The shield on Thena's left arm dissolved into golden motes of light, vanishing as quickly as it had materialized. She gripped her spear with both hands, the weapon's cosmic energy humming in harmony with her movements.
The nine rings converged from every angle—high, low, flanking left and right. A killing formation designed to overwhelm through sheer multidirectional assault.
Thena's response was a masterwork of five-thousand-year-old technique.
Her spear became a blur of golden light. She stabbed forward, intercepting one ring mid-flight. The impact rang like a church bell struck by lightning. Before the sound could fade, she'd already pivoted, the spear's shaft deflecting a second ring with a circular parry. Her movements flowed like water, each technique bleeding seamlessly into the next—thrust, deflect, sweep, redirect, strike.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Each collision between cosmic artifacts produced sonic booms that cracked across the arena like artillery fire. The shockwaves were physical things, rippling through the air with enough force to make spectators' teeth ache. Several people in the crowd clutched their ears, wincing against the auditory assault.
Baymax robots emerged from the sidelines with practiced efficiency, distributing specialized earplugs to ordinary humans throughout the spectator sections. The androids moved with quiet courtesy, their soft padding making them somehow more considerate than the average human usher.
Thena repelled the final ring, her spear spinning in a defensive flourish. But her expression didn't relax. Her eyes remained locked on Xu Wenwu, tracking every micro-movement, every shift in stance.
She'd fought enough battles to recognize when an opponent was merely testing her.
Xu Wenwu's hands moved in fluid gestures, fingers conducting an invisible orchestra. The scattered rings responded instantly, reversing course and attacking from new vectors. They moved with frightening coordination, weaving patterns that seemed almost alive—tactical, adaptive, relentless.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Thena's spear danced faster, a golden tornado of defensive artistry. But Xu Wenwu commanded ten independent weapons simultaneously, each capable of attacking from different angles at different heights. The mathematics of the engagement favored him—one defender against ten attackers, even when that defender possessed cosmic enhancement.
A gap appeared in her defense. Milliseconds only, but enough.
One ring slipped through, striking Thena's abdomen with the force of a cannonball.
The impact lifted her from her feet and hurled her backward. Air exploded from her lungs, and pain bloomed across her torso like fire. But even flying through the air, Thena's combat instincts remained perfect.
Her spear lanced downward, the golden blade piercing the arena's gold-titanium surface. The weapon punched through the alloy like tissue paper, and the sudden resistance arrested her backward flight. She hung suspended for a heartbeat, feet dangling, before pulling herself upright.
Xu Wenwu gestured, and all ten rings abandoned their pursuit. They flew back to his arms in perfect formation, settling onto his wrists with audible clicks as they remagnetized.
Thena straightened, one hand pressed briefly against her abdomen where the ring had struck. The pain was manageable—she'd endured far worse across five millennia—but the impact had been significant. This man could hurt her.
"Strong enough," she said, and genuine respect colored her tone.
Her spear dissolved into golden sparks.
Then Thena launched forward, crossing the distance to Xu Wenwu in three bounding strides. As she closed range, she leaped, her body rotating in midair to deliver a devastating overhead strike.
Both fists clasped together formed a hammer. The blow crashed down on the nearest ring, batting it aside with enough force to send the artifact tumbling across the arena floor. In the same fluid motion, Thena's leg whipped out in a sidekick that targeted Xu Wenwu's center mass.
The man tried to raise his remaining rings defensively, forming a barrier of cosmic metal. It wasn't enough.
Thena's kick connected with the force of a freight train. Even with nine rings absorbing the impact, Xu Wenwu flew backward, his body tumbling through the air like a ragdoll. He cleared half the arena's diameter before managing to arrest his momentum, landing in a skidding crouch that tore furrows in the gold-titanium surface.
Thena didn't give him time to recover. She closed the distance again, her advance inexorable.
Xu Wenwu punched forward with both fists, sending all ten rings hurtling toward her in a concentrated barrage. The artifacts streaked through the air trailing golden energy contrails.
Thena's hands moved, and a massive shield materialized—twice her height, thick as a castle door. The rings hammered against it with sequential impacts that sounded like hammer strikes on an anvil. The shield held, absorbing the kinetic energy without fracturing.
The moment the barrage ended, Thena's cosmic power reshaped the construct. The shield dissolved and reformed as twin longswords, each blade glowing with internal light. She crossed the weapons and drove them toward Xu Wenwu in a scissoring slash.
