The Sovereign Chronicles novel Chapter 36

Kaelen Stormridge caught his breath. Under the crowd’s disbelieving stares, he staggered upright, rolled his shoulders, and stretched his battered limbs. Slipping seamlessly into the opening stance of The Titan's Vigor, he flexed his fingers and beckoned Maelor to step up.

A wordless challenge, demanding the fight continue.

His physique had been drastically rewired by The Genesis Mantra. Especially after unlocking the second phase of the mantra, his muscle density and bone resilience were at least ten times tougher than a normal human's.

Maelor couldn't believe his own eyes. He stood up again? How the hell was he still standing?!

Whispers rippled through the spectators. Was he just running on adrenaline? Or did he actually have fight left in him? They stared at Kaelen with twisted expressions. The boy's silent, unyielding aggression exuded a suffocating pressure. He was battered, drenched in his own blood, cutting such a brutal figure that many female initiates had to look away.

"Good! Fantastic! You've really opened my eyes today!" Maelor spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, drawing in a deep breath of aether to suppress the churning in his chest.

The crowd looked from Kaelen to Maelor. Was the tide actually turning?

"Half the hourglass remains! Finish him, Maelor! What are you dawdling for?" a spectator yelled from the crowd.

Maelor's bloodshot eyes snapped toward the onlookers. The heckler immediately shrank back, too terrified to speak another word.

But while that initiate was cowed, others couldn't care less.

"A Phase Seven Prime Initiate struggling against a Phase Five junior. Truly, Maelor, you do your master proud."

The disciples gasped. Who dared to be so insolent? They turned to look, instantly clamping their mouths shut. It was Titus Ironridge!

"Keep your arrogance in check! Once I crush Kaelen, you're next on my list," Maelor snarled back.

"Let's see you survive Kaelen first. Your time is running out. Faster than you thought, isn't it?"

"It's more than enough." Maelor lunged at Kaelen. This time, he didn't bother with the evasive Starshatter Step. He charged in a brutal straight line, his aether flaring to its absolute peak. Arcs of violent purple electricity swarmed over his body, growing denser and more blinding until they practically swallowed him whole.

Kaelen's brow furrowed. He could clearly feel the killing intent rolling off Maelor. It was entirely different from before.

"You want to trade blows? I'll grant you a swift death!" Maelor roared. Ten paces out, he launched himself into the air. He pulled his right arm back, accumulating a terrifying, explosive mass of lightning that converged violently into his fist.

Verdict of True Thunder, Phase Five!

Thunder's Roar!

This was his ultimate martial art, the final and most devastating strike of the Verdict of True Thunder.

Maelor had been pushed to the edge. He was done playing games; he intended to obliterate Kaelen with one definitive blow.

The arena fell deathly silent. Only Celine's panicked voice pierced the air. "Don't take it head-on! Dodge! Time is almost up, you just need to survive until the end! You can do it!"

"Be proud that you forced me to use the fifth phase. But this ends here!" Maelor brought his right arm down with meteoric force. The gathered lightning burned with the intensity of a dying sun, drowning half the arena in a blinding, searing light. Vision was entirely obscured. Anyone could guess Kaelen's desperate situation. Dodge? It was impossible.

The thousands in attendance held their breath, straining to see through the glare, but they were blind.

Yet Kaelen had no intention of dodging. His face was a mask of cold iron. Eyes sliding shut, he unleashed the ultimate form of his technique—Titan's Vigor: Unbound Force.

His skin flushed a deep crimson as his blood practically boiled in his veins. His clothes and hair whipped wildly in the sheer kinetic draft of his aura. He threw a punch straight into the descending sun, his physical strength instantly multiplying by a staggering factor of six.

Five thousand pounds of explosive kinetic force!

Maelor's strike descended at that exact millisecond. The blinding sphere of concentrated lightning... detonated.

A clash of titans. A life-and-death collision.

Thunder's Roar versus Unbound Force.

CRACK!

