The stone stadium built into the center of the Shakadera dojo courtyard was entirely different from the standard WBBA plastic basins. It was carved from solid rock, smoothed down by years of friction, but inherently unforgiving. It didn't bend. It didn't absorb impact.
Whatever hit the stone, took the damage.
Ryu O'Hara stood at the edge of the basin. He locked Eclipse Nidhogg onto his heavy aluminum launcher. The metal casing was already warm against his palm, a lingering heat from the District Finals. But it wasn't just the launcher.
Nidhogg felt heavy.
For the last three years on the island, the dark violet Beyblade had felt like a perfectly balanced, sterile piece of engineering. But right now, resting on the prongs, it felt dense. It vibrated with a low, rhythmic pulse that traveled up the launcher grip and directly into Ryu's forearm.
It wasn't an ancient spirit or a mystical beast. It was pure, unadulterated potential. It was empty, and it wanted to be filled.
*Hungry,* Ryu realized, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Across the stone basin, Xander Shakadera stretched his massive arms, his joints popping loudly. He looked down at Ryu with a wide, dangerous grin.
"I don't usually go all out on the first launch against new guys," Xander boomed, stepping up to the edge and locking his jagged, sword-shaped Bey, Xcalibur, onto his red launcher. "But if you're seriously aiming to tear down the Supreme Four, I'd be insulting you if I held back!"
Valt Aoi, standing safely behind the ring of martial arts students, gripped Rantaro's arm. "This is it! Xander's not messing around!"
"He's huge," Rantaro swallowed hard, fanning himself nervously. "Look at the size of his launcher grip. It's like a baseball bat."
One of the senior dojo students stepped forward to act as the referee. He raised his hand, his face completely serious. "First Battle! Ready... Set!"
"Three!" Xander roared, his voice echoing off the mountain trees.
"Two," Ryu commanded, dropping his right foot back and sinking his weight entirely into the dirt courtyard.
"One!"
"Go Shoot!"
Xander pulled his ripcord with a terrifying, full-body swing. The sheer torque generated by his massive frame was completely unnatural. Xcalibur hit the stone slope with a sound like a rifle shot, immediately tearing a shallow groove into the dust covering the basin.
Ryu pulled his ripcord with a sharp, violent snap.
Nidhogg hit the opposite slope. Ryu didn't angle it for a chase, and he didn't drop it into the center to wait. He launched it straight down the basin, a dark violet blur moving with absolute, crushing momentum.
"Take the center, Xcalibur!" Xander commanded.
The heavy, sword-shaped Bey slammed into the lowest point of the stone stadium, spinning with a blinding, aggressive aura. Xcalibur's layer featured a massive, protruding metal sword designed to deliver a single, catastrophic hit.
The silence of the island was gone. The cold, sharp euphoria he used to feel years ago—the absolute dominance of his peak
...was flooding back into his system.
He didn't want to absorb Xander's power. He wanted to break it.
"Do not let him swing," Ryu said, his voice entirely devoid of its usual deadpan boredom. It carried a heavy, authoritative edge.
Nidhogg didn't slow down. It hit the flat bottom of the stone stadium and charged straight at Xcalibur before the red Bey could even establish its defensive perimeter.
"You're charging me head-on?!" Xander laughed, his eyes widening. "Big mistake! Saber Strike!"
Xcalibur swung its massive metal sword contact point forward, carrying the full weight of Xander's absurd launch power.
The Beys collided.
The sound was horrific—a brutal, grinding shriek of metal scraping against solid rock and polycarbonate. A massive shower of sparks erupted, flying completely out of the basin and forcing the dojo students to shield their faces.
Xander expected Nidhogg to go flying.
Instead, Nidhogg hit Xcalibur's sword and stopped it dead.
The sheer density of Nidhogg's hollow layer, backed by Ryu's perfectly grounded launch, created an immovable wall. The Beys ground against each other in the center, the friction so intense the stone beneath them began to scorch.
"What?" Xander's grin faltered. "It stopped the Saber Strike?!"
"A sword is only effective if it can follow through," Ryu stated.
Inside Nidhogg, the heavy metal weights snapped sharply. *Click.*
But Nidhogg didn't tilt to use its rubber driver. It used the weight shift to forcefully throw its entire mass forward against the locked blades.
The sudden, brutal shove completely broke Xcalibur's equilibrium. The red Bey was violently dislodged from the center groove.
"Push it out," Ryu commanded softly.
Nidhogg accelerated, slamming into Xcalibur a second time before the larger Bey could recover its spin axis.
The impact sounded like a car crash. Xcalibur was physically launched out of the stone stadium. It flew through the air in a high arc, completely clearing the heads of the students, and slammed handle-first into one of the thick wooden support beams of the main dojo building.
*Thwack.*
The metal forge disc embedded itself a quarter-inch deep into the solid wood. The Bey stopped spinning instantly.
The courtyard was dead silent.
