Chapter 378. That Gap’s Closing Fast, You Should Be Seriously Worried

Without pausing to breathe, Kaela lunged forward again, the Tempest Fang glowing brighter than ever, hungry for the next impact.

Lia’s mind was racing faster than her feet.

’She’s not just swinging anymore,’ Lia thought grimly, ducking beneath a whistling hook that would have shattered her ribs. ’She’s hunting.’

The realization sent a chill down Lia’s spine. Her old strategy, the patient’s measured absorption, was suicide.

If she tried to catch every one of Kaela’s blows with Undertow Surge, the magical backlash would tear her own circulatory system apart. She couldn’t afford to be a wall anymore; she had to be a shadow.

Lia shifted her stance, her footwork becoming liquid. Instead of meeting Kaela head on, she began to dance on the periphery of the storm.

She sidestepped a thunderous left cross, feeling the displaced air pressure slap against her cheek like an open palm.

She was conserving every drop of her mana, letting the Undertow Surge build up like water behind a dam, waiting for the one moment she could release it in a single, devastating counter burst.

Kaela, however, was proving to be a far more dangerous predator than Lia had anticipated. The raw, undisciplined fury that had defined her was being tempered by something colder, something more surgical.

She wasn’t just throwing haymakers; she was weaving a trap.

’Left, feint low, pivot, snap,’ Kaela rehearsed in the frantic theater of her mind.

Her lungs burned, each breath tasting of copper and dust, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins made her feel invincible. ’I can see the openings. ’

’I can see where she’s breathing.’

’I can see where she’s afraid.’

Kaela feinted a brutal low kick aimed at Lia’s kneecap, forcing Lia to drop her center of gravity. In that split second of vulnerability, Kaela exploded upward.

"Now!" she screamed internally.

A rising uppercut snapped toward Lia’s exposed shoulder with the force of a piston.

The match dragged on, the minutes stretching into what felt like hours. The crowd was no longer whispering; they were shouting, their voices a chaotic roar that punctuated every collision.

On the sidelines, Ellie was practically vibrating with nervous energy, her hands pressed to her cheeks. Beside her, Clara had completely abandoned her notebooks; her pen lay forgotten in the dirt as she stared with wide, unblinking eyes.

The analytical distance she usually maintained had shattered; she wasn’t watching a data point anymore; she was watching two forces of nature collide.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

Kaela saw a momentary lapse in Lia’s rotation, a heartbeat where the greatsword wasn’t positioned to intercept. Kaela didn’t hesitate.

She poured every ounce of her remaining strength and the accumulated electrical charge of the Tempest Fang into a single, devastating straight punch.

BOOM.

The sound was wet and metallic as the gauntlet slammed into Lia’s enchanted shoulder guard. The impact was so violent that Lia’s entire body was wrenched sideways, her feet skidding uselessly across the arena floor as she spun half around from the sheer kinetic transfer.

A sickening crack echoed from Lia’s armor as the metal buckled inward. The crowd let out a collective gasp so sharp it sounded like a single intake of breath.

Lia’s vision swam. For a terrifying second, she tasted blood in the back of her throat.

’Gods, that hurt,’ she thought, her shoulder screaming in agony.

But she was a trained warrior, and instinct took over where pain threatened to paralyze. Using the violent momentum of the spin, she twisted her hips, channeling the spinning force into her greatsword.

The massive blade came whistling around in a vicious, horizontal sweep.

The steel edge caught Kaela across her midsection, the force of the blow sending Kaela staggering backward five full steps, her boots leaving gouges in the earth.

Both women stopped, panting heavily, sweat dripping from their chins and mixing with the dust on their faces. Lia’s breathing was ragged, her chest heaving as she struggled to regain control of her labored lungs.

Her shoulder throbbed with a white-hot pain that made her fingers twitch involuntarily.

Kaela stared at her own gauntlet, then at Lia, a wild, incredulous grin spreading across her face despite the exhaustion threatening to collapse her legs.

"That actually worked," she panted, her voice cracking with genuine shock. "I actually landed it."

Lia gritted her teeth, forcing her sword arm to stop shaking. A thin trickle of blood escaped the corner of her mouth as she steadied herself, her eyes narrowing with lethal focus.

"Don’t get used to it, Kaela," Lia shot back, her voice strained and rough with exhaustion. "That was luck."

"And luck runs out."

The air in the arena had grown thick, not just with dust, but with the metallic tang of blood and the ionized smell of discharged magic. Neither woman was thinking about technique anymore; they were operating on pure, bleeding instinct.

The fight devolved into something primal. Kaela lunged forward, her vision tunneling until all she could see was the blue flicker of Lia’s blade.

