"Then I'll win through persistence." He attacked again in a relentless and overwhelming manner, but it was also sloppy.

I could see it now. His form was perfect. His power was incredible. But he was fighting desperately and not strategically. Every attack committed too much and keft openings.

If I could just...

Holy light exploded around him an area attack and I threw up a shadow barrier, but the light hit it like a hammer. My barrier shattered and I flew backward, crashed into a tree. Pain exploded through my already-cracked ribs.

Adrian was on me immediately, his sword raised for a finishing blow.

"Yield."

"Not a chance."

I activated every disruption crystal Marcus had given me simultaneously. Six crystals shattered. The anti-holy field exploded outward. Adrian's light guttered like a candle in wind. His sword froze mid-swing.

Three seconds of disruption.

I used two of them to Shadow Step away. The third to prepare my counter-attack. When his power returned, I was ready. Shadow Eclipse Strike, the technique that nearly killed me the first time I used it. Eighty percent of my mana in one attack. Darkness condensed into a blade of pure void. Deeper than shadow. The absence of light itself.

And I struck.

Adrian's holy barrier met my void blade.

Reality screamed.

The explosion threw us both backward. Adrian hit the ground hard and I crashed through undergrowth. When I staggered upright, he was already standing again. We were both breathing hard, injured and both pushed to our limits.

And we'd been fighting for less than three minutes.

"This is insane," he panted. "We're going to kill each other at this rate."

"Probably," I agreed. "Want to stop?"

"Can't, I need to know."

"Know what?"

"If I'm real!" He charged again. "If I earned this power! If I deserve....."

But suddenly an explosion ripped through the forest. Not from our fight, but fom somewhere else to the east side of the arena.

Then another to the north.

Then the screaming began, lots of screaming. Adrian and I both froze, looking toward the sounds at the same time. Black smoke rose from multiple points in the arena. The crowd's roar turned to panic.

My earpiece crackled. "Hadeon!" Lucille's voice, urgent. "We're under attack! Multiple hostiles appeared from nowhere! They're slaughtering civilians!"

"The League?"

"Yes! Their Seven Blades leaders are here! And they brought a small army!"

Adrian heard it too through his own communication crystal. His face went white.

We looked at each other. The finals forgotten. The real enemy had arrived.

☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆

The forest environment shattered, someone broke it deliberately. The trees dissolved into smoke. The ground returned to stone. And we could finally see the whole arena.

It was chaos.

The Seven Blades had appeared in multiple locations simultaneously. The Huntress stood in the VIP section, surrounded by dead nobles. Another was in the stands, moving too fast to see, killing indiscriminately. Shadow had infiltrated the support staff, already twenty bodies at her feet.

And in the arena itself, standing where the referee had been moments ago, was Cipher.

The resistance member we'd rescued. The one who'd been tortured by the League.

He was holding the referee's severed head.

"Hello, aware candidates," Cipher said. His voice was wrong. Flat and dead. "The League of Fallen Heroes extends an invitation. Join us and help us burn this corrupt world. Or die with it."

Behind him, a portal opened. More figures poured through. Dozens of them. All wearing League colors.

Adrian and I stood back-to-back instinctively.

"Truce?" he asked.

"Truce," I agreed.

The Huntress's voice boomed across the arena, amplified by magic.

"Attention, sheep. You've been living in a scripted world. Your lives predetermined. Your choices illusory. The Council of Fates has controlled everything."

She gestured and one of her subordinates threw a body to the ground, it was a tournament official.

"We offer freedom, so join the League. Fight the Council. Or refuse and prove you're content being puppets."

Silence across the arena. Eighty thousand people too shocked to react.

Then someone in the crowd shouted. "What gives you the right..."

The Huntress moved.

One moment she was in the VIP section. The next she was in the stands where the shouter had been. When she returned, she was carrying his corpse by the neck.

"Questions?" she asked mildly.

Panic erupted and people stampeded toward exits. But League members blocked every escape route.

"No one leaves until we have our answer," The Huntress continued. "Aware individuals. You know who you are. Step forward. Join us. Or everyone here dies."

My earpiece crackled as Kaeel's voice came through. "Hadeon Resistance is moving. We're going to try to evacuate civilians. But we need time."

"How much?"

"Five minutes minimum. Ten would be better."

Five minutes. Against The Seven Blades and an army of League soldiers.

I looked at Adrian.

He looked at me.

"We hold them," I said.

"We'll die."

"Probably, but are you in?"

He raised his sword. Holy light blazed.

"Finally. A real fight."

We charged together.

Hero and villain. Light and shadow. United for the first time.

She smiled.

That should have been my first warning.

Adrian reached her first. His holy sword blazed with enough power to level a building. The strike came down with the weight of destiny behind it.

The Huntress caught the blade with two fingers.

Adrian's eyes widened, but he didn't hesitate and he poured more power into the attack. The ground beneath them cracked. The air itself screamed from the pressure.

She didn't budge.

"SSS-rank," she said conversationally. "Impressive for your age. The Council trained you well."

She flicked her wrist.

Adrian flew back like a bullet and crashed through three League soldiers, he didn't get up immediately.

I was already moving as well. Shadow Step put me behind her. Shadow Eclipse Strike channeled everything I had left.

The blade cut toward her neck.

She turned, caught my wrist and stopped the attack cold.

"And you. The anomaly. The villain who refuses his role." Her grip tightened and my bones creaked. "Interesting, but its a little insufficient."

She threw me.

I hit the arena wall so hard I felt ribs crack. Fresh blood filled my mouth. My vision swam.

The Huntress hadn't even drawn her weapon yet.

This wasn't a fight. This was an execution waiting to happen.

"Hadeon!" Seraphina's voice cut through the pain. She was limping toward me, sword raised. Her injured leg barely supporting her.

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