"Whoa…"

Though his instincts were screaming at him, Priam couldn't help but admire the specter taking shape above Rohan. Bound to the Aelbe's core by an umbilical cord of aether, the beast was both terrifying and breathtaking. A muscular frame, honed for the hunt. Snow-white fur adorned with vertical golden stripes. Long, rending teeth, made to tear through flesh. Two piercing eyes, crafted to instill fear in its prey.

For a fleeting instant, a memory resurfaced in Priam's mind—one of a childhood visit to a zoo, where he had first laid eyes upon a caged tiger. The other children in his class had lamented seeing such a majestic creature confined. Though Priam had felt sadness too, he instinctively knew that without the glass barrier, there would be casualties. You didn't play with predators like that. You respected them. Feared them.

Beholding the grace of the white tiger before him, Priam felt a drop of fear dilute itself into his consciousness. Clenching Promesse in his hand, the Juggernaut didn't attempt to filter out the emotion. Fear was a useful reaction—as long as one did not succumb to it. For some, it paralyzed decision-making. For others, it was a catalyst for action. Priam belonged to the latter camp.

In the face of adversity, he fought.

"A mythical ritual inscribed within a core… I should've thought of that," Priam sighed before breaking into a grin. "Well, I wager you're having a hard time keeping it under control."

As the image sharpened further, Rohan trembled. The Ace, prodigy of a minor Elysium clan, was utterly spent. "It'll be enough to win," he said through gritted teeth.

"I doubt it. So, should I attack now, or wait for the summoning to finish?"

The Aelbe let out a rasping chuckle. "I'd prefer if you waited a bit longer. As a non-soulbound skill, it has to be invoked manually, and that takes time."

Priam laughed aloud but nodded. In a fight to the death, he might have exploited Rohan's moment of weakness. But this was only a duel, and he intended to glean as much as he could about mythical skills.

"Very well, indulge my curiosity then. What exactly is a mythical skill? How do they differ from legendary ones?"

"A Myth…" Rohan collapsed to his knees as the last drops of his aether coursed through the cord to bolster the forming image. "A series of feats so extraordinary that they imprint themselves upon the aether and the annals of a universe. If one retraces the same path, it's possible to draw inspiration from them, to summon their echo."

Priam stole a glance at the image of the white tiger, a creature often woven into the fabric of Asian mythology.

"In my world as well, the white tiger is renowned. A celestial beast, guardian of the West, associated with—"

"Autumn and metal. King of beasts, symbol of power, ferocity, and courage," Rohan finished. Seeing Priam's stunned expression, he smiled faintly. "I told you—a Myth impresses itself upon the aether; why should it be strange if the fables of your people hold a kernel of truth?"

"Well, for starters, we're not from the same universe," Priam pointed out.

"Today, we are." Rohan had to brace himself with one hand on the ground to avoid collapsing entirely, gasping for breath. Priam waited patiently for him to recover. "For us mortals, the river of time flows but one way, with causes preceding effects; the aether is unburdened by such rules." His tone was flat, and Priam couldn't tell if it was exhaustion or if Rohan was reciting some long-memorized lesson. "Your civilization now is part of the Concepts Universe, and that alone suffices to influence your ancient legends."

"That's… insane," Priam murmured, as his mind raced to extrapolate. Phoenixes came from a third universe, so could a Myth migrate across realms? Before that, according to what he knew, constructing a Myth was the barrier between mid and high Tier; then, was a Tier 8 or 9 Myth stronger than one of Tier 7? If so, wouldn't it be better to base his mythical skill on a Tier 9 or 10? And was there a link between mythical skills and Titles? After all, Titles were shards of Myth.

Most importantly—was basing a mythical skill on another's Myth not inherently dangerous for one's own progression?

Priam didn't bother to voice his musings to his opponent; Rohan was in no state to answer.

Collapsed to the ground, eyes rolled back, the Aelbe didn't even see the final droplets of aether converge upon the image of the tiger looming above him.

"A mythical skill against a Champion—now that's a duel for the ages," roared Zulkar, stoking the fervor of the crowd.

In response to the uproar, the still-partially-ethereal beast lifted its head and let loose a roar.

The mist dispersed, the ground quaked, and the shields protecting the spectators wavered until the Demiurge himself stabilized them.

Meanwhile, Priam winced, clapping his hands over his ears to muffle the sound. The roar was so deafening that it burst his eardrums and pierced his inner ear. Bereft of equilibrium in a suddenly silent world, the warrior fell to his knees and used his kinetic mastery to freeze the air and block the sound waves.

