Chapter 68: The Reigning Champion

"Courage is grace under pressure." — Ernest Hemingway.

– – –

Jon Bolton looked down at Micah.

His pale blue eyes studied him with a measure of genuine respect that was unusual for a man of his rank and reputation.

He had watched Micah’s fights. He had seen the speed, the system pulls disguised as talents, and the calm, methodical way the rookie dismantled every opponent the bracket had offered.

"You’ve had a good run, son," Bolton said. His voice was deep. "Best I’ve seen from a rookie in a long time. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen."

He raised the halberd in a formal, traditional salute, the blade pointing skyward, the Flux runes glowing brighter as the weapon’s energy output increased.

"But, unfortunately your run ends today."

Micah looked at him for a long moment. He reached over his shoulder and drew the Widow’s Wail.

The katana slid from its scabbard with a low, steady hum, and the micro-vibration edge activated at forty thousand cycles per second. He gripped the blade with both hands and held it at a low, diagonal angle across his body.

He offered Bolton a brief, respectful nod.

He made no comment and offered no trash talk. Just the quiet acknowledgment of one fighter recognizing another.

The referee stepped to the center of the ring.

"Fighters ready?"

Bolton settled into his stance with his feet planted wide and his weight evenly balanced as he held the halberd across his body with both hands, ready to attack or defend.

His Flux aura intensified, the pressure increasing until the concrete beneath his boots cracked further.

Micah settled into his own stance. The Shadow Step Boots were primed. The Phantom Carapace was at full capacity.

Beast Analysis was running at maximum output, scanning Bolton’s body for any change, any tell, any opening that might appear when the fight started.

The referee dropped his hand.

"FIGHT!"

Bolton charged forward.

For a man of his size, the speed was terrifying.

He covered the distance between them in two strides, his legs driving him across the arena floor with enough force to crack the concrete beneath each footfall.

The halberd came around in a earth-shattering vertical cleave that brought the engraved blade down from above his head like a bolt of lightning.

The Flux energy channeled through the weapon amplified the strike to a level that went beyond physical force.

The blade did more than cut through the air. It tore through it with such force that a visible shockwave formed around the swing, sending a powerful wave of pressure across the arena floor.

Micah activated the Shadow Step Boots, and his body shifted sharply to the right in a sudden lateral burst that carried him just beyond the halberd’s path.

The blade struck the concrete where he had been standing, and the impact was devastating.

BOOM!

The reinforced arena floor exploded.

A huge crater appeared in the stone, six meters across and a meter deep, with the halberd’s blade buried at the center.

Chunks of concrete shot into the air. Dust and debris erupted outward in a thick ring.

The shockwave from the impact hit Micah even though he’d dodged the blade, and the force sent him skidding backward across the arena floor.

His boots scraped against the stone as he fought to maintain his balance.

His ears were ringing. Funny thing? The blade hadn’t even touched him.

A single direct hit from that halberd would completely obliterate the Phantom Carapace.

Even though the suit’s kinetic diffusion layer was designed to absorb and redistribute physical impact, Bolton’s Flux-enhanced strikes carried a level of concentrated energy that went far beyond what the suit was rated for. One clean hit, and the suit would be destroyed.

Two clean hits, and Micah’s body would shatter right along with it.

Bolton pulled the halberd from the crater with one hand. The movement looked effortless, as if the weapon’s weight meant nothing to him.

His eyes tracked Micah across the arena, and his expression showed nothing except patient focus.

"You’re fast," Bolton said. "Fastest opponent I’ve faced in years. But speed won’t save you. Not against this."

He stepped forward again. Micah circled to the right.

The Shadow Step Boots kept him moving, keeping the distance between them at eight meters.

Beast Analysis was scanning Bolton’s movements in real time, looking for any change in his stance, any change in his energy circulation, any sign of what was coming next.

Bolton stopped. Then his eyes narrowed, and his grip on the halberd tightened. He recognized what Micah was doing.

The recruit was too fast to catch with standard strikes. Every time Bolton swung, Micah would dodge, and the fight would drag on until one of them made a mistake.

Bolton had no intention of making a mistake.

He roared.

The sound was deep and thunderous, and it carried a surge of Flux Energy that made the air around him distort.

He channeled his absolute maximum Flux output into the blade of the halberd.

The weapon’s energy output doubled, then tripled, until the air around the blade was visibly warping from the concentrated force.

Then he swung.

It was a wide, sweeping arc that covered the entire arena floor in a single strike.

The Flux energy channeled through the blade exploded outward in a huge wave that expanded in every direction simultaneously, turning the entire ring into a kill zone.

There was nowhere to dodge. The wave covered the full width and length of the arena. Left, right, forward, backward, it didn’t matter.

The energy was everywhere, a wall of concentrated kinetic force that was designed to eliminate evasion as an option entirely.

Beast Analysis sounded a warning. The data was clear. The wave would hit Micah no matter where he moved.

The Phantom Carapace couldn’t absorb it. The Shadow Step Boots couldn’t outrun it.

Micah braced his footing. He planted both feet on the cracked concrete, gripped the Widow’s Wail with both hands, and stepped directly into the center of the blast radius.

He was not taking the hit because he wanted to or because he saw a tactical advantage in doing so. He simply had nowhere else to go.