The moment had finally come.
Alex grinned with excitement, cracking his knuckles as he stepped forward. "Tch. About time I did something!"
Kinto patted him on the back with a calm smile. "Good luck, Alex. Dont go too crazy now."
On the other end of the battle hall, Sōn let out a small sigh, then glanced at Raquel. "Wish me luck okay? We are teammates after all."
With those words, both Alex and Sōn made their way to the center of the hall, standing just a few meters apart. Tension brewed in the air like the calm before a storm.
Tomoa stood at the side, arms crossed, observing them sharply. "You're both to go all out. No holding back. Use the full extent of your abilities. Got it?."
Sōn smirked, fire already dancing behind his confident eyes. "Yeah. You ready, Alex? We're friends, but in situations like these, we have to pick ourselves".
Alex answered with a cocky grin of his own. "Yeah, i understand. I'm More than ready. And plus, if i don't show you the extent of my abilities as a friend, then that be disrespectful."
Tomoa smirked "Looks like these two truly know what it means to be a solider." He raised his hand—and then dropped it. "Begin!"
For a few moments, nothing happened. Alex and Sōn simply stared at each other, neither making a move. Then suddenly—
BOOM!
Sōn launched a flurry of blazing fireballs towards Alex at rapid fire.
Alex, unfazed, activated his energy fists with a burst of light. He vanished in a blur of speed, flash-stepping around the hall to dodge the incoming powerfull flames that could destroy buildings.
"Oh? Already running? Lets see how you keep it up!" Sōn shouted with a grin on his face while hurling fireball after fireball non stop.
But Alex didn't stop. He kept blitzing around the place and continued dodging fire ball after fireball. Alex zipped behind Sōn, cocking back a punch with enough force to crumble steel.
Sōn sensed it.
In a heartbeat, he spun around and unleashed a massive fire blast at point-blank range towards Alex. The explosion shook the hall and sent Alex crashing into the wall which cracked and exploded from the sheer force.
Smoke clouded the scene.
Then, to everyone's shock, Alex walked out of the smoke—calm, collected, barely scratched. His red hoodie was abit roughed up tho.
"You really need to learn how to tone down your fire power," he said, brushing dust off his shoulder.
Sōn chuckled. "Didn't think you'd tank my max output. I'm impressed. And you're one to talk, you have a shit ton of energy reserves. I'm the one who's supposed to be telling you to control your power."
Alex, slightly annoyed responded "But atleast I'm trying too. You're not!" "Fair point." Sōn replied
Alex raised his fists again, energy surging. "That was nothing. I'm just getting started."
Energy surged from Alex's fists— Energy fists plus 20: strength of a hundred men" he exclaimed before he vanished again, moving even faster than before. Sōn narrowed his eyes and unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of flames, but Alex continued to dodge, weaving around every attack relentlessly.
From the sidelines, Serena shouted, "Let's go, Alex!!"
Raquel watched anxiously, hands clasped over her chest. "I don't know who to support. Sōn is a very good friend of mine and my teammate. He respects boundaries and is fun to be with. But Alex... I like him. I really like him" she monologued to herself.
Tomoa was watching this fight with a smirk, he monologued to himself "Sōn's fire power has increased dramatically, and his output is intense. Alex on the other hand has been dodging and weaving, his stamina and skills are insane. His durability is also good too. But im betting on Sōn on this one." He said to himself with a smirk "Go get em Sōn!"
Back on the battlefield, Sōn raised both hands.
"Max Fire Power!!"
An enormous pillar of flames erupted from him, engulfing the entire battlefield. Alex braced himself and blocked the attack with his energy fist—an earth-shattering explosion followed, engulfing everything in a fiery smokescreen.
As the dust cleared—
Alex flash-stepped behind Sōn again.
But this time, Sōn turned, grinning darkly. He gathered intense heat into his hand and slammed it into Alex's chest.
BOOM!
Alex was sent flying again due to this insane amount of fire power, crashing into the wall with devastating force that shook the entire building. As he struggled to his feet, he noticed something strange—a glowing mark burning on his chest.
Sōn started laughing. "What's wrong, Alex? Feeling hot?"
Alex narrowed his eyes with seriousness. "What… did you do?"
