Second Genesis

No one moved.

Grey looked from one face to the next, and when he realized that none of them seemed particularly eager to take the halo up on its invitation, he started laughing. It wasn’t a quiet chuckle either, it rolled out of him harder and harder until even his shoulders shook, because whether he looked toward the violet-haired little princess from Elowen’s enemy Empire, Apollo and his brothers, or the big-headed midget race, their expressions were all almost identical.

Shock, silence, and fear.

The Dormaji had probably benefited more from the halo’s blessing than anyone else here, with the sole exception of the Elemental, and it had still been dismantled so easily that the fight barely deserved to be called one. Numbers meant absolutely nothing if the people adding to those numbers were too terrified to move.

Grey was still laughing when Veyrath slowly stood.

The Elemental crossed the edge of his Region, and it seemed that only now did everyone realize that something about him had been different from the moment the halo’s blessing descended. His barrier hadn’t even shattered properly and white-gold light had simply washed around him. Veyrath stepped through what remained of it without resistance.

He stopped across from Grey and Heat billowed outward.

Grey’s skin immediately dried, the moisture in his pores seeming to vanish before sweat could properly form. Even the air between them shimmered violently, and yet Veyrath still hadn’t said a word, his gaze lingering half on Grey and half on the leaderboard hanging above them.

Grey sneered.

"What, can’t believe I beat you that badly?"

Veyrath didn’t react. His eyes finally shifted toward Grey, then descended to The Virtueless.

"Relying on external items is the path of the weak," he said quietly. "You are worth very little."

Grey’s lip twitched. "I’m pretty sure this is what the kids call ’cope’ these days."

Veyrath reached out one hand.

A line of fire extended from his palm and lengthened through the air, slowly forming into a whip. Grey couldn’t explain why, but the instant he saw it, he knew that wasn’t Veyrath’s true weapon of choice, there was something about the way the flames formed that felt too deliberate, too temporary.

It was a weapon chosen for punishment.

Grey could think of about a million reasons Veyrath might want him dead, so naturally he reached for the one most likely to piss him off.

"I wonder," Grey said, tilting his head. "Do you taste better than lightning?"

BOOM.

The crack of the whip ripped across the arena.

Space itself seemed to sizzle where it passed, reality warping into something molten and unstable as the snap sounded less like leather and more like a meteor tearing through the atmosphere. Grey leaned backward at the last instant, his abdominal muscles flexing as the whip passed inches over his face.

It never touched him but it didn’t need to. The outer layers of Grey’s skin blackened instantly.

Pain shot through his face like a million heated needles had been driven into his flesh at once, and by the time the whip passed, his cheeks and forehead had already become a cracked mess of dry, barely bleeding skin.

Grey flipped backward, heels passing over his head as one palm touched the ground. At the same time, The Virtueless ripped free from the Dormaji’s corpse and flew back into his grasp, while his stomach churned violently as the chunk of crystalline flesh he had swallowed was finally digested.

Energy spread through him.

The cracks across Grey’s face began knitting shut.

His expression had already become serious as he swiped a hand over his face, white-gold crystal spreading upward until even his face was covered in dense armor. He left only the smallest openings where his eyes needed to remain visible.

That was the problem. There was no way to protect them completely.

The whip cracked again.

Grey cursed.

This wasn’t lightning. There was no conductive energy for him to redirect, no convenient trick that would make the attack curve away before it ever touched him. Veyrath wasn’t anything like the Elementals Grey had grown used to fighting.

He was a walking inferno, a nuclear reactor with legs.

The slightest release of heat felt like it could melt Grey into slag.

Grey’s Resonant Sense spread outward, and despite his blindness, he caught the approaching flame.

He dodged just barely, and somehow the whip never touched the ground.

That was almost worse.

Veyrath could have carved burning trenches across the arena with every swing, but there were none, because all of that heat, all of that fire, all of that infernal burning power was being concentrated on Grey alone.

Another crack.

Grey moved closer, or rather he tried to.

The space between them suddenly became a wall of heat.

His crystal armor heated from the outside inward until it felt less like protection and more like the walls of an oven. Grey’s skin began cooking beneath it, his lungs tightened, and when he inhaled, the air itself felt hot enough to burn through his throat.

Veyrath still hadn’t moved.

He simply poured more fire into the whip, extended its reach, and snapped his wrist again.

Grey dodged backward.

Veyrath’s message was as clear as could be. Now that Grey had already retreated, there was no chance of him getting close again.

Grey coughed and soot spilled from his mouth. His blood was boiling, and for once it had absolutely nothing to do with rage.

He slid backward another few meters and stared through the narrowing slits in his crystal mask.

Veyrath wasn’t trying to kill him efficiently. If he wanted Grey dead, those attacks would have looked different. Instead, he was keeping him at range, cooking him slowly, forcing him to retreat again and again while everyone watched.

He wanted to humiliate him.

Grey’s serious expression vanished and a grin slowly spread across his face.

The crystal covering his mouth shifted, jagged spikes growing outward until the armor looked like a monstrous set of stalactite teeth.

Grey laughed. "I’m the king of rage baiting, and you want to get into a pissing contest with me?"

Veyrath’s burning eyes narrowed.

Grey’s grin only widened. "You’re gonna pay for that."

The crystal armor shattered.

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