Jessica blinked in disbelief as Leo stepped forward to face her, as a sharp, self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips.
"Seriously?" she scoffed, her grip tightening around her spear. "Yu Shen sent you? An underclassman to face me? Is that how little he thinks of me?"
Her voice was laced with fury as she dropped into a low stance, the tip of her spear digging into the sand.
Leo didn’t answer.
He simply narrowed his eyes, tilting his head slightly with a look that said it all, as he made the ’Bitch, please—’ expression.
He offered no words of retort, no theatrics.
As frankly, He did not give a rat’s ass about how insulted she felt.
Because, if she thought she deserved a better opponent than him, she was about to get one hell of a reality check.
—----------
"Fighter’s ready? Begin—-"
The referee announced, as both Leo and Jessica carefully approached one another at a steady pace.
Neither opted for a reckless opening, as both of them were far too seasoned to squander the first exchange.
They circled one another cautiously, their feet sliding silently across the sand-grip surface, as the subtle shifts in weight betrayed nothing, yet suggested everything.
Jessica, gripping her spear with practiced finesse, was the first to probe the waters, as she lunged forward and delivered two precise jabs aimed at Leo’s center of mass.
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
She delivered the attack with enough speed to punish a lesser fighter, but Leo just swayed away from the first and sidestepped the second with unbothered ease, as though her attacks had no more significance to him than gusts of wind did to an unmoving boulder.
Then—
In the same fluid breath, Leo flicked his wrist and sent a dagger hurtling toward her neck, as he forced Jessica to deflect it at point-blank range.
*Clang—*
The sound of metal rang out sharply, as Leo’s blade ricocheted off harmlessly to the side.
This brief exchange told both fighters everything they needed to know about the other— as Jessica now knew Leo was fast, much faster than most, and Leo confirmed what he’d already suspected: that Jessica’s spear control and reaction time were the real deal.
*Step*
Both disengaged by a half-step simultaneously, before planting their feet with a renewed resolve as the first moment of true offense unfolded.
[Overbearing Thrust]—
Jessica called aloud, as her spear shimmered with coiled energy and the air around its tip exploded into a spiraling gale.
But Leo had already melted from view by then.
[Vanish]
He slipped through the veil of vision, fading into invisibility mid-motion as the swirling force tore past where he’d been a fraction of a second earlier, slamming into the reinforced arena wall with a deafening boom, drawing a hiss from the barrier enchantments and a fresh wave of adrenaline from the crowd.
Jessica spun on instinct, sensing the danger approaching from behind—yet before her spear could fully turn, Leo reappeared in a blur, his twin daggers flashing toward her flank, but she parried the first and forced space with a sweeping arc that kept him from pressing further.
"You’re quick," she muttered, resetting her stance, her knuckles tightening.
"You’re loud," Leo replied, already circling her again, as he looked for a new opening.
However, Jessica didn’t wait for another exchange to play out on Leo’s terms, as she suddenly surged forward with a lateral burst of movement that kicked up a wave of sand behind her, her spear spinning in a practiced flourish before she unleashed [Piercing Crescent]—a horizontal slash of mana-laced pressure that hummed violently through the air like a sonic blade.
But Leo, anticipating the momentum shift, invoked [Blade Switch] at the last second, as his entire form flickered as he swapped positions with a secondary dagger he’d thrown moments prior behind her blind spot.
*Swoop*
Leo reappeared with a low crouch and his real blade drawn back for a clean counter.
Yet Jessica with her superior reflexes and impressive speed twisted into a back-kick the instant she felt the air shift behind her, as her boot grazed Leo’s chest just enough to send him sliding back a few paces across the sand, as she narrowly avoided his perfect counter.
However, to her annoyance, despite being pushed back, Leo did not lose his footing, as his balance remained steady and perfect giving her no openings to exploit.
"OOOO—-"
The crowd gasped, sensing the tension rise, as both fighters re-assumed their original fighting stance without so much as a breath wasted.
Then—
Jessica lunged again, this time chaining [Triple Fang] into her charge—as she unleashed a series of rapid-fire thrusts that targeted Leo’s throat, heart, and abdomen in such swift succession that the naked eye couldn’t even keep pace.
Yet, Leo, activating [Parallel Processing], improved his movement speed and instincts to their limits, as he twisted his upper torso to avoid the first thrust, lowered into a roll to evade the second, and parried the third with a braced dagger strike that reverberated through his wrist, but helped evade the danger.
"Persistent," Leo muttered under his breath, as he feigned retreat, baiting Jessica forward with a half-faltered step.
And to his joy, Jessica took the bait, closing the gap again with a short hop and a vertical stab—this one powered with a sudden pulse of wind mana—but just as her spear tip was about to land, Leo invoked [Celestial Veil], as the transparent barrier covered his frame in a mere instant, and deflected Jessica’s spear harmlessly off his body.
"What?" Jessica muttered in disbelief, as she did not even understand the origin of the mystical barrier that saved Leo’s body or when Leo even conjured it?
As she stepped back in confusion, only for a heartbeat, trying to figure out what exactly went down, however, a heartbeat was all that Leo needed.
Leo surged forward with no illusions this time, as he ducked under her recovering guard and thrust upward with his dagger—forcing Jessica to intercept the blow mid-air with the bottom of her spear, which cracked under the collision of mana-forged steel and reinforced wood.
Still holding her ground, Jessica retaliated with [Heaven’s Thrust], a concentrated mana-infused lunge meant to pierce through barriers and end fights clean—but Leo’s eyes narrowed, his breathing calmed, and his entire frame locked into place as he chose to receive the strike head-on.
[Full Counter].
As her spear collided with the core of his stance, Leo channeled all the gathered kinetic energy through his frame and redirected it with brutal efficiency, flipping the force of her blow back into her own body with a shattering pulse of mana that traveled up her spear, into her arms, and across her chest like a sonic wave laced with thunder.
Jessica gasped as her body flew backward, her feet dragging deep ruts in the sand before she lost all balance and crashed into the far edge of the battlefield, her spear tumbling from her grip as her armor sparked violently from the feedback.
*Silence—*
The entire sky-god arena went silent for a beat.
As the camera cut to a half-and-half shot of both Leo and Jessica.
And while Leo looked hurt from the counter, which was evident with how he was bleeding through his nose and mouth, he was still standing with his eyes looking strong, while Jessica struggled to get back up to her feet.
"Fighter, can you continue? Please stand up within the next five seconds, if you can—" The referee instructed, as he gave her a five count.
"One…"
"Two…."
"Three…."
The entire crowd counted alongside him, with the Clarence fans praying that she’d rise and the Rodova fans hoping that she wouldn’t.
However, the referee counted to four and then to five.
And Jessica failed to get up in time, as the injuries she racked up just seemed to be too much for her to recover from.
"Winner—Leo Skyshard of Rodova!" the referee shouted at that moment, just as Jessica groaned and rolled to her side, defeated but conscious, as she felt her pride to be more battered than her body.
*ROAR*
*CHEERS*
The crowd erupted into frenzied applause, the sound crashing over the arena like a tidal wave of disbelief and awe, as Leo relaxed his shoulders in victory.
Blood still trickled from his lip, but his eyes remained locked in that cold, unfazed stare, as he looked down on Jessica and said "Still think you’re good enough to face our Captain? Or was I enough?"
His remark, of course, drew a number of cheers from the Rodova fanbase.
However, he didn’t care about the applause. He just wanted her to remember who she’d called unworthy