Point C
Ezra Acion
VS.
Reina Jett
Acion slightly bowed at the blond man’s gratitude for picking up Reina, as Jett then engaged in a mock fight with Toni, who were pretty much trying her best to entertain those who were demoralized by the events. Acion appreciated that, but he simply lost the thrust that he need in order to fight. Those around him now lost the competitiveness and motivation to fight just like he did. They were all worried about the sake of Sen, the guy who got carried away.
‘For God’s sake!’
Acion had been expecting for such thrills of excitement and yet fate rewarded him with such bullcrap. But now, what can he do? The shield girl was still unconscious, and the others just lost their passion for battle. He lost it as well. He could only look at the two fighting to kill his own boredom.
But it was then that he did finally notice the gravitational pull from the girl next to him. For some reasons, he felt his feathers, and himself, being unnaturally attracted and pulled towards her. It might be her quirk. He had also felt that during the short flight earlier while he was carrying her, but he did not have the opportunity to ask.
After quite the warm up run, Roy arrived at point C only to find the fight basically over. A teammate unconscious, one relaxing on the sidelines with the enemy, and another fighting the enemy. Roy maneuvering the rugged terrain towards Acion and the girl beside him. As he got closer he felt a slight tug on his body, “Acion..?” He said as he walked up behind the top motioning his hands as to what happened here.
And Acion was stripped of his opportunity to ask Reina about that strange gravity pull, as Roy then appeared behind him.
“Well...fortune may or may not be on your side. One of the Alpha teams got heavily injured during the whole encounter. One got taken out, one also injured, and looks like she doesn’t want to continue.” Acion glanced at Reina for confirmation. “Those two are just having a mock fight.”
He sighed slightly.
“For me, it’s not on my side, for there are unnecessary casualties happened.”
Energy level:50%
Roy folded his arms , “Why the long face, mock battle or real deal. Heros shouldn't be discouraged, despite what happens we must get the job done.” Roy unfolded his arms and made a fist, “Our remaining comrades are fighting hard for victory.” He said motioning towards Toni and Jett, “Others Sacrificed themselves, this is something we will have to cope with, giving up will just make their efforts meaningless, besides we still have teammates going hard at A and B.” Roy said putting his arm on the boys back, the golden boy Radiated with heat as his markings glowed. “Just don't give up.”
Acion turned to Reina.
“Then do you want to continue? It’s not that I give up, I just don’t want to combat those who doesn’t have the will and passion to put up a fight, since I don’t want to enjoy victory if my enemies do not thirst for one.”
The girl’s brow furrowed upon being addressed, having had her attention split between the fight near them and the two boys from Delta. The look she gave Acion was mildly puzzled.
”Of course...?” was all she could say, not entirely understanding the boy’s point of view on the situation. Sure, Sen had been hurt, but he was likely to be okay after some rest—and he had sustained his injuries fighting for her team, Alpha. Shouldn’t they assume that she, like Jett, would only be more motivated to win for Sen?
...did she really look so weak that others assumed such a thing would deflate her instead?
Of course you do. Her frown deepened.
“I’m only bruised. I’ll continue.” she said, bringing her guard back up as she took a step back away from the two Delta members.
She began to focus again on her quirk, setting it so it lightly repelled everything away from her. While Reina didn’t believe the two boys would immediately try to take her out, she felt exercising caution was a good idea, being as talentless as she was. If they did decide to take her by surprise, Jett would be left suddenly alone against three members of the other team. She couldn’t put him in that sort of position.
Acion watched the girl next to him taking a guarded stance, an impressed smile formed on his face. Seemed like he was wrong.
“Though you are injured, you are pretty determined.”
He remarked with all means honesty. Acion hadn’t heard this for a while among training heroes. As a matter of fact, they were a distant second to his expectation. They always said they were determined to become a professional, and yet many had failed. Many gave up, bent by the lack of true determination, fear of difficulties or selfish desire for their own well-beings.
“Those are the words spoken by one with honest desire. Let’s see how far our determination goes.”
His two arms straightened diagonally with his torso, his six wings again spreaded in all directions. Just like at the beginning of the fight, a challenge accepted
“Time to battle!”
Appearing next to Riena and Acion, he fell to his knees, sweating profusely as his muscles shook at just holding himself up in a kneeling position. After a few moments he managed a weary smile after a long controlled breath and looked up at Acion and said with a chuckle , “Ready to defend C against us Birdy?” Jett hoped he had teleported her far enough away that she couldn't get back in time... they had been at this for a while now. He realized he didn't know how many jumps he had left...hopefully a couple. But he could very well have one…
Acion’s comment about her ‘honest desire’ gave Reina pause. She didn’t dwell on it too long, though, taken by mild surprise when Roy simply left the two, not interested in point C apparently.
A fight, hm?... She had experienced one single battle in her life, if it could even be called that. She also hadn’t been able to duplicate what she had done that day that allowed her to escape relatively unharmed. This would end embarrassingly for her... at least Acion didn’t seem like the type to put her in the hospital as he won.
She glanced up to the boy and gave a slight nod, just about to turn up her quirk to force him away when Jett suddenly appeared, looking terribly exhausted. Reina looked from him then to the way he came quickly, wondering where the girl he’d been fighting had gone—she wasn’t near them for the moment. Before she could ask him, Jett was already challenging Acion.
Acion noticed Jett’s reappearance at C, and, not surprisingly, without Toni. Either she had been defeated by him or being left by the guy, he didn’t know. In either cases, this was getting more exciting and exciting. A one against two, huh?
”Birdy huh?”
He thought Acion was some kind of animal?
”Fortune has brought all of us together. None of the unpassionate can interfere with us now.”
He extended his wings to the both of them, staring at them intensely.
”I challenge you!”
It was at this stage that Ezra had began running from point B. He had motioned to Roy to secure the point, and held trust that he would be able to secure it for the remainder of the exam. He was using the rest of his energy at this stage to head over to Point C and secure it for the victory. He didn’t exactly like the idea of going back to a place he had already come from, but he figured that he had already got his hands dirty in the name of victory, so he had no qualms in finishing the job and making sure his team won, regardless of the consequences to himself and opinions of others toward him.
He was using every fibre of his quirk to be able to speed there. He was stretching his body to the maximum it could take, accelerating every single muscle in his legs as he strode down to point C at near record breaking speeds. It wouldn’t be long before he arrived there and uncovered the scenario that was going to unfold, which would likely determine the outcome of the entire match, as he had no idea what had gone on at point A.
Jett chuckled as he listened to Birdy. “I’m pretty sure we challenged you first.” He said with a wink. He was hoping with his strength almost gone, he can give some help to Riena as her gravity would probably be best suited to keep the bird on the ground.
He stood up slowly, his feet shifting in the dirt as he took his normal savette stance. Thinking maybe he can get one good jump in before he was completely out.
