Silas stood only a few feet from the Son of Lightning.

To his left, Karn gave them the usual rundown for the rules of the fight. He ended with "Shake hands."

When the Son of Lightning extended his hand, Silas looked down at it it. Already having made his decision, he looked at his opponent and crossed his arms.

With a scoff, the Son of Lightning retracted his hand.

"What? You mad about your first teammate? I gave her a chance to forfeit... The weakling should have taken it."

Hearing those words, Silas found it within himself to stay still and not attack on the spot. Instead he just looked at him with a stone cold face. There were many things he wanted to say, none of which he could. With a huff of air, he returned to his starting position.

His opponent did the same.

Looking at the two youths, Karn shook his head. "Kids these days..."

Shortly after, he started the duel.

The Son of Lighting remained still, electing to play defense.

Silas much preferred it that way since he was already planning on being the aggressor. Slowly walking towards his opponent, he scanned the surroundings. A few large boulders and numerous trees were scattered about the arena.

Silas knew two things were certain.

The first was that making meaningful contact with the Son of Lightning was going to be almost impossible. He had observed as much in the previous two battles.

The second was that he had only had to stall until his opponent ran out of energy. With the increased speed and reflexes granted by his Notch, he would be able to avoid even the fastest of his strikes. If he kept up the speed for long enough, his opponent would either run out of energy or lose enough to make Ace's fight with him easy.

Taking these factors into account, Silas saw the path to victory for the team. But for the first time in a long time, his vision was clouded. The unnecessary brutality brought upon Bell had drawn out a side of him that he had buried when he left the slums. A side that thirsted for violence.

A cheap victory where someone else finished the job wasn't going to cut it.

'Sorry Ace... But I'm going to teach this guy a lesson."

Having made his decision, Silas suddenly dashed off to the side, stopping in front of a huge rock. With a swift and powerful movement, he smashed his greatsword into it with the flat edge, sending it flying towards his opponent.

While it flew towards his target, Silas activated his Notch Ability and out sped the thrown projectile. He circled around to the opposite side somehow creating a one-manned pincer attack. Reacting to his burst of speed, the Son of Lightning effortlessly weaved around the massive sword Silas used, countering him with a hook to the jaw.

Still, Silas was fine.

His objective wasn't to actually hit him; instead there was something he wanted to confirm. Doing his best to stick to the plan, Silas held his opponent in place with well placed thrusts and slashes. While he did so, the giant boulder continued to barrel towards them. It's approach was quick, bringing with it the force to easily knock both of them off their feet if it connected. While continuing his onslaught of attacks, he watched the boulder closely.

It was only a few feet away, but Silas saw it.

The boulder slowed down even though the Son of Lightning wasn't looking at it. Before it could cause a damaging impact, it stopped completely, lightly touching his opponent on the back.

Silas squinted his eyes.

'So it's a bubble then...'

Having confirmed the first part of his hypothesis, he moved on to confirming the second.

Only an instant after the giant boulder was stopped, he activated his Notch once more, slowing down time and increasing his speed. With the boost, he threw a handful of lazy and exaggerated slashes, intentionally missing by an extra couple inches. To outside observers, it looked like Silas was getting tired and desperate. But to Silas... his plan had worked perfectly.

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Because of his exaggerated strikes, his opponent had backed towards the giant boulder, bumping into it. Seeing the subtle contact, Silas went for a real strike, this time moving at a speed that would have only allowed for a parry or block. Just like previous attacks, his strike was slowed down, losing force.

But then, as soon as it touched his opponent's gauntlet, he felt an impact resonate. At the same time, he saw the rock behind the Son of Lighting crack.

'There it is! He can't negate the force if he's touching two solid objects at once!'

Letting a smile creep onto his face, he jumped backwards. While he was at a distance, he heard an annoyed voice.

"I can see that you may have figured something out... Not that it will make a difference. How will you defeat me if I do... this!"

With those words he punched the rock behind him, shattering it. Then, he dashed off, not towards Silas, but towards another rock in the vicinity.

Recognizing his intentions, Silas groaned silently and activated his Notch again, slowing down his opponent's speed to a quarter of what it normally would have been.

As each second passed, he could feel his heart shell being consumed at an alarming rate. Remaining in the slowed world was ridiculously taxing.

