After giving it a deep thought, Derek had decided to ignore the voice in his head. He couldn't believe there were things like werewolves in the real world. It was something you saw in fantasy and fiction stories.
But he couldn't shake off the weird feeling he had. He knew it might be true because how else could he explain the abnormal healing he'd experienced just last week.
But he was in a strange place and whatever the voice was, in his head telling him to restrain himself was just not realistic, he shook the thought off his head
Derek ran the events of the last hour through his head as he sat at his seat, waiting for the next round of fights.
Eunice, as Maya had called her earlier had brought macarons to the table and four cups of coffee, one for each of them. Derek only noticed how hungry he was when the waiter had served the snacks. He felt like his body was suppressing his hunger
He had wolfed his share down and wanted more, Maya let him take some of hers. She still had to order a few more since Derek was not still sated.
He had almost lost his sense of decency making Chuck and the two girls stare at him like he was an alien from outer space.
But that aside, he could feel the tension in the air between the two girls. While they were eating, whenever they were not looking at him they were busy scrutinizing one another.
Even though Arya looked like she didn't really care much, Maya was not doing much to hide the glare in her eyes.
Chuck didn't seem to notice whatever it was going on between the two girls, he just seemed oblivious as usual. Derek wished he would have spoken or said something dumb as usual to ease the tension but that was just wishful thinking.
"Hello Bayland" Drake's voice reverberated through the arena once again.
The crowd responded with a bout of cheers, the excitement after an interesting round was evident.
"We will now proceed to the next round of the competition" he announced. Just what Derek as well as everyone else in the audience had been waiting for.
The large screen lit up and the pictures of the remaining eight contestants appeared on the screen.
In real time, the images shuffled themselves. Edward, the 'wonder kid' which was what everyone was now calling him was going up against the Rothschild kid, Nathaniel.
Darla was going up against Hermes, as least that was what the kid was called since he was regarded as the Hermes family prodigy. His actual name was Adrian
Drake who was still on the stage was soon joined by Nicki who had come to announce the rules of the new round as usual.
"For this round, anything goes" Nicki announced in her high pitched voice "each contestant is allowed to use any means possible to defeat their opponent. The conditions for winning still remains the same." Nicki concluded
The crowd went up in cheers, they knew what this meant. They would get to witness the ability of the infamous big five, something everyone watching the competition was always looking forward to.
The remaining eight contestants in pairs of two were already on the stage, waiting for the signal to start.
This time, only three of the contestants had opted for a weapon. One was the Rockefeller, the Hermes and the last was a contestant no one seemed to recognize.
After a few protocols had been met, Drake announced the beginning of the round and as if on cue, a FIGHT sign came up on the screen in flashy bold letters.
Immediately, the biggest screen in the arena zoomed in on the fight with the wonder kid in it. He just stood still waiting for his opponent to attack first, his opponent also stood in place waiting for him to make the first move.
With that, Edward and Nathaniel stood ten feet away from each other, unmoving and staring at each other without anyone lifting a finger.
"What is going on?" someone in the audience blurted out. In the other three fights, there were already flashes of light and clashes of attacks but still nothing from Edward.
"It looks like the wonder kid and the Rothschild are in a battle of the minds" Drake commented happily, his voice laced with contagious elation.
Nathaniel stared down Edward, waiting for him to make the first move, but he wouldn't even budge, the sound of clashing from the other stages around them was getting to him, but Edwards stood calmly. He was not one to make a move first.
After more than ten minutes of standing and doing nothing, Nathan was beginning to get fed up. One of the other fights already looked like it was coming to an end.
Darla already had Hermes cornered and was approaching him with the intensity of a predator about to devour its prey.
Nathan couldn't take any more of it, he finally moved his right feet inward and took two steps towards his opponent. The large screen had decided to show some action since there hadn't been any movement from their fight.
But with the first move since the fight started, the screen quickly brought up their fight again.
Nathan covered half of the distance between them, then moved his right feet inwards again and took a stance.
The crowd was in silent anticipation of what was to come next. It looked like the first movement was the trigger for an exciting pair up in the quarter-finals.
Droplets of water started to gather in the air around Nathan, concentrating on them, the droplets started to grow bigger.
Around five droplets of water hovered around Nathan, growing bigger by the second, then without warning, like balls shot from a cannon they flew at Edward with amazing speed.
Reacting quickly, Edward jumped to the side, as he jumped he saw another set of water droplets fly rapidly at him.
Nathan was frustrated since Edwards had refused to make the first move since the beginning of the fight. He was always the one to wait for his opponent but it looked like Edwards was completely unconcerned about making the first move.
He looked so calm and adamant on not doing anything, the attitude had pissed Nathaniel off. That was why he was sending a barrage of attacks without giving Edward a chance to rest.
Just as he dodged the first set, another was hurled at him, Edward jumped off the floor and spun through the air, immediately dodging the second.
He twisted and turned, dodging as many barrage of attacks Nathan sent his way. He was too focused on the attacks, he had let his attention move away from where there were coming from.
For Nathan, this one took a little longer, so he had been gathering his mana and focusing it in one place. Then like an arrow head, faster than the others this one flew out.
Just as Edward landed on his feet once again, he saw them. Three pieces of icicles, they were not flying at him, they were already in front of him and he had just landed, there was no moving away in time for him.
Standing in the line of the icicles about to get riddled with holes, Edward scowled and his eyes briefly flashed a crimson colour.
It was only for a brief moment and only a few people had noticed it, the flash in his eyes before a wall of flame erupted before him