A deafening explosion ripped through the air, sounding as if a thunderbolt had struck the very center of the arena. Shockwaves blasted outward, leaving the front rows with ringing ears and temporary deafness.

Deep within the blinding flash, Maelor wore a savage grin, entirely expecting to feel Kaelen's bones shatter into dust.

However...

Kaelen's crushing fist punched cleanly through the detonating tide of lightning. He pierced the core of the spell and slammed his knuckles directly against Maelor's descending fist.

In that split second, amidst the roaring thunder that echoed across the grounds, there was the distinct, sickening crunch of shattering bone, followed instantly by a bloodcurdling scream. But the agonizing cry was mercilessly drowned out by the lingering boom of the explosion.

Kaelen was thrown backward by the violent shockwave of Thunder's Roar. He skidded back over a dozen paces before digging his heels into the stone to stop. His right arm was drenched in blood, slashed by the concentrated lightning he had punched through, but the structural damage was superficial.

The seemingly apocalyptic Thunder's Roar had been utterly crushed by his physical might, scattering into erratic, harmless sparks across the stone.

Kaelen had been pushed back on his feet. Maelor, however, was sent spiraling through the air like a broken ragdoll. He tumbled across the stone for over twenty meters before collapsing in a heap, shrieking in agony. His right arm was mangled, bent at unnatural, horrifying angles.

"Three stalks of Glimmerpearl Herb. Honor your loss. If you lack even this basic shred of dignity, you don't deserve the title of Prime Initiate." Lyra stood her ground, an immovable object. Maelor had stepped onto that stage intending to cripple or outright murder Kaelen. Against such scum, she had no intention of showing mercy.

"We will give it to him!" one of the lackeys practically roared.

"Are you deaf? Hand them over! Right this second!" Celine flanked Lyra, her tone even sharper. "If you came to gamble, you should have brought the stakes. That's basic respect. What, were you so arrogant you never imagined you could lose?"

"Go... get them..." Maelor gasped out, urging one of the initiates beside him.

The lackey sprinted off. But from the Proving Grounds to Maelor's quarters was at least a twenty-minute run. Furthermore, there was no way Maelor simply had three stalks sitting around; he would have to extort them from others. It would take at least an hour.

Lyra just stood there, cold and unyielding as a glacier at the edge of the arena. Her presence didn't just enrage Maelor's group; it laid a suffocating pressure over the entire crowd.

Corvus of the Golden Blade stared at the resolute Lyra, then cast a deeply chilling look toward Kaelen before melting into the crowd without a word.

"Kaelen... Kaelen... this is getting interesting." Gideon and Lian exchanged a glance, both breaking into silent smirks before walking away amidst the stunned silence.

Clap! Clap! Clap! Titus Ironridge gave three slow, mocking claps, then turned his back and left.

Petyr van Orrin stood amidst the throng, his eyes practically gleaming as he watched Kaelen. If he was merely intrigued before, today cemented his desire to recruit the boy.

Linnea had already left; no one even noticed her slip away.

The Prime Initiates departed one by one, all carrying varying degrees of newfound respect. The rest of the disciples lingered, erupting into a frenzy of excited chatter as the reality of the upset finally sank in.

Lyra turned to Celine. "Help Kaelen back to his quarters."

Celine practically skipped over to him, wrapping an arm around him without caring about the blood or dirt. "Can you walk?"

Kaelen took a moment to center himself, then leaned on her and forced himself up.

The crowd parted like the red sea, watching silently as he walked out of the Proving Grounds.

No one had predicted the outcome of today's bloody bout. How could a Phase Five utterly crush a Phase Seven? Especially since Kaelen was completely self-taught, while Maelor had been personally groomed by an Elder. They shouldn't have even been in the same league.

Some began to whisper about Kaelen's martial arts. One manual he picked up two months ago, another he pulled from the Vanguard Vault a mere month ago, and he had already mastered both? Was the kid a freakish prodigy?

Regardless of the reasons, after today, Kaelen's name would no longer be restricted to the whispers of the lower-class Servitors. He had officially forced the Prime Initiates to acknowledge his existence.