The duel should've ended long ago.
But still, Ethan stood.
Still trying. Still failing.
Cael Verendis, Rank 1 of the aspirants from the first trial leaderboard, moved like a whisper in a storm, his blade nothing but a glint of silver lazily parrying every desperate strike Ethan threw at him.
The sand was marked with their footprints, but only one pair danced, the other stumbled. Ethan slashed again, this time a diagonal arc meant to break Cael's stance.
Clang... Parried without effort.
Ethan lunged low, feinted left, rolled into a spin and aimed for the ribs.
Parried. Again.
Then a flourish, Ethan's blade knocked from its angle with a wrist flick so casual it felt like an insult. And still, Cael hadn't struck back once.
He didn't need to.
---
The Knights watching from a hall in the Academy had seen hundreds of duels during trials. This one wasn't about victory. Not for Cael. It was about display. The lead Knight leaned forward, eyes sharp.
"That's enough. He's tested him," the man muttered. "He's just toying now."
Another nodded. "He's not just rank one in name. That boy moves like a true prodigy. Verendis will be proud."
One more added, "And the other…?"
They all paused.
The lead Knight replied quietly, "He stood."
---
Ethan's breath came in haggard gasps now.
His arms ached. His legs wobbled.
His blade was slick with his own sweat.
Cael's voice was still smooth. Still calm.
"I must say," he said with a smile, "this has been mildly entertaining."
Ethan didn't answer.
He came forward again, one last time, blade raised in fury. But this time Cael didn't parry. He simply stepped aside. Ethan stumbled forward, dropped to one knee.
Blade dug into the sand.
And Cael finally spoke like a victor speaking to a beggar.
"I thought the mongrel had fangs," he said. "But all I see is a stray mutt with broken teeth."
He turned, not even offering the mercy of a final blow.
The duel was over. And he knew it.
The noble waved a lazy hand to his cronies. "Let's leave the trash to rot. We've wasted enough time."
The others laughed as they followed, throwing their final insults over their shoulders.
"Should've brought a leash for that beast."
"Maybe next time, you'll bark less."
---
Ethan stayed on one knee. Not because he was defeated. But because something inside him was burning.
Not just the mark on his ribs.
Not just the system.
Something deeper.
Pride.
Humiliation.
Hatred.
Velina rushed to his side, kneeling. "Ethan. Hey—"
He didn't look at her. Didn't speak. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"Get up. We still have ground to cover."
He stood. But not because she asked. Because the fire burning within him told him to.
---
[WRATH: 78/35]
[System: Leviathan Burn Contained – Threshold Nearing Limit]
[Current State: Mental Instability Rising. Repression Detected.]
---
They walked again. No one spoke. The wind carried their silence across the desert as the sun sank further behind bone-colored cliffs. Velina kept glancing at him. The same boy who had once gritted his teeth and fought beasts with nothing but instincts. The one who saved her, who smiled faintly in victory, who said little but always stood tall.
Now he radiated something else.
Like each step he took scorched the earth a little more. His shadow seemed heavier.
She swallowed her worry. "You did well back there. You didn't give up." She said, trying to break the awkward silence.
Still, Ethan said nothing.
---
Another hour passed.
A pack of desert jackal, mutated by Tartarus energy, burst from a ridge.
Class I. Small. Fast. But hungry. They didn't even get the chance to growl. Ethan was on them before they could react.
His blade cleaved the first in two. He caught another mid-air by the neck and slammed it into the rocks with a wet crunch. A third bit into his arm, and he stabbed it repeatedly without blinking, black blood spraying across his chest.
Velina tried to join the fight, but it was already over.
Six bodies. No breath. Just twitching limbs in the sand. And Ethan standing there, eyes dead. Mouth shut. Blade soaked.
[×6 DESERT JACKALS DEFEATED]
[+20EXP GAINED]
[CURRENT EXP: 348/500]
Velina approached slowly.
"Ethan… stop."
He turned toward her slowly. The setting sun glinted off his face. He was still human. Still Ethan. But just barely.
She touched his forearm gently. "You're not fighting them anymore. You're fighting something inside you."
His gaze dropped. To his hand. To the veins pulsing faintly with a dark shimmer. To the mark beneath his shirt, edges glowing faintly, pulsating like a heartbeat.
------
That night, they didn't light a fire. They simply sat beneath the stars. Ethan leaned against a boulder, head tilted up. Velina looked at him from across the short space between them.
"You held back there in the duel," she said quietly. "Even when you were losing."
He nodded once.
"Why?"
"I did it for two reasons... One... I've already revealed alot about me during this second trial. They are watching us and right now I am sure they have all eyes on me"
"I understand and the second reason"
"I don't know"
He didn't know. He said.
Maybe because he still believed he could win without it. Maybe because part of him still wanted to earn it, prove to the world he wasn't just a monster with gifts, but a warrior with purpose.
Or maybe because he knew… If he had used the system… He wouldn't have stopped. Not at one hit. Not at first blood. He'd have buried Cael's head into the sand until the nobles screamed instead.
Ethan closed his eyes. And whispered something under his breath. Velina barely heard it.
"What?"
He opened his eyes. His voice was low. Controlled.
"Next time... I won't hold back."
---
Far away, in the towers above above the Academy, in a Hall, the Knights still reviewed the vision memory of the duel. One of them pointed at the moment Ethan rose after being humiliated.
"He stood even when crushed."
Another added, "His movements… primal. But trained by hardship. There's raw force there."
"But not enough."
The elder Knight turned to the rest.
"No," he said. "Not yet."
He paused, then added:
"But if he survives this trial… we'll see something far worse than nobility."
[System Note: New Trait Brewing — Leviathan's Rebirth: ???]
[Awaiting Critical Catalyst]
[WRATH POOL – Stabilizing at 100/35]
[Warning: Restraint nearing collapse]