Ch.7- Attract But Bang

Larry was sweating under the sunlight, due to heat and sheer nervousness. He turned his face determined, thinking, Hokay. I shouldn’t worry. It’ll be alright. Trying to calm himself, he took deep breaths, little drops trickling right under his teal-green front hair.

Elosva stood at the far edge of the spectrum, and was visible like a shining aquamarine crystal. Raising her palms up front and closing her eyes, she chanted a spell silently.

Surrounded by a water flow that slithered around her body, she illuminated from all the sparks she gave out, refracting through the water along with the sunlight.

Seconds after, she opened her eyes abruptly and gave another grin, “Yo. Lemme cool you down, buddy,” she bellowed to Larry.

“Huh?” He lifted a brow in confusion, before noticing the water that was collecting in large quantities around her from a distance.

The huge stream spiraling around her, escalated high above.

His heart beat accelerated, and he breathed faster, widening his lavender eyes at what was coming. An overreaction like always, until he manages to handle it again.

Oh shoot. She’s about to unleash it. He thought. Alright. Gotta think quick. I can use those boomerangs. I know how to use them.

The stream left the spiral and hit the ground flowing. She unleashed her attack with another command, “Water mouth, activate!”

The torrent grew broader, as more water from the spiral around her collected there, forming a tide that flowed fast and reached him as he flinched in surprise. It grew bigger till it curved high above him like a monster, trying to swallow him whole.

Stretching his arms wide, he blurted nervously, “K-Kronix weapon form, Gravitas Stars,”

Two large and silver, star-shaped shurikens materialized in his hands, shining in the starlight. Gripping them tightly, he crossed his arms with a serious yet worried look and tossed them swiftly.

They glowed in light-blue as they spun and slashed through the flood, disappearing into the waters.

He quickly extended his arms forward with open palms as he blurted, “Special attack; Planet Attractors. Gravitas Stars, form your systems!”

The shurikens’ rotation accelerated in speed, sucking the waters into two cyclones. The cyclones turned into tornados that roamed around a little.

As his clothes and hair fluttered, Larry looked at them with a smile, crossing his arms in front of his face and squinting. Elosva did the same, but was gritting her teeth instead.

How the hell did he suck my waters and turn them into water tornadoes? she thought, not seeing shurikens anywhere due to them being obscured in the waters.

“Absorb matter, clench and condense.” yelled Larry an order, gripping his palms fast.

Slowly, the water condensed into nothing but two orbs, like planet Neptune.

“Supernova, and cease element formation from existence,” he shouted again in command.

The two large orbs collided and exploded into tiny droplets that evaporated in the heat of the air. The shurikens hovered one above the other, dark energy emanating from them as they rotated faster than before, with their attraction increasing, like a black hole.

“Impossible!” screamed Elosva. With widened eyes, she dropped to her knees, unable to fathom how her magic could lose to mere shurikens.

She looked down for a moment, before standing up again, trying to regain her strength and fight back more effectively this time.

Larry shook in his place, from startlement of victory and remnant fear. It was unexpected for him to be able to do it so easily on such a giant wave. He thought he was a goner for a moment under that overwhelming mass of water.

He ordered the blades to come back, and they flew to his hand, their energy turning light and blue as they diminished their attraction. After retrieving and examining them a little, he thought, Strange how I improved with those two. Can’t imagine how strong the real ones would be.

They dimmed for a moment due to their complete halt, then glimmered again more intensely and disappeared into fragments. The energy stored in them was depleted, while his own was half.

Right after that, he looked forward at the far distance, noticing that some water was forming around Elosva, shining like an S.O.S signal from the sunlight refraction. He turned his face towards the stadium stand, where Mr. Lee stood. Narrowing his eyes, he tried staring farther with anticipation of announcing the winner.

Looking back at Elosva, he wondered what she was up to. He began accelerating from his position straight to the opposite side in order to check on her.

As the field went silent, he ran at high speed, aided by the electric currents flowing throughout his body.

Stopping just a forty feet away from her, he requested, “You’re defeated now. Just surrender...Please,”

“Not a chance,” she muttered and bared her teeth, rage building up in her tone. Clenching her fists, she gave him a fierce look, as if she’s willing to drown him mercilessly.

“There’s no use. I’ve already defeated you,” he said, trying to convince her to stop and surrender.

She widened her light-green eyes even more in anger, the sun lighting them bright.

“Look. It’s only gonna be a cycle of defeat. You can’t win against me. You have a disadvantage by your side,”

“Shut up!” she yelled.

