The battlefield quaked as Kane Eguchi stepped forward, the air bending violently around him.
Yet when his fist lashed out, it was not time magic that struck, it was raw, unrelenting power.
His blow landed against Ban Nakajima's skeletal-dragon frame with a sound like thunder splitting the heavens.
Bone cracked, embers sputtered, and Ban then staggered back, his claws scraping furiously against the stone floor.
Ban's eyes widened.
His dragon aura flared desperately, skeletal wings spreading wide, embers spilling from his chest like sparks from a dying forge.
He lunged, claws slashing in arcs meant to tear Kane apart.
But Kane moved with a simplicity that was terrifying, no distortion of time, no bending of reality.
Just speed, precision, and strength but no magic.
Each strike that Ban did was easily deflected, each claw shattered against Kane's fists that was not infused with magic.
Ban's voice turned rough as he growled in disbelief. "No way... you're not even using it.!"
Kane's expression now remained unreadable, his eyes cold, his movements fluid.
Kane struck again, a knee driving into Ban's chest, sending the dragon warrior skidding across the battlefield and into the arena wall causing it to crack some more.
The crowd then gasped, and whispers spread like wildfire.
Kane was dismantling Ban without even touching the power that made him feared.
***
From the sidelines, Yoi Ohara rose shakily, her skeletal form trembling, shadows curling weakly around her.
Yoi's smirk now returned and there was now venom dripping from her words. "You may crush bone, Kane… but shadows will consume you."
Her mist spread, shadows slithering across the battlefield, weaving toward Kane like serpents seeking prey.
The crowd tensed, remembering the suffocating dominion she had wielded earlier.
Ban's embers flared in unison, the two fallen warriors uniting against the silent predator.
But Kane did not falter.
He stepped through the mist as though it were smoke, his aura burning it away without effort.
His hand lashed out, striking Yoi's skeletal frame with brutal precision.
She staggered, shadows scattering like frightened birds.
Her poison mist dissolved instantly, leaving her gasping, her dominion broken once more.
Kane said, his voice calm and cool, "Shadows and bone... they both fall apart when something unavoidable happens."
***
The arena was silent, the crowd frozen in awe.
Sai had burned shadows and poison, Ban had crushed fire and smoke, but Kane was dismantling all of the aspects without even calling upon his true dominion.
His aura was not fire, not bone, not shadow, not poison, it was time and it was inevitability, the weight of an impacting force that did not need tricks or magic to dominate.
The battlefield trembled beneath Kane's steps, each movement a declaration.
Ban's claws hung broken, Yoi's shadows scattered, and the crowd understood: Kane was not fighting to win.
He was fighting to remind them all that time was not his only weapon.
Ban then staggered to his feet, embers flickering weakly.
Yoi rose beside him, her shadows trembling.
Both warriors stood together, battered yet defiant.
Kane's eyes glowed faintly, his aura pressing down like a storm.
He had not used his time magic. He did not need to.