'Help!' Leon screamed inwardly as his skin began peeling off one layer after another by the intensity of Malphas's blasting light.
The force was so strong that no matter how much Leon tried to move, his own bones stopped him. The transparent dome covering the arena, which no one could see, became visible after cracks streaked across it.
"Guys, I can't see shit!"
"Move any of your arms. I also can't see anything. Let's do that to help us stay in one place."
Screams of pain and confusion filled the crowd as they shot up from their chairs and began searching for themselves blindly after the intensity had reached their side.
Inside the arena, Leon's head was pressed hard on the ground by the pressuring air, after it had sucked all the oxygen out of him.
"Say your last words before you die!" Malphas said in a voice that echoed like a thunderclap in Leon's ears as he loomed over Leon from every direction.
When Leon forcefully lifted his face from the floor and looked up, no one stood in front of him, only a swishing wind that kept on promising him instant death.
After two seconds, a huge palm traveled from nowhere and everywhere and slammed Leon, pressing him into the paved ground as if it wanted to flatten his body.
Leon screamed as a bone-crackling sound echoed from his head. Yet Malphas didn't stop; he only smiled.
For a while, Leon's vision shifted, turning blurry red.
Slowly, it changed into still blackness, but his ears still caught Malphas's footsteps walking away from him.
A cold air struck Leon and caused his body to stiffen and tilt at the same time after the footsteps faded from his ears.
As Leon lay there lifeless, a loud voice called out to him from the inside. "Leon!"
It blasted his mind and heart at the same time. "Wake up! Don't just lie on the ground. The world is not done with you yet!"
Leon's pinky finger rose and fell, followed by the rest of his fingers as the voice slowly drifted away. The fingers of his right arm also followed, drumming the ground as if plucking an invisible string.
When his eyes cracked open, he saw the golden light snaking around his hands, following every direction a vein was. He coughed countless times when he pushed himself off the ground and stood up.
Malphas paused for a second, then laughed. "I'm really sure life is fed up with you."
'What are you waiting for? Move!' the voice rose again and snapped Leon's vision from entering into the blackened state again.
His head slowed as he blinked, focusing on the laughing Malphas and the crowd. When he tried clenching his fist, he tripped but caught himself and slammed his left palm against his head, then shook it.
As soon as his vision cleared, his legs began to move one step after another without his prior permission.
His vision churned and blazed in a golden fire that vaporized the blood on his face in an instant. Everything before him got transformed as he tried to clear his vision. Instead of seeing normal humans, he saw energy fields and dancing shapes that appeared a second after he blinked.
In the depths of Leon's mind, every voice that rose around him tripled in heat and volume. When Malphas's footsteps echoed from afar, Leon heard it like fireworks.
Leon clutched his ear and pressed so hard that tiny drops of blood popped out of his skin.
"DIE!" Malphas said in a low voice and surged against Leon.
Before Leon realized, his right arm shot up and blocked Malphas's punch, and struck him with a reverse blow.
Air buzzed around Malphas so violently that it stripped the light from him and made it draw back as if it never existed.
Malphas stumbled two steps back and watched as Leon bent over, gasping heavily for air.
When Leon lifted his head and saw the words from the proctors floating above them, his eyes widened with shock, but he smiled through his bloodied mouth.
'Already,' he whispered in his head so loud that he felt the tiny veins in his head buzzing with shock.
[Time Out]
[Victory: Malphas]
When Malphas walked toward Leon, he paused and cleared his throat. "I won't go easy on the next match, remember."
He walked off the platform, smiling, but his left palm never left his stomach, where Leon's blow had landed.
Leon's head kept on snapping up and down while the proctor mentioned those tasked for the next match.
Noises rose from the crowd the moment he began walking toward the exit. He heard some, but the rest muffled before reaching him, as if they were afraid to let him hear it.
When he entered the waiting room for the participants, Mr. Lee joined him. "You've really done well."
