The captain's blade pressed cold against Silas's throat.

"Yield," she repeated, louder this time—performing for the crowd, for the nobles, for the judge who waited with horn raised.

Silas felt the edge bite into his skin. Not deep. Just enough to draw a thin line of blood.

His heart hammered.

His mind raced.

And then he triggered.

-----

Every illusion he'd been holding in reserve—every half-formed copy, every flickering shadow—exploded outward simultaneously.

Seven versions of Silas materialized around the captain.

All lunging.

All armed.

All wrong in subtle ways—angles slightly off, movements just delayed enough to feel unnatural.

The captain's eyes widened.

Her training screamed at her: block, parry, counter.

She twisted, blade sweeping in a perfect arc, deflecting the nearest illusion—

It passed through her sword like smoke.

The second illusion lunged from behind—

She spun, blocking—

Smoke again.

The third, fourth, fifth—

All smoke.

Her perfect training, her practiced precision, her muscle memory honed through hundreds of arena matches—all of it useless against enemies that didn't exist, as Silas used his talent to blur her perception of him.

And in that half-second of confusion—

The real Silas rolled sideways, away from her blade, and drove his boot into the back of her knee.

She stumbled.

Kora's throwing knife hit her sword hand.

The blade clattered to the ground.

Garren's roar shook the arena as he finally broke through the two Reapers harrying him, his fist connecting with one man's jaw hard enough to lift him off his feet.

The Reaper captain tried to recover, reaching for her fallen sword—

Tyven's well timed throw attached beneath her fingers, trapping the blade.

She looked up.

Six weapons pointed at her throat.

The judge's horn blared.

"CAPTAIN—ELIMINATED!"

-----

The crowd's roar was deafening.

Not because of the skill displayed.

Not because of the artistry.

But because something unexpected had happened.

The Bone Reapers—polished, professional, sponsored by House Draven—had just lost their captain to a collection of survivors who fought like cornered animals.

Silas stood slowly, chest heaving, blood trickling down his neck from where the blade had pressed.

The captain stared at him, expression unreadable.

Then she smiled, a thin,cold smile.

"Clever," she said softly. "But clever only works once."

Silas met her gaze. "Once is all I need."

She was escorted off the arena floor by medics, and the remaining Reapers regrouped.

Five against six now.

But the momentum had shifted.

-----

The Reapers moved differently without their captain.

They were less coordinated and more hesitant.

Their hand signals faltered. Their formations loosened. The invisible thread of confidence that had held them together frayed at the edges.

Tyven saw it immediately.

"PRESS!" he barked.

Garren charged like a battering ram, all subtlety abandoned. His fists blurred—one, two, three strikes—each one forcing a Reaper back, breaking their defensive line.

Kael and Kora flanked wide, exploiting the gaps Garren created.

Bessia's arrows came faster now, no longer aimed to kill but to disrupt—forcing dodges, breaking rhythm and creating openings.

It was a bit of a miracle she hadn't been forced to give her position as the reapers were never given the chance to catch a break.

And Silas?

Silas became a ghost.

He flickered between illusions, never quite where the Reapers expected. Sometimes he was real. Sometimes he wasn't. They couldn't tell anymore, and that uncertainty was a weapon sharper than any blade.

One Reaper—young, maybe nineteen—swung at an illusion three times before realizing his mistake.

The real Silas cut his hamstring from behind.

The man screamed, collapsing.

The judge's horn blared.

"REAPER ELIMINATED!"

Four left.

-----

But the Reapers weren't finished.

One of them—a broad-shouldered fighter with a massive war axe—stopped retreating and planted his feet.

"ENOUGH!" he roared.

And he charged.

Not tactically. Not strategically.

Just pure, overwhelming aggression.

The axe swung in a wide arc—too wide to dodge, too powerful to block.

Garren tried anyway.

The impact sent him flying, crashing into a stone pillar hard enough to crack it.

Kael lunged—

The axe-wielder backhanded him with the flat of the blade, sending him sprawling.

Kora threw three knives—

All deflected by the spinning axe.

The man was a monster.

Not in skill, but in sheer physical power. His core—whatever it was—had turned him into something that could trade blows with crawlers and win.

