With a violent screech of metal against metal, Ayako Nichole broke away from their initial blade-lock. The rebound sent Nichole skidding back ten feet with her boots digging into the stone, while Ayako gracefully drifted backward.

But the battlefield of a three-way tiebreaker left no room for a quiet reset.

Bzzt—CRACK!

Using the split-second opportunity of their separation, Ryan executed a high-speed lightning blitz. A trail of brilliant blue snapped through the air behind him as his black suit propelled him forward at a blinding velocity and appeared directly behind Ayako’s blind spot.

"Sorry, Izumi, but I’m taking you out of the equation early!" Ryan’s yelling voice resonated as he threw an enhanced punch straight down at the back of her head with enough force to shatter a fortress wall.

The metal fist connected – but there was no sound of breaking bone.

Instead of hitting solid flesh, Ryan’s fist punched entirely through her figure. Ayako’s body instantly dissolved into a swirling cloud of pink Sakura petals.

"Wha–!?"

BOOM!

Ryan’s punch carried through the illusion and slammed directly into the solid arena floor.

A devastating explosion of pulverized stone and thick dust erupted upward, gouging to create a massive crater.

"Argh, dammit! Of course it won’t be that easy! Looks like the stories about the Izumi clan aren’t exaggerated at all."

Suddenly, a prickling sensation traveled down Ryan’s spine. Every internal radar and tactical sensor inside his advanced suit flared in crimson warning.

Snapping his head upward, he was met with Ayako’s silver katana swinging straight down toward his mechanical neck.

"SHIT–!"

Reacting entirely on purely on survival instinct, Ryan ignited his thruster and propelled himself backward a second before the blade could connect.

SHING—BOOM!

The moment the edge of her blade touched the floor, a perfectly clean and impossibly deep fissure tore through the earth itself were made of soft butter.

"What the hell?!" Ryan yelled as his heart hammered against his ribs. "Are you out of your mind?! Are you seriously trying to decapitate me out here?!"

"Decapitate? No. I merely wanted to test the true structural durability of that fascinating advanced suit of yours. I mean, it would be such a pity if it broke too quickly, don’t you think?"

"DON’T YOU DARE FORGET ABOUT ME!"

A shadow fell over the crater. From high above, Nichole came flying down like a descending comet. She held her mana coated broadblade over her head with both hands. She was aiming to drive her entire weight into a devastating downward cleave directly at Ayako’s skull.

"This is perfect actually." Ayako smiled while pointing her hand at Ryan.

Deep beneath the surface, the broken stone surrounding Ryan’s boots violently surged upward like a set of rocky jaws.

Before the Tricean captain could ignite his thrusters to escape, the stone snapped around his ankles and violently jerked his armored body straight across the crater toward Ayako, completely catching him off guard.

"Whoa–Oh fuck–!!"

As Ryan reeled into her immediate personal space, Ayako stepped forward with a terrifyingly graceful pivot and grabbed him directly by the reinforced neck-plate of armor. With a monstrous display of physical leverage, she hurled his multi-ton frame directly upward into the path of the incoming attack from Nichole.

The raw force of Ayako’s throw was too immense for Ryan to stabilize himself. His thrusters sputtered wildly in mid-air and his internal error codes blared as he found himself flying helplessly toward a falling mountain of iron.

"N-Nichole Firestar, wait! Abort! Abort I am no Izumi! I repeated! I am not Izumi!"

But Nichole was already in full descent with her momentum locked in. She couldn’t stop the strike. She could only commit.

"TAKE THIS!"

"OH FU–!"

SLICE—CRASH!

Nichole’s mana coated blade slashed heavily against Ryan’s chest plate, cutting straight through the reinforced Tricean alloy and leaving a gruesomely open slice across the front of his black armor.

The concussive force of the strike sent Ryan flying straight back down into the earth, skidding his body across the dirt.

["WHAT A PLAY!!! Izumi Ayako just used the Tricean Captain as a literal human shield!"] Commentator Ken screamed into his microphone, his hands on his head.

Lying motionless, a metallic wheezing sound echoed through his suit’s external speakers and within seconds, a dark stream of fresh blood began to slowly leak from the jagged open cut in his shattered chest armor.

Up in the northern stands, the Tricean spectators let out a horrified gasp, whereas the remaining representatives on the Tricean bench stood up with their hands gripping the stone railings in unbridled anxiety.