In spite of that, he powered through.

Moving with both purpose and precision, he ran up to large boulder and threw it at his opponent. This was only possible because his baseline strength matched the enhanced strength of a bruiser, something that was truly ridiculous.

After the rock sailed into the air, he moved on, cutting a tree with his sword before throwing the trunk as well. Continuing this cycle, he launched an assortment of giant boulders and trees at his opponent while encircling him. As the projectile's closed in, Silas deactivated his ability and followed behind them.

***

The Son of Lightning could barely react as he faced a rapidly shrinking dome of rocks and trees. There were at least a dozen.

Just from his brief exchange with the dark haired boy, he knew he was fast... incredibly so. But this was ridiculous. In the time it had taken him to run to the nearest rock, the boy had turned into a blur, making him impossible to track. Still, he was willing to accept that. But to also throw rocks and tree's at him too? How had his opponent managed to pull that off while using his Notch? Just what sort of insane strength did he have?

Left with only a second to face the onslaught, he spared no expense in his energy expenditure, reducing the speed of the objects coming at him from all directions and even shattering some of them with enhancement.

Amongst the onslaught, he lost sight of his opponent.

Trapped in a large cloud of dirt and debris, he repeatedly turned in a circle expecting a surprise attack.

After a few seconds he saw a long and black rectangular object flying towards him. Recognizing it as his opponents weapon, he slowed it down and caught it. As soon as he did so however, the object fell to the ground, dragging him with it.

'What the?'

With his hands now pinned to the ground by the blade's handle he could only kneel helplessly.

That was when he felt the ground beneath him rumble.

'huh?'

***

Silas poured every once of energy into his fingertips, which were currently lodged into a crack in the ground.

While his volley of rocks and trees were being dealt with, he ran a circle around his opponent, repeatedly jamming his sword into the ground, creating a sort of platform. After, he threw it the Son of Lightning, hoping he would try to catch it. Based off the loud grunt he heard he knew he had been successful.

Now, all he had to do was finish the job.

Wheezing hard, he heard a loud crack and felt the weightlessness of the stone as it came free from the ground. Just like he wanted, the Son of Lightning was still on it.

Moving quickly, he pushed the platform towards the wall of the arena.

Despite the incredible pain and stress his muscles were enduring, he continued to run, even smiling as he did so.

With each passing second, his reserves sank closer and closer to emptiness. Realizing he wouldn't make it, he gathered the last of his energy and tossed the platform into the arena wall, creating a heavy impact and sending a spiderweb of cracks running along its surface.

Completely gassed, he fainted from exhaustion before he could see if his attack was successful.

***

Karn looked at the dark haired boy that was lying unconscious on the ground. A stupid smile was etched on his face, even his sleep. Shaking his head, he turned his attention away and walked over to the platform lodged in the wall.

With a small tap from his knuckle, the platform shattered. What lay beyond it was... unexpected.

The Son of Lightning was buried deep into the arena wall, arms and legs splayed like a starfish. His mask was cracked and there were splotches of blood seeping through numerous spots on his gi.

He looked... unwell.

For the first time, Karn had actually seen someone land a clean hit on the child, something even older and more experienced warriors like himself would have had difficulty accomplishing.

With a wave of his hand, a floating stretcher descended towards him. Moving quickly, he wrenched the boy from the wall and placed him on it. It ascended almost immediately, flying to the central hospital.

For the other boy, he simply signaled for the Sentinel in his locker room to come and retrieve him.

As he was carried off, Karn narrowed his eyes.

'I'm still not sure how he did it, no one has figured out the specifics of his ability in ten years, but in his first fight, he analyzes it and implements a counter? This kid is a genius... maybe...'

Putting aside his inner thoughts, he signaled for the next fighters to come out.

***

Ace lightly poked Silas in the face. No response.

'He's out cold I guess.'

With a sigh, he grabbed his sword from the bench.

Silas had abandoned the plan and gone above and beyond. Now, Ace only had to fight two Bruisers and one Lawless.

It was an easier feat than what the Son of Lightning had done. However, his Notch was far less oppressive. He couldn't afford to get careless. Even with his backup plan, he would do his best to conserve energy.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped out into the arena.