Tyven raised his weapon to deflect—

The axe smashed through it like paper.

Bessia fired—

The arrow bounced off the man's shoulder guard.

He grinned, bloodlust gleaming in his eyes.

This was someone who'd fought beasts. Who'd stood in the Shroud and survived not through technique but through raw, brutal strength.

He wasn't playing by arena rules anymore.

He was playing by the rules everyone who ventured in the Shroud lived by.

Power clarified hierarchy in this parts and the food chain always seeks to correct itself.

-----

Silas watched the axe-wielder plow through their formation like a force of nature.

Garren struggled to rise, ribs clearly cracked.

Kael wasn't getting up.

Kora had retreated, blades drawn but trembling.

Tyven was breathing hard, hands pressed to the ground, trying to keep the battle alive.

It wasn't working.

The axe-wielder had fought crawlers. He knew how to deal with being heavily outnumbered —how to keep moving, how to smash through obstacles, how to close distance before the caster could react.

Bessia fired again.

This time the arrow hit—sinking into the man's thigh.

He barely flinched.

"Is that all you've got?" he bellowed.

And Silas realized something:

They were going to lose.

Not because they weren't skilled.

Not because they weren't brave.

But because they'd been fighting the *lwrong war.

Tyven's squad had trained against monsters. Against crawlers and burrowers and things that moved with alien logic.

The Bone Reapers—most of them—had trained against humans. Against predictable patterns and exploitable weaknesses.

Both groups had forgotten how to fight the other.

Tyven's squad couldn't handle human precision and coordination.

The Reapers couldn't handle inhuman ferocity and unpredictability.

But this axe-wielder?

He remembered.

He'd fought both.

And that made him dangerous.

-----

Silas made a decision.

He dropped all his illusions.

Every single one.

The flickering copies vanished, leaving only him—standing alone in the open, blade lowered.

The axe-wielder's eyes locked on him.

"Finally," the man growled. "A real target."

He charged.

Silas didn't move.

The axe swung down—

An arrow seemed to appear out of thin air—Bessia's—burying itself cleanly in the man's eye.

Not the armored shoulder. Not the protected torso.

His eye.

The axe-wielder's bluster masked the price he'd paid—awareness sacrificed at the altar of raw power. For all that made him deadlier than his captain, he remained a man, not an unfeeling beast.

He bled red just like every other human.

Still a fair measure of luck favored the golden-haired girl, since her skill with the bow had yet to catch up.

Her squad, as it should, was strong enough to collect on the advantage while it was still there.

The axe-wielder screamed, staggering, axe swinging wildly—

Kira flicked pieces of shrapnel that jutted from the ground, piercing through the man's boots, pinning him in place.

Garren, ribs cracked and bleeding, limped forward and drove his fist into the man's solar plexus.

The axe-wielder collapsed, gasping, unable to breathe.

Then the horn blared.

"REAPER ELIMINATED!"

-----

Three Reapers left.

Three against six.

But Tyven's squad was broken.

Garren could barely stand, each breath a wheeze of pain.

Kael was unconscious.

Kora's hands shook too badly to throw straight.

Bessia had three arrows left.

Tyven swayed on his feet, nearly depleted.

And Silas?

Silas was exhausted. His illusions had drained him. His body ached. His neck still bled from where the captain's blade had pressed.

But they were still standing.

And the Reapers?

The three remaining fighters looked at each other, then at Tyven's battered squad.

They'd trained for glory.

For performance.

For clean victories that impressed nobles and earned sponsorships.

They hadn't trained for this.

For desperation.

For survival.

For people who refused to quit even when they should.

One Reaper—the youngest—lowered his weapon.

"I yield," he said quietly.

The horn blared.

The second Reaper hesitated, then nodded.

"I yield."

Another horn.

The third—the last one standing—looked at Tyven's squad for a long moment.

He smiled from his imagined height, seeing the people of Grim Hollow not as equals, but as something smaller.

"You've earned it," he said. Words that mean nothing, coming from a loser.

Then he lowered his blade.

The final horn blared three times.

"VICTOR—SHADOWS"

-----

The crowd exploded.

