The referee looked between them.

"Both combatants ready?"

Kael nodded.

Orion nodded.

"Begin."

Orion’s jaw opened.

The roar that erupted from his throat was like a strong force. A visible wave of golden energy exploded outward, washing over the stage like a tidal wave made of pure terror. The crowd flinched. Several students in the front rows actually grabbed their neighbors, eyes wide, hearts hammering.

Kael’s body locked.

His muscles seized. His legs rooted to the spot. Every instinct in his brain screamed at him to run, to hide, to curl into a ball and wait for the nightmare to end. The Fear Roar didn’t just paralyze the body—it hijacked the mind, injecting raw primal terror directly into the consciousness.

Fear Roar: Emits a magical blast wave that paralyzes enemies with terror.

The System’s analysis flickered in Kael’s Spirit Eyes.

Orion was already moving as the lion-kin appeared above Kael in a blur of golden fur and twisted muscle, fist cocked back with his claws extended as his weight dropped toward Kael’s skull like a meteor.

Kael’s gravity answered as an intense pressure crashed down on Orion mid-strike, slowing his descent from a blur to a crawl, buying Kael the half-second he needed to twist his body out of the way.

Orion’s fist hit stone.

CRACK!

The stage floor cratered as dust exploded outward. Orion straightened as his golden eyes narrowed.

"You are quite tough." His voice was a low growl. "Don’t disappoint me."

Kael rolled his shoulders. The paralysis was fading—his Void Body Refinement processing the fear response faster than normal biology should allow.

A golden shroud erupted around Orion’s body.

The mane spread downward, hardening, thickening, transforming into a full-body shield of golden fur that covered him from neck to toe like living armor.

Golden Shroud: Hardens mane into magical shield against attacks.

Kael analyzed with his Spirit Eyes.

"System." Kael’s voice was calm. "Purchase Shadow Armor." A technique Kael saw before in the system shop.

[PURCHASING — SHADOW ARMOR (HEAVEN GRADE)]

Cost: 2,000 Shadow Points

Current Balance: 32,100 → 30,100

Shadow Armor added to techniques.

Darkness seeped from Kael’s pores.

It crawled across his body like liquid shadow, coating his arms, his chest, his legs, solidifying into plates of obsidian-black armor that hugged his form without restricting movement. The armor covered his whole body except his head.

The two combatants faced each other. Gold and black. Lion and shadow.

Orion charged with his fist as Kael also raised his forearm to block. The impact rattled his bones, pushed him back half a step, sent a shockwave across the stage.

He grinned.

Orion swung again as Kael ducked and came up with an uppercut that Orion caught on his crossed arms. The golden shroud absorbed the impact, but Orion’s boots skidded backward.

The crowd was screaming as they watched the intense showdown.

In the stands, Yenna watched with narrowed eyes. Something was wrong. Kael was moving well—his physical stats were clearly exceptional for his cultivation base—but he wasn’t using his full arsenal. No lightning. No gravity manipulation beyond basic defense. No shadow techniques except the armor.

He was fighting like a body cultivator.

Why?

The hand-to-hand combat intensified. Orion pressed his advantage—raw strength, beast instincts, the Lion Clan’s natural physical superiority. His fists were hammer blows, each impact sending vibrations through Kael’s armor. A knee struck Kael’s ribs. An elbow caught his shoulder.

Kael gave ground. One step. Two. Three. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He blocked a straight punch with both hands crossed in front of him—and was pushed back several meters, boots scraping against stone, the impact reverberating through his entire skeleton.

Orion’s mane bristled as his chest expanded about to fire another Fear Roar.

Kael’s gravity crashed down as It slammed into Orion like a physical weight, compressing the air around him, freezing the Fear Roar in his throat before it could fully form.

Shadow spikes erupted from the ground.

They pierced Orion’s right calf—three of them punching through the Golden Shroud where the coverage was thinnest. Orion groaned in pain.

Kael stood with his hands at his sides as he raised one finger and wagged it slowly with a smirk.

"No powers."

Orion’s golden eyes widened.

The realization hit him like a physical blow. This guy—this Rank 24 upstart who’d climbed to Rank 15 in two fights—could have ended this at any time. The gravity. The shadows. The lightning that had dropped Quinn in a single strike. All of it was available, all of it held back.

Kael wasn’t fighting to win.

He was using Orion to test his physical limits.

"Are you a body cultivator?" Orion asked.

Kael smiled.

Orion yanked the shadow spikes free. Blood sprayed, but the wounds were already closing—beast-kin regeneration working overtime. He straightened, and the Golden Shroud around his body intensified, thickening, the golden light growing brighter.

"Alright."

He launched himself forward.

Kael enhanced his fists with gravity—micro-compression around each knuckle, density manipulation turning flesh into something harder than steel. He met Orion’s charge head-on.

The collision was catastrophic.

BOOM!

Both combatants staggered. The stage floor cratered beneath their feet. The crowd screamed as shockwaves rippled outward, knocking weaker students off their feet.

Orion swung. Kael ducked and countered. Orion blocked and kicked. Kael caught the kick and threw him. Orion landed, rolled, came back swinging.

Hits landed on both sides. Kael’s fist cracked against Orion’s shroud, leaving hairline fractures in the golden armor. Orion’s elbow caught Kael’s jaw, snapping his head sideways, sending stars exploding across his vision.

Kael tasted blood. His Shadow Armor had absorbed most of the damage, but the kinetic force still transferred through.

This was sustainable for now. But Orion had more physical endurance designed around exactly this kind of sustained brawl. If Kael kept trading blows, he would lose.

His eyes glowed gold as he activated Spirit Eyes.

The world shifted as mana flows became visible to him. Orion’s body became a map of golden light, power flowing from his core through specific routes to specific destinations.

The Golden Shroud drew from three primary pathways. Two in the torso. One in the neck.

But there was a gap.

A weak point where the mana flow thinned, where the reinforcement was concentrated less efficiently—a spot just below the left pectoral, where two pathways nearly overlapped but didn’t quite connect. Each impact to that area would stress the junction. Enough stress would cause accumulation. Enough accumulation would cause failure.

Orion threw a right cross. Kael slipped inside the arc—too close for the shroud to fully protect—and drove his gravity-enhanced fist directly into the weak point.

Kael’s fist sank into the golden armor about two inches, meeting resistance, and stopped.

Orion blinked.

Then he coughed.

Blood sprayed from his lips as the Golden Shroud flickered and its glow dimmed.

Orion dropped to one knee.

He looked up at Kael through a haze of pain and something that might have been respect. Blood dripped from his chin. His breathing was ragged. The weak point Kael had identified had ruptured, sending a shockwave of disrupted mana through his entire reinforcement network.

Kael looked down at him.

"Stand proud," he said. His voice carried across the silent arena, cold and arrogant and utterly certain. "Unlike the clowns I fought today, only you are worthy."

Orion stared at him for a long moment.

Then he laughed.

"I forfeit."

He pushed himself to his feet, limping slightly on his regenerated but still tender calf, and walked off the stage without looking back. The Golden Shroud faded as he went, leaving behind just a man and a grudging smile.

Kael turned and walked the other direction.