The Return Of The Exiled Villain

Between those four remaining students, Gray already knew three of them.

Selene stood with her usual quiet composure, light-blue hair tied back, expression unreadable.

Maelis watched him with a complicated mixture of emotions she did not bother to hide. Ronan’s face was set in hard, serious lines.

The fourth figure remained slightly apart from the others, body almost entirely concealed beneath a heavy black coat that swallowed both presence and outline.

Even Gray’s senses found it difficult to read anything clear from that one.

The first to step onto the platform was Ronan.

He walked forward under the weight of every eye in the arena, the enchanted gauntlets Gray had once discarded now fitted firmly over his hands.

There was none of his usual loud, careless energy.

His expression was extremely serious, almost grim.

When he stopped opposite Gray, he took a single breath and raised his voice so that it carried cleanly across the silent stands.

"I already know I probably can’t win against you," Ronan stated firmly.

"I’m not stupid enough to think otherwise after everything that just happened. But I’m still going to try. If I can weaken you even a little, if I can force you to spend something, then the ones who come after me might have a better chance. That’s enough for me."

His eyes were ablaze with a raw, stubborn fury that had nothing to do with confidence and everything to do with refusal to simply step aside.

Gray regarded him in silence, offering no reply.

Ronan’s hands clenched inside the gauntlets. Mana surged around his body in a sudden, violent rush.

"DRAGON TRANSMUTATION!"

The growl that left his throat was no longer entirely human.

Dark-red scales erupted across his skin in rapid waves, covering arms, neck, and face in overlapping plates.

Two curved horns pushed free from his forehead and swept backward.

The mana surrounding him shifted color completely, turning a deep, molten crimson that radiated heat and pressure.

His pupils thinned into vertical slits, and a tangible draconic presence rolled outward from his transformed body, heavy enough to make the air itself feel thicker.

Seeing this... Gray smiled lightly.

He cracked his neck before getting into a strange fighting stance with his left elbow tucked closer to his waist, and his right arm atop his nose.

’...I’ll use him to test my physical strength.’

Swoop!

Ronan moved first.

The scaled fighter exploded forward with a straight right cross aimed at Gray’s sternum.

The gauntlet carried both the weight of the dragon transmutation and the reinforced density of the artifact.

Swoosh!

Air cracked around the fist.

Gray shifted his lead foot half a step left and let the punch pass close enough that the displaced air tugged at his robe.

His right hand came up in a short parry that redirected the remaining force past his shoulder.

At the same time, his left fist snapped forward in a tight hook toward Ronan’s ribs.

Thump!

Scales met knuckles with a dull, solid impact.

Ronan took the blow without giving ground and immediately chained into a rising uppercut from the opposite gauntlet.

Gray leaned back just enough for the fist to miss his chin, then dropped his weight and drove a low kick into the side of Ronan’s lead knee.

Thawck!

The scaled leg absorbed it.

Ronan used the contact to pivot and swing a wide horizontal hammer-fist toward Gray’s temple.

Thud!

Gray raised an elbow, caught the strike on the hard bone, and felt the vibration travel down his arm.

The power behind it was noticeably higher than anything Ronan had shown in earlier stages of the Exchange.

’He’s improved.’

Gray thought before sliding inside the guard.

He delivered two short punches to the scaled abdomen, then twisted his hips and brought a knee up toward Ronan’s midsection.

Ronan crossed both gauntlets in front of his body and took the knee on the armored forearms.

THUMP...!

The impact still forced him back a half-step.

Ronan answered with a sudden burst of footwork.

He closed the small gap again and launched a rapid combination: jab, cross, left hook, then a descending elbow.

Gray slipped the jab, parrying the cross with an open hand before rolling under the hook, and catching the elbow against his own raised forearm.

The sequence ended with Gray’s palm striking flat against Ronan’s chest, pushing him back another step.

The scaled fighter did not retreat further.

He planted his feet and released a short, explosive roar that sent a pulse of dark-red mana outward.

The gauntlets flared brighter.

Ronan stepped in again, this time leading with a powerful straight that aimed to overwhelm through pure force rather than speed.

Gray turned his body sideways, let the fist graze past his ribs, and hooked his right leg behind Ronan’s ankle while driving a shoulder into the scaled chest.

