Milo's turn was finally up, Zach wished him luck as he made his way up to the stage. Once he was up on stage, he pulled his equipment out and the rainbow mist enveloped his forearms and hand, two seconds later the mist returned to the ear ring and on his arms were his gauntlets and in his hand was the chain sickle.
Tyler was across the stage from him swinging his spear in preparation, but based on the look on his face, it didn't look like he wanted to be there. A few seconds later and the horn that called the start of the match sounded off. Wanting to scout out what the opponent's ability did, the two stood there for a second before Milo chose to strike first. Swinging out his chain, Milo struck Tyler with it not using much force, but there was no reaction from Tyler rather than dodging it, he took the attack head on. After taking the hit, Tyler smiled thinking that he had this match in the bag if this was all Milo could do.
Seeing his chain didn't work Milo decided that ranged attacks wouldn't be the move for this match. Instead he chose to move in for close combat, Tyler attempted to strike with his spear, but Milo avoided the attack. After avoiding it, Milo could hear the weight behind it, most likely due to Tyler increasing the density of his arm making the attack heavier. If he got hit directly, then he'd be in for some hurt. Milo made a bit of distance to think of a way to break through his defenses, he had an idea but it would take all his energy, for now he decided to try and throw a few ice spears to test their effectiveness. When colliding with Tyler, they just shattered leaving a small area of frost where they collided, but they didn't appear to do any damage.
Thinking this was the full arsenal of Milo, Tyler then took the time to push the offensive, closing the distance he thrust his spear forward again, due to the weight he put behind it, the attacks were slow but threatening, after a small flurry of attacks, one managed to clip Milo in the side, sending him sprawling. Luckily Milo had been hit by the side of the spear so he wasn't bleeding, but the attack would definitely leave a big bruise if not treated, maybe a broken rib. Thinking that this was a chance to finish it, Tyler charged forward striking out, at that moment, Milo rolled and threw up a wall of ice to block the attack but the weight of the attack broke through the wall quite easily. The barrier still gave Milo a chance to get to his feet and distance himself from his opponent however.
After getting to his feet, Milo decided to try a different approach. He swung out his chain wrapping it around Tyler. The attack didn't do any damage, but would tie him up for a second. Once he was unable to move, Milo charged in to attack, seeing this Tyler activated his ability and became much heavier and sturdier. This was something Milo was expecting, once he was close, he froze Tyler's legs in place with his ice, and then verbally said, "Bind."
Black chains shot from Milo's gauntlets and wrapped themselves around Tyler before they were lashed to the ground, immobilizing him. Milo then activated his reinforce ability in his legs, jumping into the air. Once in the air, the surrounding air grew cold as a massive hammer of ice started to form in Milo's hands, it was crudely made, due to Milo splitting his concentration from making the hammer and focusing his reinforce ability in arms. Once the hammer was fully formed and his arms reinforced, Milo swung the hammer as hard as he could down on the immobilized Tyler.
Seeing the massive hammer of ice, Tyler activated his ability to its limit hoping that the attack wouldn't be as powerful as it looked. Unfortunately for him, the hammer smashed down leaving a crater in the ground. While Tyler's ability prevented any major damage, he still felt the attack, and he was left stuck in the floor of the stage like a crushed bug.
After the massive attack, the rest of the room was in shock, Milo's attack left a huge impact on the stage, and no one knew how to react. Milo was left sweating as it took a ton out of him, and after confirming that Tyler was unable to move the match was called over. Milo then slumped to a seat to catch his breath, it took his full concentration to use his ice ability and reinforce ability together, along with this he pushed them as far as he could without overloading himself. This was something Milo would definitely have to address and research to find what could counteract this issue.
Meanwhile the judges wrote down some notes, before concluding the exams for that day, even if Milo's match wasn't the last, they'd be stuck for a while as the stage would need repairs due to the recoil of Milo's finishing move.