Jett shifted his stance to move towards Acion when suddenly he saw a blur and felt his chest explode in pain as he was launched backwards. He rolled like a ragdoll in the dirt till he landed face first, sliding still back, till he came to a stop. Groaning, he let out a breath of air. Dust puffing out from his face as he whined to himself. “ Oh THAT HURT .” wheezing as he slowly got to his hands and knees, looking up to see what train hit him.
Ezra stood above Jett, looking down upon his freshly hit target. He was sweating evidently from his forehead, and breaking his pace into a jumping kick wasn’t exactly an easy task to complete, but he figured that a sudden attack would prevent 2v1 occurring against his classmate, and allow him to secure the point earlier. He had learnt a lot about sneak attacks where he was from, so he didn’t exactly see the shame in it. Honor held nothing to him, but he couldn’t stand to watch an unfair fight take place when he could do something to stop it, especially if it was to ensure their victory.
“I don’t like people who try gang up on somebody. How about ya trust ya friend, and come take me instead. I’m sure we can have a lot more fun.” he spoke, raising his fists against the man that he had just struck. He didn’t look weak, and something in his eye told him he was going to be a fun target for Ezra. He hadn’t had many fun fights, but if this could be one of them, then he might start seeing more motivation than simply claiming victory for the sake of it.
Reina had jumped to the side from the sudden gust, glancing between Jett and the tall boy that had spoken to her before the training had started. Some kind of strength enhancing quirk he had, evident by his fast and sudden entrance and the power with which he had run over her Alpha team member.
She looked over at Jett again, feeling terrible for him—he had already been clearly tired before getting sucker punched. He’d done far more than she had, and she wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep it up. Maybe... if he got time to rest, he could continue.
As if you can even buy enough time. The small, bitter smile that so often accompanied her self-deprecating thoughts showed itself on her lips, but even as it did the girl was moving to quickly put herself between the struggling Jett and the two Delta team students.
“Take you time,” she said to her teammate.
The instant she was in position, she repelled strongly with her quirk to force Acion and the tall boy away, as well as Jett, sliding him along the dirt directly in the opposite direction that the other two were being pushed.
Through all her uncertain thoughts, the girl looked towards the two, unaware herself that her gaze was closer to a glare. Give Jett time to catch his breath. That was her simple goal. Despite how much she felt it wasn’t something she could achieve against these two boys, just having the goal pushed her to action without any of the hesitation one would expect of her.
She let her quirk’s effect weaken, the strain of it having begun to show on her face... as well as in the strange loss of colour that was affecting both her body and clothing. It wasn’t incredibly apparent yet, but the girl was slowly beginning to appear greyscale.
Acion was about to halt to Jett’s advances when he was suddenly knocked back in place. Taking a few seconds to realize what was happening, Ezra, one of his teammates, has arrived.
”A more fairer fight now, don’t you think yes?”
But just as he said that, he was then pushed violently away by an unknown but strong force. The force was powerful enough to push Acion away several meters on the ground, stopping only by the air resistance of his own six wings and the friction of his feet in touch with the ground.
”I’m telling you, if you are so determined to win this, then in the name of God, I will not hesitate on you. Let us begin!”
It was at this moment that his six wings begin to flap, propelling himself upwards, stopping at the usual fifty meters above the ground.
What the hell was that?! The guy who stood in front of him wasn’t a man… it was a freaking Giant! He started to talk he realize the guy was right He usually didn’t like gang ups himself...but with his weakened power it was going to be more like 1v 1.3. But he was also right about trusting his friend. He looked to Reina as he mentioned her, to see her moving over towards them.
He had also mentioned it might be fun. Indeed, Jett did like a challenge, and taking on colossus here at his current strength would be definitely a challenge. The guy held himself, brimming with confidence. He shakingly got up to one knee trying to get a breather in while he had the chance when Reina had arrived, before he had a chance to give a witty comeback and told him to take his time. What? He couldn’t let her take on both, He quickly stood back up, dizzy as hell to say he was fine. Next thing he knew, he was on his back again sliding farther away after being hit by her gravity once again. Sliding once again he let out a whimper as the dust was once again in the air. He laid there for a moment, as if knocked out and took a few breaths...coughing once at the dust before rolling over onto his side and groaning like an old man getting out of bed. Bed…. that sounded nice actually… He shook his head and looked over to Reina once again. The distance she created with her push would give him some time to breath. Obviously worried at his outward signs of fatigue. That girl faced off two big guys to give him some time to breath. “Girl has guts…”
He then called out to her. “Reina!” He paused for a moment, watching birdy fly into the air. Before looking back at her, “Thanks for the help, I'll take smalls over there.” If she looked back she would see him pointing at her with a confident smile. “ You show birdy your badassness! You got this!”
He didn’t know if she was still tired from deflecting that crane, but it seemed she still had some juice left in her. He got up, hiding his fatigue with a genuine smile so she didn’t worry and punched his right hand into his left palm psyching himself up as he tried to focus on the task at hand. His quirk was pretty much done, if he used it once more he was sure it would only be bad if he didn’t one punch knockout this guy...which he looked like he could take a few beatings and still dish out. But he looked tired as well, perhaps he was at his limit as well? Hopefully so, be that the case, he might stand a chance. He took a few calming breaths before he motioned the big guy over to him, as he slowly made his way back towards the group and yelled out. “Alright, you wanna fight? Let’s go, let me pay you back for that sucker punch.”
“What the fuck!?” was all Ezra was able to exclaim before he was thrown back from the force that Reina had emitted. He didn’t exactly expect that much force to come out of the girl, and frankly, he had no idea that a quirk like that could exist. He had to get up quickly, in case the boy wished to try something. He had no idea what he was capable of, but he definitely wasn’t unfit or weak for that matter.
He noticed as he stood up the amount of fatigue that the boy he was facing was experienced. Not that he wasn’t tired himself, he could probably manage 2 or 3 more uses out of his quirk before he completely ran out of juice. He had no idea what the quirk was of the man in front of him, who seemed to refer to him as Smalls. He assumed sarcasm, or irony of some sort because there was no way this short little shit was calling him small.
The fight that he had been anticipating was about to begin, and he was ready for it. Preparing himself in a rather atypical stance, he slowly began to approach Jett. He had a smaller frame, so he was sure that he’d make up for the difference that they’d have in strength for speed.
“C’mon then. Let’s see you try somethin". He spoke with confidence in his voice.
Reina looked over her shoulder when Jett called. She hesitated a moment, but nodded. Either he recovered fast or he was doing what he could to hide his state. He would have never let her take on both of them to begin with as long as he could still move, anyway—that much was clear in the short time she’d known him. So be it.
The girl gazed up to Acion who’d brought himself to the sky. Her eyes narrowed as she thought over the situation quickly. He was far enough away that he’d likely hardly feel the pull of her quirk even if she strained—a weakness of her quirk she’d of course theorized during the countless hours of thought experiments she’d carried out in her life. The closer she was to another, the more control she had over them and the easier it was to keep them there, but if they could keep their distance, it was easy for them to resist the effects.
