The cold shock of the metal slicing completely through my flesh was instantly replaced by a blinding, white-hot agony that flared through the entire left side of my body. I stumbled backward into the loose sand, my boots dragging heavily as my balance completely failed me in an instant. My right hand moved immediately on pure reflex, reaching down desperately to grab and hold the cut-off part of my left arm before it could fall entirely into the blood-stained dirt of the arena floor. The texture of my own severed flesh felt incredibly warm, wet, and heavy against my fingers, and the sheer horror of looking down at the empty, raw space where my limb used to be attached made my head spin with a sudden, violent dizziness. A thick, heavy stream of dark crimson blood began to pour out rapidly from the stump, soaking through my torn clothes and dripping heavily onto the golden grains below, turning the sand into a dark, muddy red slurry that pooled around my boots. The intense pain was completely overwhelming, throbbing in perfect sync with my racing, panicked heartbeat, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut tightly just to keep from losing consciousness and blacking out on the spot from the sheer physical trauma.
As I stood there trembling in the center of the massive pit, clutching my severed limb tightly against my chest with my remaining hand, a sudden wave of sound pierced through the loud, ambient roaring of the coliseum. High up in our section of the stands, cutting directly through the bloodthirsty chanting of the thousands of random spectators, I can hear my friends and Elphyete, Salphy screamed in absolute horror and desperation. Their voices sounded completely terrified, carrying a sharp, piercing pitch that echoed off the high stone arches and the dark obsidian walls of the building. The sound of their panic vibrated through the thick air, making me deeply aware of how terrible and hopeless the situation looked from the safety of the spectator benches. Elphyete's voice was full of uncharacteristic shock, and the collective scream from my companions made the entire stadium feel even more hostile, cold, and dangerous than it already was, as if the darkness of the underground was closing in to swallow me whole.
But right in the middle of that chaotic, terrifying noise, one specific voice managed to break through the loud ringing in my ears with absolute, perfect clarity. Suddenly I heard Salphy shouting from the top of her lungs, her small voice carrying a massive, unbelievable amount of raw emotion and desperate strength across the wide open space of the pit. She was shouting, "Daddy, you can do it!!!!" The sound of her words hit me like a physical force, cutting straight through the blinding haze of pain and the absolute terror that was threatening to paralyze my mind and body. Hearing her call out to me with so much pure, unyielding belief and hope completely changed something deep inside my chest. The dizziness in my head started to vanish instantly, replaced by an overwhelming wave of responsibility and fierce determination. I could not let myself fall down, give up, and die in the sand while she was watching me from above with so much love and hope in her heart.
With so much determination to win filling my entire being, I forced my teeth to grind together so hard that my jaw ached from the pressure. The fear, the exhaustion from the previous five minutes of continuous dodging, and the agonizing pain of the amputation were completely pushed to the side, buried under a massive, unstoppable desire to survive and finish this fight no matter what it took. I locked my eyes onto the skinny figure of Nahtriat, who was standing a few paces away with his long red hair swaying in the hot wind and his lifeless black eyes watching me with a smug, detached look of victory.
Suddenly, my body enhanced state activated all at once, responding directly to the fierce willpower that was raging inside my mind. It felt like a sudden explosion of pure, crackling warmth rushing violently through my veins, starting from the very center of my chest and spreading like wildfire to the tips of my toes and my remaining hand. The terrible, throbbing pain in my left shoulder was suddenly muted, locked away behind a thick wall of pure adrenaline, heightened focus, and raw physical power. My vision became incredibly sharp and clear, allowing me to track every single speck of dust floating in the dim red light of the soul-lamps. My muscles tensed, hardened, and expanded with a massive surge of internal energy, making my entire frame feel lighter, faster, and stronger than it had ever been since the moment I first stepped into this underground facility.
Without waiting a single millisecond for Nahtriat to react to my sudden shift in energy, I dashed forward across the blood-stained floor. I went so fast that the entire arena seemed to blur into a chaotic streak of red light and dark stone around me, my movement completely outrunning the visual processing of the normal human eye. The speed of my advance was so immense that I did not even leave deep footprints in the loose golden grains; I simply flew across the distance separating me from my opponent in a fraction of a second, completely bypassing his ability to vanish, teleport, or escape my wrath. I closed the gap before he could even think about raising his weapon or disappearing again, my right fist drawing back tightly as all the power of my enhanced state concentrated into my knuckles. I launched a massive, heavy punch directly into the center of his skinny chest.
