"Charge!" Yu Tianheng roared.
The Royal Team moved like a well-oiled machine. They had fought together for months, and their coordination was instinctive.
The two Graphite Brothers, Shi Mo and Shi Mo, took the lead. Their massive tortoise shells glowed with yellow light as they activated their second soul skills. They became spinning discs of heavy armor, creating a wall of force that rumbled toward Arthev.
Behind them, Yu Tianheng charged his lightning. Above, Yu Feng dove from the sky. From the shadows, Osler vanished, circling to Arthev's blind spot.
Arthev stood still. He watched the spinning shells approaching.
"Too linear," Arthev said calmly.
He stomped his foot.
"Elemental Roots: Tree Bind."
Roots didn't erupt from the ground to grab the shells. Instead, the roots burst up directly under the Graphite Brothers' feet.
The sudden uneven terrain launched the spinning brothers into the air.
"Whoa!" Shi Mo yelled as his balance broke.
The spinning shells collided with each other mid-air, creating a loud CLANG that echoed through the arena.
"Balance is the weakness of rotation," Arthev lectured, sidestepping as the two brothers crashed into the ground where he had just been standing.
Swish.
A wind blade sliced at his neck. Yu Feng had timed his dive perfectly with the brothers' crash.
Arthev didn't look up. He raised his left hand, coating it in a thin layer of dense, vibrating Iron Sand. He backhanded the air.
SLAP.
The sand-covered hand shattered the wind blade. The force of the slap created a shockwave that disrupted the air current under Yu Feng's wings. The bird soul master tumbled, losing altitude.
"You rely on the wind," Arthev said, glancing up. "But wind is just moving air. If I disrupt the pressure, you fall."
"Eat this!" Dugu Yan screamed from the side.
She puffed out her cheeks. A stream of purple mist shot toward Arthev. It wasn't the deadly toxin, but a numbing agent meant to slow him down.
"Ye Lingling!" Dugu Yan shouted.
Ye Lingling, standing safely at the back, activated her third ring. "Reflective Petal Rain!"
Pink petals swirled into the purple mist, hiding inside the poison cloud. It was a nasty combo. If the poison didn't get him, the petals would latch on and drain his stamina.
Arthev raised an eyebrow. "Clever combination. Using the visual obstruction of the mist to hide the parasitic drain."
He raised his hand.
"Sand Dominion."
His first soul ring lit up. The ground beneath him crumbled into fine grains, rising in a swirling cloud. The sand didn't attack. It simply spread outward, forming a dense wall between him and the incoming mist.
The purple poison hit the sand barrier and stopped. The pink petals got caught in the grains, unable to pass through.
But Arthev didn't stop there.
He raised his other hand.
"Elemental Roots: Binding Vines."
Wooden vines erupted from the ground behind the sand wall. They shot forward, curving around the barrier and diving straight into the poison cloud.
"Cough! Cough!" Dugu Yan waved her hands, choking on her own smoke. The vines wrapped around her ankles and pulled her forward, dragging her out of the mist.
Ye Lingling tried to retreat, but more vines sprouted at her feet, coiling around her legs.
The purple mist dissipated. The pink petals scattered harmlessly against the sand wall.
Arthev lowered his hands. The sand settled. The vines held both girls in place.
"Control your area of effect," he said calmly. "If your enemy can block or redirect your cloud, your weapon becomes your weakness."
"Got you!"
Osler appeared directly behind Arthev. The Black Leopard soul master had used the chaos to sneak in. His claws glowed with dark light, aiming for Arthev's kidneys.
"Shadow Claw!"
It was a fast, lethal strike.
Arthev didn't turn around. He simply leaned back. He leaned so far back that his head was near Osler's waist. He watched the claw pass harmlessly over his nose.
Then, using the momentum, Arthev kicked up. His heel connected with Osler's chin.
Thwack.
Osler flew backward, flipping twice before landing on his back, dazed.
"Stealth requires silence," Arthev said, straightening his uniform. "Your heartbeat spiked right before you attacked. It was like a drum."
The Royal Team regrouped. They were panting. Arthev hadn't even moved from his starting circle.
Yu Tianheng gritted his teeth. "He counters everything. Physical attacks, energy attacks, stealth... nothing works."
"We need to hit him with everything at once," Shi Mo grunted, rubbing his sore back. "No tricks. Just raw power."
"The Turtle-Dragon Formation," Yu Tianheng ordered.
The Graphite Brothers nodded. They withdrew into their shells completely. The shells began to spin, but this time, they didn't charge. They stayed in place, revving up like engines.
Yu Tianheng jumped onto the spinning shells. He balanced perfectly.
"Third Soul Skill: Thunder Fury!"
The Dragon Captain glowed with blinding blue light. He channeled his lightning into the spinning shells. The Graphite Brothers' earth energy mixed with the lightning, creating a terrifying, electrified meat grinder.
"Go!" Yu Tianheng roared.
The two electrified shells shot forward, with Yu Tianheng riding them like a chariot of doom. The speed was double what it was before. The momentum was enough to smash through a castle wall.
"Now that," Arthev smiled, "is creative."
He didn't use his sand wall. The lightning would conduct through it.
He didn't use wood. It would be shredded.
He stood his ground. He extended his right hand.
Soul power began to gather in his palm. It didn't take the shape of a beam or a shield. It just began to spin.
Whatever direction the shell was spinning, Arthev made his energy spin the opposite way. Faster. Much faster.
The soul power condensed into a ball the size of a grapefruit. It whirred with a high-pitched sound, like a thousand birds chirping.
Rasengan.
The electrified turtle shells were five meters away.
Two meters.
One meter.
Yu Tianheng swiped down with his Dragon Claw, adding his own power to the impact.
Arthev thrust his palm forward. He didn't aim for Yu Tianheng. He aimed for the center of the spinning shell beneath him.
"Rasengan."
BOOOOOM!
The collision was deafening.
The spinning sphere of pure, chaotic rotation met the linear momentum of the spinning shell.
Physics took over.
The opposing rotations created a violent repulsion force. The Graphite Brother's shell stopped spinning instantly. The kinetic energy had nowhere to go, so it went out.
The shell was blasted backward as if shot from a cannon.
Because Yu Tianheng was standing on it, his foundation disappeared. The sudden stop launched the Dragon Captain forward, face-first toward Arthev.
Arthev sidestepped calmly.
Yu Tianheng sailed past him and crashed into the dirt face-first. The Graphite Brother spun wildly across the arena, knocking over his own twin.
Silence returned to the training ground.
Arthev looked at his hand. The blue sphere faded.
"Lesson number two," Arthev said to the groaning pile of elites. "Rotation generates force. But if you meet rotation with a faster, counter-rotation... the structure fails."
He looked at the Graphite Brothers, who were dizzy and trying to stand up.
"Your defense relies on deflecting attacks with spin. I didn't try to pierce it. I just spun you the other way."
Qin Ming, watching from the sidelines, forgot to write on his clipboard. He stared at the spot where Arthev had stood.
"No soul ring," Qin Ming whispered. "That wasn't a soul skill. That was ... self-created soul skill."
Arthev clapped his hands, signaling the end of the round.
"Again," Arthev ordered. "Lingling, heal them. We go until you can make me take a step back."
Ye Lingling scrambled to her feet, activating her healing flower. The Royal Team looked at Arthev with a mix of fear and awe.
They were in for a long morning.
To be continued.....