Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 22: Domination

The Crystal Colosseum rumbled, awakening into existence. The dark, scorched obsidian floor of the previous battle faded away. The harsh air, once heavy with burning ash and spiritual gravity, suddenly lightened. A cool, refreshing mist began to wave gracefully over the new battlefield.

High above the stadium, the hovering Crystal Nexus emerged, shimmering over the arena. It was the magical heart of the arena, pulsing steadily with a rhythmic, bright blue light.

A thunderous announcement echoed through the entire arena, shaking.

"First Match of the Crystal Bracket: Veldra Dracortis versus Gravanor Lynn!"

A low, excited murmur passed shiftly through the crowd.

This was an intense battle between the Water Dragon versus the Earth Titan.

The East Gate shimmered open with a loud humming sound.

From the Drakhalmere gate emerged Veldra Dracortis. He was an incredibly striking figure. He walked barefoot on the cold, hard stone. His pale skin was visibly marked with the faint, luminous remnants of azure scales. It was grim proof of his ancient, blood-soaked legacy. Those rare dragon scales shimmered softly, looking like the calm surface of an ocean under pale moonlight.

The West Gate rumbled violently. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

From the Pyrosend entrance marched Gravanor Lynn. He was a giant of thick muscle wearing enchanted, stone-like armor. A rhythmic snap of the crystal floor followed in his footsteps. Every step pulverized the floor, turning into the shimmering dust.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

He stopped in the center of the arena. He clenched his fists together.

BOOM!!

The ground answered his call with a shaking rumble.

"I have broken entire mountains before, Dragon," Gravanor rattled, his voice sounding like grinding rocks. "I will gladly break you, too."

Veldra looked up at the giant man with calm, unbothered eyes that held the depth of the ocean.

"Solid stone is incredibly strong," Veldra said softly, his voice carrying easily over the wind. "Until the relentless tide arrives."

The heavy bronze bell rang out, echoing across the arena.

GONG!!

The arena roared in anticipation and cheering. Gravanor lunged forward first. "Earth Charge!"

Heavy mana exploded expeditiously from his heavy boots. Each footstep summoned thick, jagged stone pillars that shot upward from the floor like giant spears. He was deliberately turning the crystal arena into a deadly field of pointy stones.

Veldra took one, slow breath, his chest heaving calmly. A thin, smooth wave of water formed instantly under his bare feet, using it as a flying material, he moved forward. He was weaving through the rising stone blades like a graceful dance. He gently tilted his head to the left to avoid a lethal spike, smoothly shifted his shoulder to gracefully slip past a rising pillar. He just flowed like a wave.

Gravanor let out a rumbling roar and swung a looping punch, enchanted with high-tier earth magic enough to destroy strong barriers.

Veldra plunged into a lower crouch, slipping right under the enchanted fist and rose up quickly, unleashing a devastating strike from below. "Rising Tide."

He slammed his open, water-coated palm brutally into the center of Gravanor’s stomach.

WHAM!!

The physical impact roared like a crack of thunder. Gravanor was hurled backwards, the armored titan flew away twenty feet through the air. He smashed first into a towering crystal pillar, shattering it into small pieces.

Gravanor slid, carving trenches to the ground. The crowd was shocked, who were unaware that Dracortis is this powerful, because they had never seen one in battle.

"He actually moved the titan? With just one single hand?" a soldier yelled from the stands.

Gravanor slowly stood up, wiping a streak of blood from his mouth. He laughed loudly with excitement.

"I LIKE IT!" Gravanor roared happily. He raised his hands and slammed both of his heavy fists instantly down into the crystal ground. "Terraform: Badlands!"

The arena transmuted, smooth and beautiful crystal shattered. The floor became a rough, treacherous field of jagged stone ridges and extremely deep pits. It was a chaotic creation to stop the graceful movements of the dragon.

"Sinkhole." Gravanor whispered, the ground suddenly softened beneath Veldra’s bare feet.

The mud pit swallowed Veldra’s legs entirely up to his knees, immobilizing him in place.

"Got you!" Gravanor shouted triumphantly. Then, the lethal attack was unveiled. Gravanor raised both of his arms pointing up. The ambient mana in the arena screeched visibly with a grin sound. A boulder of jagged stone formed atop from the broken crystals of the ruined arena. He drifted the boulder fifty feet up. "Titan’s Grave!"

Gravanor thrusted his hands down. The audience screamed in terror. Some weaker nobles actually covered their eyes.

KA-BOOM!!

A colossal cloud of dust howled outward across the arena. A crater yawned open, right in the center of the arena.

Silence took over the stadium. Gravanor exhaled a long breath, a small white steam cloud rising from his hot stone armor.

"Crushed!" Gravanor muttered confidently.

But then... a very soft sound echoed behind him.

Drip! Drip!

Gravanor froze, petrified. He turned around slowly. Veldra stood exactly there, unharmed. There was not even a single, tiny shade of dirt on his pale skin.

