The round of 16 would be quite the test for our two boys; first, Jack had to go against the current favourite to win and the woman who knocked out Nerissa. Then, Jude had to face the first person who defeated him since coming to University. There was no doubt that they should have been anxious with the fear of the unknown and the fear of repeated failure. Yet here they were joking and laughing with their friends.

“How can you be so calm about this tournament when you’re fighting in an hour?” A groggy and pained Rin said looking up from his plate of food.

“Well, I’m going to be him in the semi-final.” Jude said pointing Jack.

“I’m going to crush him in the semis.” Jack said at the same time, pointing to Jude.

This stunned the rest of their friends. The unbridled optimism showed by these two was unrivalled by anyone they knew. They genuinely believed they would win their next two fights and then beat their friend. The mood didn’t even drop when they got to the coliseum, they were both happy go lucky.

Jack had the first match of the day this time and Jude was fourth.

The boys, minus Jude, saw him off and Kuna opened a portal to the balcony. When they got back up there they asked “How come you didn’t wish Jack luck.”

“He doesn’t need luck, we came up with a plan.” Jude said matter-of-factly. His vision transfixed on the match below, resting his head on his elbow. By now the majority of the group didn’t come to the matches. Either they had gotten bored or had realised it wasn’t a requirement so they spent the day in the city, and some spent it in bed sleeping. One of the people who had come was Rafe; a lanky guy whom was on good terms with the lot of them.

“How come you guys look so bad today?” He spoke with no malice or knowledge what he said could be seen as a jab. His voice was kind and uplifting.

“These idiots decided to get smashed until the early hours.” Jude replied, still looking at the arena below.

“You came too.” Johnathan said.

“I saw them out, can’t believe you all are still this bad.” He was upbeat and energetic.

“How are you so peppy this morning?” Rin asked.

“A little secret.” Rafe tapped his nose. His pupils were wide whilst staring at them. Before the conversation could go any further Jack stepped out to face his opponent.

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There was tension in the air, not from the two opponents but everyone in the coliseum felt it today. Each day that went by where no one defeated this woman the more likely she was to win.

The fight began. Jack disappeared. He was in front of her. His right hand was over her mouth. His torso was parallel to her, whilst he was stepping into his stride behind her. His right arm dragging behind. He flung the arm forward slowing down time for a brief moment to increase the power, she flew. She kept flying until she left the ring. Her jaw broken, unable to speak.

Jack had won in five seconds of the fight starting.

The crowd was mixed it was hard to tell from that distance what had happened. Jack returned to his team’s viewing platform. He and Jude high fived.

Rin looked at them with a look that said he expected to be disappointed by the answer to the question he was about to ask. “Jude, what was the plan you told Jack?”

“Oh it was simple really, her alteration works on speaking so just eliminate her before she can speak.” Jude said obliging the request.

“That’s not a plan, that’s a goal.” Rin said, his fingers pinching his forehead.

“That’s all Jack needs. No need to complicate it with intricacies.”

“You trynna say I’m stupid?” Jack asked.

“No. You just hate remembering things that take a while.” Jude patted his friend on the back and headed down for his match.

Standing at the holding tunnel opposite him was Mark Parker, the man who defeated him in the first test. Jude had changed in the last three months though; he was more confident in his abilities, he had developed his tactics and adaptability, and most of all he was more adapted to fighting – having become competent at hand to hand combat, as well as putting on a stone in muscle.

Mark, luckily for Jude, had not changed his fighting strategy in the last few months. As soon as the match started Jude made a big dome of Earth around himself. Mark floated above.

Every human spends their life falling without knowing it. We’re constantly falling through space and we fall onto the Earth. However, Mark was especially aware and had been since he gained his powers; his ability was to affect how gravity affected him. Which meant he didn’t float instead he just changed gravity’s direction and he would float upwards. Then he would go into zero gravity and hover there. Then fall forwards towards his opponent. Zero gravity. Then crash down.

Whilst the tactic was simple it was effective. And it meant he could focus on designing his outfit around manoeuvrability; adding spiked boots to stick into walls, and climbing hooks to swing himself around and hook to surfaces. They were also made of heavy and dense materials allowing him to fall faster and harder.

He hovered over Jude’s dome and began to fall towards his opponent. Reaching terminal velocity before smashing into the rock. It was a style that sacrificed personal wellbeing and replaced it with direct hits. From practice his bones had increased in size to accommodate their constant breaking and shattering.

He came in contact with the dome, demolished it and then was teleported out of the ring. He had lost.

The dome was now gone. Jude was doing his best contortionist impression trying to snake his way through a series of four spikes made of rocks that were pointed to the top of the dome. Mark had slammed himself down into near certain death.

It was this utter loss that would cause Mark to change his style and develop into a much more capable fighter.

Jude moved to the semi-finals.