Nova scanned the chaos around him, his fists still clenched as he tried to steady his breathing. The arena was barely recognizable anymore. Broken stone covered the floor, several walls had collapsed, and a thick layer of dust hung in the air. His muscles were screaming for a vacation on the couch, preferably one where nobody tried to bury him under a few tons of rock.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time for a vacation. Not while the bully was still moving.
The boy was crawling away from him, dragging one arm across the debris while his other hand pressed against his injured side. Nova watched him carefully, fighting the temptation to sit down and rest. He had hit him hard enough to end the fight, or at least he had thought so.
'How is this guy still able to crawl?' Nova wondered. 'Does he have something left, or is he too stubborn to give up?'
He took a cautious step forward. The bully didn't look back. At first, Nova thought the boy was afraid of him, which would have made sense considering the beating he had just received. But something about his movements bothered him. He was crawling slowly, almost deliberately, and his fingers kept brushing against the pocket of his clothing.
Nova's breathing remained shallow. Every movement made the cuts along his arms sting, and the pain in his ribs had become an unpleasant companion. Still, he refused to drop his guard. His opponent had already demonstrated how dangerous a moment of carelessness could be.
Then he noticed a faint golden light.
It appeared around the bully's body, outlining his shoulders and arms. At first, Nova could barely see it through the dust. But the glow grew brighter, drawing his attention to a small yellow crystal held between the boy's teeth.
The bully bit down. The crystal disappeared into him, its light spreading across his skin before sinking beneath it. Nova watched as the bruises began to fade and the cuts along the boy's arms closed. His breathing steadied. The trembling that had made it difficult for him to crawl vanished.
'Fuck!' Nova thought, recognizing the object. 'He absorbed a yellow mana crystal. It's the lowest grade, but it still replenishes mana and vitality. All the damage I worked to inflict, and he's recovering from it!'
It was an ugly development. Nova had no such supply, and his own body wasn't recovering nearly as quickly. He had spent the last several minutes forcing the bully onto the defensive, only to watch him undo a substantial portion of that effort in seconds.
The bully placed both hands on the floor and pushed himself upright.
Stone cracked beneath his feet. Loose fragments rose around him, followed by several jagged shards that hovered at shoulder height. His earlier exhaustion was gone, replaced by an energy that seemed almost unnatural.
"You thought you had me, huh?" he asked, laughing under his breath.
Nova lifted his injured fists. "I thought you were smart enough to stay down. I suppose I gave you too much credit."
The boy's grin widened. "You may be faster, stronger, and smarter. But there's one thing strength can't overcome."
He leaned forward as if he were about to reveal some extraordinary secret.
"Insanity."
Nova stared at him for half a second.
'Was that supposed to frighten me?'
A stone spike erupted from the floor where Nova had been standing. He threw himself backward, his boots scraping against broken rock as the spike shot past his chest. A second one followed immediately, forcing him to turn sideways and squeeze through the narrow space between them.
The joke disappeared from his mind.
His opponent had been dangerous before the crystal. Now he was attacking with renewed strength while Nova's injuries continued to slow him down. For the first time since entering the tournament, Nova felt the unmistakable pressure of genuine fear. There was a real possibility he would die here if he made the wrong decision.
And, much to his frustration, that possibility did not make his body move any faster.
The bully swept his hand across the arena. A wall rose on Nova's left, then another on his right. The boy wasn't simply throwing large rocks anymore. He was changing the battlefield itself, creating narrow passages and blocking the places where Nova might escape.
Nova dashed through an opening before it closed. He struck a forming barrier with his elbow, shattering its thinner edge, and rolled beneath a second wall as it tilted toward him. Broken stone rained over his back.
"Come on!" the bully shouted. "You're too fucking slow! It's my turn now!"
He sounded almost childish, delighted at finally having the advantage. The more excited he became, the less restraint he showed. Each command to the earth produced another violent shift in the arena, sometimes narrowly missing his own feet.
Nova used that carelessness to close the distance. But before he reached him, the bully slammed both fists into the ground.
Boulders burst outward in a rough circle. Nova caught one strike on his forearms and twisted away from the next. The third collided with his shoulder.
Pain shot down his arm and across his upper back. He lost his balance, stumbled into a pile of rubble, and barely managed to remain standing. His right hand went numb for a moment. When he tried to flex his fingers, a sharp ache traveled from his shoulder toward his neck.
'Damn it. That one hurt.'
