The massive sword began its devastating descent. But before the blade could actually reach Alita, she finally decided to stop playing with her food.

  She shifted her stance—right hand gripping her sword behind her left hip, her left hand extended forward in a classic, undeniably cool Iaijutsu pose. The sheer wind pressure from Jade's descending ultimate attack whipped her hair around, making her look simultaneously terrifying and ready for a magazine cover.

  "For this power, I respect you," she said calmly, her voice somehow cutting straight through the roaring tempest. "But now it's over. Steps of the Cosmos. First Stance: Light of Striking Blade."

  BOOM.

  The colossal ethereal sword smashed into the ground, triggering an explosion that blanketed that entire sector of the arena in a massive, choking dust cloud.

  For a split second, it looked like a clean hit. But come on, we all know how this trope works.

  To everyone's shock, Alita wasn't crushed under the blade. A singular streak of light flashed from the dust, instantly materializing high in the air directly behind Jade.

  She hovered there effortlessly. "You did well," she stated, watching Jade stiffen in sheer panic. "I will remember your name. Jade, it was, right?"

  Ouch. The absolute disrespect of double-checking your opponent's name after styling on them.

  Cue the delayed-damage sequence. Jade's body suddenly erupted into dozens of bloody slash marks, his skin and clothes sliced to ribbons by strikes that moved too fast to even register. His HP effectively hit zero in a microsecond, and he plummeted to the ground like a sack of rocks. Meanwhile, Alita gently levitated back to the earth, elegantly clicking her creepy galaxy-sword back into its sheath.

  (Writer's Note: Now, I know what some of you hyper-analytical readers are thinking. 'Writer, how are all these cataclysmic, space-rending fights happening in the same arena without them accidentally nuking each other?' It's simple: Geographical Formation. It's high-tier spatial manipulation used to create expanded domains and impossible architecture. It's basically an infinite amount of area folded into a compact space. Think of it as a server with expanded boundaries. Don't think too hard about the physics. Just enjoy the fireworks.)

  Up in the stands, the audience was losing their absolute minds. The cheering and clapping were deafening, a roaring wave of pure hype.

  "Damn! I don't even know which screen to watch!" some random NPC spectator yelled, furiously trying to track the multiple zones of chaos. "All these fights are completely insane! I think that purple-haired girl is amazing, but that silver-haired boy and the low-angel are ridiculous too! Who the hell is going to win?!"

  (Hey, Writer! Yeah, wrap up the peanut gallery and pan the camera back to me, please. The protagonist is getting bored standing around.)

  I stood there, casually picking a piece of stray rubble out of my jacket collar while listening to the crowd scream their lungs out. I still had absolutely zero clue what was happening on the other side of the green smoke and dust clouds, but judging by the roars of the audience, somebody was putting on a hell of a show.

  "Well," I muttered to myself, shaking my head as the ground trembled from yet another unseen explosion. "Good to know the spectators are getting their money's worth. Now... what was I doing again?"

  I barely had a second to process the cheers of the crowd before a glowing feather made of pure, highly-compressed holy light nearly took my head off.

  Right. My sister is an angel now. And apparently, her idea of sibling bonding involves orbital strikes.

  "Focus, idiot!" Leonica yelled, diving at me from the sky with a blinding halo of energy and a terrifying grin.

  I gritted my teeth, gripping my black-red blade with both hands. I channeled every drop of Phoenix and Dragon Qi I had left, the flames roaring to life along the dark steel. I wasn't just standing around anymore; I was fighting for my life against a girl who used to pinch my cheeks.

  (Hey, Writer! I'm a little busy participating in a biblically-accurate sibling rivalry right now! Pan the camera over to the edge lords before I get permanently smote!)

  While Ragna was desperately trying to parry divine retribution, the edgy quota of the battlefield was being rapidly fulfilled over in Sector C.

  After a fierce, high-speed combat exchange, Azra caught sight of Jade falling out of the sky like a sacked potato.

  "JADE!" Azra screamed.

  Ah, the classic 'best friend down' buff. It’s a shonen anime staple, and Azra was about to milk it for all it was worth. Furious, he aggressively sheathed his katanas.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Transformation: Shadow Reaper!" he roared.

  Instantly, the ambient lighting on that side of the arena tanked. Shadows from every corner of the battlefield slithered across the ground, violently swirling around him. When the darkness cleared, Azra's eyes were pitch black. He was clad in heavy, void-black armor, and his katanas looked like they had been forged from the empty vacuum of space.

  But the real kicker? A massive, towering shadowy figure materialized right behind him.

  (Writer's note: Yes, he literally summoned a ghost avatar to stand behind him. Copyright infringement laws apparently don't apply in Xeria.)

  Buffed with the power of angst and shadows, Azra was suddenly ten times faster than before. He became a literal blur, blitzing Nyra with a flurry of rapid-fire strikes. Nyra tried to counter, but Azra practically had invincibility frames active; her attacks phased right through him. To make matters worse, the giant shadow monster behind him was throwing massive hands, too.

  Battered, bleeding, and visibly completely done with this nonsense, Nyra let out a visceral scream.

  "Transformation: Draconic Fury!"

