Becca sat in the stands of the arena. Elias was going to be fighting next. She really wished she could find a way to convince him to fix his unfair fight schedule but he sees no point in it.

“Coming in the from the North Tunnel; Limber Lamar, Leonidas Lamar!” A short dark skinned man walk out of the tunnel.

“Limber Lamar? I get he’s powerful but what kind of name is that?” Georgia said out loud.

“I have no idea. I’m going to guess he didn’t choose that and he just let the school randomly choose his name.” Aaron responded.

“Elias must’ve done the same thing. His title isn’t exactly something to be proud of either.” Becca pointed out.

“Aaannnd coming from the South Tunnel; The Powerless Weakling, Elias Roberts!”

“See what I mean?”

“Can’t believe the school actually passed the approval of that name.” Aaron responded.

“The school hates him as much as everyone else. Everyone really hates him because he has no abilities at all.” Georgia confirmed. “The world really likes to hammer on the famous if they don’t meet expectations.”

“Let’s not go in that direction again.” Aaron put his hand on Georgia’s shoulder.

“Yea. I know... I’m just saying that it does.”

“Battle Start... 3... 2... 1... Fight!”

Elias positioned his sword down towards his left foot again. Leonidas began to stretch his arms toward Elias. Elias rapidly swung his sword with one hand down to cut off the arm, spilling blood onto the arena, and switched his grip mid way to toss it to his other hand to cut off the other arm spilling more blood before resuming back to pointing the sword to his left foot. His opponent regenerated his arms and began to throw his arms again.

“Whoa... what kind of sword form is that?” Becca asked.

“I don’t know... I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks so erratic and it’s super unpredictable but so well controlled.” Aaron answered her, interested in his style as well.

Elias was slowly moving forward constantly keeping his sword in motion to stop the arms being thrown towards him. Switching his grip in one hand and quickly switched hands to cut down the other side. “This looks promising!” Georgia said.

“He won’t win.” A grim voice spoke. Becca looked to the owner. It was a short white haired kid with piercing red eyes.

“Logan?!” Aaron asked surprised to see his roommate.

“Leonidas has another trick up his sleeve. Right now he’s throwing attacks at Elias nonstop. It’s slowly eating away at Elias’ endurance. Leonidas is used to his limbs being cut off so the pain you would think he feels is extremely numb.”

“What else can he do?” Georgia asked.

“Just watch.” He spoke again.

Becca looked again and noticed Leonidas had another limb coming out of his back and surrounding the stage. At this point there was already a lot of blood on the stage and Elias was still fast and accurate with his swings. However, she could tell that he was getting slower.

Finally Elias was really close to Leonidas and he swung his sword one final time towards his neck. However, the long arm coming from his back had reached and grabbed Elias from behind and threw him off the stage.

“Limber Lamar is the winner!!!” The crowd roared at the defeat of Elias.

“Ugh he was so close.” Becca’s head fell into her hands.

“At least he did better in this than the first two.” Aaron put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey Logan.” Logan was gone. Disappeared as quick as he had appeared. “Geese that kid gives me the creeps.”

“What even is his ability?” Georgia asked

“When he looks at someone he gains their memories.”

“Soul Reading.” Georgia felt sick to her stomach.

“He uses the advantage brutally too. In combat he’ll know what to use to weaken someone mentally. He also has a fast fighting style like Elias and once you lose a battle mentally you might as well walk off stage. You’re not fighting very well if you’re distracted by what he’s saying.”

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“It works. If he fought me and began to push my buttons I’m going to be more focused on my insecurities than winning against him.” Becca said.

“Yea. I wonder how Elias would fair against him.” Georgia wondered.

“Don’t know. Elias has buttons that’s for sure. But from what I’ve seen of his erratic fighting style becoming even more erratic and unpredictable because now he’s angry; that doesn’t spell an easier fight.” Aaron said.

