"What will Crashnova do now to turn this around?"
Then
Gabriel flipped back to his feet.
But slower.
Less balance.
Eyes glowing faintly not fully.
Still dazed. Still sweating.
Rocky stood tall. Smiling.
Predict that.
The Hexagon Arena Barrier.
No vents. No breeze. Just a translucent blue shell sealing the fighters in and the audience out. A silent, glowing wall that protected spectators from what was happening inside.
The floor shimmered with rising heat. The air hung heavy thick like cotton pressed against the lungs.
Gabriel stood motionless.
His right hand rested loosely at his side. Sweat streamed from his brow, no longer in beads but in relentless sheets. His grey sleeveless compression shirt clung to his torso, darkened and soaked. Every breath was labored, drawn through clenched teeth.
Strands of damp hair stuck to his face, curled over his temples, refusing to stay out of his eyes. And still, the heat kept rising suffocating and endless.
Across from him, Rocky grinned, circling like a predator but he knew time wasn't on his side.
The heat had taken its toll.
His arms were burning with fatigue, each movement slower than the last. Any further strain and he risked muscle lock that brutal point where the arms seize up completely, refusing to respond, even when the pressure stops.
No more punches.
No more defense.
Just dead weight.
Still, he cracked his knuckles, that same wicked glint in his eye.
He couldn't let Gabriel see it the exhaustion, the tightness creeping into his elbows, the tremble threatening to reach his fingers.
He had to finish this. Now.
The heat was draining them both, but he believed he held the psychological edge.
Gabriel was blinking more. Sweating hard. His visual prowess couldn't help him if he couldn't even see.
Rocky smirked, circling closer.
"Just one clean shot," he muttered under his breath.
"That's all it takes."
"You're starting to understand," Rocky called, his voice loud and sharp. "That sweat in your eye stings like hell, doesn't it ?"Gabriel didn't answer. He blinked again. Slowly. Deliberately.
"Tch. You're too reliant on perfect vision," Rocky scoffed, circling slowly.
"But here? There's no breeze. No clarity. Just heat... and sweat."
He raised a fist, fingers twitching with readiness.
"I made this place your coffin."
Gabriel's ThoughtsHe's not wrong.
He got me good.
I thought distracting him with talk of tendons and anatomy would throw him off pull his focus away from my eyes.
But I guess he saw through it or figured it out.
He wasn't the only one.
My brother… he'd know exactly how to corner me like this.
He always did.
He's here I know it. Watching from the VIP section, just above the barrier. Arms folded. Back straight. That smug little smirk tugging at his lips like he's already figured out how to end this.
Tch.
I can't see him right now too much movement, too much sweat, too much at stake to even glance up. But I can feel him.
Like a presence pressing down from above.
Whispering just loud enough in my head:
"Tsk."
Gabriel blinked again and again and again, another sting slicing across his focus.
My eyes thrive on clarity. Eye movement. Micro-movements. twitching.
Everything depends on clean, uninterrupted vision.
But when your eyes are burning when sweat drips into your lashes and the world blurs for even a split second
That's all it takes to lose everything against a senior brawler.
Thoughts end.
But Rocky had made one mistake.
A critical one.
He'd built this arena to target his opponent's weakness
But he was facing someone who would definitely rise up to the challenge and adapt.
A slow smile pulled at Gabriel's lips.
He muttered under his breath, low enough only he could hear:
"Not today, brother… you won't get to mock me today."
He straightened his posture, then lowered into a tighter stance.
His fingers twitched at his sides, tendons pulling taut beneath the sweat-slick skin.
"You said it yourself, Rocky 'that's how evolution works.'"
"But what happens when the very thing you tried to Hinder"
"gets restored to its peak?"
"I guess we're about to find out."
Across the arena, Rocky's eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to wait for that to happen.
He moved first
Exactly as Gabriel expected.
But this time, Gabriel was already planning ahead.
Fwomp!
A punch fired, compressed air crackling from his knuckles at 500 psi, enough force to shatter ribs or twist flesh.
Gabriel moved just in time, but the blast still grazed his left arm, a sharp spike of pain shooting up his bicep. He grit his teeth and rolled, the heated floor biting into his back as he struggled to breathe.
The air was heavy like trying to inhale through steam-soaked cloth.
"Why so slow now?" Rocky's voice cut through the haze like a blade.
He wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
Your eyes are turning against you? Real fighters push past their limits. You won't last a month in the senior division if you keep choking if you keep failing to go the extra mile."
The words echoed in Gabriel's ears mocking, yet strangely enlightening.
Go the extra mile.
That phrase clung to him, looping in his mind like a mantra he should've understood long ago.
He let it echo not just in his ears, but deep in his chest until something finally clicked.
Why hadn't he thought of it from the beginning?
Of course…he thought to himself.
He breathed out, almost laughing at himself.
"You had an edge I overlooked,Rocky" he muttered. "From the start."
He blinked through the blur.
Rocky's body was drenched in sweat yes but somehow still moving better in the heat. Gabriel's own sweat only now began pouring the way it should've earlier. It wasn't just the temperature. It was how his body reacted to it.
"You adapted to the heat faster," he whispered. "That's why I've been sweating harder,... that's why I couldn't keep pace. And I missed it."
This is exactly why I keep losing to you, brother...
Always a few steps behind. Always late to pick up on what matters.
The arena was hot. It was suffocating. The barrier trapping every breath like a sealed furnace.