Xu Wenwu's rings responded instantly, forming a horizontal line that intercepted both blades. Sparks erupted from the collision point, and the sound was deafening.
But Thena was already adapting. The longswords dissolved mid-strike and became a massive double-bladed axe. The weapon's momentum continued uninterrupted, the axe head descending toward Xu Wenwu's position with lethal intent.
Xu Wenwu barely raised his ring-barrier in time. The axe crashed against the cosmic metal, and the force drove him to one knee.
The pattern repeated. Thena struck with overwhelming power and frightening speed, her weapons morphing with every attack. Longsword became spear became hammer became axe became blade, each transformation designed to exploit weaknesses in Xu Wenwu's defense. Sometimes she'd commit to a thrust with a short-range weapon, only for the construct to extend mid-attack into a pole-arm that reached far beyond where Xu Wenwu had positioned his defense.
For the first dozen exchanges, the Ten Rings leader fought purely defensively, his artifacts forming barriers and redirections to weather the storm. His expression remained calm, calculating, analyzing patterns.
Then something shifted.
Xu Wenwu's movements became more confident, more aggressive. He'd found the rhythm. Five thousand years of combat experience was formidable, but a thousand years was nothing to dismiss—and he'd spent that millennium specifically mastering these ten artifacts.
The rings detached from his arms in a new configuration. Xu Wenwu caught one in his right hand while the other nine linked together into a segmented whip. He lashed out with a crack that split the air.
Thena raised a one-handed shield to block.
The whip struck the construct and shattered it instantly, golden energy dissipating into sparkles that faded before touching the ground.
Thena's eyes widened fractionally. That shield should have held.
Xu Wenwu didn't pause. He spun, the ring-whip following his motion, and struck again from a different angle.
Thena conjured a two-handed shield this time, larger and presumably sturdier.
The whip shattered it just as easily.
Understanding crystallized in Thena's mind. The rings possessed some property—vibrational frequency, energy disruption, something—that specifically countered her cosmic constructs. Her weapons and shields weren't as effective against these artifacts as they should be.
That changed the tactical landscape considerably.
Xu Wenwu seized the opening. While Thena processed this new information, he detached one of the rings from his whip and hurled it directly at her face.
Thena manifested a long staff and batted the ring aside with a sharp crack. The artifact tumbled through the air, spinning end-over-end.
Then it reversed course, accelerating back toward her at twice its original speed.
Xu Wenwu smiled.
The ring became a golden blur, attacking from multiple angles as Xu Wenwu's gestures guided its flight path. Thena's staff moved in defensive patterns, intercepting each strike, but the speed and unpredictability kept her fully occupied.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Each deflection rang like thunder. Sparks flew. Shockwaves rippled outward.
While the single ring kept Thena's attention divided, Xu Wenwu closed the distance. He advanced steadily, each step bringing him closer to optimal striking range.
Thena swung her staff in a horizontal arc, trying to create space.
Xu Wenwu ducked beneath the strike with practiced ease and caught the staff's middle section in one hand. His grip was iron-firm, immovable as a mountain.
Thena pulled, channeling superhuman strength through her arms. The staff didn't budge. Xu Wenwu's rings enhanced his physical capabilities far beyond normal human limits.
She dissolved the staff instantly, allowing it to vanish into golden motes.
In the same heartbeat, she manifested a massive one-handed axe, already swinging toward Xu Wenwu's exposed position.
But the instant her staff disappeared, Xu Wenwu had been ready. All five rings on his right arm detached simultaneously and struck Thena's abdomen in concentrated formation.
The impact was catastrophic.
Thena flew backward faster than sound itself. Mach cones formed around her body as she broke the sound barrier, the characteristic rings of compressed air visible to the spectators. A sonic boom cracked across the arena like a gunshot.
She cleared the ring's boundary in less than a second, her body still accelerating as she shot into the open sky beyond the tournament grounds.
Xu Wenwu turned his palm upward, and the five rings that had struck Thena returned to his arm at lightspeed, reattaching with soft clicks.
He stood alone on the arena floor, breathing steadily, showing no signs of exhaustion despite the intense exchange.
In the spectator section, Makkari's supernatural perception registered Thena's trajectory before most eyes could track it. The speedster moved, her body accelerating through a golden blur of kinetic energy.
One instant she occupied her seat. The next, she'd crossed kilometers to intercept Thena's flight path. Makkari caught her teammate gently despite the violent momentum, cradling Thena's injured form as she decelerated. The speedster returned to the Eternals' section in another blur of golden light.
