The tournament grounded forward, and Jade's watch vibrated again four hours after his first match. He opened his eyes, checked the display without any particular interest, and activated Void Step before the five-minute buffer had even started counting down.
The crystalline platform materialized around him, and his opponent was already waiting. He was a young man who couldn't have been more than nineteen, with perfectly styled blonde hair and clothes that probably cost more than most people earned in a year.
The moment Jade appeared, the man's face twisted into a sneer that radiated the kind of entitled arrogance that came from never being told no in his entire life.
"You're the mysterious fighter everyone's talking about?" His voice carried across the platform with deliberate volume, clearly playing to the crowd. "How disappointing. I expected someone impressive, not some hooded coward too ashamed to show their face."
Jade said nothing, just stood there with his hands relaxed at his sides. Around the arena, he could feel the crowd's energy shift—some people eating up the drama, others groaning at the obvious attempt at psychological warfare, most just waiting to see if the spoiled brat could back up his words with actual capability.
"My family is House Corvalen, third-tier nobility with direct connections to Ducal House Vorden," the young man continued, apparently under the impression that lineage mattered in a tournament bracket. "When I eliminate you, I'll make sure everyone knows that backwater planets breed nothing but—"
The referee appeared with her characteristic flash, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else than mediating this particular brand of noble arrogance. "Are you ready?" she said curtly, clearly not in the mood for extended speeches.
The Corvalen brat opened his mouth to launch into what was probably another paragraph about his family's greatness, but the referee cut him off. "That's a yes. Participant 847,392?"
Jade nodded once.
"FIGHT!"
The young man's hands lit up with fiery energy that looked impressive and probably had some fancy name passed down through his noble bloodline, and he took exactly one step forward before Jade appeared directly in front of him. The brat's eyes went wide—first with shock, then with the dawning realization that he'd made a terrible miscalculation, then with pure fear as Jade's hand came up almost lazily.
One finger extended. One tap to the forehead. Not even enough force to leave a mark.
The Corvalen heir's eyes rolled back and he crumpled like someone had cut his strings, unconscious before he hit the crystalline surface. His fancy energy technique flickered and died, completely unused and utterly irrelevant.
"Match! Winner: Participant 847,392!"
The crowd erupted into laughter and cheers, and Jade caught scattered phrases as he turned to leave. "Did you see his face!" "All that talk about noble bloodlines and he got dropped in TWO SECONDS!" "Couldn't even finish his technique activation!" The humiliation would probably sting worse than any physical injury when the brat woke up.
The match lasted six seconds this time, and two of those had been wasted listening to threats about family connections that meant absolutely nothing on the tournament stage.
The healers rushed onto the stage while Jade returned to his seat. Behind him, he heard the lead medic confirming that the noble brat had suffered nothing worse than a bruised ego and would wake up in a few minutes to face the recordings of his humiliation.
The crowd's reaction was notably louder than his first match, but for completely different reasons. People weren't just impressed by Jade's efficiency, they were delighted by watching entitled nobility get taken down a peg. The laughter continued for several minutes, and Jade caught more than a few spectators rewatching the moment on personal displays, clearly savoring the brat's expression when he realized his family name meant nothing against overwhelming power.
In the commentary booth, Marcus let out a sound that might have been a snort of amusement. "Well, that was satisfying to watch. Participant 847,392 continues his pattern of decisive victories, and I think we can all agree that particular opponent had it coming."
"He really did," Adira agreed, not even trying to hide her smile. "Two seconds from fight call to knockout. House Corvalen's heir is going to have a very embarrassing conversation with his family after this."
...
...
Jade's third match came six hours later, and this time his opponent was different in a way that actually got his attention. The moment both fighters materialized on stage, the man across from him didn't say anything. Neither did he posture nor threaten or waste time with intimidation attempts. He just dropped into a combat stance that screamed professional training and fixed Jade with eyes that burned with focused intensity.
This one obviously knew how to fight. Jade could see it in the way he held himself, the controlled breathing, the absolute stillness that preceded explosive movement. And more importantly, this one wasn't arrogant or delusional about his chances. He was just determined to give everything he had regardless of the outcome.
