I descended into the arena, my boots hitting the repaired stone floor with a solid impact that echoed across the vast space.

My body still ached from the fight with Krathax; my divine core had not yet fully recovered, but I pushed the discomfort aside and focused on the gates ahead.

GRRRRRIND!

The massive doors opened wider, and what emerged made me immediately reassess my approach.

She was massive, easily four meters tall at her full height, though most of that height came from the serpentine lower body that coiled and uncoiled as she moved.

Her upper body was humanoid and female, with pale scales covering her skin that shimmered with an iridescent quality under the arena’s strange light.

But what drew my attention immediately were the three heads.

Each one emerged from her shoulders and neck in positions that shouldn’t have been anatomically possible, three distinct snake heads with different colorations and features.

The left head had scales of deep purple that seemed to pulse with toxic energy.

The center head was bone-white with eyes that glowed silver. The right head was gray stone, its scales literally made of granite that clicked when it moved.

In her hands, she had four of them… I noticed that she held a whip that looked like it had been woven from living serpents, each strand writhing independently.

CRACK!

She snapped the whip once, and the sound split the air like thunder, leaving a visible distortion in space where it had passed.

“Well, well, well~” the purple head spoke first with a sultry voice.

“What a delicious little morsel they’ve sent us.”

“He doesn’t look like much,” the white head added coldly, “I give him thirty seconds before he’s paralyzed on the ground.”

“Optimistic,” the stone head said, its voice grinding and harsh like rocks scraping together.

“I say fifteen before he’s a statue.”

The godly figures in the stands began murmuring among themselves, and I caught fragments of their commentary.

“Sythara the Triple-Cursed,” the being made of living fire mumbled with satisfaction.

“An excellent matchup. She’s 9✯ Late True God with three separate authorities. That boy won’t last long.”

“Indeed,” the darkness-shrouded figure agreed.

“Her Authorities of Poison, Paralysis, and Stone are perfectly complementary. And her whip technique is a godly artifact. She’s won forty-seven consecutive arena fights.”

“This will be educational,” another voice added, this one sounding almost sympathetic, though containing a subtle killing intent.

“The creator’s champion will learn the difference between lucky victory and true skill.”

Heh…

They really are pissed off because I hugged that woman, huh?

I looked at Sythara and made a quick tactical assessment.

Using swords against a whip user was possible but disadvantageous.

The whip had a superior range and could attack from angles that were difficult to defend against with blades.

More importantly, given her multiple authorities and the likely poison coating that whip, even a grazing hit could be catastrophic.

I sheathed both Midnight and the Heaven Swallowing Sword on my back.

“Oh?”

All three heads spoke in unison, genuine surprise in their overlapping voices.

“No weapons? How delightfully arrogant~”

“Or stupid,” the stone head amended.

I settled into a martial arts stance I’d learned from one of my previous reincarnations, and raised my hands in a guard position.

The Authority of Ice began to flow through my body, cold enough that frost started forming on the ground around my feet.

“Let’s begin then.”

CRACK!

Sythara’s whip lashed out faster than most people could track, the serpentine strands extending toward my throat with lethal precision.

I ducked under it, feeling the displaced air ruffle my hair as it passed overhead, and immediately had to roll sideways as the whip changed direction mid-flight and came back at me from a different angle.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Three more strikes came quickly, each one coming from a direction that forced me to keep moving, keep adjusting, never staying in one place long enough to mount a counter-attack.

“Dance for us, little god~” the purple head laughed.

“Let’s see how long you can dodge!”

I planted my foot and launched myself forward instead of continuing to retreat, closing the distance between us in a burst of speed that made Sythara’s three heads blink in surprise.

My fist drove toward her center mass, channeling the Authority of Ice through my knuckles to create a layer of frozen energy that would freeze whatever it touched.

WHOOOOSH!

The white head opened its mouth and exhaled, and I felt my entire body lock up mid-strike as the Authority of Paralysis washed over me like an invisible wave.

My muscles refused to respond, my momentum carrying me forward, but my limbs were unable to complete the attack.

Sythara’s whip came around in a vicious arc aimed at my exposed ribs.

I forced the Authority of Defiance through my body with desperate strength, shattering the paralysis effect just in time to twist away from the whip strike.

CRACK!

It caught my shoulder instead of my ribs, and pain exploded through my arm as the serpentine strands wrapped around it and squeezed.

I felt poison beginning to seep into my skin, burning like acid, and my shoulder was already going numb from whatever paralytic toxin was coating the weapon.

“Gotcha~” the purple head purred.

