The girl walked back to her team on unsteady legs, processing what had just occurred with a weird expression of both respect and horror.
Roran caught her shoulder, steadying her. "You okay?"
"Two hits, or was it one…" she said, voice distant. "My beast is supposed to be Resistance based and it just... ca apart like it was made of sand."
"Did you learn anything from up close?" Roran asked, genuinely curious despite knowing the answer was probably depressing.
She laughed without humor. "Yeah… That we're nowhere near his ceiling. Not even a bit close."
Roran nodded slowly, his own assessnt matching hers. He'd hoped sending the beast underground would reveal sothing about the mantis's limitations, would show so strain or a difficulty in control that could be exploited.
Instead it had demonstrated the mantis could counter even earth elent based beasts as easily as it had countered fire, could manipulate stone with the sa casual efficiency it had shown with water.
"Last fighter," Roran said, looking at their final teammate, with his Silver 1 Wind beast that specialized in aerial combat. "You saw what just happened. Still want to try?"
He swallowed hard but nodded. "I can't look worse than a coward that doesn't even go up there right? But… Got a better idea?"
"Not really," Roran admitted. "Maybe aerial advantage works where big area attacks and underground traps failed. Or maybe we'll just find out that mantis can fly faster than your beast too."
THIRD BATTLE
The last opponent from Team Twelve was the second option for a tactical leader close in votes before Roran voted himself.
His Wind Hawk materialised in a flash of mana, a sleek predator built for speed, it had aerial dominance where most terrestrial beasts had an inherent disadvantage.
The hawk ascended imdiately, not wasting a second on ground-level. Gaining altitude, creating distance, using its elent to generate air currents that would make any terrestrial attack difficult to execute.
It was a strategy that had worked brilliantly during their previous battle against Mira and Sora's team, two of Ren's companions just like Roran himself. The hawk had secured their advancent by staying out of reach until the last opponent exhausted itself.
But Ren's mantis was no longer a purely terrestrial beast if it'd ever been limited to ground combat in the first place.
But Ren had not lost ti either, not 1 second had passed since the combat had started…
As the hawk started trying to fly higher, Ren spoke with the sa casual tone he'd used all match. "Reach it now."
His mantis launched itself upward.
It wasn't a normal jump that obeyed physics of mass and gravity. It was a single-beat from the wings and a push from its big wind control…
It generated a propulsion that defied natural law, wings that weren't quite adapted for sustained flight pushing with such force and speed that limitations beca irrelevant at these altitudes.
The beast ascended 100 ters in less than two seconds, closing the distance the hawk thought was a safety margin with an acceleration that made the wind tar's jaw drop.
They hadn't even processed where the mantis had been, hadn't finished understanding the implications of Ren's command before it was too late to respond.
The mantis reached its prey.
Moving through the air with a speed that shouldn't be possible for insects of its size, generating thrust that overca any aerodynamic disadvantages through pure concentrated force.
It intercepted the hawk mid-flight, blade-arms striking while both creatures were airborne.
Two cuts again.
The hawk disintegrated mid-air, mana form collapsing as fatal damage overwheld its cohesion. Fragnts of energy scattered like fireworks, beautiful and terrible in their dispersal pattern.
Master Lin didn't need to verify the outco. "Victory: Ren Patinder's team. Score: 10-9."
Team Five had won their match through their leader's solo effort.
And most importantly...
Without revealing even close to the full scope of his abilities.
He hadn't used most of his elental repertoire that rumors suggested existed. Hadn't shown lightning or ice. Hadn't revealed how much mana he truly had in reserve or what his beast's stamina limits actually were.
It had fought three consecutive battles and erged looking completely fresh, not even breathing hard from exertion.
Roran watched Ren walk off the arena with admiration and resignation.
He'd sent three teammates knowing they'd lose, hoping to gather intelligence about where Ren's ceiling actually existed. Hoping to find so limit that could be exploited in future matches if they faced each other in later tournants.
