The fifth and final match of Group 5 structural placements within the Under-20 Tournament brought a crushing, suffocating atmospheric weight to the grand dais. The arena, floating dynamically between the spatial boundaries of the Leta Verse, hummed with the ambient power signatures of the remaining prodigies.
Lam, the *Khandaker G.O.D. L Tech Dino Lion*, stood at his designated sector of the stone ring. His posture was completely motionless, an isolated island of wrathful, quiet calculation. His mind was executing millions of hyper-threaded computational threads per microsecond, thoroughly analyzing the structural variables of the combat field.
Opposite him stood **Masha**, a thirteen-year-old combatant whose presence caused the local space to flicker with chronological distortion. Her primary specialization was the highly volatile **FV Type: Time**, an advanced element widely feared throughout the expanding cosmos.
In her right hand, she wielded a sleek, intricately engraved weapon—a **-y Tier Spear**. While positioned near the entry baseline of the cosmic grade index, the weapon hummed with a tangible, rhythmic temporal pulse that allowed her to tap into localized chronological acceleration.
***
Masha adjusted her grip on the spear, spinning it with arrogant precision before pointing the tip directly at Lam's chest. Her eyes carried the deep, unearned pride of someone who believed her abstract elemental affinity placed her above the traditional hierarchies of the L Verse.
"Khandaker Lam," Masha spoke, her voice echoing with a slight, multi-tonal echo. "Royal Blood doesn't matter for me. You can boast about your ancient lineage and your family's cosmic conquest all you want, but I use time itself. Before the conceptual absolute of the timeline, your royalty is nothing but temporary data waiting to be aged into dust."
Lam didn't say a single word. His face remained an entirely blank, unreadable mask. The floating digital eyes of his gauntlet orbited his wrist in silent, mechanical loops, their lenses adjusting to record her energy output.
Masha frowned at his absolute lack of response, her grip tightening on the spear shaft. "I use a spear, a graded tier weapon that cuts through the moments of your life. And you? What do you even have in your hands besides that oversized toy on your wrist?"
***
Lam remained completely silent. The stillness of his frame lasted for several agonizing seconds, causing a tense hush to fall over the lower tiers of the spectator platforms.
Then, the corners of Lam's mouth began to twitch. The raw, heavy psychological tension he had cultivated suddenly collapsed as a low, rumbling vibration shook his chest. He was actively struggling to suppress a laugh, his internal calculations rendering her dramatic threats completely absurd.
Within moments, the suppression failed entirely. Lam threw his head back, unleashing a loud, terrifyingly maniacal laugh that echoed across the stadium like a chorus of unhinged demons.
"YA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! YU HA HA HA HA HA—OH HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
The sheer, menacing volume of his laughter gridlocked the atmosphere. It wasn't the chuckle of a normal competitor; it was the wild, mocking roar of a wrathful overthinker who had completely dissected his opponent's structural flaws before the match had even technically begun.
***
Masha's face flushed a deep, furious crimson, her pride instantly shattered by the blatant, chaotic disrespect. "He... you... you! Why are you laughing, ah?!" She stomped her foot against the stone tiles, her temporal aura flaring erratically. "Ehhhhhh! You absolute bastard, you will die here! I will strip the years from your flesh!"
Before her aura could cross the centerline, the high-altitude projection of **Mayer, the G.O.D. of Speed**, flashed across the sky monitors. As the primary structural overseer for this block of matches, his absolute voice boomed through the speakers. "Reminder to all Group 5 participants: killing an opponent within the structural parameters of this exhibition tournament is strictly banned. Violations will result in immediate absolute disqualification."
Masha bit her lip, glaring up at the sky before locking her eyes back onto the chuckling Animan. "Ah, fine! Ok! But you will still die a social death, you arrogant Royal Dog!"
***
Lam's laughter cut off instantly. The manic mirth vanished from his expression, replaced by a cold, dark fury that caused the cybernetic spine of his gauntlet to glow a deep, threatening violet.
"Never talk about someone's lineage," Lam said, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous register.
He didn't wait for a referee signal. He didn't execute a complex stance. Bypassing the concept of standard tournament distance through sheer kinetic acceleration, Lam appeared directly within Masha's personal space while he was still finishing his sentence.
*BANG.*
Without a shred of hesitation, Lam threw a brutal, straightforward punch that connected heavily with her shoulder line, throwing her entire weight off balance and shattering her initial temporal barrier.
***
Masha skidded across the stone, clutching her shoulder as she stared at him with wide, indignant eyes. "You... you actually hurt a girl! Do you consider yourself a man or not?!"
Lam stood exactly where she had been standing a microsecond prior, casually dusting off his knuckles. He looked at her as if she were a minor computational error.
"So what? I just hit you, so what?" Lam replied smoothly, his tone entirely devoid of remorse. "Where exactly is it written in the rules of the cosmos that men cannot hurt women, ah? This is a battlefield, not a social lounge."
Enraged beyond rationality, Masha thrust her spear forward, channeling a concentrated burst of her favorite type. **"TIME PUNCH!"**
The localized temporal strike bypassed physical distance, translating directly into a sudden, concussive impact against Lam's side.
***
Lam took the hit without shifting his stance, his dense physical armor absorbing the brunt of the conceptual force. He stood there quietly, waiting.