“Hey have they announced the next fight yet?” Elias appeared at the end of the aisle.

“No not yet.” Becca answered as he sat down next to her. “You did really good. You were impressive out there.”

“Yea, what kind of style of fighting was that?” Aaron asked.

“Well it’s hard to explain and it wasn’t given a name. It’s a really ancient technique not well known. There are 7 of these techniques. I’m using the 7th form which is a hyper aggressive style that is erratic and unpredictable. It’s extremely fast and is an offensive style. But I want to master all 7 of the forms and be able to easily transition between them.” Elias answered.

“Enlighten me. I’m interested.”

“So Form 1 is more of your straight forward sword fighting style. Blocking and parrying and attack when there are openings. But it’s also good for disarming the opponent. It is also the base of the other 6 forms.”

“Form 2 is designed specifically for defense. Short jabs and cuts instead of hard slashes and sweeps. Used more to tire out the opponent instead of overpower them.”

“Form 3 is very situational. It like 2 is for mainly defense. Back when the form was used it was arrows and metal and form 3 was basically to cut incoming arrows and projectiles like arrows. I’m hoping that it will be useful against people with ranged abilities to deflect their attacks instead of dodging it.”

“Form 4 is a very agile and mobile style. Summersaults and flips and bouncing off walls. Great for indoor fighting it’s aggressive and works defensively and offensively but it tires out the user very quickly.”

“Form 5 is a variation of Form 3. Mainly defense but there’s a lot more to the offensive side. It’s pattern is quite simple. Power attack, defend, counter attack and repeat.”

“Form 6 is basically a combination of the previous forms. It’s not exceptional at defense and offense but it’s also not severely lacking in those areas either.”

“Wow. If you can master all of these in smoothly transition between all of the you’re going to be a very tough opponent.” Aaron pointed out.

“Yea that’s the plan.”

“Keep working towards it. I’m sure you’ll get there.”

“Maybe...”

The 4 of them continued to watch the remaining fights until the arena was closed. Elias followed Becca to the room after they parted from Aaron and Georgia. They entered their room and started their nightly routines.

“You know we haven’t been on the roof to see the sunset yet.” Becca said disappointed as she looked out the dark window.

“Yea... I guess we haven’t. Things have been really hectic lately with all these one on one fights and me ending up in the infirmary every other fight.” Elias answered her with some disappointment of his own while he began to get out his toothbrush and toothpaste.

“Don’t pin the blame on yourself Elias. Even people with powers are put in there every day.” She also took out her dental supplies.

“Not nearly as often as I am.” He said through his closed mouth as he brushed his teeth.

“So?” She looked up at him. “Elias it’s ok to be in the infirmary all the time. You’re at a huge disadvantage compared to everyone else. You should be proud that you made it all this way.”

“Not much of an achievement if you ask me. They can’t legally expel me until I get into big trouble or if I lose my 5th fight.” He spit out his tooth paste and began to rinse his mouth.

“Yea and your sword play is impressive. It wasn’t like that at the beginning of the year. Even if you do lose the 5th battle you’re still walking out with something.” She began to brush her teeth.

“Yea well then what. My sword skills will be worthless at that point.”

She rolled her eyes and finished brushing before spitting out her own toothpaste. “You can still do mercenary work. There are plenty of heroes who have made a living without going to one of these schools.”

“Yea and a lot of mercenaries have questionable morales. Most working for the highest bidder.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t do that."

"Yea well again consider the fact I don’t have abilities. No one is going to hire me if I don’t make a name for myself before I go into mercenary work.”

Becca let out a long sigh. “Elias you really need to stop being so down on yourself. I know life hasn’t been fair to you at all but none of it is your fault.”

“Yea. Life loves to toy with me huh? All I do is let it happen.”

“I don’t mean it like that. Yes sometimes you’re letting life get in the way. But when you’re in battle and you’re still fighting your hardest and you still lose. You can’t say that it’s your fault.”

