A Rozzalian in full gladiator armor emerged from the same gate the Sand Wyrm entered through. Though his chest and abdomen lacked any protection, he wore pads over his vitals. The style of his helmet was most peculiar as it had holes for its visors.

Could the Rozzalian even see behind it?

Another thing Kihet noticed was a crossed out emblem used to identify as a Rozzalian soldier proudly shown on his shoulder armor.

As for the rest of his equipment, he carried what looked to be a double handed axe with a wide head and a pick on its backside.

“Ryker, You’re up.”

“What’s the occasion, Holy Vol?”

“Someone wants to directly challenge me. I’ll consider it if he beats you.”

“Hmm.” Ryker turned his helmet Kihet’s way and studied him. “I want to fight against my challengers when they’re in their top form. Do you want a day to rest?”

“I’m fine.”

“I admit, you got spunk. I’ll accept your challenge. If you win, you have the right to challenge Holy Vol.”

“That’s the plan. I don’t have any time to waste.”

Kihet’s swift response left Ryker speechless. Unlike previous contestants, every Pamalyrian showed a certain sign of uncertainty when standing before Ryker. Moreover, Kihet’s defying glare presented himself as a hardened warrior who fought through life and death battles.

Hearing Kihet’s bold declaration, Ryker granted him a brief second to reattach the peg to his leg.

“I see. Announcer, we will proceed with the duel. Please relay that to the audience.”

“U-understood! Ladies and gentlemen, we have an unexpected show about to start! Ryker has accepted the challenger’s request!”

A huge cheer echoed throughout the arena.

The yells were starting to get annoying. It was especially loud when Vol came onto the stage. Vol’s second riled up the crowd more when he announced to take on Kihet’s challenge.

“Then that settles it. If you win without any of your tricks, you’ll get to fight against me.” Vol said, walking towards his seat.

“Where do you think you’re going? This won’t take long.”

“Ya right. Let me give you some advice. Ryker isn’t some pushover. He used to have a pretty high position as a guard.”

“I don’t care. You just stay there. After I take him down, you’re next.”

“When did you get so cocky? Fine by me. I’ll stay right here.”

Following Pamalyrian tradition, Kihet and Ryker gave each other distance. They steadied their weapons, waiting for the Announcer’s signal.

“Don’t you sound arrogant?” Ryker snorted. “Any words before we fight? I’ll give you a chance to say something.”

“One question. Do the names Carmyn and Salith ring a bell?”

Kihet couldn’t tell what expression was made behind the helmet. He did know Ryker’s silence meant he at least acknowledged who Carmyn and Salith were. In turn, Ryker must hold information about Rozzosea’s Queen.

“Let’s see if you’ll make it out alive first. Then, I’ll answer.”

“Fair enough.”

“And begin!”

Once the call had been given, it was Ryker who closed the distance. His long stride quickly put Kihet in his reach. His axe swept across, holding it at the very bottom of the shaft to extend his attack range and swung it as if it was a club. In the next instant, the head of the axe burrowed into the ground and looked to be stuck.

Luckily Kihet did not take the bait. Ryker was able to yank it out with another swing, missing Kihet’s legs with the pick on the axe’s backside.

Kihet envied the lack of strength and endurance weren’t issues Rozzalians easily suffered from. His opponent was waving a two handed axe around as easily as a child handling a stick.

That wasn’t to say Ryker mindlessly swung his axe. There was a certain finesse in his movements that wasn’t quite Rozzalian like. It felt like the Rozzalian’s style had evolved to fight against nimble contestants like Lycanthropes and Mixrels.

“You’re good. Not many people would have thought I’d done a feint.”

Of course, Kihet was lucky to notice. He was up against a duelist who was appointed as Vol’s second. Ryker must’ve been a formidable foe to be enlisted. Any openings could be lure him into a false sense of security.

Kihet continued to skip away as Ryker’s bone crushing strikes narrowly missed. He timed the Rozzalian’s swings and on a count to three, threw himself in.

Suddenly, a second axe in Ryker’s hand thrust at Kihet from his blindside. The pointed tip brushed Kihet’s hair as he retreated using his [Chain]. Kihet thought it was impossible for his body to bend in such weird angles, but he managed to do it.

