The heel of Eithan’s left hand caught her in the chin, sending a pulse of pure madra through her head.

She was lifted off her feet in a blow that would have rattled anyone else, but her technique was not interrupted.

The Moonheart Iron body. Developed in a country neighboring Ninecloud, it had been co-opted by the royal family to make up for some of their weaknesses.

Not only did it toughen the body and allow for impressive physical feats, its main feature was that trauma to the body did not affect mental or spiritual control whatsoever. It was more than just resisting pain; a high-grade Moonheart Iron body separated the consciousness from the flesh. She could fight as though controlling herself at a distance.

Eithan knew that, so he gave her no space.

Before her body flew away from the force of his first blow, he grabbed the collar of her robe and prepared the Hollow Armor.

Her technique, a net of rainbow light, landed on him. Her Absolute Decree was meant to sink through his skin and restrict his spirit, subjecting him to her control, but it landed on a layer of pure madra around him instead.

He dropped his own technique the instant hers landed, instead of wasting madra to leave it up. The Absolute Decree was disrupted but not broken, but it had been weakened enough that his inherent spiritual defenses destroyed it.

That created an opening as Miara tried and failed to control him. In that second, he swept her legs out from under her. He tried to slam her into the ground, but she spun out of his grip, using the aura control of her soulfire to push against the air and gain unnatural leverage.

He had already begun Forging stars of madra over her head.

The Crown of the Hollow King.

She raised one hand to take them over, and that was the mistake that gave him the victory.

There was one reliable way to defeat an opponent with superior raw abilities: skill.

Sha Miara was too focused on her power to take over his techniques. There had been an instant in which she could have seized the lead in the fight instead of staying on the defensive.

She’d missed it. He wouldn’t give her another chance.

Now he was one move ahead.

While she was taking over his floating crown of blue-white stars, he used his Striker technique: the Hollow Spear.

At higher levels of advancement, this technique would show its true power. As it was, it was just a hyper-compressed beam of pure madra designed to stab a hole through madra-based defenses.

But he knew what she would do against the Spear, so he started another technique. The Hollow King’s Mantle.

Madra swirled around his body in a vortex.

She conjured the Nine-Light Mirror, a circle of royal madra bigger than her body. His spear sunk into it and was reflected, blasting back at him with an added rainbow light that showed her power had been added to his.

The Nine-Light Mirror caught techniques and returned them stronger…but he had a similar power of his own.

The whirlpool of madra around him, the Hollow King’s Mantle, caught his returned spear. It whipped the Striker technique around his body in an orbit and flung it at Sha Miara.

To avoid wasting madra and cutting off her own view, Miara dropped the Mirror as soon as she could. Once she did, there was a delay before she could activate it again.

He had expected that. Before the fight had even started.

And he’d timed his Mantle accordingly.

The Hollow Spear pierced her chest the instant the Nine-Light Mirror vanished.

The Spear might inflict some spiritual damage, but at this level it was better at breaking techniques than enemies. At best, it would disrupt any Enforcer techniques she had forming.

Now he was two moves ahead.

He closed the gap an instant behind the Spear, Forging more stars for the Hollow King’s Crown overhead. This time, he infused soulfire into the technique, so the stars formed larger and brighter.

The next move he used wasn’t technically part of the Path of the Hollow King, but he thought it was appropriate under the circumstances.

He lowered himself to slam an Empty Palm into Sha Miara’s core.

The restricted Monarch might as well have been a training dummy. She was so far on the defensive that she reacted only along straight, predictable lines. She leaped back to try to create distance while moving to block his palm strike and hurling rainbow madra up into the sky.

Too easy to read. He had already aimed for where she was going.

His makeshift Empty Palm landed. Her royal madra dispersed, and the Crown of the Hollow King finished Forging.

Even with the Moonheart Iron body, her eyes went wide. She could still read and react to the battle with perfect clarity, but her spirit had fallen briefly out of her control. Her Iron body could do nothing to protect her from emotional shock.

Now that Eithan was three moves ahead, he had a decision to make.

End it immediately, or draw it out to show off more? Which would have more impact?

In his usual state of mind, he would have continued to show off. But he had told his students he wouldn’t hold back.

Five stars from the Crown speared down, driving through her madra channels and severing her spirit.

It was the most savage spiritual attack of which he was capable, and ninety-nine out of one hundred sacred artists would be killed or permanently disabled. But he had to assume Celestial Radiance sacred artists had superior spiritual defenses.

Which was where his remaining two attacks came into play.

A Hollow Spear suffused with soulfire pierced her lower abdomen as black scissors flashed into his hand. He couldn’t safely activate the Archlord binding within, but he didn’t need to. The weapon was a perfect conductor for madra and soulfire.

He Enforced the weapon and drove it through her temple.

No sooner had he pierced the skin than she dissolved into white light.

Eithan sent one more pulse of pure madra into the device in his pocket: a stopwatch.

Nine seconds.

Longer than he’d thought. Maybe he’d wasted too much time after all.

Lindon and Yerin watched the fight from the Akura audience platform. A haze of shadow hid them from the outside, though from this side it was like watching through a thin gray mist.

Mercy was with Fury, Pride, Charity, and the other core members of her family somewhere on the floating mountain over their heads, and Lindon found himself wishing he could see their reactions.

The surrounding crowd cheered enthusiastically but with restraint, as though they wished to go wild but considered themselves too refined.

Only Lindon and Yerin were silent.

“V-victory,” the Ninecloud Soul announced. She sounded either hesitant or horrified. Probably both.

“Bleed me dry,” Yerin whispered.

In addition to knowing Sha Miara’s true identity, they had seen recordings of Sha Miara’s previous performance. She was supposed to have been guaranteed a spot among the Uncrowned.

Was this what pure madra could do?

Lindon’s mind was already itching to dissect the fight one moment at a time.

[That was a little slow, don’t you think?] Dross asked him.

“Slow?”

[We could have done it faster.]

A puzzle piece clicked into place for Lindon. Eithan had fought like Lindon did with one of Dross’ combat solutions: as though he could see moves before they happened.

But, for Lindon, sometimes that wasn’t enough. Sometimes moving perfectly couldn’t erase the sheer difference in strength, or speed, or spiritual power.