Not all fighters climbed the tower with grace.
Not all climbed with power.
Some climbed with chaos.
Some with genius.
Some with ego.
But very, very few climbed with fire trailing behind them.
The Celestial Arena vibrated with a new layer of sound—a crackling roar like a comet scraping atmosphere. Julian Breadstone spun midair, confetti bursting from his sleeves as he pointed toward a glowing trail streaking across the tower's exterior.
"HOT—HOT—HOT—! SPACE FANS AND COSMIC VIEWERS, DIRECT YOUR EYES TO THAT BEAUTIFUL STREAK OF IMPENDING PROPERTY DAMAGE! IT'S TIME TO INTRODUCE—"
He inhaled for dramatic effect, chest puffing out unnaturally like a balloon.
"METEOR DAAAAANCER KORVAS!"
The flaming streak curved sharply, arcing upward before smashing into the lower outer wall of Floor 19 with a burst of fire and fractured starstone. Fighters inside screamed. Pieces of the wall crumbled and rebuilt themselves instantly—compliments of the Arena's auto-repair system.
From the flames stepped a man built like a sculpted inferno.
Korvas was tall—taller than Jake, broader in the shoulders, with lines of molten-orange glowing beneath his skin like magma veins. His hair moved like flames caught in zero gravity, licking upward in flickering streams.
Every step left behind a smoldering footprint that vanished seconds later.
Julian swooped lower.
"OH MY GOODNESS, LOOK AT HIM! A WALKING DISASTER! A HUMANOID FIREWORK! A MENACE TO STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING!"
Korvas rotated his shoulders, cracking joints that sounded like volcanic eruptions.
He gazed upward, toward the distant floors far above where elite fighters struggled.
He smiled—bright and dangerous.
"Time to burn a path."
A meteor-like burst exploded beneath his heel, launching him to the next platform.
Inside Floor 20, the challenge had already begun: a gauntlet of rotating metal plates suspended by magnetic fields. Each plate shifted direction every few seconds, and fighters had to time their leaps perfectly or risk being flung into a dimensional loop.
A crystalline swordswoman attempted to leap from one disc to another—but the plate spun faster than she anticipated, sending her spiraling.
She screamed. Another fighter tried to grab her hand and missed.
Korvas burst through the floor below on a pillar of flame.
"Coming through!"
He caught the swordswoman midair with a single arm, then spun, kicking the magnetic disc with enough force to reverse its rotation. He carried her back to a safe platform effortlessly.
The crystalline fighter blinked colorfully. "Th-thank you—"
He nodded once. "Keep climbing."
Then he leapt upward again, using jets of flame from his heels and palms to ricochet between the metal plates like a meteor bouncing between planets.
Julian nearly wept with joy.
"HE SAVES A FELLOW FIGHTER! HE DEFIES MAGNETIC ROTATION! HE CLAIMS REAL ESTATE ON EVERY SURFACE HE TOUCHES—METEOR DANCER KORVAS HAS ENTERED THE TOWER WITH STYLE!"
Spectators cheered.
Some fainted.
One wrote unnameable poetry.
Floor 21 was waiting for him.
The chamber was an endless maze of spinning gears, clockwork creatures, and time-manipulating corridors that randomly accelerated or slowed motion. Fighters scrambled around trapped in pockets where they moved either too fast or painfully slow.
One unfortunate fighter was floating midair, arms outstretched, but his body stuck in a slow-motion loop.
Korvas stepped into the time field.
His flame dimmed—
then erupted again, pushing back the temporal distortion.
He snapped his fingers.
The flame obeyed.
A shockwave of heated air pulsed outward, correcting the local time warp just long enough to yank the trapped fighter free.
Korvas glanced back.
"You good?"
The man nodded frantically. "You—your fire—negates time manipulation?!"
"Sometimes." Korvas shrugged and launched himself forward.
Julian swooped in high overhead.
"OBSERVE, MY LOVELY VIEWERS, THAT WE HAVE FOUND THE NATURAL ENEMY OF TIME MAGIC: A VERY FLAMMABLE MAN WHO REFUSES TO SLOW DOWN!"
Swift, two floors below, paused mid-step as he heard the echoing commentary.
Jake yelled, "WHO IS HE TALKING ABOUT NOW?!"
Magic Kid shouted from somewhere above, "THE HOT ONE!"
Jake blinked. "You're gonna need to be more specific!"
Floor 22 opened with a boom as Korvas shoulder-charged through the shimmering veil. The environment shifted instantly—an anti-gravity field. Fighters floated helplessly like balloons caught in a draft. Some drifted upside down mid-struggle.
