My Special Ability is Growing Muscles

Cheers!

The roar of the crowd still lingered in Kairo's ears. His fists ached, his muscles screamed, but he had done it… he had won.

'I actually did it!'

Relief, pride, and satisfaction swelled in his chest as his vision blurred.

He stood tall in the combat arena, chest heaving, sweat dripping, the deafening cheers almost enough to drown out the agony eating away at his stomach. For one fleeting second, he believed this was the end.

That he had made it.

Major Pain stood at the central platform, ready to declare the conclusion of the Entrance Tournament and announce the 2 applicants out of the other 8 who lost that impressed him most.

Those two would also get the scholarship.

The shield shimmered faintly around the combat rings, separating them from the stands, glowing runes humming steady.

And then…

Crack!

A spiderweb line appeared across the shimmering dome of light. Faint at first, then another, and then another.

Kairo frowned, lifting his gaze. 'What…?'

The instructors were confused at first, but then their eyes widened as they stirred uneasily, muttering, rushing toward the wardstones powering the barrier.

But the runes that had shone with stable light all through the combat phase of the tournament suddenly began to unravel, pieces of spell-script peeling away as if invisible fingers were plucking them apart.

A deep chime echoed through the Coliseum.

DING!

[ALERT! INTERNAL SABOTAGE DETECTED!]

[NEXUS DEFENSES COMPROMISED!]

The system warning flared, and a hush swept through the spectators.

Murmurs rippled across the nobles' boxes, civilians in the stands clutching their children, guild scouts rising from their seats.

And then the air itself seemed to tear open.

CRKSH!

Atop the Coliseum's highest arch, reality rippled like water as a cloaked figure stepped through, draped in silence so heavy that screams died in throats before they left lips.

Malgar Voidborne…

He came; he came personally.

His silver eyes gleamed from within the hood. He didn't speak, didn't roar, didn't taunt. He simply was.

'D-d-demons…?!'

The mere sight of this man and Kairo felt his blood run cold. That aura, that presence… it was like staring into an endless pit.

The barrier flared desperately against his presence, then it cracked again.

A second tremor shook the ground as the western gates exploded inward, stone blocks scattering like pebbles.

And from the ruin a hulking silhouette walked through the smoke, hammer slung across his shoulder, molten cracks glowing through his armored flesh.

Ghor Ulfar…

He laughed, the sound echoing like shattering anvils. "So this is humanity's pride? A playground of weaklings indeed!"

And then the last horror revealed herself.

From the crowd itself, as nobles and civilians scrambled in panic, one woman began to laugh. Her beauty twisted, her face unraveling into a dozen shifting masks, each one shrieking as they broke.

Her true form slithered free in an eerie manner; eyes like knives, seductive lips painted with blood.

Serika Thornveil…

Her blades flashed, and the first guild scout died before he even realized she was behind him.

"ARGHHHHHH…!"

Screams erupted.

The ambush had begun.

The ambush had begun at the heart of the human domain!

…

Far from Arcanum Nexus, still inside the human domain, caravans rumbled along the great trade artery that fed both Human and Orc domains. Spices, ores, and weapons, the lifeblood of an uneasy alliance.

But then…

CRKSH!

The skies suddenly darkened as wings blotted out the sun.

Up in the sky, Zahrim Galeclaw descended in a cyclone, claws tearing through wyvern-mounted escorts like paper. A merchant ship split in half, hundreds plunging into the ravine below.

And then the world ignited.

BZZZ!

Vaeilith Ember landed amidst the caravans, her laughter ringing as hellfire blossomed outward like she was the herald of an apocalypse.

Wagons turned to ash, and soldiers screamed as their armor fused to their skin. The artery became a river of flame, black smoke curling into the heavens.

"Trade? Alliance? You will trade nothing but ash!" Zahrim cackled.

…

Deep in the heart of the human domain in one of the bigger cities stood the most renowned forge of humanity, the Titanforge.