Commentator Ken opened his mouth, his voice taking on a professional, solemn tone. ["It looks like the damage is too severe, folks. It seems that this the end of the road for Tri–"]

HISS

A loud, high-pressure burst of white steam suddenly erupted from the exhaust ports of the black armor.

With a staggering effort, Ryan’s metal fingers dug into the cracked earth. He let out a harsh wet cough, but miraculously, he forced his trembling mechanical knees to lock, pushing his shattered frame back up onto his feet.

Inside his helmet, a bright green holographic warning text illuminated his vision:

CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED.

EMERGENCY SELF HEALING PROTOCOL: ACTIVATED.

CAUTION: MAGIC STONE CAPACITY REDUCED BY 50%.

The mana stone located at the heart of the armor began to glow green, and slowly, the open flesh wound beneath the armor started healing.

The northern Tricean stands erupted into a frantic wave of cheers for their representative captain who is still in the fight.

["DEAR PEOPLE AT THE TRICEAN STANDS, I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID!! TALK ABOUT RESILIENCE!"]

Nichole, however, didn’t give a single damn.

She rested her massive broadblade over her shoulder as a fierce grin returned to her face. "Hey! On the frontier, we have a very specific rule – it’s always best to kick a dog while he’s down! And that’s exactly what I’m gonna do!"

With a ferocious battlecry, she lunged forward again, swinging her broadblade in a wide horizontal arc designed to take Ryan’s legs out from under him.

"Oh, come on! Can you at least let a guy heal in peace?!"

What followed was a fast-paced and utterly chaotic dance of survival.

Nichole moved like an untamed forest fire. Her broadblade sang through the air as she combined her mana coating with explosive bursts of fire magic. Every swing of her blade left a trail of scorching, roaring flames that superheated the surrounding atmosphere.

Ryan, despite his depleting reserves, fought with a masterful tactical discipline. His suit whirred as he utilized multi-elemental integration – deploying compressed earth shields to absorb Nichole’s heavy strikes, while simultaneously firing rapid wind needles to disrupt her footing and keep her from pinning him down.

CLANG! BOOM! CRACK!

"Hey! Fire-head! Listen to me for a second!" Ryan panted while parrying a savage downward strike. "We need to team up right now to take down Izumi! It is mathematically stupid for the two of us to keep tearing each other apart like this!

"If we knock each other out, Ayako can – and absolutely will – just stroll over and finish off whoever is left without breaking a sweat!"

"Hell no!" Nichole screamed back, her amber eyes blazing with stubborn pride. "Riverton doesn’t do cheap alliances! I’m going to flatten you, and then I’m going to flatten her next!"

Suddenly, a soft, chilling chuckle resonated right between them.

Without either of them detecting her approach, Ayako materialized dead right beside their clashing. With two impossibly fast deflections, she struck the flat of Nichole’s broadblade and the wrist of Ryan’s gauntlet, completely shattering their momentum and forcing them both to step back.

"I highly suggest you take Ryan Sindelle’s excellent advice, Nichole," Ayako murmured a breathlessly joyful tilt to her voice as she raised her blade to a mid-guard.

"Please, both of you – team up against me. It will be significantly more entertaining for myself that way. I would hate for this dance to end too quickly due to your stubbornness."

Nichole’s jaw tightened as her face turned a deep, furious crimson at the sheer, mocking overconfidence of the Myrian. "You pretentious, aristocratic little witch! Who the hell do you think you’re looking down on?! I’m going to tear that tongue right out your mouth!"

With a roar of pure rage, Nichole lunged straight at Ayako again, her broadblade completely engulfed in a twisting inferno.

At the exact same moment, inside Ryan’s helmet, a soft chime chimed.

HEALING PROCESS: COMPLETED.

INTERNAL MANA RESERVES: 50% REMAINING.

WARNING: SYSTEM BURNOUT IMMINENT IF OUTPUT EXCEEDS TEN MINUTES.

"Ten minutes is more than enough," Ryan muttered. "Alright, Izumi. You wanted a challenge? Let’s see if you can actually back up that massive mouth of yours!"

With his thrusters booming at maximum output, Ryan joined the fray. He synchronized perfectly with Nichole’s aggressive movements, stepping in to assist her at every single turn.

The stadium erupted into a frenzy as the three captains engaged in a high-stakes, dramatic triple-threat maelstrom.