One of the spheres that orbited her pass directly in front of her eyes, pulling the girl out of her thoughts. She tracked it as it rotated down and around her, out of sight again, biting her lip in frustration. Useless. She was unable to even use her own quirk properly. Why was she even trying to fight?...
Right. For her team. For those that deserved to be in Class 1-A.
Her gaze dropped from Acion to the ground a dozen feet ahead of her, settling on a baseball sized rock.
The distance between the winged boy and herself meant they’d be able to react to most any of each other's strikes—like his feathers. She could keep those from hitting her. And while her quirk couldn’t directly affect the winged boy in his current position... well, time to find out how controlled backyard experiments translated to the real world.
Reina sprinted forward, scooping up the rock in her right hand, gaze shooting back up to the boy in the sky. She killed her quirk completely as she reared her arm back and took a large step forward in one motion. Planting her foot on the ground hard, she threw the rock and immediately repelled her surroundings as strongly as she could for the briefest moment, launching it skyward and letting out a short, sharp cry from the exertion.
She stumbled forward from her follow-through, watching the rock as it went. Not quite on target—it looked like it would hit one of Acion’s wings rather than his chest. Though, the throw was far better than she ever expected her first real attempt at using her quirk in such a way to be.
The six-winged angelic-looking boy caught the sight of a rock zooming in on him, along with a light sense of gravitational force pushed against him. He was caught slightly off-guard, as he had little time to react to such speed. The rock’s trajectory appeared to be heading straight for his chest, or at the best case, his steel wings. In any cases, it was preordained that it would hit him somewhere.
By completely instinct, trained years ago, he dodged to his right, the rock grazed nearly missed his torso, and slammed onto his middle left wing, sending the winged man slightly off balance, as his middle wings were for balancing after all. It was surely a powerful blow, as showed by the pain he felt on his wing muscle.
”That force earlier.”
The thing that he just faced, the thing that pushed him away earlier, and the sense of pull towards that girl. It appeared somewhat clear what she was capable of. She was either able to use telekinesis, or anything of that lineage. Either cases, it would be rough trying to attack her head on. If the force was this powerful, she would be able to repel his attack completely, or maybe even knock him out on spot. He should not be so nonchalant to launch basic attacks on her and hopefully it will manage to take her out.
Also, he shouldn’t be focusing too much on her that he forgot about Ezra, who were now paired up against that blonde haired guy. This isn’t a one versus one stage area anyway. It’s a team battle. You can’t win by simply being stronger, faster or smarter than your adversary. You win by being stronger, faster and smarter together with your team against your opponents. That’s how it goes. And judging by the looks of it, they were already set for individual duels, so if one of us, maybe even two cooperated for coordinated attacks, they would have an even higher chances of winning.
But now, how was he going to approach Reina anyway?
If he got too close and too carelessly, he would be flung away or grounded before he even realize it. But if he just kept his distance, she would be able to use that same sort of attack against him. That could either lead to both of them launching rocks and feathers at each other, throwing and praying that it would hit their targets. That would often lead to inconclusive fights. But Acion wanted a conclusive one.
However, he had yet to find a loophole that he could exploit within that powerful looking quirk, but he might have a vague idea of how. If he could somehow get a brief moment, a few seconds would already be enough, when Reina was forced to disable that quirk of hers, then he might be able to disable her.
Retaining his balance, he dived again, preparing to launch feathers again. But this time, instead of getting as close as possible like the last time he did so for the dust cloud, Acion instead intend to launch his hail of feathers twice, at a greater height. He stopped descending at around twenty five meters, and launched his first wave. Then intend to climb to thirty meters, and fired another one.
The girl’s adrenaline spiked even higher when she saw Acion diving at her, immediately focusing on pushing strongly with her quirk and holding it there as she watched him launch feathers at her. Like before, they were curved away from her by the gravitational sphere around her, piercing the ground.
Her mind raced. Was he close enough that she could pull him down? No, not yet. His wings were powerful, that much was clear. Large too. The air friction just from him spreading his wings would slow any descent she tried to force on him—if he flapped against the pull he’d tear away easily.
She looked down to the ground again for another object to throw at him, only to realize that she had just pushed everything that had been near her dozens of feet away in her panic. Stupid! It was just the kind of thing she’d do, completely unused to the frenetic pace of fights and with little handle on her ability.
The girl sucked in air, realizing she was still repelling with her quirk and had been holding her breath the entire time. Not helping. She breathed heavily, her person greying more and more with every moment that passed.
Acion’s wings threw forward another blitz of feathers, prompting Reina to once again instinctively push them around her. She killed her quirk’s push, gasping for a breath as she ran a few feet to her left to pluck out two of the feathers that had landed close to each other. Though she knew they wouldn’t fly nearly as true as a small rock, she wanted to retaliate before Acion could keep attacking her. She threw them both at the same time the way she had thrown the rock, pushing as much as she could again for a split second, her voice cracking.
As she thought, one spiralled out of control harmlessly, while the second flew straight but no where near it’s mark. Taking the moment he’d at least be distracted by the threat, Reina glanced around quickly, spotting the vehicle that Sen had been injured in, several dozen metres away and closer to Jett than to herself. The girl took off towards it, keeping her eye over her shoulder at her opponent, the brief moment of not using her quirk a relieving blessing.
Jett, despite his earlier thoughts on not to use his quirk… something about that guys voice just made his blood vein in his forehead pop. He focused his thoughts and suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke. Reappearing just in front of the guy and jabbed him in the face. However since he was tired and the steep angle at which he launched it up it didn't connect well.
He paused as he looked up at the guy and smiled nervously. Chuckled twice before his smile disappeared entirely now with worry overcoming it and asked “No quirks?” As he knew that was his last jump. But didn't know how much or what this guy even did with his. He jumped back out of range of the giant and got on the balls of his feet bouncing slightly despite his fatigue.
Ezra rubbed his chin. That punch hadn’t really hurt that much, but it surprised him. He was thankful that the punch wasn’t stronger, but it made him think. If the kid could teleport, it would be really annoying for him to have to fight him, so he thought after the kid had punched him. If that was the strongest hit he could throw, he wasn’t really threatened by him doing another whilst he took a time to think of a plan.
It was around this time that he had heard Jett ask him whether they wanted to fight without quirks. Ezra pondered on this as he spat some blood out of his mouth, presumably stemming from the punch to the chin. He figured that he could beat the utter shit out of this kid if he wasn’t teleporting around everywhere, and even if he didn’t agree to it, now that he knew what he could do to a certain extent, he would be able to react with the few uses of his quirk that he had left. It was a win-win situation for him. He hadn’t lost at hand to hand combat since he was 8, and he doubted that the record would be broken.
“Deal. Ya gonna need to hit me harder than what ya just did though if you tryna last longer than a minute here.” he spoke as he cracked his knuckles and neck.
