The word "Begin" had barely left Malakor's skeletal mouth when Satou acted.

No hesitation. No testing the waters. No cautious opening move.

Satou immediately activated Devouring at maximum power.

His shadow exploded outward like a tidal wave of absolute darkness, expanding across the mirror-smooth obsidian in a forty-foot radius. But this wasn't the normal shadow manipulation he'd used before. This was something far more terrifying.

The shadow became a void—a tear in reality itself, a black hole of pure consumption that began pulling everything toward it. The obsidian floor cracked as pieces were ripped away and dissolved into nothing. The air itself was being sucked in, creating a howling vortex of wind. Even light bent toward the consuming darkness, making the area around Satou seem to exist in a state of perpetual twilight.

The effect was instantaneous and overwhelming. This was Satou's trump card—if he could devour Richard Clay whole, the fight would end before it even began. The champion would be consumed, dissolved, his abilities added to Satou's collection, and the challenge would be over.

Richard Clay stood in his white circle, directly in the path of the expanding void.

For a split second, nothing happened.

Then Richard moved.

Not away—the void's pull was too strong for normal movement. Instead, he seemed to flicker, his form becoming indistinct, as if he was existing in multiple moments simultaneously. When he solidified again, he was standing thirty feet to the side, completely outside the void's range.

The movement had been so fast, so instinctive, that even Satou's enhanced perception had barely tracked it. Richard hadn't dodged through superior speed—he'd sensed the danger on a level beyond conscious thought and reacted with centuries of survival instinct.

Satou deactivated his Devouring ability, the void collapsing in on itself and disappearing. Where it had been, the obsidian floor was scarred with a perfect circle of erosion, the mirror-smooth surface now rough and pitted.

Richard Clay stood there, his dead gray eyes studying Satou with new interest. One of his wrapped hands was slightly raised, as if he'd been preparing to counter-attack but held back.

"Your petty tricks won't work here," Richard said, his dry voice carrying easily across the arena despite the distance. "Did you really think I'd survived centuries by being careless? That void of yours reeks of danger. I felt it the moment you activated it—like standing at the edge of an abyss that wants to swallow everything. Interesting ability, but useless if it can't touch me."

Satou smiled—a sharp, predatory expression that showed teeth that were slightly too pointed to be fully human. His draconic transformation had changed more than just his appearance; it had changed his entire demeanor in combat.

"It's better this way," Satou replied, his deeper voice carrying an edge of anticipation. "It would kill all the fun if you lost that easily. I didn't survive the Dungeon of Eternal Nightmares just to end this fight in five seconds. Show me why you've killed heroes, Richard Clay. Show me why Chronus thought you were strong enough to beat me."

"As you wish," Richard said.

Then Richard attacked the moment before he finished his sentence.

Richard's movement was a blur—not supernatural speed like Shadow Step or teleportation, just the refined velocity of someone who'd spent centuries perfecting the art of killing. He closed the thirty-foot distance in less than a second, his unwrapped hand reaching for Satou's chest.

Satou activated Void Step, his body flickering out of reality and reappearing ten feet away. Where he'd been standing, the obsidian floor began to decay—spreading out from where Richard's hand had passed through empty air. The mirror-smooth surface turned gray, then black, then crumbled into dust that blew away in the wind created by their movement.

So that's Decay, Satou thought, his Ancient Dragon's Wisdom analyzing the ability even as he dodged. It's not just touch-based. It radiates from him in a small area. Proximity is dangerous even without direct contact.

Richard turned, that cold smile still on his face. "Fast. Most people don't dodge the first strike. They're too busy being confident in their armor, their magical barriers, their enhanced durability. Then they realize too late that none of it matters. Everything I touch dies. Everything near me decays. There is no defense except distance."

He moved again, and this time Satou met him head-on.

Satou drew Void Fang in one smooth motion. The legendary blade emerged from its scabbard with that distinctive sound of tearing silk, and reality fractured around its edge. The sword existed partially outside normal space, its void-metal blade darker than the deepest shadow.

Richard's eyes widened fractionally—the first real emotion Satou had seen on his face. "A Reality-Class weapon. Interesting."

Satou swung, and Richard was forced to dodge. The blade passed within inches of his chest, close enough that his clothing began to decay simply from proximity to both combatants' void-based powers meeting.

But as Richard dodged backward, his hand touched the obsidian floor. Decay spread outward from that contact point in a fifteen-foot radius, the floor crumbling and turning to dust.

The dust didn't just lie there—it began spreading, carried by wind and Richard's continued movement. Soon, patches of decayed floor dotted the arena, creating hazardous terrain where one wrong step meant touching ground that would rot away flesh on contact.

Satou activated True Flight, his energy wings manifesting on his back—translucent constructs made of concentrated mana and void energy that kept him airborne without needing to touch the compromised floor.

"Clever," Richard acknowledged, watching Satou hover ten feet off the ground. "But flight just makes you a more visible target."

He gestured, and something horrifying happened.

The decay began spreading upward through the air itself.

Not quickly—it moved perhaps a foot per second, nowhere near fast enough to catch Satou. But it was there, a creeping zone of death that turned air molecules into nothingness, creating a spreading sphere of absolute decay centered on Richard's position.

This is his true power, Satou realized. Not just touching things to kill them, but gradually expanding his domain of decay. The longer the fight goes, the more of the arena becomes death itself.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.