Snow Lionheart's expression hadn't changed since the beginning.
His golden eyes caught everything.
I lost count of how many times our swords had clashed by now.
Even though he did nothing but defend...
I couldn't move Snow a single step.
We were locked in a tug-of-war between Dark Aura and Starlight Aura.
But it seemed like my opponent had finally grown tired of simply defending.
It happened when I barely caught it—
Snow's sword, almost piercing straight through my head.
If not for Hawk Eyes, that attack would've ended me right there.
I managed to evade, but felt the sting of blood trailing down my cheek.
Even while using Hawk Eyes to slow time for a fraction of a second...
I still couldn't avoid getting wounded?
Snow began to counterattack.
With the Starlight trait, he launched devastating lightning strikes.
Strikes that forcibly pushed me back.
In a single second, Snow succeeded where I had failed all this time ...
He drove me several meters backward with just a few casual swings of his sword.
Then that youth unleashed a barrage of lightning bolts.
I barely dodged by pushing Phantom Steps to their limits.
"Void Step!"
Just when I thought I was the faster one, he appeared right in front of me.
The distance between us was erased in an instant ..
His sword, blazing with Starlight Aura, enlarged rapidly before my eyes.
With a desperate counter from my sword, infused with Dark Aura, I blocked his strike ... Yet I was sent flying.
I rolled violently across the ground, struggling to catch my breath.
"Void Step!"
But my opponent had no intention of giving me even a second to recover.
He was already right on top of me.
From his blade, Snow unleashed a tempest of raging fire combined with destructive lightning.
Those devastating attacks overwhelmed me ..
I barely avoided them, thanks to Ascension and Hawk Eyes.
*Slash !*
But I was too slow.
Far too slow.
His sword pierced into my left side.
I stumbled back immediately, feeling the burning crater left by Snow's strike.
I hadn't even seen him coming.
"Void Step!"
Again ...
He was already in front of me, raising his sword and channeling a monstrous surge of aura, cutting vertically with brutal force.
Boom!
I barely managed to block it with my sword, shrouded in Dark Aura ..
But I couldn't withstand the force.
I was blasted away.
I struggled just to breathe.
"Void Step!"
Ascension burned my mind, searching desperately for a way ..
A way to deal with this monster who kept closing the distance.
But it was useless.
Unleashing a terrifying mix of fire, lightning, wind, all wrapped in Starlight Aura...
Snow Lionheart crushed me ..And shattered the entire arena in the process.
I wasn't even trying to hit him anymore.
All I could do...
Was desperately prevent him from landing a finishing blow.
Everyone watched in stunned silence.
At the disaster unfolding before them ..
At the natural calamity that Snow tried so fiercely to drown me in.
Without even realizing it, I found my body riddled with wounds left by his blade.
Stab marks.
Slash marks.
I didn't even know when I had lost so much blood...
I felt my eyes bleeding ..
The heavy price of forcing Hawk Eyes to their maximum limit.
The red veins inside my vision barely kept up with him.
My body was screaming at me, warning me that I was stepping into the abyss.
I could feel the heat radiating from my left hand.
Balerion was begging me to unleash him and strike back at my opponent.
But I couldn't.
"Not this time, my friend."
This was a battle I had to finish with my own strength.
Snow didn't stop.
To the point where he now unleashed attacks through all six of his elements ..
Light, Star, Fire, Lightning, Water, Ice, Darkness, Shadow.
Everything.
The attacks came from every direction.
My blood continued to stain the ground.
That sword of his… it hurt more than anything else.
After a relentless barrage of one-sided attacks, Snow Lionheart finally stopped and stared at me.
There I lay, amidst the wreckage, in a pool of red.
The audience watched in stunned silence.
The difference in raw power... was truly overwhelming.
Lying there, Snow Lionheart gazed down at me with the same unreadable face.
"Get up. You will, won't you?"
He stood, perfect, without a single visible injury.
"No matter how much I wound you, you'll get back on your feet. I know this won't be enough to finish you."
Answering his call, I rose again, gripping my sword with as much strength as I could muster.
"Come, Frey Starlight. No matter how many times you stand, no matter how many times you fight back, I will crush you again and again... until you can no longer rise."
No matter how strong the will that had carried me this far,
he was telling me ..
It would not save me.
Snow Lionheart gathered a monstrous amount of aura.
"First Sword: Mountain Severer."
That devastating blow came crashing toward me.
In response, I struck with a vertical slash, managing to split the attack in half.
Barely.
I staggered back several steps.
But before I could fully catch my breath, he was already readying the next strike.
"Second Sword: Sky Severer."
This time, he unleashed an even larger wave.
I had no choice but to retaliate—
"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow: Black Meteor!"
White and black collided once again.
His force was clearly superior, but I held my ground with everything I had.
As the shockwave faded ..
my eyes widened at what I saw.
Snow raised his sword again, summoning an even greater surge of energy.
"Third Sword: Void Severer."
"—Damn it!!"
Once again, the strike overwhelmed me.
After barely enduring the explosive force,
I found my entire left arm soaked in blood.
Star Aura was still burning through my flesh.
Drenched in filth, drowning in agony.
Snow raised his sword once more.
"That power..."
The crowd could hardly breathe, marveling at the monstrous aura being gathered.
It was the same move that had felled Ghost Umbra.
But this time, it was unleashed through a real sword ..
"Fourth Sword:"
Knowing what was coming,
I unleashed everything.
My strongest attack ..
the strongest strike I could produce with my own combat style.
I begged my battered body to endure just a little longer,
to draw out just enough aura.
"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow!"
A luminous surge of Star Aura clashed against a darkness that sought to swallow even the brightest light.
"Worldbreaker !"
"Infinite Darkness!"
BOOOOM!!!
A deafening explosion tore through the world.
At a terrifying pace,
the light devoured the darkness ..
his attack completely eclipsing mine.
The darkness I summoned shrank to a tiny speck inside the ocean of radiant aura that swallowed the entire arena.
The protective barriers barely contained the blast, but even beyond them, everyone could feel the power unleashed.
As for me ..
I was trapped inside that storm.
Seconds passed.
The overwhelming light finally faded.
Snow Lionheart gazed forward in silence.
"..."
Before him, my broken body lay crumpled against the far wall.
He started walking toward me.
Each of his footsteps echoed in my ears.
"Get up," he said coldly.
"You can still fight, can't you?"
I wasn't eliminated.
That meant... I had managed to withstand the strike, somehow, despite the terrifying amount of damage I took.
Snow Lionheart knew it too.
I spat out blood.
A lot of it.
Seeing all that blood pooling on the ground...
I laughed.
I laughed so much, truly.