The three vessels of the rulers, the strongest hunters in the world faced a single man.

Arthur Blackwynd stood with his hands at his sides, posture almost lazy, yet his violet eyes were fixed on them with an expression that belonged to someone who had already read the ending of this fight before it began.

Elias Kruger, ’the Iron Knight’ as many call him, stood twenty meters away, his hand already on the hilt of his blade, a magnificent longsword etched with golden mana runes. Beside him, Renshiro had his katana angled behind his shoulder, wind already beginning to spiral around the sheath. Ethan Jones, the youngest of the three, hung back near the far wall, his violet-white magic barely perceptible.

Arthur’s gaze drifted past Elias and Renshiro. Settled on Ethan. ’There he is.’

Elias didn’t announce himself, didn’t give the traditional courtesy of a duelist.

He simply attacked.

One moment he was twenty meters away. The next, his golden blade was descending toward Arthur’s skull.

The Lightning Spear manifested in Arthur’s right hand between one moment and the next, a crackling javelin of condensed violet electricity.

Clang.

The sound echoed through like a bell struck by a god.

Arthur had caught the strike mid-swing, the shaft of his spear crossed against Elias’s blade. Sparks gold and violet rained down around them. Arthur didn’t even bend his knees.

He looked at the sword. Truly looked. His violet eyes traced the runes, the craftsmanship, the way the metal seemed to breathe with divine energy.

"Oh," Arthur said, a slow smile spreading across his face. "Made by my shadow Hephaestus. A fine piece... apparently he is making weapons for everyone lately.."

Elias’s eyes widened. Then narrowed. His jaw tightened until tendons stood out against his neck.

"You..." The German Hunter pushed harder, leaning his entire body weight into the blade, golden aura flaring around him. "Are you mocking me!"

Arthur simply smiled, and parried.

The motion was effortless, a slight rotation of the spear, a redirection of force that Elias hadn’t even realized Arthur was controlling. The Iron Knight stumbled forward, his own momentum betraying him, and Arthur’s spear swept past his guard in a flash of violet light.

That was not a strike, a mere dismissal.

Elias slid backward across the reinforced floor, his boots carving grooves into metal designed to withstand impacts from meta humans. He stopped ten meters away, chest heaving, eyes burning with humiliation.

From the observation deck, Wonder Woman exhaled. "He didn’t even try.. Arthur is holding back alot."

"As he should be." Superman said quietly. "It is just a duel after all, we don’t want to hurt them."

Batman said nothing, his eyes were locked on Arthur’s face.

Below, Renshiro moved.

There was no warning. One moment he was standing still, and the next the air between him and Arthur simply parted. His katana came free of its sheath in a flash of blue-white lightning, the blade trailing a thunderclap in its wake. Wind howled and the air pressure in the entire training ground dropped.

Arthur’s spear was already there.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Three strikes. Three blocks. Renshiro’s blade whistled through angles that defied human anatomy, horizontal slash, diagonal rising cut, a thrust that should have pierced Arthur’s throat. Each one met the shaft of the Lightning Spear with perfect precision.

Elias rejoined the assault, his golden sword descending in overhead arcs while Renshiro pressed from the flank. Two of the Strongest Hunters, two blades that had carved the strongest of the monsters within dungeons. Two warriors who had never fought alongside anyone who could keep up with them so far.

Arthur fought them both, his spear became a blur blocking Elias’s power strikes with its shaft, deflecting Renshiro’s speed cuts with its tip, spinning in his hands like a dancer’s ribbon. He didn’t retreat. Didn’t give ground. His feet stayed planted in a circle no larger than a dinner table, and within that circle, nothing touched him.

Clang. Crack. Shing.

Elias roared and swung a horizontal slash that would have bisected a building. Arthur ducked under it, his spear coming up to catch Renshiro’s katana mid-thrust, then twisted his body to kick Elias in the chest plate, not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to push him back.

He wasn’t even breathing hard.

And throughout it all, Arthur’s eyes kept drifting to Ethan Jones.

The teenager hadn’t moved from the far wall. He watched, his hands were open at his sides, white-violet energy flickering between his fingers like nervous static. Waiting.

Arthur smiled.

Then he moved toward him.

Elias and Renshiro both swung at the same moment Elias from above, Renshiro from the left. Arthur blocked Elias with the shaft of his spear, deflected Renshiro with the butt end, and in the same fluid motion, threw the Lightning Spear.

Not at Elias. Not at Renshiro.

At Ethan.

The spear crossed sixty meters in a fraction of a second, a violet comet trailing thunder. Ethan’s eyes went wide. His hands came up, gravity fields, force barriers, telekinetic walls, everything he had,

The spear punched through them all.

Not because Ethan’s defenses were weak. Because Arthur had thrown it at an angle that exploited every flaw in the teenager’s magic.

The shaft slammed into Ethan’s crossed forearms and carried him. He flew backward, his boots leaving the ground, his body becoming a projectile that smashed into the far wall with a sound like a gong. Cracks spiderwebbed across the reinforced surface. Ethan slumped for a moment, then pushed himself upright, shaking his head, arms already healing.

Arthur’s spear returned to his hand.

Elias charged.

"Attacking the weakling instead of facing us!" the German roared, his golden blade descending in a fury of divine light. "What kind of warrior are you?!"

’fool’ Arthur thought to himself.

Then his eyes ignited. Violet flame burned where pupils should have been. He caught Elias’s blade on his spear, held it there, and leaned in close enough that the German could see the galaxies spiraling in those eyes.

