May 31st, 2018. 8:05 PM.

Elio watches as the top part of Gendross’ suit falls off, they stand frozen in place, a long silence dwelling over them. “There we go, just as I hoped!” Reggie proudly states as he turns back to normal, running over to Elio. He sits down, hoping to be rewarded with chin strokes. “Gendross… could you give me a moment?” Elio asks. Before Gendross can answer, Elio grabs Reggie by the nape and yanks him up, scowling at him; “Where the fuck were you?! I almost got knocked out at five different points during the fight! I could’ve used your help, y’know?!” Elio shouts angrily.

Reggie squirms in reaction to his anger, his words scrambling as he tries to explain; “I can explain! It has to do with earlier! I tried whispering to you the plan, and that’s when you told me not to say it because of that statocyst thingy! So I changed the plan by just ditching for a bit, that way I could get the drop on Gendross while he was busy fighting you!” He explains frantically. Elio takes a deep breath and exhales, setting Reggie down gently; “I can’t stay mad at you, it did work after all. But just don’t leave me hanging like that again…” Elio responds calmly, he stands back up, getting in his fighting stance; “...for now, let’s just focus on Gendross, alright?” Reggie shakes his head before jumping and turning around, readying his claws; “Yeah, let’s get him!” He answers excitedly.

Gendross puts his hands up; “Attack me whenever you’re ready. Fair warning, I’ll be fighting harder now, since my suit’s no longer there to protect me.” Gendross informs. Elio and Reggie nod before dashing toward him, Elio picks up Reggie and chucks him to Gendross. As he hurls, he morphs into the Nightmare, adding more weight to the attack, but as he’s about to collide, he’s suddenly knocked back with a ton of force, he roars as he’s sent flying. “Reggie!” Elio shouts as he jumps in the way, spreading his arms out, Reggie turns back to normal, flying into Elio’s stomach while curled up like a ball. “Oomph!” Elio gasps from the sudden impact, he hits the ground and slides, hitting a rock headfirst, as he stops, his head drips blood.

Reggie gets up, confused; “Elio?!” He shouts, perplexed. “Are you ok?!” He asks as he starts licking the wound, Elio gets up and rubs his head; “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just lost about what happened. You got an idea on how you were sent flying?” “I don’t know at all, it was so fast!” Reggie shakes his head. Elio stands up; “Well, whatever it is, we’ll just have to figure it out. Cover for me in case I get blasted back.” Elio commands as he starts running. “Got it!” Reggie answers as he turns into the Nightmare, staying put.

Elio heats himself up, his body steaming, Gendross grabs a small boulder with his hands and chucks it at him. Elio lunges to the ground, avoiding the boulder by rolling multiple times, converting into a slide. Reggie reacts to the oncoming boulder by slicing it with his claws; he keeps observing Elio as he jumps out of the slide, aiming to land a flying kick. Though as he’s about to make contact, he gets sent flying as well; “What the hell?! I couldn’t see it either! Is he moving that fast?” Elio backflips, landing on the ground. “No, he can’t be moving that fast, I would’ve not only detected movement by his heat signature, but I would’ve also felt the wind from his movement. So what is it? What is he doing- huh?” Elio looks at his left foot, he lifts it up and puts his hand on it; “That’s strange… my left foot is warmer than my right.” He ponders. He then looks back at Reggie; “Hey Reggie!” He calls out.

Reggie tilts his head; “Yeah?” “Does any part of your body feel warmer?” Elio asks. Reggie reels his head back; “Warmer?” He pauses to think. “Actually, yeah. The upper part of my back felt warmer for a bit. It cooled off, but yeah. Wait, did you figure something out?!” Reggie asks back. Gendross dashes to Elio, Reggie shifts his gaze past Elio. He takes notice and immediately turns around, dashing to the right to avoid Gendross’ reach, but Gendross predicts his movement and kicks in the same direction he moved in, knocking him back.

Gendross chases down Elio and Reggie turns back to normal, bolting towards them, he jumps up onto Gendross and transforms again, pushing his paws and jumping off of him, forcing Gendross to hit the ground. Reggie then picks up Elio with his mouth, careful as to not bite him. He runs off toward the rocks, dropping Elio; “Still haven’t figured it out?” He asks. Elio pats Reggie on the nose as he gets up; “No, but I’m very close to figuring out what he’s attacking us with. I got a plan on how to confirm it.” He answers, quickly darting at Gendross again. He jumps up and throws a thrust kick at him, despite being too far away, he throws his shoe off his foot with the kick. His shoe flies at Gendross, and he instinctively knocks it back, as he does so, Elio notices smoke coming from his shoe as it hurls back at him. He catches it, his body being dragged by the force of its momentum.

Elio pulls his body closer to his shoe and tucks in, Reggie darts forward and nabs him out of the air with his middle arms; “Gotcha!” Reggie shouts upon catching him. “Elio, you ok?” He asks as he drops him, though Elio doesn’t answer, as though he’s in a trance. Reggie licks Elio’s face, the roughness making Elio snap back to reality; “Oh, gross!” Elio yells as he moves his visor up and violently wipes his face to get the saliva off. “Sorry, I was lost in thought. I figured out what it is, but, this might be the deadliest power I’ve heard. And he’s using it as a tool of defense against my thermal energy.” He explains himself. “What is that power?” Reggie asks with intrigue. Elio puts his visor back over his eyes; “It involves antimatter.” He says with anticipation.

