A final downward elbow shattered through Braggen's vine-guard, slamming into his shoulder with a sickening crack. The man grunted, staggered and for the first time looked genuinely pressed.

Braggen's jaw tightened. "I admit I underestimated you… You are strong…"

Then his tone dropped, calm but laced with menace.

"…But I've been hiding mine."

The green aura around him suddenly condensed, the gentle shimmer of Hope twisting into something denser, darker almost black. The vines shrank into his skin before exploding outward in jagged, thorn-covered tendrils. The air shifted, heavy with the scent of iron and earth, as though the courtyard had been dragged into some deep, ancient forest where predators ruled.

Solen's gaze sharpened. "Hoh… Bloom Affinity, evolving. This isn't healing—it's predation."

Braggen raised his hand, the black thorns writhing like living blades. "Echo Art Bloom: Predator's Embrace."

Juno blinked, eyes narrowing. "What…? I thought your Bloom was weak—that's why you leaned on Taishin so much."

Braggen smirked. "I can only open the Fourth Gate of Taishin. My master trained me, but not enough to reach your Fifth. So…" His stance dropped lower, Shinrei surging into the thorns until they hummed with killing intent. "…I built this. A fusion of Taishin technique and Echo Art."

…..

[Lore – woven into the fight]

Every warrior in Elysera carried Shinrei, the Flame of Emotion. Rage burned red. Calm ran blue. Hope bloomed gold. Fear… twisted black, birthing the Void.

The Taishin Gates controlled that flow each one a dangerous release valve.

Braggen stood at the Fourth Gate, Vein Sense Gate. Juno was at the Fifth gate, he can temporarily disables the body's pain signals.

Also Bloom was usually gentle healing, shielding but Braggen's Predator's Embrace was something new. Hybrid. A Bloom twisted by survival instinct.

…

The courtyard trembled, cracks snaking across the stone as jagged black thorns erupted in a spiraling wave. They tore through the tiles like living spears, all of them darting toward Juno in a relentless, hungry advance.

Juno's foot slid back across the fractured ground, Fifth Gate energy flaring around him in a storm of crackling light. The air hissed with the force of it.

(If I get caught in that… I'm finished.)

The first tendril lashed out, fast, like a whip tipped with steel. Juno dropped low, his body blurring into an afterimage that was shredded to ribbons where he had been a heartbeat before.

A second vine speared upward from beneath the ground. This time, Juno pushed off the heel of his foot, vaulting high into the air. He spun mid-flight, his heel cutting downward in a sharp arc. The impact hit with a thunderous crack, pulverizing the vine into drifting dust.

But there was no pause, three more thorned tendrils erupted from the ground at once, snapping toward him from different angles.

Ceyla's breath caught, her gaze tracking the chaotic movements. "That's not a trap… it's a hunt."

Juno landed in a crouch, dust swirling around his boots, a thin sheen of sweat tracing down his cheek. Despite the danger, his eyes gleamed like sharpened steel.

"Alright then…" he straightened, "let's see whose hunt this really is."

Braggen tightened his stance, Predator's Embrace still coiled around his limbs like a living snare. His green-lit Shinrei pulsed with every heartbeat, the controlled rhythm of an apex hunter waiting for the right strike.

But Juno didn't wait.

With a sudden snap of his foot, the ground exploded beneath him. The Fifth Gate roared open wider, flooding his small frame with a violent torrent of power. The air warped around him, dust scattering like startled birds.

Braggen's eyes narrowed too late.

Juno rushed in, vanishing in a blur, reappearing just inside the coils of Predator's Embrace. The snaring vines lunged for him only for him to twist his body mid-step, hooking his foot around Braggen's shin and using his momentum to whip the older boy off balance.

Then came the burst—

A brutal, upward elbow into Braggen's ribs, followed instantly by a palm strike that sent shockwaves rippling through his guard. The Predator's Embrace loosened under the impact, vines flickering.

From the sidelines, Solen's grin spread, sharp and dangerous.

"Now that's what I like to see."

Braggen staggered back, coughing once, eyes flashing with both irritation and respect. He'd underestimated the sheer explosiveness of the Fifth Gate this 13-year-old was fighting like a cornered beast… no, like the predator now.

Khael, watching from the edge, felt a knot in his stomach.

(Even though I know the outcome of this fight… it's still hard to predict how it will end.)

Braggen's smirk returned, faint but dangerous.

"Alright, boy… you've seen me hunt. Now see what happens when the prey bites back."

And then without warning his Shinrei spiked. The vines around his arms hardened into jagged green thorns, each pulse sending shockwaves through the air. His stance shifted, slower but heavier, like a predator coiling for a single killing strike.

"Fourth Gate of Taishin—open!!!"

A violent gust tore through the arena, dirt and stone scattering in concentric rings.

Braggen's voice boomed over the roar of energy.

"Consider this an honor, Juno… for making me serious!"

Braggen's aura didn't just flare it slammed outward like a living tide. The air turned heavy, thick with the prickling sensation of hundreds of unseen needles pressing against skin.

Juno's eyes narrowed. "Vein Sense Gate…"

Braggen's grin deepened. "Every twitch in your muscles… every stutter in your breath… I can feel it now, boy."

Then he moved—not faster, but with the perfect timing of a predator who already knew where its prey would run. Juno lunged forward, Predator's Embrace snapping around his arms in a jagged crescent, but Braggen was already shifting left before the strike landed, his thorned vines lashing out in a brutal cross-swipe.

The impact sent Juno skidding back, boots grinding furrows into the dirt. His Fifth Gate aura flared brighter, muscles coiling like a spring.

Juno spat blood, but his grin was wild. "If you can feel everything I do… then I'll make it so you can't keep up!"

With a sudden burst, he layered Predator's Embrace with his Fifth Gate energy, every movement becoming erratic faint, feint, strike, recoil forcing Braggen's predictive sense to chase an ever-shifting rhythm.

Solen, from the sidelines, smirked at the sheer chaos. "Now this… this is worth watching."

To be continue