Chapter 181: Unfair Grounds
Chapter 181: Unfair Grounds
Raven snapped her head toward Lynx, her eyes flashing with anger. She thought he was being cruel right before a big fight, crushing Diana’s confidence. "Why would you say something like that to her right before she steps onto the stage?. She needs confidence, not fear. She needs support, not you telling her she’s going to die!"
Lynx looked Raven dead in the eye, his tone dropping into a cold, realistic rumble. He was not trying to be mean. He was trying to save Diana’s life, because he knew what was coming.
"Because you’re still treating this like an academic tournament, Raven. Look at Void’s eyes. They aren’t fighting for points anymore. They got humiliated in Phase 1, and now they’re fighting to kill and maim. They want to crush our spirits and send a message to the entire continent that Void is still supreme. This is not about winning. It’s about sending a message in blood. And Diana is one among us being the perfect target for that message."
Lynx gestured toward the referee standing around the barrier, the commentators are the nearby. They were all wearing Void Empire colors, all Void Empire citizens with cold faces.
"We are the visitors in their home," Lynx continued relentlessly. "The referees are Void Empire citizens. The tournament officials are Void diplomats. The crowd is 70% percent Void citizens. If a Void fighter goes for a lethal blow, that referee is going to ’accidentally’ delay his intervention by two seconds. Two seconds is enough to shatter a skull or break a spine. If you don’t fight with the intention to survive, you will end up in a body bag. Do you understand me, Diana?"
The enclosure went silent. The Year 3 students looked scared, their faces pale. The Year 4s and Lynx girls, clenched their fists in anger, but they knew Lynx was right.
Professor Rose gave a solemn, heavy nod. She agreed with Lynx completely. Her face was grim. "Lynx is right, Raven. The rules on paper mean nothing once the barrier seals. Diana... if the match turns bad, do not hesitate to forfeit immediately. Your life is more important than a single match. Remember that. Tap the floor and say you forfeit loud and clear."
Diana looked at Lynx, her face pale, but her eyes showing a sudden, quiet resolve. She appreciated his honesty. It scared her, but it also woke her up. It made her focus. She bowed her head shyly toward him. "Thank you for the warning, Lynx. I’ll be careful. I promise I’ll come back safe. I will forfeit if I have to."
She turned and walked up the stage ramp, stepping into the arena ring. Her steps were small but determined. Her Wind Affinity swirled around her ankles, trying to give her courage.
Across from her, stepping out of the Void enclosure, was Kain Draven, a towering, broad shouldered Year 4 veteran with short cropped silver hair, jagged scars across his neck and face, and cold, murderous amber eyes that showed no mercy, no honor, only hunger.
On his right hand, the obsidian Void ring gleamed menacingly under the arena lamps. It pulsed with a dull red light, like a heartbeat, feeding him stolen power.
"BEGIN!" the referee called out, his voice sharp and eager.
The fight began with explosive velocity.
Diana moved first. She knew she could not win in close combat against a man like Kain, who was twice her weight and four times stronger with the ring. So she used her speed, her only advantage.
Utilizing her Wind Affinity, she created high speed air currents around her boots, darting around Kain in a wide circle while throwing sharp, condensed light blades toward his torso. Her light blades glowed bright white, humming as they cut the air.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! Her blades flew fast and accurate.
She was fast, agile, and precise, her light blades striking Kain’s arms and shoulders, leaving thin, singed cuts across his dark uniform. Blood started to seep through, but Kain did not even flinch. The cuts were shallow, barely scratching him. He just stood there and let her hit him, smiling.
Driven by his four fold artifact multiplier, his baseline endurance and DEF stats were absurdly high. What would have been a deep wound for a normal fighter was just a scratch for him. His skin was like stone.
He absorbed her initial light blades with pure physical grit, his amber eyes tracking her movement patterns like a wolf stalking a deer. He was letting her tire herself out, letting her waste her MP.
"Is that all you’ve got, little Aether girl?!" Kain taunted, his deep voice echoing inside the barrier as he suddenly surged forward, slamming his fists together. His speed was shocking for his size, boosted by the ring. "My turn!"
