--- [Lucas’s perspective]
“Go get them already! I can’t keep this up for long; my concentration could break any second!” – June
“Right!” – Samantha
Her arm shoots right towards my face at an insane speed; it’s so much faster than before!
I roll my head to the side, and her fist slips right off.
Her arm continues to stretch for dozens of meters before it finally snaps back at explosive speeds.
When her arm snapped back before, it was already too fast for me to catch…
But now…?!
I couldn’t even see it; it just happened.
The shockwave from the snapback was deafeningly loud, and I could feel the gust it created just as well.
If she could somehow aim her attack in such a way to hit us with the return stroke, she’d knock us out cold with a single attack.
I need to be mindful of that.
At the same time as she attacked me, Tiffany launched herself at Isaac.
She doesn’t try to use her enhanced strength to beat him up, but rather takes advantage of how fast she is to more easily use her ability on him.
After all, why go through the effort of landing big hits when just touching someone is enough to take them out?
Just a slight touch is enough to make him so dizzy he can’t fight properly for a few seconds; if she could get a hold of him, it’d be over…
He clearly struggles to dodge her attacks, but he’s just barely holding on.
Samantha throws another punch, but just like all her other attacks, it slips right off me.
She grumbles to herself; clearly annoyed that she can’t get a hit in.
“This guy… His specialty is so infuriating…” – Samantha
I take advantage of her miss and get a good hit on her.
She flinches, but ultimately, she’s fine.
“Huh… Your specialty is pretty neat, June. I’m so much tougher than before.” – Samantha
“I know! Now finish them already!” – June
She’s the one making them so strong…
Should I try to get past them, and take her out first?
No…
They’ll never let me.
They’re too fast for that.
“Uhm, are you guys sure you don’t want me to help?” – Jacob
“Yes! We still don’t know what that other guy’s ability is. If it’s something that could let him get past us, he’ll take the flag and run.” – June
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“Oh, ok…” – Jacob
Luckily for us, none of our specialties let us do that.
They’re one fighter down for no reason.
Isaac hops back, temporarily halting Tiffany’s assault.
He takes a deep breath, like he’s preparing himself for something…
Suddenly, the fingers on his left hand twist and bend in every direction.
To say they’re broken is an understatement…
“What the hell?” – Tiffany
With his other fist clutched, he calmly walks up to her.
She can instinctively tell that something is different about him, and doesn’t want to engage.
“What are you doing?! Don’t back off, my ability could break at any moment. If that happens, we’re screwed!” – June
“B-but…” – Tiffany
“No ‘buts’! Get him!” – June
She launches herself at him, doing everything in her power to touch him.
She manages to grab his broken fingers, but before her ability can properly kick in, he bashes her in the face with all his might.
Despite the massive boost from June’s ability, she’s knocked out cold in a single hit.
“Shit…!” – June
So that’s what he meant by being able to ‘sacrifice things’…
I guess he can sacrifice parts of his own body to give himself a power boost.
Seems very strong, but also risky…
“Good work, Issac. You can step back; I’ll finish off the other one.” – Lucas
“All right.” – Isaac
I quickly close the distance, slipping away from all her attacks at the same time.
A punch to the face, and another to the ribs.
I can tell she’s in pain, but neither attack injure her.
Just like before, I yet again try to hit her in the face.
The difference, however, is that now she understands that my attacks won’t hurt her.
Instead of trying to block, or dodge, she decides to go all in on offense.
She wants to tank the hit in hopes of finally landing an attack of her own.
Her plan fails horribly…
The moment my fist clashes with her skull, she’s propelled backwards.
Her brain bounced around in her head so much she passed out before she was even aware she was hit.
If a healer doesn’t tend to her soon, she might die…
Shit…
I didn’t intend to hit her that hard…
My specialty is strong, but also unpredictable.
Every now and then, my attacks will ‘critically hit’.
It can’t be controlled; it’s completely random.
Sometimes my attacks are exponentially stronger than normal, and I have no way of knowing if it will happen or not until it lands.
“You two. Drop out from the exam and take your teammates back to the healers.” – Lucas
“Never!” – June
She turns around and uses her specialty on the only remaining teammate here.
The light shoots toward him, and he starts glowing.
“Get them, Jaco-” – June
And before either of them gets to do anything, Isaac swiftly knocks her out with a chop to the back of the neck.
“Do what he said.” – Isaac
“Y-yes, sir!” – Jacob
He picks up all three of them and runs back to camp.
“Well then… Time to head back to base.” – Lucas
He grabs the flag, and we quickly make our way back.
…
…
“What the hell happened here?!” – Lucas
All three of our teammates are knocked out, and our flag is gone…
“Same thing that happened to them, I suppose…” – Isaac
“But there was only one person left on their team… How could one guy do all that?” – Lucas
“…” – Isaac
“What now? Should one of us stay behind with the flag, or…?” – Lucas
“No… If he could take out three people at once by himself, he’s too strong for either of us to take on alone. Let’s take the flag with us and fight him together.” – Isaac
“Alright. He’s nowhere to be seen here, so there’s only one place he could be…” – Lucas
“At their base…” – Isaac
“Exactly. We probably finished our fights at roughly the same time, meaning we both arrived at our respective bases only to find our flags missing.” – Lucas
We yet again cross the forest, and return to their base.
There he is…
He’s just sitting there, fidgeting with our flag.
He spots us, and gives us a smile while waving at us.
There’s no point in trying to sneak up on him anymore, he has already seen us.
As we approach him, he starts talking to us.
“I had a feeling you’d be back soon. By the way, what happened to my teammates? Where are they?” – ???
“We had one of them carry the other three back to camp. They dropped out so they could be healed.” – Isaac
“Ah, I see. Hope I don’t need a team for next round then… Anyways, you guys must be pretty strong if you could take all of them on by yourselves!” – ???
“You’re the impressive one here… We did it as a team, you did it by yourself.” – Lucas
“Ah, but that’s not surprising… I’m me after all!” – ???
This guy…
I don’t know if it’s pride or narcissism or cockiness, but whatever it is, he can probably back it up…
He already took on three people by himself…
“Oh! How rude of me, I forgot to tell you my name! I’m Ace. I look forward to fighting you guys!” – Ace