“Is this even allowed?” Rykion asked. His question was directed at the match official. He was ignoring his opponent for now. “I defeated that monster moments ago. Yet it has called upon its fellows and sacrificed them to give itself another futile opportunity. Everyone will be bored by another match of the same calibre.”

The crowd agreed, throwing down insults at the cheating monster. How dare it try to keep fighting after it had been dealt such a resounding loss?

But the match official didn’t immediately disqualify the monster. He was deliberating.

Rieren understood it. In an effort at fairness, this wasn’t something unprecedented. Naviel from the Arteroth team had used something that worked similarly in his match against Rieren herself. He had called upon the powers of his subordinates to raise his own might, and the match official back then had certainly allowed it.

If this one baulked, the tournament administration would have no ground of legitimacy to stand on. Even if they were dealing with a monster, the blow to their reputation would take a massive hit among the remaining human competitors. He had to allow it.

Rieren stared down at the Stifling Nebula shining brilliantly in the middle of the arena. Had the Arisen planned this all along?

The match official finally shook his head and retreated. The match was going on. It was going to continue.

“It seems the battle is not yet over, folks,” the commentator said. “Hold on to your seats, as I foresee this is going to be even more furious than the one we just witnessed.”

The Arisen laughed, its many voices warbling together until the shrill sound pierced into Rieren’s ears. “Face your fear, coward. There is no way to escape the crucible of competition.”

Rykion turned a disgusted look at the monster. “Spare me the insults and come die already.”

Rieren could almost feel the feral grin that the monster would have displayed had it been capable of doing so. Then the battle resumed.

The commentator had been absolutely correct. If the fight before had been fast and furious, this next one had devolved into an utter frenzy of maddening ferocity.

Rieren barely caught the action too. The Arisen had clearly grown powerful, its movement far faster than it had been before. Its hits landed with spectacular strength too, every blow releasing a miniature shock wave upon contact with its target.

The monster seemed to move as fast as the light shining out of it. Just the fact that Rykion could keep up with it spoke volumes about his own power.

They were both shooting across the arena at a speed that was making Rieren’s head dizzy. She barely caught the rain of relentless, star-fisted punches that the Arisen threw at its opponent whenever it caught up to him. Rykion was doing his best to block with a spear of light in each hand, but he was taking hits too. The speed of the punches was too much, even for him.

Luckily for him, he had his Essence armour to protect him against direct hits. How long could he withstand that ferocity was the question, however.

At some point, for a reason Rieren couldn’t catch as a spectator, the combatants separated. Neither looked winded. And then the reason became apparent. They were attempting a different approach, since a direct fight had resulted in something of a stalemate.

The Arisen thrust one hand out, and with a roar of savage delight, it shot out a stream of shooting stars at Rykion.

He blocked it with his Domain. Light materialized around him, quickly twisting into an array of spears that impeded the stars motion, causing them to explode long before they reached Rykion. The first volley, at least. The stream that the Arisen had unleashed was unending. They punched through Rykion’s barricade and the resulting detonations to shoot at him.

Only dodging in time saved him from suffering the impact of an explosion. Except, evading had also taken him into the monster’s striking range, even at that distance.

The Arisen’s other arm had grown enormously, turning into a gigantic version of itself. One that it hammered at Rykion with a blistering spray of force and power, the stars within it turning so bright that it was impossible to look at.

Rykion did his best to block it with his spears of light. Two large ones, crossed to form an impassable barrier. The resulting detonation still shot him back, however. He cracked hard into the arena wall, his Essence armour partially breaking too, leaving a bleeding wound on his temple.

There was no time for Rykion or the crowd or anyone else to stand shocked that the monster had actually drawn blood.

Relentless aggression. That was the Arisen’s plan. Except this time, it had the innate power to cause grievous harm to its opponent.

The battle went on with the same ferocity as it had displayed so far. Light spears and bursting stars collided with explosions that rocked the whole arena. The Arisen and Rykion clashed directly too, trading blows with their fists against spears face-to-face as the opportunity presented itself. Everything happened so blindingly fast, it was becoming difficult to keep track.

Rieren could only stand and watch in awe as the monster dragged out every bit of power Rykion had within him. No hiding any techniques or skills, no waiting to reveal abilities until later matches. They were all needed now. Otherwise, Rykion was liable to die.

At one point, Rykion was thrown high up in the sky, shooting down a rain of spears from his airborne Domain. The Arisen had retaliated with a stream of unending shooting stars in response. The spears and the stars collided together, causing ripping bursts that hammered the entire battlefield, forcing even Rieren to duck back against the thrumming air.

