CHAPTER 178: SECONDS UNTIL THE END

Fifty-three seconds.

That’s how long Kai needed to fight for.

And that’s how long Kai fought.

Fifty-three seconds of hell, of overwhelming heat, of blistering pain and deafening adrenaline. It felt like hours. Each second stretched like a blade, ready to break or cut.

Tarnil had become something else.

He was no longer a man.

He was a living furnace.

The heat wasn’t just emanating from his body.

It saturated the arena.

The stone tiles glowed. Half of them were deeply scarred and melted.

The very air rippled and shimmered, turning the battlefield into a distorted mirage.

Tarnil’s clothes were long gone. Every piece of armor and cloth had either melted away or burst into flame, reduced to ash mid-movement. All that remained was a blinding haze of heat, cloaking his body like a second skin. If it weren’t for the constant distortion veiling him, the entire arena would see everything. Kai might’ve laughed in another life.

Instead, he blinked, startled for a split second by the half-glimpsed nudity, and Tarnil struck.

His open hand whipped toward Kai with the speed of a whip and the force of a battering ram. The heat scorched the very air.

Kai barely dodged. He felt his real hair, not the illusion seen by the spectators, but the strands beneath, singed and curled at the tips. A burnt smell filled his nostrils.

’He’s a volcano mid-eruption. No... a dying star flaring one last time.’

Every time Kai gained ground, Tarnil reclaimed it twice over. The man was relentless.

He’d never faced anybody who’d ever put their lives at risk to kill him like that. Not directly, at least. Not knowingly.

Not fast like Cyrus, not precise like Redford, but a force of nature. Each of his steps cratered the tiles. Each movement was destruction incarnate.

And Kai’s wind magic failed. The superheated air resisted its manipulation. The currents died in his palms, suffocated by the ambient temperature.

’I’m in trouble,’ he thought.

He launched a pair of shadow tendrils to yank himself out of range, barely avoiding two clawing swings that could’ve melted his lungs had they landed.

The leather straps of Kai’s armor tightened and shrank, hissing and cracking. The metal plates on his shoulders and waist glowed red, searing through the cloth beneath. Blisters began to form on his skin just from being near.

Then Tarnil kicked.

It came low and hard. Kai raised his kite shield, his fingers already slick with sweat. The kick hit like a battering ram but worse.

Tarnil’s foot tore right through the protective magic Kai had layered onto the shield. The heat melted the surface, bubbling it like wax.

Kai screamed and dropped it. The grip burned his palm, and he let it go to avoid losing his hand entirely.

"I... will... win..." Tarnil panted. Each word trembled. His voice was hoarse, like charcoal scraping against stone.

Kai stared into his eyes. They were glassy. Faint. Tarnil was barely awake. His body ran on momentum, on obsession. On fury.

"Just give up already!" Kai shouted, his voice cracking.

Another swing came. Two instead of one.

Kai dodged the first, but the second grazed his chest.

His world blurred.

It was agony. His skin melted where Tarnil’s fingers brushed him, the heat peeling it away like wax from a candle. He felt it singe down to the bone, the stench of burning flesh turning his stomach. His body nearly collapsed from the shock alone.

But no blood flowed. Not even a drop.

The flesh was cauterized instantly.

He hissed, clenching his jaw so tightly he feared it might break.

’I’m going to die if I don’t end this now.’

He sucked in a breath, icy, unnatural, and filled his body with cold magic, enough to slow his muscles, numb his nerves, and form a temporary shield of frost over his skin.

It was now or never.

He lunged forward.

No sword. No shield. Just his fist.

He channeled strengthening magic into his arm, shadow-magic trailing behind it like smoke. The moment he reached Tarnil, who was staggering, breathless, and swaying, Kai brought his fist square into the center of his face.

A clean hit to the nose.

There was a crunch, a burst of blood, and Tarnil reeled backward.

’I just need another hit. One or two more!’

Just as Kai landed on the ground, Tarnil’s leg whipped around in a reflexive kick.

It struck Kai’s side like a flaming club. But thanks to the cold magic, the impact didn’t sear, only bruised. The barrier cracked but didn’t shatter.

Kai skidded back, bracing for another hit, readying his stance.

But Tarnil didn’t move.

He stood there, eyes blank, breathing ragged, and slowly began to tilt.

Then, like a felled tree, he collapsed. His body hit the tile with a thud, steam curling from every limb.

The crowd went silent.

For just a single breath.

"AmaaAAAAZIIIING!!" the announcer screamed. "Unbelievable! Unimaginable! Alex Trunsdale has taken down the inferno that is Tarnil! Our golden flame has been extinguished, by our newcomer!"

The crowd exploded with thunderous cheers.

Kai swayed, half-conscious, eyes barely open.

But he was still standing.

And he’d won.

Or... So he thought.

The roar of the crowd faded as they noticed the change in the air.

Absolute silence reigned over everything.

Kai’s breath stopped as the heat spiked again. Even though Tarnil lay on the ground, something in the air had changed, the mana twisted, warped by sheer stubborn will.

’Well, that felt very anticli–’

But the thought was cut off by a flash of light and fire.

The air ignited.

It wasn’t a metaphor anymore, literal fire danced across the oxygen-rich air, streaks of heat spiraling upward like reverse lightning. The tiles around Tarnil cracked deeper, some melting into molten puddles that hissed and boiled.

Kai backed away instinctively, but he could still feel the inferno rolling across the arena like a tsunami.

And from the middle of it...

Tarnil rose.

’How can he even stand?’