His movement was so unnatural it caught Ryker off guard.

“Well, I’ll be damned. How did you move like that?”

“If you’ve ever died, you’ll be familiar with the feeling.”

Before Ryker was able to comprehend it, Kihet launched himself in a second time. Kihet’s firelance blurred; four swings converged towards the center and forced Ryker to defend. After adding pressure with [Blooming Petals], Kihet swung his weapon with all his strength.

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A loud keening sound rang over the Colosseum. A firelance and one axe bounced off each other, soaring through the air and tumbled across ground on opposite ends.

“Heh, you sure pack a punch!”

“I’d like to continue, but I don’t have anymore time to play around.”

Kihet’s fingers formed a claw as if he was ready to tear Ryker apart. A sphere distorting space enveloped over his palm.

“Ryker, that’s magic! Get away!” Despite Vol’s warning, Ryker was too large of a foe to dodge.

By the time Ryker’s eyes tagged Kihet, it was too late. He felt a sting on his shoulder while his weight had been robbed from him. His posture broke. His center of gravity shifted.

Kihet slipped past Ryker’s axe and his hand dug into the Rozzalian’s stomach. The powerful force, [Repulsion], sent Ryker crashing into the nearest wall. Kihet shot his [Chain] after Ryker, reeling himself at his target with another earth quaking strike for the finishing blow.

“Who… are you?”

“Someone who’s tired of losing.”

A cloud of dust and sand filled the area. Once it was cleared, Kihet stood in front of the unmoving Rozzalian and briefly flashed the Oracle’s seal at Ryker as the Rozzalian’s body slumped.

The match didn’t take five minutes and one of the strongest duelists said to be Vol’s right hand man was downed.

“Hey, Ryker! You’re not done in that easily, right?!” Vol’s face went pale. “Get up!”

“What’s wrong, Vol? Scared?”

“You weren’t able to use magic before and you can now suddenly use it out from nowhere. I don’t even know what elemental that is. How many new tricks did you learn?”

Kihet quietly drew his sword and took slow steps towards Vol. His silvery eyes bored into Vol’s soul as he walked towards him.

“Fine, I’m still the reigning champion. I’ll show you why!”

The Colosseum exploded in cheers once again. This time was much louder since the fan favorite, Vol, accepted Kihet’s challenge.

Vol lunged at Kihet with his knives only to be met with a quick thrust. Vol was able to lean away at an impressive reaction time and continue speeding past Kihet’s defense.

His speed was ungodly. In an instant, he plunged his dagger at Kihet’s shoulder, hoping that would be enough to dissuade his friend from continuing the duel.

“What the hell?!”

Unfortunately, his weapon was caught in the air that was as thick as moving through molasses. Vol couldn’t push or pull away, forcing him to abandon his weapon hovering over Kihet’s shoulder.

He heard the elemental’s song coming from Kihet’s shoulder. It wasn’t there before.

“Hot damn. You can use enchantment magic? And what about your [Ribbon]? Why does it look different?”

“I don’t know either. I should let you know it’s more durable than any [Ribbon].” Kihet aimed his palm at Vol.

[Chain]’s spear tip shot at Vol. After deflecting it, Vol couldn’t believe it wasn’t dispelled by physical trauma unlike [Ribbons] other Enuis casted.

“Shit.” Vol clicked his tongue. “I can’t afford to lose. My entire life depends on it. Sorry if you end up getting hurt, Kihet!”

Vol suddenly vanished and left a puff of wind. A flash of light came from one end and when it was blocked, several more surrounded Kihet.

Vol was difficult to hit, to catch and to counter. It was an impressive feat Kihet could defend against relentless slashes coming from all sides while stationary. Vol ran circles around Kihet, not giving him a sliver of chance to take a break.

“It’s useless if you can’t hit me!”

Kihet spun around, trying to meet Vol but he was simply too slow. The moment he thought he caught Vol, his opponent vanished. Kihet saw a shadow fast approached and jumped, tracing the full moon for [Full Moon: High Tide] to ward off Vol’s throwing knives from all direction.

He faced the other way to throw down [Waxing moon: Sparking Steel] and block against Vol’s flurry of slashes.

