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The Battle Olympia arena on the 250th floor of Heaven's Arena was built to make even powerful fighters feel small. A vast floor of reinforced stone stretched beneath a cathedral-like ceiling, surrounded by tier after tier of spectators. More than fifty thousand voices merged into a deafening roar that vibrated through the tiles and seemed to press against the fighters from every direction.
At the centre of the arena stood two figures who could not have looked more different.
Kagetsu Yuzuki appeared almost relaxed in his loose black clothes, with one forearm still wrapped in white bandages and a lollipop resting between his lips. His hands were tucked inside his pockets, and his posture carried the lazy slouch of a child who had wandered into the wrong room. Only the complete stillness of his balance and the clear blue glow behind his eyes revealed how focused he truly was.
Viktor Richter stood across from him like a wall given human form. The Iron Tyrant wore only heavy martial arts trousers, leaving his scarred chest and thick arms exposed. He did not stretch, bounce on his heels or shift his weight. His breathing remained slow and controlled as he watched Yuzuki without arrogance or hostility.
He had defended his place on the upper floors forty-two times, and he had not taken a clean hit in three years.
The commentator's voice thundered across the arena. "Ladies and gentlemen, the first quarterfinal of Battle Olympia begins now!"
The bronze bell rang.
Yuzuki moved first, though he made no attempt to close the distance. He drove his heel against the edge of a floor tile and broke off a jagged piece of stone. A small point of Blue formed behind the debris and pulled it forward with violent force, accelerating the rock toward Viktor's face.
The projectile tore through the air with a sharp crack.
Viktor did not blink.
The stone crossed an invisible boundary roughly three feet from his body and suddenly lost all forward movement. It hung in the air for the briefest instant before dropping harmlessly to the floor.
Yuzuki's eyes followed every speck of dust disturbed by its fall.
'So speed alone won't get through.'
He disappeared from his starting position and crossed the arena in a blur. Instead of committing to a full attack, he entered from Viktor's left and threw a short punch toward the veteran's ribs.
The moment Yuzuki's fist entered the same invisible radius, all the force behind his strike vanished.
There was no wall and no collision. His arm simply slowed until his knuckles brushed Viktor's skin with less force than a casual tap. The sudden loss of momentum dragged Yuzuki's balance forward and prevented him from withdrawing his arm cleanly.
Viktor turned his hips and swung a heavy backhand toward Yuzuki's temple.
Yuzuki activated Infinity.
Viktor's hand slowed a fraction before reaching his face, trapped within the endless distance surrounding Yuzuki's body. Even without making contact, the pressure behind the strike caused Yuzuki's aura to strain.
He pushed away from the floor and retreated before releasing the technique, landing several metres outside Viktor's range.
'Two seconds used. Fifteen until I can rely on it again.'
Viktor calmly turned to face him. "Your defence is impressive, but you cannot maintain it. Your breathing changed the moment you withdrew."
Yuzuki removed the lollipop from his mouth and glanced at the veteran's feet. "And you've surrounded yourself with a field that makes anything moving toward you forget what it was doing. Nen really rewards strange people."
"There is nothing strange about reality," Viktor replied, beginning to walk forward. "Only those who fail to understand it."
Yuzuki raised his bandaged hand. A small sphere of crimson aura formed in front of his fingers, distorting the air around it. He kept the output deliberately low, knowing that even a restrained use of Red would punish his damaged arm.
He released it.
The crimson sphere crossed the arena and reached Viktor's invisible boundary. Its forward movement stopped immediately. The trapped repulsive force burst outward in a cloud of dust and shattered stone, but none of it reached Viktor.
Pain travelled through Yuzuki's wrist and forearm. He lowered his hand before the strain worsened.
'Physical objects, direct attacks and emitted Nen. It stops all of them the same way.'
As the dust began to clear, Yuzuki watched Viktor more carefully than before. The Iron Tyrant had not moved, yet his breathing had become slightly shallower. Several muscles across his torso had tightened even though he had made no attack.
The force was not disappearing.
Something inside Viktor was changing every time Quarantine stopped an incoming object. The alterations were small enough that an ordinary fighter would never have noticed them, but the Six Eyes traced the pressure travelling through his aura and body.
