The duel ended with Adrian’s overwhelming victory.
The crowd roared, hands waving, voices shouting his na but Adrian did not look back.
He stepped off the ring as if he had rely finished another mundane task rather than dismantling his opponent without effort.
’How boring’
The thought passed through his mind without arrogance. It was just a simple fact. From the beginning, Adrian had known that in this entrance exam, only one person truly stood on his level.
Vian.
Other than him there was no one.
Except now...
His eyes lifted slightly.
Calix was watching him from above. His long hood shadowing his face.
******
[Theon vs Vian]
The screen shifted and the crowd only grew louder.
Theon stepped onto the platform with a long sigh, adjusting his gloves as he faced the ring.
Across from him, Vian walked in quite casually, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed, as if this were a friendly spar rather than an elimination duel.
’Am I ready to face him again?’
Theon wondered.
He looked down at his palm, as an old mory flickered. The mory of his previous overwhelming defeat.
A clash he couldn’t overco.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath, wincing slightly as if the mory itself stung.
He closed his eyes briefly.
’Just shut it all off and fight.’
When he opened his eyes again, his expression had hardened. Vian stood there, calm as always.
Annoyingly calm.
*****
"Theon looks tense," Anaerah said quietly from her seat.
Beside her, Lunive watched the ring with steady eyes, fingers lightly touching the transparent wall of the skybox.
"Well," Lunive replied softly, "it’s normal when you have to face that guy."
"Vian?" Anaerah asked.
"Yes."
"Why so?" She asked.
Lunive paused for a mont, then turned her face slightly toward Anaerah.
"You see, Eli... people calls us- you, , Elowen... extraordinary geniuses. Talented prodigies. Heck...they even nad us the Golden Generation."
Her voice was calm, but there was weight beneath it.
"And yet... despite all that talent, none of us have ever beaten Vian." She exhaled quietly. "With Adrian being the sole exception to that."
Anaerah blinked, quite the impressed. Apparantly, the old Elizabeth, was interested in money and business more than fights. Thus, she doesn’t have that much mory of watching Vian fight.
"Only he," Lunive continued, "managed to defeat Vian once."
There was frustration in her tone. Subtle and controlled. They were the so-called elite. The future pillars of their continents.
And yet...
That boy stood above them.
That was what the protagonist of this story was capable of.
Anaerah nodded slowly.
"I see."
Below them, the referee raised his hand.
The duel between two of the Golden Generation was about to begin.
******
[Adrian Vs Theon]
The nas burned brightly on the massive screen above the arena.
The crowd roared.
Two pillars of the Golden Generation.
Two monsters in their own right.
The referee’s hand fell.
"Begin."
The ground exploded instantly. Theon stomped forward and slamd his palm into the arena floor. Instantly, stone erupted upward in jagged waves, rising into large pillars that reshaped the battlefield in seconds.
The flat ring beca a forest of rock.
Vian finally removed his hands from his pockets.
Flas ignited at his feet.
Wild yet in perfect control.
The first barrage ca from Theon’s side as, boulders ripped free from the ground and shot toward Vian like cannonballs.
Vian moved.
A burst of fire detonated beneath him, launching him sideways as the boulders smashed into where he had stood. He spun mid-air, his blade coming out in a flash, as he slashed with a fla-coated blade.
A crescent of blazing orange arc tore forward with a rattling speed, the boulders lted on contact, exploding into molten fragnts.
Theon didn’t stop. He already know who he was facing.
He clenched both fists.
The stone pillars shifted violently, collapsing inward toward Vian from multiple angles. The entire arena trembled under the sheer mass of moving rock.
Vian inhaled once.
Heat intensified.
The air around him warped as flas coiled tightly around his body.
Then...he stepped forward.
A ring of fire erupted outward in a violent surge.
The incoming stone shattered instantly, cracks glowing red before exploding apart. The flas didn’t just break the rock, no...
They consud it.
Theon narrowed his eyes. He raised his both hands high. The arena floor split open.
A massive stone titan rose behind him ford from layered slabs of earth and reinforced with condensed mana. Its fist alone was the size of a carriage.
The crowd scread in excitent.
The titan swung. Vian didn’t retreat. Dashing forward instead.
Fire exploded beneath his feet, propelling him straight toward the descending fist. His blade ignited, brighter and sharper as it burned the orange deepening toward white-hot at its core.
He slashed upward.
The blade t stone.
For half a second...they resisted each other.
Then, the titan’s arm cracked. Molten fractures spread rapidly across its surface before the entire limb disintegrated in a blast of fla.
Theon gritted his teeth and commanded the titan to strike again.
Vian leapt.
Fire propelled him higher than the titan’s head. Mid-air, he raised his sword overhead. The flas compressed, as they condensed.
Then Vian brought it down.
A blazing pillar of fire descended like a falling star.
The titan shattered completely upon impact.
Stone exploded outward, fragnts turning to ash before they even hit the barrier.
When the dust cleared.
Vian stood in front of Theon.
Close.
Too close.
Theon tried to summon another wall of stone. Vian’s palm ignited. A controlled burst of fire struck Theon square in the chest.
Not enough to maim, but enough to end it.
Theon was launched backward into the barrier and finally fell to the ground.
Silence.
Then the arena erupted.
Vian extinguished his flas with a flick of his wrist.
His breathing remained steady.
He looked toward the skyboxes briefly, then moved quickly towards Theon, a slight concern betraying his face.
"You all right?" He asked.
"Ugh, yeah i am fine. Thank’s for not holding back, bud." Theon said.
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