Chương 406: Chapter 395 - A Song of Fire

The arena shifted. The invisible rope around Imani's neck snapped apart as Ayu's song sliced through the knight's suffocating pressure. As for herself… she was already gone. One heartbeat she stood ten meters away. The next she was at the knight's flank. Her shin whipped low toward its knee— CRACK Steel rang. The impact sent a spiderweb of fractures across the greave.

Before recoil could settle she pivoted, heel scraping a crescent into the sand, torso folding so fluidly the knight's counter-slice passed through empty space where her ribs had been. She had already shifted. Her elbow drove forward. BAM Plate near the collar caved inward. Dust burst from the seam. The knight staggered half a step, boots grinding stone into powder. The tempo rose. She flickered again. To the knight she became pressure from every direction at once. A thrust.

She stepped inside it and hooked its sword arm with her forearm, knee slamming into the inside of its thigh. CRACK A shield bash. She dropped, one palm planting on the ground as her body spun low, both legs scissoring outward. Her heel smashed into its ankle joint and then whipped upward in the same motion, catching the underside of its shield. The shield jerked high. She flowed through the opening. A short right elbow to the jaw seam. Left knee to the ribs.

Right elbow again, snapping back across the same fracture line. CRACK The armor groaned. The knight roared and swung in a brutal horizontal arc charged with its dark Will. The blade tore through the air, pressure flattening sand in a wave. She leapt. Her body rotated in a tight backflip, toes grazing the knight's helm mid-rotation as if it were a stepping stone. For the briefest instant she balanced there on one foot, smiling despite herself, weight barely touching metal. Then she sprang off.

Her roundhouse heel slammed into the side of the helm. BOOM The knight staggered three full steps, boots carving twin trenches into stone. Dust erupted around them in choking clouds. She landed light, bouncing on the balls of her feet, shoulders loose, grin bright and unrestrained. Her skin glowed faintly under the pulse of her Will, each strike reinforced as heat flowed through muscle and bone, hardening them at the instant of impact. The knight adjusted. Faster now. A feint high. She slipped outside.

A sudden downward cleave. She bent backward until her hair nearly brushed the sand, blade slicing past her nose by a finger's width. She snapped forward from that impossible angle, driving her knee straight into the dented breastplate. CRACK The impact cratered the ground beneath its heels. Left kick to the hip. Right elbow to the temple seam. Spinning backfist to the throat joint. Each movement linked. No pause. No wasted breath. Her rhythm filled the arena.

The knight tried to orbit her, to regain its footing, but Imani's Guardian Star suddenly flared. She felt the warmth embrace her, the pull not affecting her in the slightest. As for the knight, gravity thickened around its frame. Each step dragged. Each adjustment cost more. Sand and broken stone slid toward Imani's position in a constant pull, shifting the knight's balance by degrees. Ayu saw it. She flowed with it. The knight swung, blade charged with dark Will.

A crescent of compressed force tore across the arena, slicing through stone at range. She slipped through the gap between the first and second wave, hips turning, shoulders loose, her feet barely touching the ground. The song inside her shifted tempo, guiding her steps as they folded Imani's presence into the song itself. Her shin cracked into the knight's thigh. CRACK The force fed the pull as the impact angled the knight's body closer to Imani's center. She pivoted and drove an elbow into its chest seam.

BAM The armor dented inward. The knight staggered, boots grinding, dragged a fraction closer to the star. Imani felt it. The gravity deepened. The knight retaliated, blade flashing in a brutal diagonal arc, Will flaring along its edge. Ayu dipped beneath it, one palm brushing the ground as she flipped upside down. Her heel whipped upward from below, slamming into the underside of the shield arm. CRACK The shield tilted. The stance shifted. The knight's weight leaned toward Imani with nothing he could do to stop it.

Each strike she delivered became a note in the song. Each note nudged the knight deeper and deeper into the orbit of the Guardian Star. The creature roared, the dark silhouette of the hanging corpse flaring behind it once more. The rope of Will lashed outward, snapping toward her neck. She did not see it. But she felt it. Her body caught the shift in pressure a fraction before it formed. She slid sideways in one sharp step, the invisible noose carving through the space where her throat had been.

Before it could adjust, she was already back inside its guard. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Elbow. Knee. Low kick. Her body twisted, shoulder brushing past steel, forearm reinforcing at the instant of contact as her Will hardened her flesh. Sparks burst where bone met plate. Dust erupted beneath her pivots. The tempo climbed. She smiled the entire time.

The knight began to retreat, trying to roll with the pull, trying to escape the gravitational center and reset its footing. She saw it. Her eyes flicked once toward Imani. He understood. Without a word, she broke off and darted toward him. For a split second she was beside him. Her foot slammed into the face of his shield. BOOM The impact reverberated through his arm, feeding directly into his biocapacitors. Energy surged through him, charging fast. She vanished again.

Reappearing behind the knight as it attempted to circle away from the pull. A spinning hook kick crashed into its ribs. CRACK The blow turned its torso just enough for gravity to claim it. Imani stepped forward. The ground cratered beneath his boot. His hammer came down, biocapacitors releasing in a single devastating burst. BOOM! The impact detonated against the knight's shield and chest, sending it flying backward— It tried to carry the momentum.

Tried to pivot, to redirect the force, to roll toward the only angle left where it could absorb the blow and survive— Ayu was already there. She appeared at that exact point, as if the song had told her where destiny would land. Her body rose. Knee chambered. Her torso twisted mid-air, her smile bright and fierce. Will condensed around her knee as she drove it into the back of the knight's neck at full rotation. CRACK The helm shattered. The skull beneath collapsed under the force. Metal fragments burst outward.

