"What...!!!"

The golden sword shined like a crown and attracted everyone’s attention inside the Arena.

"Earth Rank Sword!!!"

Every head in the Arena turned.

"WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!"

"Is that— is that peak Earth Rank?! Someone in the AUDIENCE has a peak Earth Rank sword?!"

"Who threw that?! WHO THREW THAT?!"

Tony Clark stood in the audience with his arms at his sides and his expression carrying exactly nothing— no announcement, no drama, no challenge. He looked at Kevin Ten the way a person looks at a normal person.

Kevin Ten stared at the sword before him. Then he looked up... Across the platform. At Tony Clark.

Tony held his gaze for one moment... Said nothing. Then looked away— back at Max Pitt, whose confident expression had cracked into ugly anger and fear.

Kevin reached out and closed his hand around the hilt.

He stood up in one go as he imparted life energy into the sword. The sword glow intensified and killing intent filled in the eyes of Kevin Ten.

The moment the peak Earth Rank sword came into hands, something shifted in Kevin Ten.

It wasn’t just the weapon. The weapon had no power without the person holding it. What changed was what the weapon allowed— Kevin’s Sword Soul had been working against material limits. When Kevin moved now, the sword moved with him. Kevin felt like he is carrying something, that already part of the body.

Kevin pointed the sword at Mac with a bleeding face.

Max directly ran forward in anger.

Kevin’s first strike landed in Max’s chest before Max had fully registered that Kevin was moving.

Max tried to counter— the Earth Rank spear coming up in a heavy thrust, the full weight of the grade behind it. Kevin stepped inside the arc. The golden sword cracked the spear down its length.

"What...?!" Max’s eyes went wide. "That’s impossible!! How are you—"

Kevin didn’t answer. His third strike shattered the spear completely.

The dome erupted.

"HE BROKE AN EARTH RANK WEAPON?!"

"Kevin Ten just SHATTERED Max Pitt’s spear!!"

"How?! HOW?!"

Max stumbled backward, the broken spear shaft in his hand, his confidence gone so completely it was like a light switched off. He tried to retreat. Kevin didn’t give him the space. Strike after strike came— each one carrying months of suppressed grief and rage that had had nowhere to go. Each strike faster than the last, each one finding the openings through Max’s panicking footwork.

Within sixty seconds Max Pitt was on the platform floor... bleeding like a butchered pig.

Kevin’s boot came down on his chest. The golden sword pressed against his throat.

The Arena went completely still.

Kevin Ten looked down at Max Pitt and asked... "Do you feel regret now?! I said I will kill you for touching my girl." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Max’s throat tightened with fear.

"Please Spare me! I only played with her for few minutes. I never expected she would commit suicide. Please... I will arrange hundreds of loyal women for you. Please... I regret what i did." Max pleaded while crying in tears.

"Regret?! DOES IT HURT?!" Kavin’s voice cracked with murderous intent. "Does it hurt to have something taken from you?! Does your regret bring back my Sonia???" Kevin cried out in agony.

Max was shaking. "Kevin... wait... please..."

"I watched her die!!" The words tore out of Kevin’s throat. "Sonia... she had nothing left after what you did!! The academy investigated!! They INVESTIGATED and fined you— FINED you— like she was a broken piece of equipment that needed compensating for!!" His sword hand trembled. "She couldn’t live with it. She couldn’t live in a world where what you did to her had a price tag and nothing else!!" His voice broke completely on the last sentence. "And you are still standing here asking me to wait?!"

The Arena was utterly silent.

Not the silence of an audience waiting for the next thing. The silence of five hundred people who came to watch a decided conclusion and are now sitting inside something they didn’t expect and don’t know what to do with.

The Pitt family representatives surged forward simultaneously— three of them, voices overlapping, rank and family name deployed at maximum volume.

"This duel is FINISHED!! A weapon was produced in the middle of the fightl!! It’s against the rule."

"ELDER CHEN!! You have the authority!! Stop this immediately!!"

"The Pitt family will hold this academy responsible for any—"

All the Pitt family members began creating noise. Elder Chen almost raised his hand to stop teh fight and save Max Pitt’s life.

"Let the duel continue."

Two words.

No volume... No anger...

Tony had not moved from his position in the audience. He was still standing beside the snow leopard with his arms at his sides, looking at Elder Chen with the patient expression of someone who has said what needs to be said and is waiting for the other person to process it.

Elder Chen stopped his hands.

"Tony... this has gone beyond the original parameters—" he tried to speak carefully.

"Is this a Death Trail?!" Tony asked.

"It is, but..."

"Does the Death Trail conclude at incapacitation or at death or submission?!"

Elder Chen opened his mouth... Closed it.

"Death or submission," Tony said, answering his own question. "I don’t hear a submission." He looked at Max Pitt, pinned under Kevin’s boot, making sounds that were not words. "Do you hear a submission, Elder Chen?!"

The elder said nothing.

"Then the duel has not concluded," Tony said. "Sit down."

The Pitt family representatives erupted again.

"The Clark family has NO jurisdiction over a Rising Sun Peak trial!! Tony Clark is a Healing Tower disciple— he has NO authority here!!"

"Elder Chen, you answer to this academy, not to Tony Clark!! Give the order!!"

Elder Chen looked at Tony.

Tony looked back at him with the comfortable patience of someone who has nothing particular to worry about.

Elder Chen looked at the Pitt family representatives with helpless lokk and Then he sat back down.

The Pitt family representatives stood in a furious, impotent cluster. They looked at each other. They looked at Tony. They looked at the five hundred disciples in the seats who were watching all of this with the focused attention of people who were going to be describing this scene to others for the next month.

One by one, they sat down too.

Kevin Ten, who had not moved during any of this, finally looked up from Max Pitt. He looked across the Arena at Tony.

Tony met his gaze and said nothing. Did nothing. Just held it— steady, present, giving Kevin the space to finish what he had come here to finish without an audience making demands about timing.

Kevin nodded his head. Once... Deep. Then he raised the golden sword.

"Sonia," he said quietly... To nobody in the Arena.

Max Pitt’s scream tore through the Arena and bounced off the stone walls... Then it faded.

Complete silence filled as Kevin Ten covered in blood and with a satisfied smile.

-

Note: Tq @christiancampos433 for Golden-tickets!