[00:00]

The buzzer sounds off.

Ace's foot stops less than an inch next to her face. The system won't physically allow him to hurt her during break time, so it forcefully freezes him. The smoke clears to the point where they are both visible to everyone watching. During the whole fight, her face looked calm and a little arrogant. She only squinted her eyes in frustration and pain, even when she was shot with the two arrows. Now, her face expresses what she expected to be defeated with her eyes closed and ghastly look. When she opens her eyes, she notice she is shaking uncontrollably, and falls to her knees.

Everyone watching figuratively and/or literally drops their drinks and jaws. For them, the final minute of checkpoint third had been utter beyond all reason. Even the commentators are clueless and speechless. For almost the whole fight, nothing significant was happening. For the whole fight, they had never come close to each other. But in the final minute, Ace was less than an inch away from kicking Malala's head off her torso. She looks at him but not actually. Her eyes are merely open, looking in his direction as she feels dead already. It's until he puts his foot down that she comes back to herself.

Malala- "What happened?"

A screen pops up in his view and tells him to walk away from his opponent or face disqualification. He's forced to move about twenty feet away and stay that distance during the break. Ace turns around and walks away, only this time, he doesn't go into hiding but rather sits on a broken concrete boulder nearby. The screen goes away after he sits down.

Malala- 'I lost. No, the buzzer sounded, I was saved by luck. I thought in any scenario he would be the one saved by luck.'

Geo- "Alright here's the replay of the last minute. Once Malala flies in front of the tall building, Untitled makes himself a target."

Theo- "Here he reveals himself and I believe he throws a batch of Throwing knives but all of them look to be deflected by Malala's Musu. She then boxes herself in as soon as she gets hurt, we have seen this move before. But then for some reason, she jumps out backwards of her Musu box defense. We don't know why because we clearly can't see what's in the box. He then reappears to her and she attacks him sloppily and violently."

Geo- "And attack she does but fails to hit him multiple times before using her Musu like a sword to slice through the tallest building in the field like a newlywed taking a slice of their wedding cake. The building collapses but somehow or some reason, Woman Devil does not escape the collapse."

Theo- "If we look closer we can tell Untitled is throwing something, and it's a throwing knife. He hits the mark on her bad arm causing her to stay grounded, keeping her from flying back into the sky."

Geo- "Now in the smoke, as we are replaying it we can just disregard the smoke and see the two clearly. As you can see, she is having trouble and calls on her second Paradise ability, a Grade-1st ability, to protect herself in the building's collapse."

Theo- "This is unbelievable. Untitled stays in the collapsing building avoiding all concrete structures falling on him."

Geo- "I'm surprised that he's able to understand what is going on in a collapsing highrise. Once the building fully collapses, he shakes some of the rubble off and then charges Malala in the smoke.

Theo- "Here I think Malala sees him running at him but freezes in pain. She can't use her Paradise Musia ability since there is dust and material everywhere. There is no clear space for her to create Musu. Also her arm looks to be in pain again so she stays still watching until The Untitled attacks."

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Geo- "And this is the part where we all clearly see. The Untitled performs a round-house kick and is less than an inch away from kicking her face until the buzzer conveniently goes off. The smoke clears up and we see the two in the same position in which the match ended. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anything that fast pace after a long brutal drought."

Theo- "Me neither but for me I expected something like this. Untitled is playing Chess while she's playing Gungi. He was looking to make that maneuver quick and explosive to get to her.”

Malala takes her time during the five-minute break to somewhat heal her arm. Ace patiently waits twenty feet away, sitting on a concrete boulder. He closes his eyes with the white mask still covering his face. He relaxes his breathing and mind. Throughout the whole tournament, he didn't have to think much besides the first round against Marco Danny. He has always been calm and more than slightly arrogant. This is the first fight where he has doubts on if success is within reach.

Denarrow- 'Plan C then… Initially plan C was plan B but I remembered something important that was easier than plan C. Plan B turned out great up until the last second. I followed her around until she came across one of the five buildings in the city, even more great that it was the tallest one. Once she did, I surprised her by jumping out from above. I threw about twenty or so knives in an instant but they were all deflected by a Musu wall. She boxes herself in as I expected. I once again created an illusion to trick which worked catching her off guard causing her to fall out of her defensive box. After she fell close to the ground I attacked and successfully baited her into attacking. Everytime she has attacked, she has attacked with a very high destructive capacity. She ended up attacking and destroying the building's foundation, which I purposely wanted her to do. The hard part of the plan was making sure she stayed grounded. I needed the building to collapse on her. It was hard to throw a knife while trying to not get buried alive but fortunately I got a hit. I was aiming for the head but stupidly I missed and hit her already bad arm instead. Better to end it sooner than later whenever I can during the plan, unfortunately range isn't my specialty. Once the building fully collapsed, smoke poured out and ate up half the place.’

He opens his eyes to see Malala struggling with the pain and indecisive on what to do next.

Denarrow- ‘She saved herself using her second Paradise ability and was lucky enough that nothing too heavy hit her. A large piece of shit had my foot stuck, I was about to tear it off and run on one foot, but thankfully I didn't have to after a few tugs. Using my other heightened senses, I figured out where she was in all the smoke and I ran up to perform a final attack. It was the perfect moment to do so. It wasn't just the fact she could barely see but her Musia power was neutralized. Musu or any resource power can't be created when something, besides air, is in the place of creation. The smoke was all over her, neutralizing her power. The resource can grow from one's body but Musu probably isn't as flexible in shaping compared to water and ice which she instead used. But for that weakness I exposed, she looked right at me as I came at her. She was powerless but surprisingly she didn't run. I think she was either afraid or stunned. I know I didn't use any psychic power to make her still in place. It was all for nothing though, in the end when the buzzer sounded off and the system made me hold up in place right when I was about to land a kick. I guess plan C (originally plan B) is next. No, that plan is shit. I'm tired of hiding, I just want to go through with it. I didn't want to do this then, but, I'm sorry Avi. This is for her but I might get us in trouble this time.'

Malala cuts off her right arm with an ice shard shocking everyone except Ace.

Denarrow- 'I would've done that too if my arm was in that bad of a condition, practically dead weight. I guess I'll take advantage of the clock, whether she chooses to continue or not.'

Malala's expression of pain and exhaustion could never have been imagined. Her look of confidence, while always being so neutrally emotional, is replaced with tears and the feeling of pain. She freezes her wound to stop the blood from pouring out. The buzzer sounds off, and Malala's heart drops knowing who’s vulnerable in more than one way. But to her and everyone else's surprise, Ace sits in the same place without moving a centimeter.

[29:55 Remaining]

[Checkpoint 4th]