Zeta lay motionless on the fractured arena floor. Her armor was cracked across the chest and face, frost spreading along the damage like veins of glass. A thick dome of ice encased her body Omega's last defensive act before everything spiraled. Above them, members of Camp Pi stood perched along the rooftops like silent judges. Four summoned chimeras ravaged the battlefield below. Gamma locked eyes with the nearest beast.
It lunged.
He sprinted forward instead of retreating. At the final instant, Gamma slid beneath the chimera's sweeping paw. Wind pressure roared past his ears. His palm struck upward, pressing firmly against the creature's exposed underbelly. A sudden burst.
Invisible blades of compressed air detonated outward. The chimera split mid-motion. Blood and fragments scattered across the stone. Beta stood firm against two incoming chimeras, her expression cold, unshaken. Her shadow expanded violently.
Jet-black tendrils erupted from the ground, wrapping around both beasts before they could react. The creatures thrashed, claws tearing through empty air as they were dragged screaming into the darkness. The shadow swallowed them whole.
Behind her, jagged pillars of ice exploded upward, impaling the final chimera clean through the skull.
Silence fell.
Then
"Well… let's make this harder."
A female voice drifted across the battlefield. A girl leapt gracefully from Pi's rooftop command point, landing without a sound. Runes ignited beneath her feet. Two summoning circles blazed.
MINOTAURS.
They burst forth instantly.
One locked onto Gamma.
It vanished.
A blur of monstrous speed. Gamma barely raised his bow before a colossal axe crashed down. The impact thundered through his arms, shattering his stance and launching him across the arena. His body slammed into a wall. He collapsed.
Still.
The second minotaur charged Omega. Before it reached her Beta exploded upward from Omega's shadow. Her staff intercepted the descending axe with a metallic crack, shockwaves rippling outward from the collision. The minotaur recoiled, growling. Both beasts shifted their attention. To Beta. Omega stepped forward immediately, placing herself between Beta and the monsters. "Get the others," Omega said coldly. "Move them somewhere safe." Beta hesitated. "Omega " "I'll buy time."
Her lime eyes gleamed.
"Go."
Beta clenched her jaw then obeyed. Shadows surged across the ground as she dashed toward Zeta. Gamma's unconscious body was seized by a tendril and dragged behind her. A minotaur roared. Its axe spun through the air toward Beta. Omega slammed her palm downward.
An ice pillar erupted violently, intercepting the weapon mid-flight. Omega charged. The nearest minotaur swung a massive arm. She leapt, twisting midair only for the beast's hand to clamp around her leg. It hurled her. Omega crashed into a ruined wall, debris exploding around her. Pain shot through her ribs. She rose anyway. Breath steady. Frost forming with each exhale. The minotaur charged again. Omega dashed forward. At the last second, she pivoted sharply left, fingertips grazing the monster's elbow.
Freeze.
Ice raced instantly across the joint.
The limb locked. Momentum carried the beast forward its own weight snapping the frozen arm downward with a sickening crack.
Omega slid beneath it. Her palm struck the creature's leg. Another flash freeze. The minotaur toppled. Omega leapt onto its back, fingers driving mercilessly into its eyes. The beast howled, thrashing wildly. Frost devoured its skull. Its movements slowed.
Stopped.
A deafening roar shook the battlefield. Omega's head snapped upward
Too late. A second minotaur's massive fist crashed into her side, launching her off the frozen corpse like a broken doll. She hit the ground hard.
Bones shattered.
Vision blurred.
The towering beast raised its axe. Omega closed her eyes.
"…Envy," Hades' amused voice echoed faintly through Alpha's mind,
"get me some popcorn. This is about to get good."
BOOM.
A catastrophic shockwave tore across the arena.
Everything stopped.
Dust filled the air.
Omega's eyes fluttered open.
The minotaur stood frozen mid-motion.
No
It was missing half its torso. Alpha stood atop the corpse.
Unmoving.
Cold.
His presence alone altered the air. Omega's breath hitched.
His eyes…
Brown fading into deep, unnatural purple. Then settling into a chilling light blue.
Emotionless.
Above, the summoner from Camp Pi panicked, runes igniting wildly beneath her feet. Alpha vanished. Reappeared behind her. A dagger flashed. A clean, effortless cut. Her body separated before the scream could escape. Pi's remaining cadets attacked instantly.
One blitzed forward using enhanced speed. Alpha's fist met his jaw mid-dash.
The impact snapped the boy sideways, blood spraying into the air. Another cadet lunged.
Alpha twisted, weaving between strikes with lethal precision. His rod expanded in one fluid motion, deflecting a blade before his elbow crashed into the attacker's ribs.
A knee.
A spin.
A brutal downward strike. Bodies fell one after another. Then The wind shifted. Alpha reacted instantly. Stone pillars hurtled toward him. He leapt. Landing atop one.
Running along its length as it sailed through the air. Rod spinning in his grip. He threw it.
Teleported. Blood streamed from his waist-mounted rods, crystallizing mid-flight into twin daggers. A Pi cadet drew their sword. Steel clashed. Alpha's cheek split under a grazing cut.
A slow smile formed. His movements sharpened. Deadlier.
He ducked beneath the next swing, blade flashing upward to slice through exposed joints. The cadet staggered. Blood tendrils erupted from Alpha's weapons, coiling violently around the opponent's limbs. Restraining. Crushing. Alpha stepped in.
His flaming fist drove forward. Burning through armor. Muffled screams filled the arena.
Right hook.
Left hook.
Uppercut.
The cadet collapsed. Broken. Alpha turned away. A surviving Pi cadet staggered up behind him, sword raised in desperation. Alpha didn't look back. He simply raised his hand. Closed his fingers. The cadet's body froze mid-step. Blood burst violently from their mouth streaming unnaturally toward Alpha's rods.
The glow faded. Blue eyes returned to brown. Silence reclaimed the battlefield. Alpha walked toward Omega.
Knelt.
Lifted her gently.
For a brief second
Concern flickered. Then the announcer's voice thundered through the speakers:
"Epsilon. Theta. Well done."
Light consumed them. The world dissolved. And the arena reformed around them.
Medics rushed forward. Omega, Gamma, and Zeta were taken immediately.
Only Alpha and Beta remained standing.
Breathing.
Watching.
As the world cruel, vast, unforgiving
began revealing itself to him.