Casey huffed as he got to his knees. “Judy. Are you okay?”

He looked back and saw Judy wasn't moving. Casey cursed, but before he could move to her he heard a rumble in the air.

Adrian’s laughter was low and malicious as he approached lifting a fist, “One down!”

Adrian swung with full force only to be stopped by a shield. A blue layer of energy surrounded Casey where he crossed his arms. Judy reminded limp behind him.

“Ha! You think you can just turtle up!” Adrian laughed again before he started slamming his fist into Casey's shield over and over. “You'll break soon enough. You lost, blue boy.”

“That's where you're wrong, you brute.” Casey shot back, “You'll exhaust yourself before you even put a dent into my energy reserves.”

“That may be so,” Melvin’s voice froze Casey's blood as he materialized behind him, “but I'll cut through you and your shield, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.”

Melvin had casually strolled up and raised his blade for a stab. Casey had already been buffing about holding off Adrian, now he had run out of options. Melvin lifted his blade and stabbed down onto Casey’s shield started a hissing chord to join the drumming of Adrian’s pounding fists. It took only a moment for the tiniest sliver to poke through and soon enough he would have enough to pry apart the blue dome.

There was nothing Casey could do. He just forced all his will and power into the holding his shield up. He couldn’t any spare a thought on a planning a counter. Every thump of Adrian’s fist drew his attention and each time he had to force himself to keep up the power at where Melvin was slowly cutting in.

If only Judy was up, Casey thought to himself. Judy was still down, but slowly recovering. She was groaning and twitching, but with no signs of focus. Casey couldn’t spare the time to help.

Adrian drummed his fists into the shield and shook the ground under them. The vibration rattled everyone and slowly bought Judy back into focus. She pushed herself up and rubbed her head before looking up to Melvin’s Knight Cutter a whole inch in.

Almost reflexively, Judy raised her staff and pushed all her power into a single spell.

“Pum Pum Big Pumpkin Explosion!”

The spell lifted and threw everyone back into the center of the arena. Except for Melvin who, opposite of everyone, was launched out of the ring.

The other three landed and this time Judy was quick to recover, but not as quick as Adrian who had stomped over and kicked her. Catching her in the ribs and sending her into a stone wall.

Adrian started stomping over for another kick but was cut off by a barrage of energy beams from Casey. Still kneeling, he fired beam after beam that seemed to merely annoy Adrian who leaned over to grab a rock and throw it. Catching Casey's shoulder the energy attacks stopped and was replaced immediately with a melee attack from Judy.

She swung her staff catching Adrian’s temple. A back swing caught his chin. A third swing was grabbed by Adrian. He pulled, lifting Judy to her feet before pushing her back against the wall. Losing her balance she fell over and Adrian swiftly delivered a kick to her chin throwing her head against the wall cracking her skull.

A buzzer rang over the arena.

Judy Cajun: Eliminated by Technical Knock Out

The announcer came over the speaker announcing that Judy's elimination had been called, and informed everyone that any further attacks on her will result in instant disqualification.

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Adrian just laughed and spat blood on the ground between, “One down,” he turned to face Casey, “One to go.”

“Bastard!” Casey shot to his feet and unleashed a barrage of attacks. Beam attacks that Adrian shrugged off as he marched toward.

“That’s your best!” Adrian shouted as he stomped one foot forward at a time. Each blast hitting his chest with minimum effect. He stepped into melee range and leaned as far back as he could, “Well it ain't good enough.”

Adrian swung his whole body forward and headbutt Casey like a sledgehammer. Casey's visor cracked from the blow. He recoiled.

“You like that?” Adrian taunted, “I was going to call it Hell Hammer Headbutt, but that sounds dumb. Maybe something like Skull Cracker, or maybe-”

Casey uppercutted Adrian.

The punch caused Adrian’s teeth to crack together into a manic smile. He tilted his head back down to look on to Casey and laughed, “Oh yeah. Show me your best.”

Adrian swung his fist and Casey swung back. The two boys boxed fair and square for a solid minute. Casey’s punches were leaving dents in Adrian, but Adrian’s punches were rattling Casey’s entire skeleton. The super powered punches were barely stopped by his armoe. Only Casey's fighting spirit allowed him to withstand the onslaught.

In the audience, the member of Class J were in awe. Semy grinned and chuckled, “That Casey boy can take a beating. That’s for sure.”

Kevin shot to feet and shouted, “Come on Adrian! Kill him already! Stop holding back!”

“He’s not holding back, sugar,” XK-88 commented as he watched intensely, “at least not willing. I’ve seen his power level this high.”

Vlad nodded in agreement, “Yeah, I’ve seen alot of fighting in my life, and neither of them are holding back, and it seems like Adrian has this in the bag.”

“Almost hard to believe this is the same who got his ass kicked everyday since school started.” said Nazuri.

Below the boys were still trading blows until Casey stumbled back and fell to knee. He was coughing blood and could barely stay up. There was nothing he could do as Adrian stomped over.

“Well the very least I can say is that this was fun.” Adrian grabbed Casey and hammer threw across the field and into a stone in sight of where Judy was laying unconscious.

Damn it. This can’t be it, Casey thought to himself, if only I had a bit more power.

Casey looked at his dented blaster with gritted teeth and heard Adrian stomped to him to finish him off. He had to pull something out of his sleeve and fast. He had to found more power even if it was risky. He had to bypass his limits.

Casey started slammed his forearm on a rock over and over until he snapped open a panel on his blaster. Peeling off the panel to revealed a matrix of chips and wires he reached in and pulled one chip out. The Hard Safety Regulator Chip. Without it Casey’s fighting spirit ran through his flux engine without restraint and he brought all of that power to forearm blaster and pointed as Adrian who could only stared in shock for a single moment. Enough for Casey unleash his new attack.

“Heart Sleeve Blast”

A pillar of power explored from Casey directly into Adrian. The demon brute tried to withstand the attack rooting his footing but was picked up and swept up and away over the ring. His body slammed against the invisible wall that lit with the effort needed to protect the audience from such powerful attacks. The attack whailed on until Casey manager to disengaged the blaster. Adrian fell down on to the ground.

Adrian Priest: Eliminated by Ring Out

Casey’s blaster had overheated and was burning him as he slammed it against rocks to rip the rest of the blaster off leaving only a skeletal robot hand behind. He took a moment to breath before looking up at the applasuing audience. He grinned from ear to ear and raised his hands in victory yelling, “I did it! I won! We won!”

“Think again,” Melvin said as his raised he blade to Casey’s throat.

Casey was in shock. This was impossible. Judy had thrown him out the ring. Casey’s eyes looked up at the announcement board and his blood froze as he saw it clearly marked Judy and Adrian as out, but he and Melvin were both still in. “Impossible. How?”

“Simple.” Melvin said, “When I went over the edge I manage to grabbed the edge before falling and pulled myself up. Now, unless you believe you can survive decapitation, I’ve won here.”

Casey Young: Eliminated by Technical Death Blow.

Melvin sheathed and dismissed Knight Cutter. He turned to walk away, stopping only to remark, “For the nothing that it's worth, you were quite the challenge.”

Casey fell to his knees in disbelief. In quiet fury he slammed his robot hand into the dirt and gritted his teeth to hold his scream in as a frustrated tear tried to escape.

Winner: West Progress High's team of Adrian Priest and Melvin Greenleaf.