CHAPTER 179: THE END OF THE OPENING FIGHT

His body was charred. His skin looked like obsidian cracked with light. His hair, what remained of it, was burning. His mana was out of control, leaking from his body, burning everything it touched. His stance was crooked, uneven. But he stood.

"I... won’t... lose..." he growled.

The words came from a throat half-burned. His eyes were blank, flickering like dying embers.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer cried, stunned and trying to match the intensity of the moment. "Tarnil is standing again! This man... this inferno... refuses to fall!"

The crowd erupted, half in awe, half filled with fear.

But Kai wasn’t cheering.

’No... He’s unconscious. His body’s moving, but his mind’s gone. If he keeps this up... he’ll die.’

The temperature around Kai climbed fast enough that his vision blurred. His frost magic, still lingering across his limbs, crackled and vanished as though ashamed to exist in the same space as Tarnil’s heat.

Kai took a step forward, hand out. "Call the match off! He’s already-!"

But a hand caught him.

Not just a hand.

One with the temperature of a small sun.

Tarnil’s molten fingers wrapped around Kai’s mouth, blistering his skin on contact. The heat fused his lips together. He tried to scream, but no sound came.

His eyes went wide.

Agony.

He reeled back, stumbling, shadows bursting out from his back like spider legs to stabilize him.

’Think! THINK!’

He couldn’t breathe through his mouth. His nose worked, barely, but even the air burned on the way in. The pain was unreal, and getting worse.

’How do I win this?! I can’t hurt him. He wouldn’t feel anything anymore. He’s beyond pain. Beyond reason. He’s dying... but how long until that matters?’

Tarnil stumbled forward, dragging his foot through molten tile, his body glowing from within like a cracked furnace.

Kai fell back into instinct.

He poured everything he had into shadow magic to bring out his soldiers, then stopped.

The Devourer was watching. Grim was watching. Half the court mages in the Empire might’ve been watching.

’I can’t let them see my necromancy. Joran could stop the torrent. Mari could heal him. But I can’t...’

But if he didn’t do something now... he’d die.

His illusions wouldn’t help. He didn’t know how to create illusions for everyone in the stands from every angle. Wind magic failed under this heat. Frost barely held up for seconds. He couldn’t regenerate fast enough anymore.

His only option left was to...

’Starve the fire.’

Kai took a step towards Tarnil.

Even the act of lifting his foot felt like stepping into a furnace. The air rippled with heat. His breath scalded his throat. But he kept moving.

Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run. But he ignored them all.

He had to get closer.

Closer to the heart of the inferno.

He could see her.

Vepice, up in the stands behind Tarnil, a hand clutched tightly over her mouth. Her eyes, wide with fear, locked onto his.

’I’ve got this.’

He gave her the smallest nod he could manage.

Then, with what strength remained, Kai inhaled deeply and ignored the way it burned.

’This air has to last me...’

He summoned every ounce of control he had over barrier magic.

He shaped a dome around himself and Tarnil. Thin. Almost imperceptible. The weakest barrier he’d ever formed, and yet possibly the most dangerous.

Because it wasn’t meant to protect him.

It was meant to seal them in.

The effect was instant, subtle at first.

The wind from outside no longer rushed in to fan the flames. The oxygen, fuel to Tarnil’s living inferno, was suddenly limited.

Kai knew what he was doing. It wouldn’t kill Tarnil. Wouldn’t even stop him quickly.

But if the fire had nothing left to breathe, it would starve.

’The fire will burn up all the oxygen inside, and with nothing left to feed it... it’ll die. Unless I die first.’

His vision was blurring already.

Sweat didn’t roll down his face.

It evaporated.

His eyes burned. His lungs begged for cleaner air.

But his barrier held.

He quickly checked the crowd, eyes flicking toward the sidelines.

Nobody noticed.

The barrier was too thin to shimmer in the light. The heat itself was a distraction, no one expected this kind of magic from him.

Kai and Tarnil stood mere steps apart. Neither lunged. Neither struck.

They danced, slowly.

They circled each other, Tarnil throwing out a swipe or two, but ultimately missing.

Tarnil’s fists stayed raised, but his movements became jerky. His pupils dilated. The shimmering aura around his body flickered.

Kai could hear the fire beginning to gasp. The ambient air around them, once roaring with heat and power, began to feel suffocated, choked.

Tarnil stumbled a little.

Kai stayed perfectly still.

Tarnil raised a hand, glowing white-hot. The skin on his fingers had peeled away long ago. He looked like a man made of magma and ash.

But when he stepped forward, he wobbled.

His fire sputtered again.

And then... with a low crack, Tarnil collapsed, his body landing hard against the arena floor. The tiles beneath him hissed but no longer melted.

Silence.

Then the announcer’s voice, nervous, uncertain, boomed from above.

"...Tarnil is down! Wait, he’s not moving! Is that-?! Has he finally-?! That’s it, everyone! Tarnil is out cold! He’s finally down! The match is over!"

The barrier dropped the moment Kai lost his focus. Fresh air rushed in like a tidal wave.

Kai fell to one knee, his body trembling.

The crowd was a wall of noise. Applause. Screams. Cheers.

But Kai heard none of it.

He stared at Tarnil’s still form.

"You were ready to kill yourself just to win."

He clenched his fists.

The skin in several parts of his body were burned and tight, and his lower face was healing rapidly to fix the damage caused by Tarnil.

"I’m not sure which of us was crazier."

He looked up at Vepice in the crowd.

She was crying. Smiling, but crying.

Kai closed his eyes, exhaustion threatening to pull him under.

But as he swayed in place, one thought stayed clear:

"Three fights down. Two left."