Lucas and Karl walked into the locker rooms, eighteen other students turned their heads to stare at them. Lucas saw the blue haired guy who asked the question in Natasha's class.
Zed and Elvis stood together, talking in low voices. Sonya was seated somewhere else, reading her book, everyone was already in their attire, prepared for the tournament. Lucas and Karl walked into the door at the other side of the room to go change their clothes.
"Those guys are really into this huh?" Lucas said as he took off his shirt.
"Sure." Karl replied, as he put on another long sleeved shirt which hung tightly around his body.
"Well, we have to give this our all, if we want to see Deborah again, and also, if we happen to face each other don't hold back against me." Lucas stated as he put on all he needed.
Karl smiled at him. "Don't hold back as well."
Karl stretched his hand out with a closed fist, Lucas reciprocated the gesture, both of them bumping fists.
The entire arena was bustling, the seats were crowded, high pitched voices could be heard from every corner. Then the entire crowd started screaming, and for good reason.
Asher Lindenheart made his way to the center of the arena, the battlefield. He smiled as he waved at the crowd with a microphone in hand.
"Well," he cleared his throat, "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the nineteenth annual Ranker Academy Tournament. The rules are simple, winning comes about by knocking your opponent out or simply getting them to submit."
The entire crowd shouted at the top of their voices, Asher smiled as he looked up into the VIP section.
"Well, we have a few guests today. Please welcome the Principal of this grand academy, Michael Ardent!" Asher exclaimed with a smile.
The entire crowd clapped and screamed at the introduction. The Principal was a well known Ranker throughout the entire planet, he waved from the VIP section which was located at the highest point of the arena.
"And also, there is one other guest here. The first ever person to defeat a World Eater, and my very beautiful mother, Clara Lindenheart!" Asher said with more enthusiasm than when he introduced the principal.
Clara smiled as she waved at the entire crowd, she was still as stunning as ever, her beauty radiated throughout.
"Now, since we're done with the introductions let us proceed with the tournament." Asher said. "Well, although this is going to be very random, as the Principal will pick the names out of the box in front of him, I assure you all that it will be nail-biting."
Asher gestured to the Principal who put his hand into the box and then pulled out a piece of paper. He took the microphone from his side.
"Zed Pendragon." He said with a stoic expression. He put his hand into the box again, pulling out another piece of paper.
"Jeffrey Salamakers."
Asher nodded. "So the first match of the tournament will be Zed Pendragon going up against Jeffrey Salamakers. Will the Pendragon prevail or will his opponent deliver an upset?"
The entire locker room was bustling, Jeffrey stood up from his seat, then patted his blue hair. He glanced at Zed for a while before walking out, the crowd screamed for a little bit before quieting down.
Zed just sat down, he and Elvis talking about something, before Elvis patted him on the back.
Lucas and Karl stared at both of them for a while, they could see Jeffrey from the gigantic television placed in the room which allowed them to watch the fight.
Zed stood up and then walked out of the room and into the arena. The entire crowd screamed, screaming the name Pendragon.
Lucas stared at the television, Zed and Jeffrey stood opposite from each other, Asher standing between them.
Asher snapped his fingers and a transparent barrier appeared, expanding one kilometre in all directions.
"Well, this barrier is to protect the civilians from stray attacks. Although it isn't necessarily a barrier, it's just a separate space, the distance between this barrier and the crowd is infinite so unless your attacks can cross such a distance then I'll change the properties before it reaches the end." Asher explained to them quietly.
Zed and Jeffrey nodded, Ashed stepped out of the space then he instantly appeared in the VIP section, where he hugged Clara and shook the Principal.
"Let the match begin!" The Principal declared.
Jeffrey instantly enhanced his entire body with Ruin then charged at Zed with a right hook, Zed blocked with his left hand, then delivered a kick to Jeffrey's midsection which pushed him back a little.
Jeffrey smiled a little, he noticed that Zed wasn't taking him seriously in any way. It got on his nerves.
"I'll wipe that smug look off your face in a minute." Jeffrey said and then breathed out, air could be seen coming out of his mouth.
Zed stood there shocked, before grinning, his face beaming. "Amazing, what an amazing ability. You want to freeze me to death eh!?"
Zed clasped his hands together, he opened them and a black ball was in-between them. He channelled Ruin throughout his entire body and his body could be seen smoking.
The crowd screamed even without knowing what happened.
"The students are really impressive." Someone said.
"I have my money on the Pendragon kid." Another one said, waving bills above his head.
"Heating your body up with Ruin eh?" Jeffrey said. "But your black ball seems to be doing nothing here."
Zed smiled a little. "We'll see about that soon enough." He pushed the ball towards Jeffrey and then everything felt odd. It seemed as if gravity increased, Jeffrey couldn't stand on his feet, he fell to one knee, his face perspiring.
"Yeah, doing nothing eh? But then again I would have used the black hole but this should suffice." Zed said as he walked over to Jeffrey.
"You can give up now, it would be a bother to knock you out."
Jeffrey tried to get up, he increased the Ruin around his body. He was beginning to stand up but instantly fell back down to the ground, the gravity from the ball increasing exponentially.
"Well, the more you increase the Ruin you need the more I'm required to increase the force of gravity." Zed said. "I advise you to just give up before your bones break."
Jeffrey cursed under his breath, he knew Zed was powerful but this was too much.
"I… I give up." Jeffrey said. Zed waved his hand and the ball instantly disappeared.
Zed smiled and looked at the crowd, he turned his head to the camera staring at him, he pointed at it as if issuing a challenge to whoever had it.
The locker room was insanely quiet, everyone was shocked at Zed's abilities and his immense control. Jeffrey saw that he couldn't beat Zed in a hand to hand but even in a battle of Faculties he still didn't win.
Lucas and Karl stared at each other for a while. "If any of us faces him we have to be wary of whatever he does." Lucas said.
"Don't worry, I won't lose against someone like him."