Sand erupted in a violent ring. The shockwave rippled through the arena floor, cracks racing across stone like lightning splitting rock. The knight fell face-first, armor splitting as it struck the ground. The dark Will flickered once, then dissolved into nothingness. Seven red orbs and several pieces of gear and materials materialised where it had fallen. Silence settled. Ayu landed lightly, chest rising and falling, sweat and dust streaking her skin. The warmth still pulsed through her veins.

Imani stood beside her, armor cracked and battered, but still standing tall. She bumped her fist against his gauntlet with a grin. He gave a short nod, breath heavy but steady. Across the arena, Alonso was staring at her, smiling wide, that goofy look on his face that meant he was genuinely happy. She caught his gaze, and her lips curved further. She almost wanted to ask, Did you like my song? But she already knew the answer.

Alonso stood watching her, drops of sweat trailing down her neck, the rhythm of her song still burning somewhere deep inside him. It was like a melody that resonated beyond the air itself, something that struck beneath the skin, carrying a warmth that pulled you forward without asking. It wasn't merely the urge to fight. It wasn't fury or defiance. It was joy—bright and fierce—blending with the world around it. Just as it pushed back suppression, it drew a smile from those who felt it.

He didn't know about the others. But for him… it had reached somewhere deeper. Because he recognised it. He recognised her in it. It was Ayu the warrior. But also Ayu… the woman he loved. Her Will defied everything he thought he understood about Will manifestation. It did not blaze in a visual spectacle. It existed where the eyes could not reach.

It reminded him of a line from an old book that had stayed with him since childhood:"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." As for her new fighting style… it was now obvious why she had abandoned the daggers. He walked towards her, sand crunching softly beneath his steps. When their eyes met, they both smiled.

"So… Muay Thai, huh?" he asked lightly.

"Well… mostly," she replied with a grin that was half proud, half playful. He held her gaze for a moment longer than necessary. No words needed. The warmth was already there. Then he turned to Imani. His friend had taken a brutal beating. Armor plates were cracked and split, a nasty bruise already swelling around his neck, blood seeping steadily from a cut along his thigh. Yet he stood straight. Back firm. Gaze steady.

Imani's Will had reminded him faintly of Gregor's approach—drawing others toward himself—but it felt different all the same. Gregor's manifestation had been a replica of his blade. Imani's was a burning star. A weight the world bent toward. An anchor for the others to stand on. It suited him well.

"That was a good fight," Alonso said, and he meant it. Imani let out a dry chuckle despite the dull ache still lingering in his bones.

"Not sure that's the word I'd use for getting battered." Alonso's mouth curved slightly.

"Well… we didn't come here for a picnic, did we?" With a casual flick, his blade flashed. One of the seven red orbs resting on the fractured stone shot across the ground toward Imani.

"Catch. No need to stay sore longer than necessary." Imani caught it mid-air. The moment his fingers closed around it, warmth surged through him. Bruised muscle knit. Split skin sealed. The heaviness in his limbs dissolved as if it had never been there. He exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulder.

"This would've worked wonders during our gym sessions back in Pangea, eh," he said, a faint grin pulling at his lips. Alonso huffed.

"Yeah, right?" The memory came back clear — sweating buckets, backs screaming, hauling boulders way bigger than they had any right to lift, both of them grinning like idiots while putting themselves through hell just to see who'd break first.

"Though… now that I think about it, those sessions did have their tiny benefits. Maybe we should try it again one day. Even if just for old times' sake." Imani gave a slow nod, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Sure."

"Well, this is fancy," Lukas' voice reached them from the side, as he crouched near the scattered loot. Curious, Alonso followed his gaze. Between the remaining orbs lay the drop: 21 pieces of tempering material, 6 pieces of Grade 3 gear, and one final item that caught his eye. Grade 04 - Hanging Judge's Greaves [Set] Tempering State: 0 Physical aptitude +4% Pillar aptitude +4% Sensorial perception +8% Set Bonus (1/5): — Interesting.

He remembered reading about Set equipment appearing from mid-tier Dungeons onward, yet somehow the detail had slipped his mind.

"You should take the Grade 4. We'll share the other pieces according to best fit," Leonie said calmly as she stepped to his side. Alonso stayed quiet for a moment, studying the others. Then he extended his waves and magnetised the greaves toward him. From a tactical standpoint, it made sense. It maximised their combat potential as a whole. There was nothing to argue about. And honestly… forget Grade 4 Sets. He was still wearing four pieces of Grade 2! It was time for an upgrade.

He replaced his legplates with the new pair, dark leather reinforced with angular metallic plates along the shins and knees, their surface etched with faint lines forming the image of an oak tree with several bodies hanging from its branches. Not the finest carving, but he would not complain. The moment the greaves settled into place, the change was immediate. His senses sharpened. Edges gained clarity. Air currents felt cleaner against his skin.

His nose picked up the faint traces of iron and dust lingering in the arena more clearly than before. Small sounds, shifting gravel, fabric brushing against armour, registered with sharper definition. It was a good piece. He grabbed one of the remaining orbs, just as the others did, and let it sink into him. A mild, steady surge moved through his body as it dissolved beneath his skin. Stage 1 – 38. 000% ➤ 38. 630% The gain was decent.

After all, he knew only special bosses granted those large fixed jumps up to a limit. Everything else scaled with current value. The others adjusted their gear as well, passing him the replaced pieces. He stored them in his Storage Bag, which was beginning to fill up. Soon they would have to move some of the tempering materials into a normal backpack. Leonie scanned the arena once more. She sent a brief confirmation pulse as they fell back into formation and resumed their march.

Imani stepped forward without hesitation, taking the vanguard. Pablo's summon moved just to his side as they advanced toward the path that had opened beyond the arena, descending into darkness. Two bosses remained.