The Colosseum was in chaos. What should have been an hours-long tour had been reduced to a fra of its usual time. Helios had breezed through the rounds, effortlessly dispatg oppo after oppo with precision and ruthless efficy.
Most never even touched him. With a bination of Blizzaga, Aero, and Gravity spells, he had sent each warrior flying off the ptform, knog them out before they could even swing their ons.
The crowd, at first excited, had quickly turned hostile. What they wanted ectacle. A true warrior’s csh. Ihey got a cocky spellcaster eliminating fighters like they were nothing but pawns in a game. And now, at the final round, they were out for blood.
The announcer’s voied over the arena. “LADIES ALEMEN! IT’S TIME FOR THE FINAL MATCH!”
“ON ONE SIDE, THE CHALLENGER WHO "FOUGHT" HIS WAY HERE—IF YOU EVEN CALL IT FIGHTING—THE MAN YOU ALL LOVE TO HATE: HELIOS!”
“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Fight like a man!” The areed with boos, the spectators jeering and heg Helios, demanding a real fight this time.
Standing at his end of the battlefield, Helios stretched zily, pletely unfazed.
The crowd? Didn’t matter.
His oppo? That mattered.
And when the announcer called Sephiroth’s he Colosseum practically shook from the cheers.
“AND FAG HIM… THE OHE ONLY, THE UED CHAMPION OF THE ADVAOUR… SEPHIROTH!”
The moment his name was uttered, Sephiroth desded from above, his long silver hair flowing like liquid mercury as he nded silently otlefield.
He didn’t aowledge the crowd. Didn’t smirk. Didn’t even look at Helios at first.
Instead, he simply gripped the Masamuighter, rolling his wrist slightly, testing his bde’s bance.
Then, without a word, his glowing cat-like eyes locked onto Helios.
Helios smirked. “Guess we’re not holding back, huh?”
Sephiroth said nothing.
But Helios could feel it.
The killing i. It was immense and just being in his presence caused Helios to feel a chill down his spihe moment the bell rang, they were already moving.
The instant the fight began, Sephiroth vanished.
The air screamed as the Masamune sliced forward, aiming to cut Helios in half before he could react.
Helios barely twisted his body in time, the bde shaving off a lock of his hair as it whizzed past.
Too fast.
Sephiroth didn’t stop.
He twisted mid-air, sshing again—a storm of silver steel.
g! g! g!
Helios blocked with the Equilibrium Keybde, the sheer forumbing his arms.
Each strike was blindingly fast, nearly impossible to track. A normal warrior? Would have been dead five times over. But Helios? All the time he speing nearly killed by Sephiroth in Radiant Garden wasn’t for show as he could only see the attacks but knew Sephiroth’s attack pattern.
He was calg.
He was fast. Almost too fast. But he wasn’t random.
Sephiroth’s attacks were precise, his movements measured.
He had three major attacks he relied on in rapid succession:
Blitz Strike – A multi-hit bo so fast the eye couldn’t track it meant to keep Helios from doing much of anything as he blocked.
Teleport ter – Every time Helios dodged, Sephiroth reappeared behind him.
Heavy Ssh – If Helios blocked too much, Sephiroth would use a single devastating blow that could split a boulder in half breaking his guard.
“Alright,” Helios muttered, dodging another ssh. “Let’s see how you like a taste of your own tricks.”
CRACK!
Sephiroth’s bde sliced through empty air. Sephiroth came in for another lethal cut, but this time, Helios threw his keybde in a spinning arc that Sephiroth dodged easily but when he looked over found that Helios had teleported. No sound of movement had been made so he didn’t know where to guard.
Seds ter he sensed something from above—
“Thundaga.”
Massive bolts of lightning rained down, crag with destructive force.
Sephiroth dodged eaasterfully and gracefully before turning at the st sed, eyes fshing.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded outward, and when the dust settled—
Sephiroth was unharmed.
The crowd roared.
Helios clicked his tongue. “Figures.”
Sephiroth barely reacted before vanishing again, his shadow flickering behind Helios.
Helios saw the move too te. Although he jumped back as fast and as far away as he could he still failed to dodge the attack.
SLASH!
A deep gash tore across Helios’ shoulder.
Pain seared in Helios’ shoulder as blood spttered onto the ground.
The first hit had been nded.
Helios hissed, rolling his shoulder, feeling the warm liquid bleed through his fingers and began trig down his arm.
Sephiroth tilted his head slightly, as if unimpressed.
Helios grinned. “Now we’re talking. This is getting fun. Show me everything you’ve got. I want to see how far I’ve e.”
The exge was even more brutal. Sephiroth was relentless; each attack aimed at Helios’ vital spots, but Helios adapted managing to blod defend the onsught. However, Helios had been bato a er where all he could do was blod he o break Sephiroth’s momentum.
As the attack came instead of dodging backward, he dodged sideways. Instead of blog ht, he used Reflect to send mini-explosions back at Sephiroth. Bit by bit, he was disrupting the swordsman’s rhythm.
And then—
He took a gamble.
As Sephiroth lunged—
“Aero.”
A sudden burst of wind threw Helios sideways, avoiding the bde by a hair’s width.
But Sephiroth—**expeg a teleport, not a crude self-ung dodge—**was thrown slightly off-bance.
The opportunity was there.
“Dark Firaga.”
A ball of bck fire erupted, smming directly into Sephiroth’s chest.
BOOM!
The croed.
For the first time in this tour's history, Sephiroth was hit. The explosion had pushed him bad his head was hanging so her the crowd nor Helios could see the man’s face or his expression.
Smoke curled around his form as he slowly lifted his head.
A small, dangerous smirk formed on his lips.
Helios exhaled. “Yeah, that’s about what I expected.”
This fight was far from over.
