Smoke coiled across the battered battlefield like living fog, clinging to the cracked stone and jagged metal that littered the arena. The last explosion—Craterfist's seismic punch merging with Ember Claw's flame vortex and Giga-Ronin's redirected kinetic wave—had not only shattered the terrain but had left a dense haze of ash drifting through the air. Every remaining fighter staggered through the choking dust, bloodied, bruised, and rattled by the violence.
And yet Danny stood in the center of it all like the calm eye of a hurricane—serene, unbothered, slightly tilting his head as if the swirling smoke patterns were simply interesting to look at. Meanwhile, Wolf King crouched atop a fallen pillar, claws gleaming, eyes burning gold, aura rolling off him in waves hot enough to warp the air.
They were close now. Too close. Six meters. Almost within striking distance.
Every fighter who dared to look in their direction felt the weight of an approaching apocalypse.
But the arena refused to let them clash just yet.
Not until the final sixteen.
Every fighter knew that instinctively, down to their trembling bones.
Jake and Swift, hiding behind the remnants of a collapsed rune-wall, felt it more than anyone.
Jake trembled violently. "Swift… they're gonna… they're gonna fight. RIGHT THERE."
Swift rolled his eyes even as he scanned for threats. "They're not fighting yet. Calm down. We panic later."
But Jake could see he wasn't calm, either.
No one was.
A sudden shout pierced the smoky air as a group of fighters charged toward Jade Killington and Shadeclaw. Jade cracked his neck with a cocky British grin and slammed his forearms together, chi blasting outward with a sound like shotgun shells racking.
"Alright, yeah? Come on then," he taunted, voice dripping with London street-gang swagger. "Line up proper. I'll knock the lot of you back to ye mum's front garden, no problem."
His arms glowed, chi rolling off them in shimmering pulses. Shadeclaw stood beside him—taller, broader, eyes glowing faintly with his werewolf power—but the way he shifted his stance made it clear he wasn't the one leading this dance.
He was following Jade's lead.
"Stay behind me on the left," Jade snapped sharply. "That one's got a heavy right swing. I'll blast 'im, you slice 'im after."
Shadeclaw growled. "Stop ordering me around."
"Stop listening then," Jade shot back.
The first fighter lunged—a spear-wielder with impossible reach. Jade sidestepped, slammed his elbow downward, and detonated a chi blast point-blank. The force sent the spear-wielder into a half-spin before teleporting out midair. Shadeclaw followed up by slashing two fighters across their legs, knocking both unconscious before they could blink.
They moved with perfect synergy.
But not friendship.
The truth of their partnership lay years behind them.
A flash of memory blurred Jade's vision—a narrow, filthy underground fighting corridor. Shadeclaw, not yet transformed, was pinned against a wall by three armed thugs. He'd been losing badly, bones breaking under their boots. Jade hated the thugs more than he cared about Shadeclaw—and had dismantled all three with brutal efficiency, blowing one into the ceiling with a chi-shotgun strike.
Shadeclaw had stared at him, dazed, expecting a finishing blow.
Jade had grabbed his arm.
"Don't die, yeah? You owe me later. Not today—I'm busy."
Shadeclaw had lost the official match later when he fought Jade cleanly. Jade remembered the respect in Shadeclaw's eyes. And Jade had grinned and said:
"You're faster than you look. But I hit harder than anyone ever expects."
Since that day, they'd fought together out of need. Jade used Shadeclaw's precision. Shadeclaw relied on Jade's raw, chaotic power. Their histories tangled, but their motives remained brutally simple: survive together, win together.
Back in the present, their teamwork was unstoppable.
Shadeclaw spun with feral grace and cut a spellcaster's staff in two. Jade hammered a chi-blast uppercut into a hulking brute's stomach, launching him over a ridge so violently the teleport system activated early.
Above them, a flickering spark drew attention.
