Whilst the dust settled, Elijah landed back on the ground in an aggressive squat, his forearms resting on his knees.
Cosmo sat up, inhaling madly, his arms refusing to cooperate with him. He looked around, taking in the whispers of the Starless before turning toward Elijah, who was slowly standing up with a hand at his hip.
Nathaniel cursed under his breath, biting his nail with a smile.
"Tough bastard…"
Even though most of the Starless had already seen him fight, Elijah felt more imposing. Ester didn't know if it was because of who he was facing, but it still didn't make any sense. How strong was Lucius if he could make someone like Elijah fight so wildly?
She felt as though she couldn't breathe.
How many monsters were out there?
She heard Ezekiel click his tongue as he lay on the ground, muttering something to himself. Something about unfair.
She turned back to Cosmo, who looked as if he was ready to give up. The blow he had barely blocked from Elijah was still ringing through his arms, despite him using Flo.
She saw the defeat in his eyes, and she wanted to do something about it.
From the moment he knew he was going up against Elijah, she had seen the shift in his expression, as though he already knew the outcome of the fight.
She knew he could do more, and she wanted to see. She wanted to talk to him about it. After all, she considered him something akin to a friend... or as close to a friend as she could get.
But she didn't know how. If she called out to him, she would probably die of embarrassment. Not to mention, she wasn't even sure if her voice would actually come out.
But then Saphy noticed her focused expression.
"...What's wrong?"
Ester snapped out of it, staring at Saphy before an idea came to her.
"...Could you... do you think you could get Cosmo's attention?"
Saphy gave her a puzzled look as she turned from Cosmo back to her, realization slowly dawning on her face.
She gave a nod before turning her head and cupping her hands.
"COSMOOOOOOOO!"
Her voice ripped through the arena, easily causing both Elijah and Cosmo to flinch.
Cosmo looked back with wide confusion on his face as Saphy gestured toward Ester, who stood next to her.
Now everyone was staring at her.
She felt her mind go blank as she struggled to remember what she wanted to do.
All she could manage was to raise two shaky thumbs with an awkward smile as the Starless stared at her. Her cheeks flushed red under their confused expressions.
Cosmo was the only one who maintained his surprised look for a couple of seconds before Saphy broke the silence again, copying Ester. Instead of an awkward smile, however, hers was a bright, beaming one.
Arthur was the next to follow their lead, giving Cosmo an awkward thumbs up.
Cosmo blinked several times as he glanced at the ground, his chest still heaving and the faintest trace of a smile on his face.
The only person who wasn't happy was Elijah. He scowled at all the cheers for Cosmo before charging again, launching a kick at him.
Cosmo blocked it, but the noise was a soul-shattering snap, followed by a cry from Cosmo as he flew backwards again.
Ester couldn't help but stiffen at the sound, the crowd's noise dying with Elijah's attack.
By the time Cosmo stood up again, his right wrist was bent at an angle, unresponsive to his movement. It was so gruesome that Saphy couldn't bring herself to look at it.
Ester, however, couldn't look away.
He staggered to his feet, his right dagger nowhere to be found, whilst he grabbed his right shoulder.
Elijah launched himself again, but this time, Cosmo was ready.
He dodged Elijah's punch whilst driving a powerful counterstrike into his face, stopping him in his tracks. He used the moment to spin his body again, landing a precise strike to his temple and causing him to stagger slightly.
Cosmo then tackled him to the ground, pinning him into a submission hold before repeatedly striking his face with his elbow and knee as hard as he could.
Between the silence of his strikes, most of the Starless nervously glanced at Markos, waiting for him to say anything.
But he just stared.
Cosmo would've landed another blow, but Elijah simply shoved him, launching him backwards again.
Elijah got up slowly, soothing the sides of his head with a deeper scowl than usual.
"...Ow."
Cosmo was already on his feet, glancing at his wounded hand. He supported it with the other, flexing it a few times until he could move it again.
Either it wasn't as bad as an injury as Ester had thought, or... something else had happened.
With a crossing of his arms, his daggers were now in his hands again, as if they were appearing out of thin air.
Was he not an Internal Manipulator?
"...S'gotten you so serious all of a sudden?" Eli called, an eyebrow raised.
Cosmo faltered when he heard this, careful not to look at the crowd of Starless.
"I... uh…"
Elijah didn't wait for a response.
He leaped toward Cosmo with animalistic force, his arms now resembling dragonic claws as he crashed in front of him.
Cosmo was at his side. He tried for a slice, but Elijah blocked it with his arm, countering with an uppercut.
Cosmo sidestepped it easily, the wind from Elijah's punch cutting through the air.
"H'arc…" Arthur whispered.
"Terrifying." Kris nodded.
Cosmo gained enough distance between them before taking a deep breath, stretching both daggers together in front of him.
Elijah cocked his head with a smile, his eyes now dragonic as well.
The next thing that happened, Ester couldn't believe.
Cosmo disappeared completely.
As if he had never been there in the first place.
