Leo did not feel threatened by Pistachio's bold declaration that he wouldn't move from his starting spot.
In fact, it almost felt like a favor.
'Please don't move. Stay as you are and I'll end this in the blink of an eye,' Leo thought, as the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
There was no universe where he lost a battle of speed to a Master-level fighter. If anything, this only gave him a cleaner shot at a fast finish.
Still, his instincts did not let him fully relax. Pistachio wasn't stupid— not after the way he'd turned the fight around against Du Plessis.
He was a cunning fighter and there could be a trap hidden beneath that confidence, and so, Leo chose to proceed with a sliver of caution.
"Begin—"
The referee's voice rang out, followed by an eruption of cheers from the crowd.
As without hesitation, Leo flung two daggers toward Pistachio. The first of whom was parried cleanly, however, the second seemed to force Pistachio to veer left in a sharp dodge.
Which was a big mistake.
As him dodging the move allowed Leo to use-
[Blade Switch]
As in an instant, Leo vanished from his starting spot, seemingly disappearing as a whole.
To the untrained eye, it looked like teleportation, as one moment he stood thirty meters ahead of his opponent and in the next, he was behind him, just like a whisper of death.
As before his opponent could even turn around, Leo drove his daggers forward in a ruthless flurry, piercing into the soft tissue between armor plates along Pistachio's lower back, as he cut the vital nerve bundles in his spine.
"Thanks for coming," Leo murmured into his ear coldly. "Please try again next year."
As with his nerve bundles cut, Pistachio's body crumpled forward like a puppet with its strings cut, as the crowd erupted into cheers.
"Another dominant finish by Skyshard, he pulls another point back for Rodova!" Derek exclaimed, voice sharp with awe. "This time he does it by brutally stabbing his opponent in the spine, does this man know no mercy? That's an ice-cold finish!"
Lee's voice followed quickly. "That instant movement—was that teleportation? No, no—it had form, structure. That was some advanced movement technique executed at its cleanest. Skyshard has some pretty skill-full moves in his bag."
The camera panned briefly to Button Academy's side of the arena, where Captain Sam narrowed his eyes.
His fingers tightened slightly around the shaft of his spear, and the casual smile he'd worn for most of the day faded.
Sam could feel the heat now, as he realized that fighting Leo was not going to be simple.
—---------
Meanwhile, in the Rodova camp, Yu Shen watched the match unfold with barely contained fury etched across his face.
Leo was now being forced to reveal key skills and techniques—cards that were supposed to remain hidden until the later, more critical stages of the tournament.
And it was all his own fault.
He had foolishly placed trust in the wrong teammates, believing they had what it took to hold their ground against the universe's elite. But instead of warriors, they had turned out to be overconfident fools—pampered brats playing dress-up on the biggest stage of them all.
Button Academy should never have posed a threat.
Yet here they were—up 4-2—on the brink of pulling off the biggest upset in circuit history.
As that scoreboard alone was big enough achievement to become a badge of honor for Button, a moment their academy would proudly boast about for decades.
And that was assuming Leo pulled off the comeback.
Because if he failed—if he so much as stumbled once—then this would go down as the most humiliating defeat in Rodova's legacy. An early-round collapse. A historic choke.
And the blame would fall squarely on Yu Shen—for being arrogant enough to roll the dice with a second-rate lineup when everything was on the line.
'Come on Skyshard, hold strong—' Yu Shen prayed, as he clenched his fists tight, however, it was at that moment that he felt a hand being placed on his shoulders.
"Relax, captain, Skyshard doesn't need your prayers to win.
Let alone defeating these five, he can defeat fifty of them alone, even if they took him on, all at once.
My brother has more talent in his pinky than Button has in their academy history.
He's not a choker like the others.
He's got this—" Su Yang assured, as he seemed to read Yu Shen's mind in this tough time.
"Let's hope so—" Yu Shen replied with a heavy sigh, as he resolved to never trust the B team fools ever again.
—-------
The next couple of matches posed no real challenge for Leo.
His third opponent—a nimble twin-dagger wielder—tried to overwhelm him with speed and misdirection. But against Leo's [Absolute Vision], there was no such thing as a blind spot.
Every feint was read, every angle covered. As within thirty seconds, Leo had parried, disarmed, and slammed the opponent into the ground hard enough to crack the arena floor.
The fourth was a heavy-shield brawler who tried to stall the fight with pure defense.
But Leo danced around him with ruthless efficiency, using rapid footwork and precision cuts to dismantle the man's stance bit by bit.
Then, with a sharp flick of his wrist and a clean maneuver under the shield, he planted a reverse dagger strike under the fighter's chin, knocking him unconscious in one move.
Thud.
Another one down.
Rodova 4 — Button 4.
"And just like that, it's all square!" Derek shouted, nearly rising from his seat.
"Leo Skyshard pulls Rodova from the depths of despair into a deadlock! Four fights, Four wins, all without breaking a sweat!" Derek said, as the crowd went absolutely mental now.
The initial nervousness of the Rodova supporters finally melted away, as they were now enjoying this nail biting contest, with their last fighter showing the academy's true worth.
"This man is built differently, Derek," Lee added. "Cold, calculating, surgical. He isn't just winning — he's dominating. He's a menacing fighter in every sense of the word."
As the dust settled, all eyes turned to Button's final fighter.
Captain Sam.
He rose from his seat slowly, exhaling through his nose as he grabbed his long obsidian spear. His expression was unreadable—neither nervous nor cocky, just focused.
"There he is," Derek said, voice hushed now. "Captain Sam — Button Academy's ace, a top spear master who's been sitting and observing the whole time. He's fresh, he's rested, and he's been analyzing every single move Leo Skyshard has made so far."
"Rodova's comeback has been nothing short of legendary," Lee added, "but it all comes down to this final clash. Skyshard versus Sam. Ice cold versus Mr. Hot, One fight to decide it all."
The crowd leaned forward in their seats, breath held. This duel would decide whether Rodova advanced or fell, and while things seemed to lean into Rodova's favor, with Leo being a grandmaster and Sam being just a master level fighter, Sam seemed to have a big surprise for everyone.
"Everyone asked me why I missed the round of 64 fight yesterday, and the answer was quite complicated.
I missed the round of 64 yesterday not by choice, but because I wasn't ready.
I broke through to Grandmaster the night before and was struggling yesterday.
But I'm ready now. And I plan to lead my team to the next round," Sam said, as he dropped a bombshell at the last possible moment.