A cold, suffocating pressure began leaking out from the thick dust cloud where Lynx's motionless body lay.
The heavy dust slowly cleared off the arena floor. Lynx was standing completely still in the crater, facing the opposite direction from where he was before.
Seeing him standing motionless, Luhas felt a brief wave of relief, but then Lynx slowly turned his head, locking eyes directly with Luhas. Luhas's eyes widened in total shock.
"Very impressive! How many times did you die?"
Lynx, ignoring his questions, casually cleaned off the white dust from his clothes. Once he was clean, he looked up with a calm face.
"Zero," he replied with an evil grin.
Lynx started to casually walk toward where Luhas and Lucia were standing.
Luhas ripped a piece of cloth off his own clothes and patched his wounded cheek. "Be grateful that I didn't physically fight you! Now you will die!" Luhas ran straight toward him.
Lucia quickly followed, pulling her daggers out to slash him from behind.
"There has to be a limit to how much he can recover!"
Lucia's body flared with bright white energy, lightning sparking around her skin. Her face turned dead serious.
In a blinding flash of light, Lucia suddenly appeared beside Lynx, her overwhelming energy making a beautiful sound as it cut through the air.
Luhas's upper body was cut into millions of pieces, but the deep cuts healed themselves instantly. Unlike before, his shattered mask fell away, letting everyone see his face and upper body.
Behind that mask was a man with dark hair. His body was perfect in every muscle, completely covered in scars. Up in the spectator stands, the crowd was stunned by his appearance.
"Why are you using the full capacity of your power? You know that might expose who you are."
Lynx turned toward Lucia, looking a little confused.
"I might've lied to you both before, but I trust you, so I will do my best for us. Rey used all of his power as well."
Lucia gave out a gentle smile, turning her eyes toward Lynx. The soft look left Lynx completely speechless. Lucia faced Luhas once more and dashed at him with all of her power, her body vanishing completely into pure speed.
Luhas quickly turned to his left, swinging his hand hard right where Lucia was moving. His heavy strike caught her straight across the face. Before her body could fall to the stone floor, he grabbed her roughly by the hair. Her expression said it all, the pain was unbearable.
Suddenly, Luhas felt a cold, crushing weight holding his head from behind.
CRACK!
Luhas slammed face-first to the ground. Lynx slowly picked Lucia up, resting her over his right shoulder as he walked over toward where Rey was lying. Luhas stood back up after his broken head healed.
"You all are so annoying! Can I turn this into a death match!" Luhas yelled, looking off to the side where Isbell was standing on the platform.
"Does Team Seven agree to the condition?" Isbell replied. "I don't think they will—"
"Don't speak too quickly. I agree," Lynx said, standing right beside Rey, who was completely confused by the decision.
"What are... you doing..." Rey asked, coughing up blood.
"It's my turn, don't question it."
Lynx responded as he picked Rey up onto his left shoulder. With both shoulders filled, he walked out of the boundary line, carrying them toward the corner seats where Isbell was resting. Isbell began her official count. Lynx rested both of them down on the seats, placed a pill into both of their mouths, and left.
He made it back inside the boundary line just in time. Eliminating both Rey and Lucia, the magic barrier Isbell had put out surrounding the battle field disappeared completely.
{That should heal them, although they will be locked in a persistent vegetative state until then.}
"What do you expect to do alone? Do you think you are blessed by the Gods? Even a miracle can't save you!" Luhas mocked, warming his arms up.
"Nah."
Lynx closed his eyes, standing completely still as Luhas rushed straight toward him.
{Chances of me winning now is still zero.}
As Luhas closed in, Lynx quickly pulled his dagger out, piercing it straight through Luhas's heart while landing a hard punch to his face.
Luhas quickly lifted his foot to kick Lynx hard in his left side. Lynx caught the incoming kick mid-air, locking Luhas's leg with his own right foot, and pulled with all his weight, making Luhas lose his balance and crash backward onto the stone ground.
Lynx backed away, moving near the edge of the boundary line. Luhas recovered quickly and stood back up.
"You think I'm weak, don't you?!"
Lynx turned his head to signal Isbell something, leaving Isbell speechless as she watched. Luhas felt something odd in the air and executed a quick drop-kick straight at Lynx's chest, but Lynx vanished on the spot, causing Luhas's momentum to send him leaping right off the boundary.
Luhas quickly jumped back inside the ring. "What are you trying to pull off?! This is a death match just between us! These won't count!"
