Chapter 22

The crowd, the VIP's and even Kris stared at the entrance intensely as they waited. A countdown of sixty seconds appeared on the large screens. Su had a worried expression as she watched from the final round waiting room. As the time dropped to ten seconds, Kris let out a sigh of relief. Soon after, everyone could hear footsteps coming from the entrance point. Fred limped onto the stage and people cheered for him. Su let out a sigh of relief and cheered for Fred also.

ON THE STAGE

"I see you've chosen death," Kris spoke with slight irritation in his voice while he dropped his folded hands.

"I wouldn't miss the opportunity to punch your smug face," Fred responded with a smirk.

"It's the confidence for me." Kris took a boxing stance and so did Fred.

FRED OLIVEIRA VS KRIS

"READY!"

Fred's cloak formed from his stomach till it engulfed his body while Kris' cloak formed from his fists till it engulfed his body.

"BEGIN!"

Kris stomped his leg on the ground and burst out his energy. He pointed his left palm while glaring at Fred. Fred clenched his fists and crouched a bit.

"Tchh...," Kris hissed. His energy began to converge at his left hand, forming energy blast which he fired at Fred like a Gatling gun. Fred brought his hands to a guard position to tank the incoming blasts. The continuous barrage prevented him from doing anything else as his legs dragged back. He was feeling his hands go slowly numb when suddenly blasts started circling round and hitting him from all directions.

Kris gathered energy in his right hand and clenched it (while still launching the barrage of energy blasts at Fred). His hand began to vibrate as the ground below him depressed a bit. After shooting the last energy blast from his left, he followed it by sending the energy beam from his right hand with a boom. The beam travelled a short distance before booming a second time, getting larger. The energy blast in front of the beam split into three and zoomed with incredible speed, encircling Fred and blasting him at the same point on his back which caused him to fly forward into the incoming beam. The beam suddenly gathered and formed a large sphere. As Fred fell into it, the sphere reflected in his eyes as despair fell on his face.  A large explosion occurred, sending cracks running through the stage. Fred bounced thrice on the ground before dragging on his side.

As his body was about to stop, Kris stepped in front and kicked him in the guts. He coughed out while his eyes shrunk from the pain. The force of the kick launched him towards a wall. Just before he hit the wall, Kris sped close to him and jammed an energy sphere onto his face using it to slam his head into the wall. Kris pulled back a bit and the energy from the sphere migrated to the wall and exploded bringing Fred's head forward. At this point Fred's eyes had rolled back leaving him barely conscious. His head which moved forward was met by Kris fist which launched his head leftwards smashing into the wall. As it pulled back it met Kris other fist which launched his head rightwards smashing into the wall. Kris continued blow after blow and Fred kept sinking into the wall. Kris gave a heavy left swing that shattered Freds cloak and forced him spit out a trail of blood upwards. Kris right hand glowed and as he was about to drive it into Fred's guts, Fred released a large energy field from his body to push Kris backwards but unfortunately, Kris fist tore through the field thereby dispersing it before digging deep into Fred's guts. The impact was lesser than it ought to be, regardless Fred coughed out blood then fell flat on his face. Kris grabbed his hair and lifted him to his face level. Fred was so weakened he couldn't even cry out.

"Hey now, I hope you aren't about to croak. I warned you to forfeit but you refused. The least you can do is to be a proper practice dummy."

As he spoke to Fred, Kris' eyes blazed bright red. Fred lifted his hands weakly in an attempt to grasp Kris' hand, but Kris hurled him into the air then hit him in the back with a blast, causing him to crash onto his hand.

Fred groaned as he struggled to his feet. Kris started walking towards him while cracking his fists. Once Fred got to his feet he turned to face Kris with a light chuckle. His face was bloodied and bruised. He lifted his hand and as his body shivered. He flicked his fingers and crystals of green light began to glow all over Kris body. Kris stepped dashed and with incredible speed, he grabbed Fred by the throat and lifted him upwards. Fred struggled on Kris hand.

"What's so funny?" Kris asked with an evil grin as the crystals grew blindingly bright.

The crystals engulfed both of them in a large explosion and as the explosion cleared, Fred's body was partly burnt including half of his face while Kris only hand a few cracks on his cloak. Kris had an uninterested expression on his face. He yanked Fred backwards, then stomped his leg on the ground, causing cracks, then choke slamming Fred into the ground, releasing a massive blast of red energy as the ground sank deep. Kris walked out of the depression and the crowd all had a shocked expression on their faces. No one uttered a sound as Kris kept walking. Suddenly silent cheers began to spring up and slowly grew louder. Kris was shocked and he turned around to see Fred standing out of the depression. He was breathing heavily while his entire body shivered.

