The air inside the arena remained heavy…
heavy in a way that made even breathing feel like an act that required will.
Aris bent slightly, his hands on his knees, his chest rising and falling with clear irregularity. It was not pain that weighed down his body — he had known harsher forms of pain in another life — but that strange feeling that his body was no longer entirely his. As if the energy that had awakened inside him was still searching for a way to settle within him… or to dominate him.
A quiet step approached.
He raised his head.
The trainer was standing before him.
He looked at him for a long time, a gaze that carried neither pity nor harshness… but something like silent evaluation.
Then he said:
"Your combat talent… is beyond belief."
He fell silent for a moment, as if rearranging his thoughts.
"For a boy your age to possess this amount of technical experience in a first battle that relies on spiritual energy… this is madness."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"And those arts you used… they resemble what we have, yes… but their roots are different. Your movements do not follow the clan's schools, and the angles of your strikes are not taught here."
Aris was still catching his breath.
He said in a broken voice:
"They are… a collection of different arts. I derived them from observation… and from calculations. I only tried to make them suit my physical build… and bring out the maximum possible from my strength."
The trainer's expression hardened.
Then suddenly—
his aura closed.
Aris saw nothing… but he felt it.
As if the space around him folded.
As if the sound of the world moved away.
The trainer stepped forward half a step, his eyes now sharp like the edge of a cold blade.
"Oh… is that so."
Silence fell.
Then his voice lowered… but it thundered inside Aris's awareness like lightning.
"Are you… reincarnated?"
At that moment—
the air froze inside his lungs.
A hidden pressure dropped onto his shoulders, unseen and untouchable… yet real enough to make even standing feel like effort.
"What is this…?"
Even the dantian inside him slowed its rotation, as if the abyss itself had become alert.
He gathered himself with difficulty and said:
"Hah… what is a reincarnated?"
The trainer kept looking at him.
One moment.
Two.
Then…
he smiled faintly, but it did not reach his eyes.
"It is fine… nothing."
He muttered, as if speaking to a thought rather than a person:
"In any case… you would not have escaped Elder Varin's eyes. Especially since, for your age, you have already undergone the inspection ritual."
Suddenly—
the pressure vanished.
The air returned.
Sound returned.
Aris's breaths slipped back into his chest, deeper this time… but he did not miss the cold truth that settled inside him:
This man… was capable of crushing him without lifting a finger.
He raised his head and said:
"I want to continue fighting."
The trainer's eyebrow lifted slightly.
"Will you not rest?"
Aris shook his head in refusal.
It was not stubbornness that drove him.
But hunger.
An old hunger… that had never understood the meaning of retreat.
The trainer looked toward Lin Mu.
"Continue."
The two returned to the center of the arena.
But something was different this time.
Lin Mu was not standing calmly as before.
Energy… was already moving around him.
It was not explosive, nor showy — but controlled, clinging to his body like a transparent layer of strength.
Aris saw it.
And felt it.
He understood even before the fight began:
This time… he would not be given a chance to catch the rhythm.
The space between them vanished.
Lin Mu charged first.
Aris did not see the strike — he heard the air tear before he felt it.
He barely raised his arm.
The shock pierced his bones.
He stepped back.
"Fast…"
Aris entered with a low rotation, targeting the hip joint — a strike designed to drop a fighter twice his size.
But Lin Mu did not retreat.
He pulled energy into his leg in an instant.
His muscles hardened like steel.
The strike landed… and did not move him.
Then the response came.
A rising knee.
Aris avoided it by a hair, but the wave of air alone slapped his face.
The fight began to accelerate.
A fist shining with faint energy.
A narrow dodge.
A turn.
An elbow strike passing beside the temple.
Aris tried to do the same.
He closed his eyes for a fraction of a pulse…
searching for the dantian.
For those sparks he had felt earlier.
"Move…"
The energy responded.
But—
slowly.
Slower than it should.
He gathered it toward his arm and launched a punch—
It was stronger than before.
But the control broke at the last moment, and part of the force scattered before it arrived.
Lin Mu noticed the gap immediately.
He entered.
A strike to the shoulder.
Then another to the rib cage.
Aris lost his balance.
The system's voice echoed inside his mind, cold as usual:
[Analysis in progress…]
[The host's energy flow rate is unstable.]
[Energy loss ratio: high.]
[Condensation is not synchronized with muscular movement.]
"I know that!"
He pulled the energy again — this time toward his legs.
He rushed forward.
For a moment…
he succeeded.
His movement accelerated, he circled behind Lin Mu, and launched a perfect strike toward the neck.
But the flow cut off.
As if a river had suddenly dried.
The strike was delayed by half a pulse.
Half a pulse…
is enough.
Lin Mu bent, turned his body, and his fist struck Aris's stomach.
The air burst violently from his lungs.
He staggered back.
The ground felt closer.
[Analysis complete.]
The system's voice came.
[Primary difference:]
[The opponent does not summon energy… he makes it part of his movement.]
[For the host, energy either precedes the movement or lags behind it.]
[Result: combat gaps.]
Gaps.
He felt them now with terrifying clarity.
Every time he tried to push power…
a moment of emptiness appeared.
And Lin Mu—
was a hunter of gaps.
The strikes continued.
They were not random.
They were calm.
Inevitable.
Until the fight seemed to slide toward a single outcome from the very beginning.
Aris tried to attack one last time.
He gathered all the energy he could, compressed it inside his arm, and drove his fist forward.
For a moment—
the air trembled.
But Lin Mu moved at only a small angle.
Then…
a short strike.
Clean.
Aris fell.
The arena shook beneath his back.
This time, he did not try to rise immediately.
His chest was burning.
His arms were heavy as lead.
Lin Mu stood over him, breathing deeply… but his gaze held neither victory nor mockery.
Only the calm of a fighter who had finished what was asked of him.
As for Aris…
he stared at the distant ceiling.
And only one thing echoed inside his depths—
He was not defeated because of a lack of courage.
Nor because of a lack of experience.
But because…
he was still a stranger to the power that lived within him.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
Then they opened slowly.
And at their depths…
there was no frustration.
There was cold clarity.
If this was only the beginning…
what would the real monsters of this world look like?
The dantian moved inside him.
And the abyss spun…
as if it smiled.