Halo of Wrath

The Arena still reeked of scorched Magic and sweat from Team 1's brutal clash.

The NT Gang, battered and bandaged, sat in the viewing room, screens flickering to life as the next match prepared to begin.

Rikushi, nursing his hand. Blaidd, his gaze ice-cold. Valentine, stone silent. Glonk, arms crossed, unreadable.

This fight... was going to be a bloodbath.

Astralla Clan vs. Tyrannical

The horn blew.

LuLu moved first--a black blur with a dark-silver scythe. She sprinted across the sand toward Tyrant, her blade aimed for his neck in a clean arc of death.

But the moment her weapon sliced through the air--

Nothing.

Just a shimmer of static where Tyrant had stood.

An illusion.

LuLu blinked. Her body trembled. The world around her twisted, lights bending, shadows stretching. Tyrant had laced the battlefield with a tech-based hallucination field, and now--she was trapped inside it.

She stumbled, unsure, dazed.

Tyrant raised his Tesla-Cannon.

Boom.
A beam of raw voltage tore through her midsection. LuLu collapsed to her knees, steam rising from the hole in her stomach.

But then... her head lifted. Her eyes glowed with wrath.

Rage Mode: Activated.

Before Zamy could cast another illusion, LuLu moved faster than his thoughts--one clean slice through the neck. His head hit the sand before his body realized it was dead.

TLK, seeing Zamy's death, snapped. His rage mode lit like wildfire.

Yunoi--desperately trying to cast healing magic--felt a sudden cold behind her.
She turned--too late.

Steel pierced her gut, and TLK whispered, "Skill Issue."

She crumpled.

LuLu, barely standing, locked eyes with Tyrant. She screamed, voice cracked with fury, and dashed again.

Another shot.
She dodged it, blade ready to split him open.

But before she could reach him--Mek appeared.

Not a blink. Not a blur. Just teleported, pure tech precision.

He caught her scythe mid-swing, lifted her off the ground while she clung to it, and hurled her across the arena like a comet, the wall cracking on impact.

Faust, covering LuLu, opened fire to pin Mek down.
Mek calmly aimed his arm-cannon.
One shot. One hole. Through Faust's chest.

She dropped.

Kaide, mid-duel with TLK, screamed in horror at his mistress' fall. That split second cost him--TLK drove a blade through his back, dropping him like the others.

LuLu stood in the wreckage, barely breathing. Blood soaked her robes. Her allies? Gone.

Still... she didn't drop her weapon.

She didn't surrender.

She simply lowered her hood.

Black angel wings unfurled.

A divine, haunting glow emanated from her halo, now molten gold. Her scythe grew--a second blade forming on the other end.

Her body floated a few inches off the ground.
She wasn't flying.

She was ascending.

TLK charged.

He didn't make it halfway.

LuLu moved once--and he split in half, sliced clean down the middle before his rage could even trigger.

She targeted Tyrant.

Mek intercepted again.

This time, he grabbed her wings--and shattered one.

LuLu screamed, a soul-tearing cry that shook even the NTG watching.

But as her blood sprayed, something inside her broke free.

A blue mist erupted around her, curling through her wounds. New wings burst from her back--two more joining the originals. Now, she had four total.

She blinked forward--past Mek.

Tyrant's eyes widened. Mek reached--but missed.

She raised her blade for the kill.

Mek latched onto her ankle.

Flash.

His arm fell to the ground, severed clean.

Tyrant, in a rare moment of something close to fear, teleported behind her.

"I surrender."

LuLu didn't care.

She turned and swung anyway--slicing off his ear as he dodged with milliseconds to spare.

Before she could swing again--a streak of silver shot down from the stands.

One of the World Leaders--a towering figure clad in robes of dusk and starlight--landed behind LuLu, grabbing her by the leg.

She spun to retaliate.

He whipped her into the floor, and with impossible force, tossed her across the arena, her body skidding into the wall like a ragdoll.

Silence.

LuLu was unconscious.

The match was over.

Astralla Clan won.

But the price...

Was blood, wings, and humiliation.

Back in the NTG's viewing room, no one spoke for a long time.

"...We're not just fighting clans anymore," Rikushi muttered.

Kite nodded solemnly. "We're fighting monsters."

Blaidd clenched his fists. "Then we better become monsters too."

The Arena Games weren't done.

And neither was the bloodbath.