Lucas walked out of the arena, and made his way into the locker room. He met Karl at the door, smiling.
"Congratulations." Karl said, hugging him with a bright smile on his face.
Lucas returned the hug, his eyes met with Zed's who nodded at him before covering his ears with his headphones.
Lucas thought it strange, why would Zed behave in that way? Well it didn't matter now, what mattered was that he had won and he had qualified.
"Well, both of us have qualified for Tokyo eh?" Karl asked, releasing Lucas from his hug. He was extremely happy, they could go together.
"Yeah. We're going to be in the final ten right?" Lucas replied, he felt tired, a little too tired.
His head felt hazy, his eyes were blurry. He fell, but was caught by Zed who turned his attention to Karl.
"I told you he was using too much." Zed said, raising Lucas upon his shoulder.
"Seems so." Karl was visibly worried, his forehead had started perspiring and his body, shaking.
"Come on, let's take him to the infirmary." Zed gestured to Karl, then the both of them walked away.
Elvis walked in as soon as they left, his hair was down, wet. It seemed as if he had been in the showers at the underground level of the arena.
His eyes were cold, calculating and basically dead calm. No one wanted to get close to him, he sat by himself in a secluded part of the room.
"You lost huh?" Someone said, he raised his head up and saw someone, a lady with strawberry blonde hair, and green eyes. She had an oval face with the body of a model. Elvis was smitten.
"Sorry. Where are my manners? My name's Arianna Knight." She introduced herself with confidence.
Elvis still said nothing, he knew the words but nothing came from him. He shook his head a little bit and then opened his mouth.
"Nice to meet you. And in regards to your previous question, yes I lost." Elvis gave out a sigh of relief. He replied without making a fool of himself, he chuckled inwardly.
"It's good that you agreed you lost. I thought you'd throw a tantrum about it seeing the way you walked in and the way you looked." Arianna explained with a smile.
"I agree I lost. Albeit to a mongrel but I still lost." Elvis replied calmly. He didn't feel enraged, in fact he felt stable. The loss didn't anger him, it made him feel something else, something he just couldn't put his hands on quite yet.
"Well the next match has been called already." Arianna said, resting her back on the wall, Elvis did the same and the two of them watched.
Sonya stood at the center of the arena, the crowd cheered her and her opponent on.
"What's your name?" Sonya asked, staring down at his perfectly fit body which was highlighted by his tightly fitted tracksuit.
"Erethos Blake." He replied, bowing low as well.
"Hmm. Good, it's nice to show respect. Although your courtesy won't win you this match." Sonya declared and instantly took on a battle stance.
"I know what you can do. I watched you spar against Zed, I know what kind of monster you are." Erethos stated. "Do you think I'll let such a monster get in up close?"
"Well, we can find out, can't we?" Sonya asked with a huge smile, her confidence was almost tangible.
Erethos smiled. The next moment, Sonya was enclosed in a dark sphere. No one could see her from the outside.
"What's he doing?"
"What is that thing?"
The crowd was anxious, they wanted to see, they wanted to know what was going on.
Asher felt intrigued, he stroked his chin as he watched on.
Erethos walked over to the sphere, it's size dwarfed him. He touched it, it cracked and fell to pieces, revealing a beaten and battered Sonya.
"Ready to give up?" Erethos asked smiling.
Sonya's body started healing, Asher's eyes widened in surprise.
'Healing is a high level ability that most people can't use even if their Ruin control is perfect but this kid is using it effortlessly.' Asher thought to himself, he twirled in his cheer as the thought ran through his mind.
Michael Ardent turned to him. "You've seen something interesting eh?"
"Haven't you?" Asher asked. Clara remained quiet. She watched intently, observing the moves of everyone of them.
Sonya got up, her body fully healed. She took up her battle stance once again.
Erethos was shocked. He regained himself, his usual smile returning to his face.
'The interior of his sphere was basically darkness. I couldn't see, hear, or feel. In fact, none of my five senses worked.' Sonya thought, watching Erethos's every move.
The sphere enclosed her once again. The interior was absolutely dark. Sonya opened her hands and a gigantic beam of light erupted, illuminating the interior of the sphere.
Erethos felt something was wrong, he ran towards the sphere. He touched it, destroying it.
The moment it shattered, the entire arena became brighter. They saw a gigantic pillar of light, Sonya walked out from the middle of it. She smiled at Erethos.
"That ability won't work on me again." Sonya stated confidently.
"And why is that?" Erethos asked, his smug look totally wiped off his face.
Sonya pointed at him with a smile. "That."
Erethos looked at both his hands, there were holes in them, both of them. He saw his flesh sizzling, something had burned holes through his hands. He fell to the floor screaming in agony, he felt like he wanted to die.
"Even I didn't see what happened." Sonya said, sticking out her tongue at him. "I'm sure he can't continue, you can give me the win now."
She looked up at Asher with a smile, before turning around.
"Wh-what did you do to me?" Erethos asked, his voice low and weak.
"Light." Sonya replied, pointing at the giant pillar that refused to go away. "When I fire the projectiles it moves at speeds of around sixty billion meters per second so even I can't track it's movements and neither can my opponent, so it's lethal for sure."
She turned around and walked away as Asher announced her victory.
Karl and Zed sat on opposite sides of Lucas's bed in the infirmary, this was the first time they had ever seen his face this calm.
The next moment his eyes shot open, he stood up immediately. "No!"