what!! Aren’t you going to mock me now?"

He slowly raised his left hand, flaunting the pulsing purple ring right in front of Lucian’s blank eyes.

"Beautiful, isn’t it?" Adrian’s smile widened. "Father personally gifted this high-tier artifact to me on my 14th birthday. It is a symbol of his expectations."

Leaning closer, he tilted his head. "Look closely, brother, and tell me... what did our Father give you on your 14th birthday? Oh, wait... let me guess. Nothing!"

Not a single muscle twitched on Lucian’s face. He showed no anger, no irritation, and absolutely no disappointment. It was as if Adrian’s words didn’t matter to him in the slightest.

Adrian’s mocking smile slowly began to fade as he realized his taunts were having zero effect on his brother.

Crack... Shatter!

At that exact moment, the ring’s time limit expired, and the glowing purple runes on the ground shattered like fragile glass. As soon as the spatial lock lifted, Lucian casually took a step back, moving to create some distance, though Adrian was completely prepared for it.

"You’re not going anywhere!"

While shouting, he instantly pulled a small, dark green sphere from his belt and smashed it near Lucian’s feet, murmuring, "Viper’s Dust Grenade." The moment the sphere burst, it released a thick, toxic green gas that rapidly covered the immediate area. However, it had absolutely no effect on Lucian, as his poison resistance was already incredibly high.

Still, choosing not to inhale the thick fumes, Lucian executed a smooth back-jump to clear the cloud.

Taking full advantage of the smoke’s visual cover, Adrian slipped three black needles from his sleeve and threw them with all his might directly into the ground — pinning Lucian’s exact shadow.

[Shadow-Bind Needles]

Tzzzt! The moment the needles sank into his shadow, Lucian’s body violently froze mid-motion once again.

"Gotcha!"

Without wasting those precious four seconds, Adrian forcefully crushed a small, black crystal he had hidden in his hand directly against his neck. The instant the crystal shattered, a surge of dark, cursed energy was immediately absorbed into his skin.

[Demon-Eye Stigma]

Instantly, Adrian’s cognitive processing speed multiplied drastically. The entire world slowed down to a single crawl before his eyes, allowing him to accurately track every single micro-movement Lucian made.

Despite being weighed down by a full set of heavy armor, the temporarily enhanced Adrian lunged forward with the blinding speed of a bullet.

The paralysis effect on Lucian was just wearing off, while maintaining his completely blank expression, he swung a direct punch straight toward Adrian’s face.

Yet just a millisecond before the impact, the intricate runes etched into Adrian’s boots suddenly flared to life.

[Phase-Shifter Boots]

For a single, fleeting second, Adrian moved with such blistering, unnatural speed that his body became as intangible as a ghost.

Upcoming Lucian’s deadly punch phased directly through him, hitting nothing but empty air and dealing absolutely no damage.

The very next moment, Adrian reappeared seamlessly in Lucian’s right blind spot.

That mechanical gauntlet on his right arm overcharged, glowing with searing red heat and dense, volatile mana.

[Titan-Grip Gauntlet] 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Take this, you motherfucker..." Adrian roared, pouring all his explosive power into a devastating strike. "Let’s see how you stay on your feet after taking this ten-times amplified punch!"

Roaring, Adrian drove the devastating hook straight toward Lucian’s ribs.

BOOOOM!

Deep cracks spiderwebbed across the arena floor as the sheer force of the shockwave instantly blew away all the lingering smoke and toxic gas.

The wildly cheering crowd collectively caught their breath leaving the whole massive Colosseum dead silent — because what they saw next completely shook their minds.

Lucian was still standing exactly where he was. He had effortlessly blocked that devastating, 10x-multiplied metal gauntlet punch using nothing but his bare left forearm, still maintaining his chillingly cold and blank expression.

Without missing a beat, his calm gaze remained fixed on Adrian as he reached out with his right hand to grab his brother by the throat.

Adrian didn’t panic. Instead, his smirk only widened as he triggered another artifact which was hidden inside his chest plate.

[Blood-Wire Mesh]

Instantaneously, a net of invisible, razor-sharp mana wires sprang to life around Adrian’s entire body. If anyone attempted to grab him bare-handed, their fingers would be sliced clean off.

Yet a faint, icy flash gleamed in Lucian’s eyes. The moment he sensed the lethal wires, he didn’t grab. Instead, Lucian smoothly twisted his wrist, instantly converting his grip into a brutal, point-blank palm strike that slammed directly into the center of Adrian’s chest plate.

CLANG!

