The battle of the top three was about to commence. The head elder arrived at the arena while all the students became silent. He announced he would be the judge and another nine elders who were present would help him. The students wondered why the academy would let the head elder with another nine elders judge the battle. There were also more than twenty instructors who were present which clearly showed the importance the battle. The last time this happened was when the three joined hands against King.
Compared to elders and instructors who had calm expressions, the students' faces were lit by their anticipation, something that garnered the attention of all those elders would be spectacular. The students started discussing amongst themselves when the head elder ordered silence as he was about to give the instructions to the challenges that followed.
"Everyone, I know you have been waiting eagerly for this so I'll announce some few things. First, it will be a royal, meaning that the three students will fight one battle only," announced the head elder in a deep voice. There was an uproar among the students. A royal? No wonder there were so many instructors and elders present.
The head elder waited for the students to calm down before continuing, "Second, there must be a winner in this battle. This mean that the battle will only end after there is only one person left standing in the arena. As you know, King will be leaving the academy soon. The winner of this battle will be crowned champion and will have a violet rank with a violet badge. The winner will also be given an optional chance to battle King and if they win, they'll receive the badge immediately. If they choose not to fight King, they'll have to wait until King leaves the academy. Also the one who get kicked out of the arena first will be disqualified. That will continue until there's only one left in the arena." The wiser students immediately noticed a loophole in the rules. That was, two students could join hands to throw one out of the arena. Many who supported Alvin started to worry since he was in grade eleven while the other two were both in grade twelve.
The head elder waited for the three to be in the arena before saying in a high voice, "Start!" The students who were watching started talking in low voice and soon the less witted students came to know the unfavorable position Alvin was in as he could be fighting against two at the same time.
"Who do you think will make the first move?" Mo who was watching his eyes full of interest suddenly heard someone ask that question which was directed to him. He turned around and saw Elias who had appeared behind him only God knows when. "I think it will be Jason," said Mo. "Seems like we have different opinions since I think it will be Taylor. Why do you think Jason will be the first to make a move?" Elias asked. "Look at those three carefully, while Alvin and Taylor seems calm and patient, Jason on the other hand shows traces of being impatient and he will lose in the game of waiting," explained Mo. As if to back Mo's words, Jason opened his mouth and sneered before saying, "Alvin, I think you have more opportunities to rank first since you are in grade eleven while Taylor and I are in grade twelve leaving us with very few opportunities to rank first. Why don't you admit defeat willingly after all after we leave the academy you might be the next King."
"Admit defeat? You want me to admit defeat willingly? Ha ha! Did you knock your head with a brick or did you take the wrong medicine in the morning but I guess it is the latter. Forget about it nobody really cares what you did. Let me see where you get the confidence to make such a bold statement. Bring it on! I really want to see whether you can make me admit defeat," said Alvin his voice full of sarcasm.
"Since you can't do it on your own then I'll have to lend you a helping hand." As soon as these words came out of Jason's mouth, he charged at Alvin. Elias' mouth was wide open as he turned to Mo wondering how he was able to predict that. "Are you a prophet, how did you know about that?" Elias had not paid attention to the explanation Mo gave before as his eyes were fixed at the arena the moment he saw Jason start speaking. "As I said before, Jason looked more impatient compared to the other two who looked rather calm so with a doubt he had to be first to make a move," said Mo shaking his head wondering why such a young man could be suffering hearing problems.
"You are truly meticulous," complimented Elias. Mo smiled but did not bother to continue with the meaningless chat. Jason who had now reached to where Alvin was threw out a punch of which Alvin responded in kindness with his. After the clash, Jason was forced to take two steps backwards to neutralize the force while Alvin retreated one step. Clearly, Alvin had gained a little advantage in their first encounter with each other. Jason showed traces of surprise but they left as soon as they came. He didn't think too deep into it as he was just testing waters and had not used his full strength.
Jason attacked again and they both begun exchanging moves. Compared to the rest of the students, they were few shades faster. After exchanging about twenty moves, Alvin had gained a big advantage over Jason and had completely taken control. Jason was suppressed to an extent that he couldn't catch his breath. His energy was depleting at a very fast rate. Upon noticing this he shouted to the idle Taylor, "Taylor, I know you want us to exhaust ourselves so that you can gain advantage and win in one fell swoop but if we don't join hands we will both be defeated!"
Taylor who was waiting for a chance to fish in troubled waters couldn't help but snort at Jason who exposed his plans to everybody. In fact he wanted Alvin to do all the donkey work and defeat Jason exhausting himself in the process then he would fight with Alvin and eliminate him without doing much. Dreams were really very sweet but reality hit crueler. After considering, Taylor realized that Jason was right. Alvin had improved at a faster rate compared to the two of them and if they let him fight them one by one there was a possibility that Alvin would emerge the winner.
Taylor also charged at Alvin who was busy attacking Jason like a mad person. He knew that he had to eliminate Jason or they would join hands to eliminate him. When Taylor joined in the battle, Alvin completely lost advantage and fell into disadvantage since he had to fend off attacks from two people. "Interesting," said Mo with a smile. Almost every student had lost hope in Alvin as they were completely sure that he would lose. The only reason Alvin had not lost until now was that Jason was too exhausted to even use half of his strength.
Alvin who was having a hard time in the arena suddenly thought of something. Knowing well that if this continued he would surely lose, he tried to look for a breakthrough to his predicament. Upon thinking about it while still taking defense, he looked at Mo for a second and then reverted his eyes to the opponents. This happened a few times and Alvin noticed that Moo's gaze was fixed at Jason. He was suddenly enlightened that his breakthrough point had to be in Jason.
He decided to throw all caution and eliminate Jason. He suddenly charged at Jason completely ignoring Taylor. Jason was shocked by the sudden outburst and hurriedly tried to put up defenses but a palm strike landed on his chest without any obstruction which blew him nearly knocking him out of the arena. Alvin after delivering that attack hurriedly tried to shift his body to avoid Taylor's attack but was not able to completely avoid it. Fortunately only thirty percent of force hit him injuring him slightly.
Due to Jason's injury, Alvin was now able to catch his breath without much difficulty. What seemed to be a one sided fight moments ago had now turned to a balance. Alvin was able to fight both of his opponents evenly. This made the battle to become more intense. Taylor sent his fist out and Alvin responded in kindness after which both of them retreated three steps backwards and this was after Alvin had attacked Jason and had to respond immediately to Taylor's fist.
"Alvin is actually so strong!" Some students were so shocked that they couldn't help but cry out. "Humph, so what if he's strong, he will lose in the end as he is not King to fight against two and win," a grade twelve student snorted clearly unhappy with how grade eleven students had become excited. "I thought grade twelve students were so mighty but who would think that they would gang up to fight a junior student, truly disappointing."
"They are really shameless!"
"They have completely lost face today!" Many students sneered.
In the arena, the battle had reached another level. Alvin jumped two meters high and attacked Jason who was standing near the end of the arena. Jason who was not fully prepared enough hurriedly put his arms across his chest to block the strike. When the strike landed, Jason was sent flying out of the arena. He rolled a few times before coming to a stop. He was severely injured that he could not manage to stand on his own. His eyes were filled with dark circles and his face with bruises. There were traces of blood in the corner of his lips.