The Cyborg System-Chapter 61: The Elites

There were many rounds of sparring after Lenny’s. The third group of mainly yellow and green sashes were mixed. Though their skills were good, after Lenny’s fight, some felt a little unimpressive. Lenny had even spotted his roommate, James, who lost his fight, despite using his portal ability to avoid many of the slashes aimed at him. Unfortunately, his opponent was a speed user from les Chevaliers, and it seemed like every time he moved across the sparring area, his opponent would be waiting for him, ready to throw another strike.

However, as the fourth group entered, the more experienced green sashes and even one or two with a blue sash now took the stage. As if acknowledging this, the number of fighting cells were halved, making each significantly larger. These students were more representative of an elite fighting squad. It was clear that the new techniques and abilities the students had been practicing were being put to good use and the clashes of vastly different fighting styles made for good viewing.

Joan—a transformation ability user from the Fiends—had turned into a giant black panther but was being shot with high powered jets of water from Hailey of the Drowned. It seemed like a game of cat and mouse, with Hailey barely avoiding a number of deadly claw strikes, but as time went on, it became apparent the panther was being bruised all over by the powerful jets, and it had started to slow it down. However, being a green sash, Hailey’s essence was not unlimited and she started to weaken. Joan eventually used the speed of her beast form to deliver a nasty slash to the water user’s body, before the instructor stepped in to stop the fight. It had been an impressive performance on both of their parts, and many of the Drowned felt that the instructors had stepped in prematurely.

Tensions started to rise, posturing and fighting talk being thrown back and forth between the Fiends and the Drowned, until Ivy had seen fit to call an end to it. With only one side adding fuel to the fire, the tensions slowly started to dissipate.

Another intriguing battle was that between Jake, a summoner, who brought forward a lizard creature and Olivia, with the power to manipulate plants. The lizard had got a few swipes in, appearing to be quite vicious, before being completely wrapped up in roots. This was a clear turning point in the fight. With no familiar to rely on, and his other combat skills being relatively weak, after a few lashes of roots to the face, he submitted.

However, perhaps the most interesting from this group was Rob, an archer with an item multiplication ability. He’d won his first fight quite definitively, raining down a torrent of arrows from above. When his second fight was against a powerful hardening ability, everyone assumed that history was going to repeat itself. Instead, Rob used his multiplication ability quite differently. Instead of multiplying horizontally and vertically, as he had done previously, he did so along the trajectory of the arrow, each strike splitting the arrow that came before it. While this was fine initially, over thirty arrows struck the same point—or would have done, if the instructors had not noticed the penetrating crack in the hardening and stepped in in time. In one day, Rob had moved from rank 86 to 69 to 63, placing him near the top of the second group. Not only that, it became apparent that the leaders of many of the Group Warfare classes were assessing their own requirement for an archer—one who had, as yet, flown under the radar.

*

When the time had finally come for the elites to take the stage, there was a definite change in atmosphere. Some felt as if they were holding their breath. Again, the number of cells were halved—the original 16 becoming 8 and now 4.

The blue, indigo and violet sashes were all that remained from the students, but it seemed to be an unspoken rule among that group that the lower ranked blue sashes would be fighting first. Although technically part of this group, Brom chose not to fight again with his peers and was in fact nowhere to be seen.

Nicholas’s fight was quite impressive, and though he was defending his rank of 34, rather than challenging for a higher one, the 35 ranked Dmitry from the Blood Born was highly skilled. Nicholas had utilised a flame-driven punch he had been practicing with Lenny and Vee. His opponent focused mainly on kicks and casting his strange red aura. It was clear that both were significantly more skilled than Brom, showing that there were some considerable skill gaps, even among the elites. In the end, though, it was clear the flame damage was building up on Dmitry and the charred flesh was becoming unbearably painful. It limited his movement and seemed far more extensive than the few red slashes he had managed to land in return. Still, Dmitry was not one to quit and once he had been trapped, nearly immobile with wounds, with flames pouring all over his body, the fight was finally called with Master Mancini tackling his student to the ground. The medic was called but the scene was difficult to watch.

