Using the Claws

"Participants Ender Rialto and Larisa Hiroko, please step up to the arena."

Ender gave a big, long sigh before walking towards the arena.

Fifteen minutes had already passed since the last fight, which was Alex against Eric. To no one surprise, Alex won. For one second Ender thought that he was going to spend the entire quarter of an hour alone, but when Alex suddenly appeared he was able to relax a little bit.

They mainly talked about their fights and Ender was surprised when Alex said that he almost lost an arm. He didn't notice at first, but his tracksuit was severely damaged on his right side with some dried blood.

"But what happens if you receive a lethal wound?"

"Huh? Didn't they explain it to you? That barrier is a Life Force. In case you are in a tight situation, the entire barrier will explode, healing both of you." Alex said with a casual expression.

Ender thought, he looked at Alex with his mouth slightly open. It's not that he thought that the instructors would let them die... but that explanation would have been perfect like half an hour ago.

Now, however, he was standing in front of the arena entrance, mentally preparing himself for the next fight. When he felt ready, he started walking toward it.

He got past a blue door and his tracksuit automatically mended himself. This came as a relief to Ender, as some spots were so damaged that they were restricting his movement. Just as he got to the top, he saw Larisa waiting for him.

She was wearing the official tracksuit and had her hair tied up in a ponytail. But, before he could even step into the arena,

"Hey instructors, are you sure he didn't use anything to win?" She said with a mocking expression.

One of the instructors, the bald one, sighed and said, "For the third time Larisa, Ender won the fight fair and square. If you continue I may take matters into my own hands and kick you from the tournament."

Larisa ignored him and looked toward Ender, "Listen up! I'm giving you five seconds to forfeit least I break every single one of your bones."

People gasped at her statement while some murmured about the situation. Ender looked at her with disinterest and looked around the sides a little bit.

"Hey are fucking deaf?! Forfeit now you little shit!"

'Sheesh, she hates me for nothing.' Ender thought while waving at Sakura. She waved back, pointed at Larisa, and threw some small punches into the air. Ender got the hint that same second, as he could even see the disgusted expression she had.

He looked back to Larisa and said, "Sorry, but I think I can get through this fight with ease, you should worry about yourself."

Larisa's expression instantly changed, she widen her eyes and clenched her teeth while muttering, "You dare talk back to me...? With such arrogance?!"

Ender continued looking at her like she was a clown, which she was, and this greatly infuriated her. She started getting mad to the point that fog started leaking out of her hands.

Ender remembered that Larisa was a Fog Manipulator and his expression instantly changed along with his emotions. Ren noticed it and said, ["Yo, what is wrong with fog? It's not lethal."]

'It's not because of that... Fog is more of a support element, but when fighting inside a close space...'

*Pheeeew!!!*

Suddenly, the barriers appeared again, and the whistle sounded as well, marking the start of the fight. Not wasting a moment, Larisa started pouring more and more fog while running toward Ender. Before she was halfway done, the entire arena was covered in fog.

'Fuck! I can't se-!'

*Bam!*

[-6 HP; 54/60 HP]

Ender's nose started hurting as he walked backward, stabilizing himself.

'She is not that strong...'

Without knowing where she was, he randomly crouched and sensed a missed punch over him, and quickly threw a punch which impacted on soft flesh.

"Agh, you sneaky rat!" Larisa shouted.

Ender got up again, his vision blocked by the massive amount of fog there was, not letting him see past thirty centimeters. He tried walking toward the sound's position but a fist suddenly appeared, aiming at his nose.

He wasn't able to dodge it so he decided to let it hit him...

*Bam!*

[-4 HP; 50/60 HP]

... and quickly grabbed the hand, pulling it towards him and bashing his head to the front. Suddenly Larisa appeared with a surprised expression and what received her was a head bash.

[-2 HP; 48/60 HP]

Ender caressed his forehead and activated Healing while trying not to lose Larisa in all of that fog. He heard someone getting up behind him and quickly turned around and started running, only to trip over her leg.

He started rolling on the ground while thinking, 'I need a better way to pinpoint her location... This won't do.'

Ender rolled on his back and used the momentum to get up again and this time, he stood completely still with his eyes closed. He knew that Larisa had to move to get towards him, but how could she know?

Well, since it was her Element, she could feel everything the fog was touching, including Ender. Which meant she had a mental radar with his position.

Just as he guessed, he heard someone running a little bit to his right, so he re-positioned himself and when it sounded the closest, he activated Dash and took one step forward.

There, he saw Larisa preparing a powerful kick, but it was so slow that Ender could easily dodge it. He got behind her, grabbed her from the ponytail, and yanked her toward the ground.

Of course, Larisa didn't know what happened until his head got smashed to the floor with such intensity that it made her vision blurry and her ears ring.

Not satisfied, Ender grabbed her tracksuit and launched her towards a random side before running behind her.

As expected, Larisa crashed toward the barrier and coughed some blood. Not missing a second Ender gave her a big kick that casually landed on her chest.

