CHAPTER 103: REN VS SHADOW! (2)

Although Shadow was trapped, her combat experience showed as she immediately activated her Stage 2 rune—darkness manipulation that went beyond simple shadow merger.

Her combination of shadow weaving, darkness affinity, and dimensional runes created a terrifyingly comprehensive fighting style. She had solutions for most situations.

"Clever tactical thinking," she said as tendrils of pure darkness began eating through his spatial barriers like acid through paper. "But darkness exists in all dimensions simultaneously."

The moment she said these words, it was like the whole world resonated with her. It was like her words had gained some sort of special power that could directly influence the world!

It was almost... majestic.

CRACK!

The space locks shattered as Shadow’s darkness consumed the dimensional framework itself. Her escape was accompanied by a counterattack that showcased her most horrifying capability.

Instead of striking at Ren directly, her blade slashed through his shadow on the arena floor. The dark silhouette split like torn fabric, and Ren felt razor-sharp pain slice across his ribs.

Blood sprayed across the stone as sympathetic damage manifested as real wounds.

"What the—" Ren’s analytical mind reeled. He almost couldn’t believe how easily she had escaped his trap.

She had literally spoken her escape into existence!

Shadow’s follow-up was immediate and brutal. Her twin daggers began carving through his shadow with surgical precision, each cut manifesting as deep gashes across his body.

SLASH! SLASH!

Blood poured from wounds that had no physical source. Ren’s academy robes darkened with spreading crimson as Shadow systematically destroyed his shadow representation.

But his adaptation was lightning-fast. His momentum precognition revealed that sympathetic attacks still followed predictable patterns.

No matter how bizarre the attacks looked, it still had to touch his shadow before it could deal damage.

He began moving erratically, making his shadow dance and blur until Shadow’s precision strikes became impossible.

Not only was he moving in a way that avoided normal attacks in the real world, each movement also had to factor in his shadow as well.

Her shadow could not touch his shadow no matter what!

WHOOSH!

His kusarigama lashed out in a wide arc, forcing Shadow to abandon her shadow-carving and dodge, albeit a bit too slow.

The chain caught her across the shoulder, drawing first blood from the shadow-manipulator herself.

She hissed as blood gushed from the wound. "First blood to both of us," she said, pressing a hand to her shoulder. "Let’s see who bleeds out first."

FLICKER!

Shadow achieved resonance with her Stage 1 rune. The dark mirage of a void stalker materialized behind her as she gained complete shadow integration.

Her form became living darkness that could flow through any space where shadows existed.

She poured across the arena floor like liquid night, rising from Ren’s own shadow to deliver strikes that materialized from impossible angles.

Luckily, she couldn’t attack his shadow while still being connected to his shadow, if not, Ren would have been finished.

CLANG! CRACK!

Ren’s kusarigama intercepted the attack, but Shadow’s resonance-enhanced strikes carried darkness that clung to his weapon like parasitic shadow.

The now-stronger corruption began spreading up the chain toward his hands!

Alas, the bloodsucker was not one to be intimidated. With an angry pulse of red, it violently tore apart the shadow energy before it could spread further across its body.

Ren’s momentum creation activated the next moment, creating kinetic energy from thin air while using his created momentum to launch himself backward, breaking the corrupting contact.

Shadow flowed after him like a tide of living darkness, her form shifting between solid and shadow states as she pressed her advantage.

"You can’t run from your own shadow," she taunted, rising from the darkness at his feet with both daggers aimed at his throat.

CLANG!

His kusarigama’s weighted end intercepted both blades in a shower of sparks. But the impact sent more blood streaming from his earlier wounds as the accidental sympathetic damage compounded.

"And you can’t hide from momentum," Ren countered, his Stage 2 rune flooding his system with created kinetic energy.

WHOOSH!

His counter-attack came with inhuman speed as momentum launched his blade toward her center mass while being enhanced from the loom mind affinity threads.

He was going with his instincts and attempting something he had never done before. He was enhancing his attacks with his mind path!

Shadow tried to phase into darkness, but Ren’s analytical mind had identified the pattern.

"Momentum exists in all states of matter," he declared as his kusarigama’s edge found its mark.

SLASH!

The blade carved deep across Shadow’s torso as she materialized, spraying more blood across the arena stones. She stumbled backward, pressing both hands to the large wound.

"Impossible," she gasped. "I was incorporeal!"

"Momentum doesn’t care about your physical state," Ren explained, advancing with blood still streaming from his own wounds. "Kinetic energy transfers through dimensional barriers."

His words were also faintly resonating with the world around him, but Ren’s mind was too occupied with his battle to actually notice it.

Shadow’s response was immediate and desperate. She activated her Stage 2 rune—darkness creation that allowed her to generate zones of absolute shadow where light couldn’t exist.

WHOOOM!

Darkness exploded outward from her position, creating a sphere of absolute void that swallowed half the arena. Inside the darkness, her voice echoed from every direction.

"Let’s see your momentum help you when you can’t see, hear, or feel!"

The darkness was suffocating—not just absence of light, but absence of everything. Ren felt his lungs struggling as the shadow tried to replace the air itself.

But his momentum precognition still functioned, showing faint white lines even in absolute darkness. More importantly, his analytical mind realized the crucial flaw in her technique.

