he unleashed his Shadow Dance technique. Dozens of dark, intangible blades erupted from his shadow, slashing toward us with relentless precision.
"Wind Shield: Vortex!" I shouted, manifesting a spinning wall of air to deflect the shadowy projectiles. Beside me, Charlotte swung her massive axe, the heavy steel whistling as she crushed the encroaching darkness.
But Tholac wasn't aiming for me. His eyes, cold and calculating, locked onto Luke. "In every pack, the weakest must be culled first," Tholac hissed. He moved with a speed that defied human biology, appearing in front of Luke in a blink. His longsword swelled with darkness, transforming into a massive, jagged black claymore.
"Die, peasant!" Tholac roared as he brought the blade down.
"Luke, get back!" I channeled my wind spirits into a focused blast, physically shoving Luke out of the path of the strike just as the dark blade shattered the stone floor where he had stood.
I stepped forward, my Steel Gauntlets glowing with an intense blue light. "Tholac! Your fight is with me. My name is Sable Kaelo, and I'm going to take you down alone."
Tholac threw his head back and laughed, a dry, rasping sound. "You? A brat who hasn't even hit puberty? You think your toys can match the depth of my darkness?"
"Luke! Charlotte! Stay back!" I commanded. Charlotte started to protest, her axe still glowing with visualization energy, but she stopped when she saw my eyes. They weren't just determined; they were glowing with a predatory azure light. "Fine," she muttered. "Just this once."
I looked at Tholac. "You use an Artifact longsword. I use Artifact gauntlets. Let's see whose resolve is stronger."
Tholac didn't waste words. He swung his massive dark blade in a wide arc. I crossed my arms, activating Circulation: Steel Reinforcement. The collision sent sparks flying as my gauntlets met his blade. But I wasn't done. I pushed my limits, layering Wind Spirit Bond for speed and Fire Circulation for explosive power simultaneously.
The crowd gasped. "Dual elements? How can a Rank 2 child manipulate two distinct flows at once?"
With a surge of strength, I shoved Tholac back. His balance wavered for a split second.
"You've forced my hand, brat," Tholac growled. He tapped into the forbidden reserves of his Artifact. The black blade began to melt, flowing over his body like liquid ink until he was encased in a terrifying Dark Plate Armor. His speed and strength tripled instantly.
Before I could react, he was upon me. I dodged a lethal vertical slash, but the wind pressure alone cut my cheek. He's faster... much faster than before, I thought, my heart hammering against my ribs.
I decided to bet everything on one strike. I gathered every drop of Atara in my body, concentrating it into my right fist. I have the talent and the knowledge of all paths... but my physical body is still ten years old. My Atara pool is too shallow, I realized with a grimace.
I pushed my Circulation to the absolute maximum—120%. I lunged forward, unleashing a barrage of punches that clashed against his dark armor. We traded blows for minutes, the sounds of metal on metal echoing like thunder. Finally, Tholac found an opening. He delivered a heavy kick to my solar plexus, sending me skidding across the arena floor.
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out. My Atara was drained. I was empty.
"Kaelo is down! The prodigy has fallen!" Jasper's voice boomed through the speakers.
Luke stood frozen, watching my limp body. His eyes were wide, filled with a haunting reflection of his past. Not again, he thought. I couldn't save my father. I couldn't save my mother. Now Kaelo... even with all my training, I'm still just that helpless ten-year-old boy.
Charlotte tried to intervene, her axe glowing with desperate energy. She launched herself at Tholac, but the dark-armored warrior simply swatted her aside with his shadow-mantle. With a single, brutal slash of his dark sword, he sent Charlotte flying out of the ring.
"One left," Tholac said, turning his gaze to Luke. "The 'lucky' survivor."
But Luke didn't look like a survivor. He looked like an omen.
Suddenly, a terrifying aura erupted from Luke's body. It wasn't the blue fire we were used to. It was something ancient, something cold and absolute. His emerald hair began to lose its color, turning a stark, ghostly white. His skin paled to the color of lilies, and his eyes turned into silver orbs of pure elemental energy.
"Is that... a High Human?" someone in the audience whispered. "But they don't live in the South! This is impossible!"
Inside Luke's mind, a barrier had shattered. My father's power... the blood of Hokaya... it's waking up, he realized. He wasn't just Luke anymore; he was the son of the Wind-Tribe, the heir to a thousand years of natural fury.
Luke moved. He didn't run; he simply disappeared. Tholac didn't even have time to raise his sword before Luke's fist smashed into his dark chest plate. The armor—designed to withstand Rank 4 attacks—cracked like glass.
"Impossible!" Tholac spat blood, his eyes wide with terror. "You were nothing! You were the weakest!"
Luke didn't answer. He coated his blade in a focused gale of white wind. Each swing didn't just cut; it erased the space in front of him. Tholac tried to defend, but Luke's strength was overwhelming. With a final, earth-shattering overhead strike, Luke released his pent-up fury.
BOOM!!!
The entire arena floor disintegrated into dust and rubble. The shockwave was so violent that the spectators in the first ten rows had to be evacuated by mages. When the dust settled, the dark armor was gone. Tholac lay in the center of the ruins, his longsword shattered, his body broken and defeated.
Luke stood over him, his white hair fluttering in the wind. Slowly, the color began to return to his hair and eyes as the transformation receded, leaving him exhausted but victorious.
Jasper stood on a piece of floating debris, his jaw hanging open. "I... I don't believe my eyes. Tholac has been defeated! The winner of the Bairoya Tournament... the champion we never saw coming... is LUKE!"
The stadium exploded in a roar that surpassed the previous ones. The "weakest link" of Blue Sky had just proven to be the most dangerous of them all.