He was beginning to understand an uncomfortable truth about mortal combat. Having a high tolerance for pain didn't prevent the damage that caused it. He might ignore the warning signals, but his muscles and joints would still suffer the consequences.
The bully noticed his hesitation and laughed.
"What's wrong? Tired already?"
Nova rolled his shoulder, then immediately regretted it. "You talk an awful lot for someone who needed a crystal to stand up."
The insult made the boy's smile disappear.
Nova lunged through a partially collapsed wall, bringing his elbow into the bully's side. The impact forced a grunt from him. Nova followed with a knee toward his stomach, but the boy twisted, raising a slab of stone between them. Nova's knee struck the barrier instead, sending fresh pain through his leg.
They separated, both breathing hard. Then the bully reached into his pocket again.
"A few bruises aren't stopping me," he said. "I've got crystals. Mana, health, everything I need!"
Another yellow crystal disappeared into his mouth. Golden light spread along his arms, and the marks Nova had managed to leave on him faded once more.
Nova stared at the light with growing irritation.
'Oh, that's wonderful. He has more of them.'
His own knuckles were raw. Small pieces of skin had come away each time he broke through stone, leaving his fists wet with blood. It took more effort to close his right hand now, and his legs were becoming heavy from the constant dodging.
Yet the bully was standing straighter than he had a moment earlier.
Nova forced himself forward, broke through another thin wall, and drove his knee into the boy's midsection. The bully doubled over, but a wall rose behind Nova before he could follow up. It struck his back and shoved him across the floor.
He landed awkwardly on one knee. A sharp breath escaped him.
"You're gonna lose!" the bully shouted. "You're nothing! Just a fast, stupid kid playing in the dirt!"
"And you're apparently a pharmacy with legs," Nova muttered.
He pivoted around an incoming stone shard and landed a backfist against the boy's jaw. Blood sprayed from his mouth. Instead of retreating, the bully laughed, reached into his pocket, and produced three more yellow crystals.
Nova's eyes widened.
"You're taking three at once?"
The boy swallowed them before Nova could reach him.
The golden glow returned, brighter than before. The bully straightened, his wounds closing as the energy spread through his body. He looked almost delighted with himself, as if nothing about consuming so many crystals seemed remotely concerning.
'He isn't even thinking about how many he's using,' Nova realized. 'Does he have any idea what he's doing?'
Nova didn't know the exact risks of repeated absorption. He knew enough to recognize that relying on a constant supply of crystals was dangerous, but he couldn't assume the boy would stop on his own. Right now, every crystal was giving him another chance to attack.
The arena descended into chaos again.
Walls rose and collapsed without warning. Stone spikes cut across Nova's escape routes, while loose fragments shot toward him from angles he struggled to track. He broke the first few apart with his fists, then began dodging whenever possible. His elbows were sore, his legs shook between movements, and each breath pulled painfully at his ribs.
He could still hurt his opponent. That was the infuriating part. Every time he found an opening, his strikes connected. He drove a hammer fist into the boy's ribs and sent him stumbling backward, only for another stone wall to rise between them. Nova vaulted over it, but the boy had already moved.
'At this rate, I'm going to lose. I need a way to disrupt him. Something that stops him from reaching those crystals.'
He glanced toward the bully's pocket, searching for an opening. The boy immediately shifted his stance, turning that side away from Nova while raising more stone between them.
'Of course he's guarding them.'
"You think you can touch me?" the bully shouted. "You insolent brat! You're so fucking pathetic!"
He pulled a chunk of stone from the floor and compressed it into a jagged spear. With a furious motion, he hurled it straight at Nova's chest.
Nova dropped beneath it. The spear passed close enough for its rough edge to scrape his shoulder, then shattered against the wall behind him. He slid across the debris, closed the remaining distance, and drove his knee into the bully's stomach.
The boy staggered, his laughter cut short by a sharp gasp. For an instant, Nova saw his expression change. He was hurting him again.
But the familiar golden light appeared at the bully's side.
Another yellow crystal disappeared into his body. His breathing steadied, and he screamed in rage as the earth beneath Nova's feet began to crack.
Nova sprang backward, barely clearing the rising stone. He landed hard, nearly falling when his injured shoulder protested the movement. His opponent stood across from him, recovering yet again, while Nova's own body continued to deteriorate.
The difference between them was becoming impossible to ignore. One of them was spending his strength and suffering for every mistake. The other kept buying himself another chance.
Nova clenched his bleeding fists and watched the boy's hands, waiting for the next attack.
He still had no intention of giving up. But he was running out of ways to keep fighting like this.