“What’s wrong? You’re slowing down a lot! Did you run out of catalysts?”

A second flurry of daggers rained towards Kihet. The instant he deflected them, two of the daggers realigned themselves and flew at his backside. How was that possible? They weren’t named weapons. If they were, what were the chances the two would have identical functions?

Kihet batted them away using [Full Moon: High Tide]. He was prepared for Vol to flank him, but as he turned around, he was peppered by arrows.

To overwhelm his opponents with speed was Vol’s tactic.

Vol had swapped to his bow and loosened arrows in rapid succession. His hands moved quickly between his bow and quiver, launching ten sets of accurate arrows in roughly three seconds.

“And the Challenger is on the run! The Champion is simply overwhelming him!”

Kihet was constantly on the move. Although his movement was limited because of a missing foot, he was able to extend the distance he could jump using [Chain].

“Gotcha!”

The same moment, Kihet felt a jabbing pain and was knocked out of the air. He quickly turned himself upright after his landing and saw a shadow casted over him.

Vol soared through the air with his knives pointed at Kihet.

“What? Can’t talk and fight? With this, it’s my win!”

“Sorry, Vol. I still have one more thing up my sleeve.”

A pillar of raging fire suddenly erupted underneath Kihet. It was silver and did not emit any heat.

Unfortunately, Vol did not know the property of the flames were harmless to all things other than Tower spawns. He instinctively covered his head with his arms as he dived into the field of fire.

“Shit!”

The Oracle’s flames masked Kihet. As Vol dropped through the curtain of fire, he had trouble grasping his situation. He did, however, remember seeing it once from a decade ago from fighting the Shadowed Knight with Kihet.

The crowd went silent, but Vol’s voice gave them relief to hear their champion was alive and well.

“I’m not burning…? Wait, no! Kihet, say something Kihet! Are you alright?!”

“I’m alive.”

A blade cleaved through the cover of fire and Vol made a split second decision to block it with his knives. He was sent flying into the field of flames now slowly creeping towards the edge of the arena.

“Thanks for being worried. It’s kind of making me feel bad to do this.”

“Did you make this fire?”

“Don’t worry. It can’t hurt us, although, you wouldn’t know that.” Kihet hacked through the fire with [Tree Feller] and chased Vol.

“Fuck!”

“I would carefully choose where you decide to step.”

“What did you mean-?” Vol suddenly found his foot glued to the ground. He looked down and found resin harden around his feet and held him in place. “This is from that Sand Wyrm’s spit attack! How did you spread it without getting yourself stuck?!”

“You should know I’m a quick learner. It came in handy against someone as quick as you.” Kihet stepped in with a flood of attacks.

Vol had no trouble matching Kihet’s [Waxing Moon: Sparking Steel], but as time went on, numerous impacts began to make his hands go numb.

“Dammit! Wait a second! Wait!”

“You better brace yourself, Vol. It’s going to hurt.”

At Kihet’s will, the sea of silver flames was extinguished. Vol then heard the sound of [Chains] rattling. His eyes followed from one end of the ethereal [Chain] to the tip coiled over his arm.

His body started feeling floaty.

“Don’t tell me-! Shit!”

The last thing he felt was a powerful tug and saw Kihet’s fist fly at his face.

And then everything went black.

Following the unexpected results, the Colosseum went silent. For decades the reigning champion had ruled over his position as the strongest duelist in all of Pamalyra. Vol was unstoppable. He came in like a dust devil, sweeping through infamous individuals with ease. He outpaced the fastest ones and humiliated those who’s confidence rival his.

Today, the reigning champion presented himself laying on the ground unconscious. He was officially dethroned from being the strongest after all these years.

However, it wasn’t from the shock their favorite duelist was defeated. It was the sea of silver flames spread across the battlefield the mysterious challenger called forth against Vol.

Small murmurs spread throughout the spectators. The bringer of the silver light. The Creator’s last will in mortal form. The Creator’s will in form of a mortal who will cure the plague of the Towers standing on their homeland.

“T-the Oracle, is victorious!”

The Announcer’s trembling voice was the first thing echoing over the Colosseum upon the realization the Oracle presented himself in a victory against the reigning champion.