Mommy’s boy was sent flying backward, at that exact moment, a silver scale hanging around his neck suddenly flared with a blinding light.

[Mirrored Scale Amulet]

The raw impact of Lucian’s strike was instantly reflected, rebounding straight back into Lucian’s own right arm and chest. The artifact was designed to completely reverse any incoming physical damage directly onto the attacker.

Though the result? Lucian skidded backward just a few inches, only to calmly raise his hand and lightly dust off the shoulder of his blazer, acting as if a mere fly had landed on him. He didn’t give the roaring crowd a single ounce of the pained expression they were so desperately hoping to see.

Adrian landed harshly on his feet. He was beyond frustrated — how the hell was Lucian still standing so casually? Blinded by rage, Adrian recklessly dashed forward again, aggressively grabbing both of Lucian’s shoulders with his hands.

"You are just faking it!" Adrian screamed.

The instant their bodies made contact, a crimson stone resting against Adrian’s chest began to glow intensely.

[Leech Core Pendant]

The pendant immediately generated a shaky vacuum effect, draining Lucian’s mana and siphoning it straight into Adrian’s body and armor.

"Witness my power, you pathetic —" Adrian began to laugh, but the words completely died in his throat mid-sentence.

Lucian made absolutely no attempt to break free from the grapple. He simply stood there, staring at Adrian with those hollow eyes as the pendant continuously sucked away his energy. Second by second, the Leech Core was growing dangerously bright and highly unstable.

Lucian’s mana was so incredibly dense, so overwhelmingly dark, and in such a massive quantity that even the high-tier artifact simply couldn’t handle the intake.

Crack.

A deep crack splintered right down the center of the pendant.

Crack... Shatter!

The artifact completely overcharged and violently detonated right against Adrian’s chest.

The concussive blast sent him staggering backward before he collapsed onto the arena floor, thick smoke billowing from his scorched heavy armor. All of his cheap tricks, all the rarest artifacts in the world... had only ended up spectacularly humiliating him in front of the entire Colosseum.

A wave of mocking laughter and jeers began to ripple through the massive spectator stands.

Up in the VIP boxes, the reactions were split. Some of the nobles — particularly the Valemont family — clenched their jaws and dug their nails into their palms in furious embarrassment. On the other hand, several sharp-eyed rulers and academy instructors leaned forward, their undivided attention now firmly locked onto Lucian.

The fact that he was still standing so effortlessly, not even breathing heavily after having such a massive amount of raw mana drained from him, was downright terrifying.

Lucian hadn’t even tried to launch a proper attack yet. It was blatantly obvious to the experts watching — he had intentionally taken every single hit just to make a point.

Tilting his head, Lucian cracked his neck with a sharp, echoing pop. Maintaining that same chilling, deadpan expression, he took a slow, deliberate step forward, casually walking toward his fallen brother.

"So, brother..."

Stopping right in front of Adrian, who was still groaning, glaring up at him while struggling to push himself off the ground.

Leaning down slightly, the cold blankness on Lucian’s face finally broke, replaced by a devilish smile that sent chills through him.

"...Now that you are all out of toys, shall we have a real fight?"

Adrian’s eyes widened in sudden panic.

Hitting the suffocating wall of bloodlust radiating from Lucian, he frantically scrambled backward, dragging himself across the rough arena floor.

The boos and mocking jeers from the crowd rained down on him, echoing loudly through the Colosseum. Breathing heavily, Adrian’s hopeless gaze shot upward, searching the high VIP boxes for any sign of support from his family.

He found none.

Duke Valemont was looking down at him, his eyes narrowed into a cold glare that promised nothing but consequences.

Behind the Duke, the Duchess let out a low, furious growl. She gripped the left armrest of her chair, her fingers digging in so intensely that the polished wood was visibly beginning to splinter and crack under the pressure.

"How..." she hissed. "How did that street rat become this capable? This shouldn’t be possible."

Beside her, Lysandra looked just as shaken. She was biting down so hard on her thumbnail that her face twisted into an ugly snarl as she glared down at the arena.

"He is definitely hiding something," she muttered, her voice trembling slightly. There is no way a stray like him is actually this strong. It doesn’t make sense.

Cassia, however, watched the match unfold with the exact same unreadable expression. She sat perfectly still, her face giving away nothing at all. But just for a fraction of a second, the very corner of her lips twitched into a faint invisible smile, before she smoothly suppressed it back into complete indifference

On the ground, Adrian gritted his teeth and stared for a few agonizing seconds before his humiliation boiled over into blind rage.

With a guttural roar, he lunged again.