Korvas drifted upward too, body twisting weightlessly.
He grinned.
"This'll be fun."
He snapped his fingers and lit small controlled flames at the ends of each foot and hand. They sputtered, then stabilized.
Thrusters.
He spun in a dancer's arc, weaving through the floating debris and disoriented fighters.
Some fighters flailed at him. Others tried to hitch a ride. One tried to stab him.
Without breaking motion, he blocked, redirected, and rotated through an approaching cluster of floating crystalline shards—using fire bursts to turn them into molten droplets floating behind him.
Julian breathlessly narrated:
"Look! He's found a way to DANCE through anti-gravity! He spins! He twirls! He GLIDES LIKE A BALLERINA MADE OF PLASMA AND BAD INTENTIONS! ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!"
Korvas caught a floating ladder and snapped it into place over an energy vent. The vent burst upward, launching him into the next portal.
He vanished in a flare of light—
—leaving behind the melted imprint of his hand on the threshold wall.
On Floor 23, three fighters attempted to ambush him.
They didn't last long.
Not because Korvas overwhelmed them with flame—
but because he simply outmaneuvered them.
Every blow was precise.
Every step a counter.
Every eruption of fire calculated.
One fighter lunged from behind.
Korvas didn't turn.
He simply raised one arm.
A small flare burst behind him—just enough to blind.
Then a sweeping kick.
The fighter flipped backward into a safe sigil and vanished.
Julian squealed.
"THE STYLE! THE EFFICIENCY! THE WAY HE BYPASSED COMBAT WHILE STILL SHOWING OFF—! I WANT HIM TO ADOPT ME!"
Magic Kid appeared beside him in the announcer's booth.
"ME TOO!"
Julian screamed. "WHY DO YOU KEEP APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE?!"
Magic Kid shrugged and vanished.
Julian sobbed into his microphone.
The tower continued to shift around Korvas.
Floor 24: A chamber of storm orbs.
He detonated them with compressed flame bursts.
Floor 25: A room with fractal enemies.
He used decreasing heat patterns to destabilize their formations.
Floor 26: A labyrinth of forcefields and refracted pathways.
He burned a new path straight through.
Julian's commentary became more dramatic with each floor.
"HE HAS NO FEAR!"
"HE TREATS FLAME LIKE A LANGUAGE!"
"HE'S PROBABLY A TERRIBLE NEIGHBOR!"
At one point, Korvas launched himself sideways so fast that the tower cameras had to adjust. Three fighters tried to smash him mid-flight.
He bent around them like a comet bending gravity, then punched into the next platform so hard it cracked, shimmered, and reassembled.
Swift, climbing from below, glanced up.
"Who is that?"
Jake puffed. "Some volcanic superhero?"
Sedge Hat answered, drifting gracefully past them:
"Oh ho! That is Meteor Dancer Korvas! A martial artist who trained in collapsing star cores! He channels plasma instead of chi! Very dangerous! Very fun at parties!"
Jake wheezed. "How—does—he—even—train—in a star—?!"
Sedge Hat shrugged.
"He stands in it."
Jake nearly died from shock instead of the tower.
Korvas reached Floor 30—the same as Lira, but far earlier.
The chamber was an arena of suspended crystal rings rotating at random. Fighters attempted to leap through them but missed the timing, falling into safety sigils in frustration.
Korvas didn't even slow down.
He ignited.
His whole body became a rushing meteor once more—
a trail of fire and force—
timing every jump precisely by feeling the thermal shifts in the air.
When he burst through the top ring, flames trailing, the crowd erupted.
Julian lost his mind.
"YES! YES! YES! ABSOLUTE CHAOS! UNFILTERED PASSION! BRAND-NEW TOWER RECORD FOR REACHING FLOOR THIRTY AND—"
He froze mid-scream.
Magic Kid had appeared behind him again.
Julian fainted.
Magic Kid caught him.
"That's okay! I faint a lot too!"
Korvas landed on the next floor and took a moment to breathe.
Just a moment.
He looked upward at the countless floors still ahead.
At the Wolf King's monstrous energy pulsing from somewhere far above.
At Swift's dancing silver aura moving steadily.
At Jake's bronze glow shaking the tower.
At Danny's waiting golden flame.
He clenched his fist.
"Let's see how high this dance can go."
And with a burst of heat that scorched the very runes of the tower—
Korvas ascended again.
He would become one of the 500.
One of the elite.
The tower felt it.
It adjusted.
It prepared to challenge him fully.
Korvas smiled into the rushing wind of the upper floors.
He wasn't here to survive.
He was here to blaze.