Silence.
The whole arena was dead quiet. A hundred people holding their breath. Even Jax looked confused for a second. Like he heard the coach wrong.
Then a slow, ugly grin spread across his face. He cracked his knuckles. Loudly.
"Alright, coach," Jax said, his voice dripping with condescension. "If you want me to take out the trash, I can do that."
He was looking at me. But he was talking to everyone else. Making a show of it.
I didn't say anything. I just walked to the center line. My heart was a drum against my ribs, but my hands were steady. My face was a mask. A blank slate.
The plan. Stick to the plan. Survive. Earn MP. Find the opening.
Coach Valerius looked from Jax to me, his face like stone. "The rules are simple. This is a one-on-one scoring duel. First to three points wins. A point is scored by getting the Aetherball in your opponent's goal. A duel also ends if a player is neutralized."
Neutralized. That meant taking a direct, powerful hit that forces your Aether Gear into a temporary stasis lock. A ten-second penalty where you're a sitting duck. It was how players like Jax won duels without even needing to score. Brute force.
"Ready?" the coach barked.
Jax gave me a wink. A final little piece of disrespect. "Ready."
I nodded once. My eyes were locked on Jax's stance. On his center of gravity. My own fear faded into the background, replaced by a cold, sharp focus. The system was humming quietly in the back of my mind. Ready.
The whistle blew.
Jax exploded into motion. He didn't waste a single second. He charged, gathering Aether into his palm, a ball of energy growing bigger and bigger. He was going for a quick, humiliating knockout.
He fired. A fast, powerful shot.
I didn't retreat. I didn't try to block. I just moved.
My body tilted to the right. A small, efficient motion. The bolt of orange light screamed past my head, missing by a whisper.
Ping.[Perfect Dodge Executed. Chain: 1. +1 MP]
My MP count hit 66. A small thrill went through me. It was working.
Jax didn't stop. He was on me in a second, firing another shot from close range. This one was aimed at my legs.
I didn't jump. I just bent my knees, dropping my center of gravity. The shot passed right over my head.
Ping.[Perfect Dodge Executed. Chain: 2. +2 MP]
He growled, a low, frustrated sound. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to be easy. I was supposed to be a joke. But I wasn't falling.
He started firing wildly. A barrage of attacks. Left, right, high, low. He was trying to overwhelm me. To fill the space with so much energy that I had nowhere to go.
To anyone else, it was chaos. A storm of light and power. To me, it was a data stream.
I moved through it. A dance. A weave. A sidestep. A duck. My body flowed around his attacks, never moving more than an inch or two more than I needed. I was a ghost in the machine.
The notifications were a beautiful song in my head.
MP: 70 MP: 75 MP: 81
The whispers started among the other players. "What is he doing?" "Why can't Jax hit him?" "Is he just getting lucky?"
Jax heard them. His face was turning red. The smirk was gone, replaced by pure anger. He was the ace. The prodigy. And this zero, this nobody, was making him look like a fool.
"Stand still and fight me!" he roared.
He stopped his barrage. He floated back, creating distance. I knew what was coming. The big one.
He braced himself, gathering a massive amount of Aether. The air around him crackled. The Jax Hammer. His strongest move. The one he thought was unstoppable.
But I had seen its soul. I had taken it apart, piece by piece, in my mind.
I saw the inefficient twist of his hips. I saw the wasted energy bleeding from his arm. I saw the sub-optimal spin he was about to apply.
He fired.
The massive ball of energy rocketed towards me. It was twice as big as his normal shots.
And I sidestepped it. Easily.
It wasn't even a challenge. Knowing its flaws was like knowing the future.
Ping.[Perfect Dodge Executed (Flawless Efficiency Bonus). Chain: 6. +8 MP]
My MP meter jumped. MP: 89.
Jax was wide open. He had put everything into that one shot, leaving him completely off-balance. His stance was a mess.
This was it. The opening.
My first plan was to use my own Power Shot. But I knew it was too weak. It wouldn't even dent his shield. I needed a better option.
And the system gave it to me.
Spend MP? I thought. Analyze him. Now.
[Live Analysis function engaged. Target: 'Jax'. Cost: 10 MP per second.]
My MP started to drain. MP: 79. But my vision changed. A new layer of data overlaid Jax's body. Red lines highlighted his stress points.
[Analysis: Structural instability detected in user 'Jax's' left ankle bracing due to over-rotation on previous skill execution. Vulnerability window: 0.8 seconds.]
There.
I didn't hesitate. I didn't aim for the goal. I didn't aim for his chest.
I raised my hand, formed my small, pathetic ball of Aether. I put my perfect form into the swing.
And I fired my Power Shot.
I aimed it right at his left ankle.
Jax saw the weak shot coming. He scoffed, a look of contempt on his face. He started to raise his shield to block it, not even taking it seriously.
But he was too slow.
The small blue ball hit his ankle plate. The impact was nothing. A soft thwack. It had almost no force.
But it didn't need force. It just needed precision.
It hit the exact point of structural instability the system had shown me. The brace on his Aether Gear, already under strain, buckled.
Jax's ankle twisted.
His eyes went wide with shock. A gasp of pain escaped his lips. He lost his balance completely, his body tumbling in the zero-g field as he tried to correct himself. He crashed to his knee on the floor plate, a look of pure humiliation on his face.
He was down. He was open.
The Aetherball, its energy deflected from the impact, floated gently in the air between us.
I was already there.
I scooped it up, and with a simple, easy flick of my wrist, I sent it sailing into the wide-open goal behind him.
The goal lit up. A soft chime echoed through the arena.
The scoreboard, which had been 0-0, now read: KAI: 1JAX: 0
Silence.
Absolute, stunned silence from every person watching.
Jax was still on one knee, staring at me. The anger was gone. The contempt was gone. All that was left was a look of pure, murderous disbelief.
I looked over at Coach Valerius. His jaw was hanging slightly open. His eyes were wide.
He was finally seeing me.