The referee called the match start, and the man moved with impressive speed and technique. His approach wasn't a blind charge but a calculated advance that maintained defensive posture while closing distance, ready to adapt to whatever Jade threw at him. He'd clearly studied Jade's previous matches and knew that teleportation was coming, positioning himself to respond to multiple possible angles simultaneously.
It was good tactical thinking. Excellent, even. Against most opponents it would have been devastatingly effective.
But against Jade, it bought him an extra three seconds before the inevitable conclusion.
Jade appeared behind him as expected, but the man's defensive positioning let him spin and block the incoming strike with a technique that reinforced his forearms to near-indestructibility. The impact created a sharp crack that echoed across the arena, and for half a second it looked like he might actually survive the exchange.
Then Jade's second hand came up in a simple palm strike that bypassed the block entirely and tapped the man's solar plexus with carefully controlled force. Not enough to cause real injury, but enough to completely disrupt his breathing and nervous system simultaneously. The man's eyes went wide and he collapsed to his knees, gasping for air that wouldn't come, and tapped the platform in surrender before his lungs could recover enough to voice it.
"Match! Winner: Participant 847,392!"
This was the longest match Jade had fought in round three so far, and entirely because his opponent had actually forced him to throw two strikes instead of one.
When the medics came to assess him, he accepted their assistance with dignity, and as he was being helped off the stage, he turned back to look at Jade with an expression that held respect rather than resentment.
Jade found himself nodding slightly in acknowledgment before he could stop the gesture. That fighter had been competent and deserved recognition for lasting longer than anyone else so far.
The crowd's reaction was more subdued this time, but the applause held genuine appreciation for both fighters—one for overwhelming capability, the other for making him actually work for it even if only for a few extra seconds.
------------------------------------------
The day cycle progressed, and Jade's fourth match brought something entirely unexpected. His opponent appeared on stage, took one look at Jade standing across from him, and immediately began talking.
"Okay, hear me out," the man said rapidly, hands raised in a placating gesture. "We both know how this is going to end if we fight. You're going to knock me out in like five seconds and I'm going to wake up with a headache and a bad score. But what if—and stay with me here—what if we both just agree to forfeit? Then neither of us gets hurt, we both technically lose but we also don't get knocked unconscious, and we save everyone time?"
Jade stared at him. The referee stared at him. The entire arena seemed to pause in collective confusion at this absolutely unprecedented negotiation attempt.
"I know it's unconventional," the man continued, apparently encouraged by the lack of immediate rejection, "but think about it logically. You're going to advance anyway because you're clearly on another level. I'm going to get eliminated eventually because let's be honest, I'm ranked in the four-thousands for a reason. So why not just—"
"That's not how tournaments work," the referee said flatly. "Both fighters present, one winner, one loser. Those are the rules."
"But technically the rules don't say we CAN'T both—"
"FIGHT!" The referee clearly had no patience for philosophical debates about tournament structure.
The man sighed heavily, like Jade was being unreasonable for not entertaining his diplomatic solution, and raised his hands in what was probably meant to be a fighting stance but looked more like he was surrendering preemptively.
Jade appeared beside him and tapped him on the forehead before the man could launch into another negotiation attempt. He collapsed with a resigned expression that suggested he'd expected this outcome but had felt obligated to try the diplomatic route anyway.
"Match! Winner: Participant 847,392!"
The arena erupted into laughter. Even the commentators were cracking up, and Jade caught Marcus saying something about "points for creativity, zero points for effectiveness" while Adira wondered aloud if anyone had ever successfully negotiated their way through a tournament before.
.....
Jade's fifth match was called as evening approached, and the moment his opponent stepped on the platform, every alpha and omega in the arena seemed to perk up with attention. The man standing across from Jade was massive—easily two meters tall with muscles that looked like they'd been carved from stone, and the kind of build that screamed strength-enhancement specialization taken to its absolute limits. His aura hit the surrounding area like a physical weight, aggressive and oppressive in the way only a dominant alpha who'd never learned restraint could manage.
But what really caught everyone's attention was his rank. 61. Top hundred. This was the first genuinely high-ranked opponent Jade had faced in round three, and the man clearly knew it.
