"Shade Walker vs Lance Knight."

Of all the fights that could be anticipated, this one sounded too good to be true. All the demigods were curious as to why Quinn had forfeited in the first round without even swinging a single blow, so they wondered how strong Shade had gotten after their month of training.

Upon the announcement, Shade smiled as he turned to Klaus for a brief moment before getting up from his seat and heading toward the arena's battlefield.

"You think he's got this?" Rose asked Klaus in slight concern.

"I hope so," Klaus responded.

Lance also got up from his seat upon hearing XVII's call of his name. He then walked into the battlefield behind Shade as both fighters positioned themselves, awaiting the battle's commencement.

Klaus' focus on the two fighters was clear as his eyes were completely fixated on the battlefield. His curiosity on how strong Shade truly was was eating him alive and he knew that this was the perfect way to truly scale his brother's power and progress.

Both fighters walked ahead and stood opposite each other, awaiting the alarm that signaled the battle's commencement.

"It seems your appearance has changed significantly, Walker," Lance said to his opponent. "And you seem to be in very good shape."

"I appreciate the compliment," Shade responded. "I guess dedication really helps."

Lance was impressed by Shade's appearance. He could tell that Shade was different from before. But upon this memory, he remembered something that he wanted to make sure to do before he proceeded.

"Also," Lance started. "I didn't have the chance to do this earlier since you were absent, but I wanted to apologize for my unwelcoming comment during our last battle in the Cosmic League."

Lance's expression seemed to dim down a bit, making his comment feel even more genuine to Shade.

"It's fine, man," Shade replied. "And besides, you were right. I truly was weak at that state and was a detriment in the battle. All you did was tell me the reality I didn't want to hear."

"Still..." Lance persisted. "I had no right to lecture you on your strengths. And for that, I am sorry."

Hearing that made Shade feel warm inside. He didn't hold it against Lance for saying what he did, but Lance's apology made him feel more fulfilled than expected.

"I appreciate it," Shade responded.

And immediately he replied, Lance's smile grew back as he returned his initial expression.

"With that out of the way," Lance started. "I have to request you do not hold the upcoming battle against me. I don't plan on holding back any punches."

"Yeah..." Shade replied before taking his stance. "Well, I don't plan on making it any easier for you as well."

And almost immediately after his statement, the alarm rang and the battle between Shade and Lance was finally underway.

Immediately the alarm went off, Lance instantly darted to his opponent before any of the other demigods could realize. He swung his fists at Shade, and Shade was able to evade the incoming barrage of attacks before readying himself and swinging his own set of punches.

Both fighters clashed their attacks with each other as Shade swung multiple punches alongside Lance. Their defenses were also top-notch as both fighters seldom received significant damage from the other.

"The fight is more even than I thought," Mia exclaimed at the spectator's area.

Both fighters continued to swing at each other in almost a choreographic manner, making the fight extremely enticing to watch. All the demigods had their focus and attention on the fight, excluding X who continued to meditate. They all had the same thought in mind that Shade's performance was more impressive than expected, despite the battle only just going over a minute.

The demigods could see the effort that Shade had put into his training, even though the fight was not completely in his favor. But it seemed like Shade had something in his mind that was more concerning to him.

"He's not using it, huh," Shade thought to himself as the clash between the fighters continued.

Eventually, after a few more seconds of clashing, both fighters backed out of the fight in silence before taking their time to analyze what they would do next.

"Impressive combating skills, Walker," Lance started. "I'd say your skills might even rival that of my brother's."

"Thank you," Shade then said as he continued to analyze his opponent.

Lance's stance had changed slightly and he seemed to be off-guard, but Shade knew that this was not the case and that Lance was far from it.

"Though I have to ask," Lance eventually continued. "Why do you not use any of your abilities."

"I could say the same about you," Shade decided to say after a brief moment.

"Well I could, if its presence becomes necessary," Lance then replied to Shade.

Hearing this statement from Lance slightly ticked Shade off. It felt to him like Lance was implying that he needed to use his ability, despite Lance himself not using his. But he knew that Lance's confidence was not out of spite and he did not want to get empty thoughts to distract him from his goal.

After a few more seconds, Shade then sighed before returning his smile to his face. He then rested his stance before placing both of his hands in his pockets, appearing very calm and carefree.

"I guess that's fair," Shade then said to Lance.

Immediately after this statement concluded, Lance's smile seemed to lessen as he gradually turned his attention to the floor, witnessing a pool of shadow completely beneath him.

