Chapter 295: The Unstoppable Force

Abel clapped his hands twice, the sharp sound echoing through the space.

"All right, begin."

As soon as the echo of the second clap faded, the chairs, along with Elyria and Noah, began to move. They glided across the faceted floor at incredible speed, reaching the columns within seconds before coming to a stop against the walls beside the servants. The table itself smoothly descended into the ground, disappearing until it was level with the floor tiles.

The next moment, a sturdy, perfectly transparent barrier rose around the entire arena.

The young man with yellow hair called out excitedly:

"Come on, Arthur! Don't lose!"

The man merely tossed a cold reply over his shoulder.

"Yeah."

A storm immediately erupted beyond the barrier. Desperate, Elyria began pounding her fists against the transparent wall, trying to break through.

"Hey! Let me in! Let me in there, now!"

She tried to teleport, but the space beyond the barrier seemed to have turned to stone, refusing to obey her will.

Abel looked at her calmly and raised a hand in a reassuring gesture.

"Don't worry. Your friend won't die."

"Won't die?" Elyria spat angrily, glaring at him. "And why the hell should I trust you?!"

Noah's calm voice sounded beside them.

"Got an extra chair around here?"

Abel blinked in surprise, then smiled casually.

"Oh, right."

He snapped his fingers, opening a mini-portal from which a dark chair tumbled straight onto the floor. Noah sat down, crossed one leg over the other, and turned his gaze toward the arena, where Iron and Arthur stood facing each other.

Elyria shot him an indignant look.

"You seriously don't care at all, do you?!"

Noah merely shrugged, keeping his eyes on the battlefield.

"Well, if they really do kill him, what's stopping us from taking them all out here? Besides, I don't think Iron will lose that easily."

Elyria pouted in annoyance.

"That's a pretty inhuman way of looking at it..."

Iron stood in the center of the arena, his scanner activated as he tried to scan his opponent. Diagnostic readouts flashed before his eyes, but instead of the usual streams of energy and mana density, the system returned nothing at all. Not a single trace. Not the slightest hint of energy.

Does he have no mana at all? Seriously?

Iron's fingers instinctively tightened around the fabric of his shirt near his chest.

Damn... I'm actually scared.

Standing opposite him, Arthur casually rolled his shoulders. With a faint smirk, he slipped a hand into his pocket, pulled out a small, diamond-shaped golden artifact with a bright green crystal glowing at its center, and remarked casually:

"I could beat you even without this thing."

With that, he carelessly tossed the object toward the transparent barrier. The diamond struck the barrier with a sharp clang and bounced back down to its base. Arthur then smoothly lowered himself into a low, confident fighting stance, focusing entirely on Iron.

The engineer took up a fighting stance as well and was just about to make the first move when Arthur's figure suddenly vanished from sight. There was no surge of mana, not even the sound of movement. He had simply disappeared.

Suddenly, Iron felt an overwhelming, crushing sense of danger directly above his head. A millisecond before the impact, he executed a lightning-fast roll to the side. Arthur's heel slammed into the floor with a deafening crack. A thunderous boom echoed through the arena, and deep cracks spread in every direction across the faceted stone.

Arthur slowly straightened up, rolling his left shoulder as he looked at Iron, who had also gotten back to his feet.

"Wow... You don't meet people like you every day."

Before his foot even hit the stone, Arthur closed the gap in a burst of speed. His open palm instantly clamped over the engineer's face, gripping him firmly and forcing him downward with tremendous force, aiming to smash his head into the floor.

But at the last second, Arthur's skin and hand rapidly became coated in a thick layer of ice. Iron had instantly lowered the temperature around himself to almost absolute zero. Feeling the freezing cold, Arthur immediately launched himself backward in a sudden burst of speed, coming to a stop right beside the barrier. He shook his hand several times, dislodging the ice fragments that slid off and clattered to the floor.

The temperature in the arena continued to plummet. A wave of bitter cold spread outward from Iron in every direction, turning the air into a crystalline haze.

Yet Arthur calmly and steadily walked straight into the advancing wave of freezing air. Iron narrowed his eyes in confusion, straining with all his might.

Just as the ice was about to engulf Arthur completely, he suddenly clapped his hands together with a sharp crack. The sheer force of the impact unleashed such a powerful shockwave that the advancing mass of ice shattered into pieces before it could even reach him. Without stopping, Arthur pivoted and unleashed a rapid series of fluid, frenzied punches into the air. Powerful pulses of densely compressed air tore through the freezing space with deafening cracks and booms, shattering the ice directly in front of him.

Iron staggered a step backward, stunned by such raw physical strength. And in that very instant, a shadow loomed behind him. Arthur was already drawing back his fist for a devastating strike to the back of Iron's head.

