Mason looked around briefly and, seeing no one else standing to volunteer, said, "Er.... I will." Damn it, if Nessie can do it, so can I. He made his way to the cage and locked gazes with Z, the man who was responsible for imprisoning him here; then he walked into the cage.

Removed

[b] Z took on his gaze, he smiled loving how miserable the boy must feel. Wondering if this is the boy who will die first since his mental ability was agonizingly weak. "You've heard the speech." He said crossing his arms after locking the gate. He stepped back. "Release it." He yelled again, the metal cage rose...

Mason swallowed as the gate opened, his momentary surge of bravado was gone. The fear was back, enveloping everything. He started to sweat. The creature that crawled out of the gate was terrifying, just like it's predecessor. Mason forced himself to remember his plan, use Tianqi's teaching to blow it back, then torch it. Simple enough.... right?

All that fled from his mind as the creature pounced. Mason barely dodged out of the way in time. Suddenly, he noticed the excruciating pain in his right arm. Breathing is essential to Lucen. Right, breathe and push He extended his right hand and the creature slipped back a little bit. Damn, I need more power. Screw Lucen, use Viper.

The creature pounced again. This time he was more ready for it. What he wasn't ready for was the pain as he rolled over his his arm with the gash in it. There was nothing left, he screamed and pushed. He could practically feel the air moving away from him and slamming into the creature. This time, Mason barely conscious, from the stress and injury,willed a stream of fire to extend from his forehead to the creature; lighting the creature on fire. It was satisfying to see it burn. He slipped away into unconsciousness.

Austin nodded slightly, then stepped forward, watching the combat. He was prepared to go, and was waiting for the current fighter to leave. The current fighter had just passed out on the floor, the beast in flames. His lips pressed into a thin line, his arms folded over his chest as he waited for it to continue. When he was removed he said," I'll go. And yes, I did hear what you said."

"Mason!" Nessie cried, mason had been the first person who had talked to her without seemingly judging her. He was her friend. She went over to him, she glared at Z, and wished she could heal him, wished she knew how but she hadn't found out how to do that yet. " She didn't care about her own wounds, she wasn't like to pass out from them, but she wanted to help her friend

Caroline kneeled by Nessie, opening one of her canteens. "Stand back," She said quietly, focusing on the water. As she moved the water towards Mason's arm, it started pooling around his wound. "This will take some time, Nessie, be patient." As she focused on healing Mason's gash, Alex stepped between her and Z, as if daring him to try to stop her.

Nessie rose, and stepped up by Alex, refusing to let Mason continue on with Pain, she kept her face blank so she wasn't showing any fear, and spared a quick glance at Caroline working in Mason, before looking back. She wasn't going to let any of her friends suffer.

"My 'precious little princess' can handle herself better than you realize. But I should probably make something clear." Without changing his position or his voice, he seemed to suddenly loom over Z. "If you do anything out of the ordinary with her test, a broken nose is going to be the least of your problems."

"Nyx will be fine" Nessie said without her stutter, "I was. Mason was, despite going unconscious" she said this to Alex, now ignoring Z, before turning to Nyx, and giving her a smile "ignore Him. I suspect he has a bit of an...ego problem"

What was she doing? What had ever possessed her to act like this? She didn't know, but she didn't look away, and hoped to go the girl wasn't about to start crying

Ryan watched as the first few people had gone up and passed with flying colors for the most part. The only exception was Mason, who had passed, but came out with injuries. There was no point in delaying it any further, so he walked into the cage, prepared for the test at hand. "I'm ready. Release those things, and we can get this over with."

"Pow. I like your attitude tough guy." He winked at the new competitor and opened the cage allowing him to get inside. "Break a few bones, lose some blood but most of all." He leaned in as he locked the cage. "Have fun." He whispered before stepping back from the cage. "Release it." He said again, glancing over at Nyx. "Looks like you're the last one sweet heart." He winked down at Nyx.

Nyx felt her stomach turning over and over again, that thing was like nothing to these guys yet she could only imagine how much damage that could do to her frail body. She began to panic, she didn't even know anything strong enough to stop it, or how she was going to fathom killing the thing. No it regenerates, it doesn't die. That thought made her feel better she watched the last fight intently, trying to focus on not throwing up her guts. Nyx jumped a bit to hear a voice, but the smile on the person's face made her instantly smile back, yet her lips wouldn't move for her to speak. She simply nodded and kept smiling.

(Removed)

Ryan watched as the mutated dog-thing paced around in a circle. He stopped breathing for a moment, and his heartbeat began to slow down significantly. The beast looked at him in confusion. It must have been confused over the low heart rate.

But alas, it did not ponder on the subject, the and monstrosity ran at full stride, intending to crush him most likely. So much for tactics. Ryan still didn't make a move. It was better that way. He had more time to think. The beast was almost on top of him....

But it never touched the ground. Ryan focused the wind into the palm of his hand, and he delivered an uppercut combined with his Lucen powers. The beast flew up into the air, and Ryan leaped up to it. While dazed, the beast was still able to make a few swipes at his arms, cutting them. The cuts were not deep, but they weren't measly paper cuts either. Ignoring his wounds, he grabbed it's neck, and began to force it into the ground....

Where Ryan had created a stalagmite. The beast became impaled on it as he landed. For a moment, the animal had stopped moving..

Ryan walked up to the beast, thinking it had died. He began to take out and light a cigarette in order to calm him down.

Wrong. As Ryan came near it, the beast swiped at him. It screamed as it tried to regenerate the lost tissue... but was prevented from doing so because the stalagmite did not allow the formation of new tissue. It roared and moved it's legs in a feeble attempt to kill Ryan.

"Oy. Doesn't Z train you? Sit boy, I can't smoke with all this noise and disruption."

The dog continued to clamor around, seemingly ignoring his comment.

"Down, BOY."

Ryan then smashed the beast's skull in with the bottom of his boot. The beast then stopped completely. This time, it did not get up... but it's head was already growing back. he sighed, knowing it would be back up in a few minutes.

Ryan left the cage and continued smoking. He needed to calm his nerves down anyway...

Nessie was relieved that she didn't end up crying, and let out a slow breath. Maybe things would be different. She thought in what advice she could offer, but had nothing she could give. "Y-you just h-have to b-be f-faster than it" she said, "d-d-don't worry. It will b-be okay" she cursed silently the nervousness that caused her to stutter. "I h-h-had no idea w-what I was g-going to do, b-b-but I d-did okay"