The senior student acting as referee stared at the wooden beam, completely dumbfounded, before slowly raising his hand. "O-Over Finish! One point to Ryu O'Hara!"
Rantaro's jaw hit the dirt. His paper fan slipped from his fingers. Daigo stood perfectly still, his eyes wide.
"He... he overpowered Xander," Valt whispered, entirely awe-struck. "He didn't even use a special move. He just shoved him."
Ryu stood up straight. He walked over to the edge of the stone stadium and held out his hand. Nidhogg hopped neatly into his palm. The metal was radiating a fierce, stinging heat.
Ryu looked at the Bey. The hunger wasn't satisfied. It was worse.
He looked across the arena. Xander was walking over to the wooden beam. He grabbed Xcalibur and yanked it out of the wood, inspecting the layer.
Xander turned around. He didn't look angry. He didn't look humiliated.
He looked absolutely ecstatic.
"BWAHAHAHA!" Xander's laugh rolled over the courtyard like a shockwave. He marched back to the stadium, his fiery red hair practically standing on end. "Oh, man! Lui wasn't exaggerating! You really are a monster, O'Hara! I haven't felt a hit like that since I was a kid!"
"Your output is impressive," Ryu replied, slipping Nidhogg back onto his launcher. "But your center of gravity is too high. You are relying entirely on the weight of the sword. If the sword is blocked, you have no secondary line of pressure."
Xander locked Xcalibur onto his red launcher. The friendly giant persona was completely gone. His aura flared—a heavy, suffocating pressure that made the air in the courtyard feel ten degrees hotter.
"You think so?" Xander challenged, dropping into a wide, impossibly low stance that utilized his massive legs. "Let's see if your anvil can take a full swing. I'm not holding back this time. I'm going to split that dark Bey right down the middle!"
Ryu's pink and grey eyes locked onto Xander.
The adrenaline spiked. The cold, sharp euphoria that had been buried on the island was now entirely awake. This was the peak. This was the exact feeling he had been chasing—the moment when the opponent threw absolute, unapologetic power at him, and he simply broke it.
Ryu dropped into his stance. He gripped his aluminum launcher so tightly the metal groaned.
"Try," Ryu said.
"Second Battle!" the referee shouted, quickly backing away from the stadium. "Ready... Set!"
"Three!" Xander roared, his voice cracking like thunder.
"Two," Ryu commanded, his voice dropping to a heavy, dangerous pitch.
"One!"
"Go Shoot!"
The dual launch shook the dirt courtyard.
Xander pulled his ripcord with such catastrophic force that the recoil actually dug his boots an inch into the packed dirt. Xcalibur hit the stone basin and didn't just spin; it violently carved its way down the slope. The red Bey was a blur of raw, unrefined destruction.
Ryu unloaded everything. He snapped his arm back, his core twisting, delivering maximum torque.
Nidhogg hit the stone. The dark violet Bey screamed.
"Take him down, Xcalibur!" Xander yelled, throwing both massive arms forward. "One-Impact!"
Xcalibur hit the lowest point of the stadium, its metal sword aligning perfectly with its spin trajectory. It didn't bounce, and it didn't wait. It launched itself straight at Nidhogg, carrying the combined weight of Xander's entire physical frame.
It was an execution strike.
Ryu watched the red blur approaching. He didn't blink. The math was simple. It was a massive, concentrated point of force.
"Break it," Ryu whispered.
Nidhogg didn't dodge. It met Xcalibur in the exact center of the stone basin.
The collision was so violent that a visible shockwave kicked up a ring of dust around the stadium. The sound of the impact was deafening, a high-pitched shriek of polycarbonate failing under extreme pressure.
Sparks flooded the arena, lighting up the faces of the watching crowd.
Xcalibur's sword hit Nidhogg's hollow layer directly. The sheer force of the One-Impact pushed Nidhogg backward, the rubber driver screaming as it dragged against the solid stone.
"Yeah! Keep pushing!" Xander roared, his eyes wide with adrenaline. "Split it!"
Nidhogg was sliding backward, millimeter by millimeter.
Ryu stood his ground. He felt the heavy, vibrating presence of Nidhogg. The Bey was taking catastrophic damage, but it wasn't buckling. It was absorbing the kinetic energy, compressing it like a tightly coiled spring.
"The metal cannot split," Ryu said, his voice cutting cleanly through the roar of the clash.
*Click.*
The internal weights inside Nidhogg snapped to the outer edge. The center of gravity shifted instantly.
But instead of tilting to counter-attack, Nidhogg used the sudden distribution of extreme mass to anchor itself entirely. The sliding stopped.
Nidhogg became a completely immovable object in the center of the stone basin.
Xcalibur, still pouring its entire spin velocity into the sword strike, suddenly hit a dead stop. The kinetic energy had nowhere to go. It couldn't push Nidhogg, and it couldn't bounce off because Xander had designed the attack to follow through completely.