He placed a hand on Leon's shoulder and walked him to a seat. "You've proven me wrong. I thought you would die. No one has ever survived the first punch Malphas threw."
Leon looked at Mr. Lee's eyes and exhaled once while whispering in his head. 'What I faced was worse than death. It's just a miracle that I'm still alive.'
Minutes after the two fights following Leon's came to an end, Malphas's name got mentioned again.
Mr. Lee looked at the closed door and exhaled sharply. In his eyes, Leon saw a dreadful stare that he hadn't seen before, a stare he only saw in the poor man who got his powers stolen at the alley in Dusthollow.
When Mr. Lee caught Leon staring deep at his face, he giggled and wrapped his arms tight around Leon's shoulder. "You're still not done for the day. You better keep your muscles locked. Two more opponents and you're done."
After all the cheering screams had muffled, Mr. Lee pulled out a different data pad. "Here is the list with the names of the other two opponents."
He scrolled through the screen, then tapped Leon's shoulder. "Lucky boy."
He laughed slightly and nodded twice.
"Both of them are under Tier 1 evolution." He said in a calm voice but kept his grip tight on the datapad while he focused on a particular name as if it wasn't supposed to be added.
"Look, here are their names." He handed the datapad to Leon and stood up. "I'm sure you won't struggle with them as you did with your first two opponents," his voice dulled low, but his eyes held a calm that wasn't supposed to be there.
Leon scrolled through the names one after another and paused, pointing a finger at the first opponent to face next.
'What is Tier 1 evolution? I'm sure whatever it is wouldn't be as easy as Mr. Lee says.' Leon said low in his head as he sighed.
Immediately Leon placed the datapad on the bench he sat on, Mr. Lee folded his hands on his chest.
"You wouldn't want to use this bloodied face and chest for your next fight. Go and wash yourself before you give a first bad impression which the opponent can use against you."
Leon bowed and walked toward the washroom, then turned and saw Mr. Lee standing there with a grimness on his face while scratching his head slowly.
When Leon returned, he looked straight into Mr. Lee's eyes while doing a hand massage. "What level of evolution is Kang, T?"
Mr. Lee's expression changed from joy to sadness and back to joy in the span of a second.
"Kang, T," he said and smiled in a weird manner. "He's a Tier 2 human who has already undergone his third awakening."
Mr. Lee clenched his fist, then turned as if welcoming the noise coming from the other side of the door.
Leon watched Mr. Lee, then shifted his gaze from him to the sky, through the small side window in the room.
'Does that mean Tiger and Malphas are at the same evolution level?' he said low in his head as he focused on a small white bird flying happily below a distant cloud.
"Sir," Leon called out, shifting his gaze from the window to Mr. Lee. "What evolution level or awakening level am I at?"
Mr. Lee held Leon's gaze for a second before shaking his head, then tapped on Leon's shoulder before walking toward the exit.
"Make sure you align yourself with your inner spirit. With that, you can undergo your first awakening under Tier 1 evolution."
'Tier 1,' Leon pondered on the word after watching Mr. Lee open the door and close it behind him. "First awakening and aligning myself with my inner spirit?"
He placed his hands on his waist and stared at the ceiling. "What do I need to do to achieve all that?"
He followed the patterns on the ceiling and took in a deep breath after it led to the same door Mr. Lee had exited from.
'What about the golden light that snaked around my arm in the Shattered Land, after I regained consciousness?'
He examined his hands carefully as the thought reeled in his head. He walked toward the window and leaned on it after finding nothing on his skin.
Noise flooded into the room as the door opened, followed by laughing people.
"Did you see how Kang T dried the poor girl up?"
"I'm sure that guy wasn't actually supposed to be here. He's fucking deadly!"
"For me, I just pray for the souls of all the opponents he's faced and will face."
"Why say 'souls'?"
"Because they're already dead, just by having their names attached to his."
As soon as the last boy entered, Tiger walked in, blood covering his chest.