Jin forced air into his lungs and straightened.
Every muscle screamed. His vision swam for half a second before locking back in.
Lu Shen was already moving.
No warning.
No pause.
He stepped in with a short punch, heat folding inward instead of flaring out. Jin barely raised his arm in time. The impact slammed through his guard and drove him back a full step, boots skidding.
Lu Shen followed immediately.
A knee. An elbow. Another punch.
Relentless.
Jin blocked two, slipped one, still took the last across the ribs. The sound echoed—solid, ugly.
"You don't slow down," Jin muttered, breath tight.
Lu Shen didn't smile this time. "You don't either."
He twisted his torso and drove his shoulder in again, fire compressed so tightly it looked dark at the center.
[ Crimson Horn Drive ]
Jin braced, lightning snapping as he met it head-on.
The collision shook the arena.
They separated just enough to breathe—then crashed back together.
Jin countered with a hook, lightning biting at the edge of Lu Shen's guard. Lu Shen took it, teeth clenched, and answered with a downward elbow that Jin barely rolled away from. The heat singed his hair as it passed.
"Still standing," Lu Shen said, voice rough now.
Jin wiped blood from his lip with his thumb. "You sound disappointed."
Lu Shen exhaled slowly. Fire flickered unevenly around him now, no longer clean, no longer controlled.
"…I'm impressed," he admitted.
He stomped forward.
The pressure changed.
[ Ember Lock ]
Heat anchored the space again, heavier than before. Jin felt it instantly—angles closing, movement thickening, every step costing more.
Lu Shen attacked inside it.
Punch. Knee. Elbow.
No wasted motion.
Jin blocked, blocked, slipped—then took a blow square to the chest that sent him skidding backward, lightning flaring wildly as he fought to stay upright.
His back hit the barrier.
Lu Shen was already there.
"Stay down," Lu Shen said quietly, fist drawing back.
Jin laughed once. Dry. "You first."
He surged forward instead.
Lightning burst outward as he forced himself through the pressure, shoulder slamming into Lu Shen's chest. They collided hard, fire and lightning grinding against each other, neither giving an inch.
For a moment, they were locked there—forehead to forehead, breath ragged.
Lu Shen's eyes narrowed.
"…You're really not breaking."
Jin's reply came through clenched teeth. "Didn't plan to."
Lu Shen shoved him back and stepped away half a pace.
Fire surged.
Different this time.
Denser. Sharper.
"You're not the only one," Lu Shen said, voice steady despite the exhaustion in his limbs, "who's been holding something back."
The heat spiked violently.
[ Scarlet Calamity ] — Unique Skill
Flames condensed into jagged arcs around Lu Shen's arms and shoulders, pulsing like a living thing. The air screamed as he moved.
He crossed the distance in an instant.
Jin barely reacted in time.
The first strike shattered his guard.
The second sent him flying.
He hit the ground hard, rolled once, twice, lightning flickering weakly as he skidded to a stop. His vision dimmed. His body refused to answer for a heartbeat too long.
Lu Shen didn't rush.
He walked.
Boots crunching over fractured stone.
"This ends here," he said, raising his arm as fire roared higher.
Jin pushed himself up on one knee.
Slow.
Shaking.
Lu Shen's fire surged higher as he raised his arm, heat warping the air around him. The flames gathered, compressing into a single, brutal line meant to end it in one strike.
Jin didn't look away.
Water stirred instead.
It rolled out from beneath his feet, dark and heavy, not splashing but settling, like a deep tide answering a call.
[ Abyssal Guard ]
Unique+ Skill
Type: Defensive Barrier
Attribute: Water
A dense, rotating wall of water wrapped around Jin's body, layered and pressurized, swallowing the heat before it could reach him. Fire slammed into it head-on.
Steam exploded outward.
The sound was deafening—like the ocean striking molten rock.
Lu Shen's eyes narrowed. "A defensive unique…?"
The flames kept pushing. The water held.
Not effortlessly—but it held.
Jin rose behind it, fully upright now, breath still ragged but steadying. The barrier peeled away in slow spirals, dripping back into nothingness as the last of the heat died.
And for a split second—
The present slipped.
One claw struck Han Yue square in the chest.
The impact blasted her backward, water detonating into mist as her body skidded across the platform and came to a dead stop.
