Chapter 177: The Duo Tournament Finals [III]

Kalon did not have to free Thea from Moon’s trap, but there were multiple reasons why he chose to.

First of all, it was out of good will. If Thea remained trapped there for the rest of the fight, the media would look at it negatively. They would name her as the girl who was a nuisance to Kalon, leaving him to fight all by himself because she wasn’t able to defend herself.

The second reason was because Kalon knew that it would look bad on him if he didn’t.

He was confident that if he used all of his skills and full power, he could deal with the siblings alone.

However, Kalon’s plan wasn’t just to win, but it was to win in a fashion that was most beneficial to himself and Thea.

Therefore, freeing his ally would not only be seen as a righteous act, but also a necessary one.

Besides, his radiant soul was also telling him that this was the right thing to do.

As Kalon activated Eternal Winter, the arena suddenly shifted and was covered by a vast amount of snow in every corner. Ice and snow began to form in the air as though falling from the sky, and the effect was noticed immediately.

The ice skill froze all enemy passives and titles, and also dropped their mana and stamina by two sub tiers.

Kalon didn’t know what titles and passives the siblings had, but from the sudden look of shock on their faces, it seemed they were relying on them quite heavily.

Sun’s light output dimmed at once. The clean pressure she had held since the opening exchange broke apart.

Moon’s darkness constructs weakened across the field, including the residual black residue still clinging near Thea’s feet.

Both of them looked like fighters who had just lost systems they were used to leaning on mid-combat.

Thea did not waste the opening.

She forced the last of the broken cage off her arms and moved. Water gathered around her fists as she cut toward Moon from the side.

Moon tried to raise another wall of darkness, but the construct came out thinner than before. Thea smashed through it with a water-coated strike and hit him hard in the ribs.

Moon staggered back through the snow, boots sliding on the frozen floor.

Sun turned to support him and fired a spear of light at Thea.

Kalon stepped into the line and took it on Black Sun Corpus. The light sank into the darkness around his skin and disappeared.

Sun’s eyes widened again, but this time there was no quick recovery behind it. Eternal Winter was still active. Her mana and stamina were already dropped. Every skill she used now cost her more than it should have.

Kalon advanced through the snow.

Worldforge answered under his feet. Stone rose through the ice in sharp ridges and cut off Sun’s lateral escape.

She tried to vault them the same way she had earlier, but her timing was slower now.

Kalon met her in the air with a short Photon Slash. The light blade scored across her guard and forced her back down into the snow.

On the other side of the field, Thea kept pressure on Moon. She did not try to finish him with one big move. She hit him with short, hard water strikes every time his weakened darkness failed to fully form. Moon blocked one, redirected another, then took a clean hit to the shoulder that spun him halfway around.

"Together," Sun called out. "We have to fight together!"

Moon tried to respond to his sister’s call.

The siblings moved back toward each other through the snow, clearly looking to reconnect their coordination.

Kalon did not let them.

He slammed a wall of compressed earth up between them with Worldforge, splitting the field down the middle. Sun ended up on one side. Moon ended up on the other with Thea already closing in.

Sun forced light into her palm for another dense attack. Kalon walked through the falling snow and raised his hand.

"Too late."

Shard of Itztla activated above her.

The massive ice shard formed in the air and dropped hard.

Sun threw everything she had left into a defensive burst of radiance above her head. The light cracked the outer layer of the shard, but not enough.

The impact drove her into the frozen floor and triggered the death-prevention field in a hard white flare. Sun’s body locked in place under the system hold, conscious but finished.

Across the wall, Moon felt the match collapse.

He turned in time to see Thea’s Water Dragon Fist driving in. With his passives frozen and his stamina dropped, the darkness he raised was too thin to stop it.

The spiralling water construct hit him in the chest and blasted him backward into the snow. The death-prevention field caught him before he could rise again.

Both siblings were down.

The snow from Eternal Winter continued to fall for another second before the skill’s active pressure eased. The arena was white from end to end. The barrier still held. The crowd had gone through shock and into a raw, rising roar that did not stop when the official lights changed.

Medical staff were already moving to Sun and Moon. Camera drones crowded lower for replay angles. In the stands, students shouted themselves hoarse while organisation scouts spoke rapidly into their devices.

The announcer’s voice cut across the Garden Arena, strained but clear.

"Winner: Kalon Manchester and Thea Bluegale!"

Kalon stood in the snow breathing hard, blood still marking his shoulder and thigh from the earlier exchange.

He healed it immediately using Absolute Mend, which earned more gasps from around the crowd.

Thea walked over through the frost with water still steaming off her fists, blue eyes locked on him, chest rising and falling fast.

"We won," she said.

"Yeah," Kalon answered. "We did."

They had taken the final. Sun and Moon lay held by the death-prevention field on opposite sides of the broken earth wall, and the Year One Duo Tournament was over.