“Whoa. Now it’s getting a bit more interesting,” said Mr. Lee.

Larry gave her a startled face, before looking down in anxiousness. “S-Sir?” he shouted, turning his head towards the stadium stand again.

“Yeah?” replied Mr. Lee through the megaphone.

“C’mon. Let’s just end it here,”

“Not until one of you says it or gets knocked out,”

He stared back at her for a moment, and sighed. “Good grief,” he murmured, facepalming.

“Think you can beat me so easily, huh?” she said.

Turning his attention to her again, he noticed her output increasing exponentially. He stepped back a little, worried she might attack him any instant.

Her torrents escalated and rained upon him once more.

Forming the two star blades a second time, he caught and tossed them immediately to slice through the water before shifting to his lightning form and running back a few hundred feet. He atomized at a safe position, standing helpless and watching in anticipation of knocking her out once and for all.

The shurikens absorbed the water again, but her torrents seemed to have picked up more pace this time, making it a fight of speed between the spinning stars and the water bearer.

“I’m gonna form a tornado that's faster than your fidget spinners, asshole!” she muttered in fury.

Resisting the shurikens’ attraction, the torrents tried sucking them in instead.

The attraction was less than before, so the blades struggled to keep up. If they remained in their dark form they would’ve had much more attraction, but since they were re-summoned by Larry due to his demand to stop the fight, they regained their light energy, making them a bit slower.

With the water currents increasing in speed, the star blades’ opposite rotation couldn’t resist the attraction of the currents, making it spin backwards until it got sucked in by the water.

The blades spun around the water tornado, inside its spiral stream till it gushed out of the currents and headed straight towards Larry.

Extending his arms against the retaliating shurikens, he shouted, “Gravitas Stars, recalibrate and power release,”

His hands glowed in blue, and he stood in fear, sweating and looking at them with widened eyes. He bared his teeth in nervousness as his heart thumped faster than the speed of their rotation.

In the last instant before they made contact with him, the blades paused right in front of his face and shone brightly, before continuing to spin and fly back to the tornado, as if they’re being sucked by it. However, that wasn’t the case. They were preparing to absorb every drop of water in the currents.

Flying around the spiraling torrent, they rotated rapidly to the point the water was being absorbed in segments, soon creating doppelgängers.

Three tornados spun around the field before Larry ordered the blades to close in on the original one and crush it. Right after it was sucked into them, they merged and headed for Elosva by his command.

Elosva’s tracksuit waved along with her long hair almost obstructing her vision. She was squinting and couldn’t see anything by the time they reached her position.

Placing her arm by her forehead, she resisted the pull, until she gave up and let herself get eaten by the giant whirlwind. She bit her lip in defeat, her face shadowed by her waving hair.

Plucked like a flower, she was absorbed like a lifeless doll almost immediately, soaring for a second before entering the stream.

Inside, she was holding her neck from suffocation and screaming her guts out as she drowned in her own waters, her cheeks puffed and bubbles escaping her pursed lips. She then gave up hope, and simply went into a slumber while being carried by the torrent in a spiral. Soon her expression turned a bit serene as she realized how idiotic she was, assuming she could electronize and flow separately to pick up electric currents.

Charging up, she shone and turned into sparks, flowing through the waters. The tornado was flickering like a thunderstorm as she spiraled up the currents. She materialized the moment she gushed out from high above, then once again lit up and landed farther in a lightning bolt.

Once she struck the ground, she formed back and pulled out her palms, and as they glinted, she clasped them to attract her waters back to her control.

I can’t control them anymore. Thought Elosva, blinking from the winds. She shifted her eyes to the other side. Wait. I can simply go straight to him.

Still unable to resist, she left her position to attack Larry. Accelerating at slower than usual speed due to the pull, she managed to reach him.

What? He thought, looking at her with wide eyes as she came running his way.

In mere seconds, she jumped at him while he was raising his hands for aid from his blades.

“Take this!” she shouted, grabbing his face and releasing a water burst.

He fell on his back and was suffocating as water entered from every opening in his face; nostrils and mouth. Unable to breath, he squirmed and begged her to halt.

The blades stopped spinning and immediately the storm disappeared, as they headed to her behind with a clear aim.

In his mind, he gave them an order, Stop. Dematerialize!

The Gravitas Stars shone and disappeared in bits.

With the sound of that, Elosva removed her hand and smirked.

“The winner is...Elosva!” called out Mr. Lee from the megaphone.

He updated the rankings, putting Larry at 21st since his performance was still spectacular and had shown great improvements, that’s why he didn’t lower his rank and instead made it much higher than his previous 29th place. Elosva, on the other hand, climbed only one rank above hers, at 20th, due to her uncontrolled and clumsy magic usage.