The trip was clean.

Ronan’s balance broke for an instant.

Gray followed with a downward elbow toward the collarbone, but Ronan twisted and took it on the shoulder scales instead.

He rolled with the force and came up swinging a low, sweeping kick at Gray’s supporting leg.

Gray lifted the targeted foot and let the sweep pass, then brought the same foot down in a stomp toward Ronan’s extended calf.

Ronan retracted the leg in time and used the motion to launch upward into a rising knee.

Gray blocked it with both forearms crossed, felt the strength behind it, and pushed outward to create space.

They reset for less than a second.

Ronan came forward once more, gauntlets held higher, chin tucked behind the scaled shoulders.

Just in that time, he adjusted his fighting style. The earlier aggression was still present, but now it sat on top of a tighter structure.

The combinations came in shorter bursts, each one designed to force Gray into a defensive response so the next strike could arrive from a different angle.

Gray flowed between them.

A left jab was slipped.

A right cross was caught and redirected.

A sudden lunging grab for his collar was met with a sharp inward step and an uppercut that landed cleanly under Ronan’s chin.

Thuck!

"Kurgh!"

The scaled head snapped back.

Ronan staggered, then immediately answered with a wild, full-power haymaker that carried every bit of the dragon transmutation’s strength.

Gray ducked under it.

The gauntlet passed over his head close enough that he felt the heat of the dark-red mana.

He rose inside Ronan’s guard and delivered a rapid series of short punches to the body, three to the ribs, one to the solar plexus, then finished with a rising knee that forced Ronan to give ground again.

’The durability is definitely better than before. The scales are distributing impact more efficiently.’

"Tsk..."

Ronan wiped the back of one gauntlet across his mouth and settled into a new stance, lower than the last.

The vertical pupils remained fixed.

He began circling, forcing Gray to adjust positioning with small steps.

When he entered again, it was with a feint toward the head followed by a heavy low kick aimed at Gray’s thigh.

Gray checked the kick with his own shin.

The collision of scaled leg and unenhanced bone sent a clear shock through both of them.

Ronan used the rebound to spin and bring the opposite gauntlet around in a backfist.

Swoop!

Gray leaned away, felt the wind of it, and countered with a straight right of his own that landed on the scaled cheek.

Thud!

Ronan absorbed it and pressed forward without pause.

SWOOOSHH!

Dark-red fire suddenly erupted around both of Ronan’s gauntlets.

The flames clung to the metal and scales like a living sheath, raising the temperature of the air between them in an instant.

Ronan’s next punch came as a blazing straight, the fire trailing behind the fist in a short, roaring arc.

Gray turned his shoulder and let the flaming gauntlet pass close enough that the heat scorched the edge of his robe.

He stepped in behind the punch and drove a short elbow toward Ronan’s ribs.

The scaled fighter twisted, took the elbow on a thicker plate of scales, and answered by opening his mouth.

A concentrated stream of dark-red fire blasted out.

Gray angled his body sideways.

The fire breath seared past his chest, close enough to leave a line of heat across his skin, and slammed into the platform behind him.

Stone blackened and cracked under the sudden temperature.

Before the breath fully ended, Ronan closed the distance again, both fists now fully wreathed in dragon fire, and launched a rapid combination of hooks and uppercuts.

Each strike carried burning force.

Gray slipped the first hook, caught the second on his forearm, feeling the heat bite into his sleeve, and leaned away from the uppercut.

He returned a straight kick to Ronan’s lead thigh, then followed with two quick punches to the body.

The scaled abdomen absorbed them, but the dark-red mana around Ronan flickered under the impact.

Ronan used the contact to dig his feet in and release a second, wider burst of fire breath aimed at Gray’s midsection.

Gray dropped low, letting the flames pass over his back, and swept at Ronan’s ankles.

The transformed fighter hopped the sweep and brought a descending, fire-coated fist down toward Gray’s shoulder.

Gray rolled to the side.

TWACHK... swoosh.

The fist struck the platform instead, leaving a scorched crater and a lingering patch of molten stone.

’Phiuu...’

Gray whistled briefly.

’That had quite some power in it...’

His eyes returned to Ronan.