[Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Elite Fragments.] [Multiplier: 1.05%] [Vault Pressure: 4%.]
The Colosseum floor was chaos. The green seawater rushed in, quickly rising to their knees. Hidden within the foaming tide were dozens of Abyssal Crawlers—massive, armor-plated crabs the size of small cars, with pincers that could snap a steel girder in half.
"Spread out! Don't let them flank you!" Isabella roared.
She was in her element. She glided over the water as if it were solid ground, her twin curved blades flashing with icy blue light. She ducked under a snapping pincer, drove her blade into the joint of a Crawler's leg, and flipped backward as the beast collapsed.
A glowing golden token popped out of the monster's dissolving body.
[Drop: 100 Coliseum Tokens.]
Without missing a beat, Isabella reached out and crushed the token in her hand. A faint green light washed over her, instantly healing a shallow cut on her cheek and restoring her breath.
"Instant consumption," Yuto muttered, watching her from a distance. "She's playing the short game. Zero compound interest. Disgusting."
"Master, please, they're the size of minivans! Focus!" Shion shrieked, floating high above the water and clinging to the Colosseum wall.
Two Abyssal Crawlers zeroed in on Yuto, their compound eyes locking onto the human who was just standing still in the rushing water. They lunged simultaneously, their massive claws snapping shut toward his torso.
"Human, move!" Isabella screamed, turning her head just in time to see the beasts close in on him.
Yuto didn't move. He simply raised his left hand and caught the massive, jagged pincer of the first crab barehanded.
CRUNCH.
The sheer, baseline density of his Transcendent Ash-Lord physique—even at a low 4% Vault pressure—was too much. The crab's claw shattered against Yuto's palm. Yuto casually grabbed the beast by its remaining leg, swung it like a massive hammer, and smashed it directly into the second Crawler.
Both monsters exploded into blue data-dust. Two massive, glowing golden tokens floated into the air.
[Drop: 200 Coliseum Tokens.]
Isabella blinked, her jaw dropping. "He... he just parried a siege-class monster with his bare hands?"
"Alpha is just warming up," Kurenai laughed, wading through the water and cleaving three Crawlers in half with a single swing of her heavy nodachi.
"He is unbothered by the trivialities of mortal combat," Ayase added, elegantly stepping off a floating piece of debris and decapitating a monster with a flash of silver ki.
Yuto walked over to the floating tokens. His interface flashed.
[Action Required: Consume Tokens for +50 Stamina and Minor Healing, or Discard?]
Vault it, Yuto commanded mentally.
[Loot Vaulted. Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Fragments, 200 Tokens.] [Multiplier: 1.12%] [Vault Pressure: 6%.]
The moment he vaulted the tokens, a small, jagged piece of shrapnel from the exploding crabs grazed his shoulder, drawing a line of fresh, red blood.
Isabella swam over, her eyes darting between Yuto's bleeding shoulder and the empty air where the tokens had just been. "What are you doing?! Why didn't you consume the drops? You're bleeding!"
"It's just a scratch," Yuto said calmly, wiping the blood away. "I'm saving them."
"Saving them?!" Isabella yelled, splashing water in her frustration. "For what?! The Colosseum matches last for hours! If you don't spend your tokens to heal and restore stamina instantly, you'll bleed out before Wave 3! The Senator's poison in the water will see to that!"
Yuto paused. He looked down at the murky green water swirling around his calves.
[System Warning: Toxic environment detected. Host is taking 1% poison damage per minute. Expend 50 Tokens to neutralize?]
"No," Yuto said, a sick, greedy smile forming on his face.
He didn't just refuse to spend the tokens to cure the poison. He actively opened his [Tension Protocol] interface and intentionally redirected the poison's code into his Vault, forcibly suppressing his body's natural resistance so the toxic damage would stack as "unreleased tension."
[Warning: Host is intentionally absorbing environmental toxins. Vaulting Poison Status...] [Multiplier increasing artificially: 1.15%... 1.20%...]
Isabella stared in absolute horror as the veins on Yuto's neck began to bulge and turn a sickly, glowing green, while his Babel-Stigma flared with a violent, agonizing red light.
"You're a lunatic!" Isabella screamed. "Are you trying to kill yourself?!"