27 Grand Battle Royale: Don’t Let Them Close!

As the battle suddenly began Yun was assaulted from all sides. She quickly took out two of the Volvaka spears she had and blocked multiple blows as quickly as she could. Repelling the first wave of attacks, she then struck out with two heavy sweeping strikes to clear a path out of the encirclement. The entire arena had devolved quickly into a few larger circles of chaotic combat. If she could just escape this circle of mutual attacks she'd have a much better chance of survival.

Three of the four opponents in the direction of her sweep managed to escape unscathed, the fourth was unfortunately pushed by his neighbors while trying to flee and lost his balance. Being hit in the chest and knees by Yun's two opposing powerful swings caused him to be knocked out almost instantly, his body vanishing from the stage, and cleared the path forward for her. She quickly dove for the gap, putting away the twin spears and pulling out her single spear. Rising from her dive, she took two large steps forward before turning around to face the mass attacks again. This time they were all in front of her, being bottle-necked by the two neighboring groups of combat.

Cutting her opponents down to merely four at a time instead of an entire encirclement gave Yun a much greater chance of victory. She swept out, stabbed, and swung down and up again at her opponents, deflecting their blows over and over, and keeping them at a safe distance. As she fought she noticed more and more that the group in front of her was dwindling. Looking closer, she realized that others were taking advantage of the distraction to eliminate competitors quickly.

From the back of her group of attackers a few strong opponents pushed through, knocking out half of the group on their way, before they knocked out the front row and began to attack Yun as well. They quickly drove her back with solid teamwork and kept having opposites strike in tandem, forcing a deflection on one side while they struck from the other. Yun had to constantly adjust and strike their blows out of the way instead of blocking, expending more and more energy. It wouldn't take long to exhaust her completely.

All through this battle Yun felt like something was off, her techniques were hitting and perfect, but something was missing. As she fought fiercely with her numerous opponents they started to notice what appeared to be a flame in her eyes. As she struck their blows away their hands started to feel numb bit by bit, and the feeling started to creep up their arms. More and more they felt the area growing heated with a strange tingling sensation in their extremities.

Whoom! A flame suddenly rose around Yun, blasting out heat and driving those around her back over a meter. Not noticing anything different in her battle-focus, Yun drove forward and continued to drive the four stronger attackers towards the cliff edge. They got closer and closer together, trying to cover each other with their reach so they could collectively block the savage blows from this tiny Vulpis.

The Elders in all the arenas looked over at this time, seeing the flaming aura begin to form a halo behind her they all gasped. This was a Battle Aura technique! Battle Auras were known to be one of the strongest foundational techniques you could obtain. This is because a Battle Aura was almost indefinitely sustainable due to the extremely low rate of energy consumption. Additionally, Battle Aura techniques were capable of imposing a great pressure on your surroundings and also of imbuing your every strike with additional elemental power.

Yun drove her four enemies further and further towards the cliff edge, and as she did the halo behind her grew clearer and clearer. Slowly the flames condensed into a radiant solar image, but this wasn't the end. That Radiant Battle Aura continued developing as arcs of electricity began to wind their way up from her feet, twining around her legs and tail before they reached her torso and progressed to the solar image. As these arcs of lightning began to join the solar image they began to attach to it and radiate outwards like living creatures reaching for whatever they could grasp. Slowly the sun became covered in lightning, and when it was fully covered it began to expand outwards and engulf them.

As the Lightning was engulfed slowly by the flames the halo behind her started radiating light instead, developing into a true ring of pure light as the elements merged. This was the Battle Aura of the Solar Thunder Sutra! Every attack she made began to flash with light and heat and cause small electric shocks. Those around her were forced back by the intense heat and shocking aura. Slowly a twenty meter circle formed around her where nobody could get close enough to strike, and she kept driving those four until they toppled from the side of the arena into the river below. After pushing them off the arena she turned around, panting, and braced herself for further attacks.

Shock was on every face, an eerie light made them all look sallow, every fighter on the stage had stopped and were just staring at her.

As she panted in exhaustion the solar image behind her began to dim, slowly becoming just a ring of light before fading with sizzles and sparks. A few of the warriors on her stage recovered from their shock faster than others and quickly took advantage of their distraction, throwing multiple opponents from the stage. Not long after the light faded, the shock wore off of many and they started fighting again, but not long after there was little left to do.

"Stage Three, cease fighting." Boomed the Elder's voice. This was Yun's stage. "Your stage has reached the designated point, two thirds have been eliminated. Those that remain on the stage have passed."

Everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief, but a few familiar faces were staring grimly at Yun, wishing they had succeeded even more now that she had revealed such a powerful ability.

Yun herself was still wondering why she had been stared at by the entire arena, but she brushed it off as simply being due to her ferocious fight with those four warriors. Naturally, she attributed her exhaustion to that fight as well.

Without delay the entire arena was given supplies to eat and drink so they could rest and recover in the victor's area. Those who had failed were gathered up and prepared to return to Myhrrwar city, while being given the explanation that the next phase was quite a distance south and was a secret that they were no longer qualified to learn.

Looking over to the next arena while she recovered, Yun watched as Fenglong fought fiercely with his chain weapon versus another warrior using a pair of sickles. This sickle wielding opponent kept trying desperately to close the distance with Fenglong, but every time he did he would be swiped at from multiple tricky angles and forced back again. Fenglong continued circling with him, trying to get the opponent to turn their back to the edge of the stage so he could be driven off.

As the chains whirled they also kept other opponents from approaching too closely, helping Fenglong ensure his fight was a duel and not a larger melee. Finally taking one last heavy swing with both ends of the chain, Fenglong drove his opponent back just far enough to topple off the stage and be disqualified. Immediately Fenglong turned and engaged another who had been close enough to attack, driving him around as well just like the previous opponent.

Fenglong repeated this several times, disengaging from challengers who he could not manipulate, while eliminating those he could. The whole time he was close to the edge of the arena, but nobody in his group could get close enough to use this against him.

Finally, after watching Fenglong's battles for a short while, the Elder in charge of his arena ended their battles as well, declaring the same result that her arena had achieved.