The Titanforge blazed, its furnaces extinguished in blood as Kravox Bone-Tyrant walked the sacred halls, every strike of his claws raising skeletal monstrosities from the apprentices who had once hammered steel.

The revered forge-masters fought desperately, but his special ability, Ossuary Dominion twisted every corpse into another weapon against them.

"Your forges birth steel, mine birth eternity". His skeletal army marched into the smoke, carrying hammer, anvil, and bone-blades forged from the slain.

The most sacred human forge was being desecrated.

…

Back to the Coliseum…

Chaos reigned.

Spectators were trampled in their panic. Scouts and nobles desperately unleashed their abilities, but Serika's masks slipped into their ranks, stabbing them in the back with their own faces.

Ghor Ulfar's hammer swung once, collapsing an entire section of the stands into rubble. Blood splattered like rain.

Malgar simply watched even as Void seeped outward from his body, silencing spells, unraveling wards, and erasing entire chunks of the barrier as if they had never existed.

The applicants inside the combat rings, Kairo among them were frozen in horrified realization. The only reason they weren't already dead was the flickering barrier separating the arenas from the massacre outside.

But cracks spread fast. Each thunderous blow from Ulfar, each whisper from Malgar's Void fractured the shield further.

It wouldn't hold.

Major Pain stood tall at his floating platform, unmoving even as chaos erupted below. His one good eye swept across the carnage, his jaw hardening.

The gears in his brain whirred and he knew… this wasn't a random raid. This was a coordinated and surgical strike, meticulously planned. The demons had infiltrated months in advance.

'How?!' Major Pain felt his rage shimmer as he realized how the Demons managed to infiltrate so deep without detection, but at this moment, rage didn't matter, neither did regret.

What mattered was the present.

BZZZ!

His aura flared, washing over the panicked stands. For a heartbeat, everyone froze, trembling under the sheer Battlefield Will of an S-Rank Hero.

Major Pain had 3 special abilities; Iron Soldier Physique, an Epic grade ability that granted him superhuman endurance, durability, and reflexes. The other was Battlefield Will, a Unique grade aura ability that manifests his presence as a crushing battlefield aura.

It instantly suppresses morale and weakens resolve of enemies below his rank, while stabilizing allies under his command, giving them unnatural calm in combat chaos.

His third ability? It was a God grade visual ability, Eye of Pain, and it was what gave him his famous nickname, the One-Eyed Raven.

It granted him several sub-powers; perception overload, an ability that enables him see every micro-movement, every twitch of muscle, and every fluctuation of mana, rendering feints and illusions useless.

It also granted him pain infliction, an ability that allows him to project pain directly into a target's nervous system through eye contact.

And then pain reflection. If struck, he can reflect the sensation of the pain he received back to his attacker, magnified.

This was why he was Major Pain, this was why he was the One-Eyed Raven, and this was why he was the Head Combat Instructor of the most renowned martial Academy in the Human domain.

Slowly, Major Pain reached for his eyepatch as time seemed to slow down to a crawl. His voice was thunder.

"DEMONS!" He growled.

He ripped the eyepatch free.

And then, the Eye of Pain ignited, a God-tier blaze of silver fire that watched through the coliseum like a flood.

BZZZ!

Illusions shattered, hidden assassins combusted under the sheer overload of inflicted agony, even as the battlefield bent to his gaze.

And yet, three Demon Lords stared back without flinching.

Malgar's silver eyes locked with his, his battle will rising. Ulfar's Hammer slammed against stone, while Serika's laughter echoed like glass.

Kairo's stomach twisted. Hunger gnawed, muscles spasmed, every nerve in his body screamed. But the only thought in his mind was raw terror.

'This isn't an exam anymore!'

The barrier groaned, cracks glowing red-hot, runes bursting like sparks. And then, with a sound like shattering glass, a chunk of the shield collapsed.

Screams poured in as death finally surged through the gap.

Kairo stared, breath caught in his throat.

The war had begun.

"So this is what it feels like," Major Pain muttered, his Eye blazing with determination. "The first step into hell".

"Very good, let us dine in hell!"