Instead he'd confird what he'd suspected but hoped wasn't true.
That ceiling, if it existed, was so far above them they couldn't even glimpse it from where they stood.
"Wishful thinking," he muttered to himself while gathering his defeated team.
Roran wasn't stupid despite his perverted tendencies. He understood, recognized when soone was operating on a completely different level.
Ren was simply too far beyond them.
Not just in power but in versatility, in control, in efficiency… all that made rank comparisons aningless when accumulated advantages beca this extre.
The audience sat in stunned silence, processing what they'd witnessed.
Three Silver-rank beasts eliminated by a supposedly Bronze 2 mantis.
The question haunting everyone's thoughts was the sa one Roran had failed to answer:
Where does Ren Patinder's ceiling actually exist? And is anyone in this competition capable of reaching high enough to find it?
♢♢♢♢
GOLDCREST TERRITORY - THE CONCESSION
Victor observed the Goldcrest Castle from the distance while flying atop his enormous Golden Eagle with an expression that revealed nothing of what he was thinking beneath.
They'd finally secured access after months of patient maneuvering.
After months of carefully applied political pressure that had been calibrated to push without breaking. After economically cornering the largest noble union in the territory through debt restructuring and trade restrictions.
The opportunists had yielded, though the concession had been extracted rather than freely given.
They would permit inspection of the last heavily protected zone in the territory, the one they'd guarded most jealously for years. The one they'd defended even after the war, with resources they couldn't afford to spend but spent anyway because what they protected was worth more than the cost.
Because the information they hid there was worth more than the densest mana crystals to the late Ex Goldcrest leaders, and now to Orion's faction and their long-term plans.
"Only twenty n," Julius had said when requesting Victor to handle the incursion personally. "No more than that. Sufficient to protect you and escape if they try sothing stupid, but not so many that it looks like an invasion force."
It was a delicate balance that required careful calibration... The nobles from the easternmost part of Goldcrest territory and the opportunists who still remained in the small territory, territory that together with the entire noble union they had not permitted to be lost, were nervous about this developnt.
On edge in ways that made them dangerous and unpredictable.
If they thought this was attack rather than inspection, if they interpreted Victor's presence as the first step toward complete conquest...
They could trigger massive retaliation from the complete group of opportunist nobles and Starweaver faction scattered across different zones. Coordinated attacks that would cause real damage even to Ashenway and Dravenholm houses from within before they could be properly contained.
Which was what they'd been trying to avoid all along. The reason they'd played the political ga so carefully instead of simply taking what they wanted through force that would have been faster but much more ssier.
A ss they and a city full of innocents couldn't afford.
"At this point we can only give them more extended deadlines, nothing more…" Selphira had explained during the planning eting with a tone suggesting resignation to slow the process she was enjoying. "Recalculate their debts to strangle them slower. Make them feel they still have a chance if they cooperate with our demands."
Days later after additional pressure had been applied...
"They finally agreed to reveal the ruin," Julius had concluded with satisfaction that ca from a campaign successfully executed. "The deep one, the secret one... you were right, the ex Goldcrest territory side wants ti to recover wealth and regroup at any cost... Even behind Orion's back."
The cave that had generated the second core for the Starweaver territory door that required three cores to open.
The one that was similar to the ruin Sirius had explored under Starweaver territory before becoming trapped.
The one the Goldcrest faction had possessed and kept hidden from even their nominal allies.
Victor walked toward the castle entrance with his twenty n following in formation that projected strength without aggression. Two Goldcrest nobles waited at the gate, looking like they'd prefer being anywhere else in the world than greeting the head of the Dravenholm in power and now their inspector.
"Lord Victor," one greeted with forced courtesy that barely masked the resentnt. "Co. We'll show you what you ca to see."
There was no unnecessary conversation that might have eased tension. No false welco or pretense of hospitality that would have suggested this was anything other than what it was.
Only the tense efficiency of people fulfilling obligations they deeply resented but couldn't refuse without consequences.
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