Not with polite applause.

Not with measured appreciation.

With roaring, chaotic, barely-contained fury and excitement.

Because they'd just watched something raw. Something real.

Not a performance.

A fight.

Silas collapsed to his knees, gasping.

Around him, the others did the same—exhaustion finally claiming them now that the adrenaline faded.

Medics rushed onto the field.

Kael was carried off on a stretcher.

Garren refused help, limping under his own power, pride keeping him upright.

Tyven just stood there, staring at the fallen Reapers, expression unreadable.

Bessia walked over to Silas and offered a hand.

He took it, letting her pull him to his feet.

"That was stupid," she said.

"It worked," Silas replied.

"Barely."

He grinned through the pain. "Barely is enough."

-----

In the Crownhold section, the woman in dark blue silk set down her wine glass.

"Interesting," she murmured.

Her aide looked confused. "They barely won. Half their squad is injured. Against a lesser opponent."

"But they adapted," the woman said. "The illusionist dropped his tricks and became bait. The sergeant spent everything he had left to create one opening. The archer waited for the perfect shot instead of wasting arrows on armor."

She leaned forward slightly.

"They learned. Mid-fight. That's… rare."

Her aide hesitated. "Should we extend an offer?"

"Not yet," the woman replied. "But mark them. Especially the illusionist."

-----

In the Kadesh section, the broad-shouldered man slammed his fist on the railing.

"THAT'S how you fight!" he roared. "No tricks! No dancing! Just will!"

The scarred woman beside him shook her head, but she was smiling.

"They got lucky," she said.

"Luck is just preparation meeting opportunity," the man replied. "And they were prepared to bleed."

He pointed at the arena floor, where Tyven's squad was being escorted out.

"Those are fighters. Real ones. Not these polished noble toys."

The scarred woman studied them thoughtfully.

"Maybe," she said. "But fighting isn't enough. They'll need more than grit to survive what's coming."

The man's grin faded slightly.

"What do you mean?"

She gestured toward the upper tiers, where nobles whispered and schemed.

"The Trials are entertainment. But the real game? That happens off the arena floor. And those kids just made themselves interesting to people who shouldn't be interested."

The man's expression darkened.

"Should we warn them?"

"Would they listen?"

A pause.

"No," he admitted. "Probably not."

The scarred woman sighed.

"Then we watch. And hope they're smarter than they look."

-----

Tyven's squad limped back through the prep tunnel in silence.

No cheers.

No celebrations.

Just exhaustion and pain and the hollow awareness that they'd survived by the thinnest margin.

Tyven stopped just inside the tunnel, out of sight of the crowd, and turned to face his squad.

"That," he said quietly, "was unacceptable."

Silas blinked. "We won."

"We barely won," Tyven corrected. "Against an opponent we should have dominated."

"They were good," Bessia protested.

"They were trained," Tyven said. "There's a difference. And we failed to adapt until it was almost too late."

He looked at each of them.

"The Bone Reapers fought like duelists. They were clean, precise and predictable . We should have recognized that in the first thirty seconds and exploited it."

"We did exploit it," Silas said. "Eventually."

"*Eventually isn't enough young Silas" Tyven replied. "We survived today because the Reapers panicked after losing their captain. That won't happen again. The next squad we face will be ready. They'll study this fight. Learn from our mistakes. And they won't panic."

Silence.

Garren spat blood onto the ground. "So what do we do?"

Tyven's jaw tightened.

"We train. We learn. And we stop fighting like survivors."

"What else are we supposed to fight like?" Kora asked quietly.

Tyven met her gaze.

"Winners, fucking cold blooded murderers," he said simply.

And with that, he turned and walked deeper into the tunnel, leaving the rest of them staring after him.

Silas watched him go, a strange feeling settling in his chest.

It wasn't fear nor doubt.

But… respect.

Tyven wasn't trying to be inspirational.

He was trying to keep them alive.

And maybe—just maybe—that was worth more than glory.

Silas touched his neck, feeling the dried blood from where the captain's blade had pressed.

Clever only works once,she'd said.

He smiled grimly.

Then he'd just have to get better.

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