Approaching Jett, he moved quickly, yet he didn’t break his stance as he began to get closer and closer to him, preparing to return the punch on his jaw that he had just connected. He was absolutely ready for a counter attack, with his right foot being prepared to connect a roundhouse kick on the boy if he attempted to try another quick attack.
Jett smirked at smalls and said quickly, “oh ya know the sun was in my eyes and dust… besides…. You looked like you had a glass jaw...didn’t want to shatter it.” He raised his left arm to block the punch that was coming at his own face, while he did block it, he was unprepared for the force of the giants punch and his own arm hit his face in result. “Shi..”
He used the momentum of the punch to spin him away from Smalls to prepare his next attack, spinning faster he jumped up and lashed out with his right leg with a reverse tornado kick , with his heel aimed towards his opponent's head,
Ezra smiled. It was clear that his kid was underestimating him, especially when he had threw that last punch. It wasn’t excessively strong, so he was impressed to see that the punch had enough force to send the kids arm into his face. His quick counterattack hadn’t caught him by surprise but he was definitely impressed with how quick that he had steadied himself and launched a new assault.
Ezra found himself able to respond in due time. He could have connected a kick to the boy in midair, his leg easily had that amount of reach, but he figured that the appropriate response was a block. He didn’t think that trading a blow to the head for one to the chest was worth it, and definitely respected a kick with that much momentum as he blocked the kick with both of his arms, fortifying them behind each other to be able to hold the great amount of force coming from the attack.
Jett touched the ground with his left foot and used it to roll away incase the bigger man would attack, as he left his back open to the taller man. He rolled right back up to his feet and turned towards his opponent. Lifting his hands up in a defensive position, he began to look around his surroundings...he needed to gain an upper hand somehow. The guy was stronger physically and could take his hits, it didn’t help that he was tired. He should’ve just knocked the girl out. He then bolted forward and pushed off a piece of equipment to get up above the tall guy, using gravity and his own strength to deliver a powerful punch towards the face. Preparing for a block and retaliation from the bigger man.
Ezra was still prepared to defend against Jett, even if the last blow had kinda hurt his wrists. He noticed him using the piece of equipment as a springboard and immediately began to prepare for an overhead attack. He however, was not going to sit there and take shots without fighting back. He had a plan, and that was to block the attack and immediately go for a blow on the legs. He figured that this would be the best time, as he doubted that he would be able to dodge an attack immediately after landing on his calves.
As he felt the force of the punch utilizing both the momentum and his own power, he staggered back somewhat, but was able to keep his block in tact, even though it hurt a lot from blocking it with the same part of the body. He immediately performed a low kick after the attack had landed, leaving things up to his reflexes rather than thought as he hoped to get the lighter kid on the ground and leave things to a battle of grappling and strength rather than speed.
Jett grunted as the landed on the ground, he saw the sweeping kick coming and didn’t have time to really strengthen his stance to take it, so he loosened his right leg, which was closer and allowed the kick to knock it up, throwing him off balance but he used his left foot to guide his fall farther away from ‘Smalls’ and rolled to a kneeling position. He knew the guy was trying to keep him down. There was no way he could fight strength for strength, he had to be quick and on his feet.
He had to be unpredictable…. Getting in close was one of those ways of doing so, it was a high risk but he figured the guy wouldn’t expect it. He feinted being stuck in this position by grabbing his right thigh, as if it was cramping on him, his face in pain which wasn’t a feint as it was in reaction to his previous wounds stinging from sweat and dust. Hopefully the giant would not catch his bluff and move in on him. While he hid his real intention by bracing his left foot against a rock like a loaded spring. Ready to shove the guy as he got close.
Ezra felt the connection of the kick but it wasn’t as clean as he wanted it to be. He didn’t feel like he was able to do significant enough damage to force him to fight at a closer range. He did however notice the boy grimacing in pain as he held his thigh. He didn’t hit his thigh, but he must have taken the injury from a previous fight, as he did look pretty exhausted. He saw no problem in fighting an injured opponent, especially considering how insulting it would be to have somebody not fight you because of that, so he continued, buying into Jett’s plan.
Getting a running start, he hoped to get a clean kick to the body into knock the kneeling boy over. He hoped from that point, he could choke him out and knock him out to claim victory. He would hopefully at that stage be able to go and claim the point seeing as Acion was dealing with the girl.
Jett waited as long as he could, drawing the man in. As he lifted his leg to kick him, he smirked. Twisting and leaning slightly, he lifted his hands and used the palms of them to knocked the foot to the side away from him and leaving the tall man wide open and in the same motion pushed with all his might off his left leg, dropping his right shoulder to hit the mans diaphragm and stopped him in his tracks. While this didn’t knock him over, Jett used this opportunity to do a quick three combo hit, starting with his left fist into his stomach, then right. Then before his third attack he swept his left leg forward while pivoting with his right, around the tall mans left side, and hooked it behind his calf which was planted on the ground. And Struck finally with his left elbow in the middle of the man's chest. Hoping the blow would cause him to fall back, trip over his leg and fall on his back.
Ezra grimaced as the attack failed. He knew something was up, but he didn’t know that he was fainting his injury in his leg. It looked too real with his facial expression for him to be able to decipher that it was a fake. Thoughts ran through his head as the blows connected, and he coughed violently as his diaphragm and stomach were pounded into.
Damn. That hurt. It’s been quite some time since I’ve felt pain of this caliber. He thought as he fell backwards. He hadn’t exactly landed on his back, but he was on his arse at this point due to him being able to maintain some of his stability. He would have thrown up had he eaten that morning. But there wasn’t exactly much in his stomach to come out, so the only thing that came over him was pain in his stomach and chest.
Get up. You can’t lose, especially to this kid. He’s out of it completely, if you lose to this man after knocking the redhead out, then who the fuck are you? Can you really say that you’re the strongest at that point? It’s your own fucking fault for underestimating him that much.
Ezra rose back to his feet, though rather unsteadily, his emotions being extremely different to how they were at the beginning of the fight. His chilled, cool atmosphere, almost as if he wasn’t taking the fight seriously had gone completely. It had manifested into an atmosphere of anger, with a scowl growing more and more prominent on his face at this stage in time. He clearly wasn’t happy about that last attack, but the anger was more directed toward himself rather than Jett.
“That weren’t half bad from ya. Ya definitely twisted up my insides a bit there, so I’m gonna have ta end it now.” he spoke as he swept his hair to the side, out of the way of his forehead and eyes, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He had genuine ambition to beat this kid now, as this was one of the few times where he had actually felt a decent level of competition. He was glad that he had been shown his own shortcomings when he wasn’t using his quirk. It had finally shown him some of the things that he had needed to work on.
Let’s not underestimate this one again. Hmm. He seems to be faster than me, but I know that if I get one good hit on him, this fight’s gotta be over. Should I try a faint, or.. No, that can’t possibly work… Wait, I got it!