The crowd was certainly getting the best exhibit of awestriking powers they had seen yet.

In a following exchange, Rykion finally managed to land a blow that should have been fatal. That should have ended the match then and there.

When they had collided in a head-on fight again, he had phased part of his body inside the monster. Rykion had already displayed passing proficiency in turning part of his body into his main Aspect of light. He used the same trick here to both evade the monster’s blows and insert a hand into his opponent.

Then he summoned a spear while still partially within the Arisen. A spear that immediately launched into a devastating beam of light, the same kind he had used against Oromin.

The monster was sent screaming into the wall of the stands, making the whole place tremble once more. When the dust cleared, Rieren wasn’t at all surprised to see that nearly half of its body had been destroyed. Not even burned to tar, though there was a good bit of that too. One half of it was simply gone, vaporized to nothing by Rykion’s last attack.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

But though that should have been fatal too, the Arisen could still count on yet more sacrifices to bolster it back into the battle.

Rieren jerked her head to the side as more monsters dropped into the arena. As soon as they landed, bits of the Arisen coalesced around them and consumed them. The blobs joined back up with their parent, recreating their originator back into its regular consistency with ease.

“How many times?” Rieren asked. She looked around, noticing that half of the monsters’ stand was now empty. “How many of you will sacrifice yourself for this… insanity?”

They didn’t answer her. Didn’t even bother returning her look. Their eyes were fixed entirely on the battle ahead, on the fight lying in wait for them.

Rykion’s rage had flared bright as his spears. “You dare—”

He was cut off when the reconstructed monster roared at him. There was a physical force with that noise. A ripple in the air that staggered him back for several steps.

Then the monster itself attacked. Rykion stood his ground and faced the onrushing creature. He summoned his spears into being from his Domain, making them stab into his opponent. But the Arisen was stopped for only a fraction of a heartbeat. All the shining stars within it detonated at its back, impelling it forward so that it crashed into Rykion.

Then it launched a blistering salvo of punches. Several pairs of fists at once too, more limbs forming out of its malleable dusk body.

Rykion managed to push back with a burst of shimmering light, but he wasn’t done. Then he created some space between them to release other techniques, taking to the air aboard one of his flying spears.

The monsters chased with air-blistering speed. Rykion wasn’t able to go far before he was caught and dragged down, forced into another direct confrontation.

They were clearly not good for him. The little instant of freedom he’d carved for himself had shown Rieren the new wounds upon him. Blood coating his shoulder, dripping down his waist. He was taking a beating in those head-to-head fights. It was only a matter of time before the Arisen got through and landed a blow that would end him for good.

As was proven only a moment later. In their next exchange, the monster punched so hard into Rykion’s guts, blood and fluids burst out of his mouth.

Yet even through that, Rykion held onto his concentration. He grabbed onto the monster’s fist and then swung it overhead to send it flying towards the stands. It quickly righted itself of course, using the stars within it to course correct, but Rykion had already unleashed his next attack.

A hundred spears of light flew at the monster. Only the fact that the Arisen had its own light to count on allowed it to dodge the overwhelming volley. It swerved between the spears to shoot straight at Rykion.

But all that made it do was eat another beam of light right in the face.

The jet stream of compressed light-Aspected Essence that had ripped apart the monster a moment ago hammered in with an impact that made Rieren’s ears ring. But the Arisen wasn’t thrown back this time. It was being pushed back, yes, but it was resisting. Attempting to hold its ground. Pushing back against the tremendous power.

Rieren could only blink. The more of its kind the Arisen absorbed, the stronger it grew. It had to have turned into an A-Grade monster by now. That was the only reason why it was giving Rykion so much trouble.

But at this rate… she looked around again. There were enough of the monsters here to turn it into S-Grade.

Rykion was forced to halt his beam as the Arisen unleashed more stars. He dodged their explosions, but that allowed the monster to close the distance and attack him directly.

Apparently, something that Rykion had been aiming for himself.

He unleashed an as-yet-unseen technique. As the monster started attacking again, he clasped it around its centre and turned all his Essence armour into the same light Aspect. Then he turned himself into a meteor and flew into the other end of the arena with a thundering burst of light and power.

When the dust cleared and Rykion staggered back, Rieren caught how his back had been hammered by the Arisen. His robes were torn entirely, blood pouring out of large, burned wounds.

But the Arisen was down for the count. Perhaps it had been worth it. The monster’s midsection was crushed entirely, the rest of its body sporting serious burns.

