CHAPTER 50: ECHOES OF STONE AND SOUND

Kai’s chest rose and fell in ragged gasps. His arm still tingled from the previous hit, but the faint pulse of the arena’s heartbeat urged him forward. This was it: Now or never. He stepped off the rough stone floor, muscles coiling. Magnus was up—shaking, but alive. A low growl still echoed through the arena, resonating in every pore, a thunder in the bones.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "What are you doing, Magnus?" he thought, voice too loud to say aloud. The opponent hadn’t done anything normal—he seemed to feed off that thump—the mysterious heartbeat. Kai clenched his fist, grit under fingernails. He couldn’t afford to wait. If Magnus got any stronger, this was going to end badly. Taking a steadying breath, Kai moved forward. Every step felt wrapped in tension—each heartbeat throbbed in his veins.

He launched the attack without hesitating: a sweeping shockwave of earth, gleaming stone cutting the air like a blade. Kai’s fist slashed through it, calling jagged ridges of dirt up like trial spikes. The arena floor trembled. He watched Magnus reel, unsure if the attack landed.

But Magnus was gone.

One second, the crowd caught the echo of Kai’s strike. The next—nothing. Silence that pressed on Kai’s mind like ice. No thump. No rival at the edge of the earth. Magnus had vanished.

Kai staggered, heart pulsing thick and frantic. What had he unleashed? He knew magic and its tricks—but this was off the charts. He gritted his teeth and reset his stance automatically. With barely a thought, he hammered the ground, drawing a pillar of stone beneath his feet—solid and pillar-high, granting him vantage and the chance to dodge any surprise strike.

He paused. The heartbeat had vanished. So had his opponent. The rubble of the arena shuddered, dust drifting. Moments ticked by while the stands hushed in broken silence. Then thump. A softer beat—like the echo of a great drum far below. The arena rumbled in sympathy.

"Watch out!" Darius shouted, leaping to his feet just as a new tremor ripped ground apart.

Kai spun, reaction instinctive, leaping off the shaky pillar just as it cracked beneath him. The stone column splintered and collapsed into rubble with a roar. Dust and loose rock sprayed into the air like a storm wave. The pillar’s collapse threw Kai forward, momentum carrying him as he dropped to the ground just beyond its ruins.

Before he could regain his footing, a punch of raw sonic energy struck his midsection. His breath was expelled in a choke of pain as the impact lifted him off his feet and slammed him face-first into the shattered floor. The arena shook with the force, stone cracking under him. Pain erupted in sparks, sharp as blades slicing along his ribs.

Instinct took over. Kai clutched at the earth, summoning it to surround him. With a grunt, he sank downward—shoulders disappearing into fractured rock, legs swallowed by shifting gravel. He left only a mass of loose dirt, but he wasn’t vulnerable. The arena floor felt alien beneath his palms—the broken shards reacting to his touch.

Kai lashed out in silence. Earth shards erupted from the ground: jagged spikes aimed at any attacker. But before the rocks could pierce through midair, something took hold of Kai’s buried legs—a force telescoping them upward like a puppet’s strings. The shards never fully formed.

Pain followed, hot and bone-shaking. He was flung into the air, tumbling onto the arena floor in a crater-shaped impact.

Kai struggled upright, vision blurred, hands pressing against fractured stone to right himself. The cracks beneath him glowed faintly with dust, glowing embers in the darkened light. Every breath was agony, ribs protesting, but he forced himself to rise.

He braced himself, readying to send another boulder upward or summon a wave of earth to swallow the attacker but the field was silent except for drifting dust clouds and the distant scrape of falling debris.

A movement: slight, but enough.

Kai twisted, thrusting his hand forward as he channeled power into the ground beneath him—stone shifting and rising like a cage. His plan: trap, then strike.

But before the stone could fully manifest, something struck. A crushing blow to his shoulder—so sudden he couldn’t react, flung sideways. The stone caged him half-formed, collapsing under the force, dust filling his lungs. The blow knocked all air out of him and sparked pain across his body. He hit the ground again, chest and cheek cracking into rock, vision darkening.

Kai forced himself up, breath shallow, body trembling. He reached out, summoning grit and stone fragments around his knuckles. A final stand—an attack to end this.

Kai’s hands trembled with exhaustion and purpose. The cracks in the arena floor yawned beneath him, dust settling like spent energy across the shattered stone. He drew breath. Pushed it out slowly. And summoned.

From the earth beneath him, two great hands of pure stone erupted—massive, clenched gauntlets formed from fractured boulders and trembling soil. They rose like petrified titans, fists aimed inward over Kai’s own, poised to smash down on Magnus at the perfect moment.

But Kai didn’t stop at earth. He wove mana reinforcement into the stone—an invisible layer of power that rippled across the surface, humming with focused intent.

The hands hovered. They glowed—not with light, but with latent strength.

Kai backed away, breathing hard. His coat was torn at the elbows; sweat and dust streaked across his face in dark lines. He screamed—with effort or defiance, he couldn’t tell. Either way, it carried across the chaos of the broken arena like a battle cry.

He had nothing left to hold back.

Then he heard movement across the field.

Kai’s breath caught. One stone fist began to tremble. Then both.

Magnus staggered into view, kneeling in the distance, coughing up dust. His chest heaved, chestnut hair damp with sweat and grime. Shadow pooled beneath him like a bleeding stain, rippling outward in unstable waves. He looked up—eyes dark, pupils wide with pain and triumph.

Ah. I can finally see him now he’s truly stronger than expected.

"Not... bad." Magnus rasped, rising on a knee. His shoulder spasm shook his frame. He forced himself upright. Shadow rippled across his skin like living smoke. "I pushed... past... what I thought I could."

