Alex crouched, vaulting off the ground and into the air with feline grace. The small flashes of gold on his ears winked at Corvus as he twisted his body to swing a lethal kick at Odere’s neck. Odere shifted his head backwards, dodging the kick by a hairs breadth. At the same time, he gripped onto Alex’s ankle, using its momentum to hop into the air and twist himself beside Alex, aiming to break his nose with a powerful kick of his own.

Alex braced himself, receiving the kick on his forearms with a bone-breaking crunch. With a grimace on his face, Alex wrapped his one good arm around Odere’s legs, pressing his knee into the old man’s chest as they crashed down onto the dark sand. Odere grunted slightly, darting out from under Alex and taking several laboured breaths as Alex stood up, shaking the pain from his arm.

The colosseum erupted in cheers, the two men grinned at each other, flexing their muscles. Alex turned to Corvus’ group, giving them a friendly wink, which Lanya blushed towards. Odere rolled his eyes, smiling apologetically at the group. The cheering died down, and the two combatants returned to their stare-down.

Alex rose his hand towards Odere, spilling green light around his hand. Odere did the same, the emerald glow forming a circle around his forearm. Alex sprinted forward, the glow in his hands subsided, leaving a spinning, ethereal disk of green steel.

“Chakrams.” Damian breathed, his eyes wide with awe.

Alex threw the small steel ring into the air, catching it almost instantly. When he caught it, he held two instead of one. He threw them up again, and caught them just as fast, twirling his four bladed disks around his hands. He threw one at Odere, who had remained completely stationary and unfazed by Alex’s show. The short man tightened his muscles, an ethereal shield with a sharp, glinting edge bound to his arm.

Odere stood as tall as he could, striding straight towards the sprinting Alex and the green disk aimed at his head. He swiped it out the air, sending it clattering to the ground, and continued his confidently slow pace forward. Alex threw the rest of his chakrams at Odere, one after the other at such a rate that he started throwing them at the start of one stride and having none left to throw by the end of it.

Odere swatted them away like overconfident flies, continuing to stare directly into Alex, who smirked with his usual swagger. He stamped the ground sending himself directly into the air above Odere, scattering soft sand in every direction.

Odere brought his arm back, flinging the shield towards Alex’s stomach, aiming to cut him in half. Black light spilled from the coiling tattoos on Alex’s right hand, enveloping the shield in a cloak of shadow and sparks. The black light solidified into black, jagged, crystal-like armour, a breastplate, greaves and gauntlets, scratched and gouged from the bladed shield, but still perfectly intact.

It flew into the air above itself, detaching the shield and snapping into place around Alex’s body. He straightened his body, his flowing hair fluttering as he hurtled straight down towards Odere, who had already summoned a brand new, ethereal green weapon into his left hand. A curved, glassy scimitar, long and deadly. Odere clenched the fist that held the weapon, causing the tattoos on his hand to coil aggressively.

The green scimitar pulsed as its shadow tore free from the sand, floating up beside Odere, its edge wicked and warped. He snatched the shadow-scimitar out the air, and swung both in unison at Alex’s neck, stepping back slightly to avoid being hit as Alex hurtled down.

The earrings that were twinkling on Alex’s ears flared to life, emitting a peerless, golden light. He extended his hands to the side, gripping and swinging off a ghostly, golden ledge that hadn’t been there moments before. He swung to the side, using his momentum to gain some distance from Odere, which he used to weave ribbons of emerald light into a small javelin, which he then launched towards Odere.

Odere slashed at the ethereal spear, shattering his shadowy scimitar against the metal and causing his first sword to vibrate violently as it sent the spear off course. Odere dropped his weapon, making it fade from existence, shaking the pain out his hand. He scowled at Alex who was back on his feet and running towards him.

Odere raised his right hand, and in an instant, the arena became cold. Large spike of black ice formed around him, growing ever larger and ever more. When there was about ten spikes the size of Corvus’ forearm, Odere launched pointed at Alex, who was already smiling, commanding his ice forward. Alex summoned his chakrams again, duplicating them several times and tossing them at the spikes.

The whirring blades of the chakrams collided with the lethal spikes of ice, shattering and breaking them both. Two icicles made it through the collision, hurtling towards Alex, who jumped up to meet them. They impacted his black armour, creating a small shockwave and visibly winding Alex, a grimace of pain spreading across his face, though it was hard to tell if he hated it or loved it.

Alex twisted in the air, coming to the ground with a roll, and began rebuilding his speed towards Odere, who was writing several runes in the air, his hands and eyes darting around at an incredible pace. Alex snatched an ethereal short-sword into existence, his eyes burning with adrenaline. He hopped into the air, bringing his blade back, winding up an earth-shattering strike.

Odere’s eyes focussed on Alex, the black letters in front of him crumbling to dust and then to nothing. Odere raised his hands, summoning his bladed shield and using the tattoos on his left hand to hastily grab the shield’s shadow into his other hand, holding both in the path of Alex’s blade.

The two summoned weapons collided, sending a shockwave of power through the arena, blowing a cloud of dark sand in every direction. Corvus felt the wave hit him, and stumbled back, his vision blurred and his balance disrupted. Judging by the small chorus of yelps from the crowd, some of them had been knocked over completely.

