The stone floor burst open with roaring violence. Dust and debris flew in every direction as the barbarian lay motionless inside the brand new crater. The crater was meters deep, and the barbarian seemed to have vanished into it entirely. The floor surrounding the crater was covered in a network of deep cracks, testaments to the explosive force of the impact.
As the glow in his eyes slowly receded, Jeshua casually began to brush the dust off his clothes, as if nothing noteworthy had just occurred. His face was unmoved, his gaze cool and focused. He looked up and directed his eyes straight at Silarias.
“So, we just have to have each other’s back and make a bigger team, right Flamo?” Jeshua asked in a matter of fact tone.
Silarias stood there as if struck dumb. His mouth hung wide open, and his eyes were as large as saucers. His brain was working overtime, and with the very last active brain cell he had left, he managed to slowly raise two thumbs into the air.
“Perfect,” Silarias choked out with difficulty, his voice nothing more than a hoarse squeak. “Absolutely… perfect.”
Silarias composed himself, shaking the paralysis from his limbs, and extended his arm toward Jeshua. Meanwhile, Jeshua climbed out of the smoking depths of the crater with a broad grin, loose pebbles rolling away beneath his boots. The handshake that followed was firm, sealing the pact. Alliances had been forged, but the tournament had only just begun. The air in the corridor was still saturated with the scent of magical energy and kicked up dust, testaments to the brutal escalation of the fight.
Not too far away, the situation was completely different. There, the race was actually almost over.
Higher up in the Puzzle Box, on the gigantic, rising circuit of floating platforms, the racetrack had transformed into a battlefield of pure survival. Beat had switched into an all or nothing survival mode. Together with Blitz, who had transformed into a fierce, cobalt blue form, he sprinted across the gleaming asphalt as if death were hot on his heels. The speed was so insanely high that Blitz was pressed tightly against Beat’s body by the brutal G forces. The wind howled past their ears, a shrill sound that made their teeth vibrate. Brody and Shrimpy were nowhere to be seen, having been left far behind in the dust a long time ago.
Now it was down to the absolute finale. Beat flew neck and neck across the track with Desmodus, Karan, and Arjan. It was a game of millimeters. The brothers Karan and Arjan kept their eyes locked on Beat. What they saw was no longer a simple sprint; this was pure art. The way Beat danced through everything with inhuman reflexes and flashing side steps, fluid and elusive, cut deep into their warrior hearts. In their eyes, a deep respect suddenly glinted, turning into unconditional loyalty in fractions of a second. They knew it for sure at that exact moment. There was no room left for doubt.
“Do you see that, Arjan?” Karan cried out, his voice cracking with pure adrenaline. “Those movements… he is redefining the laws of this track!”
“I see it!” Arjan screamed back, gripping his steering wheel tightly. “It’s him… There is no doubt about it!”
Desmodus, however, refused to accept his embarrassment or his defeat. His face contorted into a vile, psychopathic grimace.
“Do you really think you can pass me? I’ll break you all!” Desmodus shrieked, his eyes wide, before deciding to play his absolute trump card.
With a brutal yank of his steering wheel, he steered a rumbling car, swelling with magical instability, straight at Beat. The engine screamed with a chilling, metallic screech, and the bodywork began to glow dangerously red, ready to turn into an all destroying fireball at the slightest impact. The smell of fuel was suffocating, filling the entire lane with a toxic fume.
Before the exploding car could even graze Beat, the attack was fully intercepted.
Karan and Arjan did not hesitate for a second. With a blood curdling roar, the two brothers steered their own vehicles perpendicularly into Desmodus’s flanks.
“Not with him, asshole!” Karan roared.
The impact was gargantuan; metal crumpled with the sickening sound of breaking bone and exploding windows. Showers of sparks shot across the gleaming asphalt like fireworks.
“BEAT, GO FOR IT! WE WILL FOLLOW!” the brothers blasted in unison across the track, their voices raw and filled with adrenaline, just before the fuel in Desmodus’s car reached absolute boiling point.
A deafening explosion ripped through the labyrinth. A gigantic fireball swallowed the three vehicles in a single blow, followed immediately by a dense, pitch-black wall of choking dust and flying debris. Visibility was completely gone, and a chilling silence seemed to take over for a brief moment.
Until suddenly, a raw, triumphant shout echoed through the thick layer of dust.
“Did you really think a little fire would stop us?!” Arjan’s voice could be heard roaring through the chaos.
The brothers were still alive! The rumbling, scraping sound of rattling metal cut through the smoke cloud as their heavily battered cars emerged, roaring and sparking out of the dust. The chassis were completely wrecked, but they had survived.
Beat cast a quick glance over his shoulder. An icy, determined focus washed over his face. He gave the brothers a simple, meaningful nod.
“One thing left unsaid… My nephews are in,” Beat muttered with a cold, proud undertone.
At that exact moment, the energy in his body exploded. Beat began to glow intensely, his connection with Blitz reaching a divine level until they fused together into a blinding, cobalt blue entity. The spiritual pressure he radiated was so immense that reality around his body began to warp; the air trembled and bent as if viewed through a magnifying glass.
