The alpine sky above the Grand Central Colosseum was suddenly torn by jagged forks of violet lightning.
Even before the combatants stepped onto the dueling floor, the air within the suspended tiered arena smelled of burnt copper and shattered stone. Dark, bruised thunderclouds—condensed not by weather, but by the volatile spiritual breathing of Roaring Thunder Valley’s chief student—gathered directly above the open dome of the arena.
Emerging from the southern archway was Lei Zhen, the Thunder Beast Inheritor.
He stood six feet four inches tall, his broad torso bare save for heavy bands of dark copper wrapped tightly around his biceps and forearms. Across his olive-skinned chest, jagged violet tattoos writhed in fluid motion, pulsing with a bright, terrifying soft glow in sync with his pounding heartbeat. Long black hair hung wild around his shoulders, crackling with arcs of static electricity that hissed like angry pit vipers.
In his right hand, he carried no refined sword or elegant spear.
He wore two heavy cestus gauntlets forged from deep-sea thunder-iron, their knuckles studded with jagged teeth harvested from the skull of a fifth-rank Thunder Ape.
“Mortal!” Lei Zhen roared as he stepped onto the gravel, his voice echoing with the bone-shaking power of a thunderclap that shook the stone railings of the lower galleries. “I watched your matches! You stepped around Bao Shan’s clumsy hammers. You let Liu Yun impale himself against the boundary! Clever parlor tricks! Agile footwork!”