"Argh!!" Larisa screamed in pain while clutching her left boob.

Before Ender could get close to her again, Dash wore off and all the fog suddenly started reverting into Larisa's body. Before he realized all the fog disappeared and Larisa pointed her right index finger toward Ender before saying, "Bang..."

*BANG!!!*

[-24 HP + Intense Bleeding Effect; 36/60 HP]

[Warning: Host will lose 5HP every three seconds.]

*CRASH!*

Suddenly, Ender got blasted backward and crashed into a barrier. His vision was extremely blurry, his eyes started tearing up, and he felt as if he couldn't breathe. He touched the left side of his chest and noticed a hole there.

He looked down and his face instantly paled. It wasn't that big, but it probably destroyed part of his ribcage and lung. He held a groan inside while trying to stop the bleeding.

Not wasting a second, he called Healing, which only slowed the HP lost and quickly cauterized the wound with so much heat he felt that his lung was about to burn to ashes.

When it ended, he tried taking a deep breath but started violently coughing with sweat running down his forehead and feeling extremely dizzy. He took another look at his health and saw [21/60 HP].

That only attack dropped his health from max to almost dead, and it could have been dead if it wasn't for the Fire Element.

Ender was so focused on trying not to faint or vomit or whatnot that Larisa was already in front of him and grabbing him from his tracksuit.

She was pouring a very dense fog all around the arena, which quickly filled the bottom of it, leaving only her upper half visible.

"I told you to forfeit trash." She said with an annoyed look.

Suddenly, all the fog started condensing back into her hand, and lifted it to give the final strike. Ender tried to take a good look but the blurriness made it impossible, he tried fighting it before watching it suddenly come down.

He tried dodging it by moving his entire body to the side, and surprisingly it worked.

Larisa dropped Ender, showing how weak both of them were and, not only that, Larisa's fist crashed into the barrier, sending fog everywhere around her.

'A chance!'

Ender quickly got inside the fog and activated Claws of Fear on both hands completely. He quickly spotted her looking towards him and without thinking, he slashed once with each hand to her abdomen, deactivated them, and punched her as hard as he could in the face.

The only thing that people saw was Larisa getting blasted from the fog and onto the ground. She quickly got up while caressing her face, not noticing the black marks on her tracksuit.

"What... think that is enough to win?" She said while slowly walking towards him.

Ender though stared at the black marks and when he saw them disappear, his poker expression turned into a smirk. Larisa noticed it and wanted to mock him once again but the sudden pain said otherwise.

She opened his mouth, which was drenched in blood, and looked down slowly, thinking about what caused just pain. There, she saw her insides slowly coming out.

Ender, and everyone else, could see her expression slowly change from arrogant to sheer distress. She started mimicking some movements, trying to catch something that was falling while saying, "What... what have you...? My belly is..."

Larisa dropped to her knees while clutching her belly. People started talking with each other while pointing at her. They didn't know why she suddenly dropped to the ground which such an expression.

She wanted to scream but the pain was so intense that she couldn't even make the slightest sound. She started tearing up while putting pressure on her belly and looking at Ender.

She dropped entirely to the ground while seemingly picking something from the ground and putting it on her.

Larisa slowly started to moan in pain while Ender watched her. He wished he could continue but he knew the instructors would give him the victory soon, so he kicked Larisa right in the jaw, dislocating it and knocking her out.

"Ender Rialto has won the fight!" The AI announced.

The medical team once again rushed in and administrated one healing pill to Larisa and gave another one to Ender, which he quickly consumed and started feeling his body refreshed.

He waved to some people here and there and followed the green line once again. When he was inside the hallway leading to the waiting room,

["That was a close one, have her not been so exhausted she could have endured those two slashes."] Ren muttered.

"Huh? Really?" Ender said out loud, already arriving at the waiting room. He quickly lay on the sofa while closing his eyes.

["Well, I'm sure it would have affected her slightly, but not enough to make her fall into a deep hallucination..."]

"Hmm... I want to avoid using the Claws too much. I know that in the future it'll be normal but for now, I want to lay down on that. I also wonder how did she manage to make a bullet with fog, I thought only Wind could do that..." Ender said.

"Participants Falco Maelstorm and Alex Saka, please step up to the arena."

Ender sighed before going to the bathroom to clean his face a little bit. He noticed the hole in the tracksuit and wondered how could he missed such an obvious attack, after all the execution was similar to Hollow Strike.

He combed his hair a little bit and wondered if it was a good time for another haircut. It wasn't extremely long but had a lot of volume, making it look like a hair helmet. Luckily his fringe didn't get in the way which helped.

He wet his hand a little bit and started combing his hair backward, ending with his fringe divided in two, one to each side. He made it so that the hair won't get in his eyes way, and he felt comfortable this way.

["You look like a fucking lion!"] Ren started laughing his ass off as he made that comparison.

Ender just shrugged and exited the bathroom, 'I know that Alex is going to win so I may as well start preparing myself, I ain't containing against him.'