Larna turned away from his partners and walked towards the tatami. He stood there, doing his best not to look so nervous, and evading the Black Slice Clan member’s gaze.

  Their gossip made Larna’s chest shrink. What happens? He was looking at himself to see if there was something weird he hadn’t noticed, when Rising Shadow’s low but authoritative voice cut out every sound.

  “Do it.”

  With a growl, a big figure towered over his partners and stepped towards the opposite side of the tatami. “If the boss says so.”

  The difference in their height became obvious the moment Larna had to raise his eyes to look at his short blue hair and hawk-like eyes looking down at him.

  “Boss, is this really necessary? The result is obvious!” he said, looking back at Rising Shadow, who sent him back a stern look. “Fine, fine. He shouldn’t last much longer anyway.”

  Larna clenched his jaw, but let go of a sigh to calm himself. The way Vale talked to his opponent in the previous battle excited him; perhaps he could give it a try. “Why…” Larna said, but the next words stuck in his dry throat. “Why are you so confident?” he said, all his insides trembling as everyone’s attention was on him.

  “When you don’t get nervous for just a few looks, ask again. I mean, this is the battle that will choose the winner of this Clan Battle, and you’re having problems just standing firm.”

  He’s right. Larna had been scared since the first moment he put a foot on the Battle Center for the first time two months ago. This life that he now lived was drastically different from his sheltered previous one. There were so many unexpected things that stole away from him the sensation of control he had in his room.

  However, he had kept going. He had continued choosing to face those fears every day. And although he was trembling, he was standing.

  He knew the implications of this battle very well, so much so that he even wished not to know them. Allen’s future, this clan’s future, his own future, all were going to be decided by the result of this encounter.

  He couldn’t imagine himself not trembling.

  And still he was standing. His flame proudly burned inside his chest because of that fact.

  Larna took the sword from its sheath and readied for the battle. He was going to give his all to win this.

  The guy scolded at Larna’s sword, and a big warhammer fitting for his stature appeared in both his hands. “This is a real weapon.”

  A confident type. He probably believed he intimidated Larna, but he had grown accustomed to opponents taller than him. The guy also seemed aggressive; probably, he was the type who let his emotions take control. Now remained to be seen if he was the type that changed when battling, but looking at his brute weapon, he probably wasn’t.

  Larna closed his eyes and breathed as the battle wave expanded. Wait for me, guys. When he opened them, he was standing on the surface of a lake. The water swirled with little waves, but they didn’t wet Larna’s clothes, and the surface beneath him remained stable.

  Of course, Larna noticed all of this while his eyes never left his opponent. His bad habit of mindlessly looking around at the scenario had been left behind.

  He readied himself—if his prediction was correct, his opponent was about to charge towards him.

  And he did. The guy with hawk-like eyes glared mockingly at him as he charged at high speed with his warhammer behind.

  Larna’s grip strengthened on his sword. It was shorter than the warhammer, but was lighter too, so he could rush forward to make his opponent’s superior range useless or maintain their distances and use any opening to attack.

  Larna gulped and bent his knees to lunge forward. First, he had to see how good his opponent was.

  “At least you’ve some guts, uh?” the hawk-eyed guy said, charging back his hammer, and unleashing it in a sweeping attack.

  Larna saw the imposing hammer rocketing towards him and stopped his race to pull his body away. A strong wind slashed him as he stumbled back, and the hammer passed inches away from him.

  He has the strength to support his behavior.

  Larna hurried to his feet to try to attack before his opponent recovered from the failed swing, but the hawk-eyed guy was already starting another swing.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The hammer slammed against the surface of the lake, and waves started to form in it.

  Larna had managed to jump away and rise to his feet again. That guy wasn’t going to let him get closer. He was more calculating than he seemed at first.

  The second option then.

  “Hey, are you just going to keep jumping around?” the hawk-guy said before lunging again. “Come face to face. Let’s have an intense battle.”

  Ignoring his words, Larna jumped back to try to maintain some distance between them. As much as he wished to tackle forward and have a face-to-face battle, he was painfully aware he lacked the power to do that. Doing this was his only choice.

  “Really?” The guy let out a sigh, “Goodbye at the minimal hope of having a good battle.”

  The battle had turned into a race as the guy pursued Larna as he tried to keep their distance. He tsked—the guy wasn’t swinging, so there wasn’t any gap for Larna to attack, he knew his plan.

