As the two groups prepared for the spar, Sergeant Creed outlined the rules: no deadly attacks, no intention of harm, and stop immediately when an opponent surrenders or is weakened.
The rules sounded encouraging to Max, but he just wished that Scarlett obeys them. The spar began with Gabriel Kael, facing off against a boy from the other group, Henry. Max happened to recognize who Gabriel's opponent was; it was one of Finn's roommates that he saw him with this morning.
Both students walked into the large open space for sparring. Immediately they walked inside, a hologram surrounded them, serving as a ring.
"Anyone who comes out from the Hologram loses," Sergeant Creed announced, and the spar began.
Max already knew which ability user Gabriel was, but he couldn't say the same for his opponent, Henry.
Gabriel and Henry charged at each other for close combat before revealing their abilities. Henry threw the first attack, a swift punch towards Gabriel's stomach, but Gabriel was quick enough to block the attack. In return, Gabriel released a formidable kick at Henry's face.
Even though Henry blocked the attack, the force from it almost knocked him out of the Hologram. He charged at Gabriel again, but this time he didn't just throw a punch and wait for Gabriel to block or dodge. Henry unleashed a series of strikes on his opponent, and a few landed on Gabriel from different sides. Immediately, Gabriel's suit started glowing orange.
It seemed that Henry was more formidable in close combat than Gabriel. Just as Henry kept using the same tactic to attack Gabriel, the next thing he saw was a fireball coming out from Gabriel's arms. Before Henry could deflect the attack, Gabriel struck him on his stomach with the fireball.
Henry was sent flying into the air. The unexpected attack from Gabriel was too fast for him to use whatever ability he had. Just when everyone thought Henry was going to land outside the ring, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is he?"
"He was just in mid-air!" The students gasped in astonishment.
Soon, Gabriel felt a tap from behind, and when he swiftly turned around, he saw no one. At this point, Gabriel was standing at the edge of the ring, and for no apparent reason, everyone saw Gabriel stumbling off the ring. Just before the students could say anything, Henry appeared out of thin air. He was the one who had just pushed Gabriel out of the ring.
"Uh...!"
"His ability is invincibility?"
"That's a nice ability to have." The students exclaimed, impressed by the fight between Henry and Gabriel.
Gabriel used fireballs to fight, which made the students believe that he falls under the flame ability and probably a C1-user in rank. But they couldn't say the same for Henry, as all Invincibility users could do what he did. The only way to determine Henry's Rank is if he could or could not turn things invisible or go through objects.
At the end of the fight Gabriel and Henry had something in common, and that was them both having an orange glow in their suits.
Next for the spar was Finley Scott and a boy named Braxton Huxley, a Stone Ability User.
They both walked into the ring, and the hologram appeared again. Sergeant Creed called for the fight to begin immediately. His team had already lost a fight, so he just hoped that Finley Scott and Max would win their own rounds. He never knew that Max was a D-user in rank. Even though Max now has an ability, in his school system record, he was still just a D-user.
Finley Scott was a smoke user with great combat skills like Henry, but he didn't want to fall prey to any surprise attacks from his opponent. The effectiveness of his smoke ability was to suffocate and distract his opponents, but the rest was up to him to knock them out.
This set didn't waste any time before revealing their abilities to each other. Braxton quickly unleashed his ability and stones started forming out of thin air. The stones were the size of fists and could easily knock down his opponent if he managed to hit them in vital spots.
Braxton immediately released more than five fist-sized stones at Finley Scott, who was forming smoke out of thin air as well. Finley Scott managed to swiftly dodge all the fist-sized stones and smashed the smoke he was forming onto the floor. The smoke immediately took over the entire ring and Braxton could no longer see properly.
His vision became blurred, and at the same time, he was being suffocated by the smoke without fire. He started sending fist-sized stones in various directions, hoping to hit Finley Scott, but there was no sign of Finley Scott at all the directions he was shooting at.
Even those outside the ring could not see what was going on inside due to the smoke, but that wasn't the case for Max. Despite Max's ability being 'Inspection', it was originally derived from the 'Vision Ability'. This means that Max can see in the dark as well.
Max initially thought that the hologram surrounding the ring was just an illusion. However, he soon noticed that the hologram was actually a boundary that contained the abilities of the students within it. The smoke generated by Finley Scott didn't escape from the hologram's confines, and the fist-sized stones that Braxton was sending randomly at Finley Scott also remained trapped.
Max chuckled when he realized that Finley Scott had been moving behind Braxton all this time, while Braxton was sending fist-sized stones in different directions. The other students, including the sergeants, wondered why Max was laughing when no one could see what was happening. Soon after, Finley Scott struck Braxton and knocked him out of the ring.
"Yes!!!!" Sergeant Creed's team shouted to celebrate their victory.
Sergeant Cressida happened to have a similar personality to Scarlett's. They're both beautiful and breathtaking, but their emotions are hard to read.
Finley Scott absorbed all the smoke right back into his fist, just as he had brought it out. And once again, the atmosphere in the ring was clear, revealing Finley Scott standing there with a green glowing suit. This confirms that none of Braxton's attacks, or rather, fist-sized stones, touched Finley Scott.
Since the scores are now even, it's up to Max and Scarlett to determine the final outcome of the challenge and the victory of their respective teams.