I grabbed the whip with my other hand, ignoring the pain as the poison bit into my palm, and channeled the Authority of Ice directly into it.

CRAAAACK!

The whip flash-froze, the serpentine strands becoming rigid and brittle, and I yanked hard, pulling Sythara off-balance.

She hissed in annoyance and released the whip, letting me keep the frozen weapon while she manifested a new one from thin air, this one crackling with even more obvious energy.

“Clever,” the stone head admitted grudgingly.

“But futile.”

My frozen shoulder was already going black from the poison spreading through my system, and I could feel the paralysis trying to lock up my entire arm.

I channeled the Authority of Ice inward, using the cold to slow the poison’s spread and fight against the paralysis.

It worked, barely, but it was consuming energy I couldn’t afford to waste.

In the stands, I heard more commentary.

“He’s already poisoned,” someone observed with satisfaction.

“Even with his ice slowing it down, that toxin will kill him in minutes.”

“Assuming the paralysis doesn’t get him first. Or she doesn’t just turn him to stone and end it quickly.”

“The creator chose poorly,” a third voice said with barely concealed glee.

“Perhaps next tournament she’ll select someone more appropriate.”

I ignored them and focused on Sythara, who was circling me now with all three heads weaving in complex patterns.

She struck again, the new whip lashing out in a series of attacks that came from multiple angles simultaneously.

I dodged the first two, blocked the third with a kick that sent ice spreading up the whip’s length, and had to throw myself backward to avoid the fourth desperately.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Each strike was faster than the last, her four arms working in perfect coordination to create attack patterns that were nearly impossible to predict.

I started using pure martial arts, flowing from stance to stance, using footwork and body positioning to minimize the targets she could hit.

When I couldn’t dodge, I used my ice-enhanced strikes to deflect the whip, creating barriers of frozen air that slowed its movement just enough.

“Interesting… He’s actually keeping up,” the white head stated, sounding extremely surprised.

“Won’t last. He’s slowing down because the poison is spreading fast,” the stone-headed commented.

She was right, and I knew it.

My frozen shoulder was affecting my balance, making my movements slightly asymmetrical.

The poison in my system was fighting against my ice, and while I was winning that battle, it was costing me energy with every second.

I needed to end this quickly.

WHOOOM!

The purple head spat a stream of liquid poison directly at my face, the venom moving fast enough to hiss through the air.

I created a wall of ice between us, and the poison splattered against it with a sizzling sound that spoke of its corrosive properties.

But that was a feint.

CRACK!

The whip came from below, sweeping my legs out from under me and sending me crashing to the ground.

Before I could recover, Sythara was on top of me, her serpentine lower body coiling around my legs and squeezing with crushing force.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

I felt bones break in my left leg, heard them snap like dry wood, and had to bite back a scream.

The stone head loomed over me, its eyes glowing with gray energy.

“Authority of Stone,” it intoned. “Turn to a statue, little god. Become a monument to your hubris.”

Gray energy washed over my body, and I felt my skin beginning to harden, flesh transmuting into granite starting from my feet and spreading upward.

In the stands, the gods were laughing now, enjoying the spectacle of my defeat.

“Called it,” someone said with satisfaction.

“Fifteen seconds before he became a statue. I was generous.”

I had maybe three seconds before the petrification reached my chest and heart, at which point I’d be completely immobilized and eventually dead.

Two seconds.

One second.

Shit… I can’t believe that I’ll need to use this kind of Authority

I sighed inwardly, but well…

I had no choice.

『 ♡~ Authority of Seduction ~♡ 』

It was my first time using it, but I understood the concept immediatel.y

It gave me the ability to make anything, whether that was a person, object, concept, want to come closer, want to stop resisting, or want to surrender.

I channeled it directly at Sythara, pouring everything I had into a single concentrated pulse of that authority.

All three of her heads froze simultaneously.

Their eyes went wide, pupils dilating, and for one perfect second, every sense in her body was paralyzed by overwhelming sensation as the Authority of Seduction crashed through her defenses and made her entire being focus on nothing except me.

One second.

That was all I needed.

“Moonlit Ice Lotus Sword Art Variants…”

My right hand, not yet petrified, shot up and grabbed the center white head by the throat.

I channeled the Authority of Ice through my grip with every ounce of power I had left, frost exploding from my palm and racing up the head’s scales.

『 Frostbound Arcana! (✦ Flash Freeze Counter ✦) 』

CRAAAAACK!

The white head flash-froze solid, ice spreading through its flesh and into its brain in the span of a heartbeat.

Then I squeezed and shattered it like glass.

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