The impact was incredibly loud, sounding like a heavy iron hammer striking a solid block of oak wood, sending a small shockwave through the air that cleared the dust around us. Nahtriat's skinny body shook violently from the sheer force of the blow, but he was able to tank it, his boots digging deep into the golden grains of sand as he forced himself to stay standing right in front of me instead of flying backward. Even though he did not leave his spot, the punch definitely hit him hard and caused visible damage. I could see his lifeless black eyes widen in sudden, genuine surprise, and a sharp, pained gasp of air escaped his throat as his torso bent forward slightly from the internal impact. It did hurt him badly, breaking through his calm, arrogant expression and proving to him that his skinny frame was not completely immune to my enhanced physical strength.
Nahtriat quickly recovered his footing, his pale face twisting into a furious, snarling expression as he realized I was still capable of fighting with such extreme power despite losing a limb. With a sudden, desperate movement of his right hand, he swung his long knife directly at my exposed neck, hoping to end the match with another clean decapitation. The ten-foot-long blade tore through the thick air in a massive, sweeping horizontal chop, moving with a terrifying amount of velocity and force. I did not even try to duck, dodge, or move out of the way of the descending weapon this time. I stood my ground perfectly, my enhanced state reinforcing my skin, muscles, and bones until they were as hard as a solid sheet of tempered iron.
The massive metal edge came down with a loud, threatening hiss, and it hits me square on the side of my neck and shoulder. But instead of cutting through my flesh, drawing more blood, or taking off another limb, a deafening, metallic screech echoed through the entire stadium. The immense durability and raw power of my enhanced body completely overwhelmed the structure of the weapon, and it broke as it hits me, the long ten-foot metal blade shattering into dozens of sharp silver pieces that flew wildly in every direction across the arena pit. The broken shards rained down around our boots, glittering uselessly under the red soul-lamps, completely ruined and destroyed by the impact against my skin.
I stood there looking straight at him, the stump of my left arm still wrapped tightly against my side while my right hand remained free and clenched into a tight fist. I looked down briefly at the iron sword I was still holding tightly in my right grip, its blade covered in scratches from the earlier exchanges. Then I looked back at Nahtriat, who was staring in absolute disbelief and shock at the empty, broken hilt left in his pale palm. I decided right then and there that I did not need the weapon anymore to finish this brutal contest. I just threw my sword to the side, letting the heavy steel blade toss carelessly through the air and land with a dull, heavy thud in the loose dirt several feet away from us. I fixed my eyes onto his pale face, raised my chin, and said to Nahtriat that I'll make it fair. My voice was completely steady, cold, and loud, carrying across the silent patches of the sand to let him know that even with only one arm and absolutely no weapon, I was going to beat him thoroughly and completely on his own terms.
Nahtriat stared at the empty space where my sword had just landed, and then his head snapped back up to look at me, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock and growing insanity. Instead of showing any fear or hesitation at losing his primary weapon, a wide, terrifying grin slowly spread across his scarred face, stretching the dark mark on his forehead. Nahtriat laughed out loud, the sound of his amusement echoing sharply and maniacally against the high stone walls of the building, full of pure malice, arrogance, and dark excitement. He dropped the useless, broken hilt of his knife into the sand and raised both of his skinny hands in front of his chest, his fingers curling into tight, bony fists as a strange, dark energy began to ripple and crackle through the air around his pale skin.
He looked straight into my eyes and suddenly said, "Stack enhance magic. Stack one thousand!!!" The moment the loud, booming command left his mouth, a massive wave of dark pressure exploded outward from his body, blowing the loose golden sand away in a perfect, wide circle around his feet. His long red hair whipped wildly around his face, and his powerful aura doubled in size in an instant, making the air inside the pit feel incredibly heavy, thick, and hot.
Suddenly he dashed forward with incredible speed, matching my own enhanced velocity perfectly as he closed the small distance remaining between us. He threw a heavy, straight punch directly at my face, and I raised my right arm quickly to block it, the collision of our limbs creating a loud, booming sound that shook the ground beneath our boots and kicked up a fresh cloud of dust. We immediately entered into a brutal, non-stop exchange of physical violence as we brawled and kept punching each other without a single moment of rest or hesitation. It was a chaotic, incredibly fast-paced fistfight, our hands moving so quickly that they looked like mere blurs under the dim red glare of the soul-lamps. We traded heavy blows continuously, each punch carrying enough raw physical power to shatter solid stone blocks, but neither of us gave up a single inch of ground as we moved in a tight, aggressive circle across the blood-stained sand, the sound of our fists hitting flesh and bone echoing through the tiers.