Gendross raises an eyebrow, surprised that Elio figured it out so quickly. “Antimatter?” Reggie tilts his head; “But doesn’t that just explode whenever it touches matter?” “When the two collide, it annihilates the particles through an eruption of energy, while also creating new particles after they’ve been destroyed. Normally, it would cause a much larger blast, but this one was… more grounded, a less powerful reaction. So he must have the power to manipulate the amount he wants to destroy. He could blow up the whole Levacean if he wanted to!” He rambles. Reggie’s ears go back; “Blow up the ship?! That’s insane!”

“You can probably understand why the world refers to me as ‘The Captain of Divine Destruction,’ right?” Gendross interrupts as he gets closer. “Most people don’t even know or can comprehend my power because of how little I rely on it. When I do though, there’s always destruction. You still have time left, so let’s stop talking and just keep it going.” Gendross gets into an offensive stance, readying a punch. Elio gets into his fighting stance as well, Gendross suddenly moves toward them at devastatingly high speeds, not even moving his legs; “Woah!” Reggie screams, grabbing Elio and jumping to the ceiling, just barely avoiding Gendross’ attack. Elio looks down as he’s held by Reggie’s arm, his eyes widening as he notices how he had effortlessly crashed through over a dozen trees. “He blasted himself over to us by condensing an explosion of matter! I couldn’t even react in time, if your whiskers didn’t detect that, I would’ve lost right then and there!”

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“That’s horrifying! I don’t wanna deal with that any longer, so we need to injure him quickly! But with you not being able to burn him because of him exploding particles in front of us, how do you expect us to do so?” Reggie asks as he lets go of the ceiling, turning back to normal as Elio catches him. Elio notices Gendross is about to strike them in midair with another charge attack, he aims his palm up and fires a gust of wind, shooting them down fast enough to dodge the strike. “Reggie, if I can’t burn him with physical contact, then let’s try blasting heat from afar! Distract him for me real quick!” Elio commands as he sets him down. Elio starts dashing to the pond, still steaming. “Right!” Reggie shouts as he rushes to put Gendross’ focus on him. Elio hops off the ground, gracefully gliding toward the water, performing a triple flip without tucking in, he then dives straight into the water and swims to the bottom to begin generating more heat.

A large steam cloud coming from the pond begins to grow thicker as more heat fills the water, slowly boiling. Reggie morphs back into the Nightmare as he slices a tree branch and grabs the end with his mouth, he pounces at Gendross and swings his sideways, attempting to slam the branch into him, he quickly reaches up as well, putting his paws on the tree. Gendross reacts by blocking the branch and catching it, but despite blocking, he looks forward and sees Reggie sprinting at him in his normal form on the branch. Reggie leaps forward and turns into the Nightmare, using his sheer weight by ramming his head into his face. “GAH!!” Gendross yells from the surprise of the attack and being caught off guard. Reggie takes notice of him stumbling back, he swiftly takes advantage by turning back to normal, only to do a front flip and transforming into the Nightmare again to stomp on him in midair, sending him to the ground.

As Gendross hits the floor, Reggie lands and uses his top arm to wipe his head; “Ow… how does Elio not feel anything when he bashes his head into people? That hurts…” He complains. Gendross starts getting up; “It’s always fascinating to see pets mimicking their owners. You got me with that one, I was so shocked, I couldn’t make an explosive barrier in time. You have my-” Reggie interrupts him by casually smacking Gendross on the head while sitting down, making him fall over. “That one’s on me…” Gendross plays it cool. “That actually made me mad.” Gendross rolls, getting up and putting his left fist in front of him; “Here, catch this!” Gendross shouts as he charges up, shooting his entire left hand off his arm, making it fly toward Reggie as though it were a rocket. “WHAT-” Reggie’s yell gets cut off as he’s nailed in the face and sent flying, he slides on his side. Reggie breathes heavily after his slide comes to a half; “G-Gendross, your hand…” He stares at his arm, seeing how Gendross’ mucus-like insides drip out. “ARE YOU INSANE?! I thought the conditions were to injure you! Why would you injure yourself like that and sacrifice your own hand?!” He shouts in shock, concern, and confusion.

Gendross doesn’t answer, he just moves closer to Reggie to continue attacking. Suddenly he stops moving, getting into a defensive position, Reggie leans his head back as a sudden gust of hot wind blows, his purr sounds like a motorcycle engine; “Oh, that feels good. Seems like you’re ready, Elio!” He says enthusiastically as Elio lands in front of him. His body steams; “Of course! You put up a good distraction from what I can tell! Now’s our chance to win! Eat his hand!” Elio instructs him. “What, why?” “Because, if you’re sent into your most primal state from the Nightmare, if you smell something unfamiliar, then it’s likely if you taste something unfamiliar, you’ll do the same thing! So go wild! You know my scent even when you’re primal, so you’re only going to attack Gendross! Besides, I know how much you love crabmeat!” Elio explains with a threatening grin, Reggie’s ears perk up with excitement. He quickly grabs Gendross’ hand and starts eating away at it; “NO!” Gendross shouts with legitimate fear as he attempts to rush over and grab the hand. But Elio steps forward and spin kicks Gendross in the stomach, knocking him back.