"EARTH VOID CRUSH!"
BOOM!
Dense, black tinted stone pillars erupted violently from beneath the arena floor, blocking Diana’s evasion paths. The pillars were huge, jagged, and his dense boosted earth affinity that made them harder than steel. They formed a maze trapping her.
Diana twisted her body in mid air, using her Wind Affinity to execute a frantic double jump, her body spinning gracefully to avoid the pillars. But Kain was already waiting at her landing point. He had predicted her move, his enhanced intelligence from the ring letting him calculate her trajectory.
BOOM!
Kain delivered a brutal, heavy right hook directly into Diana’s ribs. The punch was so fast she didn’t see it.
The concussive force shattered her mana barrier in a single blow, sending a sharp, sickening crack through the air as several of her ribs fractured instantly. It was a sound that made the front rows gasp and cover their mouths.
Diana let out an agonized scream, coughing up a spray of bright blood as she tumbled across the stone floor. Her body rolled several times before stopping near the barrier edge.
"DIANA!" Raven screamed from the enclosure, her hands gripping her seat, so hard her knuckles bled white. Tears filled her eyes instantly as she screamed from where she was. "REFEREE! CALL THE MATCH! SHE’S INJURED! STOP IT! STOP THE FIGHT!"
The referee stood near the edge of the barrier, his arms folded, his face completely impassive. He made no movement to step in, ignoring Raven’s frantic screams that were drowning in the crowd, entirely. His eyes were cold, watching Diana bleed.
"She hasn’t yielded," the referee said coldly, his voice amplified by the stage array. "The match continues. She is still conscious and able to fight."
It was technically within the rules, but it was morally disgusting. Even some Void spectators looked uncomfortable.
Inside the ring, Kain walked slowly toward Diana, a cruel, mocking grin spread across his scarred face. He was enjoying her pain, enjoying the fear he was causing.
"See that?" Kain sneered, grabbing Diana by her hair and lifting her half off the ground as she gasped for breath, blood dripping from her chin onto his fist. He pulled her close so only she could hear him. "Nobody is coming to save you. Your academy is weak. Your empire is weak. You’re just target practice for us. You should have forfeited when you had the chance, little girl."
Diana did not give up. Even with broken ribs, even with blood filling her mouth, she forced her Wind Affinity to swirl around her, creating a small, desperate tornado of light and air to push Kain back. It was weak but it was all she had.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Diana screamed, her voice cracking with pain as she fired a dozen more light blades from her trembling hands. Her vision was blurry.
Kain laughed. He actually laughed out loud, the sound echoing cruelly.
He walked straight through her tornado, his earth armored body ignoring the cutting winds. His obsidian ring flared brighter, pumping more red mana into his muscles, making his veins bulge black.
"Pathetic," Kain sneered, grabbing her wrist and twisting it until her light blades fizzled out and her wrist bones cracked. "You Aether girls are all the same. Pretty, fragile, and weak. You should stay in the kitchens."
Diana tried to kick him, but her leg was weak and shaking. Kain slammed his knee into her stomach, making her vomit blood onto his boots.
Inside the Aether enclosure, Raven was no longer just screaming. She was trying to jump onto the stage herself, her Wind Affinity exploding around her in a violent storm. Professor Henry had to physically hold her back, wrapping his massive arms around her waist.
"Let me go! Let me go, Professor! He is going to kill her! He is going to kill her right in front of us and that bastard referee is letting him!" Raven cried, tears streaming down her face. Her Wind Affinity was spiraling out of control, creating a storm inside the enclosure that knocked over chairs.
Eleanor and Julian looked away, their faces grim. Even Julian, who disliked Lynx, felt sick watching this. This was no longer a tournament. This was public torture. Ava covered her mouth, feeling nauseous.
Kain raised his free fist, wrapping it in dense, jagged earth mana that glowed black and red, aiming straight for her face, a blow that, at four fold power, would easily cave in her skull and kill her instantly. He wanted to kill her to send a message.
"I... I forfeit..." Diana choked out through her bloodied lips, her hand feebly tapping the stage floor. Her voice was barely a whisper, but the array should have picked it up. A soft blue light flashed on the referee’s bracelet, indicating a formal surrender had been registered. By tournament law, the referee must stop the match instantly.
