Ren wrenched his fist backward, tearing it from Kage's iron grip. The friction tore the leather of his A-Rank gloves, but he didn't stop to assess the damage.
His 162 Intelligence was flooding his mind with red warning signals. The data was absolute, cold, and unforgiving: Target's physical density exceeds user's maximum output. Target's reaction speed negates user's velocity.
Ren refused to accept it. He had 106 Strength. He had 89 Speed. He had bled in the Realm of Peace to integrate those numbers into his flesh.
He dropped his center of gravity and activated Shadow Step.
He vanished into the sand's shadow, reappearing directly at Kage's blind spot.
Attack One.
Ren thrust Eclipse toward Kage's exposed ribs, aiming for the gap between the dark robes. It was a flawless, textbook assassination strike.
Kage didn't even turn his head. He simply shifted his weight a fraction of an inch to the left. The S-Rank dagger sliced through empty air, missing the flesh by a millimeter.
Attack Two.
Ren didn't pause. Using the momentum of the missed thrust, he spun low, sweeping his leg in a brutal arc meant to shatter Kage's knees.
Kage lifted his right foot casually, stepping over Ren's leg as if stepping over a puddle in the street.
Attack Three.
Desperation began to claw at the edges of Ren's mind. He pushed off the ground, twisting his body into a reverse-grip slash aimed directly at Kage's throat. The purple mana coating the blade hissed.
Kage raised a single, unarmored forearm. The dark fabric of his robe hardened instantly, infused with dense, A-Rank mana.
CLANG.
The S-Rank dagger bounced off Kage's sleeve, the recoil jarring Ren's wrist so violently he nearly dropped the weapon.
Attack Four and Five.
Ren abandoned technique. He unleashed a frantic, high-speed combination—a feint to the chest followed by a desperate, leaping downward stab to the collarbone.
Kage sighed. It was a dry, bored sound.
He swatted Ren's feint away with the back of his hand, then casually caught Ren's descending wrist mid-air.
Ren hung suspended for a microsecond, his arm trapped in Kage's grip. He was panting, his chest heaving, sweat stinging his eyes.
Kage wasn't even breathing heavily. The Shadow Monarch looked at the boy dangling from his hand with profound disappointment.
"You bought your strength, didn't you?" Kage whispered, his voice carrying only to Ren's ears. "Your muscles are dense, your speed is high, but your foundation is hollow. You fight like a thug who found a sharp knife. You have no flow. No rhythm. You are a child playing dress-up in an assassin's cloak."
Kage released Ren's wrist and casually shoved him backward.
Ren stumbled, his boots skidding across the sand. He felt entirely exposed. The "Glitch" that had carried him through the forest, the Dragon, and the Devil was completely useless here. He wasn't fighting a mindless beast; he was fighting a veteran killer whose base stats as a Level 34 A-Rank naturally eclipsed Ren's purchased numbers.
"This is boring," Kage said, his voice echoing across the nearly empty stadium. Up in the VIP box, Lord Zilton leaned forward, a cruel smile stretching across his gaunt face.
"Let us end this farce," Kage declared. "I will show you the difference between a number on a screen and true, refined power."
Kage didn't draw a weapon. He simply bent his knees.
The shadows around the arena seemed to stretch and pull toward him, gathering at his feet.
Kage leaped.
He didn't use a flashy skill like Valerius's Heaven's Dive. It was just a jump, but the sheer, explosive force of his A-Rank physical stats propelled him fifteen meters into the air in the blink of an eye.
Ren looked up, his high Intelligence calculating the trajectory. 'He's coming straight down. I have to dodge—'
But the shadows Kage had gathered were already acting. They slithered across the sand, wrapping around Ren's ankles like iron chains, anchoring him to the spot.
High above, Kage flipped his body forward, bringing his right leg up in a devastating, high-arcing swing. Dark mana trailed from his heel like a comet's tail.
