CHAPTER 31 — THE x BIG x DEBUT
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
X’OMNERA — BLACKJACK’S UCL ARENA FLOOR
The crowd was already screaming by the time the first team walked in.
A trio of summoners from Vharon already waiting. Raymond, Kurt and Remi. Young, confident, standing like they’d already rehearsed the victory pose. They weren’t about to be the ones who let broke newcomers steal a win.
The UCL pit was a single-lane Crownfall hybrid marked in red lumen paint. Thin metal grates. Platforms on either side for elevation. Neon boards tracking bets and projected simulated damage output. The air thick with blood, sweat and recycled pom smoke.
Triple Kill stepped out.
The crowd didn’t bother hiding their bias. Above the pit, updated odds flashed across the neon boards.
TEAM TRIPLE KILL +3500
HITMAKERS -1500
Set, Riven and Talla looked up at the odds in unison. Then they saw him.
Otto, sitting like he owned the place. Hands behind his head. Front row. Smirking like he was amused by a forgone conclusion.
Switch flipped.
Set’s pupils narrowed to vertical slits.
His ears angled forward.
Tail stilled.
Talla didn’t say a word.
Her fur rose as her translucent tail curled along her spine.
Her little hands flexed, claws half out.
Riven closed his eyes and began to hum softly.
For the first time since entering X’O, Triple Kill didn’t look like lost kids.
They looked like the apex predators the world had labeled national terrorists.
THE MATCH STARTS
The horn rang once, a digital screech the crowd lived for.
Kurt and Remi moved instantly.
Sigils lit on their wrists, glowing under their sleeves. Each one burned a charge.
The two shapers summoned forces hit the field at once.
A dozen samurai made of white-blue aether exploded into formation, sprinting down the lane in synchronized slashes. At the same time a massive circular summon tore open above them.
A black swarm of crows burst outward like a storm detonating.
The crowd roared.
Triple Kill responded.
Talla didn’t think.
Her ears twitched to the sound of advancing footsteps;
speed, weight, distance
and she threw three acorn nodes forward.
They hit the lane and instantly rooted themselves, fractals spreading across the ground like violent traps.
Her instinct mapped everything.
Riven exhaled. Eyes still closed, still humming a rhythm.
Calm.
Arms loose.
His hands rose.
Green aether flashed between his fingers, strings snapping into existence.
One strum.
Then another.
Then.
Shing.
Reso-Blade scythes tore down the lane, slicing the samurai constructs clean through. They burst into shards of aether.
Riven strums along.
Two Reso-blades, pure jaded aether, orbiting him like twin satellites. Guided by his rhythm.
A gentle strum.
A gentle kill.
The blades ripped forward, slicing through the aether samurai as if they were paper soldiers.
The crowd gasped.
The third Vharon summoner, Raymond didn’t commit to lane.
He broke left, moving fast.
Set’s ears twitched toward the sound before anyone else caught it.
He pivoted.
His tail dropped for balance.
His shoulders lowered.
Breath tightened.
Predator mode.
Raymond took the air, letting the crow swarm swallow him. The birds masked his presence completely; wings, feathers, heat signatures all overlapping.
Set growled low, a sound from his ribs.
He looked up.
Nothing.
He closed his eyes for half a second. His nostrils flared.
Listened and smelled.
Not for wings.
For breath.
Found it.
A single inhale out of place in the noise of the swarm.
Set launched upward, just raw leg strength and aether burst, turning him into a violet blur.
Raymond burst from the crows, fingers forming a sigil just inches from activation.
He was too slow.
Set pulled his arm back, claws out, aether crackling up to his elbow.
He slashed forward.
A violet streak tore across the sky, an expellant rip so sharp it carved the air itself.
The crow swarm shredded into raining fragments.
Raymond took the hit full force; chest, shoulder, cheek. All ripped open with clean diagonal lines of violet burn.
Raymond spun crashing backward, tumbling into the lane hard enough to skid before catching himself.
Set fell back to Aerth, landing beside Riven in a low balance crouch.
His eyes were no longer human-shaped.
The arena went quiet for a breath.
Raymond staggered to his feet, blood along his cheekbone and collar.
He grinned.
The other two Vharon summoners fell into new stances.
The crowd leaned forward.
Yeah.
Now it was a match.
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