All around him, vibrant streams of pulsating colors erupted, shooting through the corridors of the Puzzle Box like glowing neon streaks. With supernatural force, he pushed off. The ground beneath his feet shattered with every step he took. He flashed toward the finish line at a speed that defied the laws of physics. He was going so insanely fast that his cobalt blue color began to flicker and glitch at the edges, as if the dimension itself could no longer keep up with his pure speed and was beginning to break.
With a final visual explosion of pure light and color, he ran so inhumanly fast that reality tore open. In the blink of an eye, he simply flashed completely out of everyone’s sight, leaving behind an afterimage of static, flashing neon lines at the finish. Beat was gone, having flashed through the finish line with a deafening crack, completely out of this world.
Meanwhile, Aurelius and Kaelid sprinted side by side at a killer pace through the lower, chaotic corridors of the Puzzle Box. Group after group that dared cross their path was eliminated with brutal efficiency. No hesitation, no mercy; they penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of the labyrinth.
“Come, we must keep moving!” Kaelid called out, a fierce fire in his eyes, as he immediately tore around the corner.
Right in front of them, a remaining bandit appeared. The man immediately fell into a blind hysteria at the sight of the two approaching warriors, drawing his sword with trembling hands and waving it wildly. But instead of launching an attack, he dropped to his knees and broke down in pure panic. Terror was deeply etched into his face.
“I don’t know anything about that kid!” the bandit screamed, his voice cracking, tears streaming down his dirty cheeks. “One moment I’m just running around with my buddy, and the next… the next moment he’s lying there! In pieces! But that look… that look in his eyes… I just knew it when I saw him!”
Without casting another glance back, the man threw his sword to the ground, turned around, and ran down the corridor in blind panic, away from the invisible danger.
Aurelius and Kaelid stopped abruptly for a moment, exchanging a questioning, alarmed look. Without exchanging a word, they immediately started sprinting, heading straight in the direction the bandit had just fled from.
As they flew around the corner, they unexpectedly stumbled upon a fierce battle. Two figures were in full attack mode there. In the first fraction of a second, they did not recognize each other through the swirling dust and adrenaline, and weapons were already raised to engage in battle. Until recognition struck like a bolt of lightning.
Silarias stopped abruptly mid fight, his sword frozen halfway in the air. His eyes widened.
“Wait, wait, wait… PHOTO?!” Silarias roared with a mixture of disbelief and pure shock.
Aurelius looked at him, let the recognition sink in, and immediately burst into a booming laugh.
“Hahaha! I thought so, what stinks so bad here?!” Aurelius cried out.
He immediately lowered his weapon and stepped forward. Silarias did the same, and the two threw themselves into each other’s arms with brute force, clapping each other hard on the back in pure relief.
Meanwhile, Jeshua and Kaelid stood a few meters away. They looked at each other inquisitively, recognized the situation, and let go of their fighting stances. Broad grins spread across their faces as they stepped toward each other and shook hands firmly.
“How’s it going, man?” Kaelid asked with a laugh. “Long time no see.”
Jeshua also burst into laughter, shaking his head at the bizarre timing of this reunion.
“Great to meet like this,” Jeshua replied, his eyes beginning to spark with built up battle lust. “At least now we can go completely all out, right?”
Above them, through the giant speakers hanging all over the Puzzle Box, the voice of the hype man suddenly blasted. The commentator went absolutely wild as the cameras zoomed in on the four warriors.
“OH, WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?! BONDS ARE BEING FORGED! OLD FRIENDS OR NEW ALLIES? THE ALLIANCES ARE EXPLODING RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES! HAHA!!”
The effect on the stands was immediate. The entire crowd went completely wild. A deafening roar of tens of thousands of screaming and stomping fans rolled through the arena like a tsunami, possessed by the pure hype of this unexpected moment.
Suddenly, deafening horns and alarms began to go off all over the gigantic arena. The bright lights in the Puzzle Box flashed rhythmically with the blaring alarm.
WAAAAA!! WAAAAA!!
The hype man immediately directed his gaze toward the gigantic, floating hourglass in the middle of the complex and gripped his microphone with renewed energy.
“IT IS THAT TIME AGAIN, UNFORTUNATELY! TIME IS UP, PEOPLE! BUT WHERE THERE IS FIGHTING, THERE IS REST!! UNTIL TOMORROW PEEPS, THAT’S WHEN THE REAL ACTION STARTS!!!”
Immediately, a spectacular fireworks show erupted around the stands. Colorful explosions lit up the sky and thundered through the corridors, while the crowd screamed frantically one last time.
Silarias, Aurelius, Kaelid, and Jeshua broke off their moment and looked at each other with telling glances. Today’s battle was fought. Before they could exchange another word, the tournament’s automatic transport magic activated. With a bright, blinding flash of light, all four of them vanished from the battlefield at the same time.
In a fraction of a second, they flashed individually to their own private rooms. These were grotesque, luxurious quarters, custom designed for the tournament’s elite. Each room was gigantic and equipped with its own steaming bathhouse and built in sauna, where the heat immediately drifted toward them to relax their tired muscles. On the massive tables, lavish amounts of fresh, steaming food stood ready, glistening with spices and perfectly prepared to replenish their spent energy.
With the chaos of the outside world shut out, the heavy doors closed automatically. Quiet returned instantly. It was time to eat, tend to their wounds, and rest for the absolute chaos awaiting them tomorrow.