[WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SCENES OF SELF-MUTILATION OF A MINOR THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTURBING! DISCRETION IS ADVISED!]
Once Daniel's Revel Art had come into effect there was little Maggie could do to keep up. The blood-covered boy moved far too fast for her to activate her Two Paths to place any weakening auras on him. The best she could do was narrowly evade his attacks while she fiddled around with the box in her pocket.
The only thing she could do to stay in the fight was to reinforce her feet and eyes with Revel to keep up. Most people who specialise in a certain type of Revel Art can strengthen their bodies outside the part related to the Art. Speech-based Revel Art Users can usually only reinforce their mouths or throats. Only those extremely adept with Revel Control like Adira and Folorunsho can reinforce their entire body.
Daniel sidestepped to the right and reared his right hand back. Maggie instinctively raised her arms to block the attack only to get hit from the left. She was sent hurling away to the edge of the ring. Before she could fall out, Daniel appeared right behind her and stopped her with his foot. He kicked her into the air and punched her away. After she was kicked away, Daniel felt a sharp pain on his heel like some kind of needle had pierced it. He raised his leg close to his face and sniffed it but he could not detect anything wrong with it. The pain went away just as quickly as it had come. While Daniel was distracted, Maggie took the opportunity to activate her Revel Art.
"Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" She asked.
"The chicken, duh!" Daniel replied.
A red feather-like aura cloaked Daniel while a green oval-shaped aura surrounded Maggie. The blood-soaked boy tried to charge towards the blonde woman but the aura surrounding him stopped him. The aura formed two talons and stabbed them into the ground, preventing him from moving. Maggie slowly walked up to Daniel's immobile form. Once she was close enough, she punched him in his chest, shattering the aura around her. The aura around Daniel vanished in response as he felt that sharp pain again where she hit.
The blood surrounding Daniel began to dry and crack as the Thirio cell ratio in his body returned to its baseline. He leapt backwards and stabbed his claws into his wrists, pulling the cut up to his bicep. Blood gushed out heavily as he raised his arm over his head and let it bathe himself in the red liquid. However, this time his blood did not harden on his body, and his blood did not stop flowing.
Daniel raised an eyebrow in confusion. He tried to grip the top of his bicep to cut off his blood flow but it was to no avail. Due to his blood still flowing his Revel Art was still running, causing his body to continue creating blood at an accelerated rate. The crowd grew silent as the area rapidly filled the ring dyeing the floor red. Daniel suddenly turned pale and his skin began mottling. His veins became bulged and squirmed like he had worms underneath his skin. The squirming veins began to cause cuts to appear all over Daniel's skin causing him to bleed more.
The boy's eyes became bloodshot and glassed over as his body began to spas out uncontrollably, his body losing mass as quickly as he was losing blood. Eron and Adira shot to their feet and rushed over to the arena. The announcer called out the match as Daniel's vision faded to black and fell face-first into his blood. The tournament's medical team rushed into the ring and carried Daniel onto a stretcher. His body was incredibly hot. If this kept up dehydration would kill him before he was exsanguinated.
"Daniel!" Eron yelled as he rushed to his ward's unconscious form.
He went along with the medical team out of the ring. As they went through the hallway, they crossed paths with Adira. The bearded man stood there speechlessly as they carried his body away. He tried to go with them but his attempt was stopped by none other than Eron.
"Let me go!" Adira yelled.
"No," The white-haired man said a little too calmly. "Your match is next and you cannot afford to miss it,"
"I don't care about that fucking tournament!"
"Then you want to let what just happened to Daniel be for nothing?" Adira could only glare in response. Eron turned around and went after the medics as they made their way out of the building. The grizzly-haired man let out a yell of anguish and punched the wall near him.
"It's quite a shame what happened to that kid," A voice said. It was none other than Maggie who was making her way back to the contestant waiting room. Her victory had just been announced.
"But then again," She smirked. "A kid like him was in way over his head trying to compete in a tournament like this,"
The blonde woman was not able to perceive Adira as he suddenly appeared inches away from her. A fury burned so brightly in his eyes that killed all the mirth and cockiness that was just on her face.
"If it weren't for this fucking tournament," Adira growled. "I'd kill you right now,"
"Why?" Maggie asked, trying to steady her voice as much as she could. "Whatever happened to the kid has nothing to do with me,"
"Bullshit. I just don't know how yet. But until then, get ready for our match in two days,"
Adira stormed off leaving Maggie to her unnerved self. She reached into her pocket and pulled out two syringes. They were so small they were only the length of half her nail. As the air touched the syringes they crumbled into dust and were carried away by a breeze. Maggie dusted what was left of them on her shirt and made her way to the waiting room.