"Of course, you have to remove the weak first." Arthur said softly.

And smiled.

The fight changed after that. Elias and Renshiro exchanged a glance a silent conversation between the two. They separated, circling Arthur at opposite angles, their auras flaring brighter. Ethan pushed off from the cracked wall, rolling his shoulders, his expression shifting from confusion to anger.

’Three against one,’ Arthur thought. ’Finally.’

Elias attacked first but differently this time. His sword didn’t swing. It extended. Golden aura lashed from the blade in a crescent wave that carved through the air, leaving a trail of superheated plasma. Aura Blade Projection.

Arthur sidestepped. The golden slash passed him and struck the far wall, leaving a molten trench three meters deep.

Renshiro was already there. His katana traced a circle in the air, and wind answered a tornado compressed into the size of a fist, launched directly at Arthur’s chest. Invisible and deadly.

Arthur’s spear spun. The shaft caught the compressed tornado and redirected it, sending it screaming toward Elias, who had to throw up a golden barrier to avoid being shredded.

"He deflected that?!" Hal Jordan said from the observation deck. "You can’t deflect a vacuum blade. That’s not how wind works."

"It does if you understand the spin," J’onn J’onzz observed. "He rotated his weapon at precisely the frequency to catch the vortex and change its vector. That’s not magic. That’s physics. Applied perfectly."

Superman’s eyes glowed faintly with his enhanced vision. "His muscle control is beyond anything I’ve seen... He’s calculating every micro-movement, the speed you need for that is..."

"A lot of it." The Flash responded, observing Arthur more closely now.

Batman remained silent. His cowl hid his expression, but his hands had uncrossed. One finger tapped against his utility belt in a slow rhythm.

Ethan raised a hand.

King’s Domain.

Gravity inverted.

’Gravity.. Interesting...’

Arthur felt the shift immediately his body suddenly weighed ten times normal, then twenty, then fifty. The floor beneath his feet cracked. Every joint in his body protested. Elias and Renshiro moved freely, unaffected by their ally’s power, and pressed the advantage.

Elias’s sword came down. Renshiro’s katana traced a trail of lightning that would explode in seconds.

Arthur planted his feet.

And lifted.

His spear caught Elias’s sword and Renshiro’s katana simultaneously the shaft horizontal, both blades trapped against it. Muscles corded in his arms. The gravity pressed him down like a black hole trying to swallow him.

But he didn’t fall.

"HOW?!" Elias shouted, pushing with everything he had. "That kid’s gravity should..."

"It’s working alright," Arthur said calmly. His smile hadn’t faded. If anything, it had grown. "Just not enough."

He twisted the spear.

Both Elias and Renshiro were thrown off balance. And Arthur rotated his weapon in a tight spiral that caught both blades and redirected their momentum against each other. Elias’s sword slammed into Renshiro’s katana. Renshiro’s katana scraped along Elias’s guard.

And Arthur was free.

He spun low, his leg sweeping Elias’s feet out from under him, then stabbed the butt of his spear into Renshiro’s chest, knocking the wind from the Japanese Hunter. In the same motion, he hurled his spear again not at Ethan this time, but above him.

The spear embedded itself in the ceiling.

Then Arthur pulled.

Using the spear as an anchor, he launched himself across the arena like a missile, gravity still pressing against him, but momentum overriding it. He landed in front of Ethan inside the teenager’s gravity field, inside his comfort zone and punched him in the chest.

Not with a fist. With Ruler’s Authority.

Ethan flew backward again, this time slamming into the wall hard enough to leave a body-shaped crater. He coughed. Blood spattered his lips. His regeneration kicked in almost instantly, but the shock remained.

Elias rose from the floor and Renshiro stood beside him, katana trembling in his grip from rage.

"Together," Renshiro said. "Ruler’s Authority. Now."

Both Hunters extended their hands. Invisible forces the power and will of Rulers made manifest reached out and seized Arthur’s arms, his legs, his chest. They held him, completely immobilized, or so they thought.

"It worked," Elias breathed. "We have him."

For a moment, silence.

Then Arthur laughed, it wasn’t a mocking laugh. It was genuine.

"That’s impressive," he admitted, his body straining against invisible bonds. "You’ve got good coordination surprisingly. Together, you might actually be strong enough to hold a monarch."

Elias’s eyes narrowed. "Then yield."

Arthur’s violet eyes flicked to Ethan, still recovering against the far wall.

"I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, there is still something I want to see." he said softly.

And then he flexed his will.

Ruler’s Authority exploded from Arthur’s body like a supernova. It wasn’t just stronger than Elias and Renshiro’s combined power it was shaped differently. Where they pressed from all directions, he twisted. Where they gripped, he sliced.

Their hold shattered.

Elias stumbled backward, clutching his head like someone had driven a spike through his thoughts. Renshiro dropped to one knee, his katana clattering against the floor, nose bleeding.

"YOU CAN USE IT TOO?!" Elias shouted, his voice cracking between fury and disbelief.

Renshiro looked up, blood dripping from his chin, eyes wide.

Arthur landed softly on the arena floor, his Lightning Spear returning to his hand from the ceiling. He rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and looked at the three Hunters with something approaching pity.

"Focus on killing me," he said quietly. "You guys are making this too easy."

His gaze drifted to Ethan again. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The teenager had pushed off from the wall. His white-violet energy was building now, his eyes had changed. The fear was gone. The surprise was gone.

’Good,’ Arthur thought. ’Show me.’

/-\

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