It was to no avail. His legendary skill found no purchase against the mythical tiger's roar.

Fuck.

One hand and knee to the ground, Priam attempted to use [Echolocation] to cancel the incoming sound waves. He failed again and was forced to accept that a Tier 0 had no power to dampen or influence certain aspects of a Myth. So much for fighting higher Tiers… I only beat that necro Tier 3 because it was abysmally weak, right?

The vertigo ceased abruptly, dragging Priam back to reality. The tiger had stopped roaring. The warrior raised his head to find the creature watching him as a predator observes its prey.

"You think I'm defenseless, don't you?" he growled, unable to hear his own voice.

The image didn't move, much like a paused movie.

Grimacing, Priam stood and extended his hand. Promesse materialized, and he prepared to fire—only to freeze. The enemy had vanished.

Priam blinked and broke into a cold sweat as he relocated his target. The tiger hadn't moved, but its posture rendered it invisible to his magical senses and nearly undetectable to the naked eye.

Crouching tiger, heh? Eat this. [Spear Launcher]!

Without eardrums, Priam perceived the supersonic boom only through the shockwave within his Domain. The spear crossed the distance between him and the beast in an instant, striking its muzzle.

The creature didn't even blink.

At the last instant, its body had taken on a metallic sheen, absorbing the impact without so much as a flinch. Priam could almost hear the bell-like clang of his spear striking mythic steel.

With a thought, the warrior tried to recall his bound weapon, but it didn't budge. The spear had dropped a few meters from the tiger. Within its Domain? Fuck.

With a slow, almost playful step, the beast advanced. Not much larger than an average specimen, the tiger was nonetheless composed of metal and must have weighed several tons. Yet its feline stride didn't disturb a single grain of sand. Deceptive grace, as when its paw settled atop Promesse, the spear groaned before bending under the weight.

A spiritual cry pierced Priam's soul as his bound weapon was treated like a mere school spoon.

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"You're going to regret that," he swore, conjuring a fire arrow in his hand. Priam wasn't sure whether the tiger possessed anything beyond instinct, but personifying the enemy helped him channel his fury.

Obeying the Pyro Sage, the arrow lengthened, then multiplied. Soon, a hundred spears hovered around Priam. [Spear Launcher].

The fusion of [Spear Throw] and [Shooting] no longer served merely to launch projectiles manually. [Kinetic Sovereignty] did that far better. The upgrade had been selected by Priam to perfectly synergize with his build, focused on one mission: course correction.

As if equipped with a homing mechanism, every projectile traced a fiery arc through the air before simultaneously striking the tiger. The explosion Priam anticipated never came: the flames snuffed out upon contact with the enemy's Domain.

"Oh…"

For the first time since the duel's start, Priam's confidence wavered. Could he win without revealing more of his hand?

Sensing its prey's distraction, the beast leapt.

"Shit."

Priam formed an arrow from his cloak and shot it to his right. It exploded against a wall, igniting a burst of flames that the Pyro Sage used as an exit. With a single step, he rode the blaze to escape his pursuer.

When he reappeared, the tiger was already turning around. Without panic, Priam focused on the sand within his sphere of authority. His kinetic mastery shaped molds, and Pyro superheated them. A chilling mist cooled the vitrified sand, revealing half a dozen glass spears. It wasn't the sturdiest material, but asteroids were proof that, when hurled fast enough, even a rock could cause mass extinction.

The tiger was almost upon him. Priam drove two of the spears into the ground, hoping the makeshift stakes would slow the mythical image for just a fraction of a second. Leaping backward, he unleashed Pyro around him. The Concept heated the air to fifteen hundred degrees Celsius—enough to melt iron. Then, [Kinetic Sovereignty] absorbed that heat—as molecular agitation—into kinetic energy stored within Priam's reserves. He could then use it to move or amplify his strikes.

The synergy between his Concept and the legendary skill was one of the Juggernaut's deadliest weapons.

A shattering sound alerted Priam as the tiger broke through the vitrified sand stakes—his eardrums had just regenerated. The mythological creature accelerated, breaking the sound barrier. Each of its leaps kicked up clouds of sand, its iron muscles stretching to propel it ever faster.