She threw a devastating left hook, but Lia didn’t sidestep; this time she braced. The greatsword caught Kaela’s forearm, the enchanted steel grinding against the Tempest Fang.

The screech of metal on metal was bone deep, a sound that made the students in the front row flinch. Kaela didn’t flinch; she roared, driving her shoulder into Lia’s chest to create space.

Lia stumbled, a grunt of pain escaping her as Kaela’s elbow connected with her ribs. A wet thud echoed across the quieted ground, the sound of cartilage protesting under extreme pressure.

Lia gasped, her lungs seizing for a heartbeat, but she swung her blade in a desperate arc. The tip of the greatsword caught Kaela across the cheek, slicing through skin.

A crimson streak painted Kaela’s face, hot and stinging, but she only grinned through the blood.

’More,’ Kaela thought, her mind screaming through the haze of pain. ’Push harder!’

’Break through!’

’Break her!"

They traded blows like hammers striking an anvil. A punch from Kaela shattered Lia’s left pauldron; a slash from Lia left a burning gash across Kaela’s thigh.

Both were covered in sweat, grime, and the crimson evidence of their struggle. Their movements were slowing, their breaths coming in ragged, wet gasps that sounded more like growls.

Then came the final, apocalyptic collision.

Kaela saw an opening a microsecond where Lia’s weight shifted too far forward. She poured every remaining spark of electrical energy from the gauntlets into her right fist, the Tempest Fang shrieking with power.

At the same moment, Lia channeled the entirety of her remaining mana into a desperate, controlled thrust.

The world seemed to slow. Kaela’s fist accelerated toward Lia’s ribs, the wind whistling around her knuckles.

Lia’s blade swept upward in a killing diagonal.

CRACK.

The sound of Lia’s blade stopping millimeters from Kaela’s throat echoed like a gunshot.

Simultaneously, Kaela’s fist stopped an inch from Lia’s sternum, the displaced air from the punch ruffling Lia’s hair. Both women froze.

Kaela’s fist trembled violently from the effort; Lia’s blade quivered against Kaela’s collarbone.

They stayed like that for five seconds, ten, or twenty. The only sound was the desperate, synchronized heaving of their lungs.

Blood dripped from Kaela’s chin onto the dirt; sweat poured from Lia’s brow onto the steel.

Finally, Lia slowly lowered her sword, her arm shaking so badly she had to brace it against her thigh.

"Still counts... as a win," she wheezed.

Her face was pale, her eyes sunken with exhaustion, but there was a genuine, shaken grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. She had won, but she had nearly been destroyed to do it.

Kaela didn’t collapse. She stayed upright through sheer stubbornness, wiping blood from her cheek with the back of her gauntlet.

"For now," she panted, her voice raw and gravelly. "That gap’s closing fast, Lia."

"You should be... seriously worried."

"I’m appropriately concerned," Lia muttered dryly.

The tension snapped like a broken string. The crowd, which had been holding its breath in terrified silence, erupted. It wasn’t just applause; it was a roar of genuine appreciation.

They hadn’t just watched a spar; they had witnessed a transformation. Several instructors were huddled together, their faces grim but their eyes bright with recognition of the raw potential before them.

Students were already scrambling, shouting to their friends about the moment the ’Storm’ almost broke the ’Tide.’

Ellie was the first to break formation, sprinting across the sand. "Kaela! Lia!"

"Oh gods, you both look terrible!" she cried, fussing over Kaela’s bleeding forearm as if a simple bandage could fix the damage done by enchanted metal. "Don’t move, just breathe, please just breathe!"

Ellie starts to cast a lot of healing magic for both of them. "I’ll make it fast."

Clara approached at a more measured pace, though her hands were still unsteady. She wasn’t looking at the injuries; she was looking at her notebook, which was now a mess of frantic scribbles and crossed-out calculations.

"The variables have shifted," Clara muttered, her voice rapid and clinical, a defense mechanism against the adrenaline. "The power ceiling for the gauntlets is higher than anticipated."

"The closing rate of the skill gap has accelerated by forty-two percent." She looked up, her eyes sharp behind her lenses. "Six matches."

Kaela looked over at her, a bloody grin splitting her face. "Six matches?"

"Six matches," Clara confirmed flatly. "I estimate six more encounters, perhaps fewer, given the catastrophic increase in Kaela’s output today before we see a genuine upset."

Kaela let out a bark of laughter that turned into a cough. "I’ll take that bet, Clara."

Clara didn’t even blink. "It’s not a bet, Kaela."

"It’s a statistical projection based on current combat trajectories."

"Same thing, essentially," Kaela teased, leaning heavily on her knees.

"It is not remotely the same thing," Clara snapped, though there was no real heat in it as she turned back to her data, already rewriting the future.