Odere was flung back, skidding along the soft sand, and colliding with the dark stone wall with a painful gasp of pain. He grunted as he tried to get to his feet, shaking his dizziness away. His shields were both dented and broken, so he threw them aside and cracked his back, taking lungful of air all the while.

Alex was taking just as much air in. His acrobatic fighting style and the shockwave from his powerful blow had drained him of much of his energy, though the fiery glint in his eyes suggested otherwise. He held up his sword, bent and misshapen, and tossed it aside into the sand where it faded away. He grinned with determined satisfaction, re-forming his black armour with his right hand and summoning his lance.

Odere snorted, standing straight and walking slowly forward. He tensed his chiselled muscles, preparing for the next exchange of blows. His golden broach began to hum with power and glow with a faint light. Odere summoned a large, two headed battle-axe, almost as tall as him, and clenched his left hand around the handle.

The gold of his broach got brighter and more intense. The space around him began to shift and distort, as something came into existence beside him. There seemed to be a glowing haze that covered him, breaking up his outline, warping his figure so that it wasn’t clear where he was standing. The distortions faded, and the arena was silent as the illusion that it created remained, though it was clear that it was no illusion.

Odere stood beside a perfect copy of himself, slightly greyed and misty, but very capable of passing for a normal person. He picked up his axe’s shadow and handed it to his clone, who received it in his translucent grip, meeting Alex’s gaze with a determined frown.

Alex chuckled to himself, then began to jog forward, his long lance pointed in front of him like an oversized, yet weightless rapier. His jog turned into a sprint, as he jabbed the lance towards Odere, who smacked the lance aside with the handle of his axe, then bringing it down towards Alex’s head. Alex parried, skidding slightly to the left, then throwing a chakram out of thin air towards his foe.

Odere’s copy swiped the chakram away with his dark weapon, then leapt up, swinging his axe towards Alex’s head. The shadow collided with Alex’s left gauntlet, raised in defence, shattering both. Odere had used this distraction to get to Alex’s right side and attack his legs with his emerald weapon.

Alex’s earrings shone, creating an ethereal golden wall between his leg and Odere’s axe, causing the axe to splinter and break on impact. Alex, meanwhile, dropped his lance and summoned a ceremonial dagger which he plunged deep in the clone’s neck, which disappeared instantly.

Odere hopped back, shaking the vibrations out of his hands, grumbling in pain. He raised his sore right hand, conjuring four icicles and launching them towards Alex. Alex spun on his heel, switching his dagger to his left hand and grabbed his short-sword into existence. He attacked them, each one exploding against the ethereal steel.

Odere planted his foot in the ground, pressing himself forward with unstoppable momentum. As the last icicle met its end, Odere leapt, green light surrounding his hands, stabbing down with his newly made scimitar and keeping his bladed shield close to his chest for defence.

Alex ducked away from the ethereal blade, striking upwards but only meeting the metal of the shield. The two of them collided as Odere fell on top of Alex, causing them to both fall and scramble to be free of each other's grip. A small plume of black sand shrouded the details of the brawl, but the grunts of pain and exertion followed by several ethereal green flashes hinted at its brutality.

With a glint of golden light, the two men became separated by Alex’s golden barrier, allowing them to both retreat and catch some precious breath. They both had fairly deep cuts in their chest and arms, likely from Odere’s shield and Alex’s dagger. The two of them stared each other down, exhausted.

Alex straightened, extending his left arm forward, expecting to grab hold of something. The tattoos on his left hand coiled violently as an inky shape spread out of his hand. Little by little, the shape of a bow became clear, dark and powerful. He pulled back the string, a black arrow forming just above his hand.

Odere lifted his right hand, creating a whole new arsenal of small icicles, similar in size to Alex’s arrows. One icicle shot forward, and Alex released the string, sending the arrow flying forward. The two magical objects collided, shattering in a flurry of tiny, dark specks.

Alex drew another arrow back and fired, meeting another icicle between them. Again and again, the projectiles eliminated each other, further extending the stalemate. Alex grimaced in exhausted annoyance, and Odere looked rather shaky on his feet, as if creating the icicles drained his stamina just as much as sprinting.

An instant later, the colosseum went silent. The tension between the two men peaked. An incredible aura of focused emerald light exploded from both of them, blowing away all the dark sand, exposing the black stone beneath them.

A vicious green arrow coalesced on Alex’s bow, spiked and lethal, it looked like it was to be used for killing only the strongest being in the world.

Odere changed his stance, gripping a long, elegant spear that oozed evil. It was tipped with a large, aquatic spike that seemed to be ripped straight out of a stingray, and dripped tiny ethereal venom that dissolved the stone beneath it.

Just as soon as the men had summoned these world-class weapons, the booming voice of Gregory tore through the arena.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” His commanding tone turned every head in the colosseum towards his stone throne, and even caused Gilgamesh to look up in surprise. “I asked you to demonstrate your skill, not murder each other.” His voice was noticeably quieter, but still demanded respect from all that heard it.

The two combatants instantly dispelled both their weapons, painfully bowing towards Gregory in apology.

“Now, go to the infirmary and have Dr Curos attend to your wounds. You will begin this training exercise the moment you return.” Gregory indicated to the door at the far end of the arena.

Before they could even respond, the crowd in the colosseum erupted in cheers and applause, shaking the very walls of Desperius.