“I got sloppy on the last battle. I should have swung the sword one last time behind me. Instead I jumped the gun and went for the victory.”

“What’s done is done Elias. You can’t change the past.”

“I’m also tired of life doing this to me.”

“Doing what?”

“It’s toying with me. Have you ever just hit so low that you just want to end it all but you don’t even have the courage to do it yourself because you’re afraid you won’t finish the job and you’ll just end up in more pain?”

“Elias are you talking about-“

“Suicide? Yes. I’ve wanted to do it for years. But I don’t want it to hurt either. I was kind of hoping that life would just do it on its own you know?”

“Elias...”

“I mean maybe I should just do it myself. Life has even toyed with me by bringing me close to death but not actually able to touch it. Instead I just end up in more pain in near death situations.”

“You really want to die that badly?”

“Yes. Ever since... never mind.”

"Since what?"

"Nevermind... you wouldn't understand."

“Elias... I know about everything that happened to you. Your mom’s disappearance. The abuse. I know everything. Aaron told me and I’m guessing his roommate told him.”

“Oh awesome. My life can’t even be a secret anymore huh? Everyone gets to know that I was raped and beat as a kid. Awesome. Let’s keep screwing me over life. DO IT AGAIN! I DARE YOU!”

“Elias maybe life is keeping you alive for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is or why you had to go through all of that pain.”

“Yea well it would be nice for it to give me something really good once in a while. I’m going for a walk.”

“No Elias you’re not leaving the room!” She grabbed his arm as he reached for the door handle. “You need to rest. I assume you have another fight tomorrow and you need to be ready for it.”

“Let go of me Becca.”

“I’m not going to let you stay up later so you don’t have a chance at winning. You need to rest. You had a hard fight and it’s been a long day for us both. Besides, I think life is starting to give you some good things.”

“Oh yea like what?” He said with venom. His eyes becoming more soulless.

“You have Aaron. You have Georgia.”

“Ok sure but they’ll leap for each other faster than they will leap for me.”

“Well you also have me. I would leap for you. In fact Elias I think I really lik-“

“Oh yea woopdidoo. Hey Elias here’s one friend for you. Oh really? Thanks! Uh yea I forgot to mention that she isn’t physically appealing at all. Sorry but it takes a stupid person to love a stupid person. Oh ok life thank you very much.” He shot at her completely missing the last part of her statement.

Becca looked down at the ground and moved away from the door and climbed into her bed. Elias left the room to go on his walk shutting the door behind him. He was completely unaware of what he had just done.

Elias leaned against the railing of the roof having a sickening feeling in his stomach that he could not shake off. He replayed the events in his head trying to figure out why he became so uneasy after he left. Then it finally dawned on him. She was saying something. Elias couldn't put his finger what it was exactly but then he heard himself interrupt her and give his cold response. “Oh what have I done? I really said that didn’t I? Physically unappealing? Where did that even come from? That’s not even true either. She’s drop dead gorgeous so where did that even come from?” Elias became frustrated with himself and slammed his head against the railing. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter now. I need to go apologize right now.” Elias sprinted towards the door and found the door was slightly a jar. He swore he had shut it before he left but he was wrong about a lot of things already. He opened the door and ran over to her bunk. “Becca I’m so sorry I-“ his heart sunk when he realized she wasn’t in her bunk. “Becca?” He looked around. Her bags were gone. Her supplies were nowhere to be found. He went over to the hallway and looked both ways hoping he would catch her. Nothing. He went back inside and noticed her key card sitting in the trash. “She’s leaving!?” He quickly whipped out his phone and called her. He began to pace. “Please pick up. Please pick up.” He heard a voice. “Becca! I’m so sorry! I-“

“I’m sorry but the number you are trying to reach has blocked you.” The automatic response came.

Elias ended the call. “Straight to voicemail.” He fell to his knees. “Life gave me someone good. Now thanks to my own stupidity she’s gone.”