"That's Burning Limiter," Sōn replied smugly. "It's a technique that restricts your full potential. The more you try to push past it, the more it'll burn you alive from the inside. I don't use it often—it reduces my power too. But for someone like you… I'll make an exception.". Sōn continued to explain "It was a move I learned from a scroll. A guy who was named as the sun saint, created this technique. His flames could reach up to 99,000 degrees. Pretty cool, huh?"
The audience gasped. Even Kinto's eyes widened.
"I knew Sōn was brutal, but damn, I didn't think he'd go this far."
Kinto clenched his fist. "Hang in there, Alex."
Despite the pain, Alex stood tall. "Limiter or not… nothing's going to stop me."
He activated his energy fists and charged, but the moment he pushed himself—
AGHH!
A searing pain burned through his chest and dropped him to his knees.
Sōn burst into laughter. "You really thought you could move freely with that mark? Pathetic."
Alex groaned, trying to stand.
"You're still moving? Damn, you're stubborn," Sōn said, then launched a massive wall of fire at him "Alright buddy, get ready!" "730 degrees:Unhinged flame bursts!" Everyone was in confusion and shock "730 degrees?!", Kinto muttered to himself with surprise.
As the flames surged toward him—
WHOOSH!
Alex flash-stepped behind Sōn again, throwing daggers this time. Sōn dodged with ease.
Alex muttered to himself, "What now…? I didn't expect something like this.".
He pulled out a single dagger from his pocket, gripping it tight. "Looks like i don fucked up this time. But there aint nothing i can do now". He infused energy into his dagger and tossed it at Sōn. Sōn seeing this just dodged "Wow, he still has something up his sleeve.", he thought to himself.
"It's not too late to surrender," Sōn called out mockingly.
Alex charged again.
Sōn met him with a relentless barrage of fireballs, but Alex dodged with sharp agility. As he weaved through the fiery rain, he began to understand.
"He's strong from a distance… but he's open up close. It might be the opposite tho. But I'll give it a shot!"
With that thought, Alex flash-stepped in front of Sōn and aimed a punch—but Sōn quickly summoned flames to his leg and kicked Alex upward. Sōn followed him mid-air, delivering another kick that sent Alex crashing to the ground.
Sōn landed above him, grinning.
"Oh, you thought closing the distance would be a good idea? Wrong move buddy!"
With flames surging in his fist, he slammed it down on Alex's body, creating a blazing crater in the ground.
Smoke filled the battlefield.
Everyone stared in shock.
Alex lay still, his chest was burned, he was unconscious.
Sōn brushed the ashes from his shoulder. "Sorry buddy. But you said it yourself. If we didn't show each other our fullest extents, then it be disrespectful."
As he turned to leave—
"Not so fast."
Sōn froze. He looked back—and saw Alex standing.
No burns. No injuries.
Just that same, calm look and smug smirk.
"Huh? Hey!! What the fuck?!" Sōn asked in shock.
Alex smirked. "I couldn't use my full energy… so I focused it across my body to be able to tank your attacks instead.".(Cap, he created a doll clone to tank the attack head on for him while he dodged and hid himself in the smoke)
"Tch. You're getting on my nerves!" Sōn said with an excited grin on his face "And I like that. What else do you got for me?"
Sōn unleashed a massive fire blast once again "Well it doesn't matter! I'll just scorch you so bad that you won't be able to pull off any tricks up your sleeve no more!" He yelled in excitement.
But this time—
Alex channeled all his energy into his hand, condensing it into a dagger-like weapon "Its simple. All i need to do is just concentrate everything into one point, imagine the shape. Dont put too much effort. And just go."
"Blade of Death…"
"Alex!! Get out of there!!" Kinto shouted.
Alex's dagger gleamed—and he sliced through Sōn's fire attack like butter.
In the blink of an eye, he flash-stepped in front of Son and slashed downward.
BOOOOM!!
The impact shattered the hall's floor and rocked the entire building. This move from Alex made everyone shocked. Even Mori was abit intrigued "This damn D-ranker..... can do this?!"
As the dust settled—
Alex stood tall.
Sōn was on the ground, barely able to move.
Tomoa stepped forward and raised his hand. "Winner: Alex."
The hall erupted in cheers.
Alex sighed, his energy finally settling. Tomoa looked at the unconscious Sōn with a smile "You did great buddy."
But far off, in the shadowed corner of the hall, a figure watched silently.
Shinki.
His eyes narrowed.
"…Interesting."
End of Episode.