Kai watched, eyes narrowed. A low laugh escaped him—raw, relieved, incredulous.

"What the hell was that?" he rasped. The earthen hands behind him clanged as they flexed for Kai’s attention, but he didn’t move them.

Magnus drew breath—fought to steady it—then released a chuckle as brittle as cracked glass.

"That," he rasped, "is what happens when you train long enough. You break yourself... until something inside lets go. Something beyond the limits you thought you had."

He paused, inhaling a breath too deep. Shadow slithered down both arms in thick ribbons.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Even so how did you even get the idea for something like that?’

Magnus shook himself, silhouette swaying. "I... had the honor of witnessing the sound vissionary’s technique and though I’m not even close to replicating its true scope of use... I can use it enough to beat someone like you."

"You can’t even beat me with a technique of your own." Kai unclenched his hands. "There isn’t any honor is beating me with another’s technique." He didn’t know why he said it aloud—but the conviction was there.

Magnus nodded. Blood dripped from his mouth. "I have more in the tank. More to push back." His knees grounded; he rose on feet trembling—but rising. "I’ll finish you all on my own, with a technique completely my own."

"Lets end this!"

Kai flicked one fist upward. The earthen hands responded, shifting forward a foot. As he exhaled, the hands slammed together with a deafening boom—an echo of a god’s heartbeat.

And then everything moved.

Across the fractured arena, Magnus’

form blurred—propelled by a sonic pulse that cracked the very air behind him. He was already in motion, his body bent low, dragging the vibration of his sprint with each footfall. The roar of displaced sound trailed him like a comet-tail, scattering debris with every step.

Kai didn’t wait.

The stone arms behind him flexed, one rising in defense, the other cocking back, aiming for a thunderous double-strike. Mana surged through them—his own energy pulsing so hard that even the veins on his arms flickered with light. The hands weren’t just stone anymore; they were armor. A weapon. A warning.

Magnus burst through the haze with a shout layered in distortion, the force of his voice cracking a chunk of the arena’s wall behind him. The sound bled into the ground, rattling loose the foundation beneath Kai’s feet. But Kai was already airborne—launched by a rising pillar—both stone hands flying beside him.

Their final clash began mid-air.

One colossal earthen fist slammed down, colliding with a shield of pure vibrational force that shimmered like shattered glass. The impact wasn’t just physical—it was symphonic. The soundwave burst outward, ripping apart the ground in concentric circles. Dust shot skyward. Light flared.

Kai yelled, pushing through with the second hand—this one crashing in from the side.

But Magnus didn’t falter. He twisted, hands forming a resonance sigil mid-spin—his fingers vibrating fast enough to become a blur. The frequency rippled like a sonic blade, cleaving through one of the fists. The stone exploded in fragments, the recoil knocking Kai’s feet from under him.

Yet the second hand hit home.

The punch caught Magnus clean in the ribs and sent him skidding across the battlefield—digging twin trenches with his heels, his arms crossed in defense. But he didn’t fall. He used the momentum—flipping off the impact, rebounding with a second roar. This one wasn’t loud—it was deep, subharmonic, almost a whisper.

But Kai’s body seized.

His muscles tensed involuntarily. The mana coating his remaining earth fist fizzled in dissonance. Kai gritted his teeth and slammed his feet into the ground, forcing himself to move—but it was like wading through syrup.

Magnus came again—blitzing across the arena on rippling shockwaves. He didn’t walk or run anymore. He vibrated forward. Each step wasn’t a step—it was a sonic detonation, displacing him ahead by bursts.

He met the remaining earth hand mid-charge—arms wreathed in pure resonance—and drove both palms forward.

Clash.

The air screamed.

Stone shattered. Sound erupted. The whole arena seemed to fold in on itself as pressure blasted outward. A dome of force rolled over the stage, flattening stone, bending metal, and deafening the front row of the crowd with its echo.

The earthen fist cracked down the center, fault lines glowing with dim mana before it finally exploded into dust and broken stone. Kai barely had time to brace before Magnus was on him.

A punch to the ribs—followed by a rolling uppercut that sent him flying backward.

Kai skidded, coughed blood, slammed both palms to the ground in desperation. Spikes erupted beneath Magnus’s feet—but the soundmage leapt clear, using a sonic burst to flip overhead.

Mid-air, Magnus cupped both hands together.

The pressure changed.

Kai’s instincts screamed.

Magnus slammed both palms down—and a tidal wave of compressed sound detonated across the arena like thunder trapped in a bottle.

Kai took the hit full force.

He flew—ragdolled across stone, his defenses gone. He crashed into a wall of the stage, splitting it, before collapsing forward into a ruined crater. His eyes fluttered, trying to focus. His limbs twitched, mana flickering from his skin like dying embers.

Across the dust-choked battlefield, Magnus dropped to one knee.

Blood trickled from his nose, his eyes distant, pupils still wide from strain. His chest heaved—lungs scraping the bottom of what was left in his reserves. But he stood.

He raised one arm—trembling, weak—but victorious.

The arena was silent.

Then, the Headmaster rose. His voice, magically amplified, echoed across the wreckage.

"Medic teams—now."

A flurry of white-robed staff sprinted toward the stage.

The Headmaster’s voice dropped slightly, reverent now.

"That... was not a match. That was a storm. That was the clash of two forces that refused to break until the other couldn’t stand."

He let his gaze sweep the silent stands.

"If these two are only just beginning their journey... then I say this with full confidence: the future of our academy is secure."

He turned back toward the arena, where both boys lay—torn, burned, but breathing.

"And in time... the world will remember their names."