Chapter 303: Ariel’s Fight [3]

Chapter 303: Chapter 303: Ariel’s Fight [3]

The crowd’s roar still echoed through the Great Solaris Arena as Ariel stood in the center of the stage, The Trident resting against her shoulder.

Her breathing was steady.

Her robes were pristine.

Three fighters had fallen. Three victories. Not a single scratch.

Up in the VIP booth, Alistair Reventon leaned forward, his fingers drumming against the polished wood railing.

His eyes were narrowed, tracking Ariel’s every movement with cold precision.

"Impossible," he muttered.

Kai sat beside him, arms crossed, a sneer curling his lips.

"What’s impossible?"

Alistair didn’t look at him.

"That girl. I heard she was at Elementary Spirit Realm during the sect selection. Now she’s at Heavenly Spirit Realm. That jump takes years, even with the best resources."

Kai snorted.

"She’s exhausting herself. Look at her. Standing there like a statue, conserving energy. She’s trying to look strong, but her reserves are draining. The Iron Mountain Sect just needs to outlast her."

Alistair’s fingers stopped drumming.

He turned to look at his nephew.

"You’re a fool."

Kai’s sneer faltered.

"She’s not conserving energy. She’s not even trying. That’s the difference between you and her. You burn through your qi like a torch. She flows like a river."

Kai’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing.

Down on the stage, the Iron Mountain Sect’s fourth fighter stepped forward.

He was shorter than the others, leaner, with a wiry build that spoke of speed rather than strength. His eyes darted across the arena floor, calculating angles, measuring distances.

He was a burrower.

Earth cultivators who specialized in underground movement, using the terrain as both weapon and shield.

He didn’t announce himself.

He simply slammed his palm against the stone floor, and the ground swallowed him whole.

The crowd gasped.

Ariel didn’t move.

She stood in the center of the stage, The Trident held loosely in her hand, her eyes closed.

The burrower moved beneath her.

She could feel him through the vibrations in the stone, the subtle shifts in pressure as he circled, searching for an opening.

He was fast.

But she was faster.

The moment she sensed him rising beneath her feet, she drove The Trident into the stage.

The prongs sank into the stone, and she released a pulse of dense hydraulic energy that electrified the ground.

The shockwave rippled outward, a wave of compressed water that traveled through the stone like lightning through a nerve.

The burrower erupted from the ground ten meters away, his body convulsing as the hydraulic pressure wrenched him from his tunnel.

He landed on his back, blood spraying from his mouth.

His eyes were wide, unfocused.

He tried to rise, but his limbs wouldn’t obey.

The hydraulic shock had scrambled his meridians, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.

Grand Marshal Vane raised his hand.

"Winner! Ariel Aquaria of the Azure Dragon Sect."

The burrower was carried off the stage on a stretcher, his body still twitching.

Four fighters down.

The Iron Mountain Sect’s dugout had gone silent.

Their captain, a grizzled veteran with a scarred face, stood at the edge of the bench, his knuckles white as he gripped the railing.

"She’s not even breathing hard," one of his remaining fighters whispered.

"She’s a monster."

The captain didn’t answer.

He was calculating, running through every possible strategy, every formation, every technique in their arsenal.

Nothing worked.

Her water energy was endless. She wasn’t drawing from her own reserves. She was pulling moisture from the air, from the ground, from the very atmosphere around her.

She was a princess of the sea.

And they were drowning.

The fifth fighter stepped onto the stage.

He was the largest of them all, a mountain of muscle wrapped in gleaming bronze armor. But unlike the hammer-wielder, this one carried no weapon.

He didn’t need one.

He raised his arms, and a golden bell of spiritual energy materialized around his body, a translucent dome of fortified qi that hummed with defensive power.

Iron Bell Armor.

One of the strongest defensive techniques in the Iron Mountain Sect’s arsenal.

It could withstand a direct hit from a Heavenly Spirit Realm peak cultivator.

It could absorb and disperse elemental attacks.

It was nearly impenetrable.

Ariel studied it for a moment, her head tilting slightly.

Then she smiled.

She raised The Trident, pointing it at the bell.

A single droplet of water formed at the tip.

It was small. Tiny. Barely visible.

But it was compressed to an impossible density, the water molecules packed so tightly that they began to glow with a faint blue light.

She released it.

The droplet shot forward, a needle-thin jet of water that moved faster than the eye could track.

It struck the bell at a precise point, a specific spiritual meridian node where the defensive technique’s energy converged.

The bell didn’t crack.

It imploded.

The golden light collapsed inward, the spiritual energy folding in on itself as the meridian node shattered. The bell dissolved into a shower of golden sparks, leaving the fifth fighter standing there, his arms still raised, his face blank with shock.

He looked down at his chest.

The needle-thin jet had passed clean through his armor, leaving a tiny hole in his robes.

It had stopped just short of his heart.

A warning.

He swallowed.

"I... surrender."

Grand Marshal Vane raised his hand.

"Winner! Ariel Aquaria of the Azure Dragon Sect."

The Iron Mountain dugout had fallen into chaos.

Their captain was shouting, his voice cracking with desperation.

"She’s going to sweep us! All of us! A lone girl is going to sweep our entire sect!"

The remaining fighters exchanged glances.

Two of them were left.

The sixth fighter, a young man with trembling hands, stepped forward.

His face was pale.

His legs shook.

He knew what awaited him.

He had watched five of his sect brothers fall before this blue-haired girl, each one defeated with surgical precision, each one sent to the medical tents with barely a scratch on her.

He was next.

And he was terrified.

Damon watched from the Azure Dragon dugout, a proud smile spreading across his face.

Ariel was radiant.

She stood in the center of the arena, The Trident gleaming in the morning light, her dark blue hair flowing in the breeze.

She was a queen.

A princess of the sea.

And she was his.

He leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms.

’That’s my girl.’