I stared up at the glowing Angel of Death, the black dragon, and that ridiculously shiny golden bow.

  I took a deep breath. My True Demon aura flared, the blue flames roaring back to life around my skin. If I'm going out, I'm going out swinging.

  "Fine!" I roared, gripping my sword.

  I charged.

  "What happened, Ragna? Why have you called—"

  Mizuki’s majestic, booming voice echoed in my spiritual space as he coiled in the air beside me. Then, his massive golden eyes locked onto the black, serpentine beast circling the glowing Angel of Death.

  "What the F—!" Mizuki choked, completely losing his divine composure. "No, no, no! Where have you brought us?! You gotta be kiddin' me. Ragna, let's run away. We can't win!"

  (Wait. The Invincible Dragon is panicking? The guy who used to blow up mountain ranges for fun is currently begging a twelve-year-old to retreat?) "Don't worry," I said, gripping my Black Knight sword tighter. My voice was dead serious, completely stripped of my usual snark. "He's not going to kill us."

  Mizuki paused, his massive golden head hovering near mine. I could feel him analyzing me, surprised by my sudden lack of panic. (He has changed,) the dragon murmured to himself. (He looks... matured.)

  "Alright," Mizuki rumbled, his voice still vibrating with genuine terror. "But do you even know who you're fighting? That black dragon... it's the Yang Dragon. The Father of True Dragons."

  I blinked. "Wait. Father? Like... your dad?"

  "Yes, mine too!" Mizuki snapped frantically. "But he has no mercy, Ragna! He's a myth. A legendary, disastrous myth. He has the power to destroy a planet's core!"

  "So what?" I growled, my True Demon aura flaring, the blue flames roaring to life around my skin. "We're going to defeat him at any cost."

  Mizuki let out a long, heavy sigh that sounded like a hurricane. "Okay, then hear me. That projection is not even in its 1% form. So, we have a slight chance of winning. A total of 0.001% chance."

  I looked up at the terrifying, divine monstrosity waiting for us. I let a slow, arrogant smirk spread across my face.

  "Mizuki," I whispered, my eyes glowing a piercing electric blue. "We have a 100% chance of winning."

  And then, the universe decided to immediately punish me for my hubris.

  KRA-KOOOOM!

  A blinding bolt of divine lightning shot from the sky and hit me dead on. I didn't just fall; I was absolutely smashed into the Colosseum floor. The kinetic force cratered the earth, sending a shockwave of pulverized stone into the stands.

  High above, the massive Yang Dragon roared, peeling away from Drake to engage Mizuki in a terrifying, sky-shattering clash of scales and fangs.

  Down below, the dust settled around my crater. Drake floated down gracefully, his pure white wings barely stirring the air. He landed gently on the edge of the pit, his dull brown eyes peering into the smoke, expecting to find my broken, unconscious body.

  But he didn't find me.

  Because I wasn't there.

  "Looking for someone?!" I roared.

  I erupted from the ground directly beneath him, channeling every single ounce of my dual-core mana into an explosive upward strike. My Black Knight sword slammed into his divine armor.

  BOOM!

  The ground beneath us completely ruptured. The sheer force of the blow launched Drake backward. He skidded across the ruined arena floor and hacked, coughing up a bright splatter of golden blood.

  (Got him!) I thought, my CEO-brain cheering at the successful hostile takeover of his blind spot.

  But Drake didn't look angry. He wiped the golden blood from his chin and... smiled.

  "Let's make a bet," Drake said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he effortlessly sidestepped my next high-speed flurry of slashes.

  "A bet?" I grunted, swinging a horizontal arc of Phoenix fire that he simply leaned backward to avoid. "I'm a little busy trying to survive right now!"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "If you win," Drake continued, casually weaving through my lethal strikes like we were dancing, "I will give you one of the 9 Sovereigns."

  My sword stopped mid-swing. My brain completely stalled. (Did he just say... the 9 Sovereigns? The divine weapons of the Gods? The ones I literally need to rebuild the immortal-killing sword?! But how does he know about those?)

  "And if you lose," Drake smiled, his dull eyes flashing with a predatory gleam, "you give me your core. Deal?"

  I was completely, utterly confused. Why was the King's adopted son, the terrifying Angel of Death, offering me a mythical artifact in the middle of a deathmatch?

  But my capitalist instincts took over. High risk, cosmic reward.

  "Deal," I smirked.

  "That's what I wanted to hear from a courageous hero," Drake said smoothly, his dull brown eyes staring me down. "Fighting even in the lowest of chances. But you can't win."

  I laughed. Not a polite chuckle, but a full-blown, demonic laugh that echoed across the ruined Colosseum. "You really think you're going to win? I'm not even at half capacity."

  I tightened my grip on the Black Knight sword. "You're just the smallest stepping stone toward my success that I've ever seen."

  With every single word, my attack speed and kinetic power multiplied. I closed the distance in a blur. Drake's calm, emotionless facade finally shattered. His face visibly paled as he frantically parried my heavy strikes.

