The clash did not end with that last explosion. It rely changed shape.
When the blinding light faded, Lin Mu and Cattaleya were already moving again.
They abandoned techniques and grand manifestations. No more phantom beasts, no more towering projections. What remained was raw physical will.
They lunged at each other at the sa ti.
Fist t fist.
Elbow t knee.
Shoulder smashed into chest.
They fought like two ancient beasts locked in a death struggle, every movent brutal and direct. There was no elegance now, only violence refined by mastery.
Cattaleya ducked under a punch and slamd her forehead into Lin Mu's chin. He staggered back half a step and answered with a knee to her ribs.
She twisted, let it glance off her side, and countered with a kick that sent him skidding across broken stone.
He dug his heel in, stopped, and rushed her again.
They collided chest to chest.
Their arms locked.
They pushed.
The ground beneath them groaned, cracked, then collapsed into a shallow pit as their strength crushed it.
They broke apart and struck again.
Punch. Kick. Elbow. Headbutt.
Each exchange sounded like thunder being smashed into iron.
The audience had long since stopped cheering. They were too busy trying to
breathe.
Even strong immortals felt their chests tighten from the pressure of the fight.
"This isn't a duel anymore," soone whispered. "This is a catastrophe pretending to be a match."
For nearly an hour, the fight stayed like this.
No skills.
No nas shouted.
Just bodies smashing into bodies.
Sweat, blood, dust, and shattered stone mixed into a storm around them.
Cattaleya took a punch to the cheek that snapped her head sideways. She laughed through the blood and grabbed Lin Mu's arm, twisting it and slamming her knee into his stomach.
He grunted, seized her shoulder, and hurled her over his back.
She flipped midair, landed on her hands, and kicked upward, catching him under the ribs.
He flew, rolled, then sprang back up like nothing had happened.
They charged again.
This ti they crashed together and neither let go.
They locked arms, torsos pressed, feet sliding against ruined ground as they tried to overpower each other.
Cattaleya growled and twisted her body, trying to throw him.
Lin Mu shifted his weight and reversed it, slamming her onto her back.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and rolled, dragging him down with her.
The fight beca sothing else entirely.
They rolled across the shattered ring, grappling like wild beasts.
They twisted, locked, pushed, and crushed.
Arms tangled with arms.
Legs hooked around legs.
Sotis Lin Mu pinned her down.
Sotis she reversed it and slamd him flat.
To so in the crowd, it looked awkward.
To others, it looked terrifying.
Two beings strong enough to crack space itself were now wrestling in the dirt, trying to break each other with pure physical dominance.
Cattaleya's helt had been destroyed earlier, leaving her face exposed. Sweat and blood ran down her brow as she strained against Lin Mu's grip.
At one point, he had her in a crushing hold from behind, his arms locked
around her torso.
She bent forward, rolled, and used the motion to flip him over her shoulder.
They hit the ground hard.
She tried to mount him and hamr his face.
He blocked with his forearms and shoved upward, throwing her off.
They rolled again.
At one mont, Lin Mu's head was trapped between her thighs as she tried to crush him.
He planted his hands, forced the space itself with raw power, and twisted free, only for her to end up with her head locked between his legs as he tried to
choke her out.
The audience had no idea how to react.
So covered their eyes in embarrassnt.
Others stared in stunned silence.
"This... is not how I imagined the finals," soone muttered weakly.
Finally, both of them found the sa opening at the sa ti.
They separated just enough.
And both threw a punch straight forward.
Their fists t each other's faces.
CRACK!
They struck each other directly on the nose.
The impact rattled their brains just enough.
They both froze for a heartbeat.
Their grips loosened.
They rolled apart and lay there for a second, staring up at the sky.
Then they both started laughing.
Lin Mu pushed himself up first.
"If we keep doing this," he said, rubbing his face, "we will still be here
tomorrow!"
Cattaleya sat up, wiped blood from her nose, and grinned.
"True. And I do not want to share the ground with you for that long."
They both stood, breathing hard but still full of fight.
Lin Mu looked at her seriously.
"Let us end it properly."
Cattaleya nodded, eyes burning with excitent.
"On a high note."
They stepped back from each other.
The air itself seed to pull away from them.
Lin Mu raised his right fist and Immortal essence surged.
Not a trickle.
Not a stream.
A flood. His fist began to glow with terrifying density, golden light compressing until it
looked almost solid. The pressure made the space around it bend.
He was gathering fifty percent of his total immortal essence.
Even his own body creaked under the strain.
The symbols of his Burdenless Dominator Physique flared wildly, trying to
stabilize him.
This was near the upper limit of what he could safely use in one strike.
Across from him, Cattaleya began to change.
Her armor dissolved into swirling black and red energy.
The Calamity War Set unraveled and transford.
The essence wrapped around her body, compressing, reshaping. Her form
stretched. Her limbs fused into a single massive shape. Spikes of dark energy ford along its surface.
In seconds, Cattaleya was no longer shaped like a person.
She had beco a colossal, spiked battering ram of crimson and black energy.
This was her ultimate move.
"Duskthorn Style: Siege Ending Ram!"
The ram lowered its "head" and aid directly at Lin Mu.
The air scread.
The ground lted.
The barriers of the stadium trembled even before either of them moved.
High above, Patriarch Xiong Tian roared and poured more power into his
Heaven Covering Open Palm.
"Hold," he growled. "You must hold."
Lin Mu inhaled slowly, then he stepped forward.
The ram charged and Lin Mu punched.
Their attacks t.
There was no sound at first, this was faster than sound was.
Only light could be seen.
A blinding white explosion swallowed the world.
Immortal sense shattered.
Sound vanished.
Even vision failed for most.
Only the strongest experts could perceive anything at all.
They saw space collapse inward around the clash.
They saw the remaining arrays shatter like glass.
They saw Patriarch Xiong Tian's great palm burn with terrifying light as he
struggled to keep the stadium from being erased.
His face was drenched in cold sweat.
"Not even Transcendent," he muttered in disbelief, "yet reaching this level..."
The shockwave tore through the sky.
Clouds were ripped apart. Wind beca a blade. Mountains in the distance trembled.
Then, slowly, the light began to fade. The dust settled. The violent energy cald. People finally dared to look again.
At the center of the utterly ruined ring if it could even be called that, stood two
figures.
Lin Mu and Cattaleya.
They were face to face. Both were smiling. Both were bleeding.
Cattaleya's body was covered in wounds, blood running freely down her arms
and legs.
Lin Mu was bleeding too, for the first ti like this.
Cracks covered his body, and they were not healing as fast as before.
The audience held its breath.
Who won?
"AHAHAAHAH!"
Cattaleya laughed loudly.
A proud, wild laugh that echoed across the broken stadium.
But then her laughter suddenly cut off.
Her eyes widened slightly.
Her body swayed.
And she fell straight backward like a rag doll, slamming into the ruined ground.
THUD
Silence.
Then the referee's voice trembled as he shouted the words everyone had been
waiting for.
"The winner... is Lin Mu."
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