'He's taking it in.'
Yuzuki's expression remained calm as the answer took shape in his mind. Viktor's field removed momentum from anything that entered its reach, but that force had to go somewhere. Each stopped attack added more pressure to the veteran's body.
Viktor was not an unbreakable wall.
He was a container.
Inside Yuzuki's private viewing box, Kastro leaned forward with both hands resting against the railing. "None of his attacks have worked. He has already strained his arm using Red, and Viktor has barely moved."
Bisky stood beside him with her arms folded. Her eyes remained fixed on Yuzuki rather than the Iron Tyrant.
"He isn't trying to land anything yet," she said.
Kastro narrowed his eyes and focused Gyo on the arena below. Yuzuki was moving in a wide circle around Viktor, releasing small bursts of aura and flicking pieces of broken stone from different angles. Some approached from the front, while others came from the side or skimmed the edge of the invisible field.
Every attack stopped.
However, Yuzuki altered the speed, weight and angle each time.
"He's measuring the radius," Kastro realised. "He wants to know whether it changes depending on the direction or strength of the attack."
Bisky added. "The problem is that every test gives Viktor more power to work with. Yuzuki is gathering information, but he is also loading whatever comes next."
Kastro's fingers tightened against the railing. "Then why keep doing it?"
"Because he believes he can find the limit before Viktor decides to use it."
Bisky's expression darkened.
"He had better be right."
Yuzuki continued circling while Viktor steadily advanced. Small stones, compressed aura shots and brief physical feints entered Quarantine from different angles, allowing the Six Eyes to trace the field's shape.
It was spherical, extending an even distance around Viktor's body. The size remained consistent whether the attack came from above, below or either side.
Viktor understood what Yuzuki was doing, but he made no attempt to stop him.
That was the part Yuzuki disliked most.
The veteran was allowing himself to be studied.
Yuzuki sent another stone toward Viktor's shoulder, then followed it with a second projectile aimed low at his knee. Both stopped at the same distance and fell to the ground.
'No change in the radius. No delay between targets. Either he can stop several attacks at once, or the field works automatically once it's active.'
Yuzuki moved to Viktor's right and fired three weak aura shots in quick succession. Each one stalled at the boundary, but the pressure inside Viktor's body grew more visible. His shoulders had become rigid, while the aura across his chest and back seemed denser than it had at the beginning of the match.
The Iron Tyrant was carrying every attack Yuzuki had thrown.
Viktor continued walking, slowly reducing the space between Yuzuki and the retaining wall surrounding the arena.
"You have remarkable eyes," he said. "Most opponents spend the entire match believing they are striking a shield. You realised almost immediately that the space itself was not stopping them."
Yuzuki kept moving. "Your clothes, the dust and the air around you continue behaving normally. If you were freezing the area, everything would stop."
"And now?"
"Now I'm wondering how much pressure your body can hold."
Viktor's steps stopped.
The arena crowd continued roaring, but the space between the two fighters became strangely quiet.
Yuzuki gave him a faint smile. "You're not destroying the force behind my attacks. You're storing it inside yourself. The field takes the movement, and your body contains what remains."
Viktor studied him for a moment before slowly inclining his head.
"You see deeply."
"People usually tell me that right before they try to kill me."
"They are wise to try."
Viktor's aura began to change.
The heavy stillness surrounding him compressed inward as the stored pressure gathered through his muscles. The stone beneath his feet cracked, not from an attack, but from the force building inside his stance.
Yuzuki's smile faded.
He could see the energy from every stone, every aura shot, his punch and even the restrained Red moving through Viktor's body. The veteran had accepted each experiment because Yuzuki had been filling his reserves for him.
'He knew exactly what I was doing.'
Viktor lowered his centre of gravity and drew one fist back. His muscles tightened, and the air around him trembled as the accumulated force prepared to escape.
"You measured my ability accurately, Kagetsu Yuzuki," he said. "Now you will learn what happens when the vault is opened."
Yuzuki shifted his stance, painfully aware that Infinity was still several seconds away from becoming available again.
Viktor's eyes hardened.
"Iron Verdict."
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