Noticing the figure behind Thane, Leo focused his sight on the point to see Anthony grabbing javelins from the weapons rack. It looks like he isn’t done just yet!

  He felt relief knowing he was alright, but also that he wasn’t alone in this.

  With that in mind, he quickly rushed forward kicking up sand behind him. He needed to create an opening for Anthony. So far, the javelins have been nothing but nuisances to Thane. But that could change now with his tired mind and body. With just a moment of weakness, those javelins can cause serious damage.

  Rather than charging back, Thane stood his ground as he prepared for his incoming opponent. He even lowered himself to the floor.

  Seeing the opportunity, as he got in range, he went for a knee to his face. But just before it connected, Thane clapped his hands together.

  Immediately after, Leo and Anthony both reeled back as they covered their ears. It felt as if his eardrums were about to burst as the sound from the clap threatened to deafen them. Luckily for the crowd, they were protected by the transparent casing over the arena. But only just barely as the casing seemed to almost be cracking.

  Now on a knee, Leo felt dizzy as he struggled to get back up.

  ‘What the hell was that?’

  Before he could comprehend what Thane had done, a fist slammed into his chest, sending him flying back.

  Unrelenting, Thane ran to the flying figure and grabbed a leg midair. With savage force, he threw Leo over his shoulder and slammed him into the ground. The sand covered the area in a thick cloud.

  Leo’s vision was cloudy as he could barely make out the gigantic figure of Thane standing where he was before as he leaned forward with something protruding from his back.

  ‘Thank the stars.’

  Anthony had landed a decisive hit on Thane. Glancing over to him, Leo saw him rushing toward him as he prepared to throw another javelin at Thane.

  He clenched his hands into a fist a few times, feeling his fingers had become weaker from the slugfest. He could feel that some portions of his hand had been broken from the punches. Leo looked at Thane and asked, “How’s surrendering sound now…?”

  Thane spit out a bloody tooth and wiped his mouth. “Not a chance.”

  ‘Yeah…thought so…’

  Leo groaned as he used his knee to help himself up. He sharply inhaled and exhaled. But by the time he had finished, he saw Thane charging towards him.

  His mind screamed to dodge—but something inside him, something more primal, told him; hit the ground. Following his instincts, Leo, in a daze, struck the ground with his bare fists.

  After a moment, a shake could be felt on the floor, stopping Thane’s charge as he looked around to see what was happening. Suddenly, the floor began to violently shake as if an earthquake was occurring. The ground split open, sand flying everywhere as some tiles rose to create cliffs with sand falling down from above like a waterfall while others fell below into the bottomless darkness.

  Behind them, Anthony stumbled before being elevated from the rising ground.

  Having lost his balance, Thane knelt down, trying to get a sense of what was happening. Not missing this chance, Leo charged, but not before punching some dirt to the side of a nearby cliff.

  The punch left a vibration on the specific point he had punched, causing the dirt to continuously ripple. But as if drawn to it, Thane jumped from where he was and destroyed the dirt patch, crashing into the wall with his entire body. He became confused at hitting nothing, desperately whipping his head around the arena for Leo.

  But this confirmed one of Leo’s suspicions.

  The reason Thane could see through the blinding sand cloud. The reason he made those impossible blocks and dodges.

  He had been using vibrations to find him!

  His every step, his every movement. He had felt a ripple from those actions and reacted accordingly. But in such an environment now, all he could rely on was his guts. This was his one chance to win.

  Leo charged at Thane, who quickly turned to him. Lowering himself, he picked up a segment of the floor, ripping it out from the ground, and chucked it directly at Leo.

  ‘How fucking strong is he?!’

  Leo moved to the side, not wanting to get hit by such an attack. He continued onwards towards Thane, punching slabs of dirt to cause them to vibrate as he passed a few cliffs.

  Obviously overstimulated, Thane went into a frenzy and threw all he could at those slabs of dirt. But by the time he had gotten rid of all the vibrations, it was too late because in the midst of his seemingly random attacks, Leo had dashed through some of the sand-falls coming from the nearby debris.

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  Once Thane stopped, Leo stopped. He held his breath, hoping he wouldn’t be heard.

  He knew if Thane caught his scent, it was all over.

  From above, a javelin barely missed Thane. Facing the direction of the thrown javelin, he quickly clapped his hands together again, creating a devastating wave of sound toward Anthony.

  Unable to dodge, Anthony screamed as his eardrums began to bleed. The wave caused the ground to shake, making him lose his footing as he quickly fell down from the cliff.

