The duel was a study in contrasts. Valerius was a storm, his attacks wide, powerful arcs of shimmering blue energy.
He was a textbook Azure Dragon warrior, overwhelming his opponents with raw, disciplined power. Kiera, in contrast, was a reed in the wind.
She could not meet his attacks head-on; she would be shattered. Instead, she yielded, she redirected, she flowed.
She used her smaller, weaker energy not for attack, but for movement.
A small burst to her feet to dodge a strike, a flicker of force to guide his blade just past her. She was a ghost, always just out of his reach.
The crowd, which had expected a quick, brutal victory for Valerius, began to murmur in confusion, then in grudging respect.
Kiera was not just surviving; she was competing.
Her strategy was one of attrition. She was making him expend his vast reserves of energy, forcing him to fight a battle of stamina instead of strength.
For every ten attacks he threw, she would answer with one, a single, precise, and irritatingly effective counter-strike to an exposed joint or a momentary gap in his defense.
It was the fighting style of a dust-rat, and it was infuriating him.
"Stand and fight me, coward!" Valerius roared, his frustration growing.
"I am," Kiera replied, her voice calm, her breathing even, her connection to Ryu's centering presence a lifeline.
Meanwhile, deep in the heart of the stronghold's server room, Jin was fighting his own duel.
The distraction was working.
The clan's security systems were focused on the massive, fluctuating energy signatures from the arena.
He had his window.
He worked with the frantic, focused intensity of a bomb disposal expert, his fingers a blur on his console.
He had built a 'digital skeleton key,' a program that would rapidly cycle through millions of biometric variables, searching for a resonance with the Vanguard slate's lock.
It was a brute-force attack, but a sophisticated one.
The clan's main server gave him the processing power he needed, but it was a dangerous dance.
He had to mask his program's energy signature, to make it look like a routine data defragmentation, a mundane background process.
"Come on, come on," he muttered, sweat beading on his forehead.
Alarms he had set for himself began to chime softly.
The server's cooling system was kicking into a higher gear, a sign that his unauthorized program was drawing a noticeable amount of power.
The security AIs would soon flag the anomaly. He was running out of time.
Back in the arena, Kiera was reaching her limit.
Her diminished energy was failing. Her movements were becoming a fraction of a second slower.
Valerius, sensing his advantage, pressed his attack, his frustration giving way to a final, furious assault.
He cornered her, his blade raised for a finishing blow.
In the server room, a new icon flashed on Jin's screen.
LOCK BIOMETRICS: 99.9% MATCH. He had it.
He initiated the final sequence, pouring all his concentration into the final, delicate moments of the virtual lock-pick.
The slate's defenses fought back, throwing up firewalls and counter-programs, but Jin, anticipating them, navigated the digital maze with a master's touch.
A final, triumphant 'CLICK' echoed in the silent room.
A single file appeared on his screen: 'LEDGER_771.' He had broken it.
He quickly copied the file and initiated a full system wipe of the Vanguard slate, erasing all traces of both the data and his intrusion.
Just as Valerius's blade began to descend, Kiera's comm-link, silent until now, buzzed with a single, pre-arranged signal from Jin.
*Success.* Kiera smiled. She dropped her own sword, raised her hands, and surrendered.