Lennox, Velena, and Benjamin were back to back against each other. Corey and his clone flanked them from either side and Isaiah was floating above. "What do we do?" Lennox asked the two.
"We need to survive until they run out of energy," Benjamin replied. "I'm almost out of energy!" Velena yelled.
Evan approached them from in front. "Now Evan!!!" yelled Corey as he jumped away from the opposing team. "Tsuki ga nakatta na!!!" Evan yelled, whipping Excalibur around.
Evan shot orange chains out towards the team. As the chains snaked around Benjamin's body, he knew exactly what Evan was going to do, and he was ready for it.
The chains snaked around Benjamin, Velena, and Lennox, binding them in time. Evan dashed forward and knocked them into the air. Evan summoned seven swords as he jumped into the air.
The swords formed a ring around Evan's victims as he used Excalibur to slash through the three. Evan reached the adjacent sword and grabbed it, leaving Excalibur in its place.
Evan slashed through his targets again, reaching the other side of the ring and swapping swords again. He slashed through the group once more. Evan continued this assault, his attacks becoming more and more rapid. Evan dashed to Excalibur and used it to slash through the group one more time. However, Evan didn't use his sword to slam them into the ground. He dashed as far away as possible. Isaiah was floating, charging his aura.
"What's Isaiah doing?!?" Miles asked in surprise. Isaiah's aura was growing, forming a firestorm around him. Isaiah charged the gun with his aura causing his shot to grow in power.
"This is it!!!" Isaiah yelled. Isaiah thrust his hands forward in front of him.
"Final Blast 1%!!!" Isaiah yelled at the top of his lungs. A massive beam of antimatter fired from All-Black. The beam crackled and sparked as the antimatter reacted with the air around it.
The beam was approaching Velena, Lennox, and Benjamin at a rapid speed. Benjamin thought frantically. I need to do something, Benjamin thought, otherwise we'll get eliminated for sure.
Benjamin knew that if he didn't do something drastic, all three of them would be eliminated and they would lose. The sound of Evan's taunts rang in his ears and Benjamin began to channel his aura.
The beam slammed into the three creating a truly monumental explosion. The shockwave activated the emergency spectator shield. Jackie, Xavier, and Miles watched as the energy shield crackled and rippled. Isaiah didn't stop the beam. "What?!?" Isaiah said in disbelief.
Corey and Evan watched in shock as a black aura began to break through Isaiah's explosion. The beam was being tainted by streams of black. The black aura began to consume the explosion, becoming bigger and bigger.
Isaiah released the beam and the last sparks of red were consumed by the black aura. The black aura dissipated. Benjamin floated in the air with a smaller, but more intense aura around him.
Velena and Lennox had both been eliminated and were sitting in the stands. "Bad news guys," Isaiah said, "I might have just pissed him off." Evan looked over at Benjamin. Somehow, Benjamin had broken through his stasis.
Evan rushed at him with Excalibur, preparing to use omnislash once again. Evan suddenly stopped. He clutched his chest and fell to the ground. Shortly after that, he teleported into the stands, annoyed and confused.
Benjamin took Broken War and pointed it at Isaiah. Two runic symbols meaning "death" and "soul" appeared. Benjamin raised the sword and yelled, "Shadowflare!!!" A massive black explosion expanded outward from Benjamin.
Isaiah and Corey were caught in the explosion and blasted away. Isaiah was teleported to the stands shortly after this. "Charles wake up" said Isaiah. "what" asked Charles. "I'm out" Isaiah responded. Isaiah leaned forward and said, "It's all up to Corey now." The explosion finally dissipated. Benjamin floated across from a giant mirror crystal. The crystal began to crack.
Pieces of glass fell to the floor. The crystal shattered, revealing Corey. Corey had two wings formed from mirror shards. The shards glowed and sparkled, giving Corey an angel-like appearance. Corey was staring down Benjamin, prepared to attack at any moment. "Looks like we'll get the rematch we wanted," Corey said, smiling. Benjamin replied, "Yeah." Benjamin empowered his sword and lunged at Corey.
Corey did the same, swinging his scythe around and rushing at Benjamin.
Time seemed to slow down. Benjamin looked at Corey, only feeling joy and excitement in his heart. Benjamin gathered every ounce of strength he had left, summoning death itself, before slashing his sword diagonally upward.
Corey gathered his strength as well. He would finally put down the doubts that people had about him, and show everyone that he was stronger than Benjamin. Corey slashed his scythe diagonally downward. The two friends blinked through each other, the contact never being visible.
Benjamin and Corey were both panting and floating with their backs to each other. "What happened?" Lenox asked. Corey suddenly faltered, leaning over as though he had been hurt. His wings then shattered, raining glass on the ground below him. Corey was teleported to the stands, where his team patted him on the back. "Quite the spectacle," Charles commented.
"I concur," Isaiah replied. Across from them, Benjamin's team was celebrating their victory, giving out high fives and hugs. Evan looked at them wistfully before saying to his team. "We came close." "On the bright side though," Xavier said, shrugging, "We got mad close." The shield went down and Evan walked over to congratulate Lennox and his team.
"Thank you, thank you," Lennox said, bowing at Evan. Evan shook his head and walked over to the locker rooms to clean up.
Benjamin felt pretty good as he flew over to Corey to talk. "Man, what was that?" Corey asked. "I don't know," Benjamin replied, "But I'm thinking of calling it Soul Slash."
Benjamin and Corey both walked over to the locker rooms. As Benjamin opened his locker to change into his normal clothes, he thought about the school tournament coming up in a month. "C'mon guys," Isaiah called out, "We need to get over to Mr. Martin's room so he can sign off on us."
Benjamin quickly put on the rest of his clothes and followed everyone outside. Benjamin hung back so that he could walk with Velena. Everyone else was in front, talking about the fight. "It gives us some good training for the tournament, right?" Xavier asked.
"Well, yeah," Lennox replied. "I'd say that our skill hasn't improved that much," Isaiah stated, but our chances of winning against each other definitely went up."
"Isaiah I think we should worry about the other kids in the school first, especially the upperclassmen," Evan said, shivering.
Benjamin listened to their conversation with lowering interest. He was holding Velena's hand but even he seemed to be fading.
Benjamin stopped walking. He heard Velena say something but couldn't make it out. The last thing Benjamin heard was, "Home is coming to you."