The Sovereign Chronicles novel Chapter 34

After Maelor had taken a dozen steps, several veteran disciples frowned, their eyes drawn to his footwork. His aura was overwhelmingly aggressive, yet his physical movements had inexplicably become ghostly, almost weightless.

Kaelen stood his ground, his aether reserves boiling as his internal pressure skyrocketed. He, too, had noticed the bizarre, hypnotic rhythm of Maelor's approach.

*Is that footwork a martial art?*

Celine struck the starting gong. "Begin!"

A cruel smile slashed across Maelor's face. Mid-stride, he pitched forward awkwardly, as if he had stumbled over his own feet and was about to faceplant. But in a split second, the feint erupted into a terrifying burst of kinetic force. Like an iron arrow loosed from a grand bow, he launched himself at Kaelen, his speed so extreme it tore afterimages into the air, projecting three identical silhouettes.

The crowd roared. Kaelen's vision swam for a fraction of a second, and even the thousands of spectators felt a sickening sense of vertigo at the visual distortion.

Maelor materialized directly inside Kaelen's guard, his trajectory defying physics. Both of his palms thrust forward. "Thunderflash Barrage!"

Violent arcs of lightning concentrated in his palms. Before he even made physical contact, the aether detonated. Forked lightning exploded outward in a blinding, localized flashbang, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap.

It was a calculated opener meant to instantly shatter Kaelen's vision and hearing.

But Kaelen didn't panic. Relying entirely on instinct, he threw his upper body backward in a brutal, gravity-defying arch, backflipping wildly to create ten meters of distance.

Maelor didn't miss a beat. Locking onto Kaelen's retreat, he moved like a localized hurricane, closing the gap in a blink. His hands blurred into a flurry of strikes, the Thunderflash Barrage detonating continuously from his palms. A cacophony of thunder and blinding strobes turned the stage into a tempest of light and noise. In the stands, countless Initiates cried out, covering their ears and squeezing their eyes shut against the agonizing glare.

The match had gone from zero to a roaring inferno in three seconds flat.

"Thunder Needles: Thousand Shards!" Maelor roared. He launched himself off the stone tiles, shooting diagonally into the air. The violent electricity coating his body suddenly detached, transmuting into hundreds of hyper-condensed, needle-thin shards of lightning. Blindingly bright and sharp enough to pierce steel, the barrage rained down directly onto Kaelen's position.

Kaelen planted his feet. His calves, thighs, waist, and shoulders coiled in perfect unison. Like an industrial spring pushed to its absolute limit, he unleashed his stored kinetic energy. To the shock of the crowd, he catapulted five meters straight into the air, executing a wild, twisting somersault backward. He cleared the impact zone by a hairsbreadth.

Hundreds of lightning needles slammed into the arena floor where he had just stood, shredding the enchanted stone, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and pulverized rock.

Kaelen landed heavy but stable. Yet, before he could even straighten his spine, Maelor burst through the dust cloud, right in his face. His speed and footwork were utterly incomprehensible, slithering through the debris like a striking viper. The sheer lethality of the maneuver made the audience's blood run cold.

"Let's see you dodge this! Thunder Gauntlet!"

As Maelor closed the final inch, he drew back his right fist. A terrifying surge of mana rushed down his arm, condensing a thick, crackling armor of pure lightning around his hand. The aetheric gauntlet flared with such intense, erratic light that it completely washed out Kaelen's vision, making it impossible to read the incoming trajectory.

Kaelen grit his teeth. Rather than blindly raising his arms to block an attack he couldn't see, he squeezed his eyes shut and violently flexed every muscle in his body, turning his flesh into hardened steel. He braced for impact.

At the absolute last microsecond, Maelor's trajectory shifted. The punch, which looked guaranteed to shatter Kaelen's skull, dropped and hooked brutally into his solar plexus.

It was a masterful bait-and-switch. By overloading the opponent's retinas and feinting high, the enemy's natural instinct was to throw their arms up to protect their head, leaving their vital organs completely exposed. This was the terrifying combat IQ Maelor had forged over countless battles.

He wanted absolute devastation.

*CRACK! BZZZT!*

The Thunder Gauntlet buried itself deep into Kaelen's abdomen. The merciless electrical discharge shredded his tunic and tore through his flesh. Kaelen's feet left the ground. He was launched backward like a ragdoll, tumbling violently across the stone tiles. Blood rushed up his throat, and he coughed up a crimson spray before he even stopped rolling.

However, because he had braced his core rather than guarding his face, the structural damage to his organs was minimized.