Milo was exhausted but forced himself up to go change out of his uniform for his practical classes. After changing, Milo met up with Zach who had also changed, they then went out to fetch Waki who was still hanging out with Mikael. Once they found Mikael, they found the little bird sitting on his arm eating some seeds that Mikael had produced from nowhere. Waki was digging in and when the pair entered the room he looked towards them with a few seeds stuck in the feathers around his beak, before blocking the view of the seeds as if to hide that he had been being a little glutton.
"That was quite the show you put on out there Milo," Mikael said with a hearty laugh, "and Zach this is quite the little friend you have now, I'm happy to see that you were able to find a beast for you to train."
Mikael was one of Milo's favorite teachers, and it was for reasons like this, he was always someone who voiced what was on his mind and tried to relate to his students, along with this, he didn't care about background, he cared about merits. After talking some more, Milo and Zach left with Waki who chirped in frustration that his snack session was cut short.
Once they arrived back at the dorms, they each went to their respective rooms. It was exam week and Milo wanted to prepare for his other tests as much as possible, but once he got to his room he was so exhausted from his practical exam that he passed out on his bed for a few hours.
After waking up, he was welcomed by a notification on his holo from Krista asking to study together with her and Allana. He was hesitant to accept as this would be the first time since before spring break that they would be hanging out without the entire group being there, however seeing that Allana would be there too made him less worried. He figured it would be better to get used to hanging out again and decided to agree to meet up with them.
The three decided to meet at the lobby of the dorm, once Milo arrived, they all got to studying almost immediately almost as if they were trying to avoid being social in case some awkward conversation came about. Although they were in different ranked classes, it was mostly to split them up according to their combat and practical ability, they still all had the same general education classes, so if they wanted to, they could study their general subjects together.
After studying in silence for a few minutes, they finally caved and began to talk about their exams that day. Allana had taken her Gatecrashing 101 that day and because of her brother she already had an extensive background to gatecrashing even before coming to the academy, thanks to this she was extremely confident with how she did on her exam.
Krista said she had taken her math exam and due to this her brain was frazzled and she was struggling to study at the moment. Hearing this, Milo went on to say maybe they should do something different to get their minds off the exam and to study after. The group then texted Zach as they thought maybe some pet therapy could help them relieve some stress. Zach said they were welcome to come up to his dorm to see Waki so they began to make their way there.
On the way, Milo filled them in on what happened during his practical classes exam. They thought he was exaggerating a bit about how he done and figured they could ask Zach about it when they got to his dorm.
Once they arrived, Zach let the three of them in and took a seat at his desk. Waki was currently sitting on the bed looking at the newcomers with curiosity. He knew Milo pretty well as he had been there when he hatched, so he hopped up to him and rubbed his head against his hand. Seeing this Milo smiled and the girls swooned at how cute Waki was. They then all sat down and began to talk to Zach about his exam and he told them about his spar with the bow and telekinesis user. After telling them about his match, he continued on to fill them in on how Milo had destroyed the stage with his massive hammer of ice. Hearing the story come from someone else made them realize Milo wasn't kidding and the pair started to wonder just how strong her really was, as they hadn't seen him fight since stopping the bullies he fought with at the beginning of the year.
Milo then excused himself to go get a snack and left the room. Once he left, Krista's mind began to wander about how much he had improved, as her friend she was happy that he was growing stronger but was now worried she would get left behind. While this was happening, Zach was playing with Waki and was having a blast, seeing him smiling and laughing as he played with his tamed beast made Krista see him in a new light, he was much more handsome when he was smiling. This was her first time being with him when Mark, Chris and Milo weren't there and thanks to this she started to notice new little things about Zach she hadn't noticed before. When she first met him he was always so gloomy because he struggled to show his capabilities without being able to use his ability, but since then he had grown much more close and opened up to the members of the friend group. It reminded her a lot of the aspects that caused her to develop a crush on Milo.
Seeing Krista stare, Allana decided to tease her a bit, "Whatcha staring at Krista," Allana asked.
"Huh? Nothing," Krista responded quickly beginning to blush.
Meanwhile Zach was too busy playing with Waki to notice anything that had happened between the girls.