The crowd had barely calmed after Keem's baffling performance, still reeling from the way magic itself had been unwoven like thread through his fingers.
But the next duel brought a different tension. Not confusion. Not awe. Something heavier. It felt ancient, like two storms waiting to collide.
Vinny stepped into the arena first, her black hair braided close to the neck, her armor already half-formed from spectral runes glowing around her limbs. A summoner, yes—but not the type who stood back. Vinny was known for diving headfirst into battle, letting her relic-armored summons cloak her like a knight wrapped in ghosts.
Gem followed. Long black hair down her back, chains of thin but dense Thread dragging behind her like whispers of power. Embedded in each chain were glowing crystalline cores—fragments of elemental gems infused with power. She didn't wear armor. She didn't need to. Her battlefield was all around her.
Ari leaned forward in the stands, beside Kaien. He remembered Gem's reputation—the heir to Batangara's largest trade guild, a tactician and brawler. But he'd never seen Vinny fight for real. And he'd never seen either of them fight each other.
He couldn't take his eyes off them.
Clash of Ideals
The gong sounded.
Vinny moved first, summoning a white-bladed serpent of spiritual metal that curled around her body. With a shimmer of command, it burst apart and reformed as a full-body armor: helm, pauldrons, gauntlets. Her form glowed faintly with residual summoning runes—this wasn't just armor. It was living memory.
Gem raised her arms, the blue Threads along her chains snapping taut. Two gems shimmered—ruby and emerald—and in an instant, her chains uncoiled like striking vipers, glowing with fire and wind.
They collided.
Vinny launched herself into the fray, punches sparking with residual summon energy. Each strike hit like a siege weapon. Gem parried with her chains, spinning them with acrobatic grace, redirecting force and retaliating with precision strikes imbued with elemental force.
A whip of sapphire-threaded ice lashed toward Vinny's helm—Vinny ducked under and activated another relic summon: twin blades of phantom steel that hovered near her shoulders and struck with her like floating wolves.
The duel escalated.
Fire met metal. Earth met phantoms. Vinny summoned a beast-paw gauntlet, punching through three layers of Gem's chain-ward. Gem activated a diamond defense, her chains stiffening into reflective walls that glowed with light-thread latticework, unmovable.
Neither gave ground. They adapted. Responded. Countered.
Unpredictable Artistry
By now, the arena floor was scarred with enchantment craters. Phantom limbs, shattered chain fragments, and elemental echoes littered the stage like pieces of a broken tapestry.
Vinny leapt backward, calling upon her final summon—a colossus helm fused with elemental fury. Her armor completed its full transformation. She stood twelve feet tall now, fully encased in the echoes of five battle spirits. Each relic brought a different boon: speed, strength, resistance, clarity, fury.
Gem responded with calm.
She embedded five new gems into her chain: obsidian, pearl, tourmaline, aquamarine, topaz.
Each one unleashed a different field: anti-magic, sensory overload, pulse-defense, silence, and displacement.
For ten minutes, no one could breathe.
The arena erupted in light, shockwaves, and layered enchantment. Neither girl fell. Neither one let the other win. Threads clashed. Systems twisted. And as the final clash rang out—Vinny's summoned spear shattering against Gem's last diamond wall—the two warriors dropped to one knee, panting.
The judges stepped in.
A draw.
Ari's Realization
There was silence in the stands. Not from confusion.
From reverence.
Ari blinked.
Even after Keem's display, this… was something else. A full martial philosophy, clashing at its peak. Not just magic—identity. Strategy. Mastery.
"These aren't just duelists," he muttered aloud. "They're architects of power."
Kaien chuckled, brushing dust from his sleeves. "This is Batangara, my friend."
And for the first time since he'd arrived, Ari felt a tingle of true challenge in the depths of his soul.
He hadn't even stepped onto the arena yet. And already, he'd seen what it meant to earn your Threads.