More importantly, his physical constitution was an absolute anomaly. The Genesis Mantra had tempered his flesh and bones into something far beyond human limits.

"Not bad. You can take a hit," Maelor chuckled, though a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes. He had expected that punch to cave in Kaelen's ribcage. He snorted and lunged forward again, refusing to give his prey a single second to breathe. He wanted to win with overwhelming, flawless suppression, ensuring Kaelen never landed a single counterattack.

"Ruthless! Is he actually trying to kill Kaelen?"

"He's going for lethal strikes right out the gate. He's not even hiding it!"

"Kaelen's built like a brick wall, though! The bastard's tough, haha!"

"This is actually an incredible fight. The servant is putting on a show!"

The arena was a chaotic mix of terrified gasps and adrenaline-fueled cheering.

"Lady Celine, I can't look!" one of Celine's friends squeaked, clutching her arm.

Lyra, however, remained perfectly composed. The fight had only just begun. Kaelen wasn't going to break this easily.

"That footwork... that's Starshatter Step!" a veteran disciple shouted from the front row, finally recognizing the technique.

"Starshatter Step? That explains it." Gideon and the other Prime Initiates frowned heavily. Was this the Grand Elder's secret training? He actually taught him a Superior Spirit-Grade martial art? This technique wasn't even available in The Vanguard Vault; it was locked away in the Grand Elder's private study. He normally only taught it to his absolute most trusted disciples, because the footwork was so dangerously complex that a single mistake during unguided practice could permanently cripple the user's legs. It required a master's hands-on guidance to learn.

The crowd was dumbstruck. Thousands of jaws dropped. Wasn't Kaelen supposed to be a pure physical brawler using The Titan's Vigor? Where did he get a lightning-aspect martial art, let alone one this aggressive? Feeling the suffocating heat radiating from the stage, the Upper Initiates stared in sheer disbelief.

"What?" Maelor's eyes went wide. His Starshatter Step faltered, his momentum hitching for a fraction of a second.

"Violet Serpent's Fury: Thundercoil Roar!" Kaelen's eyes burned like twin suns. Seizing Maelor's momentary shock, he launched his devastating counter. The massive lightning serpent coiled around his body ripped itself free and violently lunged forward. Writhing with chaotic aether and blinding light, the construct looked like a living Spirit Beast. The visual impact was a terrifying blend of primal savagery and high-magic destruction.

Maelor snapped back to reality and desperately tried to evade.

But lightning-aspect techniques were inherently the fastest magic in existence. In the time it took to blink, the roaring serpent slammed directly into his shoulder.

Even with a two-phase level gap, The Violet Serpent's Fury was a qualitative transformation art designed for overwhelming burst damage. In a deafening explosion of violet light, the impact obliterated Maelor's aetheric guard and blew him backward. His shoulder was torn open in a spray of blood, his balance completely shattered as he stumbled wildly.

"Third segment! Titan's Vigor: Mountain-Quake!" Kaelen didn't hesitate. He charged into the opening, channeling every ounce of his bodily strength into his right shoulder. He lowered his stance and delivered a textbook, devastating shoulder-check directly into Maelor's chest.

What was Kaelen's base physical strength?

A standard punch could output nine hundred pounds of force!

The perfected Mountain-Quake multiplied that instantaneous kinetic output by more than three times. This single tackle carried nearly three thousand pounds of concussive destruction.

Maelor looked like he had been hit by a runaway siege engine. The sickening crack of fracturing ribs echoed over the arena. He was launched backward like a broken kite, soaring through the air for twenty, thirty meters toward the center of the ring.

"My turn!" Kaelen roared. He sprinted after his airborne target. He didn't have fancy footwork, but he possessed the explosive, terrifying speed of a apex predator. Before Maelor could even hit the ground, Kaelen lunged, his hand locking onto Maelor's ankle like a steel vice. With a guttural roar, Kaelen engaged his core, treating the Prime Initiate like a flail. He spun Maelor through the air in three massive, humiliating arcs before slamming him violently into the stone floor.

"Ahhh!" Dozens of female disciples shrieked, covering their eyes against the brutal impact.

But Maelor was an elite for a reason. Inches before his skull collided with the stone, he slammed both hands into the floor to absorb the shock, simultaneously channeling lightning into his free leg and kicking directly at Kaelen's face.

A flawless offensive defense. It forced Kaelen to release his grip and jump back to avoid having his jaw shattered.

Maelor rolled across the stone, dispersing the brutal kinetic force, but his heart was pounding against his ribs in sheer terror.

The blistering exchange of blows left the entire stadium in a stunned, breathless silence. No one could process what they had just witnessed.