A builder bot—one of the tiny construction drones—dragged itself across the field, twitching violently. Half its chassis was melted. Its left welding arm jittered uncontrollably, sending bolts and sparks in random directions. Its scanning lens flickered bright-red.
"ERROR: STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED," it chirped brokenly. "REPAIR… INITIATED…"
Then it turned toward Jade.
Jade blinked. "No. No no no—don't—"
The bot lunged.
"TARGET: METAL FRACTURE—CONFIRMING REPAIR PROCEDURE."
"That's my ARM, you stupid bin lid!"
The builder bot attempted to weld Jade's sleeve to the ground.
Shadeclaw kicked it in the side.
The bot spun out, firing a random bolt that ricocheted off a broken pillar and knocked a fleeing fighter unconscious—and straight into teleportation safety.
Jimmy howled with laughter from the commentary booth. "THE BUILDER BOT GOT A KNOCKOUT! SIGN IT UP FOR THE NEXT TOURNAMENT!"
Julian shrieked, "IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FIXING!"
The bot continued malfunctioning—zapping one fighter, welding another's boots to the ground, and then dragging a confused contender across the field by the ankle.
Jade shouted, "I WANNA STEAL THAT THING!"
Shadeclaw growled, "I want to kill it."
Meanwhile, Swift exhaled slowly, closing his eyes. Silver energy swirled around him, frost spiraling upward. His scales shimmered across his arms and shoulders, his breath turning icy-white. When he opened his eyes, they glowed.
A Half-Silver Dragon.
A lineage he'd tried to suppress.
No more.
Swift launched forward with a roaring frost burst, moving twice as fast as before. His clawed hands left trails of frozen air as he pummeled through fighters, freezing limbs and knocking weapons aside.
Jake watched, awestruck. "Yo—Swift—that's—INSANE!"
Swift growled, half-draconic, "I told you. I'm done running."
Jake, shaking but determined, triggered his own Bronze Dragon lineage. Bronze light crackled across his skin. Scales formed over his chest and arms. His eyes glowed metallic. A fin-like crest rose along his neck.
Jake roared and charged forward—not elegant, but powerful. Electricity crackled with each punch. He grappled one fighter, slammed him down so hard the teleportation activated instantly, then turned to Swift with mania in his eyes.
"I'M DOING IT! I'M ACTUALLY DOING IT!"
Swift groaned. "Stop screaming."
Elsewhere across the battlefield, Craterfist smashed two heavy strikers with a double-fist drop. Ember Claw incinerated three icecasters with a spiraling fire arc. Giga-Ronin absorbed falling debris and unleashed a kinetic shock that sent multiple fighters flying. Mira-the-Silent blinked behind enemies, knocking them out with pinpoint nerve taps.
Everywhere was violence.
Everywhere was survival.
But nothing compared to the pressure exuding from the center of the field.
Danny.
Danny's presence twisted physics. A stone thrown at him curved away helplessly. A spear shattered mid-air. A fighter kicked him—and the shockwave from the kick launched the attacker backward across the field. Danny didn't react at all.
Wolf King's aura throbbed with anticipation, claws digging into the earth.
Five meters now separated them.
Four.
The air thickened.
Three.
The ground cracked.
Jake whispered, "Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no—"
Swift grabbed him. "Run. We're going that way."
Two.
The waffle flickered into existence between them.
Just floating.
Then it rotated slowly… and vanished.
Jade stared. "What in God's wrong breakfast was that?"
Shadeclaw: "Ignore it. Focus."
One meter.
Just as the pressure reached unbearable levels—
Twenty fighters rushed between Danny and Wolf King, screaming, desperate to stop the two titans from clashing prematurely.
A melee broke out so fierce the ground quaked.
Danny stepped back half a pace.
Wolf King snarled and swiveled, knocking aside three fighters with a sweep of his arm.
Their moment was broken.
Temporarily.
But the world felt the tremor of what was coming.
Fighters Remaining: 355 / 500