Dust rolled across the shattered floor in thin gray veils while the broken stone beneath Alpha II's boots trembled from the aftermath of every strike they had already traded.
Disharmonious stood across from her with his iron mallet lowered. Even through the exhaustion in his breathing there was still that dangerous look that told her he had not given up on winning. Alpha II could feel her own body starting to burn from the effort, but she also knew by then that he was reaching that point too.
Neither of them wanted to reveal their Divine Transformations in front of this crowd. They both understood what those forms exposed.
A Divine Transformation is identity made visible and neither of them wanted to hand the other side their complete truth in the middle of a public ring match that had already drawn Concordants, Faltered, tourists and gamblers from half the island. So instead of turning to their hidden forms, they both did something far more desperate and honest.
They pushed everything else they had left into the weapons in their hands.
Alpha II tightened her grip on the flute and felt her Divine Energy surging into it in a steady flood until the instrument glowed with an amazing brilliance that made the air around her hum. Across from her, Disharmonious answered in the same way, sending everything remaining in his body into the iron mallet until its surface seemed heavier than the floor itself. The whole arena seemed to hold its breath as both weapons changed under the pressure.
Her flute elongated first until it became staff-like in her hands. It was still clearly a flute but now drawn long enough to handle like a combat weapon rather than a performance tool. The transformation did not make it clumsy or awkward. It actually made it feel more complete. She shifted her stance immediately, feeling the extra length balance against her arms and watched Disharmonious tighten his grip on the mallet as the glowing weight at its head grew denser and more violent.
Disharmonious launched himself forward with enough force to crack the already damaged stone underfoot, causing the nearby audience members to flinch in their seats. Alpha II met him halfway as she drove the flute-staff up to intercept the blow.
The impact between them was so violent that the entire arena shuddered. For a moment the audience saw nothing but a burst of shockwave, dust and shattered light. The force spread across the ring in visible ripples, slamming against the stone walls and shaking the lanterns overhead.
The exchange became something far uglier than a duel and far more beautiful than a brawl. Both of them had become entirely locked into the rhythm of the other's violence. Disharmonious swung like a veteran. Alpha II moved with the kind of precision that only came from surviving training that had broken her every day for five years.
Every time his hammer came down she found just enough of an opening to keep him from crushing her outright. Their weapons met over and over with each collision sending huge shockwaves through the ring that stacked on top of one another until the entire air inside the underground arena vibrated with force.
That was when Alpha II saw the pattern. Every collision had a sound.
She had never needed a Divine Weapon because Vastarael had never built her like a pure combat fighter, but that had also forced her to learn how to make every part of her own body do the work that a weapon would normally handle.
The next clash came harder than the others.
Disharmonious brought the mallet down from above with brutal force and Alpha II met it with her flute-staff braced in both hands. The sound and the impact slammed into the walls and sending a visible ripple across the arena. Dust lifted from the ground in a rolling halo while several nearby spectators instinctively leaned back in their seats. The force was so strong that some of the weaker attendees nearly lost their footing. Even the host had to brace himself on the edge of the arena to keep his balance.
Alpha II saw the opportunity immediately and whistled.
The moment it passed through the arena, her Essentia Form seized the shockwaves like a hand catching falling water droplets. The force in the air stopped dispersing and instead bent toward her command, slowing down for an instant before flooding directly into the body of her flute. The instrument absorbed the entire pressure that they caused.
Disharmonious's eyes widened. He realized what she had done a fraction too late.
Alpha II's grip tightened around the flute-staff while the accumulated force inside the instrument reached a furious pitch. She did not let the energy stay trapped for long. The moment it settled, she twisted her stance, drove her entire body forward and swung with every ounce of strength she had left. The released shockwave tore from the flute, slamming into Disharmonious's chest so violently that he was ripped clean off his feet.
The hammer slipped in his grip as his body was hurtled across the shattered ring, crashing through the remaining force field at the edge of the arena and slamming head first into the wall with enough impact to fracture the stone behind him. Dust emerged in a cloud around the point of impact while the crowd exploded into noise. The host practically shouted himself hoarse from the excitement but Alpha II could barely hear anything over the ringing in her own ears.
She pointed the flute-staff straight at the crater in the wall. For a second, nobody moved. Disharmonious's arm was lifted from the dust. He pushed himself out of the rubble and very slowly, in full view of the arena, he removed his helmet.
The entire crowd went silent.
The terrifying, brutal genius she had just been fighting looked exactly her age. Maybe he was a little older with sharp features, dark hair and a face that was far more handsome than she expected given how much destruction he had been throwing around, but still, it was a shock
He rolled his neck once, glanced toward the shattered floor, then looked at her and sighed.
"I give up."
The explosion from the crowd could not have been louder.
The host nearly threw himself into the center of the ring in triumph, shouting so hard his voice cracked halfway through the announcement. Alpha II, still breathing hard and trying to process the fact that she had just won, stood there with the flute-staff lowered in front of her while the noise surged around her. It took her several seconds to fully accept that the fight was actually over and when it finally sank in, she felt more stunned than victorious.
Then she turned to see Vastarael. He was already counting money.
A mountain of bets had clearly gone his way and the sight of him calmly pocketing the winnings with the confidence of a man who had expected this result all along made Alpha II blink in disbelief. He looked over at her, then at the money.
"Well, that went better than expected."
Alpha II stared at him and shouted due to the spectators cheering.
"You bet on me?!"
"Of course."
"You said the odds were terrible!"
"They were."
She looked at the stack of winnings and then back at him, still not entirely sure whether she should be annoyed or impressed.
"How much did you make?!"
He looked down at the pile thoughtfully.
"Enough to make this an excellent decision."
The way he said it was so calm that Alpha II just stood there for a second and realized that this was probably the closest thing to joy she had ever seen on his face in public.