(Sky-God Arena, Leo's POV)
*BOOOOOM—!*
A massive explosion shook the ground below Leo's feet as he stumbled off-balance, his daggers instinctively raised in confusion.
'What's going on?' he wondered—but before the thought could even complete, the very arena beneath him split open with a terrible mechanical groan, and his entire body lurched downward into the abyss.
He was free-falling.
The ground beneath had collapsed, or rather, had been completely destroyed, as he dropped through the cracked floor like a helpless stone, the surface level of the arena vanishing above him, as he fell deeper and deeper with every passing second.
'A blast? And here?' Leo's thoughts spun with confusion as the wind howled around him, his hair flailing and his limbs whipping in the fall.
The Sky-God Arena… was the last place he would have expected something to go wrong.
After all, this wasn't just any battlefield—it was the most protected arena in the universe with billions across the universe watching live and with some of the most influential warriors of the universe in attendance.
With such a set-up, one expected it to be a safe place, but apparently it wasn't, as the blasts that took off the floor were proof of the lapse in security.
'Damn it… Why does this fall feel endless?' Leo wondered after a couple seconds, as his fall momentum continued to build up.
The Sky-God arena was known for its modular floors, and the ability to swap battlefields that it stored beneath the surface.
However, because of this feature, the construction of the arena was layered across several levels of levitation technology, each floor supported by anti-grav stabilizers and retractable suspension cores. And yet—
Now, they were gone.
Blown to pieces, with nothing to break his fall to the absolute bottom anymore.
'Well fuck—' Leo thought, as his sharp eyes scanned his surroundings.
And to his relief, he wasn't in this alone at least, as to his right—Darnell was falling too, his limbs flailing, his eyes wide in disbelief, as that ever-present childish smile seemed to now be replaced by raw, primal terror.
'Alright… finally a reality check for the kid—' Leo thought, before looking left, where the referee was tumbling alongside him too, with blood splattering from a gash across his shoulder, which he likely received by being caught in the initial blast radius.
Then finally, as Leo twisted and looked underneath, he saw a yawning chasm of steel and exposed machinery, along with faint glimmers of light far, far below.
Pieces of shattered arena tiles spun in the air. Charred fragments of support pillars, cables, pipes—all spiraling downward like deadly debris.
'Uh-Oh…. There's the bottom—' Leo thought, as he spotted the end, as he twisted mid-air and angled himself into a controlled fall—just in time to slam shoulder-first into a metal platform below, as he cursed his luck for not having enough mana to cast one last [Celestial Veil].
*CRASH!*
*CRACK—!*
Pain exploded through his back as he rolled across the surface, tumbling twice before crashing into a wall of support mesh, the wind knocked clean from his lungs. His shoulder screamed in protest, and blood trickled anew from his reopened wounds.
His vision shook. But he endured.
Above him, smaller pieces of debris that were slower than him to fall now finally hit the surface like pelting hail, and the air above seemed to be sealed by a golden barrier that vibrated with powerful energy.
*WHUUUUMM—!*
A golden dome of light formed over the crater he was in, sealing it shut, as several dozen warriors landed on it just a split second later, with one of them being Muiyan Faye, who immediately started punching and slashing at it, but to no avail.
'She looks desperate to break the containment spell…. But why?' Leo wondered, looking at the frantic expression on Muiyan Faye's face, however, he could not understand the reason behind it.
He had never seen such panic in Faye's eyes before.
She was always composed, always cold… but now she seemed desperate, and that made Leo feel scared too.
*Step*
*Step*
*Step*
At that point, Leo sensed the presence of three hooded warriors around him, as the uneasy sensation he felt in his chest rose tenfold.
'Survive—' his instincts seemed to scream, as he perceived a threat to his life, however, his depleted and bruised body was in no state to even stand up properly, much less muster a proper fight.
'Somethings not right here…. I can definitely feel a thick killing intent on my back—' He concluded, as he searched frantically for the daggers he dropped after falling, however, unfortunately couldn't find them under the dust and debris of his surroundings.
—--------------------
Meanwhile, above ground, chaos erupted like a chain reaction.
Before anyone could react, before screams even had time to echo—the VVIP balconies were hit.
Three warriors clad in arena security uniforms who had been standing patiently on-guard outside Dupravel's room, suddenly barged in with blades glowing as they charged towards Dupravel with a reckless abandon.
They were Evil Cult operatives and their mission was to stall Dupravel Nuna, even if they had to sacrifice their life for it.
And that's exactly what they did.
They prevented Dupravel from jumping after his son momentarily, and stalled him long enough for the barrier to take hold, as they fought against him in a high paced action sequence.
The Guildmaster of the Black Serpents had just turned from the railing when an obsidian blade shot toward his throat.
However, with blinding speed, he raised his arm, catching the blade on a forearm guard— before dispatching the transcendent warriors that lunged towards him with a single palm strike to the forehead that made his head explode like it were a ball.
*BOOM*
"Don't let him move…."
"Stall as much as you can!" The other two warriors said, as they unleashed their strongest attacks, and a brutal battle unfolded within the VVIP balcony, the clash sending shockwaves and aftershocks sideways, injuring many in the audience nearby.
Elsewhere, the Mu Clan Patriarch fought off three attackers alone, his sword sweeping in golden arcs as security officials scrambled to his aid.
Everywhere one looked there was only chaos.
People screaming. Bolts of energy being exchanged. Blood sprayed across the marble tiles as Cult warriors began targeting select individuals in the crowd—names they had marked, faces memorized before the operation began, as they massacred key political, financial and influential figures in front of a massive live audience.
"KILL THE GUARDS…. THE GUARDS HAVE TURNED ON US—" someone said, as because of a handful of guards who committed misdeeds and betrayed the righteous alliance, all guards suffered the consequences, as members of the audience began to turn on them.
Regardless of their affiliation, all warriors in guard uniforms were targeted by the righteous alliance members in the confusion, which only made the chaos worse, as the guards retaliated under self defence, making their situation seem even worse to an angry mob.
However, while the fights happening on the surface were bad.
What the billions universe-wide were watching live, was a cracked feed of Leo, Darnell and the referee scrambling to their feet, while unknown masked assailants surrounded them, in what had to be undoubtedly, one of the most haunting live feeds in sports history.