"This move, huh," Lance said, revealing his knowledge of the ability.

Lance remained in the same spot, confirming that the ability was the Binding Shadow technique that Shade normally used before. However, the pool of shadow that was present contradicted the usual ability where Shade used his opponent's shadow to bind them.

"Boring, yet effective, don't you think?" Shade responded with his hands remaining in his pockets.

Spectating from the sidelines, Klaus noticed that Shade did not have to place his palms on the floor to use his binding ability which was very impressive, but the idea of remaining in place when using the ability seemed to still be present.

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Shade continued to keep Lance in the same location, which made Lance a bit frustrated. But his expression did not seem as concerned as the other demigods had expected.

Suddenly, Lance's body appeared to be shaking, almost like he was trying to force himself out of his bound state, and this seemed to be the case. Eventually, Lance managed to forcefully break out of Shade's ability as the shadow beneath him vanished, leaving his own shadow alone.

Lance closed his eyes and exhaled for a brief moment before opening his eyes and turning back to Shade. His expression remained the same, but it was clear that his anticipation had lessened a bit.

"If that is the best you can do, then I am disappointed," Lance said.

But Shade did not seem the least bit concerned after Lance regained his freedom.

"Oh," Shade started. "I just wanted to show you my mastery of that technique. Frankly, it's a bit too cowardly for me, to be honest."

The other demigods were surprised by such a bold statement from Shade. If what he said was true, then it meant that Shade had way more up his sleeves than cheap tricks. His expression also seemed like he did not do the ability with any intention of seriousness. It was almost like he was building up for something else.

"But I guess I'm the one that needs to start the momentum of the battle," Shade then said to Lance.

As he concluded his statement, Shade pulled out his right hand from his pocket and slowly lifted it. He then brought out his index finger after coming to a stop as it seemed like he was pointing at his opponent. But that was not Shade's intention.

Suddenly, before anyone present could expect anything, a black substance appeared underneath Shade's right sleeve before proceeding to the finger he had pointed out. The substance then gathered at his finger's tip before dropping to the ground like a drop of water. But that was not the most shocking part of the sequence.

As the strange substance dropped to the floor, a puddle of shadows instantly appeared where the drop had occurred, almost like the substance had spread itself when coming in contact with the ground. The pool of shadow was extremely dark, clearly darker than the previous one he had used, and was about forty inches in diameter.

The demigods were completely surprised that Shade had made such a thick and concentrated amount of shadow and seemed to be slightly confused about what it was for. But a statement was eventually made among them that caused them to wonder even more.

"That pool. That isn't made of shadows," The statement, revealing to be from Iris, was made as she stared at the strange concentration of the substance.

"What?" Tyler asked. "Then what is it?"

"It's pure darkness, in the form of matter."

As Quinn made this statement with an utterly shocked expression, the demigods knew that this was bigger than they had anticipated.

"Pure darkness?" Klaus asked Quinn. "Care to elaborate?"

"I've always had theories on such a concept, but I never assumed it would be possible," Quinn began. "Though, at this point, I shouldn't be surprised that the son of the God of Darkness was able to manifest such a substance."

"That doesn't answer the question," Klaus then proceeded before Quinn realized that her bad habit was sprouting again.

"I'm sorry," Quinn said. "But it's as the statement entails; pure darkness in the form of matter."

"So dark matter?" Rose asked.

"Not exactly," Link replied as he attempted to understand the situation. "Where dark matter is a substance that cannot be visible, this is clearly different. Though this substance also appears to be formed by particles that do not absorb light."

"It's basically conjuring darkness itself, as the absence of light, and manifesting it into matter," Quin then elaborated her theory as she continued to spectate the fight in hopes of fully understanding the strange substance's nature.

"You're not going to attack?" Shade asked Lance after realizing that his opponent had not reacted.

"Well," Lance began. "I'm more curious as to what this ability had to offer."

Shade smiled after Lance's statement before responding to his opponent.

"Oh... then you would definitely love this."

And as Shade stated this, he immediately crouched behind the pool of darkness before stretching his right hand into the pool.

"Woah," Siren exclaimed. "It seems deeper than I'd thought."

Shade's right arm was almost completely below the pool of darkness as he continued to dig deep into it for a few more seconds. Eventually, Shade proceeded to return his hand out of the pool of darkness and upon doing so, appeared to have pulled something else from inside of it.

