“This is history in the making! For merely the seventh time in Azure Flame Faction history, we’re about to witness the legendary Ten-Man Challenge. One Outer Faction disciple versus ten—all as merely an Ascendant! To even attempt this you must be a monster among men. What kind of man does it take to conquer it?”

The announcer paused for the cheers and grinned shiny white teeth.

“But this edition is special even for Ten-Man Challenges because of the combatants in question. The average Level of the ten valiant fighters before you—each one-in—billions-geniuses, each top picks in their Integrations, mind you!—is 485.”

He inclined his head.

“And the hero who has thrown down the gauntlet has barely broken Level 400! That’s right!”

There was so much stomping the stands were starting to shake. Fireworks cackled over the din.

“Introducing first—the ten challengers!”

A spotlight beamed down onto the battlefield. “All the way from planet Elistria—the Spear of the East, High Prince Yarrow!”

The glare of it made Yarrow look even more pale than he already was, but he drew his fair share of cheers. The announcer went down the line—

“Then we have the legendary brothers Kane, Chosens all, savants of the Path of the Meteor…”

The Kane brothers thumped their staffs and growled.

The cheers got louder the further the announcer-guy went—but they peaked when he got to the man in the middle.

“Level 500…the #1 ranked Disciple in the Outer Faction…slayer of geniuses…the Barbarian Prince—the Third Prince of True Dragons… Kakorax!”

Kakorax beat his scaly chest with a fist, lifted his head, and blew out a jet of livid black magma—a volcano erupting—to thunderous applause.

Even from across the arena, Zane felt the heat of it.

That Law… It was like no Tier 5 Law he had seen.

Its flame shone at an intensity unlike anything he’d fought. Kakorax’s aura flared like a dark sun, making all the others’ look like pale moons by contrast.

It gave a feeling of weight, of grandeur, sinking a little deeper into the fabric of reality than all the rest. It was the gravitas of a deity.

Kakorax’s bared his fangs in a smug smile.

Zane was eager to see how he’d far against that one.

“Kakorax! Kakorax! Kakorax!” The chants came from all the dragonkin in the audience, though they were especially loud in the upper levels. There were whole sections packed full of dragonkin, Zane noticed. They were some passionate folk, those dragonkin.

“And in the other corner…”

Now the announcer turned to Zane.

“The #1 man in the Rising Dragon Ranking. The #1 pick in the 381st Integration—consort to High Priestesses—”

Zane was surprised that was even a title—

“—the Unstoppable Juggernaut of Earth—”

No one had ever called Zane this as far as he was aware.

“—Zane Walker!”

Zane blinked into the spotlight and waved.

He seemed to draw a pretty mixed reaction. He got a lot of cheers, mostly from the lower sections—but the higher up the crowd went, the more ‘boo’s rained down. Especially as they got into the Azure Flame Faction stands. He scratched his head. He had challenged lots of folk from their Paths—they wanted to see their guys win, he supposed.

“And now… without further ado…” The announcer-guy grinned.

“Let the battle commence!”

And the safety circles dropped. All at once.

Zane hadn’t fought a duel before, but his opponents had.

While he was still wondering when these circles would go down, they’d been primed like sprinters waiting to hear a starting gun.

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The moment the circles dropped, ten domains exploded across the battlefield.

The Redtalon sisters let out twin spheres of pale shimmering light, warping the air, sweeping out in broad arcs—crossing half the battlefield in a blink. At the same time Throck unleashed a molten tidal wave. And the brothers Kane let out fields of gritty silver-red, rife with dense Meteor Laws.

They crashed heavy over Zane, all at once—

But those weren’t all.

The Drakes by Kakorax’s side showed their might, casting domains of Tier 5 Law—the heaviest domains yet. Crushing down on Zane with a fury, like sheets of cascading magma—and by then the heat pouring over him then had gotten so intense it was like standing on the surface of a star…

But the most brutal domain belonged to Kakorax.

The Third Prince snarled. And unleashed the full strength of a Minor God.

A new world of red-and-black blew out of him. It was like getting a window into the lowest circle of hell. The colors warbled so thick in the air they seemed nearly solid—and they crashed over Zane, bringing to bear full-brunt Tier 5 Laws backed by a Minor God’s essence.

There was no comparison to anyone else’s—not even the other Tier 5 Laws. It felt quite like getting struck full-force by a volcanic eruption.

It was the scope, the scale, the grandeur of the Supervolcano that Zane felt then…

Ten domains—one of a kind he’d never felt before—slammed into him. All at once.

The force of it nearly took him off his feet.