His scowl didn’t go away, but if Ezra wasn’t pissed, he would have smiled. He began to slowly walk toward Jett, his intensity so thick that it seemed to be visible in the air. He began to rear his arm back and threw quite possibly the hardest punch that he had ever done in his life, at least without his quirk.
Jett used this time to move away a few feet. He didn't want to get snagged by the man as he was on the ground and pulled into a grappling fight. As he did he let out a deep sigh and tried to catch his breath as quickly as he could. He listened to the man as he complimented him, noticing his very apparent ‘street’ accent. He could tell the guy was pissed… which to be honest, scared him a little bit. If he wasn’t pissed before and throwing himself around, now he would be dealing with a more dangerous opponent.
However, in his training sessions with his grandfather Jais, he was taught to make the opponent angry, and if they fight angry they tend to make many more mistakes. And on that same note to stay calm and use his anger against him.
He just had to keep the guy at bay long enough to find that opportune moment to give him a solid kick to the head. Taking a few breaths as he got back up and started walking to him. Yeah, definitely a different guy now as he could feel the anger as he walked towards Jett.
On the balls of his feet he lifted his fists again and readied himself when he reared his arm back, reading it was as easy as a billboard. It was fast as well Jett, didn’t think he could knock it to the side with how much force he was putting into it. He managed to move his head to the right and while it grazed (rather roughly) His face, It felt like his frikken ear was ripped off, however he managed to avoid it enough to counter attack and with his left hand, and closer arm. Shot out quick jab and a follow through punch with his right.
Ezra felt like laughing, but he didn’t, The worst thing that you could possibly do in a fight is laugh before it was over and embarrass yourself getting knocked out. But his plan had came to fruition, and even went better than he expected. It wasn’t just an outright dodge, he had managed to get his hand behind him without him expecting anything. He was willing to take the two blows to his face.
Whilst they had hurt a lot more than he had wanted them to, they were a small price to pay for what was about to happen to Jett. He had managed to grab his entire frame, around the top of his arms, to the point where he couldn’t exactly move them much anymore and he had fully grappled him.
“Gotcha you sly little fucker.” was all Ezra felt was necessary before cocking his head back and headbutting Jett with all the force that he could. It definitely hurt him too, but he was fairly sure that this was going to do enough damage for him to end the fight in the next attack.
Jett cursed as he realized he just walked into this. He was going for a headbutt, that was clear as he wrapped his arms around him. He couldn’t go out with this! A Freaking headbutt!!??! No He won’t let it end like this. Reina was depending on him, so was Lysander, Fumika, Kauske… Didn’t this giant come from that direction? He tried to brace himself as much as he could, with what little time, if at all for it.
CRACK!!!!!
That sound of the giants head smashing into his own seemed to echo in Jetts mind. His head snapped back from the blow. He went limp in the man’s hold as stars exploded in Jett’s vision. The world was spinning and all he could do was close his eyes. He wasn’t knocked out yet… but oh… oh did that hurt. His body screamed at him in pain, as all of it began to flood over him. It would be so nice to just black out. But… if this guy came from B...or A.. that means he could have defeated his team. They might not win this…. But. He is going to make sure he puts this asshole down...even if he goes down with him!He mumbled...something, his head rolling to the side.
“I’m not done yet!” Jett would growl, forcing his mind to focus as his eyes popped open with a vicious glare suddenly jabbing both of his hands into each side of the man's hips, using the sudden force and shock to move his own hips back enough to break free, But he didn’t run away, He stepped back in, wrapping his right arm around the man's back throwing his hip to into him to pop the giant up,using the momentum and leverage his lower center of gravity gave him. He roared as he used all of his strength to lift the guy and slammed him face first into the ground with a hip throw. He was so weak he followed suit and slammed into the ground with him, his head hitting hard once again against the ground, another loud audible crack could be heard. His vision began to blur horribly while he could feel every heartbeat in his head. “Take…. That…” He grunted in pain, trying to get up, but didn’t even have the strength to move a centimeter off the ground. He began to feel sick...but he still managed to finish what he wanted to say. “... you filthy animal…” He chuckled extremely weakly before passing out his vision went dark, blood pouring out of his latest wound.
Ezra was dizzy. Extremely dizzy, to the point where he couldn’t even think. The headbutt, followed with the throw into the ground had done it in with him, and his head felt as if he was going to throw up, but yet again, his empty stomach prevailed. He never thought he’d be glad that he hadn’t eaten anything, but he figured that his job was done. The fight had effectively come to a draw, as even if he was still ‘conscious’ he couldn’t bring himself to move. He was too tired, completely out of energy, and his head felt like it was exploding.
“I’ll beat ya ass when I got food in me.. Next time it won’t end like this kid.” he spoke faintly as he laid on his back and tried not to fade to black. Blood dripped down his face from his forehead and nose as he passed out.
There was a feather that zipped pass his wings. It would have hit if Acion did not move to the right to dodge it. But it seemed that he had gotten some sort of grasp in her ability. The unusual movements of all the feathers when it got near her was the key to his speculation. It pretty much screamed to the winged boy that she can control gravity, as shown by the fact that she did not control his feathers, but also the dirt and rocks around her. Direct telekinesis may not be the case, since if she was capable of that, she would have deflected those feathers back at him, or maybe returning him with a hailstorm of rocks and so. Much better than throwing one at a time. That, or simply she was too weak for that now. She did get injured after all.
But if his speculation was correct, then
’It makes it very difficult to approach her…’
Indeed, since she can pull him down or blast him away whenever she wanted. Through his observation, it appeared that she was able to adjust that quirk manually, but by what method was unknown.
In conclusion, basic attacks won’t work.
It had to be something more complex, and require more concentration and coordination.
’Think…’
His ascend from twenty five meters to thirty only lasted no more than two seconds, combining with his feather storm, that makes it around three at best. She could react properly within that time range, then Acion had to be even faster.
But he had his limits too.
Acion was fast, but not as fast as lightning that can cut through the sound barrier or so. He just wasn’t fast enough.
Then...was it impossible?
Was it?
’No…Acion’
He shook the thoughts immediately. His father’s wise words returned to him.
’If you believe something is impossible, then it really is impossible. That is when you have given up on it. There is nothing impossible for he who will try.’
The words that rescued him from being engulfed in pessimism. Those golden words uttered by not only by his father, but also by those divine that were guiding him to his fate.
”Thank you father…” Acion mumbled.
He had renewed his confidence.
But the question still remained: Would he be able to go faster than her reaction?
Then, when he decided to think outside of the box, he had quite the answer. It was then that he decided to strike.
He began his usual dive, but this time launching feathers at a considerably lower altitude: ten meters above the ground.
’Come on, pull me down…’ He thought.
Reina sprinted hard, reaching the truck just as she saw Acion begin to dive at her. More feathers? Or this time, would he try and get in closer? As he kept approaching, her mind raced through various possibilities. If he stayed his course, she could pull him down, get him into the area where her quirk is most effective. But did she even want him close? There was little doubt in her mind that he was more proficient in a close-quarters fight than she was.
