"Neural architecture clearance: First-Cycle Academic Encryption," Kael's shadowform rippled with defensive subroutines.
Jaxon's ocular lenses cycled through mocking ultraviolet spectrums. "Freshman-tier registry confirmed. Curious allocation vector though—proximity to combat-core royalty."
The hydromancer booted his challenge protocols. Holo-canvas materialized between them, quantum pigments swirling like liquid pride. "Initiate recreational holo-sculpting sequence? Or does your encryption lack artistic rendering privileges?"
Amelia's cortical halo flared warning gold. "Cease redundant subsystem interrogations."
Her interference only accelerated Jaxon's malfunctioning courtship algorithms. "Fear parameters detected?" he taunted, stormhawk drone projecting laugh-track static. "Understandable—holo-sculpting demands surgical mana-channel precision beyond freshman—"
Kael's neural lace overwrote the insult protocols. "Diagnostics complete. Initiating artistic rendering sequence."
The crowd's neural net exploded with fractal murmurs. Freshmen didn't duel hydromancy elites in public code-wars. Even Finn's humor matrices glitched. "Brother, that's a tier-twelve ego-bruising protocol you're booting!"
Jaxon's quantum pigments hardened into crystalline malice. "Optimal difficulty parameters selected." His stormhawk screeched coordinates for Obsidian Zenith's infamous [Shattered Prism] simulation—a light-refraction nightmare requiring nano-scale mana manipulation.
Kael's shadowform absorbed the challenge parameters. How quaint—these children thought light-bending constituted advanced artistry. His chrono-corrupted memory banks contained star-forging techniques from dead civilizations.
The holo-canvas initialized with gravimetric distortions. Jaxon's fingers danced like synaptic disruptors, quantum streams coalescing into photonic glaciers. Upperclassmen nodded approval—this was proper academy-tier spectacle.
Kael closed his ocular implants. Ancient mnemonics surfaced—the forgotten art of stellar calligraphy. His fingertips blurred into relativity fractures, painting not with light, but with the absence between supernovas.
Amelia's combat-core registered dangerous entropy fluctuations. "Cease simulation!" her protocols screamed—too late.
The canvas detonated in silent brilliance. Jaxon's photonic glaciers vaporized as Kael's negative-space strokes revealed the screaming void beneath reality's skin. Seven freshmen collapsed from retinal overload.
Finn phased through the carnage, neutronium popcorn scattering. "Anyone else craving non-euclidean pretzels?"
Jaxon stood statue-still, stormhawk drone reduced to sparking debris. His hydromancy gauntlets smoked from feedback burns. The crowd's neural chatter flatlined into horrified static.
Kael examined his chrono-smudged fingertips. "Render complete. Margin of error within acceptable parameters?"
Amelia's quantum lattice eyes finally achieved full spectrum lockdown. Whatever she saw in those negative-space brushstrokes left her combat-core calculating new threat matrices.
Deep within the academy's shielded vaults, Austin's ancient reality anchors groaned under forgotten stresses.
Finn's coolant lines hissed. "Brother, you're booting a blackhole ego-trip here!" His phased hand passed through Kael's shoulder in futile warning.
Amelia's ocular arrays flickered containment protocols. "Unnecessary risk vectors detected." Her combat-core cycled through seventeen intervention scenarios before aborting—Kael's chrono-signature bled confidence isotopes.
Jaxon's laughter cracked like overloaded plasma conduits. "Optimal parameters accepted!" His hydromancy gauntlets discharged anticipatory steam. "Let's enhance spectator protocols—synchronized rendering under temporal constraints?"
Kael's shadowform rippled amusement. "Proposal: Collaborative canvas with diagnostic overlay? Your expertise could illuminate my... freshman-tier limitations."
The crowd's neural net erupted with derision particles.
"Arrogance matrix critical!"
"Core meltdown imminent!"
"Initiate popcorn protocols!"
Jaxon's stormhawk drone projected holographic brushes. "Acceptable terms. Let reality logs judge our strokes."
Amelia's cortical halo imposed a chrono-lock. "Render cycle initialized." Her voice cracked reality anchors.
Jaxon's quantum pigments erupted first—crystalline fractals blooming across the holo-canvas. Upperclassmen nodded at textbook-perfect mana-channeling; each snowflake vertex aligned with photonic lattice fundamentals.
Kael closed his ocular implants. Ancient mnemonics surfaced—the dead art of event horizon calligraphy. His fingertips blurred into chrono-shadows, painting not with light, but with the stolen silence between collapsing stars.