It came so fast—as a shocking blast—that instantly his skin began to steam; he staggered, grunting under the weight of it all. Even his body couldn’t take this much heat, this much pressure for very long… In that moment, he felt like he was carrying the weight of many worlds.

In the Ten-man Challenge, the ten had drawn first blood.

It was with a staggering blow. A blow that threatened to win the fight before it’d even begun…

Many in the crowd saw Zane stagger, nearly overwhelmed—and were already beginning to smirk.

Elder Varax the half-dragon thought it was no surprise the bumpkin human was in over his head. Monk Wali was about to turn to his friend to say ‘I told you so.’ The domain battle was the crucial phase of any Ascendant fight, after all—whoever won got a huge advantage. Their attacks would be empowered, while their enemies’ would be suppressed. And Zane was getting suppressed ten times over.

But their smirks froze on their faces.

When Zane spoke to that technician boy earlier, he’d been telling the truth.

The fight didn’t start for him until he got warm. Sometimes it took getting clocked in the face to wake all the way up.

He stomped down a foot—hard—and steadied himself forcefully—and for a moment they all saw him straining against the force of the domains, resisting them with just the raw strength of his body, using brute muscle to hold back hurricane winds—

And his own domain raged out of him.

A domain was the expression of a soul. And Zane’s did not bend under pressure.

Zane bellowed. His Bloodline burned. Stormfire erupted.

A purple so bright it neared white seared the world—seared the eyes, so even as you blinked you could see it in the backs of your eyelids…

It was a valiant effort. But it should not have been enough.

Domains depended on the strength of the soul and the Law, but there should’ve been limits. Ten domains of the same level ought to crush, no matter how strong the opposition.

Yet somehow when their domains ganged up on him, crushing with immense force—Zane’s stood like a purple wall. Unyielding. They crushed in greater and greater, exerting their Laws—Meteors crashing, Heat Waves melting, Supervolcano Laws exploding up the edges of Zane's power—

It still stayed deadlocked.

A heartbeat. Two.

You could see the huge strain it was putting on Zane, the effort he was exerting to hold them back. After Nascent—especially after Ascension—the body and soul were intertwined. To force his domain to hold his whole body had to exert its maximum effort, muscles taut, teeth gritted, heart working furiously to power it all—

Then something no-one expected happened.

There came a new sound right where the domains met—right at that shining edge. A crackling like burning—a high-pitched screaming, like many domains were crying out in pain—a flaring of brilliant white, blank void-white, at the edge of the blazing purple.

And on the other side the Redtalon sisters gave twin hisses, clutching at their heads. The Kane brothers wobbled. Even Throck gave a grunt, staggering back…

***

“What in the Nine Hells is this?!” said Elder Coral. She was nearly on her feet.

“Stop playing around with him, Kakorax!” she shrieked. “Crush the fool already!”

They were so used to seeing the Third Prince bury even geniuses with ease. He’d broken through at the Great Circle. He’d be a force to be reckoned with even in the Inner Faction.

He should’ve been able to destroy Zane ten times over.

Then—to her horror—she saw Kakorax hiss and wince, as though wounded...

Uproar filled the Core Magma stands, a huge consternation. No one could figure out what was going on. Even the fighters themselves couldn't make sense of it.

All they knew was that the man before them was growing stronger by the second.

His domain was intensifying the way fire intensified when fed new coals. Flaring absolute white at the edges. And things weren’t deadlocked anymore.

Zane’s Domain began seizing ground.

And though ten ganged up on one, tried to drown him in a sea of silvers and deep-reds and blacks—

The one was asserting its dominance.

Tier 4 Laws burned away in flashes of white. Easily destroyed, the edges of their domains crisping up, turning the color of Stormfire. The Tier 5 Laws, the Laws of the Supervolcano, were thicker, and greater in every sense—almost little worlds unto themselves. They put up a fiercer fight.

But when the white light touched them, they had no choice but to soften—and then they, too, were seared to a crisp…

You could see the tide turning. The purples first strengthening, then chasing the other colors down the length of the battlefield.

It was starting to dawn on everyone exactly what was happening.

“Heavens,” whispered Willow the tribesgirl as Zane’s domain crossed the halfway mark, hunting down those lesser powers. “His domain—it incinerates other domains!”

***

In truth this battle of will and Law lasted just seconds.

It was over as quickly as it began.

By the end of it, the colors of Stormfire reigned supreme. Tinging the entire battlefield—staggering all ten of Zane’s foes, making them grit their teeth…

Only Kakorax could hold onto his own domain. Like an air bubble of Tier 5 Law right around him, barely keeping afloat... but even that was a tenuous thing.

The first phase of the fight—the domain battle—was over.

They were all in Zane’s world now.