He wasn't even trying. Ren's Appraisal caught the terrifying truth: Kage was holding back. He was using exactly half of his maximum output, treating Ren with the ultimate disrespect.
Kage brought his leg down in a brutal, descending swing kick.
Ren crossed his arms over his head, channeling every drop of his 78 Mana into a desperate, improvised shield.
CRACK.
The impact was catastrophic.
Kage's heel slammed into Ren's crossed forearms. The makeshift mana shield shattered instantly like cheap glass. The kinetic force bypassed Ren's Shroud of the Night Stalker, driving straight into his bones.
The ground beneath Ren exploded. A crater ten meters wide caved in, sending a shockwave of sand and pulverized marble washing over the empty spectator stands.
Ren was driven face-first into the bedrock beneath the arena sand.
[SYSTEM CRITICAL WARNING!]
[Massive Blunt Force Trauma Detected.]
[Skeletal Fractures: Forearms, Ribs, Clavicle.]
[Status Effect Applied: Shadow Bind / Severe Concussion.]
[User is IMMOBILIZED.]
[Duration: 00:01:00]
Ren lay at the bottom of the crater, his vision swimming in a sea of black and red. A high-pitched ringing deafened him. He tried to move his fingers. Nothing happened. He tried to twitch his leg. Nothing.
His brain was sending the signals, but his nervous system was completely short-circuited by the sheer trauma of the blow and the dark mana pinning him down.
He was paralyzed. For sixty agonizing seconds, he was a corpse that could still breathe.
Kage landed gracefully on the edge of the crater, not a single speck of dust on his dark robes. He looked down at Ren's broken, unmoving body.
"Sixty seconds," Kage said, pulling a sleek, obsidian dagger from his robes. "That is how long my Shadow Bind lasts on a weak vessel. But I only need five seconds to cut your throat."
Kage began to walk down into the crater, his footsteps slow, deliberate, and utterly silent. He was savoring the execution. He was fulfilling his father's orders to break the commoner.
Ren lay in the dirt, his 162 Intelligence trapped inside a useless body.
'I can't beat him in close combat,' Ren's mind raced, analyzing his own humiliating defeat. 'My dagger skills are a joke to him. My speed is useless if he can read my movements before I make them. He is the apex of the Assassin class.'
The red timer ticked down in his vision.
[00:00:45]
Kage was halfway down the crater.
'If I fight him as an Assassin, I die,' Ren realized, the cold, hard truth settling over him. 'Assassins thrive in the dark. They rely on stealth, precision, and single-target elimination.'
Ren's eyes darted to the side, looking at the shadows clinging to Kage's robes.
'What is the nemesis of an Assassin?' Ren thought. 'What is the one thing a shadow-dweller cannot fight?'
The answer was obvious.
Area of Effect. Unpredictable, chaotic destruction. Magic that didn't require precision, but simply consumed everything in its path. Magic that burned away the shadows.
[00:00:20]
Kage stood over him, raising the obsidian dagger. "Any last words, glitch?"
Ren couldn't speak. His jaw was locked. But his mana pool was still full. His physical body was broken, but his magical pathways were wide open.
He had spent his entire time in this world trying to be a rogue, a stealthy killer who stabbed from the dark. But the System had given him Fire Tornado. And the System had just given him Grave Eater.
He didn't need to be an Assassin right now. He needed to be a catastrophe.
[00:00:05]
Kage swung the dagger down toward Ren's neck.
[00:00:01]
'If I can't cut the shadow,' Ren thought, his eyes burning with a sudden, violent light. 'I'll just burn it to the ground.'
[00:00:00]
[Status Effect: Immobilization Lifted.]
Ren didn't reach for his dagger. As Kage's blade descended, Ren thrust both of his hands upward, aiming directly at the Shadow Monarch's chest.
[Skill Activated: Fire Tornado (Level 2)]
A massive vortex of searing, crimson flames erupted point-blank from Ren's palms, instantly swallowing the A-Rank assassin in a roaring pillar of fire.