  Thane grinned as he charged at the falling figure, and while he was midair, he threw a devastating blow to Anthony’s stomach. Luckily, Anthony had brought up a javelin to guard the blow, if only barely. But the effects remained as the javelin splintered, making way for the punch to land on his stomach.

  Upon impact, his eyes seemed to roll back as he flew back into one of the raised cliffs. His body hiding away behind the falling sand.

  Thane yelled. “Not gonna help your friend here, eh? What a sad sight, indeed!”

  Suddenly, his body stumbled as he got hit on the shoulder blade. Listening, he barely made out the sound of Leo’s breathing.

  He had hidden behind a waterfall of sand throughout the encounter with Anthony, waiting for the moment to strike.

  Usually, a blow at this level wouldn’t wound a Smogborn such as Thane. But with such a battered, exhausted body. He was practically vulnerable to anyone and anything.

  But the attack only caused him to stumble momentarily as he quickly recovered, his face contorting with rage.

  Thane yelled, infuriated by the situation. “Enough of these tricks! Face me coward! Where are you!?”

  Leo held his breath. ‘Please work…’

  As he thought that, Thane suddenly clutched his heart as if in pain. Screaming in agonizing pain, the skin around the heart area began to ripple as if someone was splashing in a pool. The frequency of these ripples only grew faster and faster as Thane screamed louder and louder.

  Thane fell to his knees, basically scratching at his heart. Leo, feeling pretty safe now, emerged from the falling sand and walked up to the screaming figure. He stopped about five feet from the dying man as he said, “You really should’ve surrendered…Why did you have to keep fighting…?”

  Pushing through the pain, Thane asked in a faint voice, a crazed smile creeping up his face as he faced his killer, “W-Wouldn’t you do anything to be free?”

  He paused, as if contemplating something before lifting up his face to Leo. “C-Could you…get this mask off…please?”

  Leo hesitated at first, but could see the man barely even able to talk. He carefully walked forward, ready for any surprises until he was within arms reach of his face.

  Carefully, he grabbed onto the mask and pulled it off. It surprisingly stuck to his face, refusing to come off. Finally, he used a bit more force and it flew off, making Leo almost fall. He looked at the mask in his hands, the red irises had faded as the mask’s color seemed too dull, its brightness fading away as if signifying its owner’s end.

  Looking back at Thane, his eyes widened in horror as he held back vomiting on the spot.

  Thane’s face from the nose up was completely mauled. The skin had been stripped clean from his face, the muscle still raw and red as the veins could be seen. No wonder the mask was so hard to take off, it had been practically melded onto his face!

  That wasn’t even the worst of it. Instead of eyes, all he had were empty eye sockets covered in a glass-like material, blocking anything from entering those empty holes.

  He had been fighting a blind man!

  That explained practically everything about his fight. The irregular dodges and blocks, the reason why he attacked those slabs of dirt. It was because he literally couldn’t see! It was a miracle his Refraction seemed to remove this hindrance as he seemed to either rely on sound or vibrations to find people.

  Furthermore, on his forehead was a black mark burned onto his raw muscle. It was in the shape of some sort of bird?

  No.

  It was a vulture, its head seemingly drawn as if plucking out his left eye as its neck circled around the cruel hole.

  Looking back, he remembered the Lieutenant had warned him about this very mark. Was this their doing?

  Thane suddenly began chuckling, causing blood to spill out of his mouth. “You know…You were wrong about me being a Smogborn…”

  Leo whipped his head down, thinking he had misheard. “What? But you’re so…”

  Cutting in with an unfamiliar, gentle voice, Thane said in resignation, “Thank you…”

  Immediately after, his chest burst open as blood shot out everywhere covering Leo’s body. A hole had been forced open from where Leo had punched as if drilled through. His last, desperate move was putting a continuously growing vibration inside Thane. It was by luck that it had landed directly above his heart.

  With that fatal blow, Thane’s body grew limp as his arms fell to his sides. As if a puppet cut from its strings, he fell face-first to the floor.

  Thane had been slain.

  The entire arena went silent.

  The crowd.

  The announcer.

  It was silent for a long while, as if mourning for the death of Thane.

  All that could be heard were Leo’s gasping breaths as blood trickled down his arms and face, some getting in eye dying it red.

  He could hardly breath as he looked up to the red sky as he fell to his knees.

  Finally, the announcer collected himself and announced, “The winners are Leo and Anthony!”

  Barely hearing the announcer, Leo weakly smiled and looked towards Anthony, still unconscious as blood slowly slid down from his head.

  That was the last thing he saw before the darkness took him, as his body fell limp, collapsing onto the sandy, blood-stained floor.

  They had won.