My Charity System made me too OP-Chapter 331: Fighting VIII

"Next match—Leon the Tempestwalker… versus Rank 35: Mar'Zhal the Sixfold Echo."

The crowd hushed.

From the shadows emerged Mar'Zhal—an Obsidian Ant unlike any Leon had seen. His form shimmered with afterimages, his steps layering upon themselves. He didn't just move—he reverberated. Each twitch of his carapace emitted delayed echoes, six mirrored projections dancing in tandem with him. This was the champion whose Shell Reverb had fractured time into battle echoes—an opponent who fought in six moments at once.

"Begin!"

Mar'Zhal charged—and all six of him moved.

Leon struck first, driving Shell Pulse forward, but his punch passed through a ghost. The second echo caught him in the ribs—then the third slammed him from behind. Pain flared.

He's not faster, Leon realized, he's ahead.

Shell Reverb activated—Tripart Echo—Leon spun into a defensive stance, absorbing the kinetic momentum. He counterattacked, but each strike only dissipated one projection before another took its place. Mar'Zhal's real body darted between echoes, his blows synchronized across timelines.

The fight became a chaotic ballet. Leon ducked under a mirrored kick, countered with a Destruction-backed elbow, and triggered Echo of Origin. Time slowed. Rhythm collapsed into raw cadence.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

Every shell burst, every counterstrike sang with Origin Pulse. Leon became the anchor of tempo, his body pulsing with the weight of accumulated momentum. But Mar'Zhal adapted. His own echoes became sharper, more deadly—two of them now carried partial impact, turning feints into real damage.

Leon's left shoulder cracked. His leg buckled. But he rose again.

Shell Reverb: Absolute Return — Active.

Energy spiraled around him as he absorbed not just kinetic force but intention. Each move Mar'Zhal made was felt, translated into potential.

Then—Leon used Echo Break, a maneuver he'd theorized in the Monastery. He reversed the rebound at the moment of resonance collapse, creating a shockwave that disrupted all echoes.

BOOM.

Mar'Zhal stumbled. For the first time, his illusions desynced. Leon seized the moment.

Destruction surged through one arm. Aether Blood wrapped the other. Gold Magic flickered at his feet. He disappeared—then reappeared above Mar'Zhal.

"KARMIC LOOP."

A triple-layered Shell Reverb spiral, fused with Origin Pulse and Voidbreaker precision, slammed into Mar'Zhal.

The arena exploded in light.

When the dust cleared, only Leon remained standing—barely. Blood streamed from his mouth, arms trembling, but his opponent lay shattered, echoes fading to silence.

"Victory: Challenger Leon. Rank 35… DEFEATED."

He didn't smile. He just looked up at the ceiling, chest heaving, and whispered:

"Five more to Echo Mastery."

The arena was silent for a moment longer—then erupted into a thunderous, rattling roar. The Obsidian Ants, once skeptical of the outsider, now trembled with awe. Leon had shattered not just a champion, but the rhythm of a legacy. Mar'Zhal's Sixfold Echo had stood undefeated for over a century. And now, the floor belonged to the Tempestwalker.

Leon dropped to one knee.

He wasn't broken, but close.

Shell Pulse fluctuated within him, unstable from overload. Echo of Origin still surged at his core like a storm trapped in a bottle, pulsing with raw, unspent power. Every heartbeat sent a jolt of residual force rippling through his muscles.

Footsteps approached—light and familiar.

Roselia knelt beside him, a bottle of glowing elixir in hand. "Stubborn bastard," she said softly, brushing blood from his cheek. "You know you don't have to break the world to win."

Leon coughed out a breath, accepted the drink. "Maybe. But if the world stands between me and what I need… it better learn to move."

Milim landed with a crack of wind nearby, her eyes gleaming. "That was insane! Did you see how you twisted your pulse in the middle of his third echo? You basically re-wrote his entire rhythm!"

Leon smiled faintly. "Still only 94% Shell Reverb Mastery."

Liliana stepped forward next, a glint of concern in her emerald gaze. "You're pushing it, Leon. We're getting close to the top now. The next five? They won't just test your body. They'll test who you are."

Roman crossed his arms, leaning on his greatsword. "And if you crack, we'll be the first to drag your sorry hide out."

Naval simply nodded. "The final stretch. You've walked too far to falter now."

Leon exhaled. His body screamed for rest, but his mind—his spirit—felt sharper than ever. The battle had nearly broken him, but it had also revealed something profound: not just the fusion of magic, force, and intent—but a glimpse of true resonance, the absolute harmony between motion and meaning.

A thought occurred to him.

There's one more lesson waiting.

He rose, breath still ragged but steady.

"I want a day," he said. "We'll rest, recover… and then we challenge Rank 34."

Roselia looked into his eyes. "No more holding back?"

Leon shook his head. "Not anymore. From here on, every fight is a symphony—and I intend to conduct the last note."

The team gathered close as the Obsidian arena shifted back into silence, shadows folding in. Above them, the path to Rank 34 flickered to life, its glyphs pulsing with invitation.

The next day came like thunder.

Leon stood at the edge of the newly revealed platform—one of black marble streaked with threads of red crystal, humming softly like a living heart. The glyphs surrounding it pulsed with slow, deliberate rhythm, unlike the erratic patterns of the previous tiers. This was a place of precision, of legacy.

Across from him stood his next opponent:

Vael'Astra the Shearwind.

A lithe Obsidian Ant, half his size but triple the speed of any he'd faced before. She was rumored to have ascended through kinetic harmony alone—no brute strength, no destructive magic. Her strikes were whispers that could shear through steel. Her body? A flawless instrument of reflex and rhythm.

She bowed, low and deliberate.

Leon returned it, hands wrapping slowly around his staff. He had a day's rest, and his body—though still bruised from the Sixfold Echo—was stable. He had stabilized Echo of Origin within him and fine-tuned his use of Absolute Return.

But this battle would not be about power. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

It would be about timing.

The chime sounded.