Supreme BeastTamer: I Can Copy and Upgrade Skills 10x!

"This... this is the moment of truth," Nox muttered to himself. Time seemed to slow; for a moment, the arena was void of the usual speculations. Everyone simply watched as Hendrix's body tore through space... It had only been seconds, not even a minute since Hendrix started descending, but to the spectators, the time was painstakingly slow, feeling like an eternity.

Similarly to the viewers, even Nyx, Wendy, Rab, and Cole held their breaths. Rab and Cole had long stopped their rambling when they sensed the weight of the current situation. Wendy bit her beautiful red lips hard, drawing blood... yet she didn't even notice.

As for Nyx, she tightened her grasp on her sword. Her sharp black eyes were unblinking. Though she was not the one fighting out there, just from Nox's expression and Hendrix's desperate attack, she could tell their final clash would determine the fight's winner.

Rab and Cole silently offered prayers to their various pantheon gods.

"Come at me!" Nox shouted, his voice steady despite the storm that had grown much darker. The rain beat down furiously as if sensing the tension in the air, and it was so thick that the pool of water below his feet, a result of the heavy downpour, churned violently.

'Even till the end, your cockiness still irritates me,' Hendrix sneered in his mind as he crossed the final distance, his gauntleted fist, pulsing with a golden glow, blurring forward toward Nox.

The pulsing fist caused tiny explosions in the air, making the audience gasp in surprise and amazement. For the punch to cause such phenomena mid-air, there was no way this was an ordinary attack! It was a devastating blow meant to finish Nox in one hit.

Can he even survive it? This was the thought the others had; however, the next moment, they witnessed something that left them shocked!

Instead of dodging the attack, as most of the spectators had anticipated, Nox leaped into the air, meeting Hendrix's descent head-on.

"W-what is he doing?" Klein, who had momentarily forgotten his job, whispered to himself, confusion flickering across his eyes.

As they reached within arm's length, Nox aimed the Oblivion Edge directly at Hendrix's hurtling body, his heart racing. Just as they were about to slam into each other, Nox twisted his body, using the momentum of his jump to add force to his attack.

"Eclipse Binding!" he cried out as the familiar runes along the hilt glowed brighter, casting an ominous light on Nox's determined face.

What is this skill? Why is my hair standing on end? Hendrix's eyes widened in disbelief as he felt the air shift around him. The dagger's edge sliced through the space between them, creating a moment of suspended time. A moment later, Nox's strike connected with Hendrix's chest just as Hendrix reached his peak velocity. The world around them blurred, and for a moment, everything was silent.

Then...

BOOM!

A violent explosion of energy erupted from the point of impact, sending a shockwave that rippled through the arena. The impact of Nox's attack caused even the giant magical screen to flicker and go off for a couple of seconds, causing a wave of unease through the audience.

"Damn it! What happened?"

"What's the outcome of the fight?" Hans, with big beads of sweat rolling down his bald head, demanded. Because he was from the Cromwell Barony, the outcome of the fight was even more important to him.

"For a moment, I even forgot to breathe," Serene said, flicking a bead of sweat from her glistening forehead. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "But what happened to the live screen?"

Her words immediately started a chain reaction throughout the arena.

Just as the crowd was about to fully erupt into an uproar, a series of robed men recognized as runesmiths rushed over to the massive magical screen and tinkered with it. The screen flickered black and white for a couple of minutes before displaying the live feed of the mysterious realm again.

When the feed returned, they saw a shocking scene.

"Huh?"

"What is happening to him?"

"His chest... there's something strange."

"Heavens, I've never seen anything like this in my life!"

Hendrix was staggering back, trying to regain his balance. From the small opening below his nose, blood dripped from his mouth. He was no longer in his buffed-up form; now, it seemed as if he had aged within a couple of minutes. Even his eyes were slowly closing, though he tried his best to stay awake. No, he couldn't lose! No matter what, he couldn't lose. But just then, Hendrix felt an intense pain coming from his chest. The mind-numbing pain immediately chased away the drowsiness.

He weakly glanced down and saw a deep horizontal cut that stretched from his chest to his lower abdomen. The cut was expected; after all, Nox had landed a solid hit on his chest. But what Hendrix couldn't understand was...

What sort of trickery is this? he thought in confusion.

Right before his eyes, the cut along his ribs opened, then sealed, then opened again, repeating over and over. Blood poured from the wound like a broken tap.

Nox, who had landed gracefully, watched the scene. Though he was exhausted, it wasn't visible on his face. He stood straight, dagger in hand. A look of satisfaction crossed his features when he saw the confusion in Hendrix's eyes behind his mask.

At first, the pain was bearable, but with each passing second, it grew more intense. Hendrix brought his hands to cover the wound, but the cut opened and sealed again. Just a couple more seconds, and Hendrix collapsed to his knees, his vision going hazy. It was the first time he'd experienced such pain, and it felt as if his bones were melting.

Hendrix felt as if he was just seconds away from going mad, and he let out a strangled cry, clutching his side.

"Aghhhhhh!" he roared as he shot Nox a look of desperation. "What… what did you do?!"

"It's a secret," Nox said in a low voice. "But what isn't a secret is that wound... It's gonna reopen. Over. And over. And over again."

Hendrix's eyes, along with everyone else's, widened. This was exactly what was happening.

Then Nox added, calm and cold with a gleam of malevolence in his eyes, "Welcome to eternity, Hendrix."