  What can I do then?! He wasn’t confident enough to win against the hawk-guy in a close combat, and he wasn’t biting the hook of swinging while Larna maintained their distance.

  The waves of the lake grew several meters taller and surged in every direction, thundering as they impacted against each other. Larna’s brain strained itself for a solution as his breathing increased, trying to refill his lungs with oxygen to keep running away from his opponent until something came to his mind.

  But then, his opponent stopped. Uh? Larna’s forehead wrinkled as he used the moment to breathe, watching his opponent, who slouched over himself and looked down at the floor.

  He immediately regretted having stopped. The hawk-guy closed the gap with a dash that he didn’t expect. He tried to step away from the sweeping hammer, but it was too late.

  He clenched his teeth and used the blade of his sword as a shield, as Allen had taught him. But even a shield would have bent with such impact. Larna flew for an instant before his entire body jerked as his back slammed against the invisible surface of the lake.

  He tried to stand as quickly as possible, but his body haphazardly reacted to his will. As he knelt to rise to his feet, he saw a red line rising straight from his chest, and then felt the painless sensation of the cut, reaching to his face and splitting his skin in two. His own sword had done that to him; luckily, it was a shallow cut.

  “You’ve no chance, man, and if you keep running, you’ll only make these more tedious for both of us. So why don’t you giv—”

  “I won’t,” Larna said with a raspy voice as he pushed himself to his feet. “I can’t lose this!”

  Think, think! His sword was useless against that warhammer; he couldn’t live up to his own plans, and his mind was starting to grow foggy because of the dangerous mix of stress and agitation.

  This guy’s calculator, strong and confident. How can I use that to my advantage? Larna’s mind finally clicked on a desperate plan to win. He shook his head to try to make the dullness that the blow caused on his body, and ran head to head, straight towards his opponent, as he had asked Larna before.

  “So you’re finally giving up? At least you’re a rational guy.” The hawk-guy must have thought that Larna was literally running to his death, and he couldn’t blame him for that, even though he tried to shift those thoughts from his head as he kept running.

  “Die then!” The guy charged back his warhammer, as he had done the previous times. He seemed to calculate the distances pretty well to swing at the right moment.

  And because of that, Larna could tell what this moment was. He bent his knees and jumped as high as he could when he glimpsed the enormous hammer starting to move.

  The hammer would probably destroy his legs, but Larna trusted his sword forward, expecting to open a hole in his head in exchange. That was his last-minute plan.

  The metallic tip of the sword flew forward, threatening the guy’s forehead. It embeds in his crane, starting to form a red mark on it.

  But then, Larna’s bone shattered. He gasped, trying to refill his airless lungs as everything around him became a blur. He slammed the floor again after a few seconds of suspense, and his brain trembled with the impact.

  Uh? Larna blinked, trying to realize what had just happened. When his mind cleared, he saw the feet of his opponent in front of his face, his hammer resting on the floor beside him.

  He changed the trajectory of his attack, Larna realized, feeling his world collapse. He used both hands to push himself up, but his legs didn’t move. His heart beat with dread as he didn’t want to accept it. Move! He gritted his teeth and kept trying to stand up, moving his body as much as he could. Allen! Vale! I can’t lose! Larna’s eyes welled up with tears as his hands gave up and his face fell against the floor.

  Then he felt a strong force coiling around his arm that pulled his body up to end face-to-face with his opponent.

  “Oh, men, you’re crying? You really seem to be devoted to this.”

  Larna’s teeth cracked inside his mouth, and his eyes darted around looking for his sword. Where is it?!

  “But, I’m sorry to be the one telling you this, but you didn’t have a chance since the beginning.”

  I can’t lose! Larna tried to kick the guy’s face, but his legs were dead. Instead, he gripped the guy’s forearm, trying to sink his fingers into it.

  “Yeah, you’re really passionate about this. You should find a job as a commentator or something like that.”

  Larna felt the guy’s forearm tense, and after descending slightly, the guy used his cheer strength to throw him up.

  “The point is, you should definitely give up as a battler.”

  Larna’s body started to descend, and he couldn’t do more than look around—the waves had grown as tall as mountains, making the lake look like a blue hell.

  A destructive force struck his ribs, overwhelming his entire body. As he flew away, he could watch the Battle Scenario starting to fade. And Larna wished to die in that moment.

  The battle was over.