6 days later
Today was the day the Quarter Finals of the O bracket were happening.
The third match was about to start between Cain Stark and Olivia Floyd.
The previous two match's winners were Lucas Maxgrave and Sam Dagon. Both of them quite literally swept the floor with their opponent and easily won.
Although the spectators in the arena were shocked, and still a little bit shaken from their performances.
Now, the focus shifted to the third match of the day: Cain Stark vs. Olivia Floyd.
Cain stepped into the arena, his blood boiling.
Although he was known for his rational decision making, unbreakable physicality and unbeatable hand to hand combat skills, he was a battle junkie in his core.
On the other side, Olivia Floyd entered, her face set in determination.
Although she was always the side kick of Lena and most of the time she wasn't in the spotlight, this time she wanted to take it all for herself.
An unknown greed suddenly appeared within her, prompting her to dream, dream about winning and overcoming those better than her.
In the end, she had no confidence in herself, but who could have known such thoughts were running across her head?
The announcer's voice boomed across the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third Quarter Final match begins now. Who will prevail as the winner, The Indestructable Wall, Cain or The Lesser Fire, Olivia? Stay tuned to find out."
After reaching the round of 32 a human speaker started commenting on the matches.
The signal was given by the AI referee, and the match began.
As soon as the signal was given, Cain tried to make a wall behind Olivias back and then rushed towards her to corner her.
But Olivia had other plans.
"As if I'd let you corner me that easily."
A wall of fire was created between herself and Cain, buying her a few seconds to let her escape from this entrapment.
Cain smirked.
"Cute little attempt."
He effortlessly sidestepped around the wall to catch Olivia off guard, then sent her a punch.
If not for Olivia reacting and covering her abdomen with mana at the last second to protect herself, she would have been sent hurling out of the arena.
She still took a heavy hit and coughed out blood.
"Olivia!" Lena who was watching her match exclaimed in worry.
Olivia quickly got up and started sending out a few, small fireballs towards Cain but his reflexes were pretty sharp as he managed to dodge most of her attacks.
But a stray fireball grazed his arm. He didn't flinch. In fact, he seemed to get pleased by the minor pain.
'A masochist' Olivia thought to herself before focusing on her opponents movements.
She tried to maintain her distance, continuously hurling fireballs while circling the arena.
She knew that if Cain got close, the fight would be over.
"You're just delaying the inevitable." Cain taunted as he continued to close the gap.
She continued to send out normal fireballs, paying him no heed.
But this time one of the fireballs were different, it had a swirling design within it but unless you looked up close you wouldn't see that.
Cain's instincts kicked in. Instead of dodging, he slammed his fists into the ground, activating his earth affinity.
A thick wall of rock erupted in front of him, completely absorbing Olivia's explosion attack.
The collison sent a wave of dust, and when it was cleared, Cain emerged unscathed through the broken wall and walked towards Olivia with a proud grin.
"Nice try, but its my turn now."
Before Olivia could react, Cain closed the remaining distance in a flash.
He delivered a rapid series of punches and kicks, forcing her onto the defensive.
Olivia did her best to block and dodge, but Cain's strikes were not stopping at all.
"She is going to lose at this rate... please Olivia, find something." Lena desperately wished for her friend to win.
One particularly powerful punch sent Olivia sprawling across the ground.
"OLIVIA"
The others around Lena looked at her for a moment before turning their gazes back to the fight for obvious reasons.
"It's over."
"You fought well, but I am out of your league." He said with an arrogant tone, as if mocking her.
Or at least thats what it sounded like to Olivia.
She coughed as she tried to get back on her feet.
"You are stubborn, I'll give you that." Cain said.
But at that moment Cain felt a chilling feeling, as if his death was near.
'What... is this?' He thought.
Just when the feeling of death reached the peak, he realized he needed to cover himself and summoned an earth dome.
BOOM!
The arena shook as a massive explosion erupted, and Cain's hastily made earth dome could barely withstand it for a second before cracking and leaving Cain defenseless.
Cain gritted his teeth, He hadn't expected Olivia to be able to unleash such a devastating attack.
When the smoke cleared, Olivia stood in the center of the arena.
She was clearly tired and barely standing, but Olivia was smiling as if she was having the time of her life.
The crowd suddenly started cheering for the underdog.
"Olivia! Olivia!"
Cain too emerged from the smoke, this time his trademark grin not on his face.
"Impressive." Was the only word he said before lounging towards her.
Olivia too unexpectedly lounged towards him even though her initial strategy was to stay away from him.
While Cain started applying mana and toughening up his fist with his earth affinity, Olivia too did that with her fire affinity.
Their fists collided. Earth against fire, raw power clashing in a dazzling explosion of sparks and debris.
They started throwing countless punches at each other and it seemed like both of them were doing it instinctually.
Somehow, this awakened version of Olivia was able to keep up with Cain physically and around her was a wave of fire as if she were blessed by the fire itself.
The crowd roared as the fight turned into a battle of wills.
Olivia, realizing this was draining her too quickly decided to do one last big attack and Cain decided to defend against it.
Olivia's biggest exploding fireball yet was made and sent toward Cain.
Cain activated his strongest barrier and tried to defend against it.
BOOM!
From this clash, a lot of smoke and dust rose up to block the vision of the spectators.
When the dust settled, the crowd gasped.
Cain stood, but he was battered and bruised and his barrier was shattered. He was breathing heavily.
Across from him, Olivia had collapsed to her knees as her legs gave out.
It was clear who the winner was.
The AI referee's voice echoed through the arena.
"Participant Cain Stark, Advances to the next round."