Ace was hunched over, gasping for air.

'Well... that was certainly tougher than I expected'

Clutching his aching side, Ace stared down at the crater in front of him. In it was the second Bruiser from House Lightning. Karn leaned over them, checking to see if they needed medical attention. After a few minutes, the fighter woke up and limped back to their locker room.

Watching them walk away, Ace couldn't help but wonder where things had gone wrong.

'Am I that weak? Or are these guys just strong?'

Much to his dismay, the Bruisers from House Lightning were far more capable than he thought they were going to be. They understood their roles perfectly and abandoned all notions of pride as soon as they stepped foot in the arena.

In light of that, both of them, played perfect defense, using every trick possible to drag out the fight. They weren't even trying to hide it either.

To make matters even worse, one of them had been a spear user, about as good as Aaron. He was quite troublesome, using the natural cover from trees and rocks to disguise his strikes. When Ace got too close, he had no qualms running away to reposition. Completely disciplined, the spearmen ignored all of the baits and feints Ace threw his way. No matter what Ace did, the spearmen remained steadfast, only striking when evasion wasn't an option. Occasionally, he would even land a strike on one of Ace's arms or legs, forcing him to heal.

After a grueling 15 minute battle, Ace managed to end the fight by taking a page from Silas's book.

Thankfully, the spearman wasn't ready to dodge a rain of rocks and tree bark. They weren't nearly as big as the ones that Silas threw, but once they struck the spearman, his speed drastically reduced, making it easy for him to be chased down.

The second fighter was equally as troublesome.

They didn't have a spear but instead used a weapon with even greater range - dual scythes attached to chains. While their skill definitely didn't match up to Bell's, it was still good enough to pose a problem. Faced with two projectiles, Ace found himself getting nicked on more than one occasion.

Desperate, he tried to throw rocks at the scythe wielder, but they easily avoided the volley. Watching how their first teammate lost had made them even more sheepish. Completely comfortable, the scythe wielder danced around Ace at long range and deep within natural cover.

His victory only came once he managed to catch hold of one of the weapons. Shortly after, he dragged his opponent in, clotheslining them. While they were stunned he jumped up and slammed down with a double footed stomp, burying them even deeper into the ground. The scream of pain that pierced the air was so loud that Ace had almost forgotten they were wearing a mask.

He would have felt bad, but the with the way his teammates had been defeated... he was being nice.

Finally catching his breath, Ace rose to his full height. He had about one-fifth of his reserves left. Shifting his thoughts to what his battle plan was going to be for the final fight, he heard the announcers voice cut through the air.

"This is it folks! The last fight of the Selection Tournament! For once we have two completely different finalists! From House Lightning we have the Bone Blade! From House Steel we have the Shrouded Sword! Both of them acted as the team leaders for their premier teams, so we are surely in for a treat... even if the Shrouded Sword is a little tired!"

Not long after the announcement, the Bone Blade made his appearance. Ace eyed him from a distance dubiously.

He had been thoroughly out strategized by the person in front of him. Everything from the battle order to the unity of the team was... better. Still, Ace had trouble accepting the Bone Blade's decision to out the Son of Lightning first. He had to have known that he would be stalled out. With that being the case, it only made Ace more uneasy.

'This guy is either stronger than the Son of Lightning or he's actually the weakest of the four. If you're going to start out strong, then you would frontload the Lawless and hope for the best...'

Continuing his mental evaluation, Ace approached his opponent while Karn stood off to the side.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

'Since this guy didn't do that... he likely wasn't confident in himself and instead thought his teammates would finish the job... probably. No... I'm sure of it.'

At Karn's command Ace shook the Bone Blade's hand.

The instant they made contact, he almost gasped in shock.

'What the hell?!'

The Bone's Blade's balance point was... different. Normally, they were smooth white orbs that glowed softly. But that wasn't the case for the masked fighter.

His was... pulsing, sending out rapid waves of energy to the rest of his body. The orb even crackled like a lightning cloud.

While they shook hands, Ace tried to touch it but each wave of energy only rejected his attempts to get closer.

Holding the handshake for a little longer than usual, Ace continued in his efforts.

Suddenly the Bone Blade wrenched his hand free.

"Stop doing that..."

'What?'

Speechless, Ace walked back to his starting position.