"It actually will," Isbell replied instead of Lynx.
While Luhas was distracted by Isbell's voice, Lynx appeared right in front of him, pushing him hard toward the edge. But Luhas grabbed onto Lynx's clothes.
"Got you!" Luhas drove a brutal kick straight into Lynx's right knee, using the exact same technique Rey had used on Luhas before.
Lynx was unable to move from the sudden agony, barely able to control his own leg as the joint gave out. Luhas immediately landed a brutal combo of heavy punches to his face and body.
Lynx was still standing, his whole body shaking violently.
"No... I trained for years for this..." Lynx whispered through bloodied teeth. "Was I not prepared enough...?"
Luhas held his neck tight, pulling Lynx upward into the air. Lynx began coughing frantically for breath.
"You were the first one to break out of my mind domain. I don't even need to use any other power to win against you."
{Nobody will come save me if I were to die, I did good enough.} Lynx's consciousness slowly began to fade into black.
And then, Lynx felt something deep inside.
Lynx swung his hand, using his dagger to stab deep into Luhas's hand. The sudden pain caused Luhas to let go of his grip, and Lynx dropped hard onto the ground, coughing on his knees.
"Why isn't my hand healing?! What's going on!?" Luhas panicked, holding his bleeding hand in horror. He turned in pure rage toward Lynx. {I don't have any stamina left or I would've killed you by now!}
{I was thinking to stab his heart, but I was going to pass out,} Lynx thought, struggling to force himself up onto his feet. {Get up... move...}
Luhas stood over him and kicked him hard and rapidly across his ribs. "Die... You should be grateful to die in the hands of a God."
Lynx reached out and held Luhas's feet tightly with both hands.
"Let go!" Luhas yelled, shaking his leg violently, then using his heavy hands to rain punches onto Lynx's back.
In Lynx's blurred vision, he could hardly see a thing through the blood pouring down his face. He slightly narrowed his right eye, forcing it to focus.
Luhas's eyes locked directly with the bloodshot eyes of Lynx.
"You also claim to be a God... what makes you think you are worthy of that title?" Lynx smiled slightly. {A true God would be all-powerful, all-knowing, and the most just.}
Lynx suddenly threw some strange powder directly at Luhas's eyes. The moment it touched his face, Luhas knew it was harsh spices. Luhas squeezed his eyes shut in agony, but his body's constant healing cycle mixed with the severe burn only kept making the pain worse. Luhas fell backward onto his knees, clutching his face.
Up in the stands, the crowd roared in outrage, beginning to shame Lynx loudly. Even though it wasn't against any official rules of the match.
"How dirty is this guy!"
"I think he threatened Lucia and Rey to work for him!"
Yet Lynx remained completely unbothered, forcing his broken body to move. "move... MOVE!" Knowing that the spice effects wouldn't last forever, he kept trying. Kept forcing. Kept willing.
{Looking back, there were times I was overwhelmed. Achievements too far out of reach,} Lynx thought as he dragged himself up onto his knees. {There will always be beings greater than me. My own insignificance will never be an excuse.}
Lynx stood on his feet, holding his knife tight with a trembling grip. {If one was born with everything, would they even be the same? No. A finite being with flaws, its true purpose is to overcome those flaws.}
Slowly balancing his unsteady weight, he forced himself to walk step by step toward Luhas. {All finite beings are perfect in their own way. The only thing that makes one imperfect is their own ignorance and lack of control.}
{And once everything goes wrong, there are those who fall into despair, and those with the will to surpass it.}
Standing right before Luhas, who was still desperately covering his burning eyes, Lynx tightened his grip on the hilt and stabbed straight toward Luhas's heart with all his remaining power.
{If you just sit back and accept your limits, your own soul will disgust you. Create your own path. Life is all about surpassing limitations with limited resources. Achieve things beyond imagination... be insane to a level you can control.}
Suddenly, a yellow-robed swordmaster of high authority appeared out of nowhere, stopping the blade with two fingers right before it could touch Luhas's chest. "I apologize kid, but he is really talented so we can't afford you to kill him."
Isbell quickly rushed inside the boundary floor. {What is he thinking?!}
"MOVE! DON'T INTERFERE!" Lynx screamed.
Letting go of the caught dagger, Lynx reached down and rushed toward Luhas with another blade in his hand.
{THERE'S STILL TIME!}