Garvin took a step back, looking at both candidates."Fight."
Both candidates remained unmoving, instead of clashing. Placing his war axe down Lucas spoke, his voice filled with respect. "It is truly an honour to face off against the princess of the Zy-." Before Lucas could finish speaking Calistis interrupted him.
"I have no time for your foolish blabber. My family's pride has been sullied." She said, tone grim. "I must cleanse it. So take the honour you have been presented with." She got into a fighting stance. "And fight me with everything you have."
Lucas's face contorted into a mess of anger and hate. 'I'll make you eat your words.' He thought, gnashing his teeth as he raised his war axe.
He lunged at Calistis going into the zone. He had a body zone, a fairly potent one.
As Lucas sprinted towards her. Calistis remained still as stone, her eyes tracking all of Lucas's movements
Lucas got within range, raising his war axe he swung it with ferocious speed, aiming straight for Calistis's neck.
The axe grew closer to her neck but she remained unmoving. 'You're useless without the Zone Princess.' Lucas thought, his face a mess of pride, anger and bloodlust.
The axe crept closer, inches away from flesh.
When suddenly, the axe met steel with a reverberating clang.
The force from the impact traveled through Calistis's sword, to her arm. It shuddered, threatening to break, but she held through the pain.
The sound echoing through the hall.
At the very last second, Calistis had strained her arm blocking Lucas's war axe."Weak." She sneered.
Lucas was stunned by her last second block.
Taking advantage of Lucas's shock, Calistis used all her limited strength, biting the inside of her lip, the metallic taste of blood invading.
She flicked the war axe, creating little space between them.
Using that space Calistis leaned in, palming Lucas in the chest.
Feeling her weak attempt at palming him, Lucas snarled. "That all you got, princess? Who's weak now?" A maniacal grin plastered on his face, as he lashed out with a vertical strike.
Calistis had already seen the strike coming, she already knew it was coming.
She stepped to the side, then she stepped back, creating enough space between them positioning herself perfectly, too perfectly. As if she planned it all.
Raising her sword, Calistis placed it on Lucas's throat. "One strike is all I need to put down the likes of you." She said, blood slowly dripping from her sword's hilt.
She placed her sword in front of her legs, blood trickling down the blade from her wounded palm.
Calistis's face remained passive; however, anger still lingered in her black eyes.
Garvin glanced at her smiling. "Calistis Zyros advances. Lucas Vanich disqualified."
Calistis turned around returning to her position among the thinning pool of candidates, blood still dripping from her palm. Lucas however was escorted out of the hall by two robots.
The crowd of candidates were stunned by Calistis's show of absolute technique, she won the match as efficiently as possible, with no unnecessary movements.
The crowd of remaining candidates looked at her as she walked past them, their eyes filled with reverence. But they didn't see what Talen saw; how she controlled the whole match.
Before the fight even started, Calistis pricked at Lucas's fragile ego, something that seems both of them noticed. Causing him to strike first so carelessly.
They both knew he was physically Stronger than her, so she used it against him.
Then when he struck, she only blocked it at the moment that would disorient him the most.
Using the disorientation she pushed him back enough to create space, it was never meant to be a strike.
Then she placed herself in the perfect position for a win.
Talen clutched his mother's scarf. 'She'd be a difficult fight.' Talen thought looking at her in a new light.
Talen learned something from Calistis today: using his opponent's emotions against them.
That was going to be difficult for Talen to replicate, after all he only knew the base surface of all emotions, and he needed a deeper understanding of them to replicate Calistis's technique.
Emotions were something he lacked, but he strived to attain. 'One day.' Talen thought, clenching his mother's scarf. 'One day.'
Taking a deep breath Talen cleared his mind, focusing on his fight.
He heard his name called, he walked up the 3 steps arriving at the stage. The same jian, only cleaned waiting for him.
Talen grabbed it, the hilt felt colder than he remembered.
He looked up, Alice Grey picked up 6 small knives, they slithered up her sleeves.
Talen stood facing her, wrapping his mother's scarf around his hand.
He held the jian with his right hand, left hand over it. 'Let's see if I can copy our little princess.'
Garvin took a step back giving them both a glance. "Fight."
Instantly Alice went into the Zone. To Talen's dismay she had a mind Zone, she wasn't going to act rashly. 'I got time, I can practice with someone else later.' Talen thought, as Alice lunged at him.
She was fast but not fast enough to be a threat, Talen waited patiently as she slithered around the stage.
He might not have the ability to manipulate his opponent however, he knew how to kill them.
He didn't need a fancy technique, just a little understanding of his opponent, this however, had a flaw; it left him open. 'That is exactly why I'm in need of some fancy techniques.'
Talen's eyes tracked Alice's movement, she had an impressive flow, he had to interrupt it to win.