The girl’s eyes glanced forward to the damaged truck she had just reached, locking on the passenger door that had been left open.
The boy must’ve figured out the gist of her quirk by now—it wasn’t a very subtle one. He had to have known that coming closer to her would allow her quirk to affect him more. Her gaze shifted back over her shoulder, Acion as close to the ground as he had been since the beginning of their fight; his pose gave away that he was a split second away from launching more of his feathers. It felt like he was daring her to bring him down—but she’d have to repel the feathers first, before switching to pulling. That would give him too much time to react properly.
Reina made her decision, not having much time to think about how stupid it may be. It was time for some more on-the-fly quirk experimentation. She might be able to get close to him on her own terms.
The girl slipped behind the truck’s door, almost as if she was going to use it for cover, but instead immediately pushed her surroundings, as hard as she had ever tried. She grit her teeth, fighting back a whimper from the effort as noise suddenly surrounded her. Glass from the truck’s shattered windshield was sent flying away, and the truck itself slid a half dozen feet. The door she was behind slammed open, breaking off of its hinges and coming free, clattering to the dirt. She killed the push as quickly as she had started it.
The feather hailstorm was once again pushed away, but she didn’t take his bait. Either she realized his intentions, or she wasn’t trying to do so was unclear to him. But Acion noticed that she was breaking the door of the truck.
‘Now this is interesting.’
She was going to use it for cover. Reasonable, since the feather hailstorm was pretty hardcore if there were nothing to cover herself with. That could also be a problem for him. He couldn’t really adjust the throwing force of his wing muscle. If he threw it too forcefully, it might cut clean through that door and into her, causing severe injury. If that happens, who knows what might happen to her fate, and his at this school. Nobody would want to die or be expelled on the first day.
So despite having a chance to launch another feather wave, Acion decided to halt, and tried to climb up to the usual altitude.
Not a moment after Reina had stopped pushing, she began to instead pull, sliding the door directly to her feet. Her heart pounded as she stepped on top of it, knowing she was doing something crazy, and grateful, in a sense, that her adrenaline kept her from dwelling on the potential consequences too much.
Meeting Acion in the air would be the last thing he expected. This wasn’t something she had ever tried but... if she pulled with an object directly beneath her, would she not be pushed up into the air as long as she kept pulling? She’d be surfing on a door in the air. Balancing would be an issue, but it was too late to not at least try now.
The girl pulled... and nothing happened except for a few smaller rocks peppering her side and abdomen.
Her mind raced as she glanced over her shoulder at Acion, who had just begun to move upwards. No, no, if he got to high she’d lose her chance! So this idea didn’t work. But why didn’t it?
Why? She didn’t even know the rules that governed her own quirk. She spared another frustrated glance at one of her orbs while her thoughts ran.
Her gaze shifted to the roof of the truck in front of her, and she immediately climbed up to it from the hood of the car, another idea clicking into place. She remembered the many times she’d lost focus on her quirk and had pulled something that hit her, causing her to flinch in pain. Those objects moved her, however slightly. It was momentum that was needed.
And if the object was the size and weight of the truck door...
Reina climbed to her feet on the roof, looking between Acion—who was still gaining height—and the door on the ground. No time to hesitate. If this failed, she’d look like an idiot—which would be deserved—and if it didn’t... well, it’d hurt, but that’s what she had to hope for.
She wouldn’t allow herself to be a burden on her team. She would not be worse than worthless.
The girl leaped off the truck, gaining as much air as she could as she shifted her quirk to pull massively again, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, and angled herself so that she wouldn’t be hit directly in the back.
The door ran through her left side, earning a sharp yell of pain from the girl’s already tearing voice as fresh bruises flared up in renewed pain and her left arm went numb.
But it worked.
Grinding her teeth against the pain, Reina let her quirk’s pull weaken considerably, causing the truck door to peel off her side and allowing her to spin herself around and grab it with her right hand. She shifted her focus to Acion, approaching him quickly as she soared. With another cry, she turned her pull all the way back up to help bring him closer, and used her momentum to swing the door in a large arc at the winged boy’s side.
Shortly after gaining height, Acion suddenly sensed something coming for him, heard something. Something…
“ARGH!!”
What?!
He couldn’t even reacted in time.
Looking right over his shoulder, his face was filled with agony of surprise as a very familiar face was right in front of him. The face that only a second ago was on the ground. And the door that slammed painfully into his ribs.
’How did she…’
She dared to engage him in an air combat? Even if she didn’t have the advantage?
The momentum of the attack flung the winged boy a few meters away, sending him halfway falling. But fortunately, his senses still remained, and he registered his current position. Gritting his teeth in immediate pain caused by the sudden attack on his ribs, he turned himself slightly, leveling his wings, so that his body was facing upwards. This momentum was to prevent himself from descending too quickly, as the wings at horizontal level increased the air friction, thus giving him more time to focus. Giving him more time to reflect on Reina’s daring move to injure the winged boy right at his most advantageous position
’Her innovation is creative...Very well!’
Let’s see if her quirk’s innovation could keep up with a natural-born one.
That sudden, he did a sharp C turn, facing downwards while performing a single barrel roll, like a fighter plane’s maneuver, heading straight back for Reina’s position. His head span for a second, experiencing a pretty nasty G force when doing so, but after he leveled himself and prepared for a close quarter attack on his opponent, his visions cleared again, as he ripped off one of his feathers off one of his wings and held it tightly in his right hand.
Reina’s stomach dropped as she felt like she was floating, reaching the apex of her flight. Despite the very imminent danger of falling, she didn’t want to leave Acion be yet—she wouldn’t get another opportunity like this, both because the boy knew this was something she could do now, and because she was reaching her mental and physical limits. She couldn’t fail her team.
Seeing that Acion was preparing to retaliate, she shifted her quirk to pull as strongly as she could manage—weaker now due to exhaustion, but it was still enough. She let go of the door in front of her, planting her right foot on one of its edges and shoving it forward with a straight kick to run it into Acion’s gut as he was brought closer.
Acion was charging straight at her at a speed of a golden eagle at two third of his maximum speed, his feather acted as a knife raised preparing to strike. But as he got closer, Reina suddenly shoved the door she was previously holding in front of the winged boy.
”HNNGG!!”
Yet another surprise, but this time he was not as baffled as the last time, as he had less than a second to dodge it. But if he failed to take advantage of it, who knows what would happen to him afterwards. He would have to rely entirely on his instinct and reflex to get out of this one
Acion swiftly rotated around his longitudinal axis, sixty degrees sharp, counter-clockwise. The door barely missed the winged boy, but one corner, one sharp corner, of it slashed into his right leg, tearing open his jumpsuit and cutting his thigh here and there. Struggling to hold all the pain he suffered within him, the grip on the feather tightened even further. And then, he managed to slash Reina on her right arm, slightly below her shoulder.