Using his kinetic mastery, Priam accelerated as well. He wasn't worried—the tiger's charge barely allowed it to reach the speed of sound, while the Juggernaut could go ten times faster in a straight line. In such a confined arena, the Champion couldn't move in a straight line, but even so, he could still double the image's speed.

Hit and run it is.

Letting half his attention guide his body, Priam used a parallel thought to study his enemy. His Heroic Aura would have found a weak point in the creature's armor in an instant, but he wanted to keep that card for an official match. Instead, Priam channeled energy into his ocular meridians, activating his aether sight.

[Ideal Aether Perception] met resistance, and Priam almost laughed upon recognizing the tiger's protections. They were the same as the ones surrounding the spheres that had concealed the secret of [Ideal Dark Vision]. After Back in Time, he knew how to bypass them and used his experience to pierce the veil masking the image's secrets.

The metallic silhouette of the target vanished, revealing an aether construction so intricate it made his head throb. Millions of sigils intertwined, forming a runic circuit of mindblowing complexity. The tiger before him couldn't be the work of a mere Ace; it was the legacy of a millennial clan.

For that reason, it was as dangerous as it was fascinating, and Priam quickly ordered his add-on to record every surface pattern. He couldn't peer into deeper secrets as the core of the image was hidden by the energy running through it. Still, it was a pleasant surprise.

Lvl Up: [Runic Language] lvl 38 META (Affinity) +3

A second roar rattled Priam's bones as the tiger closed the distance with each stride. Blinking, the mage realized the image wasn't truly physical—only its Myth or Concept granted it a metallic form. That material gave it a formidable defense, but how much?

Respecting his opponent, the Juggernaut launched his glass spears using his kinetic skill. Each one packed enough energy to punch a hole in a tank—and would shatter into a thousand shards upon impact.

Lvl Up: [Spear Launcher] lvl 5 STR +3 AGI +4 META (Focus) +2

Unlike Concepts and skills, the physical projectiles weren't nullified by the tiger's Domain and slammed into the pursuer with force. The impact trembled the air and echoed like thunder. Knocked back by the assault, the beast lost a dozen meters. Its enraged shriek betrayed a sophisticated instinct, rather than a mere algorithm.

Starting another lap around the arena, Priam grinned. To the naked eye, it seemed the metallic muzzle had withstood the projectiles without a scratch. But through his aetheric sight, the truth emerged: the runes composing the head had shifted a second before impact to reinforce the creature. Despite that, a dozen sigils had shorted out like a circuit under a surge. The tiger wasn't invincible.

An instant later, his grin vanished. The destroyed sigils were reforming. More surprisingly, nothing seemed to be helping them—energy appeared out of nowhere. Rohan's previous words echoed in his mind, and Priam understood.

This isn't just a runic machine reinforced by a Metal Concept. It's the echo of a Myth.

That last detail was crucial, and Priam realized he had misunderstood mythical skills. They weren't just upgrades to the legendaries—they were paradigm shifts. As long as the Myth existed, the tiger would keep fighting.

But I can't defeat a Myth... I don't have the build to erase information. Or can I… Well, either way, I'm nowhere near strong enough to affect something this massive. If I can't attack the source, nor the echo... I'll have to focus on the weak link.

Glancing toward the center of the arena, Priam spotted Rohan. The young Lord was still lying down, eyes closed, but the Champion wasn't fooled: his opponent was no longer unconscious. He was playing dead, waiting for his summon to finish the job.

As if.

On his next stride, Priam shifted the angle of his ankle, veering toward Rohan. The Aelbe started to stir, but too late. By the time he got up, Priam would be on him.

A spear of ice materialized in his hand, and—

The tiger flashed beside its summoner. Then, with feline speed, it pounced.

The next instant, something entered his Domain, and Priam pivoted, raising his arms to block a claw strike.

Status:

PHYSICAL: Strength 1 249 (+4) Constitution 2 065 Agility 1 637 (+6) Vitality 2 092 Perception 988

MENTAL: Vivacity (D) 664 Dexterity 891 Memory 1 150 Willpower 1 298 Charisma 988

META: Meta-affinity (O) 1 398 (+4) Meta-focus 882 (+2) Meta-endurance 1 568 Meta-perception 842 Meta-chance 1 089 Meta-authority 768

Potential: 33 994 (+5) Tier 0

[Tribulation]: Three Tribulations pending. Future Tribulations delayed until: Time: 2 months 12 days 8 hours 1 minutes 52 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 800 / 1 attribute > 2 100

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