Exactly seven seconds passed in absolute silence.
"Ow," Lam said flatly, his voice dripping with dry sarcasm. "An ant bites. Oh, wait... look at that, it actually gives continuous pain. Fascinating."
He raised his gauntlet, the digital screens displaying her exact energy specifications. "You know... you only actually possess three time-type moves in your entire arsenal, right?"
Masha gasped, her spear trembling as she took a step back. "How... how do you know that?! My registry is completely locked!"
"Hilariously enough, I am the G.O.D. OF TECH," Lam replied, an evil, brilliant grin returning to his face. "I literally checked your entire background profile on the W-Net via my hidden proxy techs while you were busy bragging about your spear."
***
Masha's teeth grinded together. "Oh, you think you're tough?!"
She spun her spear, utilizing a massive chunk of her reserve to materialize a glowing, ticking chronological construct. **"TIME BOMB!"** She launched the volatile clock directly at Lam's coordinates.
Within Lam's hyper-analytical brain, the world slowed down. *Calculations completed. Vector analysis: standard parabolic arc. I checked this exact trajectory nine times before she even released it. My calculations simply cannot fail.*
Lam didn't move an inch. He remained standing in his exact position, his arms crossed over his chest. True to his precise mathematical predictions, the Time Bomb sailed clean past his left shoulder, missing his frame by a fraction of an inch and detonating harmlessly against the outer arena barrier.
***
*Now for the counter,* Lam thought, his mind multitasking effortlessly. *If I place a standard energy cannon exactly 7 meters north-east of her current position and calibrate it to release a low, controlled amount of Urja, she should lose her balance and drop below the qualification line immediately.*
He paused, his creative, imaginative mind rebelling against such a simple, boring conclusion. *But... should I do something a bit crispier instead?*
Deciding to play with his food, Lam executed the spatial command. A small, high-tech tactical pylon materialized 7 meters north-east of Masha. Instead of an explosive blast, it deployed a specialized, sticky **Tech-Spider Trap**.
The mechanical arachnid burst forward, instantly entangling Masha's legs in high-density energy threads. She didn't faint from the impact, but the trap immediately began to continuously drain her Urja reserves, siphoning her elements away second by second.
***
"Let me go!" Masha screamed, desperately trying to manifest another Time Bomb. However, due to the rapid drain on her reserves, the clock collapsed into loose pixels before it could even leave her fingertips, completely failing to land.
Realizing she was running out of options, her face twisted into an expression of sheer desperation and fear. She began to channel the raw, ancient remnants of her energy into a dangerous cross-type technique. **"DRAGON FURY!"**
Lam's eyes widened slightly as his technical scanners began to blare in alarm. *Dragon-type moves take the second-highest Urja among all primary types, right after Time-types! Ah... logically, she shouldn't be able to use it in this state, but if she actually manages to hit me with that raw elemental weight...*
A sudden, hilariously exaggerated look of terror blossomed across Lam's face. "Ahhhhhhh! I will die! No, no, no, no! Wait, actually... I will just be slightly injured, so whatever."
***
With casual indifference, Lam tapped his gauntlet twice. Two massive, metallic obelisks slammed down into the stone tiles directly in front of him, instantly projecting a thick, translucent **Energy Shield**.
Masha poured the absolute last of her strength into the Dragon Fury strike, the spectral roar of a dragon echoing through the arena. But midway through the distance, the attack suddenly sputtered, flickered, and completely disappeared into thin air.
Her Urja had dropped below the absolute functional threshold required to sustain a secondary primary type.
The entire stadium went completely shocked, the crowd staring in absolute disbelief at how thoroughly a high-tier Time user was being dismantled by pure utility and logic.
***
Refusing to accept defeat, Masha lunged forward manually, executing a basic, standard **Spear Stab**—a simple Normal-type physical strike—straight through Lam's chest.
*Flicker.*
The spear passed clean through his torso with zero resistance. The form dissolved into blue pixels. It was nothing more than a high-definition **Tech Holograph**.
"Over here," Lam's voice called out from her left flank.
Masha spun around, screaming as she drove the spear down toward his skull. Once again, her weapon struck nothing but empty air as the second projection dissolved. It was another holograph.
***
Her momentum carried her forward blindly, causing her foot to step directly into the coordinate zone of her own previously deflected, lingering Time Bomb trap.
The structural feedback loop snapped shut. The temporal anomaly locked onto her frame, causing her internal Urja consumption rate to catastrophically spike by **5% every single second**. Bound by the spider trap and suffocated by her own time energy, she collapsed onto her knees, completely incapacitated.
Lam stood a few yards away, watching her systems hit absolute zero. He hopped on one foot, tossing his hands in the air with a bright, childlike grin.
"Yippeee!" Lam cheered, completely shifting away from his wrathful persona to celebrate another flawless calculation.
Far above the atmosphere, sitting comfortably amidst the 5,411,025-degree Celsius solar flares of the star **Colex-5411025**, the **Five-Armed Man** let out a wide, appreciative grin. He rested his upper left hand on his trident while his lower right hand tapped his cosmic plunger against a passing asteroid.
"Wow," the Five-Armed Man chuckled, his central third eye twinkling with absolute amusement. "What an incredibly crisp win. The boy doesn't just fight... he completely out-programs the opposition."