BAM!

The sound of the impact echoed like a thunderclap across the enclosed stadium.

Shila didn’t even have the time to widen her eyes. Sora’s steel-gauntleted fist, propelled by a violently concentrated burst of wind, connected squarely with the Ufrifan girl’s jaw.

Blood sprayed from Shila’s lips as she was violently swatted out of the sky. She went spinning backward through the air, tumbling across the distance before crashing heavily onto the pristine white marble of the central altar.

She skidded up the steps, her tiger-claw gauntlets screeching against the stone as she desperately tried to arrest her momentum.

High above, Sora came down and gracefully landed by creating a cushion of compressed air beneath her boots. Instead of crashing down from the terrifying height, she drifted as lightly as a feather.

The stadium was dead silent for a fraction of a second, completely stunned. Then, the amplifiers roared to life.

"What an unbelievable counterattack!" the male commentator bellowed, entirely losing his professional composure. "Let’s recap what just happened, folks! Shila of Ufrifa opened with a terrifying, superhuman leap that bypassed the entire arena! She was aiming straight for the blue flag!"

"But Sora didn’t let her!" the female commentator jumped in. "Sora threw a barrage of Air Slashes—but it was a feint! She caught Shila completely in her blind spot!"

"This is the pedigree of Varisus, ladies and gentlemen! The Maddox bloodline does not yield the sky!"

Down on the arena floor, Sora didn’t waste time listening to the hype. The moment her boots touched the ground, her combat instincts screamed at her.

She wasn’t safe.

Sora looked forward, realizing that Shila was already recovering. The feral girl was no longer draped over the altar. She had used her momentum to roll down the marble steps and was already crouching low to the ground, directly below Sora’s current position.

Shila’s grey hair was messy, her eyes burning with an unhinged, predatory fury. With a terrifying snarl, the girl launched herself upward, her leg sweeping in a uppercut kick aimed directly at Sora’s chin.

Sora reacted instantly, pushing herself backward to perfectly evade the rising kick. The tip of Shila’s boot missed Sora’s nose by a mere millimeter.

’I dodged it,’ Sora cheered.

But then, a cold chill ran down Sora’s spine. Shila’s unhinged smile widened.

The actual attack wasn’t the kick going up. It was the kick coming down.

Having missed the uppercut, Shila didn’t retract her leg. Instead, she used her freakish flexibility and superior physical strength to violently snap her leg downward like an axe. She rebounded the kick with twice the velocity, her heel crashing down toward Sora’s skull.

Sora barely managed to violently twist her upper body out of the way. She saved her head, but she couldn’t save her leg.

CRACK!

Shila’s heel slammed devastatingly into Sora’s right thigh. The impact was agonizing. Sora gritted her teeth to hold back a scream as her leg buckled entirely under the blow. She stumbled backward, carving a trench into the alloy floor before she was forced to fall heavily onto one knee.

"A brutal axe kick from Shila!" the male commentator roared. "Remember, severe, life-threatening injuries incur a 200-point penalty! But that was a beautifully calculated strike! Enough blunt force to damage the bone and cripple mobility, but not enough to shatter it and trigger the penalty!"

Shila landed smoothly on her feet. She stood up straight, rolling her shoulders before aggressively spitting a thick glob of blood onto the pristine floor—a parting gift from Sora’s earlier punch.

Shila didn’t bother to press the attack. With her opponent crippled, she instantly pivoted and sprinted toward Sora’s blue flag pole.

Sora knelt on the ground, panting heavily. A blinding pain radiated from her thigh. She couldn’t stand. Her leg trembled violently, threatening to give out completely if she placed any weight on it.

’No,’ Sora screamed in her mind, her dark eyes narrowing fiercely as she watched the feral girl run past her.

She couldn’t loose! Not like this and in the first round!

Sora forced her trembling body upright. She couldn’t use her leg, so she didn’t. She channeled a highly condensed, volatile sphere of air directly beneath her damaged right foot.

BOOM!

Sora shot forward, skimming just inches above the arena floor. She crossed the distance in a silver blur, reaching her hand out and violently clamping her gauntleted fingers around Shila’s wrist.

Shila’s forward momentum was violently arrested. She whipped her head around, an incredibly annoyed, furious look crossing her face. "Get off me, you pest!" she snarled.

Instead of trying to break the grip, Shila used her overwhelmingly superior physical strength. She grabbed Sora by the forearm, spun on her heel like a hammer thrower, and ruthlessly hurled Sora through the air.

"Shila throws her opponent!" the female commentator yelled. "She’s aiming directly for the metal pillar!"

Sora flew through the air, hurtling directly toward the thick, solid steel of the blue flag pole. A direct impact at this velocity would undoubtedly shatter her ribs and take her out of the match.

But Sora didn’t panic. Her mind was perfectly clear.

While tumbling mid-air, she gracefully twisted her waist, bringing her knees up to her chest. She oriented her body so that the soles of her boots were perfectly parallel to the approaching steel pillar.

As she closed the final few feet, Sora channeled as much mana as she could into the soles of her boots. The air between her feet and the steel pole rapidly compressed, glowing with a dense, visible silver light. It compressed until it hit the absolute physical limit of the atmosphere.

And then, she released it all at once.

KABOOOOOM!

A catastrophic blast shook the entire battlefield. The air detonated with the force of an explosive. The rebound was so devastating that the base of the sixty-foot blue pillar violently buckled.

The thick steel groaned, sheared, and completely snapped under the pressure, sending the towering pole toppling toward the arena floor.

Simultaneously, the massive recoil caught Sora. She was launched in the exact opposite direction.

"She used the pillar as a launchpad!" the male commentator screamed, his voice cracking. "Look at that speed!"

Sora shot across the expansive arena like a missile. She bypassed the center of the ring, flying directly over the marble altar, and zeroed in on the red flag pole standing proudly on the far side. It only took her the literal blink of an eye to cross the massive distance.

As she flew past the apex of the sixty-foot red pillar, she reached out and snatched the red fabric cleanly off its mount.

BEEP!

"Red Flag stolen!"

Down on the other side of the arena, the blue pillar crashed heavily into the alloy floor. Shila, untouched by the blast, sprinted over to the wreckage and violently tore the blue flag from the fallen pole.

"Blue Flag stolen!"

"They both have a flag!" the female commentator shrieked over the deafening roar of the crowd. "It’s a pure footrace to the altar!"

Shila bolted toward the center of the arena, her feral, beast-like strides eating up the distance with terrifying speed.

But it didn’t matter how strong her legs were. Sora wasn’t running.

Thanks to her wind talent, Sora was practically flying. She descended from the apex of the red pillar in a glide, the wind carrying her damaged body effortlessly through the air.

She reached the pristine white marble altar three full seconds before Shila even reached the bottom steps.

Sora landed lightly, sliding her red flag directly into the central hole of the altar.

The stadium lights flared brilliantly. The massive buzzer blared, freezing the digital clock.

"AND IT IS OVER!" the male commentator roared, throwing his hands into the air. "An absolute masterclass in agility and tactical maneuvering! Sora Maddox places the flag!"

The holographic scoreboard updated instantly for the world to see.

Sora had stolen the flag and placed it on the altar within 30 seconds, securing a flawless 300 points.

Shila, who had managed to steal the blue flag from the fallen pillar, walked away with only 100 points.

Sora had actually managed to Win!