- Oliver -

  "Poison Rain!"

  Ding

  Ding

  The boy with a skeletal appearance was walking toward the two, apanied by a slightly shirl with long bck hair. Their eyes were focused otle ahead, but the most dangerous thing was what was behind them—a new green cloud.

  "Too bad I had to use that cloud oher two. With you, we'll have to use another method." Pollux rested his on one of his hands. The boy seemed to be thinking as he walked close to his new oppos.

  Oliver looked at Taser; their battle couldn't tiherwise, both would be at a disadvantage. Each took a few steps back to focus on the new oppos.

  "I've got it! How about this?" Pollux said with a wide smile. At the tips of his hands, purple droplets began to appear, like sweat stantly being expelled. But the moment a few drops started to gather, the boy moved his arms, firing them all around.

  Oliver and Taser took a few more leaps back to avoid being hit by the barrage. When the droplets hit the ground, the liquid began to bubble and gradually erode the sand.

  "As if being disgusting wasn't enough, this is acid," Oliver said, his body shuddering in disgust at the 'sweat.'

  "Do you prefer to face the boy or the girl?" Taser asked.

  "The girl, no doubt," Oliver replied without thinking twice.

  "Great! Then you take the boy." Taser didn't wait for Oliver's response, charging against the two new oppos.

  "Great! Great?!" Oliver said, still surprised. But with no time to pte what had happened, he started running the other way, distang himself from Taser and cirg the twins.

  "You know we've been attacked in pairs from the start, right? Strategies like that won't work," Pollux shouted as he tinued shooting acid at the two.

  Oliver and Taser adva the same moment. While Oliver sought to attack Pollux with his spear, Taser wao strike Helena.

  "Damn," Oliver pined. His spear came close, but he was almost hit by the acid droplets.

  As for Taser, she mao get past Pollux and approach Helena, but before she could attack with her daggers, she was hit by an explosion of wind, pushing her away.

  "I told you," Pollux shouted, mog the oppos.

  ‘A direct attack won't work. The acid is also corroding the spear,’ Oliver thought, trying to find an alternative for the attack. Simply cirg and isoting each oppo wouldn't be enough. To make matters worse, holes were gradually f where the droplets hit the spear; soon, he would be without a on.

  Ping

  | [NicoY] Bet 20 Credits - Message: It's time, kid. Use it and secure the victory.

  Oliver nodded. He knew what Nico was thinking. It wouldn't be his first time using it, but the teique his teacher had taught was plex. He had only mao execute it once, in ay room, without any battle going on around him.

  ‘Will it work?’ Oliver thought. The boy turhe spear downward and stuck it into the sand.

  With each breath, he tried to feel aract the energy from the Z Crystal. Oliver could feel golden threads of energy expelled from his gau; now it was his turn to trol this energy and weave it between his arms and legs.

  ‘Almost there,’ Oliver thought.

  "Looks like your partner gave up attag," Pollux shouted at Taser.

  The girl didn't quite know why Oliver had stuck his spear. But she didn't have time to think about it; she still had to face Helena's attacks.

  "Pollux! Pay attention to him," Helena ented. Her voice was low but serious, to the point of making her brother refocus on the oppo.

  'I think that's it,' Oliver thought. The boy still didn't kly how, but he felt it was the maximum energy he could extract from the crystal.

  Oliver felt the crystal's energy flowing and pulsating through his hands and legs. To any outsider, it was almost impossible to uand what was happening. Small golden and translut fmes seemed to envelop his arms and legs.

  With determination in his eyes, Oliver raised both hands, fixing his gaze on Pollux. He slightly bent his knees, preparing to execute the teique.

  "[Prometheus]" shouted Oliver. Where before there had been small fmes, now intense golden bzes burned in the palms of his hands, illuminating the se with an almost celestial glow.

  Pollux couldn't keep up with the speed of events. To him, Oliver seemed to have taken only a siep; however, after a blinding fsh, he realized he was looking at just the residual image of his oppo.