The other claw slammed into Shen Lian's shoulder at point-blank range.
Lightning discharged violently.
He collapsed a heartbeat later, shadows unraveling as he rolled onto his back, breath knocked clean from his lungs.
Silence.
Jin stood there, chest rising and falling, lightning flickering unevenly along his arm.
Then—
A cold, unfamiliar presence brushed the edge of his mind.
[ Skill Notification ]
Lightning Claw — conditions met
Combat pressure threshold exceeded
Skill evolution in progress…
Jin blinked.
The lightning around his hand twisted inward on its own, sharper, denser than before. It hurt—but in a focused way. Like something being reforged instead of breaking.
[ Skill Upgraded ]
Lightning Claw → Lightning Claw: Overdrive Fang
Classification: Unique++
Jin stared at his hand, then let out a quiet breath and grinned despite himself.
"…Nice timing."
Then the world rushed back in.
—
Now.
Jin exhaled slowly.
"…So that's it," he murmured."
Lu Shen frowned. "What?"
Jin stepped forward, fully this time.
Lightning snapped inward, coiling tighter than ever before—not wild, not explosive, but razor-focused. Compressed until the air itself whined under the pressure.
His hand opened.
Then curled.
[ Lightning Claw — Overdrive Fang ]
Unique++ Skill
The lightning didn't flare.
It converged.
Pulled inward so violently it looked like the light itself was being torn apart and reshaped along his fingers.
Lu Shen's eyes widened for the first time.
"—!"
He attacked anyway.
Fire surged, Scarlet Calamity roaring to meet him.
They collided mid-charge.
The impact was catastrophic.
A thundercrack ripped through the arena as fire and lightning slammed together. Flames shattered outward like broken glass. Lightning punched straight through, carving a blazing arc across the space between them.
Lu Shen was lifted off his feet.
The strike drove him backward, slammed him into the platform, and cratered the stone beneath him.
The shockwave rolled outward.
Dust. Smoke. Static.
Jin stood at the center of it, arm lowering slowly as the lightning faded from his fingers, the last sparks snapping into silence.
Lu Shen lay on the ground.
Still breathing.
Not moving.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Lu Shen laughed—soft, hoarse.
"…Good fight," he said, a faint smile crossing his face as his eyes closed.
Jin stood there, chest heaving, looking down at him.
The arena was silent.
The lightning faded completely.
What remained was Jin—standing alone at the center of the ruined platform, chest rising and falling, arm still faintly warm where the skill had burned through him.
Lu Shen lay a few meters away, unmoving, fire long extinguished.
For two full seconds, the arena didn't breathe.
Then—
"Winner… Wei Jin — Starfall Tenth Academy."
The announcement hit like a delayed explosion.
The stands erupted.
Not polite applause. Not restrained cheers.
Shouting. Screaming. People standing so fast their seats clattered behind them.
"He won!" "He actually beat Lu Shen!" "That was a Unique++—did you see that?!"
Students from lower academies were yelling Jin's name outright now, voices hoarse, fists in the air. Even some from the higher sections couldn't stay seated, staring at the platform with expressions caught somewhere between disbelief and awe.
On the teachers' platform, Han froze for half a second.
Then his breath shook out of him.
He gripped the railing, eyes locked on Jin, a wide, disbelieving smile breaking through despite himself. "You did it… you idiots actually did it…"
Behind him, more than one instructor was still standing, silent, recalculating everything they thought they knew.
On the platform, medics rushed in, moving first to Lu Shen. Jin watched until he saw Lu Shen's chest rise, slow but steady.
Only then did he finally relax.
His knees nearly buckled.
Chen was already vaulting the barrier before the signal finished flashing.
"Jin!" he shouted, skidding to a stop in front of him. "You insane bastard—do you know what you just did?!"
Jin laughed weakly. "Yeah. I think I do."
More Starfall Tenth students poured in, some grabbing his shoulders, others laughing, some outright yelling his name like they couldn't stop themselves.
They lifted him before he could protest.
"Hey—hey—careful," Jin said, but he didn't fight it.
As Jin was carried toward the edge of the platform, the cheers followed him—rolling, relentless, impossible to ignore.
For the first time that day, no one said low academy.
Only one name echoed through the arena.
Wei Jin.