The energy fed back into Xcalibur's own layer.
"No way," Xander breathed, his grin finally dropping.
"Eclipse Sever," Ryu commanded.
Nidhogg didn't hit back. It simply rotated its heavy metal forge disc a fraction of an inch, catching the edge of Xcalibur's sword in its groove, and violently twisted.
The torque was absolute.
*Burst.*
The sound was sharp and definitive. Xcalibur's locking mechanism completely shattered under the self-inflicted pressure and Nidhogg's counter-twist.
The red Beyblade exploded into three pieces.
Because of the sheer force of the collision, the pieces didn't just pop. They ricocheted violently off the stone walls of the stadium. The heavy metal forge disc shot upward, clipping the edge of the referee's clipboard and sending it spinning into the dirt.
Nidhogg settled back into the center of the stone basin, spinning smoothly, its dark violet layer completely unbothered.
The Shakadera dojo was entirely silent. Nobody breathed. Dozens of martial artists stared at the stone stadium in absolute disbelief. Their master, the giant of the mountains, the pillar of the Supreme Four, had just been completely dismantled in two launches.
The referee picked up his clipboard, his hands shaking. He looked at Xander, then at Ryu, and slowly raised his arm.
"B-Burst Finish. Two points. With a final score of three to zero, the winner is Ryu O'Hara."
Ryu stood up from his stance. He let out a long, measured breath, rolling his right shoulder. The tension in his muscles finally released.
He walked to the edge of the basin and picked up Nidhogg. The metal was scalding, but the heavy, vibrating hunger had finally quieted down into a low, satisfied purr.
Ryu looked across the stadium.
Xander was staring at the scattered pieces of Xcalibur. For a long moment, the giant didn't move.
Then, Xander threw his head back and laughed again. It wasn't quite as loud as before, but it was entirely genuine. He walked around the stadium, picking up the pieces of his Bey and locking them back together.
He stopped right in front of Ryu, towering over the silver-haired boy.
"I'll be honest, O'Hara," Xander grinned, rubbing the back of his spiky red hair. "I thought Lui was just trying to rile me up. But you really are an anvil. You took the One-Impact head-on and didn't even flinch."
"It was a highly inefficient distribution of force," Ryu replied, slipping Nidhogg into his pocket. "But the raw power was acceptable."
"Acceptable!" Xander barked a laugh, slapping a massive hand down on Ryu's shoulder.
Ryu's knees buckled slightly under the sheer weight of the giant's hand, but he caught his balance, shooting Xander a flat, unamused glare.
"You've got guts, kid," Xander said, pulling his hand back. He looked over at Valt and the rest of the BeyClub, who were still standing near the gate in a state of shock. "And you were right. You don't need a five-man team. If the WBBA tries to keep you out of Nationals after this, I'll personally march down to headquarters and tear the doors off their hinges."
"That will not be necessary, but the sentiment is noted," Ryu said, adjusting his jacket.
Valt finally snapped out of his trance. He sprinted across the courtyard, absolutely beaming.
"Ryu! That was insane!" Valt yelled, throwing his arms in the air. "You didn't even use the downward angle from our match! You just stopped him! How did you do that?!"
"Physics," Ryu said automatically.
Rantaro limped over, leaning heavily on Daigo. "I don't care about the physics right now. I care about the fact that we just hiked up a mountain, watched a two-minute battle, and now we have to hike all the way back down."
Ken's blue puppet, Keru, crossed its arms. "Stop complaining, Honcho! We just saw the Supreme Four get crushed! This is history!"
Xander crossed his massive arms, looking down at the group. "If you guys are heading back to the city, you better start moving. The sun sets fast up here, and the trail gets dark."
Ryu looked at the dirt trail leading back down the mountain. He looked at his own pristine sneakers, now covered in a thin layer of dust from the dojo courtyard.
He turned his head slightly, looking at Valt and the others. They were loud. They were exhausted. They were a complete logistical nightmare.
"There is a vending machine near the train station," Ryu said, his voice entirely flat, though a very faint, almost imperceptible lightness carried in his tone. "I require a cold beverage."
Valt pumped his fist. "Alright! Next stop, the train station! And then we figure out how to find Zac the Sunrise!"
Ryu started walking toward the gate, the BeyClub trailing loudly behind him.
He had taken the first pillar. The WBBA would hear about this match within the hour. The baseline was completely broken, and Ryu felt absolutely, perfectly awake.
"Hey, Ryu!" Xander called out from the center of the courtyard.
Ryu paused at the wooden gates, glancing back over his shoulder.
Xander was grinning, his arms crossed over his massive chest. "When you make it to Nationals... I'm bringing a heavier sword."
Ryu didn't smirk, but he gave a single, respectful nod.
"I will ensure the anvil is polished," Ryu replied.
He stepped out of the dojo and began the long walk down the mountain, leaving the fallen giant behind him.
....
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