  He tried blinking to clear his vision, but it was too te. Oliver was already at his side. I, desperate attempt to protect himself, Pollux raised his arms to fire his corrosive acid. However, the blow was already sealed.

  Oliver bent his knees and delivered a fast punch followed by an energy bst to the oppo's ribs. At the moment of impact, the fmes seemed to enter Pollux's body and pass through it. The boy was thrown like a rag doll, hitting the sand on the arena floor. Upon stopping, the boy's mouth was full of blood; the impact had clearly ruptured some ans.

  Ding

  "Another oppo out of the battle. Who would have thought Oliver still had an ace up his sleeve," Mike ented.

  "Looks like we knoill advao the floor. But we still have to find out who the winner will be, and Helena doesn't seem willing to give up the victory," John added, seeking to intensify the petition among the three.

  "Pollux!" Helena shouted. Her voice expressed all the surprise and fury within her. She knew her brother was careless, but never in her wildest dreams did she expect he would be defeated in this way.

  She couldn't keep up with Oliver's speed, but they had trained for simir sarios. The girl moved both hands to point at Oliver and Taser, fog all her energy on them. She fired two trated air shots with enough power to pier iron pte.

  Oliver mao dodge using a bit more of the energy he had absorbed. But Taser was advang to attack; without time to dodge, she was hit squarely in the abdomen.

  The shot was so trated that Taser wasn't even thrown back. It resembled the bst of a firearm, and the girl's body ierced through. Where her abdomen once was, there was noing hole.

  She instinctively brought her hands to her stomach, but there was no saving her anymore.

  "Shit," was the st thing Oliver could hear from Taser.

  Ding

  Heleurned all her attention to Oliver. With both hands aimed at him, the girl began a barrage of shots.

  ‘She should already be out of Energy,’ Oliver thought, w how she could still keep fighting.

  The boy was using all his tration to keep running around the arena and dodging the shots. Especially after using the Prometheus Strike; the move had cost him dearly.

  Nico had given a brief expnation of how the teique worked. It used the energy from the crystal as a form of steroid, blending with the body to remove its natural limits.

  Depending on how it lied, it could enhance different physical traits. In Oliver’s case, it boosted his strength and speed. But now, the cost was starting to show.

  His arms and legs weren’t ditioo withstand the impact of such powerful teiques, to the point where his muscles and bones were damaged. The arm he had used to strike Pollux was broken in multiple pces. Moreover, by eling Energy directly into his body, Oliver felt his arms and legs burning both inside and out.

  ‘I just o use it one more time. Maybe I finish this using the other arm?’ Oliver pondered. Running with one shattered arm was already hurting a lot; having to sider breaking the other was surreal to think about. But maybe it would be enough to finish the match.

  "[Prometheus]"

  Helena was nervous, trying to anticipate where he would appear. Iwo hands, she had prepared two powerful shots. She wao wait for him to finish the teique, lose mobility, and then be able to hit him.

  ‘Let's see if it works,’ Helena thought, hoping she was right.

  Meanwhile, Oliver repared to use the rest of the energy to leap in front of the girl and sacrifice his left arm to attack her.

  Everything was decided in the blink of an eye. Helena could barely see the fsh of Oliver appearing in front of her and the golden fme around his fist. However, she could feel the impa her body, causio be thrown against the arena wall. Still scious, she forced herself to open both her hands aimed at her oppo, from which her two st shots were fired.

  "Good... hit," Oliver tried to say, but he was frozen in pce like the st battles.

  On one side, Helena was leaning against the wall, her mouth full of blood. The girl wao respond; it was the first time she felt ered by an oppo. Oher, Oliver had two holes in his abdomen from the shots fired.

  Ding

  Ding

  "What an ending that was!" Mike excimed.

  "Were both elimiogether? Who’s the winner?" John responded.

  GCLopes