Chapter 42: Celestine Valken
Orion sat in front of his screen, arms crossed, eyes scanning the match schedules. The preparatory phase before the second round. That wasn't just arbitrary—it had to mean something.
But what were they testing exactly?
His eyes narrowed as he pulled up the match schedule.
Renji Carridan vs. Elle Vorst.
Orion's fingers stilled over the screen. That was worth watching.
Both had shattered expectations in the first phase. Two commoners who had outperformed the noble heirs, high-ranking military families, and specialized academy elites.
Renji Carridan was a relentless, brutal close-range fighter who broke through his opponents with sheer physicality and overwhelming momentum. He wasn't the biggest fighter, but his explosive power and sheer aggression made size irrelevant. He only needed one clean hit to end a fight.
Elle Vorst was an unpredictable agile fighter whose adaptability turned battles into elaborate games of misdirection. She was built for speed, but it wasn't her physicality that made her dangerous. It was her mind.
Renji and Elle—two fighters who represented opposite ends of the combat spectrum. Raw power vs. precision. Aggression vs. control. But there was something deeper at play here.
And now only one of them would make it.
Orion tapped into the live feed.