The next few matches were exciting but nothing as impressive as the match between the girl and Arc; the rest seemed to rely more on their abilities, which gave him a dead giveaway of what they were. Elemental abilities appeared to be the most common; one of the women seemed to be able to charm her enemies with her words. She asked him to go easier on her, which was quite a noticeable difference in fighting style from Arc. She ended up relatively unscathed, while he ended up worse for wear.
By the end of those matches, he looked ready to be beaten by the next person. Which, in this case, turned out to be him. Charlotte was surprised as he got up and tapped Iza's shoulder.
"Want to have that rematch finally?"
She stared at him with what looked to be surprise. Since her expression remained stoic, he assumed she took a few seconds to answer as if evaluating her decision.
"Sure, you're a bit too kind, though."
She sounded disappointed as the two ended up back on the stage. He handled it pretty well this time since he had been standing. He adjusted the gauntlets, staring at the spear quite intently.
"Are you curious about my spear? I figured you might be since Solace was responsible for our weapons. I'm curious why you didn't use your ability during the test; you barely passed."
He took a second before answering, finally focusing his gaze back on her.
"Wouldn't get very far if I had to use my magic so early. I guess I did it for the challenge, speaking of the test. How about we follow the same rules? The first three minutes, we keep abilities out of the fight?"
Iza nods before being interrupted by the teacher. Who coughs and gestures for them to begin.
Iza charged towards him, her spear shot towards his face like a bullet. He dodged the spear by barely a few inches; the white fog emanating from the spear's tip brushed against his face and caused ice to form on his hair and face. It was small enough and didn't spread, so it seemed just a passive effect from the spear. If she had used her ability, it might have frozen his face and ended the match.
She pulled back the spear, stayed out of his range, and kept launching the spear toward him, not giving him a moment to get close. In just a few seconds he spent getting bombarded by attacks, his clothes had minor cuts everywhere, and he had frost building up across his body. If this kept up, he would be an ice cube as soon as three minutes were up.
He was taking the chance to get used to her speed; as soon as the spear shot at his face again, he stepped forward, barely dodging as the spear cut into the side of his face. He grabbed onto the shaft and tried to bring his fist down onto her hand. She let go of the spear and pulled her hand away, and he placed both hands on the weapon and pulled it away, taking it away from her and tossing it behind him.
She didn't sit still for long; as soon as the weapon was taken from her, she closed the distance, grabbing onto his wrist and pulling him closer before kneeing him in the gut. She backed off as soon as her blow landed, only to have him follow her, shrugging her.
She went for a kick to make him back off, only to have him grab onto her leg as he dug the claws of the gauntlet into her, lifted her off the ground, and slammed her into the floor. She held onto the stage, pulled her leg away, and rolled to her feet; her leg had claw marks running down her leg; the cuts themselves weren't deep, as it seemed her body was a lot tougher than before. He barely managed to dig the gauntlet's claws into her leg.
Iza didn't seem bothered by the blood on her leg. She seemed to move it for a few seconds before nodding to herself. Her gaze then moved to her spear, and the two moved simultaneously.
He grabbed a piece of the stage and tossed it at her, causing her to slow down. He moved in front of her as his fist came flying from the side, trying to hit her on her chin. She twists her body while ducking to avoid the blow and uses the momentum to counterattack, hitting him in the chest. The armor blocked most of the attack, but it did push him back a bit as she tried to run past him.
He grabs onto the tunic, using it to spin her around and sending her back further away as she nears the edge of the stage. Charlotte thought about charging in and pushing her off, but he could see a light blue aura surrounding her hands before spreading across her body as she got up.
"Seems like the three minutes are up; I'll be honest, you had me worried there."
She stood up with a smirk on her face. He didn't waste time spreading his Chi throughout his body, and he was pleasantly surprised when he saw his aura for the first time. It was almost like a cascade of different colors flowing through it; it never maintained a single color, which made it strangely mesmerizing. He could look at it all day.
That was until he got slammed in the chest with what felt like a battering ram, as a giant pillar of ice hit him across the chest, launching him back. The ice spread across his chest as he brought his fists down and broke the ice as he tumbled onto his feet.
"Aren't you distracted...have I been such an easy match you can relax like that?"
She gave a cheeky grin as ice spread out across the ground. It moved over to the spear and launched it back into her hand.
"Let's change that, shall we?"
Icicles would form around her as she pointed the spear at him. Charlotte smiled nervously, bringing his hands up to guard his face.
He didn't have the time to be picky with his usage of Chi as he ensured every inch of himself was prepared for the fight ahead.