It had been a few days since Rin’s appointment as leader and his first act was to summon everyone to a meeting; barely anyone wanted to go so he had the tutors arrange it so it could take place during the time they would be in university.

This palaver was just to facilitate Jude’s assessment. Rin clapped “Alright you lot. I know you guys don’t really wanna be here right now. Though this is for the sake of our grades so listen up Jude has something to say.” Rin slap Jude on the back pushing him forward.

Stood in front of forty-six eyes all staring at him was daunting for him. He took a long deep breath in. “Hey everyone. I just came up with an idea. Since the tournament is probably going to rely on teamwork since it is for the league which itself is for teamwork. I split everyone into three groups based on Alterations. We have close quarters, ranged and support. I want everyone to split into these three groups and get in teams of three and do some practice bouts against another team.”

The room was in silent discontent. There were a few smiles mainly from his friends.

“So, carrying on. If I could get you guys to stand in groups, I’ll read out who I’ve put in each. Please remember this based on Alteration alone.

Close Quarters are Alice, Amelia, Damian, Jack, Johnathan, Sol, Rafe, and X.

Ranged are Agni, AJ, Connor, myself, Olivia, Sofia, Zero, and Zoe.

Support are Aria-Mae, Camelia, Delilah, Kuna, Leo, Nerissa, Rin, and Sahar.”

There was some confusion in the groups, but no one really wanted to fight it. Instead, they all shuffled around into their separate groups. There was some grumbling as people realised, they had to get into groups, but Jude and his friends had already worked out who to go with.

Jude, Jack, and Rin all had goofy grins on their faces as they huddled up and formed their team.

Eventually all the teams formed, though it did take some pushing to put the stragglers together. The teams were as follows:

Jack, Jude, and Rin.

Damian, AJ, and Kuna.

Alice, Olivia, and Sahar.

Sol, Agni, and Camelia.

Rafe, Connor, and Aria-Mae.

Amelia, Zero, and Delilah.

Johnathan, Zoe, and Leo.

X, Sofia, and Nerissa.

The whole team was in a large gym space. There were six large boxing rings lined up. On the back walls were training dummies and targets on the walls with crane arms to move.

The exercise was to fight another team in one of these boxing rings. Each ring had a bubble very similar to the test they had at the start of the year. Meaning as long you did not leave the ring you could still fight. All wounds sustained would be healed upon exit and if you were to take a fatal injury you would immediately be teleported out.

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Jude’s group entered one ring and on the opposite side they saw X, Sofia, and Nerissa. Nerissa confidently stepped through the ropes. X and Sofia were more tepid with their entrance.

Rin and Nerissa shook hands to signal a fair match would take place. As soon as they were back in their corners everyone was hooked. No one else had gone to their own ring they were instead watching. Some wished to see how the match would go down, others merely did not wish to participate and so were killing time to save themselves.

Nerissa was the first to act, in an instant she was at the boys’ side of the ring. She sent a kick towards Jack who easily dodged it. Jack had ducked and was now under her. With a huge kick off of the matt he sprinting ahead to deal with the other two.

Nerissa did not spend too much time on her kick immediately switching her target to Jude. She went flip into a kick for him. Seeing this Jude put up a guard. The kick slammed straight into his forearms stinging them. Hoping to follow up on this Nerissa prepared to kick again.

That was until Rin grabbed her from behind and pushed her back and onto the floor. Jude put down his guard and ran straight to Sofia.

In this time Jack was at X.

X’s face twisted into disgust as she flung her hand towards Jack. Her nails missing as he easily dodged out of the way though it was as if they tore the air where he would have been.

Seeing this Sofia acted. The air around her chilled. A blue hue took control of the world around her. Ice formed on her hand and as her palm raised it began to shoot out toward Jack.

Unfortunately, an equally powerful blast came to intercept it. The hot plasma of Jude’s fire scorched through the ice and caused the air to fill with steam.

Jack, with a light tap, pushed X into the barrier. Because of the programming the bubble immediately teleported her outside.

“You know what. I can’t be bothered.” Came a sighing voice from the corner of the ring as Sofia stepped out.

Now it was just Jack, Jude, Rin, and Nerissa left. Well, that was what Jack and Jude thought until they turned around to see Rin outside waving at them.

Like a bull Nerissa charged down at the two of them.

Jude dived out of the way and Jack flipped over Nerissa’s head.

Upon Jack’s landing Nerissa grabbed his leg and made him fly again. Unfortunately, Jack had left the ring and now it was Jude and Nerissa.

He had to steel himself. Jude’s victory relied on it. His forearms were now red and still held the sting from the kick at the start. But no matter. He stood up.

He did not notice it at first. The order of events was unclear to him. But suddenly Nerissa was in front of him. Her body was perpendicular to his own. It was then he noticed her foot had lodged itself in the lower part of his ribs.

The wind left his body. All air had escaped. However, Nerissa had made one fatal flaw. Jude usually had quite slow reactions but due to the adrenaline now coursing through his body he grabbed her leg.

He held it with his strongest hand, meaning his right arm was open.

He pulled back with his left hand, thus Nerissa was now heading towards him.

In one swift motion he let go with his left hand.

His whole body twisted around.

His right arm went to punch her.

Just before impact a flame erupted from his elbow.

The momentum the flame created was explosive.

His fist hit her shoulder and sent he flying to the other end of the ring, tearing the ropes on her exit to the outside world.

He had done it. He was aiming for the face, but the explosive force had caused him to miss. But he had done it. A win. Not only had he worked as a team player in the first half he had won in a one-on-one match against someone he could not fathom beating two months ago.