The buildup of magical energy inside the ever-growing crater grew higher and higher with every passing second.

It was a masterpiece of high-tier combat. Ryan operated as the ultimate support – the moment Ayako would glide backward to dodge one of Nichole’s savage cleaves, he would instantly manifest an advanced earth wall right behind her heels to lock her in place or fire a dense bolt of lightning to force her to block.

Simultaneously, Nichole provided the unstoppable pressure against the Myrian. Swinging and striking her blade through the air like a hurricane of fire and steel.

Yet, despite the overwhelming two-versus-one pressure, Ayako looked like she was experiencing paradise. Her battle manic tendencies were on full display.

She moved like a goddess of war, perfectly dodging and weaving through the overlapping streams of fire, lightning, and wind.

Her own mastery over the elements was nothing short of perfection. When Nichole unleashed a massive wall of fire, Ayako would effortlessly counter with an even larger torrent of water that instantly vaporized the flames into a blinding smokescreen.

When Ryan attempted to pin her down with a localized graviton gadget, she would use her own overwhelming wind magic to completely alter her trajectory in mid-air, defying the very laws of physics, and destroying said gadgets.

["THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!"] Commentator Ken screamed. ["Izumi Ayako is fighting off two academy captains simultaneously, and she is thoroughly enjoying herself! Her combat prowess is completely out of this world!"]

CLANG! CLANG! BOOM!

"Ahahaha! Is this truly the absolute best the Riverton and Tricea can offer?!" Ayako laughed aloud, her usual serene mask completely gone.

Her silver katana deflected Ryan’s plasma blade before she spun on her heel to deliver a concentrated blast of earth magic that forced Nichole to stop and block with a massive blade.

"More! Give me more! Force me to draw deeper from my core!"

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Nichole yelled, her face covered in sweat and soot as she swung her blade with reckless fury. "I’m going to break that stupid little sword of yours into a thousand pieces!"

"Your spirit is magnificent, Nichole Firestar! Just what I like to see!"

Right when Ryan was about to assist, his black armor let out a high-pitched whine. The internal holographic display inside his helmet violently flashed in another warning-crimson pattern.

CRITICAL ERROR: MANA STONE DEPLETED.

EXOSKELETON SYSTEM FAILURE IN 5... 4...

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me right now," Ryan gasped as his mechanical limbs suddenly grew heavy with the suit’s power source dying out.

Ayako’s sharp eyes instantly caught the subtle stutter in his joints. She sheathed her weapon as her predatory smile deepened. "Looks like the machine has run out of fuel. Your time on this stage has officially concluded, Captain Sindelle."

With a movement so fast it left three afterimages in her wake, Ayako completely bypassed Nichole’s line of defense and appeared directly in front of Ryan’s failing mechanical frame.

Her katana remained sheathed for a microsecond before she unleashed a relentless sequence of close quarter quickdraw strikes.

BAM! BAM! CRACK! SHING!

She systematically dismantled the entire advanced mechanical suit. Ryan couldn’t even raise his arms to defend himself as the heavy, consecutive impacts broke through the last of his remaining internal defenses.

For her final, finishing blow, Ayako clapped her hands together and channelled a concentrated sphere of pure kinetic mana directly into her palms. She drove both of her hands straight into Ryan’s exposed chest plate.

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The explosive force of the blast was so immense that Ryan was launched across the arena like a bullet fired from a railgun. He soared clean across the damaged arena, his body traveling at a terminal velocity straight toward the announcer’s booth.

CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The protective barriers surrounding the announcers’ booth violently shattered under the sheer weight of the impact. Ryan’s body smashed straight through the front console, crashing right onto Commentator Ken and Faye’s wooden desk, scattering parchment and splintered wood into the air.

The entire coliseum went deathly quiet, thousands of eyes looking up at the ruined broadcasting booth in absolute, stunned silence.

Faye slowly looked down at the desk. Broken pieces of black armor were scattered everywhere, and a thick trail of fresh blood was pooling on the paperwork. Ryan’s helmet had been completely split down the center, revealing his unconscious face.

She shook her head at her co-announcer, signalling to him that he was unable to continue.

["L-LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! RYAN SINDELLE IS INCAPACITATED! The captain of Tricea’s representatives has been brutally expelled from the arena floor! He is officially eliminated, marking the end for Tricea in the tournament!"]