"Finally," the alpha growled, voice carrying across the arena with satisfaction. "Finally they matched me with the mysterious hooded fighter everyone's been talking about. Let's see if you're actually worth the hype, or if you've just been getting lucky against weaklings who don't know how to fight."
His aura intensified, pressing down on the stage with enough force that the crystalline surface beneath his feet actually cracked slightly. The oppressive weight made even distant spectators shift uncomfortably in their seats, and several omegas in the nearest sections looked like they wanted to leave entirely.
"When I crush you," the alpha continued, grinning with vicious confidence, "everyone's going to see that real power beats mysterious tricks every single time. You've been hiding behind that hood and those quick matches, but there's nowhere to hide from me. I'm going to break every bone in your body and make sure everyone knows that backwater planets breed nothing but—"
The referee cut him off with visible irritation. " Are you ready?"
"Been ready since—"
"That's a yes. Participant 847,392?"
Jade nodded once, and something in his posture shifted slightly. Most people wouldn't have noticed it, but the more observant fighters in the seating sections suddenly leaned forward with heightened attention.
"FIGHT!"
The alpha charged with enough force that the platform shattered under his first step, and his enhancement technique flooded his body with power that made his muscles swell and veins stand out in sharp relief. He closed the distance with startling speed for someone his size, and his fist began glowing with accumulated energy that promised devastating impact.
Jade didn't react, he stood there and watched him approach that some people thought he was probably frozen in fear of his opponent. He simply stood there with an almost bored expression barely visible beneath his hood. Watching the charging hunk of a man, Jade couldn't help but think back to the ogres he had fought when he was seven years old , back in the junkyard.
When the alpha got close enough that his glowing fist was already swinging forward with all that enhanced strength behind it—
Jade took half a step forward. It almost looked like he was trying to walk right into the charging fist.
His body became a blur of motion that made the alpha's charge look like he was standing still, and then his hands started moving and the entire arena heard it.
THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD—
The sound was like a machine gun going off, impacts coming so fast they blended into a continuous roar that echoed across every tier of seating. Jade's fists struck with surgical precision faster than the human eye could properly track, each blow landing on joints and pressure points and bones with enough force to break but not enough to shatter. The alpha's body jerked from impacts that came faster than his nervous system could process, his enhancement technique rendered useless as his concentration shattered completely under the relentless barrage.
His eyes went wide with shock and agony, but he couldn't even scream before it was over. The entire assault lasted exactly two seconds, and when Jade stopped moving and stepped back casually, the alpha just stood there for a moment with his eyes glazed and unfocused.
Then he toppled backward like a felled tree, unconscious before he hit the crystalline surface, and the sound of his massive frame crashing down echoed through the sudden, absolute silence.
The entire arena stilled. The silence was so deafening that a pin drop would have echoed like a gunshot.
The referee stood completely frozen with her mouth slightly open and one hand raised halfway as if to call the match, but the words wouldn't come. Her expression suggested her brain was refusing to process what she'd just witnessed.
And then the commentary booth exploded.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" Adira's voice came out as an actual shriek that probably ruptured audio equipment across the empire. "SEVENTEEN BONE-BREAKING STRIKES IN TWO SECONDS! DID EVERYONE JUST SEE THAT?!"
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Marcus was shouting with the kind of manic energy usually reserved for championship-deciding moments. "I'M WATCHING THE REPLAY RIGHT NOW AND I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT!. SEVENTEEN DISTINCT IMPACTS ACROSS A TWO-SECOND SPAN! THAT'S—THAT'S—"
"THAT'S EIGHT AND A HALF STRIKES PER SECOND!" Adira was laughing and screaming at the same time. "EIGHT AND A HALF FULL-POWER BONE-BREAKING STRIKES DELIVERED PER SECOND WITH PERFECT PRECISION! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ACROSS FIFTEEN GALAXIES, WE JUST WITNESSED SOMETHING ABSOLUTELY UNPRECEDENTED!"
The commentators' voices—amplified across every speaker in the arena—seemed to snap the referee out of her shock. She blinked rapidly, looked around as if suddenly remembering where she was, and her voice came out hoarse when she finally managed to speak. "Match! Winner: Participant 847,392!"
But Jade was already in his seat like all the commotion had absolutel to do with him.
The arena exploded.
.....