The fight that everyone was hoping for was that between the two violet sashes, Ivy and Roman. However, they had been surprised when the number 1 ranked Roman had decided to take on the number 3 ranked Leah instead. He felt he simply needed a different challenge. She was a lightning user, that everyone on the elemental abilities class showed the utmost respect towards. Although not many people knew the details of her origin, there were several prominent people in the room that understood the importance of the Olympians bloodline. Perhaps what had surprised everyone the most, though, was that, instead of picking the number 4 ranked Brian of the Salamanders, as the next strongest ranked fighter, instead, Ivy had picked number 9: Charlotte of Legion.

Roman seemed to have a strange and quite visible reaction to this. Why had Ivy targeted his faction member? Why her specifically? It seemed to give him a momentary pause.

"Fight!" shouted Master Kaminski.

For the first time, Master Yamamoto, abandoning his previously calm demeanour, appeared to be on edge, his body poised ready to strike.

Edmond’s commentary took on its usual care-free tone: "Well, it doesn’t look like the Drowned are interested in playing fair... or are they underestimating a largely unknown force in this fight?"

Roman had begun his transformation without hesitation. The process was quick, but in doing so, he was struck many times with powerful bolts of lightning, that were scorching the growing scales on his flesh. The whole room echoed with loud claps of thunder, as if they were stuck in the middle of a lightning storm.

"It looks like no time’s being wasted in the fight between our number 1 and number 3 fighters. The question is, can the powerful lightning ability, star of the elemental fighting class, cause an upset? Only time will tell..."

Ivy had wasted no time either, attempting to create a shell barrier to surround Charlotte, but her movement speed was not only quick but surprisingly agile. She moved gradually towards Ivy, carrying her training staff with purpose. Ivy had foregone her usual training weapon of the sword, choosing instead to focus on her control of shell.

"It looks like Ivy is determined to trap her opponent, but Charlotte’s no slouch either. Look at that footwork, it’s like an obstacle course is being created on the fly. This must be exhausting. The question is, how will they fair once this becomes a close combat fight?"

Meanwhile, a leviathan was striking out wildly, attempting to bite down on the lightning user. Leah kept using her ability to travel as lightning out of the way, often following up with a lightning bolt. Roman was growing increasingly frustrated, letting out a roar.

"I don’t know what that monster is trying to say," said Edmond. "But I do know it can’t be good."

At that, Roman charged out again, with increased speed, and smashed into the spirit tech glass. To the students’ surprise—and some of the masters—the cell wall had cracked.

"Monster," said Master Yamamoto under his breath. In truth, these cells were capable of holding anything up to the predator tier, though they were usually only used for scavengers and prey—many not wanting to place too much trust in the marketing material.

As Charlotte moved closer, Ivy abandoned her previous approach and stopped trying to trap her. Instead, she started forming the shell claws she had used as weapons in the fight against the predator tier bat. As the staff moved to meet a razor-sharp claw, Master Yamamoto stepped in behind Charlotte, slicing through a thick spike of shell which had come to impale her from behind with his short wakizashi. The blade was back in its sheath before the piece of shell had hit the floor. "This fight is over," said Master Yamamoto. Charlotte could not believe she had been so blind. Had this been a true duel, she would be dead.

"It looks like one of the fights is over already, but what’s this?"

Everyone turned to see Roman completely ignoring his opponent. He had charged through the cracked spirit glass wall, this time shattering it like it was nothing. Again, Master Yamamoto had come in the way. This time, his two-handed tachi was drawn.

"You have a lot of loyalty for your teammate. I can respect that. But you should know, this is a demon tier weapon and none who have faced it, as of yet, have suffered to live."

Undeterred, the momentarily paused Roman tried to simply go around this strange apparition. Shooting first one way, then the other. However, it seemed like, no matter what way he went, he would be greeted by Master Yamamoto’s gleaming tachi.

"Stop this madness!" shouted Master Wood. Looking around, Roman could now see he was surrounded by instructors. He began to slowly transform back into his human form, left naked in front of the crowd.

"It’s that form," said Roman. "I get carried away."

A shiver was sent down many of the students’ spines.

Master Wood nodded, wanting an easy out to the present situation. This would of course have to be picked up again and discussed later, once things had cooled down, but there was no wasting promising talent in the middle of their war against the beasts. And there was one thing for certain: Roman showed promise.

With that, the session was brought to a close.