Her friends cheered and not many cared, nor many rooted for Larry either.

“Hmph,” she stood up, gave him a glare then walked away to the stadium stand.

Oh man. Failed again because of my stupidity. Even though I could’ve defeated her. He sat up and looked down with a depressed face.

She ascended the stairs, when she saw the delinquent boys talking what she suspected would be about their friend Larry.

“Cheater,” said John quietly from his seat behind while glaring at her.

She paused by the end of the girls’ row and looked at him with a smile, “Hm? You really think so? What about you? I bet you have an ace up your sleeve too, loser.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you cheated, bitch.” said John in fury.

She twirled her head to the front and continued walking to her seat.

Larry came soon after, and as he went to his place, John asked, “Hey. I’m sorry about your loss,”

“What? No..It’s fine.” said Larry in surprise, before toning down his voice, “ I should’ve focused more on her,”

After that, ranks 12 and 14 fought.

A boy named Nickel with dark, spiky hair and purple eyes against Elosva’s edgy friend, Gaia, who had short, brown hair and cyan eyes, as well as piercings on her ears and nose.

He used chain blades while she used subterramancy and was able to fold the raw crust and enclose him in a concrete barrier before his blades ever reached her.

Her rank went up to 12th because of her stronger, more durable rocks, while he dropped to 15th, due to his inability to break rock barriers with his magic blades—even with a special attack.

Then another two, ranks 17 and 18.

Zeal, a calm but smart guy with fine, silver hair and light-green eyes versus Kooky, a girl with a ponytail, violet hair and light-blue eyes.

She used explosion magic by raining a strange golden powder from a close to ground dark cloud that moved at high speed. At the same time, he launched with a burst high above the ground using his rocket-like gauntlets before doing the same with a straight aim at her head. He shielded himself with a steel skin all over his body that formed out of his magical ‘Metal Rockets’ (MRK212).

Just before they formed their illuminating blue orbs, her cloud reached him and its powder exploded instantly when it made contact with him.

He came out only with a few burns as most of his steel skin melted and peeled off, before he fell in exhaustion and admitted defeat, his gauntlets glowing and disappearing. The girl then helped him up and took him to the infirmary.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lee changed their rankings. Zeal went down to 20th, making Elosva and Larry drop by a rank, while Kooky went up to his old rank.

“Alright, next is..John versus Larry,” said Mr. Lee.

“W-What?” stood Larry, “B-But sir, can you please reconsider. I don’t want to fight him. He’s my friend,”

“Same. I don’t want him to suffer defeat again, especially not by my hands,” said John, confident in his ability.

“Oh aren’t you a cocky one,” chuckled one of the delinquents from the back.

“Well..At least I care about him, unlike you people,”

“What did you just say?!” the delinquent rose up, clasping his hands and grinding his teeth.

While looking at the clipboard and deciding opponents, Mr. Lee warned carefreely, “Kane, sit your ass down..Or I’m coming,”

Larry stared at John for a moment and blushed, “John…,”

He clutched his own jacket, feeling his throbbing chest and thinking, So he still likes me…

“Hey. What are you looking at?” asked John, turning his face to him, his expression more startled than angry.

Larry quickly looked away and uttered in embarrassment, “N-Nothing,”

“Heh. You can see that he is no real man, so might as well care about him all you want, mr. omega,” laughed the delinquent at John as he sat down again.

John twirled about in his seat, “Oh I’m an alpha, you piece of shit...Much better than your ass,” he replied.

“Yeah, keep bragging, you beta prick..Let’s see how you handle things once I get my hands on you,”

“You better keep your filthy hands away from me, ‘cause I ain’t gonna be the same if you touch me,”

“Alright. Stop that immediately…,” said Mr. Lee, facing them, “Sorry about that, I meant Elosva versus John,” he corrected.

“Ah, I would gladly fight that weakling,” said Elosva, standing up.

“Don’t underestimate me,” said John, rising up as well.

The two headed to the field and the next battle was decided.

Seconds after their fight had begun, the bell rang and with that, the students rose from their seats and headed for the school building.

“Go back to your class. We’ll resume next time,” announced Mr. Lee on the megaphone.

“Oh man...Seriously?” whined John.

Elosva flashed to him, “Next time, weirdo,”

She continued darting to the class and regrouped with her friends.

John followed her, reaching Pico and the others.

After coming to the locker rooms, everyone changed back to their uniforms and went to the next class, which was physics.