Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 10: Unwavering Will!

The entire arena was filled with chaotic silence after witnessing the brutal first round. The thick veil of dust from the first brutal round was settling slowly over the arena’s jagged slabs.

Two giants stood across over arena gate’s medical bay, clenched their fists. They were heavily bruised with cuts and punches from the first round.

Teravauros Solaris.

Breinstein Dreyr.

Their first chaotic, intensive battle proved to the audience in the arena that they were the beasts of their kingdoms, and they would never take a backstep.

High up on the glowing podium, Grand Chancellor Vaelon raised his heavy golden staff.

CLANG!

The massive bronze bell struck again, oscillating sound vibrations increased the anxiety in spectators.

Round Two.

A sudden, sharp gust of wind howled and pushed the dust away from the arena floor.

Breinstein moved first; the warm-up was over. He bent his bruised knees and slammed his palm clenched into the floating granite platform he stood. "Iron-Skin Forge."

The arena responded instantly to his rising mana. The stone beneath his boots was melted like a blacksmith’s forge. The liquified stone crawled up over Breinstein with a hissing sound covering him.

He rushed forward without a word. The sound of his enhanced footsteps was loud enough to physically rattle the teeth of the noble spectators sitting in the front row.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

He closed the distance and jerked a massive, chaotic punch with his right fist.

Teravauros didn’t try to dodge the relentless blow. He simply stomped his leg and flexed his arms, creating a rattling bones sound, and crossed them in front to block the incoming attack.

CRACK!!

The sound of the collision roared across the arena like a cannon blast. The sheer menacing force of the blow finally pushed the mighty Teravauros to the edge of the jagged platform. His boots scraped harshly against the floor, breaking into stone pebbles, until he moved to the edge of the floor.

The audience voice cracked and roared with surprise and disbelief. "He’s falling! The Immovable Giant is falling!"

Up in the Royal Pavilion, Princess Seyana’s eyes widened in shock. Beside her, Queen Velayana gasped and clenched her hands with fear and shock. But down in the competitors’ stand, among the other tense observers, Kairos Vedaryan stood up slowly. His sharp amber eyes opened wide didn’t want to blink once.

"He isn’t falling," Kairos whispered to himself, a prideful smirk tracing across the corner of his mouth. "He’s just waiting."

Teravauros tried to balance and plummeted for exactly three seconds. Then, he hit a lower floating platform, a solid fifty feet down from the slab he fell.

He landed heavily with a cracked sound. He smoothly bent his thick knees to completely absorb the lethal impact, cracking the solid granite. He stood up instantly without stumbling, his face looking terrifyingly calm.

High above him, Breinstein walked to the edge of the platform. Breinstein didn’t pause and didn’t want to give time for Teravauros. He leapt off the edge with howling speed and dove straight down.

He plummeted, enhanced with gravity magic like a meteor. As he got close to Teravauros, he brought both of his rock-solid hands clenched up, preparing a devastating double-fist hammer strike.

Teravauros looked up calmly at the falling shadow. He didn’t try to move out of the way because of pride; he just crossed his arms again and chanted. "Mountain Stance."

BOOM!!

Breinstein slammed directly into him. The sheer pressure and apocalyptic impact crashed the platform in half within a second. Both massive giants fell even deeper, crashing through the debris of the destroyed slab, and they hit the new stone platform hard, rolled through the abrasive gravel, and rose to their feet again without a single second of pause, even in the exhaustive state they stood because of an adrenaline rush in their bulging veins.

Breinsten rubbed a smear of blood from his left eyebrow, where a sharp shard of flying stone had cut him deeply during the fall. He breathed heavily, his chest heaving under the armor. "You should not be standing," Breinsten groaned with exhaustion and disbelief, "that hammer strike will break even the prodigious castle walls."

Teravauros calmly blew the thick layer of grey dust from his arms. "If I fall, the kingdom of Solaris trembles," Teravauros answered simply, his voice a low, steady rumble. "So, I simply do not fall."

"If I fall," Breinsten answered fiercely, with desperate loyalty and rage burning in his pale eyes, "the kingdom of Sylphyros loses its greatest shield."

They charged each other again, and the wind howled along with their speed. They moved faster than they had in the first round, and they hit each other.

Bam! Bam! Crack!

Every single blow they threw was a conscious, heavy punch with decision. They spoke with punches. Every single block they made was a painful sacrifice. Neither man stepped back even a single step. They stood toe-to-toe on the shrinking platform, trading devastating blows that could pulverize a large mountain in a few minutes. It looked like the Brawl of Ogres, who were supposed to fight without holding back.

The scarred veterans, the grizzled mercenaries, the old generals instantly understood exactly what they were witnessing.

Breinstein’s eyes darted with intense precision, finally seeing a microscopic opening in his Teravauros’ guard.

He lunged forward and grabbed Teravauros’s shoulder armor plate. His rock-encased fingers squeezed, actually crushing and bending the thick iron metal, with a crackling sound. With a roar of exertion, he violently slammed the giant backward into a thick, jagged rock pillar.

Teravauros didn’t even mourn in the pain. He instantly countered, launching an earth mana-infused punch into Breinsten’s jaw. The strike violently broke Breinsten’s grip on Teravauros’ shoulder plate and sent him flying backward through the air.

The entire arena trembled violently. The complex, ancient magic maintaining the anti-gravity of the floating islands was struggling with the menace it bore, the chaotic mass of their combined earth and gravity mana.

Breinstein crashed and pushed himself to get balance, his breath gasped with jagged breaks.

"One last strike!" Breinstein whispered to himself.

"GRAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Breinstein stood up straight and roared for the first time in the match. It was the deep, resonant roaring sound of a cornered lion entirely refusing to yield.

"Continental Rupture!" He raised both of his heavy hands high into the air. The ambient glowing mana in the arena seemed to scream. He was enraged and drew up every single debris on the floor, every broken rock, and every piece of gravel from the shattered platforms around them. The debris flew into the air, swirling rapidly above his head. He compressed the rocks tighter and tighter, crushing them together until they formed a gigantic, terrifying sphere of high density.

It was easily the size of a large mansion. It floated menacingly, casting a dark, heavy shadow over the center of the arena.

"Take this, Solaris!" Breinstein bellowed, moving his arms forward.

The massive sphere tore through the air and descended like a meteor. The sheer, terrifying wind pressure howled by its mass and mana enough to crack the granite slabs on the arena.

Teravauros stood with an undefined look on his narrow, damaged platform. He looked... incredibly calm and composed.

He opened both of his large hands and clasped them on the floor. "Heart of the World."

The ground immediately answered his call. It answered with a sharp heartbeat thudding beneath his wildered palms.

Thump-thump.. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The solid stone pulsed with golden light. The mana is engrossed in the Teravauros’ body.

"Earth is not purely for destruction," Teravauros whispered, his eyes glittering with a calm golden star-shaped light. "Earth is the foundation that holds everything else up."

He calmly stood up and, striding forward, directly in the path of the incoming boulder. He just deliberately retracted his right arm, and he unleashed a sedulous strike into the air, between him and the massive boulder, with a destructive force.

CRACKKKK!!

The sound was deafening, thundering exactly like a landmine blasted inside a mining cave. The massive boulder utterly disintegrated into debris with a rattling and crackling sound. The audience is in shock with the thought, "Wh... What the hell? How the heck can a human be this strong!?"

But still, it’s not done, the attack unleashed by Teravauros destroyed the boulder and also sent an invisible shockwave towards Breinstein. Breinstein impulsively crossed his thick arms in front of his chest to defend himself, but he didn’t have enough stamina. The shockwave broke through his heavy guard without much effort. It sent him crashing backward, skipping across multiple floating platforms like a stone thrown across a pond with full speed.

CRASH! CRASH! SLIDE!

He convoluted uncontrollably until he finally reached the very edge of the lowest floor. He was struggling there, breathing in ragged and painful gasps. His vision was obscured, and his armor and ripped apart completely. With a low moan of sheer willpower, he tried to stand one more time. He stuck his hands on the ground, his arms trembling violently, and his legs struggled to stand, but he managed scarcely to push himself on one knee.

Step.. Step.. Step..

Teravauros walked toward him slowly, his boots crunching loudly on the jagged floor. He was still standing perfectly still, his posture unbroken. When he finally reached Breinstein, the Sylphyros warrior gave an exhausted gaze towards Teravauros. His pale eyes were enraged with frustration and disbelief.

"Why..." Breinstein muttered, coughing weakly. "Why can’t I make you fall...?"

Teravauros looked down at the kneeling man. He simply extended his large, calloused hand as a support to get up.

"Because the kingdom of Solaris needs me to stand," Teravauros answered quietly, with steamy breath coming from him, "and a wall does not ask why it holds the roof up. It just holds."

Breinstein stared with a shallow look in his eyes for a few seconds and closed his fatigued eyes for exactly one second. Then, he anchored his hand up, unwavering, taking Teravauros’ hand.

CLANG!

The heavy bronze bell rang out and rumbled over the arena.

"The match is concluded! Teravauros Solaris is the winner!"

The spectators in the arena erupted with cheers and applause. It was a sustained roar of profound wavering respect. Warriors from every single kingdom; the mystics of Xynoria, the fire-mages of Pyrosend, the dragon-kins of Drakhalmere gave a standing ovation. They clapped loudly because something deep inside warrior souls acknowledged the battle of giants, recognising the unbreakable will they witnessed.

****

Ignis smiled; his chest rose in pride.

"That’s my big brother," Ignis laughed loudly, "stubborn as a damn rock."

Nearby, Lysandra Velkin, still recovering from her own brutal battle, bowed her head with a faint respectful smile. Princess Seyana stood up at the railing and clapped harder than anyone else in the pavilion, with pride towards her cousin.

****

Down on the ruined arena floor, Kairos watched as Teravauros slowly lifted Breinstein to his feet and walked him toward the medical bay. He watched the massive man with a deeply respectful gaze. He saw a man he would trust to stand beside him in a blood-stained war.

That is exactly what a true General looks like, Kairos thought, crossing his arms over his chest with pride.

Meanwhile, a cunning man in the royal pavilion with a pale gaze, Brandon Sylphyros, watched the cheers.

He didn’t care much about the fight, but he saw the crowd cheering and applauding for the Solaris shield. More importantly, he saw Seyana’s beautiful, glowing face as she smiled with a prideful look on her face.

A deep resentment filled his heart. Every single time he looked at Seyana’s genuine smile that was not for him, a dark, terrifying lapse in sanity enraged in his pale eyes.

You should look at me, Brandon thought darkly, with a frantic kneading into the palms. Only me. You should smile with that kind of love and admiration only when you are looking at me. Not at these pathetic, shitty bastards.

The grand chancellor’s voice boomed around the arena once more. "Change!"

The broken arena floor began shifting rapidly again, but this time it will take some moments to fix. The shattered rocks sank completely into glowing mana light. The next highly anticipated duel was preparing to begin.

But the rumbling echo of words bellowed by Teravauros are still lingering in the arena. "A wall does not ask why it holds. It just holds."