Chapter 163: The Ones Who Remain
The arena floor had begun to crack. Not from one fight, but from hundreds. Blades had scored deep lines across the earth. Fire had blackened its edges. Blood, ash, and glass shimmered like scattered rain under the arena’s flickering dome.
Jin sat quietly in his suspended glass prism, arms crossed, eyes unblinking.
Another match ended below. A girl with a glaive spun forward, catching her opponent just under the ribs. A clean, practiced motion. The crowd—the combatants watching from their own prisms—didn’t cheer. They hadn’t cheered for a while now.
The spectacle had worn thin. What was left was survival.
Jin didn’t know how long he’d been sitting like this—half-lost in the string of duels flashing below. It felt like an hour. Maybe more. He hadn’t kept track after the first few names stopped being familiar.
Yujin and Jisoo were on either side of him. They hadn’t spoken much either.
Their group had done well. Better than most. Enough that Jin felt a quiet confidence settle behind the soreness in his limbs. But this trial wasn’t over. Not yet.
And now, instead of fighting, he was studying.
The air in the arena buzzed with fading energy. Flashes of techniques lingered in his mind—some subtle, others wild and uncontrolled. A boy who’d used condensed air pressure to launch himself like a railgun. A woman who’d formed a spear from water that could slice through stone. Another man whose skill made his shadow physically swap places with his body on impact.
Jin had tracked each one. Watched how they used their gifts. How their techniques revealed their philosophies. And most importantly—how their decisions shaped the outcome of each fight.
Not just power. Temperament. Pattern. Control.
Most weren’t worth remembering. But a few stood out. Enough that Jin had mentally started organizing a list—not of names, but of abilities.