"And the timer drops! The match officially begins!" the male commentator’s voice roared through the colossal stadium amplifiers, drowning out the deafening screams of spectators.

Down on the beach, Gideon Vance didn’t waste a single millisecond. The massive, dark-skinned Warrior dug his heavy iron boots into the red sand, his thick muscles bulging as he exploded forward.

He was a pure physical powerhouse, a human tank built to shatter frontlines. His strategy was simple: cross the central river, intercept the opponent, and crush her before she could even get to his flag.

Both of them reached the river almost at the same time, but Gideon was faster and he crossed it first and stepped out onto the beach on other side.

Across the rushing water, the tall woman named Ressa didn’t brace for an impact. She didn’t summon a shield or take a defensive stance. Instead, she cracked a confident, sly smile and stepped smoothly forward to meet him. Her arm blurred.

SNAP!

The glowing whip lashed through the air, aimed directly at Gideon’s chest. Gideon sneered, his superhuman reflexes easily tracking the trajectory. He smoothly stepped aside, allowing the serrated weapon to completely miss his body and strike the sand beside his boots.

But the moment the whip cracked against the earth, a strange phenomenon occurred. The ambient mana coating the weapon vaporized. A sudden, highly concentrated cloud of pinkish-violet mist erupted into the air directly in front of Gideon’s face.

Gideon inadvertently inhaled. A sickly, overwhelmingly sweet perfume flooded his sinuses. He violently winced, his nose crinkling in absolute disgust as he tried to swat the strange-smelling mist away with his heavy iron gauntlet.

In that brief moment of distraction, Ressa didn’t pull her whip back for a second strike. She simply lowered her shoulder and sprinted right past him.

As she slipped effortlessly by his massive frame, she leaned in, her lips hovering just inches from his ear. "I like big men like you," Ressa whispered, her voice dripping with playful mockery. "But big men are often so very stupid."

Gideon blinked, momentarily confused as the woman’s footsteps rapidly distanced themselves behind his back. He turned his head, watching her sprint away.

’What is she doing?’ Gideon thought, his thick brow furrowing. ’She completely gave up her frontal guard.’ Then, realization seemed to dawn on him.

She wasn’t confident in her close-quarters combat skills. She knew that if she engaged in a physical brawl with a warrior, she would not be able to win. So, she was trying to avoid the fight entirely and run straight for the pole to steal his flag!

"You won’t reach it before me," Gideon grunted, a confident smirk spreading across his face.

He didn’t bother chasing her backward. Instead, he locked his eyes forward, aiming for the Blue Pole on the enemy’s side of the arena. He pressed his legs deep into the sand, his raw physical strength propelling him forward like a cannonball.

He reached the rushing river that cut the arena in half and leaped, crossing the midpoint of the battlefield in a matter of seconds.

’Huh? River? Didn’t I already cross the river?’ The thought came a bit too late to him.

"Look at that explosive speed from Gideon Vance!" the male commentator bellowed. "He’s completely ignoring Ressa’s flag and making a direct play to stop her from advancing. What a powerhouse!"

’what is this commentator saying?’

Gideon frowned, but could not tell what was exactly happening, so he forced a dense surge of dark brown mana down into his calves, multiplying the kinetic output of his leg muscles several times over.

As he pushed his massive body off the riverbank, he practically glided through the air, aiming to bypass the rest of the beach entirely and land right at the base of the blue pillar.

But suddenly, the bright artificial sunlight of the stadium vanished.

Gideon was entirely engulfed in pitch-black darkness. Before his brain could even process the sudden change in lighting, his face collided with an impossibly hard surface.

BOOOM!

The impact was devastating. Gideon’s massive frame shattered the solid rock wall, sending a shower of heavy stone and dust cascading down around him. He groaned, shaking his ringing head as he fell back onto the cold, damp floor.

"What... what is happening?!" the female commentator shrieked, her voice echoing with utter bewilderment. "Gideon Vance just leaped completely off-course! He didn’t jump toward Ressa or the blue zone—he launched himself directly into the central river cavern!"

Gideon pushed himself up from the rubble, wiping a trickle of blood from his forehead. He looked around wildly. He was inside the dark, echoing tunnel that housed the river.

’How the hell did I get in here?’ he thought, his heart hammering in his chest. ’I was sure I jumped straight toward the Blue Pole!’

A cold realization settled in his gut. The perfume. It wasn’t a fucking perfume... It was a sensory disruptor. The moment he had inhaled that sweet-smelling mana, his brain’s internal compass had been completely, flawlessly scrambled. He had lost his sense of direction without even knowing it had happened.

Gritting his teeth, Gideon turned around and sprinted back out of the cavern. He needed to get to the blue zone. He aimed his body toward what his brain adamantly told him was the "left"—the direction of the enemy’s pole. He burst out into the sunlight, his boots kicking up water from the slick rocks as he sprinted toward the towering pillar in the distance.

But as he drew closer, the silhouette scaling the pillar made him freeze in his tracks. He was staring directly at Ressa’s butts as the lithe woman rapidly climbed up the smooth metal pole.

Gideon looked up at the flag and realized that It was red. He looked back at the cavern.

He hadn’t run to the blue zone. He had run in a massive circle right back to his own Red Pole.

"Unbelievable!" the male commentator roared, the crowd completely losing its mind. "Ressa’s illusionary talent is absolutely dominating the field! She has completely hijacked Vance’s directional awareness!"