But even if he managed to land a hit on her, he couldn’t maintain his attack vector any longer, realizing how expendable his strength and mental stability were after all that maneuvers, so he disengaged and flew upwards. Maybe after a few moments of lull in the fighting, he would be able to continue the engagement. Or maybe, continue his plan…
The girl winced at the sharp sting of the cut. Her left arm was still numb at her side, useless for the time being, so she’d just have to deal with it. Besides, the sting was almost welcome amongst the dozens of welts she had. A different kind of pain.
Acion backed off, and Reina knew that that was all she was getting out of her move. Now she was falling. She finally began to feel the fear that had been hidden away. Another idea to try for the first time, only the consequence for failure this time...
She pulled with her quirk quickly, bringing the door back to her outstretched right hand before it drifted too far away. Moving the door to be directly below her as she fell, she switched her quirk to push, sending it to the ground far ahead of her and keeping it there, body shaking from the effort of maintaining the push.
The same way she had launched herself in the air, she’d try to break the speed of her fall. With her heart pounding in her ears she turned her back to the door and protected her head with her working arm as she approached the ground, finally pulling as hard as she could in her state. A half-second later, she felt the wind being knocked out of her as her body suddenly slowed from the impact with the door. Another breathless moment passed, and she came to a hard, complete stop as she hit the ground, head swimming.
The girl found herself face first in the dirt, having rolled off the door, fighting the panic she was experiencing from being unable to breathe. She tasted blood, evidently having bitten her tongue.
That was it. She was done. Her entire body was on fire. There was no way she’d be able to continue. She had failed.
Yet she realized she was fighting to bring herself up to her knees.
Why...
Her mind told her to stay down, but she couldn’t. It was simply something she was incapable of.
Undeserving. Worthless. Burden. The girl noticed both Jett and Ezra on the ground, their fight having concluded.
Of course she couldn’t stay down. She had to give everything she had for the other students. Not only for her team that she did not want to bring down, but also Acion, who deserved a fight far better than she could provide. Even if she came up short, that was all the more reason to keep going until she could no longer move. Do everything she could to lessen the burden she was. That was all she could do.
Reina was shakily on her feet now, vision blurry. She glanced up to Acion. It was hard to think. What could she do? Try to knock him out? Maybe. The door. It had worked well so far.
She pulled lightly with her quirk, even that effort painful, bringing the door to her right foot and then back up into her right hand.
She glared at Acion, waiting for him to move—mostly because she needed a second to catch her breath after being so violently winded.
Acion reached the usual altitude again. This time, without any surprise attack at his blind spot or anything. As his adrenaline subsided, he eventually felt the earth-splitting pain on his ribs and his thigh. All that feeling, was rushing towards his brain in just a matter of a nanosecond.
His vision blurred, as the shock from the sudden rush of pain numbed his senses for a brief second. But as it cleared, he saw the purple haired girl still standing, and, although he could not figure it out for sure, she was glaring at him, as if welcoming a challenge from him. Even if she was battered, exhausted, visibly seen breathing heavily in fatigue.
’Most entertaining...most entertaining!’ He thought.
This is probably one of the most stubborn adversaries he had ever faced, if not the most. To the point that even if he did not want to admit it, she might be able to defeat him in a fair fight if she hadn’t been injured from the previous chaos involving the crane and Mamoru’s reckless actions.
Whatever the result would be, he was pretty satisfied. That determination, that daring, that will to fight until the last. The trait of a true hero. He was satisfied, not only for such a fight, but for how he had met such a person after all the weaklings he had encountered before. And having faced such hearts directly, he would not hesitate to return her his.
”You have shown your resolution, then I will show you mine.”
It was time to end this fight.
He dived again, to the previous altitude of slightly above ten meters and launched his feathers, a feigned action in order to lure her into using her quirk to pull him down. Acion even made it more tempting for her to pull him by not pulling off the usual maneuver, but instead stopped in his track, turned around his lateral axis and tried to fly back up the same way he used to dive to her.
Get him close, take him out. That was as deeply as Reina could plan now. There wasn’t anything else she could do.
Seeing Acion approaching her, she began pulling once again with her quirk to keep him from leaving, face grimacing from the pain. Like an exhausted muscle, using her quirk took a tremendous amount of effort, as if it did not want to listen to her commands, only rest. Not yet.
Everything... you have!...
Only small debris hit and stuck to her, her current surroundings relatively clear, though at this point she hardly cared about any sort of extra pain.
As he had expected, a powerful gravitational force began to pull him from below, stopping him from gaining any altitude. She had taken the bait.
But this was not enough to catch her off-guard.
’Come on! More!’
Acion flapped his wings harder and harder, trying to resist her pull, trying to break free from the pull. Until his back muscles beginning to strain, more and more. And yet he continued.
’Just a little bit more!’ He pleaded inside his head as he felt the force getting even stronger.
It hurt. Using this quirk that was far too good for her hurt. Get down here already. Get down. Get down!
The girl began to sink, as if she were about to fall to her knees, but she stayed up, only pushing her quirk further beyond its limit—her limit, that she imposed upon it due to her own weakness.
”Come down!” she finally yelled out with a cracked voice, hardly aware of herself anymore. Her body turned so that her left side was towards Acion, the door gripped tightly in her right hand being raised an inch off the ground.
Acion could barely register her words when being pulled so forcefully, but judging by the tone, she was pulling with all her might now. And Acion knew he was unable to resist anymore, as his wings getting more and more uncooperative. His muscles began to tire, stretched to the point of pain and swelling. He knew that this was his signal
It is time.
This would be the most complex maneuver he would be executing.
One mistake and he’s done for.
He took a few seconds in the air, getting his mind straight and clear, because the G force might screw his senses pretty badly. He wouldn’t want that to happen during the attack. He might receive pretty nasty injuries afterwards. But if this was to end the fight at once, it was worth the shot.
”I win…” He mumbled under his breathe, to the point that even he himself couldn’t hear it.
Then, he suddenly and instantly turned around his lateral axis, his legs shooting upwards while his back leaned backwards, his wings spread. His body position was now perpendicular to Reina’s pulling vector, his back facing her. The position helped him negate all the upward momentum he had created, and thus, enabling him to be pulled towards her.
But his technique did not stop there.
After the first move, he continued his rotation. His shoulders and head was facing towards her now, just like when he was launching his feathers at her. This, thus, revealed his true intention of the previous move.
His wings then flapped with all his remaining might, propelling him forward, or in his case, towards Reina. The acceleration, combining with the powerful pull that she projected, resulting in a massive throttle and velocity. He would then use this advantage, and the element of surprise, to take her down here and now, ending this fight once and for all.
Acion’s feather, which was clinched tightly in his hand, suddenly got loose, as he let go of the feather. He had no intention to stab this into her, as it would result in lethal injuries. After letting go of the feathers, his palm clenched tightly again into a fist, intending to hit straight onto her stomach. This momentum hopefully, no will, knock her out instantly if it hits.