Veldra’s voice tore through the silence of the arena. "You handle the earth element exactly like a true warrior, Gravanor. But you completely ignore its greatest, most fatal weakness."

Gravanor roared in pure frustration and adrenaline. He lunged and swung his heavy arm back, his fist entirely coated in hard rock. "Die!"

Veldra raised his hand and caught the incoming fist.

CRACK!

Veldra’s bare hand clenched strong over the hard rock gauntlet, squeezing the solid stone into dust.

Gravanor was genuinely stunned and staggered backward, before the squeeze impacted his fist. He looked down at his crushes gauntlet in total disbelief.

"You..." Gravanor stuttered, his eyes wide with disbelief. "You just broke the earth with water?!"

Veldra stepped forward, the battlefield’s ambient water vapor coalesced behind him with frightening speed. It surged into a malevolent sphere with blue energy churning enough to wrap the air.

"Water does not just peacefully flow.." Veldra said, his radiant aura rose rapidly with a crushing pressure. "It corrodes."

Gravanor punched a barrage of rumbling strikes towards Veldra, burning magma punches rushed towards Veldra with intense mana surging inside them.

Veldra just casually deflected the hot magma with a simple slap of his hand. He effortlessly shattered the flying strikes with a swift kick.

He stepped smoothly into the wide guard of Gravanor, placing an open palm aiming to the center of Gravanor’s heavy chest plate.

"Water Dragon Technique: Tidal Rupture."

He lunged it forward, it was a gentle push but the highly honed kinetic shockwave struck the armor of Gravanor.

BANG!!

Gravanor’s eyes bulged in sheer agony. The shockwave thrusted him backward, a handful of blood splattered from his mouth. He flew across the entire arena. His heavy, enchanted stone armor ripped apart like a cheap paper. He hit the edge barrier wall so hard, his armor cracked open revealing his chest and slid slowly down to the floor.

He coughed spitting red blood onto the crystal floor.

But Gravanor was a true warrior of Pyrosend. He was here because Xenomyst himself had wanted to fight Luna instead. So, they had swapped brackets.

He stubbornly stood up again, legs shaking vehemently in exhaustion. His vision was obscured due to sheer pain and agony.

"I won’t..." Gravanor struggled to speak, gasping for air. "I won’t ever kneel."

Veldra stopped walking. His cold, dragon-like expression suddenly softened. The ruthless predator gaze vanished, replaced by warrior respect.

"You are incredibly strong," Veldra admitted honestly, "but you only use the earth to carry heavy weight."

He upturned a single palm to the bruised sky. In a heartbeat, the surrounding moisture snapped together, solidifying into a lethal, glass-sharp spear that hovered at his back. "I use my water to carry absolute purpose."

He thrust his bare hand forward. The water spear struck the hard ground exactly between Gravanor’s shaking feet, shattering the crystal floor.

The sudden impact of the spear strike knocked Gravanor completely off balance. He fell on one knee, trying desperately to get up. But his battered body refused his commands. His protective armor was cracked and the deep mana core was empty.

He slammed the hard ground one last time, angrily refusing submission to his own physical weakness.

Veldra walked slowly over to him. He gently placed a bare hand on Gravanor’s shaking shoulder.

"Staying up after suffering a true defeat is much harder than simply pretending to be unbroken," Veldra said very quietly, "you are a great warrior, Gravanor. But you are only mortal flesh, not a God of Ego. Even the greatest mountains eventually erode."

Gravanor looked slowly, his eyes darting through the kindness of Veldra.

Gravanor exhaled a long, defeated breath. He finally lowered his head. "I yield."

The heavy bronze bell rang out.

GONG!!

"VELDRA DRACORTIS IS THE WINNER!"

The crowd applauded, cheers thundering across the arena. Even the proud Pyrosend soldiers in the stands stood up and formally expressed their respect to the mighty dragon warrior. They respected true strength, and Veldra was undeniably an absolute magnum opus.

Veldra turned and walked calmly toward the dark exit tunnel, his bare feet silent on the broken stone. For Veldra, claiming victory was simply a heavy responsibility.

****

In the competitor stands, Kairos watched Veldra leave the arena.

"He fights exactly like the deep ocean..." Kairos noted, his eyes filled with a serious grin. "Constant, crushing pressure, and absolutely no wasted movement. If I ever have to fight him... I have to be the crazy storm that disturbs his calm water."

Princess Seyana closely watched the retreating Dragon Warrior.

"He’s incredibly scary," she whispered to herself. "But... he is very kind."

A few seats away, Brandon Sylphyros watched the floor with dangerously narrowed eyes. He saw the terrifying power of the ancient Dragon Bloodline.

Just another arrogant monster with pure domination, Brandon thought bitterly, fear filled in his eyes. This entire world is completely full of them, but none of them have what I have.

****

Down below, the ruined arena began to magically amplify once again, the crystal floor started shining. The cool mist returned.

The absolute final battles of the crystal bracket were approaching, and the true, hidden monsters were yet to be fully revealed.