The next few days went by quickly for Karlyle, mostly because it was the same routine every day - though a bit more lenient than usual: wake up, eat, train, take a long break, train, shower, sleep. Of course, like any other human, Karlyle would often slightly deviate and fall off schedule. Mimi allowed it due to his high chance of keeping his kinetic no matter if he wins or loses; she still worried about his combat attitude though.
Karlyle spent the final afternoon before the finale training hard alone as Mimi was too busy to help him. Having her own affairs to sort out left her with barely any time to serve as Karlyle's trainer, and Foster couldn't help either as his shifts got longer and less flexible.
At some points, he'd work twelve-hour shifts back to back with only a small four-hour break in between. The ethics of such requirements were questioned by any family or friends but the contract that the Elite Corps members signed permitted such overworking; only Councilman Kyanar can overrule such a contract, but he's too busy himself to do so.
"Hey, are you excited?" Simone asked from behind after she came to visit Karlyle during his training as she was the only one with time.
"Not really, but at least this'll all be over soon," after replying, Karlyle drank some chilled water and wiped his sweaty face with one of the towels.
"Just don't die on the final stretch, won't be pretty if you do."
"I'll do my best not to."
"Great, I have to go now. See you in the arena, Karlyle."
"You'll be watching?"
"Of course!"
Finishing off, she left Karlyle and headed back to her workplace. On the other hand, Karlyle got back to training. He stared at the clock. Its hands slowly moved to different hours and minutes until Karlyle could no longer continue training. Night time had already come so he went back to his small housing, showered, and went to bed.
The same dream, of gold and blue turning to red and silver, repeated that night. Karlyle woke up sweatier than he was after training so he went to shower again before going back to sleep. His sleep after that was successful and he woke up instantly in time for some final training before the tournament.
Like throughout the week, his long training session went by in no time. Being alone played a part in how quickly it went as he just daydreamed throughout the entire thing. Some daydreams became nightmares of him losing the tourney and, in turn, having his kinetic taken away.
After a few hours of training, taking a break, and getting ready, the final round of the tourney was beginning. The same room trapped him inside and the familiar faces gathered inside. Unlike previously, many were now panicked. Dakhyo being one of them. Not everybody had the ratings they needed to keep their kinetics. As much as Karlyle felt bad for them, he knew it was either his kinetic or theirs.
Karlyle looked around for his final opponent and found him.
'Cole Watts'
It wasn't enough to call him an 18 year old, he looked like an adult man. His muscles were more defined than Karlyle's, his hair was cut short enough to be considered a buzzcut, a tank top that outlined his pecs and abs, and shorts that showed off his chiselled calves. Karlyle didn't imagine himself daring to even get close to Cole as it'd just end miserably.
"The final battle of the tourney will now be beginning."
Everyone's vision darkened until it was pitch black, and after a few seconds, it cleared up to reveal everyone's opponents and arenas. Cole stood with murderous intent radiating off of him; it was powerful enough to restrain Karlyle's movements for a moment.
"Five."
The announcer started to count down.
"Four."
"Three."
Cole broke out into a creepy laugh.
"Two."
Karlyle shivered at the sight of the maniac in front of him.
"One."
Pulsing waves of energy moved throughout the arena once the announcer finished. Karlyle felt his limbs getting heavier and harder to hold up. Knees weakened and folded, bringing Karlyle's body to the floor. Cole still managed to hold himself up with barely any issues.
"Hahahahahahaha... hehehehehehe..."
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Gyrokinesis, manipulation of gravity.
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Cole's creepy and eery laughter continued. Attempting to throw fire at the one standing like a free target, Karlyle watched as the small flames broke away from his control and dispersed. The moment his hand raised to form them, the waves got stronger and dragged it down to the ground.
How was he going to fight back like this?
As the gravitational pull continued to increase in potency, more of Karlyle's limbs came into contact with the floor until he was a pancake against it. It took all of his strength to even move his finger. While Cole was barely placed on his knees.
"Is this... all you're... gonna do? Giggle and... squish me?"
It was hard for Karlyle to speak with his chest pressed against the hard floor limiting his breaths. Cole hadn't appreciated Karlyle's efforts to speak and gave no response - unless continuing to giggle counts as a response.
Without alerting Cole, Karlyle managed to wave his hand - even if slightly- and generate a steady flow of fire that shot towards the statue of muscle kneeling on the ground. Unable to pull the fire down, as predicted, Cole weakened the gravitational pull to evade the attack. Karlyle used this as an opportunity to keep attacking and he did.
He turned into a fire machine gun, throwing fire faster than he could think to do so. Cole continued to decrease the strength of gravity around them as dodging became harder with the ever-increasing swarm of flames. The strength of gravity continued to weaken until Karlyle was essentially floating in the air like a leaf in a breeze.
'How can someone that probably lifts double my weight dodge so effortlessly?'
Karlyle wasn't the only one who thought so; all the spectators watched in shock as a boulder of muscle and flesh flew around like silk to dodge Karlyle's attacks. The flames that broke through the air narrowly missed his skin but they managed to set some of the hairs on his arms and legs on fire - they were small though so they extinguished quickly.
"How the hell..."
Continuing to fling more balls of fire at Cole, Karlyle's face squished in annoyance at them all missing. At some points, Karlyle even tried to force the flames to come back like a boomerang for a retry but doing so wasn't possible. He gave up control over the fires whenever they shot out, if he didn't then continuing to fight would become harder and his barrage would slow down, leading to Cole regaining his dominion over gravity.
The slow and soft pulses of energy continued to weaken and slow. In turn, the strength of gravity in the room decreased further. Karlyle was now swimming in the air with nothing to pull him back down onto the ground.
'This should do.'
As Karlyle thought that, he collected a large amount of fire into a singular orb which expanded into a wall. He pushed it at Cole in hopes he wouldn't be able to dodge it, and he didn't. What Cole did do was go directly through the flame.
A current of air covered his body and dispersed the flame around it, leaving behind a nearly perfect cutout of Cole's body in the wall. Some remaining fires sizzled on Cole's minimal clothes before disappearing as a result of the cold air current. Even if all he could do was manipulate gravity, it did go quite a long way. Definitely more versatile than Karlyle's pyrokinesis.
The protective layer of compressed air slid off Cole's body and formed multiple javelin-like shapes. With the wave of Carlyle's hand, one of them shot towards Karlyle. He repeated the movement until all of them were targeting Karlyle. In response, the target used his flames to dodge the attack. Instead of coming into contact with a human, they pierced through the walls of the arena; it left behind cracks that spread to each other.
"Phew..." Karlyle gasped before thinking, 'Is he actually going for the kill?'
"Enjoying the battle?"
Cole finally spoke.
"Not really."
"Why's that? Would you prefer I fight back or continue to dodge?"
"I'd prefer you surrender."
"You know... I don't think that'll work. Hahahahaha..."
Before Karlyle could fight, Cole released his gravity-altering aura out of its constraints and let it spread out around the arena. The gravity once again strengthened, but this time it was quicker and almost instant. Karlyle barely managed to form some flames but they extinguished instantly as Karlyle became unable to further move.
"You're funny."
Cole, who was also on the ground at this point, commented on his struggling hostage.
"Thanks."
Karlyle's speech was muffled by the floor, but Cole could still hear and understand it.