No one had ever been able to tell when he when was using his ability, let alone understand what was actually happening within their bodies. Seeing the Bone Blade do so had only magnified Ace's anxiety.

'This guy is trouble... I need to end this quick!'

Crouching into a combat stance, Ace prepared a large part of his heart shell.

When Karn lowered his arm and started the duel, Ace sent the shell shards into his legs and lunged at the Bone Blade. He extended his sword forward, aiming for his chest.

As he inched closer and closer, he waited for his opponent to react. He hadn't seen a weapon, not even something like the gauntlets the Son of Lightning wore.

He wanted to believe he was unarmed, but his nickname told him that couldn't have been the case. So where was his weapon?

Before his sword could reach his opponents chest, Ace got his answer. It was a small knife, pulled out at the perfect time to parry his strike. In the blink of an eye, the Bone Blade countered, stabbing Ace twice in the stomach before kicking him dozens of feet away.

Left with maybe a tenth of his energy left, Ace chose to not heal his wounds. His opponent was already running him down anyway, entering close range in mere moments. This time, Ace was forced to play defense, narrowly dodging as a small white hunting knife skimmed the air next to shoulder. Trying to get some distance, Ace jumped away. But before he could get very far, his opponent caught his foot and stabbed it.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Ace turned in mid air, kicking the his opponent with his good leg. Feeling his impact connect deeply, Ace spared a little more of his shell to follow through with the strike, sending his opponent tumbling away from him. Afterwards, he fell to the ground, making his stomach wounds flare up in pain.

Now bearing three injuries, breathing was starting to become quite difficult for him. Unable to rise to his feet, he reached into a compartment in his leg pack and pulled out a rock. It was the same one he spun every night.

Off in the distance he could see the Bone Blade slowly rising to his feet. Time was running out.

Fighting the pain deep within his body, he moved the stone right above his balance point. The one within the rock had lost it's white hue entirely, now glowing a brilliant green.

Looking up once more, he could see the Bone Blade lunging at him with his knife, leaving him less than a second to finish his plan.

For Ace, that was plenty. The fruits of his labor would not be denied.

In a fluid and lightning quick motion, he broke off the last of his heart shell and settled the energy in between his balance point and the rock's. Immediately after, he connected he connected the both of them by using his heart shell as the bridge.

As soon as he finished doing so, the rock exploded, letting out a bright flash of green light and a shockwave.

Unprepared for the massive release of energy, both Ace and his opponent were thrown high into the air before crashing back into a tree and a boulder respectively.

*** The Viewing Box ***

Osti stood behind his master, the Lightning Monarch.

Things weren't looking good.

His mood had already soured after his Son struggled to take out Stellis. It only worsened when he was defeated by the fighter wielding the giant greatsword.

Deep down, Osti and everyone else in the room knew the Son of Lightning would eventually fall, especially since he went first. He was great, the best even. The only problem was that he wasn't fighting a one on one fight.

Still, Osti was confident in his other fighters. So when the Monarch's son fell, he wasn't worried.

Both him and the Lightning Monarch had watched the replays from the first day. From their review, it became clear the Shrouded Sword was a close combat fighter. He wasn't particularly strong or fast, but he was quick witted and seemed to have a strange immobilization ability.

In spite of that, Osti was confident. The two bruisers of the premier team excelled at fighting from a distance and were more than savvy enough to know how to agitate and stall out an opponent.

Because of these factors, Osti could understand why his master's mood only worsened with each defeat.

With the first loss came an onset of prickliness as the static electricity increased in the room. Then, when their second Bruiser fell, the light prickliness grew to a low thrumming sound.

Things finally came to a head when the Shrouded Sword used a rock to... make an explosion?

Seeing that, Osti's master fully unleashed his electrical aura, letting tiny bolts of electricity fizzle into existence around him. However, this time he wasn't alone.

The other House Leaders had done the same, even the Matriarch of Steel.

When they did so, if became noticeably harder to move.

Withstanding two auras at once was already stifling. But all four? And fully unleashed? It was too much.

Using his refinement technique, Osti bolstered his physique and regained his lucidity. Sparing a glance at the other aides, he could see that they seemed to be in the same position, faces wrenched with concentration as they struggled to stay conscious.

Three booming voices resonated into the air.

"Explain yourself Joan! Why didn't you say that boy was a Savant?!"