"Creating darkness this absolute requires massive energy expenditure," he said aloud, knowing she could hear him. "You’re bleeding from huge wounds and maintaining maximum output. How long can you sustain this?"

His kusarigama began spinning in complex patterns, the weighted end building tremendous momentum through accumulated rotations.

The Fiendish Whirl!

Inside the darkness sphere, he was creating a storm of energy that Shadow couldn’t see coming.

He was going to unleash the seventh strike!

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

"You’re right," Shadow’s voice came from directly behind him. "I can’t maintain this forever, but I don’t need to."

CRACK!

The darkness suddenly collapsed, revealing Shadow inches away with both daggers aimed at his spine!

She was going for a lethal blow!

But Ren’s charged kusarigama was already completing its final rotation. And not just that, he had predicted exactly where she was going to appear.

Which meant... he was more than ready for her!

SLAM!

The weighted end caught her full in the chest with accumulated energy from dozens of rotations. The impact sent her flying across the arena with bone-crushing force.

Blood sprayed like a fountain and her eyes widened in pain. That strike had been nothing short of devastating!

CRASH!

She hit the far wall and collapsed, coughing up blood while struggling to breathe. Her ribs were clearly broken, and her shadow-manipulation flickered weakly.

But Ren wasn’t unscathed. The sympathetic damage from her earlier attacks had left him covered in blood, and the suffocating darkness had pushed his body to its limits.

Both fighters struggled to their feet, facing each other across an arena splattered with crimson blood.

"Last exchange," Shadow said quietly, raising her daggers one final time. "Everything we have."

"Agreed," Ren replied, connecting to both loom layers with every ounce of strength remaining. How she was still able to remain standing was beyond him, but he knew he had to end this now!

His analytical mind was already calculating the impossible—something that had never been documented in the tournament’s history.

FLICKER!

Shadow achieved resonance with her Stage 2 rune, gaining the ability to create absolute darkness—not just absence of light, but zones where reality itself became uncertain.

WHOOOM!

Darkness erupted from her position like a hungry living thing, reaching for Ren with tendrils that moved with terrifying momentum, each one capable of erasing anything they touched.

But Ren’s counter defied every known limitation of rune compatibility.

ROAR!

His Stage 2 resonance activated first and it was insane. His stage 2 resonance ability was called momentum drain and it allowed him to steal kinetic energy without physical contact!

Which meant...

The approaching darkness tendrils suddenly slowed, their devastating speed bleeding away as Ren absorbed their momentum from across the arena!

Then, in a feat that should have been impossible for someone of his level, his Stage 1 resonance ignited simultaneously, momentum acceleration feeding the stolen energy back into his own movements at more than double the normal speed!

CRACK!

DOUBLE RESONANCE!

The mirage of an umbral kinephantom panther materialized behind him, but instead of the usual single form, two overlapping phantoms appeared—one draining, one accelerating, both working in perfect harmony!

Gasps echoed through the arena as spectators witnessed something that had never been achieved in academy history. No one had ever activated dual resonance states simultaneously.

At least not before reaching the Grandmaster stage!

Shadow’s absolute darkness, robbed of its momentum, crawled forward like thick syrup while Ren’s kusarigama moved with speed that shattered the sound barrier.

A SONIC BOOM!

The weapon built impossible kinetic energy as momentum drained from Shadow’s attack fed directly into his strike. Her own power became the source of her defeat.

WHOOSH!

His kusarigama became a blur of accumulated force—not just his own momentum acceleration, but the stolen speed from her darkness tendrils, creating a strike that carried more kinetic energy than should have been physically possible.

Shadow’s eyes widened in shock as she realized what was happening. Her ultimate attack was feeding his ultimate counter.

CLANG!

The collision occurred at the exact center of the arena, but it wasn’t a contest. Absolute darkness tendrils, drained of momentum, met mentally amplified absolute momentum in an explosion that obliterated the protective barriers around the spectator areas.

BOOM!

The shockwave sent debris flying as the arena floor cracked in a spider web pattern radiating outward from the impact point.

When the dust and shadow cleared, the result was decisive. Shadow lay motionless against the far wall, her weapons scattered and her breathing shallow.

Her absolute darkness had been completely dispersed by the momentum-enhanced impact.

Ren stood in the center of the destruction, his kusarigama smoking from the incredible forces it had channeled.

Blood still streamed from his wounds, but he remained upright through sheer determination.

The dual phantom mirages behind him flickered once before fading, leaving the arena in stunned silence.

For a long moment, no one moved. No one spoke. The impossibility of what they’d witnessed left even the ancient witch speechless.

Then Shadow’s voice broke the silence, barely audible but carrying clearly in the shocked quiet. "I yield."

CRASH!

The arena exploded in thunderous applause mixed with confused shouting. Spectators were on their feet, pointing and arguing about what they’d just seen.

Dual resonance was theoretically impossible unless one was a Grandmaster weaver, yet they’d all witnessed it.

In the candidate observation area, every remaining fighter stared with expressions ranging from shock to terror.

The tactical prodigy hadn’t just won—he’d rewritten the fundamental rules of rune combat!

They were witnessing the rise of a prodigy!