Strength And Brains

Seeing themselves standing on a long plank which wasn't very wide, Kyle and Mike looked around. After putting on the helmet their sight had gone blank for a split second, now looking below the plank, they could see a pool of boiling hot lava with drops of lava splashing onto the plank once in a while.

When they were done taking note of their surroundings, Kyle and Mike faced each other and got into a fighting stance.

Charging forward first, Kyle threw out a punch which Mike dodged then threw a punch of his own aiming for Kyle's elbow. Blocking the punch, Kyle shot out a stream of his yellow poison from three of his fingers.

Forming a round metal object out of thin air, Mike was able to block most of the poison but some of it still touched his left hand. Looking at his left hand, Mike's eyes went wide in shock. His left hand had completely disintegrated, there was no trace of the hand ever being there apart from the gaping hole in the upper left side of his torso which wasn't dropping any blood.

Following through with a kick, Kyle's leg hit the round metal object which went on to slam into Mike's head. Not wasting time, Kyle went forward to grab Mike's head with both of his hands then bent it to face the back.

Now with Kyle being the obvious winner, his sight went blank once more for a split second before he saw himself lying with his back on the floor of the training room with the helmet still on his head.

"That was a very gory way to end the fight Kyle." Jake said when Kyle took the helmet off his head and got to his feet.

"You're right, I might have seemed kind of sadistic back there but I knew nothing was going to happen to him and I did it as fast as I could." Kyle said. "How would you have ended the fight?"

"I would have just pushed him into the hot lava below." Jake replied. "But when you think about it, that does seem more sadistic than turning the head to the back the way you did."

"You have to admit, what I did was the fastest way to kill him." Kyle said.

"Enough chitchat, you can talk about the fights later." Anna interrupted. "We all knew you were going to win Kyle, you're one of my best students. Mike sorry but, take a seat. Let's see the names of the students fighting next."

Looking at the television screen which had stopped showing the arena where the fight just took place, they could see the names of the students who were going to be participating in the next fight.

"Rick versus Barry." Anna shouted. "Come over here and put these helmets on."

Stepping forward, two students collected the helmets from Anna and put it on their heads.

Watching the fight that was taking place, Jake was noticing some changes in the students. Since the time Miss Anna challenged the male students to try touching her during a sparring session, they had improved. It wasn't by leaps and bounds but the improvement was still noticeable, the way they threw their punches and curved their arms the right way at the right time, a person could tell they had some very basic training.

"You noticed it too right?" Kyle asked from beside Jake.

"Noticed what?" Jake asked, feigning ignorance.

"We've all gotten better. Our improvement isn't much but if someone was to look at us before and now, the person would definitely see the changes."

"That's true." Jake said. "Who do you think will make it to the final match?"

"Why don't we watch and see." Kyle said while walking away.

"He already knows who's going to make it to the final match." Smith said.

"Who do you have in mind Smith?" Kevin asked.

"Jake and Kyle." Smith answered. "Everyone knows they are the strongest in the training room."

"And from the way Jake beat him up in front of everybody, I'm pretty sure Jake's going to win against Kyle and come out as the number one student." Kevin said.

"But it might not be an easy fight." Jake said while watching Kyle talk with some other students. 'He was already very strong before he got magic, and with what I saw his poison do to that arm, he has already made his magic stronger than the time I saw it.'

The students who had just fought had taken off their helmets and gotten up from the floor.

"Sorry Barry, take a seat." Anna said. "The next fight is between Smith and Dave."

"Make us proud Smith." Kevin said as Smith slowly stepped forward.

"You can do this Smith." Jake said.

Walking forward slowly, Smith collected the helmet from Anna and put it on his head. With his sight going blank for a split second, Smith saw himself standing at the top of a cliff with his opponent, Dave, facing him.

Immediately running towards Smith, Dave didn't waste any time and began using his magic.

Seeing Dave running towards him, Smith tried to move away but his legs were not moving. Looking at his legs, Smith saw they had already begun slowly sinking into the ground.

Not having the time to deal with his legs sinking into the ground, Smith remained where he was and used his two hands to grab onto the hand Dave had thrown a punch with then using the momentum from Dave's running, Smith turned in another direction and lifted Dave slightly off the ground before slamming him down.

"Damn." Kevin said after seeing what Smith just did. "Where did he learn that? And how did he do that?"

"Smith is most likely the one who has improved the most out of all us. Imagine combining strength and brains, that's what Smith is doing." Jake said. "He's already a very smart student, so what he's doing is getting stronger. If he can be as strong as he is smart, Kevin, you might not stand a chance against him one day."

"That's nonsense man." Kevin said. "I know Smith is getting really strong, but do you think I just sat down doing nothing? I'm gonna show anyone who thinks Smith is stronger than me."

"You might get the chance to do that today. But let's keep watching the fight." Jake said.

Turning their attention back to the fight between Smith and Dave, they could see Smith bleeding from one of his legs and Dave was bleeding from his mouth. They were both standing a few metres away from each other and Smith, who had already learned his lesson about standing in one spot, was running towards Dave with his leg still bleeding.

Smith hadn't bothered to try healing himself because he knew Dave wouldn't just stand by and watch him use his magic. On getting close to the Dave, Smith began running in circles, he wasn't running at his fastest due to the wound on his leg but he tried to ignore the pain coming from the leg.

Turning around and following Smith closely with his eyes, Dave made a spot in front of Smith become soft so it will be able to stop Smith from moving but just before Smith could step into it, Smith lunged at Dave.

Not expecting the sudden movement, Dave didn't react on time and was hit in the stomach by Smith's fist. Using the close proximity between them, Dave gave Smith a kick on his ribcage.

Falling to the ground after both receiving a hit from the other person, Smith moved away from Dave and while Dave was still on the ground, Smith began healing his leg and the pain coming from where Dave had kicked.

Feeling his body slowly sinking into the ground, Smith began using his fists and legs to hit the ground as hard as he could. 'I WILL NOT LOSE!' Smith thought in his head as he kept hitting the ground and breaking it until he was able to move.

Getting off the floor and intentionally moving towards Dave slowly, Smith was healing his fists and seeing Dave getting up, Smith ran towards him and punched him in the face.

Bending over in pain, Dave threw a kick at Smith's legs which Smith dodged by moving back and kicking Dave's legs making him fall back to the ground.

"This fight is taking forever." Kevin complained.

"Could you have done it faster?" Jake asked. "Look at Miss Anna, why's she smiling?"

Looking at Miss Anna, Kevin could see her watching the fight happening and smiling. "Maybe she's proud of Smith? Because I gotta give it to him, I never thought he'd actually have the guts to hit someone but look at him, he's actually fighting."

"It's good. He can't live his life being timid all the time." Jake said.

Looking at the television, Dave was hanging from the edge of the cliff with both hands and was trying to climb up while Smith was standing a few feet away, motionless.