"What a bunch of idiots," Marlene muttered as the two boys collapsed from exhaustion.
Yep. Both had collapsed from exhaustion, leaving Calix and Marlene to finish off the remaining two children.
"You take the Chemibrewer. I'll take the Terragrafter," Calix announced.
"You sure?"
"My fire won't be quelled that easily."
Immediately, Calix took off, dashing towards the Terragrafter, a young boy with dark brown hair and unimpressive black eyes. He wasn't too good-looking, but he wasn't ugly at all. He was just… well, not very special.
Seeing, Calix dash towards him, the Terragrafter immediately took a knee and pressed both of his augmented palms toward the ground. The back of his hand, hosting a valley of small pipes, unleashed a burst of steam before the ground beneath his palms erupted into a small wall.
Calix, keeping the momentum hurdled it, only to see the boy had disappeared. He attempted to try and gather the location of his enemy, but for some reason, he was entirely gone. It was almost as if he had disappeared from existence entirely.
CRACK
The ground beneath him burst open, revealing a fist that nearly clocked him in the jaw. But before the enemy's knuckle could graze him, he tucked his knees towards his chest. This blocked the boy's punch and even caused a bit of retaliating damage as his wrist rolled into his forearm and he winced with pain.
As soon as Calix landed on the ground, he lifted up his knee and sent a merciless push kick into the boy's liver as he was fully revealed from his earthen shield. He was sent flying into his own small wall of earth but somehow kept consciousness despite the excruciating pain.
"*cough* *cough* *cough* *cough* *cough* *cough*..." Obviously, the boy had the wind knocked out of him and Calix wasn't about to let this chance slip past him.
A flurry of punches was unleashed, each boosted by explosive flames that shot from his elbows. They were more like fire-powered rockets as opposed to fleshy fists. And even though this dealt out an extreme amount of damage to his opponent, his own mortal flesh wasn't safe from the repercussions.
His flesh was literally tearing off of his skin, revealing a bronze metal plating just above his bones. They glistened with the blood of his opponent and before they even had a chance at oxidizing with the help of heaps of blood, this separate part of the match had been finished.
FWOOSH… BAM
His elbow exploded out with the biggest flame yet, sending a knuckle straight into the side of the Terragrafter's head, tearing him practically into the floor. Even a small crater was left below his head, making some of the audience question if he was even alive.
"Don't worry. He's got a tough skull," Calix reassured the audience, yet the boy's limp body wasn't very convincing. "Marlene! Need some help!"
"Huh?" Marlene looked up, blood splattering her face as the boy she faced coughed up another pile of blood.
"Never mind."
Let's rewind a bit to when Marlene split up with Calix. Her opponent was a young boy who was a Chemibrewer. This match-up was almost perfect since their magic was essentially useless without excess gear. Their steam was perfectly crafted with the thought of using other means to exercise their magic, so this was a bare-knuckle fight… well, maybe.
Unlike Calix who was eager to get into the fight, Marlene took her time, waiting to counter as her opponent slowly closed in. And eventually, with a bit of baiting using her eyes to make it seem like she was more focused on the match happening on the other side of the ring, her opponent dashed in.
Fwip… FWOOSH
Before he knew it, the boy had been flipped, his legs in the air and his head about to hit the floor. As soon as he had gone in for a rapid sidekick to her solar-plexus, she had ducked beneath his leg and easily pushed up, sending him flying into the air.
"Hm?"
Instinctively, Marlene took a step back, allowing the boy to twist with a surprising amount of flexibility, catching himself and letting his own momentum gently glide him into a roll that broke his fall.
"I guess there were no other rules besides not killing your opponent…" Marlene wearily smiled, a drop of sweat running down her cheek as she witnessed her opponent pull out a small glass vial.
From the boy's palm, the glass vial seemed to have magnets in it as it hung from his hand. His steam immediately opened up, releasing bursts of steam while the small glass vial filled up with a red liquid that was dashed with a scratch of blue.
"Shit," Marlene muttered, immediately rushing in and just as she tackled the boy by his legs, he had downed the potion.
Almost immediately, his strength seemed to have doubled, as he was easily pushing Marlene off of his torso. But, she stayed strong and clinched her knees into his ribs and attempted to pin his right arm and perform a shoulder lock that could dish out serious damage.
FWOOSH
She was tossed off of him by a single arm, sending her tumbling against the dirt. And just as she got up, she witnessed the boy whose veins were practically bulging out of his skin like a pig in clothing, clench his fist and clock her in the solar plexus.
"*cough* *cough*..." She coughed up a mouthful of blood and attempted to regain her breath, but she was forced into a defensive position to try adn prevent herself from getting knocked uncosnious.
A flurry of punches rained down on her while she waited for something. Most onlookers were focused on Calix's flashy moves and high battle IQ, but the ones who saw Marlene knew who the real genius was.
"Urgh…" A spurt of blood slipped out from the boy's mouth as his potion began to take a toll on him.
BAM
In this split second between each punch, Marlene who had just barely gathered enough oxygen with this beast on top of her, lifted her elbow and cracked it against the boy's chin. Immediately his eyes rolled back into his head, sending him limp for another split second, allowing Marlene to rip him off and toss him to the side.
Just as the boy regained consciousness, he realized that it wasn't going to be for long as a flurry of punches aimed at his weak spots sent him diving into a wave of agony. Eventually, he fainted and the match was put to a stop.
"Silas, Marlene, and Calix, your team wins!"