The entire ring was shaking under the ferocity of the fight and the energy pressure rolling off the two combatants was enough to make the spectators in the front rows shield their faces from the force. Sparks of lightning laced the cracked marble beneath Vilythe's feet, arcs coiling up her calves and forearms as she darted forward again. The dome lights above them flickered every time she moved.
The Lone Nomad was quiet. His face was impassive even as Vilythe blurred in front of him. Every instinct screamed to counter or strike, but his mind was calculating. Inside his head, his thoughts were racing faster than her movements.
'I've already figured you out.'
Lightning was her main element sure. but her movement wasn't lightning alone. Her speed wasn't just raw reaction time. It was assisted by something.
"Air and water. You're using them to cheat friction and boost conductivity."
The more he looked, the clearer it became. He could feel her Xana flaring wildly in three distinct pulses. Lightning was her main, air pushing her motion and water harmonizing her charge. The Rameses sisters were infamous for their triple-elemental Fluxes, but now he was seeing it firsthand. And Vilythe, for all her skill, had one fatal flaw. She was bleeding Xana faster than her body could handle. Her speed was costing her dearly.
"So that's it. You're burning your pool to impress your old man, huh?"
Vilythe's movements spiked. She vanished from one end of the ring and reappeared above him, slashing down with both sickles in a flash of violet and white. Phaser sidestepped at the last possible moment, the blade missing his neck by a hair's breadth and slicing through the edge of his cloak.
But he didn't counter.
He was conserving energy, forcing her to waste hers. Every dodge, every evasive step was a calculated effort to drain her Xana. Vilythe landed lightly. Her eyes gleamed with fury as she twirled the sickles in her hand.
"You're running, Lone Nomad. You scared?"
He grinned slightly, wiping a thin streak of blood from the corner of his mouth.
"No. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"How long can you keep that up before your body starts screaming?"
She growled, her lightning sparking violently.
"You talk too much!"
She launched forward, every step cracking the floor. She was gone, appearing at his flank before he could blink, except he didn't need to blink. He had already moved. An afterimage burst into smoke where he had been.
Her strike hit nothing. Then another afterimage. Then another. Phaser's void needles flickered in the air, weaving in patterns around her body. She destroyed them all but each one hit her before vanishing. Each slash of her sickles became slower. It was barely noticeable, but to Phaser, it was as loud as a scream.
He appeared behind her. He swung his right hand only for her to twist, her body folding unnaturally in a midair split. She kicked his ribs with her heel while flipping, sending him crashing into the arena floor with a violent thud. The ground cracked beneath his body and a shockwave rippled outward. Dust and debris filled the air as Vilythe's lightning lit up the haze like a golden storm.
The crowd roared. The commentators were losing their minds.
"Unbelievable speed from the youngest Rameses! The Lone Nomad might actually be—wait, what's he doing?"
A hum spread through the air. The entire arena began to darken.
Phaser rose slowly, one hand on his knee, the other pressed to the ground. Void bled from his skin, expanding outward in a vast hemisphere of darkness. The crowd gasped as the barrier spread to the edges of the stadium, swallowing even the reflection of lightning.
"Did he just make a dome? It's a Void hemisphere!"
Inside, light and sound vanished. Only Phaser could speak. He whispered under his breath, voice steady and almost gentle.
"You've got power, kid. But you don't have control."
Vilythe gritted her teeth and flared her lightning again. Sparks surged against the void barrier, trying to tear through it but every bolt was devoured by the darkness. Phaser's void element.
"Your lightning disintegrates my void but it eats your Xana three times faster when you force it like that. You're running dry, Vilythe."
"Shut up!"
She screamed, sprinting toward the sound of his voice. He didn't move. He could see her pulse through the darkness, growing weaker and weaker with every movement. She was using air to reduce resistance, water to heighten conductivity, but that combination had one massive flaw.
Instability.
Every microsecond her elements clashed, she lost energy. Every swing of her sickle cracked her internal balance.
Phaser… just had to wait.
She darted to his right. He sidestepped. She came from above, he vanished. The air rippled with his movement, his afterimages phasing through the darkness. Then, finally, her breath hitched. The electric flare around her body began to flicker. Her Flux Form was reaching its limit.
He raised his hand. The seven void needles he had scattered earlier began to orbit around her like a planetary ring. Their faint hum filled the dome as Phaser's eyes glowed faintly gold.
"This is the difference between instinct and calculation."
The void needles shot inward, stopping a hair's breadth from her skin. Vilythe unleashed a lightning wave using what she had left. The sound was deafening. A burst of energy erupted from her body, blinding white meeting pure black in a violent explosion that shook the void dome apart.
When the darkness faded, Vilythe was on one knee, panting heavily, her lightning aura sputtering like dying embers. The Flux Form had run its course.
Phaser stood opposite her, his body bruised and bloodied, a single streak of blood tracing down his cheek. But his eyes never wavered.
"Good form. But I told you, you weren't fast enough."
Vilythe looked up, defiance still burning in her exhausted expression. She clenched her fist and smiled weakly.
"Guess I… should have known you'd read me that fast."
Phaser smirked faintly, void energy fading from his hands. "Nah. You made me work for it honestly. You're just too impatient. Who uses a Flux Form against someone who is an expert in speed and stealth?"
The arena lights flared back to full brightness. The spectators erupted in applause, half from admiration, half from sheer disbelief. The commentators were shouting incoherently over each other.
The Lone Nomad had survived the Flux Form of a Rameses.
"And the winner is The Lone Nomad! He has secured his victory over the fifth Rameses sister!"