Novel's Extra: I Awakened The Strongest Physique From The Start-Chapter 254 - 255 - Alex vs. Vaelith 3.

The moment the sigh echoed through the Colosseum, everything stilled. The fractures of space pulsed violently, their jagged edges hungering to consume him.

Alex stood at the center of the shifting void, his silver-white hair drifting slightly from the distorted forces around him.

His eyes remained steady, unaffected by the looming doom, yet his sigh carried a weight beyond exhaustion—it was resignation.

He was left with no choice.

Space could only be countered by space. Or something greater.

The problem was that Alex couldn’t reveal that he possessed space affinity. He had already revealed much.

Having four elemental affinities was the highest number known to the living, and Alex had already revealed four.

If he did any more than that, then the people who wouldn’t want to believe it would start speculating about things he wouldn’t be able to wash away with his current strength.

So he went with the only alternative.

He summoned a fireball, its crimson hue burning fiercely against the oppressive darkness surrounding him. But this wasn’t an ordinary flame. As it hovered above his palm, Alex willed a sliver of something far more potent into its core—destruction energy.

It was a power that unraveled existence itself.

The moment the swirling fireball absorbed that essence, its color shifted, dark veins of obliteration threading through the flames like cracks in reality.

Then, he released it.

The moment the fireball touched the nearest spatial fracture—

Crack!

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Like delicate glass meeting a hammer, the space rifts shattered instantly, their jagged edges dispersing in a rain of translucent shards that dissolved into nothingness.

A ripple of absolute silence swept through the Colosseum. The suffocating pressure that had threatened to crush the entire arena vanished instantly.

Not a single soul spoke.

Students, professors, warriors—everyone who had just witnessed it stood frozen, their eyes wide in disbelief.

"How…?" Someone muttered under their breath, their voice barely above a whisper. "How did a mere fireball...?"

The crowd had seen Vaelith’s spatial fractures withstand even Alex’s relentless assault earlier.

They had felt the overwhelming dominance of space affinity. And yet, a simple fireball had broken through? It didn’t make sense.

A professor in the stands, an elder mage with decades of experience, narrowed his eyes thoughtfully before murmuring, "Perhaps... perhaps the previous attacks had already weakened the fractures. And once that was done, Alex used the final attack to break them completely."

The murmurs grew louder.

"Yes! That must be it!"

"He knew exactly how to break through! He played along, acting as if he were trapped, and then struck at the perfect moment!"

"Amazing...! He had control over the situation even when he was cornered!"

Admiration swelled through the Colosseum. The moment of silence was replaced with awed cheers and whispers of Alex’s battle intelligence spreading like wildfire.

But amidst all the speculation, all the theories and praises, one figure stood apart—

Vaelith.

The golden-eyed warrior, who had remained composed despite the earlier humiliation, now trembled. His fingers twitched at his sides, his breath coming out in ragged gasps.

He stumbled back, his entire body locking up as his gaze remained glued to Alex.

No. No, no, no, no!

He had felt it.

He hadn’t seen it. He hadn’t needed to.

That wasn’t an ordinary fireball. That was—

"YOU FOOLS!" Vaelith’s scream tore through the rising excitement of the crowd.

His voice cracked with something raw, something that sent a cold chill down the backs of those watching. "That wasn’t a normal attack! That wasn’t a damn fireball!"

He staggered further away, his once arrogant stance reduced to that of a man barely holding himself together.

His golden eyes, filled with terror, refused to look away from Alex as if fearing that even a blink would spell his doom.

He could still remember.

That feeling. That wretched, nightmarish sensation of his body unraveling, his very essence being torn apart, reduced to nothingness.

The destruction element.

It was how he had died in his past life.

That accursed power. That monstrous energy.

It had claimed him before, reducing him to a screaming, helpless wreck as his body crumbled away.

Yes, last time it was a huge ass dragon who used it, and although it wasn’t the same this time, Vaelith was sure it was the destruction energy he felt.

The moment Alex’s fireball had flared with that essence, the moment that energy had touched the spatial fractures—Vaelith had known.

Alex had it.

And that meant...

He was doomed.

His breaths turned shallow, his entire form shaking violently.

His knees nearly buckled as his mind screamed at him to run, to get away, to flee before he was once again reduced to nothing. But there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.

Because the nightmare he had once died to had appeared before him once more—

And it wore the face of Alex.

’T-There’s no way to fight destruction...’

He muttered inwardly, his panic rising as Alex’s gaze locked into him.

After dying to that accursed energy in his past life, Vaelith searched for ways to counter it in this life.

The closest he got to destruction was the spatial cracks he created before. They worked exactly like the destruction element, but they weren’t the same.

They were just a cheap imitation.

But he was satisfied by it because he had realized that no one could copy destruction. It could be inherited or gifted by the one who has it but could never be copied.

That made him come to an absurd conclusion—one that was more horrifying than the last one.

"T-THIS BASTARD IS RELATED TO THAT ABOMINA—" He roared, trying to warn all those who could hear him, but before he could complete his words...

SLAP!

A crisp sound of flesh clapping another was heard, and this time, Vaelith knew that, unlike last time, there was strength backing that slap as he flew toward the barrier again.

"GAHHHH!" He yelled in pain as he hurtled through the air, his jaw hanging loosely before he crashed into the barrier.

Boom!

Cheers rang through the stadium again.

Through his ringing ears, he could hear their chants, calling Alex maneater or whatever.

’Maneater? Hah...’ He sighed as his body slumped against the barrier; his body was weak as he had used all of his mana. ’He is no maneater... he is devourer.’

Recalling how that colossal dragon disintegrated their forces like nothing, another shiver ran down his spine.

’This guy is probably that monstrosity’s child...’ His gaze turned to look at the VIP compartments. Among them were many he wanted to kill, and he was sure they were enjoying seeing him fall like this.

All of them had a grudge against that destruction beast, and they had all at least once tried to kill it.

So, if he let Alex grow, one day, he would go for them in his stead, killing them all.

He grinned inwardly. ’I don’t think I should tell them who he is...’

He decided to keep Alex’s real identity to himself, not wanting any harm to come his way, but his thoughts were interrupted as he heard steps closing in toward him.

"Do you think you have the luxury of letting your mind wander around?" Questioned Alex, towering before Vaelith with his expression as cold as ice.

The cheers across the Colosseum, on the other hand, had now turned into something else.

They were all asking for Vaelith’s death, wanting it to be most painful. They wanted him to suffer like he made them suffer.

Even the students who had lost to him were roaring, their bodies still injured but eyes blazing with fury.

Vaelith then realized that his suffering hadn’t even started.