Chapter 1224: The Arena Feeds Back
Ethan’s eyes went wide.
That last fight had burned through him until there was barely anything left in the tank. Yeah, he’d "won a round," but his energy was nowhere near peak. If he kept going, he might actually die here.
He was about to refuse—
When a surge of terrifying power suddenly gathered from the side and poured straight into his body.
Ethan’s breathing instantly hitched.
The energy was absurdly full, almost overflowing. The moment it entered him, it surged through his meridians and spread into every limb and bone. Muscles that had been heavy from the last battle felt like they were being force-fed strength again. The deep ache in his bones was washed away by a warm current that chased it out.
In just a few breaths, his physical state jumped several levels as if someone had yanked him upward by the collar.
Ethan looked down at his hand.
Transparent lightning danced between his fingers—steadier than before, sharper too. That power wasn’t just restoring what he’d spent. It was pushing him back into fighting form.
Catheryn walked over at the same time.
Without even asking, she reached into his palm, took the blue sphere, and tucked it away with the casual ease of someone holding onto something for a second.
"Looks like you can still go another round," she said, the corner of her mouth lifting. "I’ll keep this for you for now."
Ethan didn’t even get a chance to react.
The guardian was already striding over.
That guy grabbed Ethan by the arm and dragged him straight to the center of the clearing. The moment Ethan planted his feet, the energy around them turned violent. One by one, the glowing patterns on the ground lit up. From deep inside the surrounding rock walls came a low, rumbling vibration, and thick mineral energy surged in from every direction.
Before long, it completely wrapped both of them.
Ethan’s breathing grew heavy again.
This time the arena’s power was several times stronger than before. Dense force pressed down from above while another pressure pushed up from below, like two invisible hands pinning him in place. The moment his transparent lightning started to circulate, the external pressure shoved it back into his meridians. Even releasing it became difficult.
He tried to lift his hand.
His fingertips felt weighted, sluggish.
For a second, the suppression was so intense he couldn’t properly use any power at all.
Then—without warning—something rippled in his chest.
A strangely miraculous energy spread outward from his heart, racing through flesh and bone until it filled his entire body. The discomfort from the arena’s suppression vanished as if it had never existed.
Ethan’s expression snapped sharp.
He clenched his fist again. Transparent lightning jumped over his knuckles—this time it didn’t get forced back. It wrapped his palm steadily, obedient and clean.
Seeing that, the guardian threw his head back and roared with laughter.
He lifted a hand, and a massive energy sphere formed instantly in his palm. Layer after layer of heavy mineral power poured into it, making the ball denser and denser until fine glowing lines crawled across its surface like living script.
But Ethan noticed something immediately.
The injury on the guardian’s shoulder was gone.
The crack Ethan had targeted had vanished completely. His outer energy was whole again. The flow across his shoulder, arm, chest—everywhere—showed no obvious flaw.
So the bastard didn’t just recover.
He patched the weakness Ethan had exploited.
Looks like he could fix his own defects mid-fight... and use this place’s unique energy to do it.
Ethan let out a helpless breath.
Then his own power surged.
Transparent lightning shot into the air and intertwined with the surrounding energy he’d just adapted to. As it gathered, it formed a towering phantom behind him—its outline built from lightning and dense power, huge enough that the air above the clearing let out a dull, pressured boom the moment it stabilized.
Ethan didn’t overthink it.
He drove that phantom forward like a hammer.
The giant projection raised an arm, carrying an overwhelming tide of power as it crashed down on the guardian. When its fist dropped, it tore a wide scar through the air. Transparent lightning exploded along the punch, lancing straight toward the guardian’s head.
The guardian lit up like a kid who’d been handed a new toy.
He laughed hard, stomped once, and charged straight in. Heavy energy condensed onto his fist, and he threw a punch that slammed into the phantom’s arm head-on.
Boom!
The phantom’s arm shattered on impact.
The guardian’s force didn’t stop there. It drove through, blasting a massive hole through the phantom’s torso. In the next heartbeat, the entire projection exploded. Shattered electric light and energy fragments sprayed outward—then were quickly absorbed by the arena like they’d never existed.
The guardian turned into a streak of light and shot straight for Ethan.
Ethan didn’t show a hint of fear.
He’d been ready.
Transparent lightning spread from his palm, wrapped his wrist, then compressed into his fist. He squeezed that energy to the limit. When the guardian reached him, Ethan lifted his arm and punched.
Their fists collided.
Violent power erupted from the contact point. Transparent lightning and heavy mineral energy ground against each other, then burst outward in a huge circular ripple. Space around them tore open with countless cracks—fractures shivering at the edges—
And this time, they didn’t instantly heal.
Their output was too high.
The rips in space actually lingered in midair, unable to close right away.
Even Catheryn, watching from the side, looked genuinely surprised.
She knew exactly what this clearing was. Its energy was stable. The ground and space here were built to endure. Yet Ethan and the guardian had just forced cracks to remain hanging in the air.
That kind of power was way beyond a normal "challenge."
Neither of them slowed down.
The energy on their fists climbed higher and higher. Ethan kept dragging transparent lightning up again and again, while the guardian continuously drew on the mountain’s mineral force. Every collision made the world boom. The glowing patterns around the clearing flickered under the pressure, and deep inside the rock walls came wave after wave of muffled echoes.
After another violent clash, the two finally separated at the same time.
Ethan skidded back, his feet scraping across the ground and carving long electric scars behind him. The guardian also retreated a few steps, his heavy footfalls making the floor patterns flash one after another. The energy rolling off both of them was wild, almost savage.
Ethan gulped air in huge breaths.
The cost was brutal. Every frontal collision felt like taking the weight of a mountain straight into his bones. His arm was numb. His chest felt stuffed with pressure. His inner energy was being ripped out in the turbulence of constant impact.
And yet—during the fight—something strange kept rising from his chest.
That weird, miraculous energy kept repairing his body, filling what he’d spent, stabilizing meridians that should’ve been shattered by now. Feeling the changes, Ethan finally started to understand.
This place wasn’t just a battlefield.
It was a unique, sealed space—one that continuously released energy for those inside to absorb. As long as you could withstand the suppression, you could keep getting replenished mid-combat.
At that point, Ethan stopped holding back.
He raised both hands and fused everything he had into his palms—transparent lightning, that strange energy surging from his chest, and the mineral force he’d pulled from the environment. They compressed, folded, and crushed together until they formed a massive energy sphere.
The moment the sphere took shape, the space around it began to twist.
Comments