Chapter 206: The Last Man Standing

Lynx stopped directly in the center of the vast, reinforced granite platform. The stage was massive, spanning over three hundred meters in diameter, specifically built to accommodate large scale group melees and high tier elemental warfare. The stone was scarred from hundreds of past battles.

Lynx casually rolled his shoulders. He rested his right hand on his hip. He didn’t summon a weapon. He even forgot he had one, or once used one.

He didn’t build a shield. He didn’t even take a fighting stance. He simply stood there in his pristine Aether Blessed Academy dark uniform, looking up toward the elevated Void enclosure with absolute, unadulterated disdain. Like he was looking at insects.

He raised his right hand, making a lazy "come here" gesture with his fingers. A small, insulting wave.

Then, he spoke.

His voice wasn’t a roar, nor was it a scream. Yet, infused with his sheer, boundless presence and wind affinity, his words boomed across the entire three hundred meter arena, rattling the stone seats and ringing inside the ears of every spectator.

"Hey! Trash from Void!" Lynx called out, his voice smooth, ringing with a terrifying, mockery laden clarity. "Are you all going to stand up there shivering like frightened dogs, or are you going to get down here? Imagine needing abnormal physical boosts and suspicious sudden surges in strength just to barely beat a couple of girls, only to still look like pathetic weaklings. Come down and face a real Blessed Being."

The entire stadium went dead silent for a fraction of a second. You could hear the wind.

Then it exploded into screams and gasps.

"Did he just call them trash?!" a spectator shrieked in shock, jumping from his seat.

"He’s mocking their strength to their faces!"

"He’s directly calling out their sudden power spikes! He’s accusing them of cheating!" another shouted. "He’s insane! He’s provoking all twenty two of them at once! He wants them all to hate him!"

Up in the Void enclosure, the twenty two qualified fighters froze. Their faces warped from arrogant smirks to twisted, bloodthirsty rage. The insult hit them hard.

Kain Draven, his chest still bandaged from his fight with Ophelia, slammed his fist onto the marble railing, shattering it into pieces. Stone dust flew everywhere. "THAT ARROGANT LITTLE BASTARD! I’M GOING TO RIP HIS TONGUE OUT!"

Jax, a hulking Void warrior with jagged scars across his jaw, let out a guttural growl. His muscles bulged. "He thinks because he beat some nobodies in the early rounds he can look down on Void Blessed Academy?! I’ll crush his skull!"

On the Void professors balcony, the head faculty dean leaned forward, his face dark as thunder. He slammed his cane. "Arrogant brat. He doesn’t know the depth of the ocean. Void Blessed students, crush him. Make him crawl. Make him Beg. Make him curse at his own Academy and Empire. Show no mercy!"

At the front of the Void balcony, Kimberly Vane’s eyes narrowed into razor sharp slits. Her teeth gritted tightly as she stared down at Lynx’s mocking smirk. Her hands were shaking with anger.

"He wants all of us? Fine," she said, her voice cold as ice. "Let’s give him exactly what he asked for. Wipe him off the face of the earth. No holding back."

"ALL STUDENTS! ENTER THE STAGE!" Jax roared at the top of his lungs.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Twenty two individual figures leapt from the Void balcony, descending onto the massive granite platform like a hail of dark meteors.

The sound was like thunder. They hit the floor in a synchronized wave, sending shockwaves of dust and broken stone flying into the air. The stage cracked under their combined landing.

When the dust settled, twenty two Void fighters had formed a massive, crushing semicircle around Lynx Azarion.

All of them carried intense, boosted physical energy. All of them wore the dark, glowing obsidian rings on their fingers.

Their strong and boosted aura, flared simultaneously, creating a swirling, multi colored storm of destructive pressure that threatened to crush the very air out of the arena.

The pressure was so heavy that spectators in the first rows struggled to breathe.

Lynx stood right in the center of the storm. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t take a single step back. He didn’t even blink. He simply looked around at the twenty two fighters surrounding him, his cold smirk remaining completely intact.

The head referee stepped up onto a raised floating platform high above the ring. He looked down at the twenty three combatants, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. His hands were sweating.

"MATCH FORMAT: GAUNTLET ELIMINATION!" the referee’s voice echoed across the stadium through magic amplification.

"VICTORY CONDITION: COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF ALL OPPOSING REPRESENTATIVES! RESTRAIN FROM DELIBERATE KILLING BLOWS AFTER A TARGET YIELDS OR IS RENDERED INCAPACITATED! DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND?!"

Twenty two voices shouted "YES!"

Lynx just nodded lazily.

The referee raised his glowing whistle high into the air. Every heart in the stadium ceased beating for a fraction of a second. The whole world waited.

"BEGIN!"

——-

The second the referee’s blew his whistle, the arena changed.

Four mid tier Void fighters on Lynx’s left flank moved simultaneously. They did not wait. They did not talk.

Driven by sheer humiliation from Lynx’s taunt, their dark obsidian rings flashed violently with boosted power. Black light pulsed from the rings into their veins.

BOOM!