The entire rescue took perhaps two seconds.
Thena slumped in Makkari's arms, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Her breathing came in shallow gasps, and pain etched lines across her normally serene features. The five-ring strike had cracked at least two ribs and caused significant internal bruising.
Ajak, the Eternals' leader, appeared at Thena's side with maternal swiftness. The healer's hands glowed with soft golden light as she placed them against Thena's torso. Cosmic energy flowed into the wounded Eternal, knitting torn tissue, realigning fractured bone, restoring damaged organs to full function.
Within seconds, Thena's breathing steadied. The blood vanished from her lips. Color returned to her face.
The healing was so swift, so complete, that most spectators didn't even realize Thena had been retrieved from the sky. One moment she'd been flying away from the arena. The next, she sat in the Eternals' section looking only slightly winded.
Smith Doyle appeared on the arena floor, materializing beside Xu Wenwu with his characteristic speed. He raised the Ten Rings leader's arm high, his voice carrying across the venue.
"The winner is Xu Wenwu!"
Silence held for a heartbeat as the audience processed what they'd witnessed.
Then applause erupted like a thunderclap. The cheering built on itself, growing louder with each passing second. Spectators rose to their feet, their enthusiasm genuine and overwhelming.
The battle between Xu Wenwu and Thena had been everything they'd hoped for—two immortals trading devastating blows, neither holding back, both displaying combat mastery that transcended ordinary human comprehension. The audience had witnessed something genuinely extraordinary, and they recognized it.
Xu Wenwu's gaze shifted to the spectator section, tracking the golden light that had flashed past his peripheral vision. He'd registered Makkari's rescue attempt—barely. The speedster had moved too fast for detailed observation, appearing and disappearing in eyeblinks.
His analytical mind catalogued the information. The Eternals possessed diverse abilities. Thena's combat prowess and weapon manifestation. Makkari's incredible speed—faster than anything he could match, forcing him into defensive counterpunching rather than pursuit. And now a healer who could restore catastrophic injuries in seconds.
By logical extension, there would be others with different specializations. Tanks. Ranged attackers. Perhaps reality manipulators or psychics. An entire group of ancient immortals, each with unique cosmic powers.
Xu Wenwu had lived in China for over a thousand years, had researched every corner of the world seeking resurrection methods for his wife. Yet the Eternals had remained unknown to him until now. They were as hidden as Ta Lo, his wife's homeland—perhaps more so.
The world contained depths he still hadn't fully plumbed. The realization was humbling and oddly refreshing.
Xu Wenwu walked from the arena floor, his posture relaxed despite the intensity of the recent combat. He returned to the Ten Rings section where Xialing and Shang-Chi waited.
Both siblings stared at their father with expressions caught between awe and incomprehension. Words failed them. The man who'd raised them, who they'd known their entire lives, had just fought an immortal cosmic being to a standstill and won. The demonstration of power exceeded anything their childhood memories had prepared them for.
But beyond the shock at their father's capabilities, both siblings found their thoughts drifting to their mother. According to family stories, Ying Li had defeated Xu Wenwu in combat when they first met. She'd been the warrior of Ta Lo, guardian of her people's ancient village.
If their mother could defeat this—could overcome a man who'd just bested a five-thousand-year-old Eternal—what did that say about Ta Lo's power? What was the "power of the dragon" their mother had wielded? What other secrets did her homeland hold?
For the first time, genuine curiosity about Ta Lo bloomed in both Shang-Chi and Xialing's minds. Their mother's birthplace had always been abstract, a place from stories. Now it became real—a location that might hold answers to questions they hadn't known to ask.
Eddie Brock descended to the arena floor, his movements graceful despite Venom's mass adding to his frame. He raised both arms, commanding attention through presence rather than volume.
"Thank you to all four contestants for those spectacular matches!"
His voice carried across the venue, amplified by Venom's enhancement. "The current standings are as follows: Xu Wenwu holds three Dragon Ball coins. Tony Stark holds two Dragon Ball coins. Thor Odinson and Thena each hold one Dragon Ball coin."
He gestured toward the massive display screen above the arena. "The third round of competition now begins! Let's see who will face whom!"
The screen flickered to life, displaying the four remaining competitors' faces. The images began rotating, spinning faster and faster until they blurred into streaks of color. The audience leaned forward collectively, tension building as the rotation continued.
The spinning slowed. Decelerated. Finally stopped.
The matchups appeared in bold text:
Xu Wenwu VS Thor Odinson
Tony Stark VS Thena
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