Reina watched, only reacting instinctively now that her thoughts were too muddled to tell her anything. He came towards her. Finally. Quickly. Using her own quirk for more speed. Fine. The door would him that much harder for it.
She had already begun a large swing, bringing it over her head, pain flaring throughout her body in protest. Acion was on her now. Self-preservation kicked in, and she switched her pull to a huge push, one last time as she brought the door down onto the boy.
Before she could follow-through much, the feather Acion had let go stabbed itself just below her right collarbone, followed instantly by the boy’s fist running through her gut. Her vision blurred and darkened as a fresh wave of pain shocked her body, the wind knocked out of her for the second time in as many minutes.
The girl fought to keep herself conscious as her body was thrown back a dozen feet, skidding to a stop on her right side, doubled over on the ground. She coughed and wheezed, trying desperately to find her breath, spitting out blood that pooled in her mouth from her bit tongue.
Not yet... not yet...
She writhed on the ground, trying to force her body to stand. It simply wouldn’t listen. Was she even feeling pain anymore? She wasn’t sure. She was terribly uncomfortable, at the very least.
Her cheek hit the dirt as she lost the last strength in her neck. Blank eyes watched Acion as he struggled to stand, shaken but still awake. And she still couldn’t move.
Stand up! Stand!...
She couldn’t. So that was it, then. If she could have knock Acion out with her last hit, her team would be in control of C. But she had truly failed.
Fucking worthless. She couldn’t even manage her self-loathing smirk. The girl could only lay there as her body forced her to do, gazing at Acion with distant eyes while slowly finding her breath.
Of course this was always going to end in her failure. She knew that from the beginning. When had she started to hope and expect otherwise?
Stupid.
She’d have to remember to apologize to her team.
It worked.
‘It actually worked.’
Right after that thought crossed his mind, another blow could be felt on his back and his wings. And then, on his face.
After dealing his payload onto Reina, he was met with a blow to his back by the door that she was holding. That caused his vector to shift, and the angle of impact with the ground was slightly reduced, to around 20 degrees. Although this slightly hampered the force of impact, Newton’s Third Law of physics still ensured that his face would still be marked with dirt and sand as they came in contact with each other.
”Aaaaarrrrrggghhh!!!!”
It hurts. Really really hurts.
Since the angle of impact was too low, the friction wasn’t enough to swing his leg upwards to do a flip. It would probably be more painful at the beginning, but it would end sooner than this, as his shoulder and a part of his cheeks were being dragged in the sand. But luckily, his body suddenly jerked slightly to the left, his face thankfully lifted from the dirty ground, as now his left side of the torso was taking the friction for him. Several part of his left side were covered by his left wings, thus further decreasing the damage. It was far better to be damaged in the wings instead of other places.
He was dragged in the sand for around five meters, finally stopping when friction overwhelmed momentum. And yet, it costed him a few minutes to get up.
Acion tried to stood up straight, but the thoughts were immediately thwarted by the rib injury he sustained during her surprise attack. He couldn’t even stand up right, as the blood streaming from his thigh disabled any initial intention to do so. Apparently, it did not hit his main blood vein, so it shouldn’t be anything too serious, but it still hurts. A lot.
He clinched his rib tightly, trying to stand and walk his own battered body towards his opponent, towards Reina, the feeling of pain surging to his brain . In the few minutes Acion was lying motionlessly and trying to stand up, she was still on the ground. She could not possibly be dead after this. Unconsciousness was probably the worst case scenarios, since he was intending to hit her in a soft spot. And he was ninety nine percent sure that she would be out cold after that. With all that momentum, there’s no way she could…
’She’s still maintaining consciousness?’
That’s impossible.
Acion did remember that she had emitted a gravitational push just before he struck her, but even after the addings and subtracting, how was it possible? For her eyes to open like that.
”For Achilles’s sake, you truly are stubborn. And courageous.”
Still lying in a half fetal position, cheek to the ground, Reina’s eyes had stopped tracking the boy at some point. They glanced back up to him when he addressed her.
Huh. Well, she’d take the compliment—at least the first, if it could be considered as such—however little good those traits Acion saw in her did her during the training.
”...Thanks,” she managed through ragged breaths. The desire to return the compliment was killed by how uncomfortable it was to speak right now. She settled on a vague “You too.” The thought was there.
Acion looked around. The battle was over. Both for him, Reina, Ezra and Jett. Glancing at the two motionless bodies lying not far from there, he figured much that the two of them had gone out cold. The normal Acion would usually head there to carry them to the ground’s exit, but he basically did not have the strength anymore. He’d noticed that the building at B was also down, but he wouldn’t be able to go and help those who might be stuck there. He couldn’t help it.
The winged boy sat down next to his fallen opponent, his breathings also heavy from all that he just pulled off. His teammate had taken an Alpha along with him, while Reina was pretty much immobilized. Acion was the only participating member to be able to remain on his feet, no one else appeared to be there.
Did this mean he had won? He had taken control of C?
If that was the case, this victory was hard earned. Never once before did he have to strain himself that much. Not because his opponents were weak. Some were rather opposite, but mentally weak. But this girl, however, was different. She was brutally determined, her resolution was iron. Although he did not want to admit this, but he couldn’t help saying it out loud, with all the honesty he could muster.
”You really are a worthy opponent. It is a pity that you were injured before the fight. If not, the result might have been different.”
Reina gave something of a snort in response, though it was so weak it was hard to tell.
”Thanks...” she said again quietly, eyes moving to look at the her right hand. She had used her quirk so much she had nearly entirely become a grey monotone, both in skin and clothing. Colour was already slowly returning to her, but it still gave her pause. The side-effect of her quirk had never been so noticeable.
Her thoughts drifted a bit to how nice it felt to not be exerting any sort of control over her quirk in the slightest, allowing to be in it’s default state of slightly pulling. It was almost like she was finally able to breathe for the first time since the training had started.
By this time they would see a Jeep speeding it’s way over to Jett and Ezra not too far from them. A tall man with long grey hair jumped out of the vehicle along with two other men and ran over to the two downed students.
Well, that was probably it.
It wasn’t L Guardian, but it was for certain that they were here to pick up the incapacitated, for sure. Acion was also offered a chance to leave the battlefield on the jeep to the infirmary, but he refused, raising one of his hands in protest. The teacher has yet to call off the fight. And if it hadn’t been called off, he wouldn’t be leaving. He’s the only Delta holding this point. What if somebody overtook it if he left?
As they left along with the three in tow, Acion kept eyeing at them until it finally disappeared from his sight
”At first glance I thought you were like so many others, a fragile shell. I guess I was wrong.”
Acion mumbled to nobody in particular, nor he intended to utter those words anyway. If he had asked himself, he wouldn’t understand why he said it either, for it was a natural thought, words spoken not by his mind, but his nature.
”And now that I’ve met you…” He clenched his fist tightly. ”I will not let you surpass me.”