The whole arena held its breath as Elijah's head violently snapped to the side with a massive CRACK, louder and harder than any other before.
Again.
With a slice, Elijah fell to one knee as an uppercut to the chin resounded through the arena.
Even though he wasn't in much pain, Elijah now seemed mildly annoyed, chuckling with a glint of anger in his eyes.
He slammed his hand into the ground as iron thorns exploded around him.
He waited for a while, looking around him before madly darting his head toward the sky.
Cosmo had now reappeared like a silhouette behind the sun's glow, one hand stretched outward as he seemed to hover in the sky.
He let out a loud cry as he brought his fist down on Elijah's face.
The force caused the ground beneath them to crack as Cosmo fell onto the floor.
Elijah's face was turned from the impact, but he didn't fall. He braced his feet so he wouldn't stumble.
For several quiet seconds, neither moved.
Then Elijah turned back toward Cosmo.
He looked as though he was about to say something, but he blinked slowly before dropping to the ground beside Cosmo, who wasn't moving.
"Markos!"
Markos grimaced before rushing over.
Turning him over, he saw blood dripping from Cosmo's nose as he jerked violently.
"He pushed too hard." Kris grimaced.
Markos put his ear over Cosmo's heart, softly slapping his face a couple of times before his eyes fluttered open.
"I... huh...?"
The whole arena seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as they helped him to his feet.
Nathaniel rushed to give him a hug, which only made things more awkward. It was as if he didn't care that Cosmo was getting blood on his cape.
Markos then announced that the spar had been concluded.
"When manipulating Flo," Markos called, "you need to make sure you don't overexert yourselves."
Ester couldn't help but glance at Ezekiel when he said this.
"Most of you can probably feel the noise, like a faint whisper... or a ring in your ears," he said. "Manipulating Flo will increase that noise until it reaches unbearable amounts... I'm sure you all know what that means."
Almost all the Starless nodded their heads.
Even Ester knew what he was talking about. She'd read about it in her father's library.
What happens to Synchrites who push beyond the frequencies.
"OverSynching…" he said. "Where there is no coming back."
"Some of you could be OverSynching... and you wouldn't even know it until it's too late," he added.
"That is why all Synchrites such as yourselves are required to be informed to officials, because if not..." Was he looking at Ester? "Who knows what will happen."
Ester looked down.
"...Oh, right. And Elijah won."
Between the claps of the Starless, Elijah just shrugged, trying to act as if he wasn't bothered.
"Now, before we move on," Markos said, "I want these three to explain their paths and expressions."
"Nathaniel."
Markos called without turning around.
"What are you?"
"I..." He smiled. "Am a pure External Manipulator with a specific expression of Flo shaping."
He raised his hand.
The air swirled above his palm as a fireball burst into existence.
"I can shape the Flo in the environment into different stuff... like what you saw before."
He paused, thinking hard.
He brought his head closer towards the Starless.
"But that's not all I can do! I can-"
"Thank you, Nathaniel." Markos interrupted loudly. "Cosmo, next."
Nathaniel sighed as Cosmo spoke up.
"I am a pure Internal Manipulator with the specific expression of Enhancement. I can enhance my body using Flo."
"I'm sure Lillia has already mentioned it, but this is not the same as the expression, Body Modification. That is changing your body, opposed to using Flo to enhance it."
Ester was confused.
How was he making his weapons seemingly appear out of thin air?
He couldn't even use External Manipulation.
Then he glanced at Elijah.
"Up next, Elijah."
Elijah stepped forward with a stern look on his face.
"I'm a Beastbound human," he said. "I'm not a traditional Synchrite, as I don't manipulate Flo. I am a normal human, but my strength comes from my beast, Kilisk."
There were some murmurs in the crowd.
"I was fortunate to meet Kilisk... and more fortunate to bond with him..." he said. "...But that doesn't mean I didn't work for the place I'm at now."
"Heh..." Ezekiel whispered to himself. "You sure about that?"
Elijah turned to face him, and Ezekiel pretended he was whistling.
He sighed loudly, scratching the back of his head again.
"What I'm saying..." He looked at them all. "Is that the beast doesn't make the man."
There was silence when he said this until Markos cleared his throat.
"Right..." He tried for a smile. "Thank you, third years!"
They waved them off as Cosmo glanced at Ester, exchanging a grinning thumbs up.
"Starless!"
He lifted his arms.
"Before we conclude this lesson, I would like you all to strain. I want you all to try and make that little whisper you can hear just a little louder. If you can do that, you are actively manipulating Flo."
The Starless sat on the ground whilst the clouds slowly turned grey.
The warm afternoon they had started with was now turning colder.
Ester closed her eyes, focusing her mind through the pin-drop silence, listening to the faint noise she heard in her ears.
It wasn't loud enough to be distracting, but just enough that she could hear it when there was absolute silence.
However, it wasn't her choice that the face of her uncle appeared in her mind, or the look of her mother in the doorway that night.
It had always come back to her, haunting her whenever she closed her eyes.
She felt the ringing grow louder.