The Apex and the Illusion
The stagnant air of the necropolis seemed to ignite as Sun Wu Kang squared his shoulders, his golden aura pulsing in rhythm with the violent thrum of his heartbeat. He ignored the fallen forms of Onyx and Jamil, his focus entirely locked onto the figure standing ten paces away.
"You must be Merlin?" Sun stated, his voice laced with a raw, jagged challenge that echoed off the obsidian tombs.
Merlin Emrys remained remarkably still, his dark cloak casting a long, steady shadow against the swirling purple haze of the sky.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile played on his lips—a look of genuine curiosity rather than fear. "And you must be Sun Wu Kang?" Merlin replied, his voice calm and resonant. "The rumors weren't exaggerations. You're pretty strong."
Sun's menacing smirk returned, wider and sharper than before. He adjusted his stance, his muscles coiling like high-tension wires. "I'm glad we finally got to meet, Prodigy," Sun hissed, his eyes glowing with a predatory fire. "Now we can stop the talk and see who's truly the strongest between us."
Without another word, Sun exploded into motion. He didn't just attack; he unleashed a barrage of searing fireball projectiles. Each one was a miniature sun, white-hot and whistling through the air with the force of a cannonball. Merlin, moving with an almost effortless, liquid grace, didn't even raise his hands at first. He simply weaved through the projectiles, his body tilting and swaying as the miniature suns hissed past his ears, melting the stone walls behind him into slag.
Frustrated by the ease of the evasion, Sun planted his feet and roared, his mana flaring into a blinding gold. He unleashed a truly gigantic fireball—a roaring inferno that filled the narrow street from wall to wall. The heat was so intense it cracked the ancient obsidian pavement. To Sun's utter astonishment, Merlin didn't dodge. He stood his ground, reaching out with a bare hand. As the inferno reached him, Merlin's fingers danced. He grabbed the leading edge of the massive fireball, twisting the raw energy around his palm as if it were a harmless toy, and then, with a sharp flick of his wrist, launched the redirected sun back at its creator with incredible, amplified force.
Sun didn't flinch. Instead of dodging, he opened his mouth wide, his chest expanding to an unnatural size as he literally inhaled the colossal fireball. A second later, he leaned forward and breathed out a torrent of fire like a mythical dragon. It was a roaring wave of pure incineration that turned the grey mist of the necropolis into steam.
Merlin, still unphased, slammed his foot onto the ground. "Aura Manifestation: Tidal Wall," he murmured. A colossal shield wall of water erupted from the dry, dead earth, its shimmering blue surface thick and pressurized. The flames slammed into the water with a deafening hiss, creating a shroud of boiling white vapor.
Sun, now acting as a blazing projectile himself, ran straight through the steam. He threw a punch that shattered the water wall into a million droplets, but as he emerged on the other side, his fist met only empty air. Merlin had vanished.
"Where are you?!" Sun shouted, his eyes darting frantically across the gothic rooftops and the dark alleyways.
"Looking the wrong way," a voice drifted down.
High above, silhouetted against the bruised purple sky, Merlin was diving down with blinding speed. A massive torrent of water trailed behind him like the tail of a comet. Sun realized the trajectory just in time. As Merlin descended like a falling star, Sun performed a spectacular, high-speed somersault, channeling every ounce of his momentum into a powerful, upward kick.
Merlin managed to cross his arms to block the strike, but the sheer kinetic force sent him flying backward. He tumbled through the air, yet mid-flight, he twisted his body and landed gracefully on his feet, shrugging off the impact with a casual air. He adjusted his collar, looking entirely unruffled.
"Wow, what a kick," Merlin said, his tone carrying a hint of dry sarcasm and genuine amusement. "I knew you were strong, Sun, but I didn't know you were this strong. You might actually make me sweat."
Sun, seething with a cold, quiet anger, didn't offer a comeback. He simply glared, his eyes blazing with a golden light that seemed to eat the surrounding shadows. He began to infuse a massive, dense amount of aura into his right hand. The heat emanating from his palm became so extreme that the fabric of his sleeve began to visibly evaporate, turning into wisps of carbon. He launched the final, incredibly intense fireball. It moved too fast for the eye to track—a streak of pure white light. For the first time, Merlin wasn't able to dodge. He was struck squarely in the chest. In a terrifying flash of light and heat, the area was consumed by a localized supernova. When the light faded, Merlin was gone, replaced only by a smoldering pile of ashes on the obsidian floor.
Sun stood there, his face grim but victorious, his breath coming in heavy, jagged heaves. He began to walk toward the pile of ashes to claim the flag. "Strongest," he muttered to himself.
But as his boot stepped near the remains, the ground didn't feel like stone. It felt fluid. Suddenly, a swirling vortex barrier of water erupted around him, trapping him in a shimmering, high-pressure cylinder. Sun roared, punching the water, but his fists were slowed by the sheer density of the magic.
Out of the very water of the vortex, a human figure began to coalesce. It was Merlin, stepping out of the liquid wall perfectly unharmed, his cloak dry and his expression as calm as when the fight started.
"You… you survived! How?!" Sun exclaimed, his voice thick with disbelief and the first traces of real fear. "I saw you burn!"
Merlin stood calmly in front of the trapped warrior, a small, triumphant grin crossing his face. "A magician never reveals his tricks, Sun. You were fighting a reflection of the mist."
Before Sun could gather his aura for another blast, Merlin snapped his fingers. The swirling vortex instantly crystallized. The temperature plummeted as the water turned into a massive, jagged block of reinforced ice, encasing Sun Wu Kang up to his neck.
"Now, wait here until the end of the tournament," Merlin said softly. "You need the rest."
Merlin leaned down and casually pulled Sun's flag from the frozen heights of the ice block. He then turned to the unconscious Onyx and Jamil. With a wave of his hand, he conjured two floating bubbles of pressurized water, gently lifting his teammates into the air. Without looking back at the frozen Sun, Merlin began to walk toward Team B's base, a triumphant smirk on his face as he disappeared into the gothic fog of the Jaws of Fate.