“No more,” Rykion growled. He had stepped back to jump on another floating spear, before materializing hundreds more around him, each one a different size too, some small as javelins and others big enough to kill Fellserpents. “Surrender, or die now.”

The Arisen roared in defiance. But it was defeated. If it even attempted to recreate itself with the other monsters, Rykion would destroy it then and there. The other monsters wouldn’t even get the chance to drop down to the arena.

It turned out, they didn’t need to. Bits of the Arisen had floated into the monsters’ stands, taking over their bodies one after another.

Rieren looked around with rising alarm. Her entire stand was nearly empty now, the blobs flying off with their latest captives. “You’re murdering yourselves,” she said, but there was nearly no one left to hear her.

Rykion had sensed the disturbance, though his eyes were fixed upon the monster in front of him. He had flung his spears at the Arisen all at once. They struck well before the blobs could reach their originator. The explosion was so bright, Rieren was once again forced to cover her eyes against the brilliance.

When she was able to look again, she found that most of the audience at that end of the arena had fled higher up the stands. The explosion had cracked through and destabilized the entire structure.

But what had really caught Rieren’s attention were the blobs attacking Rykion from behind.

None of them had expected that.

Rykion did his best to block and evade, but they left more wounds, courtesy of their surprise and their trailing stars blasting apart his leg. He cut short his own scream as he went down. A roar announced the Arisen had survived too. It burst out of the dusty crater left by the detonation, joining up with the blobs to reform itself.

The big blast had torn it to burned shreds, but enough had survived to conjoin with the new additions. To reform into an even more powerful being.

One that could now secure victory against a severely wounded Rykion.

With a shriek of pure mania, the monster attacked again, launching itself at its opponent. Even from this distance, Rieren caught Rykion’s eyes going wide. Was he finally all out of tricks? Was his power now depleted? Was it time for his defeat?

A shriek of his own ripped free from Rykion’s throat as he threw himself at his adversary. His whole body was turning into light. It wasn’t just the Essence armour this time. He was performing the signature ability of Ascendant-realm cultivators, converting his physical form into his primary Aspect.

But his whole body? He hadn’t advanced that far yet. Rykion couldn’t—shouldn’t—be aiming to convert his entire self into an Aspect when he hadn’t mastered it yet. Otherwise—

Otherwise, his body would break apart, just as it was doing now.

Yet he persisted. As the Arien landed atop his position, seeking to crush the Karlosyne scion with its starry fists, Rykion inserted his entire, bleeding, broken, breaking body inside the Arisen’s form. Then he performed something only the truly desperate resorted to.

He summoned his Domain within himself. All the light that his body had converted into now twisted to turn him into a storm of spears bursting out of him all at once. They shattered outwards, tearing apart the Arisen to hundreds of chunks.

Rykion fell backwards to the ground, all his energy spent as his body returned to normal. Still with far too many wounds. Still with his leg missing, the stump pouring out far too much blood.

But still keeping himself conscious for the Arisen was yet to be defeated.

Despite so much of it being destroyed, bits and pieces of it that had survived had now gathered together to form something like a head.

“Come to me,” it said, its voice carrying across the arena. “We are not yet done. We can still be victorious. Come!”

Rieren twisted around to see if more monsters were indeed about to join in. But they were frozen in place, their gazes locked elsewhere. She twisted around further. Ah. The Darkstalker had arrived.

“No more,” it said. It reached the railing, taking its customary spot. “We have sacrificed enough for this. We have done enough.”

“Never!” A note of desperation tinged the combatant Arisen’s voice now. “We must never surrender. If there is a way we can fight on, we will. We must.”

“We will not!”

The Stifling Nebula continued to yell out entreaties for the remainder of the monsters to join. To no avail. It was so entranced by its desperation that it failed to see that Rykion had summoned one last spear of light.

A final bolt that struck home, detonating the last piece of the Arisen that had refused to lose.

It took a while for them all to realize that the fight was over. There was no trace of the Stifling Nebula anywhere. It wasn’t returning. Still, the match official actually took a look around to see if the monster was actually gone or not. Only after confirming did he give the signal.

“It’s over!” the commentator yelled. He couldn’t keep the relief out of his voice. “It’s finally over. Rykion Karlosyne has claimed victory.”

He went on prattling about the match and whatnot, but Rieren’s eyes were fixed on the battlefield. Rykion Karlosyne didn’t look like a winner. Didn’t look like a living person at all, for that matter.

When the healers came to carry away his limp, wounded body, she wondered if a victory that came at such a cost was even worth it.