And he deliberately waited. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. He counted slowly in his head, giving Kain time.
In those three seconds, Kain’s fist came down, grinning with murderous intent.
At the very last millisecond, driven by pure instinct and the will to live, Diana channeled her remaining MP into a desperate Light Flash, blinding Kain for a fraction of a second. It was a bright, white explosion of light that lit up the whole barrier.
"ARGH! You bitch!" Kain shouted, his eyes closing involuntarily from the flash.
His heavy fist missed her face by an inch, slamming into her shoulder instead, shattering her collarbone with a brutal, sickening crunch that echoed across the silent parts of the arena.
CRACK!
Diana collapsed onto the floor, trembling violently in a pool of her own blood, barely conscious. Her body was shaking uncontrollably, her breathing shallow.
Only then did Kain step back, breathing heavily, his dark mana slowly receding as he threw his hands into the air, playing to the cheering Void crowd. The crowd cheered louder for him, not caring about Diana’s condition. They stomped their feet.
The referee finally raised his hand, his tone entirely dry and emotionless, as if nothing had happened. "MATCH FIVE VICTOR: KAIN DRAVEN FROM VOID BLESSED ACADEMY!"
The commentators went crazy, the people went crazy.
Inside the Aether enclosure, Raven was vibrating with pure, unadulterated rage. Her eyes were bloodshot, her dark hair wildly whipping around her shoulders as she stared at Kain’s triumphant smirk on the stage.
"Those bastards..." Raven snarled, her teeth grinding together so hard they might break. "They tried to kill her! The referee let him do it! He heard her forfeit! He let him hit her anyway! I will kill that bastard!"
The medics, two women in white and blue robes, sprinted onto the stage, carrying a floating stretcher made of healing light. They immediately placed their hands on Diana’s chest, pouring their light afffinity into her shattered ribs and shoulder. Their faces were pale with urgency.
Diana was conscious but barely. She looked up at the medics, whispering through bloody lips, "Did... did I... make Aether proud...? Did I... fight well...?"
One of the medics, an older woman with kind eyes looked at her, her hands glowing with healing light. "You did, child. You did. You are so brave. You are the bravest girl here. Rest now."
As they carried Diana off the stage, the entire Aether section stood up and applauded. Not cheering for victory, but applauding for her courage, for her refusal to give up.
Even some Beacon and Heather spectators stood up and clapped, showing respect for her heart. But the some of the Void crowd booed. They booed an injured girl being carried off on a stretcher, throwing trash at the medics.
That was the moment Lynx’s expression changed completely. His playful smile disappeared. His heterochromatic eyes turned cold and lethal, his killing intent leaked for the first time in a while, it was so dense the temperature around him dropped. But it quickly vanished.
He looked across the arena, directly at Kain Draven who was still flexing for the crowd, and directly at Kimberly Vane who was watching from the Void enclosure with a smirk.
And Lynx mouthed one word silently, so only they could read his lips, a promise of what was coming to them.
"Dead."
"I told you," Lynx said smoothly, stepping up beside Raven as the Aether medics rushed past them into the medical bay. His voice was calm but his eyes were filled with a cold gaze, that made even Professor Henry step back.
"They aren’t playing by the rules anymore. They are playing to destroy us, and they aren’t afraid of triggering a diplomatic crisis between empires. This was a statement. They wanted to show us they can kill us and get away with it."
Professor Mira looked at Lynx, her face grim and pale, her hands shaking with anger. "Lynx... that ring on Kain’s hand. How much did it boost his physical output during that final strike? It looked... it looked like it would have killed her if it hit her face."
Lynx looked back at Mira, his heterochromatic eyes shining with a deep, cold, transcendent promise. A promise of revenge that would be paid in blood.
"Four times, Professor," Lynx replied softly, his voice barely above a whisper but everyone in the enclosure heard it, and it made them shiver. "Four times stronger than normal. And until we start breaking their fingers and taking those rings off their corpses... they aren’t going to stop. Tomorrow, they will do it again. And tomorrow, we will start breaking fingers."