As he completely returned his hand and got back up on his feet, the other demigods, alongside Lance, stood in awe as Shade pulled out what seemed to be a sword made completely of pure darkness.

Lance's smile grew almost immediately as Shade wielded the blade right in front of him.

"Sorry for the wait," Shade said to Lance with his smile.

"Forget that," Lance said. "With such magnitude of power, this battle can truly be elegant."

And immediately after, Shade rushed at Lance with his newly formed weapon.

Shade proceeded to swing his blade at Lance, with Lance simply evading the attacks. The process seemed to continue for a little bit until the demigods noticed something strange.

"Is he..." Ace began. "Is Shade overwhelming Lance?"

The demigods watched as Shade's swordsmanship was so extraordinary that Lance appeared to be having a hard time evading and defending.

Shade continued his attacking sequence without giving Lance any room for error, and Lance knew that he couldn't keep this process up. His smile had also dimmed quite a bit upon realization by the others as they watched Shade get the upper hand for the first time in their battle.

Shade then managed to get an opening on Lance upon evading an attack before he raised his blade and drove it down onto his opponent with hopes of ending the battle there. And as this occurred, a loud slam sounded around the battlefield.

As the demigods focused on what had happened, they noticed that Lance had subconsciously created a shield using the Divine Arsenal to block Shade's attack. After this, Lance then moved back a few meters from his opponent before Shade let out a smile and dropped his hands.

"Worried, were you?" Shade asked Lance with a devilish smile on his face.

Lance's expression was almost straight for a second before he finally noticed his concern and lessened it, reverting to his proud expression with a bright smile on his face. He then turned his attention back to Shade before proceeding to respond.

"You have gained my attention, Walker. Now keep it."

As Lance stated this, he stretched his right hand out before forming what seemed to be a sword of his own from the Divine Arsenal and rushing directly at Shade.

Both fighters rushed at each other as they clashed their blades in almost a lightning-fast manner. The speed and precision that both fighters had were beyond phenomenal and most of the demigods could not even react to every clash. But what was clear in this battle was that Shade was performing well above expectation, clearly rivaling someone like Lance in combat.

As the clashing continued for a few moments, Shade managed to use his sword to break Lance's blade after their continuous clash, but before he could even utilize the opening he got, Lance had already created a brand new one from thin air and continued the clash.

This continued until Lance also managed to break the blade that Shade was using. But yet again, before Lance could do anything, Shade placed his hand into the pool of darkness and pulled out another blade almost immediately, with the broken pieces of the old one returning to the pit of darkness.

"It's almost like they have the same ability," Trent commented at the spectator's area.

"Forget that," Quinn stated. "It's almost like they're dead even."

The clash continued for a few more seconds before Lance eventually got a good opening on Shade and sent out an attack with speed. Judging from the way Shade was, it was almost impossible for him to react to Lance's attack with his weapon so it was almost a guaranteed slash.

But before Lance's attack could land, a small pool of darkness from the pit that suddenly moved itself between both fighters gushed upwards. This created a solidified wall of darkness between Lance's attack and Shade, causing Lance's blade to snap once more.

Lance looked at his blade in confusion before turning to the wall of darkness. This ability had just saved Shade in such a short period that it felt like it was unreal to Lance. Shade eventually turned his focus back on Lance while the wall was still up after noticing his opponent's weapon's state.

But by the time Shade had turned, Lance had already created another blade, this time almost three times the size of the previous and similar to a greatsword, and swung it at Shade.

The wall of darkness managed to absorb most of the force Lance had used when swinging his weapon, but the attack was too powerful so it managed to break through the darkness. But by that time, Shade had also moved away from the attack's way.

Shade then dropped his sword before reaching for the pit of darkness once again, this time pulling out a greatsword almost similar to Lance's and rushing at his opponent once again.

The clashing continued as the demigods watched both fighters swing such massive weapons with relative ease. Shade was holding his own very well against his opponent, but it was still clear that he did not have the upper hand anymore, in fact, maybe the opposite.

The demigods were too impressed by Shade, but they were still in awe by how calm and collected both Lance and Shade were in the battle. But the clashing didn't last too long before Lance finally managed to disarm his opponent yet again, hitting Shade's weapon off his hands.

With this opening, Lance did not waste a single ounce of time before swinging his weapon directly at Shade. But before any of the demigods could react, Lance swung his sword so fast that his blade went through Shade's torso.

The shock in Klaus' eyes widened as he witnessed Lance's blade cleanly cut through Shade.

"No..."