  (How is he getting stronger?!) I could practically read the panic scrolling across his eyes.

  I stopped my relentless barrage just long enough to channel my core. I coated the dark steel of my blade in a roaring inferno of freezing blue flame.

  "Body Boost! Feather Steps!" I shouted, stacking the physical buffs to push my agility to the absolute limit.

  I broke the sound barrier. The sonic boom shattered the air as I landed a devastating strike directly against his divine armor. KRA-BOOM! A massive explosion rocked the arena, swallowing us both in a thick cloud of pulverized stone and dust.

  (Meanwhile, up in the stratosphere...)

  Mizuki was not having a good time. He was locked in a brutal, sky-shattering struggle against his own father.

  "Show me, son, what have you achieved in these past thousand years!" the massive Yang Dragon roared, unhinging his jaw and launching a terrifying beam of concentrated dark energy.

  The beam struck Mizuki head-on. The golden Invincible Dragon roared in pain, his elegant scales cracking as he sustained a severe injury.

  "Why don't you already give up?" the Yang Dragon taunted, circling his wounded son. "You know you can't win, even against my small fragment."

  Mizuki bared his fangs, his golden eyes blazing with defiance. "Because I never supported the Demon King!" he roared back.

  Channeling every ounce of his remaining divine power, Mizuki launched an explosive Ball of Destruction. BOOM. It slammed directly into the Yang Dragon. The progenitor beast reeled back, visibly injured, his dark aura flaring as he descended into pure, unadulterated rage.

  (Back on the ground...)

  The dust cleared.

  Drake was hacking, coughing up a bright splatter of golden blood. His eyes went wide. The calm, arrogant Angel of Death was completely gone. He had lost his senses. The heavy, suffocating weight of genuine killing intent rolled off him in waves, locking right onto me.

  "I will not accept it!" Drake screamed, his voice distorting with pure rage. "Now behold..."

  He defied gravity, floating higher into the sky. Golden lightning erupted from his eyes, violently arcing across the arena. A fine, brilliant gold armor expanded to completely cover his body, and then, in a final flash of blinding light—two ornate, glowing golden earrings materialized on his ears, completing his divine transformation.

  (Earrings? Really?) I thought, actually rolling my eyes despite the very present mortal danger. (We are in the middle of a catastrophic deathmatch, and his ultimate power-up includes matching jewelry. The absolute sheer vanity of this guy.)

  High above, even the enraged Yang Dragon and the battered Mizuki stopped their clash. The two massive beasts paused in mid-air, turning their giant heads to watch as Drake raised his legendary golden bow toward the sky, pulling the glowing string taut with his other hand.

  My survival instincts screamed. I gripped my blue-flaming sword, every muscle in my body pulling taut, fully alert.

  "My ultimate attack!" Drake’s voice boomed like thunder from the heavens, echoing with terrifying divine authority. "Heaven's Judgement: Sunflare Shot!"

  A blinding, catastrophic bright light emerged from the tip of his arrow. It was like he was holding a miniature sun right there in the Colosseum. The heat was instantaneous and unbearable, scorching the air itself.

  (Okay, jewelry or not, that looks like it's going to vaporize me,) my inner voice panicked.

  I didn't hesitate. I slammed my foot into the ground, funneling every single drop of my Blue Origin mana into my core. If he was throwing a sun at me, I was just going to have to eclipse it.

  It was so blindingly radiant that almost no one in the arena could even keep their eyes open, let alone track its movement.

  Up in the viewing boxes, the heavy-hitters—the truly strong cultivators of the kingdom—instantly sprang into action, throwing up massive defensive barriers. They knew exactly what was coming. They knew the standard Colosseum wards wouldn't survive a fraction of this force.

  Drake released the string.

  The Sunflare Shot crossed the distance instantly. It hit me dead on.

  KRA-BOOOOOOM!

  The resulting blast was apocalyptic. A shockwave of pure, divine heat tore outward, and several of the hastily erected VIP barriers cracked and broke under the sheer pressure. Only two barriers remained completely unaffected: one belonged to the Death Incarnate, Jase Crimson, and the other was from an unknown source.

  Through the deafening roar of destruction, I could faintly hear the panicked screams of the audience. "How can they be just Qi Refinement Stage 3?!" they yelled. (The answer, obviously, is that we were heroes fully utilizing our transformations, but let them panic).

  Slowly, the blinding light faded. The thick clouds of dust began to clear, and the Colosseum's defensive barriers regenerated.

  Everyone in the arena, including Drake hovering high above, stared down into the crater, completely dumbstruck. They fully expected to see my vaporized remains.

  Instead, I was standing there. Completely, utterly unharmed.

  I brushed a speck of dust off my shoulder, looked up at the glowing Angel of Death, and let out a dark, demonic laugh.

  "Look at you," I mocked, my voice echoing through the dead-silent arena. "How hopeless you are now. Did I disappoint you? Aw, little one thought he could win."