A Contest of Winners and Losers - Part 2

I committed my body fully to moving again and raised [Blood Blade]. There was still enough distance between us for her to shoot another dart at me. However, I had prepared for a situation just like this. I suddenly stopped charging towards her and began grabbing something out of my pockets. She looked at me confused as I pulled earplugs out of my pocket and stuck them into my ears. It wasn't until I lifted my shirt when she finally realised what was going on.

She had let her guard down and I covered my eyes with my elbow. The flashbang exploded as it was falling to the ground. I waited a second, then lowered my elbow and took out my earplugs.

As I opened my eyes again, I could see her holding her face in pain. Now I had the opening I needed to land a hit on her. I held [Blood Blade] out in front of me and ran straight towards her. I noticed that she was walking back and she was sticking the blowgun into her mouth. There was no way for her to effectively aim towards me by she still could hit me by chance by just shooting forwards.

Suddenly, my legs felt heavy, like I was heaving them through mud.

What the hell?

My vision was also getting blurry. As I result, I was unable to keep running at her. I was also hit by another blow dart that she had shot.

It took me a little while to realise—but her darts were poisoned. This was breaking the rules as poison was not allowed in the qualifier rounds. There must have been a small enough amount on the dart for it to be nearly undetectable, however the effects were very noticeable. I could feel the effects circulating through my blood and the second blow dart stuck in my was also quite painful.

'Haa, you've finally realised haven't you.' She muttered.

She slowly walked towards me and looked at me in silence.

'Aren't you resenting me for breaking the rules?' She questioned, arrogantly.

It was true, my eyesight was getting blurrier and I hardly had the strength to hold my body up. However, I had expected this. Poison would have been extremely easy to sneak in simply on the end of blow darts. It was extremely predictable.

She continued to walk closer to me dropping her blowgun onto the ground. She held the Disrupter in one hand and a knife in the other.

'Game over, level-0...'

She looked down at me as if she had won.

'An eye for an eye.' I said.

'What did you say?'

One in each hand, I conjured two grenades. As soon as they were summoned, I bit off the ring pull and let go of the safety handle, immediately dropping them on the ground beneath her feet. I had bought these a few minutes before the fight started.

'Wait, what is th-'

Both of us jumped back as fast as we could but the grenades were rolling in her direction so she would not be able to dodge them. They were slowly blowing up, sending a bright yellow light into our eyes. She tried to deflect them with her wind barrier but they weren't near strong enough to move them away fast enough.

Sorry, it had to be done.

The grenades detonated and exploded right beneath her feet. I saw a big cloud of smoke appear between us, as her wind ability dispersed it almost instantly. On the ground, a few metres ahead of me, she lied on the ground.

I slowly made my way towards her.

'No... you're a level-0, how can you have all those abilities? You're a worthless level-0, you're not allowed to win against me.'

'You're only a level-2, you know.'

'I don't care! I'm stronger than you! You cheated!'

'You cheated as well.'

'Shut up! You cheated much harder than I did!'

I moved closer to her and grabbed her by the hair. She tensed up in pain as I lifted her face towards mine. I looked down at her pitiful eyes.

'So what are you going to do about it.'

'I'm going to report you!'

She appeared to be looking at me but it was obvious that she was trying to reach for the knife on the ground. Her hand was feeling around the floor of the arena, trying to pick up her small metal knife which had fallen to the floor.

'What do you think you're trying to do.'

'Let go of me!'

I scrunched up her hair and kicked the knife across the ground. She made a little squeal in pain. I pulled out my Disrupter and moved my hand towards her neck.

'No!'

She tried to swat my hand away but she didn't have anywhere near enough strength.

'It's over.'

The air flow around her increased in intensity but it was still nothing more than a fast evening wind. Whilst I could feel it, it hardly had any effect on my movement.

'You're still trying?'

I saw her suddenly grab a dart out of her pocket. She really wasn't giving up without a struggle. I let go of her long hair and grabbed her wrist. I gripped her wrist with all of my strength and the dart dropped out of her hand.

'Stop...' She cried.

I let go of her wrist and pulled up her hair, revealing her neck. In my other hand, I pressed the Disrupter up against her skin and suddenly, all of the wind around me ceased in an instant. The arena went from a state of chaos to dead calm. I looked down at her as she was completely and utterly defeated.

Crap, my head is starting to ache.

The poison was still circulating through my body and I was slowly losing strength.

'The winner of the 7th round is Ritsu Takamiya!'

Well, it was nice to hear my name on the speaker.

A few faculty staff came into the arena and escorted the two of us into a rest space inside the stadium. A few of the past participants were also here. It was a nice heated room with food prepared and drink dispensers around the place. I looked on the wall and saw a sign which said 'Winners Lounge', I guess there was another one for the losers. I grabbed some food and took a seat on the couch.

My next match would be tomorrow and our opponents would be announced today.