Chapter 86: Neat

Chapter 86: Neat The conclusion of Ethan’s match marked the end of most of the battles, but on one of the stages was a rather unique occurrence.

There were no battle marks to be seen there unlike on the other stages.

Instead, there were two opponents who stood, staring into each other’s eye’s unblinking, still on the same as spot since the begging of the battle.

"What is this? A staring battle?"

"The fuck are these punks doing?"

"Get the hell of the stage if you aren’t even going to fight!!"

"Boo!"

The dissatisfied voices of the crowd rang out from the arena.

Now that all the other fights had for the most part concluded, all eyes were on this battle which was rather anti climatic to say the least – earning a round of disappointed comments from the crowd.

"What exactly are they doing"

Kieran’s eyes were narrowed, as his body subtly leaned closer to the holographic images as if to check or anything he might have missed.

One thing all these fights had proved so far was that there was nothing normal when it came to those on the rankings and those who challenged it. Even Gillard who had just lost his fight, had a rather unique and strong ability.

These two people who stood string at each other as if in a trance, unbothered by the angered voices and boos of the crowd were definitely having a sort of clash against each other. He could tell from the slight twitches in either of their faces or the sweat drops that had started to accumulate on their foreheads.

’Nice quality.’

A random thought flashed in Kieran’s head noting how he was able to observe those details because the hologram had captured them perfectly.

Still, it was odd to know that they hadn’t moved since the start of their battle.

"The fights between mental ability users are always so boring"

Ruby’s voice broke the silence in the room.

Whether she said that, to clear Kieran’s confusion or out of boredom was unclear.

’So, that’s it!’

This was his first time he had seen a fight between two metal ability users, he didn’t even know of anything like a mental ability.

’The scope of abilities out there seems quite large’

Kieran thought. So far, he had seen several different types of abilities and several unique ways of usage, but this was the first time he had seen two people with the same ability face each other, if he excluded the exchange between Ethan and Gillard.

"Is this how they plan on going?"

The fight had been going and there was no sign of any of them showing signs of defeat. They looked like they could keep on doing whatever it is they were doing for quite a long time.

Even Kieran, after trying so hard, couldn’t tell who was winning or losing

"Haa! Haa!"

Contrary to what they all thought though, the opponent of the white haired recruit suddenly broke the staring contest, falling to the ground, his body instantly soaked with sweat as he bent his back to spit out quite a large amount of blood before collapsing on the stage, his body looking sticky pale, with occasional spams.

The white haired recruit flashed a small smile before waking off the stage whilst the whole arena watched in silence, struggling to comprehend what had just unfolded in front of them.

’Did he already see this coming?’

Kieran pondered, his eyes narrowed, the tingling feeling in him becoming harder to bear.

It wasn’t a fluke that he had picked out Ken as his opponent. And the small smile that had crossed his face, similar to that of Ethan — overflowing with confidence, showed that he didn’t doubt for a moment that he could defeat ken and claim his rank.

Not only did he do just that, he did it without revealing any of his ability to the public. He didn’t even draw the sword that was strapped to his back.

He left the stage calmly concluding the last fight.

Another beep was heard after a few minutes and another set was shown, Ruby, Derrick and Liam getting up.

It was their turn to fight.

On the way out, Ruby threw a glance at Kieran who just happened to be looking at her too.

They both shared a small smile and Kieran nodded at her, his confidence in the lady who had thought him the basics of his weapon was pretty evident.

’This is going to be interesting’

Kieran’s eyes followed Ruby’s figure through the screen as she approached the stage.

This was one of the rare changes he was going to get to see Ruby fight. Most of their fights together had been against beasts and he had been too occupied to observe.

Even in their occasional spars, Kieran could always feel her pulling her punches at the last moment.

His eyes flashed as he saw her fight which was about to start, all his senses directed towards the image.

’This is odd. So, she still looks down on me?’

He bit his lip, suppressing a chuckle.

Ruby’s opponent was Skyler Diaz, ranked 87th and yet Kieran who had narrowed down his research to the names on Leora’s list, had nothing on her.

"I focused on the list because of time. Was that a mistake or did she just exclude those who they had their eyes own?"

Kieran’s eyes, moved to Sabrina who was calmly observing the match from the corner. Her gaze was evidently fixed on Liam, but Ethan’s arrival took away the attention of everyone including him.

"What’s he doing here?"

Some of the recruits at the side muttered the question was about to ask himself.

Ethan, his clothes still torn and body still marked with blood and light injuries, made his way to Sabrina’s side, casually taking a seat beside her.

"How was it? Pretty impressive huh?"

Sabrina ignored his voice which was filled with pride, aimed at impressing her and focused back on the fights that had finally began.