As the fierce, exhausting brawl continued to rage on, I focused all of my tactical attention and mental energy on tracking his movements and analyzing how his strange magic was operating. After exchanging dozens of rapid, painful punches, I noticed a very specific and unusual pattern in the way his dark energy was behaving. A huge amount of mana only burst every time he lands a hit and when I land a hit. Whenever our fists actually made solid physical contact with each other's bodies, arms, or defensive guards, a massive, violent explosion of bright magical energy would tear through the air, creating a sharp flash of light and a loud cracking sound. But during the small, fast moments when we were merely swinging through the air or missing each other, the space around his body was completely quiet, normal, and entirely devoid of that massive defensive pressure.
That meant his magic needed to be triggered at the perfect time or he'll actually get hit by my attacks without any protection. He was not constantly covered by that one thousand stack enhancement; he had to manually activate the magical defense at the exact microsecond of physical impact to tank the incoming damage. If I could manage to throw off his fast rhythm, confuse his movements, or find a small, temporary gap in his timing where he failed to trigger the magic properly, his skinny body would take the full, unprotected force of my enhanced physical strength, and he would not be able to survive it.
With this crucial tactical realization clear in my mind, I completely changed my approach in the middle of the intense brawl. I stopped trying to trade heavy punches blindly with him or match his raw aggression head-on. Instead, I kept dodging and attacking while waiting for the perfect timing to present itself naturally. I utilized all of my enhanced speed and reflexes to weave my head and torso out of the way of his heavy punches, letting his bony fists brush past my ears while I threw out quick, deceptive strikes and light feints to force him to waste his magical triggers early. I watched his body language with absolute, undivided focus, tracking the tiny muscle movements in his skinny shoulders, the swaying of his long red hair, and the shifting of his black eyes as he tried desperately to keep up with my new, irregular pattern. The crowd in the stands was screaming wildly, their voices forming a distant, confusing hum as the dust rose all around us in a thick, choking cloud that obscured the rest of the arena.
I continued to evade his massive, swinging punches, my boots sliding smoothly and carefully through the loose sand as I brawled defensively, holding back my final strike until I was completely certain of the window. Nahtriat was growing visibly impatient and frustrated, his punches becoming slightly wider, wilder, and more aggressive as he tried desperately to break through my continuous dodging and land a decisive blow. He threw a massive, heavy right hook aimed directly at my jaw, putting all of his physical weight and momentum into the movement. I saw the opening clearly as his shoulder overextended. I dipped my body low underneath his outstretched arm, letting the wind of his powerful punch pass harmlessly over my head.
And suddenly I found the perfect timing I had been searching for during the entire fight. While his right arm was completely extended away from his body and his magical trigger was momentarily delayed by his own missed momentum, I drove my right fist straight into his exposed, unprotected midsection with every single ounce of physical power left in my enhanced state.
The contact was absolute and devastating. He didn't even fly away from the immense force of the blow, the sheer speed and concentration of the impact anchoring him to the spot. Because his stack enhance magic failed to trigger at that exact microsecond, his skinny body could not handle or distribute the incredible pressure of my enhanced fist. The pure physical force traveled straight through his torso, disrupting his entire structure, and my fist made him explode completely in the middle of the arena floor. There was a loud, wet tearing sound as his entire frame shattered into pieces under the immense impact, and blood splattered everywhere across the golden sand, turning the entire center of the pit into a horrific, wide dark crimson circle. Thick drops of blood and small debris rained down all over my clothes, my face, and my remaining arm as I stood there alone, breathing heavily with my right fist still extended in the empty air.
The entire stadium fell into a stunned, breathless silence for a brief second as the thousands of spectators stared down in utter disbelief at the completely empty space where Nahtriat had been standing just a moment before. Then, the massive violet display suspended above the pit flickered violently, updating the tournament results as the system processed the absolute death of my opponent.
And then the announcer's voice boomed through the high stone arches of the Building of Entertainment, carrying a massive amount of volume over the sudden, deafening cheers of the crowd. The announcer said, "Sogha wins!"