Gendross jams his toes into the ground, making him come to a grinding halt; “Wow, there’s even more power and speed behind his attacks! Now Reggie’s going to go on a rampage, these guys are insane!” Gendross excitedly thinks as he gets in a defensive stance. Elio picks up a stone and starts rushing to him, he chucks the stone; Gendross uses his power to destroy the stone, creating an explosive wave to send Elio back, but Elio throws a punch forwards, shooting a gust of wind from his fist. The strong wind being powerful enough to hold it off, Elio leaps through the smoke, reeling his head back and slamming it in Gendross’ chest. He lands and jumps forward again, performing a helicopter kick with his right leg, then making a full rotation to kick him with the opposite leg before landing. Elio then stands on one leg and throws a flurry of kicks before suddenly jumping up and performing an axe kick to the head. He then slides under Gendross before turning around and leaping into the air; “Borrowing your move!” Elio shouts as he holds his palm backwards, firing a gust of wind and shooting himself in Kendross’ direction, drop kicking him in the back and launching him forwards upon impact. Reggie leaps at Gendross in an attempt to pounce on him; “Shit!” Gendross mutters to himself. He then destroys the energy behind him to blast himself at Reggie, putting his arms out, he tackles Reggie, dragging him to the ground.

As he shoves him down, they slide for a bit, Gendross slams his hand on the floor and jumps off, doing a flip and landing. As he lands, Reggie quickly gets up off his back and moves toward Gendross in a spastic, uncanny manner. Gendross prepares to block the oncoming attack, but Elio speeds toward them and jumps on Reggie, he then hops off his back and blasts a gust of wind at him, Gendross covers his eyes with his arms to avoid being steamed. He then feels cooler; “Wait, the wind wasn’t hot?” Gendross wonders as he tries to look back, only to see Elio performing alarmingly fast frontflips, he tries to dodge, but gets caught in a grab by Reggie’s middle arms. Elio takes advantage of Gendross’ distraction by clasping his hands together and landing a crushing hammer fist strike to the head. Gendross feels intense as a relentless throb reverberates through his head, accompanied by the sharp, pulsating pain with every heartbeat. As Elio lands on the floor, it’s as if time stops for Gendross; “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” He yells in agony from the attack. As he does so, Reggie lifts Gendross off the ground, leaning his head over to try and bite his head off, Gendross, in the heat of the moment from his head pounding, uses his right hand to grab Reggie’s chest. He then channels his power and annihilates a particle in Reggie’s skeleton, snapping Reggie’s spine instantly. “GRRRAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!” Reggie roars thunderously from the pain. Screaming, he stumbles before falling backward and reverting to his regular form, passing out from too much shock.

Gendross snaps back to reality as his eyebrows rise in horror; “Reggie?! REGGIE!!!” He shouts in regret, knowing that he just crippled his opponent, someone’s pet, no less. Without taking notice, Elio jumps up and wraps his arms onto Gendross’ back, and just like Gendross, Elio gets caught in the heat of the moment. “We win!” Elio yells victoriously; “Wait! Elio-” Gendross is interrupted as Elio transfers heat generated from his body directly into Gendross’, badly hurting, as well as burning him. A small steam cloud erupts from the attack, as it fades, Gendross’ shell steams, the bright and vibrant color of it, now slightly washed out as his mucus-like insides from his wrist wound stop dripping as they become partially solid; “...” Gendross tries to react, but can’t due to the heat dehydrating him. Elio stands behind Gendross, he breathes heavily as that last attack took a lot out of him. He notices that Gendross is trying to move his arm; “Wait, are you trying to point at something? Why’s your hand like that?” He asks, confused, as he walks over to Gendross’ right. He looks at his face, waving his hand to get his attention; “Gendross! You’re ok, right?” He asks with concern. Gendross fully points forward; “Reg…” He utters sluggishly. Elio looks behind him to see Reggie on the ground, looking lifeless, he notices that Reggie’s back looks as though it has a camel’s hump. “Holy fuck! Reggie!” Elio screams.

Elio remains frozen in place as he’s trying to process what he’s seeing, but as he stands there, Gendross loses balance and falls forward, landing on top of Elio. “GAH-” Elio gasps from Gendross’ weight crashing down on him. “I’m… sorry…” Gendross breathes as he passes out from heat suffocation. Elio squirms to try and move, but can’t due to the weight and mass; “Come on, Reggie! Hang in there, I’m right here!” He screams helplessly as he tries to reach him, but fails. He begins losing consciousness from struggling to breathe properly under Gendross' weight. He puts his head down; “Reggie…” He utters quietly, as he too, passes out from the fight. And just like that, all the fighters are unconscious from the fight.

May 31st, 2018. 8:14 PM.

The winners: Elio and Reggie.