  Because obviously, everyone in this tournament has a second phase. Massive, leathery dragon wings violently sprouted from her back, and her skin hardened into tough, jagged scales as she launched herself high into the sky to get out of melee range.

  "Dragon Nova!" she screamed.

  (Writer's note: According to the system logs, this is a beam of pure energy roughly twice as destructive as a nuclear bomb. The safety regulations for this spectator arena are an absolute joke.)

  A blinding, apocalyptic beam of death plummeted toward the earth. Azra didn't even try to dodge. Instead, he dashed straight under his giant shadow figure, which helpfully raised its massive, ethereal hands to act as an umbrella.

  The beam hit. The ground basically disintegrated.

  When the blinding flash finally faded, the shadow figure was completely vaporized. Azra's void armor shattered into a million pieces, falling away like broken glass.

  Nyra, hovering in the sky like a scaly raid boss, smirked. "So that was your armor's spirit. I see."

  But Azra wasn't dead. In fact, beneath the shattered armor, he was completely unharmed. He just looked incredibly pissed off.

  "It's over now. Prepare yourself," Azra growled, his voice echoing with an unnatural, dark reverb. He raised his hands, and reality itself started to warp and rot around him. "Dark Corrosion!"

  (Writer's note: He's casting a Domain Expansion. A localized zone that slows down time and inflicts continuous damage-over-time. Typical try-hard rogue build.)

  The air turned thick and heavy, like swimming through molasses. Dark Corrosion wasn't just a flashy shadow trick; it was a localized time-dilation field. For Nyra, the world crawled to an agonizing, suffocating halt. Worse, the rotting darkness began chewing at her draconic scales, ticking down small, unavoidable increments of damage every single second.

  Ten seconds of absolute vulnerability. Azra, on the other hand, was immune to his own trap. He didn't just move normally inside the domain; he moved faster. A relentless, thirty-hit combo of pure, uninterrupted slashes and strikes tore through Nyra’s defenses, shattering her scales and knocking her entirely out of the sky. She plummeted toward the arena floor, broken, bleeding, and unconscious.

  Honestly, an area-of-effect time slow combined with passive damage-over-time? That is the most toxic, try-hard rogue build I have ever seen. Nerf shadow classes immediately.

  Alita didn't hesitate. She blurred across the battlefield, catching the falling Nyra before she could crater into the stone. "You did well, Dragon girl. Rest assured," Alita murmured gently, laying her down.

  Starlia, who had finally recovered from her own brawl, launched herself at Azra to cover the rescue. He just spammed his ultimate again, re-casting Dark Corrosion and catching Starlia in the oppressive temporal field. Moving at his accelerated speed, he ruthlessly landed ten heavy strikes, leaving Starlia heavily injured and gasping for air.

  (It's not that he got an infinite mana pool all of a sudden, he is just going all-out. The mental strain later will be huge.)

  And then, the system broke.

  With a terrifying, visual glitch effect, Alita vanished. She simply ceased to be in one place and materialized directly behind Azra. Azra spun around, completely shocked. He was the master of this domain. Time was supposed to be his. But Alita just started walking toward him. Not struggling. Not slowed. She was actually moving faster than him inside his own ultimate skill.

  "Aren't you a flashy one," she stated, her voice devoid of any inflection.

  Her fist ignited with a swirling, terrifying purplish light. Cosmic Impact. She unleashed a devastating barrage of blows, shattering Azra's defenses and knocking him out cold before he even registered the pain.

  Oh, right. Let's trap the girl with the literal galaxy sword inside a time manipulation zone. Surely the cosmic entity cares about localized physics. Brilliant strategy, really.

  Alita stepped over Azra's unconscious body and looked at Starlia, who was clutching her injuries. "What do you think?" Alita asked, tilting her head toward the center of the arena. "Does that girl need our help?"

  Starlia coughed, wiping blood from her mouth. "I don't think so... but still, let's go." They both turned their attention toward Leonica.

  (Hey, Writer! I appreciate the play-by-play of the cosmic beatdown, but I am currently dodging lethal holy weaponry and fighting for my actual life over here! Pan the camera back to me before I lose a limb!)

  The clash of our blades sent shockwaves tearing through the arena floor. I wasn't just standing around observing the scenery; I was pushing my body to the absolute limit. I parried a brutal downward strike from Leonica, my black-red blade screaming against her holy light. I spun, kicking up a cloud of debris, and thrust my sword toward her ribs, but she deflected it with blinding speed. We broke apart, both of us sliding backward, our chests heaving, completely drenched in sweat and running on fumes.

  "What a bliss to fight you, bro," Leonica panted, her angelic wings fluttering as she flashed me a wild, genuinely happy grin. "You truly are amazing."

  "You too," I gasped, wiping a streak of blood off my cheek. "Hey, fun fact while we're trying to murder each other... I met a member of your family. Your ancestor, actually. Guy named Azure Blades."

  Leonica froze, her combat high instantly short-circuiting into pure, unfiltered fan-girl excitement. "Really? No way! Can I meet him?"

  "Yeah, sure," I affirmed, laughing despite the burning in my lungs.

  She laughed too. And then, the wholesome sibling bonding time was over. The air around us solidified as we both tapped into our absolute peaks, the sheer pressure cracking the stones beneath our feet.

  "Transformation!" we shouted in unison.