The granite floor shattered beneath their boots as they transformed into four distinct blurs of speed. The sound was like a cannon firing.

Two advanced vanguard combatants wielding fire infused broadswords rushed him head on, their blades already glowing red hot.

While two speed type fighters wielding wind daggers circled toward his blind spots at blinding velocities, aiming for his neck and spine.

Their teamwork was perfect. This was a kill formation. No single fighter could block all four angles.

"DIE, YOU ARROGANT AETHER TRASH!" one of the vanguards roared. His face was twisted. He swung his massive, flaming broadsword down toward Lynx’s neck with enough force to cleave a hill in half. The air itself burned around the blade.

The crowd gasped in terror. Many people closed their eyes. The attack was too fast, too heavy, and came from four directions at once.

In the Aether seats, Eleanor gripped the railing so tightly her nails bled. Blood dripped onto the stone. "LYNX!"

Lynx didn’t even turn his body. His eyes stayed calm. He didn’t step back.

With zero movement of his torso, Lynx simply raised his right hand. A pale, dense current of SSS Rank Wind instantly swirled around his fingers. The wind was so sharp it made a whistling sound, like a blade cutting the air.

SWISH!

Without utilizing an ounce of heavy effort, without shouting, Lynx executed a simple, casual flick of his wrist. Like he was shooing away flies.

BOOOOOOM!

An explosive, crescent wave of compressed, razor sharp wind erupted from his fingers in a three hundred sixty degree arc.

It was not just wind. It was a wall of invisible blades, compressed to the limit. The sheer atmospheric pressure of the wind wave didn’t just meet the four incoming fighters, it completely overwhelmed their boosted elemental attacks in a fraction of a millisecond.

The two flaming broadswords shattered into thousands of glowing metal splinters upon making contact with the wind crescent. The fire on them was instantly snuffed out, like a candle in a hurricane.

The two vanguard fighters let out blood curdling screams as the wind impact smashed into their chests, caving in their heavy breastplates like cheap tin cans. You could hear the metal crunch.

CRACK! CRACK!

The two speed type flankers, who were mid air trying to strike his neck, were caught squarely by the expanding air pressure.

Their wind daggers snapped in half like twigs. And the sheer force of Lynx’s casual blast hurled all four fighters backward across the massive stage like ragged cloth dolls.

They skidded over a hundred meters across the rough granite floor, crashing violently against the outer reinforced barrier wall before falling face down into the dust, completely unconscious, their ribs shattered and their breath stolen. They did not move again.

The entire stadium went dead silent. You could hear a pin drop.

"FOUR!" the commentators screamed, his voice cracking from absolute disbelief. He jumped out of his chair.

"IN A SINGLE FLICK OF HIS WRIST, LYNX AZARION HAS INSTANTLY INCAPACITATED FOUR QUALIFIED VOID FIGHTERS! HE DIDN’T EVEN MOVE HIS FEET! HE DIDN’T EVEN LOOK AT THEM!"

Up in the stands, spectators stood up from their seats, their jaws dropping in unison. A mother held her child tight. Old veterans rubbed their eyes.

Down on the platform, the remaining eighteen Void fighters froze, their aggressive posture faltering for a split second as they stared at the four unconscious bodies leaning against the far wall. Fear started to creep in. This was not what they expected.

Lynx slowly lowered his hand, blowing softly on his fingertips as if clearing away invisible dust. His face was calm, almost bored.

"Is that really the best Void has to offer?" Lynx asked smoothly, his voice echoing in the quiet arena. It was loud and clear. "Four down in one second. You guys are going to have to try a lot harder than that if you want to keep me entertained. That was warm up."

Jax, standing near the front of the remaining group, gritted his teeth so hard blood trickled from his gums. His hands were shaking, not from fear, but from rage.

"Don’t get frightened! He used a high tier wind affinity strike to surprise us! He can’t maintain that kind of output against all of us at once! It must have cost him a lot of mana!" Jax shouted to his team, trying to keep them together.

"GROUP B AND C, ATTACK TOGETHER! RANGE UNITS, COVER THEM! DON’T GIVE HIM TIME TO REST!"

Six more Void fighters surged forward. Their rings glowed bright. Three heavy Earth users slammed their hands onto the floor, shouting in unison, causing dozens of massive, spiked stone pillars to erupt beneath Lynx’s feet, aiming to impale him or force him into the air where he would be vulnerable.

Simultaneously, three Fire and Lightning users in the back fired a barrage of dense fireballs and high voltage lightning spears straight toward his position. The sky turned red and blue with fire and lightning.

The air above Lynx was instantly filled with a wall of fiery destruction, while the ground beneath him fractured into a bed of deadly stone spikes. It was a perfect trap from above and below.

Lynx didn’t look at the sky, nor did he look at the ground. He didn’t panic.

STOMP.

Lynx simply tapped his right heel gently against the granite floor. Just a light tap.

Gaia’s Aegis.

The moment his boot made contact with the natural stone stage, an absolute, unbreakable aura of Earth affinity surged through the ground. It spread like a wave. The dozens of rising spiked stone pillars instantly froze mid air. They stopped moving, shaking.