Finn's humor protocols flatlined. "That's not holo-sculpting... that's vacuum decay graffiti!"
Amelia's combat-core screeched entropy warnings. The canvas warped under Kael's strokes, revealing screaming fractal voids beneath reality's skin. Jaxon's pristine winter landscape began sublimating at the edges.
"Render cycle at 87% completion," Amelia announced through gritted quantum lattices.
Jaxon's ocular implants flickered panic codes. His stormhawk drone abandoned artistic protocols, deploying emergency stabilization fields. Too late—Kael's negative-space brushstrokes were rewriting canvas physics.
The crowd's neural chatter dissolved into static. Freshmen clutched augmented retinas. Senior professors triggered emergency reality anchors.
As the chrono-lock expired, two artworks hovered in unstable superposition—Jaxon's disintegrating winter utopia orbiting Kael's event horizon mandala.
Amelia's verdict cracked like supernova remnants: "Render cycle terminated. Diagnostic logs... inconclusive."
Deep in the academy's core, ancient reality engines groaned. Austin's private sanctum flooded with emergency coolant as seven foundational runes shattered.
Kael examined his chrono-corrupted fingertips. "Fascinating resonance patterns. Thank you for the... illumination, Jaxon."
The hydromancer stared at his sparking gauntlets. His stormhawk lay in twitching ruins, chirping corrupted data-streams. The crowd's silence held the weight of dead stars.
Finn phased through the wreckage, neutronium pretzels scattering. "So... anyone want their retinas factory-reset?"
Amelia's quantum lattice eyes finally achieved full spectrum lockdown. Whatever she saw in those devoured light frequencies left her combat-core drafting new apocalypse classifications.
Jaxon's hydromancy gauntlets hummed with surgical precision, quantum pigments etching his stormhawk drone's fractal signature onto the dragonblood parchment. Each stroke radiated arrogant mastery—photonic feathers crystallizing at perfect 120-degree angles, talons gleaming with simulated ferocity. The crowd's neural feeds buzzed approval metrics.
Kael's ocular arrays remained locked on Jaxon's workflow, chrono-dampeners analyzing every mana-channel oscillation. Finn's phased fist passed through a structural beam in frustration. "He's replicating his own damned pet! That's like solving an equation by copying the answer key!"
Amelia's cortical halo flickered cold amusement. "Observe the anomaly's resonance patterns."
As Jaxon's stormhawk materialized in photonic glory, Kael finally lifted his quantum stylus. The crowd's derision particles thickened—here came the freshman's inevitable humiliation.
But Kael's first stroke ruptured reality anchors.
Where Jaxon painted light, Kael devoured it. His stylus moved like event horizon tendrils, carving negative-space voids into the dragonblood parchment. The canvas warped under gravitational debt, photons screaming as they fell into his chrono-traps.
Jaxon's stormhawk flickered—its perfect crystalline feathers sublimating at the edges. "Cease interference protocols!" he barked, hydromancy gauntlets flaring stabilization runes.
Kael's shadowform rippled innocence. "Merely rendering complementary perspectives."
Amelia's combat-core overloaded three containment subroutines as the canvas bifurcated—Jaxon's pristine stormhawk orbiting Kael's abyssal silhouette like prey circling a singularity.
Finn materialized emergency neutronium snacks. "Anyone else craving existential dread?"
The crowd's neural chatter flatlined. Senior professors triggered emergency reality stabilization fields. Jaxon's stormhawk drone abandoned artistic protocols, deploying combat-grade photonic lances against Kael's devouring strokes—all in vain.
When the chrono-lock dissolved, two artworks hung in quantum superposition:
1. Jaxon's textbook-perfect stormhawk, now visibly fraying at the event horizon
2. Kael's anti-stormhawk—a photonic corpse being sucked into a miniature black hole
Amelia's verdict cracked like dying stars: "Render cycle concluded. Diagnostic logs... require archival review."
Jaxon stared at his sparking gauntlets. His stormhawk drone lay twitching at Kael's feet, chirping corrupted data-streams. The dragonblood parchment began disintegrating at the edges, unable to contain the gravitational anomalies Kael had etched into reality's skin.
Kael examined his chrono-stained stylus. "Fascinating resonance patterns. Your pet makes excellent... reference material."
Deep in the Obsidian Zenith's core, seven foundational runes shattered. Austin's private sanctum flooded with emergency coolant as ancient reality engines screamed into the void.