Without a moment's hesitation, Iron teleported away, reappearing at the opposite end of the arena.

The moment Iron appeared at the other end of the arena, he instantly reduced the coefficient of friction beneath Arthur's feet to zero. The icy coating beneath him immediately melted, leaving behind a perfectly slippery surface.

Arthur lost his balance for a split second and toppled sideways. Seizing the opportunity, Iron teleported directly above the fallen Arthur, raising his Asfolt sword. The engineer brought the blade crashing down, aiming to pierce him.

But a split second before the strike landed, a sharp, deafening clap rang out.

Arthur vanished. The blade struck the stone tiles with a dull clang, sending sparks flying.

Iron raised his head, his eyes widening in shock. Arthur was pushing off the empty air itself, making lightning-fast leaps from one foot to the other. Each step was accompanied by a deep, powerful clap of compressed air.

He's actually moving through the air without mana?! Who the hell is this guy?!

Another deafening clap rang out, and Arthur was suddenly right in front of him. An unrelenting barrage of devastating blows came crashing down on Iron. He raised his sword, desperately blocking the incoming strikes with the blade, but under the sheer force of Arthur's attacks, his arms quickly began to go numb.

Arthur's fist broke through his guard and slammed directly into Iron's stomach. In the next instant, Arthur wrenched the sword from Iron's weakened grip, flung it aside, and pivoted into a devastating kick to the torso.

Iron was sent flying backward, crashing hard against the transparent barrier with his back.

Outside the arena, Elyria screamed:

"Iron! Damn it, let me in! Abel, let me in there!"

Meanwhile, Iron struggled to his feet and gasped for breath. Fresh blood dripped from his lip, but Lumon immediately reacted, compressing the damaged tissue and healing it in an instant.

Lumon, can you track him yet? Iron growled internally.

A calm, cold, mechanical voice sounded in his mind.

"The target possesses no mana. Parameter registration is impossible. The absence of an energy signature prevents predictive trajectory tracking."

"Damn it..." Iron spat through clenched teeth.

Without giving Arthur time to make another move, Iron thrust his arm forward. He raised the surrounding temperature to its maximum while simultaneously activating a gravitational press so powerful that the arena's faceted stone tiles cracked and bulged, forming jagged rock formations.

The immense pressure of the air and gravity slowed Arthur for only a fraction of a second. He frowned but continued walking forward in silence, moving confidently straight through it.

Seeing this, Iron gritted his teeth and poured a tremendous amount of mana into his next attack. A blinding discharge erupted from his palm, spreading in every direction. The next second, not a single molecule of air in the arena remained untouched by white lightning. The air crackled, followed by a deafening electrical burst that flooded the entire space with an enormous current.

But when the flash faded, Arthur was still walking forward as calmly as before. He didn't care in the slightest.

Arthur took one step and was instantly right in front of Iron. The engineer tried to dodge and counterattack. Twisting through a roll, he threw himself around and slammed his right fist straight into Arthur's face with all his might. The man's head tilted back slightly, and he merely frowned at the impact.

Iron tried to maintain the pressure, but Arthur unleashed a devastating strike. Iron managed to block the tremendous blow to his chest by crossing his arms in front of him. The pain in his joints was so intense that, for a moment, he completely lost feeling in his hands.

Arthur immediately drove a straight punch toward his head. Iron managed to raise his palm and stop the attack, gripping Arthur's fist. But in the very next instant, a series of invisible, lightning-fast strikes rained down on his face and body alongside the initial punch. The blows were impossible to avoid and tore straight through his defense.

Iron's head snapped backward. He staggered and retreated a couple of steps, struggling to process what had just happened.

Arthur gave him no time to recover. He unleashed a series of devastating short punches to Iron's torso and stomach, not even allowing him to fall or be knocked away. Every impact echoed dully through Iron's ribs. He finished the combination with a swift 360-degree spin, driving his right leg straight into the engineer's stomach with tremendous force.

Iron flew across the entire arena and slammed into the transparent barrier with his back.

Outside the arena, Elyria still wouldn't calm down.

Noah looked at her irritably and said:

"All right, enough, Elyria. Don't get so worked up."

"Don't get worked up?! Are you insane?!" the spirit snapped, turning toward him with blazing eyes.

At that very moment, a new portal began to swirl open right beside Abel's seat. It was deep purple, speckled with large, bright white dots. A girl slowly stepped out of the shimmering passage. She had long dark hair, golden eyes, and a formal black dress that flowed softly across the floor.

Abel turned toward her and smiled broadly.

"Oh, Seraphina! So you did decide to come after all."