With that thought in mind, Talen took a step forward slashing his sword diagonally.
At first it seemed like Talen was slashing at nothing however, seconds later Alice's neck was inches away from the blade of his jian. 'Gotcha.' Talen thought.
Alice had to stop her flow to dodge the premeditated strike. 'How did he decipher the pattern, and so quickly.' Alice thought.
Slithering around like that, was one of the fundamental techniques she was taught, it was used to confuse the enemy.
It was very simple yet effective; slithering around with no pattern, making your opponent think there is a pattern. 'How did he put a pattern to it.' Alice thought, confused even though she was at the level of a beginner, it shouldn't have been that easy.
Talen, on the other hand was a bit disappointed. When she began slithering around it looked like it had no pattern. However, Alice being human subconsciously made a pattern, a basic one at that.
Which Talen had no difficulty deciphering.
Using her moment of shock, Talen pulled his sword back, grounding his feet solid on the stage.
As he prepared to go in for a quick stab however, before he could extend his sword, a reflection of light caught his eye.
Alice flicked her wrist, two knives shooting out at great speeds, going straight for Talen's eye and heart.
Eyes on the incoming threat, Talen tilted his head to the side dodging the first knife. At the same time transferring complete control of the jian to his wrist, he deflected the knife going for his heart.
The knife met the metal of the jian with a shriek, the impact was not powerful however, due to Talen's wrist controlling the jian, the impact almost broke his wrist.
His wrist throbbed. 'Now you're getting it, snake.' Talen thought.
Taking advantage of his moment of imbalance, Alice leaned in knife in hand.
'I'm not gonna make it easy to kill me.' Talen thought, as he raised his left hand grabbing Alice's knife hand. He abandoned his jian.
Talen clenched her wrist his grip strong, with a little effort he broke her wrist, the wet sound of bone cracking echoed in the hall.
Alice completely lost her grip on the knife, as it fell Talen grabbed it with his right hand, swiftly he brought it to her neck.
leaning in, his face next to hers Talen spoke, his tone flat. "Next time, remember people can shift their center of mass." After all, if he hadn't Alice would have won. 'I really need fancy techniques.' Talen thought as he dropped Alice's knife.
Garvin glanced at both candidates, he spoke. "Talen advances, Alice Grey disqualified."
Hearing Garvin's words, Talen began walking off the stage.
When he was In front of the steps he heard a thump, turning around he saw Alice kneeling, clutching her broken wrist.
The pain finally registered, as she erupted in a scream of agony. 'Sheesh it's just a broken wrist, screaming like I cut it off completely.' Talen thought, annoyed at her low pain tolerance.
But that wasn't the reason of Alice's scream.
It was what awaited her upon her return home or at least where she called home with failure. Death.
"Kill me please, just kill me." Alice screamed, as she cried.
Placing her hands on the stages floor, she began banging her head on it, blood began dripping from her forehead.
Seeing her deranged behaviour Garvin ordered, the two robots to intervene.
As Talen walked back into the now barely crowd of candidates, they looked at him with a mix of fear, disgust and anger. 'Tough crowd.' He thought, his mind immediately beginning to analyse his fight. Although his body has been conditioned, it was with the Zone. So outside the Zone even though he wasn't completely defenceless, against skilled fighters like Calistis he was.
Back on the stage the two robots injected a fluid into Alice, after which she began falling unconscious. They picked her up and began taking her out of the hall.
Still somewhat lucid, Alice whispered desperately. "I..d-don't..want..to..be..turned." Her eyes finally gave out.
'Turned.' Talen repeated, her words in his mind. 'What kind of home is that.' He thought, confused by the whole ordeal. 'Never mind that.' Talen returned his gaze onto the stage for the next match.
The next match wasn't a fruitful watch, but it was an interesting watch, both candidates were Body Zoners evenly matched in skill, and Zone potency.
They fought ferociously, spilling the most blood. However, their fight ended in a draw. Both of them were escorted out of the hall, shoulders sunken.
It was finally time for the number one ranked candidate's turn to fight. "Valen Dain." Garvin called out his name and his opponent. "Luke Arnich."
Valen walked up the 3 steps, his mind flashing to a field filled with dead bodies.
Both of them walked onto the stage, Valen picked up a Viking war hammer, while Luke picked up a spear. Garvin stepped back, glancing at both of them. "Fight."
Immediately Luke went into the Zone, he had a body zone.
He lunged at Valen with great speed, his Zone was very potent.
Valen on the other hand placed his war hammer down with a thud, by his side. A smile displaying all his teeth plastered on his face, he cracked his knuckles.
Calistis's eyes were locked onto him, pupils tracking all his movements.
So did Talen. 'Show me what you've got, giant.'