"Where do you... Where do you think you are going Kris? The match hasn't ended!" Fred voiced out and his cloak slowly reformed.

"I see that you don't get the message. Allow me to drill it in properly." Kris crouched before he launched himself at Fred. Before Fred could react, he jabbed two of his fingers into Fred's cloak and touched his chest. Fred's body flinched then Kris shifted into a one-inch punch causing Fred to cough out blood. He followed this with a fist to the face, then the guts, then oblique shots, followed by kidney shots before two heavy blows to his face, followed by a right knee to his chin.This lifted Fred in the air a bit, and then Kris dropped the right leg, spun with it then turned to use the left with a full stretch to hit Fred's lower jaw which sent him spinning in the air until he landed on the base of his neck.

Fred staggered to his feet then formed an energy sphere from his right hand. The hand stung and blood began to trail out from the bandage covering it. He powered through the pain and formed a sphere his full height. Blood sprayed from the blade-like energy he produced around his left palm. He bit his lower lip in anguish, then screamed at the top of his lungs as he dragged his left palm across the sphere, fracturing it into small discs that launched rapidly at Kris.

Kris shot multiple energy blasts at them destroying some. As they got closer, he moved with quick footwork in order to dodge the rest. Fred fell to a knee because of the pain on his body. He dragged his left hand backwards and the energy discs merged with one another, reducing their numbers but increasing their speed. They boosted back at Kris who created a blast at his feet to dodge the incoming. A few landed into the ground while others targeted Kris.

He launched energy blasts to destroy a few while he dodged the rest with two slicing his cloak. Fred lifted his left hand into the air, joined his fingers together then dragged it downwards. The remaining discs fused to form four large discs which boosted with quick speed at Kris. Kris gathered energy in his hands ready to blow them up when suddenly he felt a sharp pain below his chest. It rang in his head and blood began to leak from his bandages. This caused him to lose concentration on his cloak and the discs passed him with one slicing deep at his shoulder, another on his right lap, then the other two at either side of his obliques. As blood splattered out, Kris fell backwards. Fred saw this opportunity then he clenched his left fist. The discs, before touching the ground, turned back into spheres and exploded on contact with Kris' body.

Fred got back to his feet sweating and panting as he watched the smokescreen in front of him. Suddenly Kris zoomed out of it and punched him in the face with a straight right fist. Fred's head flailed back and as it came forward, Kris punched him repeatedly with same right hand. He ended this by stretching his left hand, which was glowing, to the side of Fred's face. It exploded and as Fred swung to his right, Kris knocked him down with a powerful right hook forcing Fred to spit a trail of blood before falling to his back. Kris panted and soon felt sharp pains all around his injuries.

"I am not the only one in critical condition," Fred laughed out slowly. Kris eyes widened with shock. Steam began to rise from Fred's body as he got back to his feet. "You are losing your edge Kris. Those punches didn't really hurt." Fred smirked.

"Oh really?" Kris frowned. He gave Fred a rising triple kick (kicked his knee, then waist, then face) then turned with the momentum to smash his fist on Fred's jaw. A wild red energy burst from the right of Fred as he fell to his knee with his head looking downwards. Just as it seemed like his body was going to collapse, he stretched his hand out and shot an energy blast. Kris blocked it quickly but it pushed him some meters back. Fred got to his feet as more steam rose from him. His body was shivering and his wounds were bleeding but he looked unfazed.

AT THE VIPs,

"Now this is a remarkable development. I'd recognize that steam anywhere," Louis spoke out excitedly.

"To think after all these years, you will no longer be special," Elizabeth retorted with a smirk.

"Commander Jayson will hate himself, knowing he missed this," Louis laughed.

"The birth of the second guard type source soldier in history," Louis smirked.

"I wonder how this battle will turn out now," Elizabeth chimed in but Louis didn't respond.

BACK ON THE STAGE,

Kris pummeled Fred with continuous energy blasts but Fred didn't flinch. He placed both his hands in front of him and blood splattered out. He was surprised that he didn't feel much pain. He began to gather energy a short distance in front of his hand.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Kris roared out in frustration. Fred took a deep breath then yelled. "MAXIMUM TWIN ARM CANON!"

He launched a towering beam at Kris. Kris crouched to a horse stance then crossed both palms as he stretched it to receive the blast. Kris palms glowed the moment they came in contact with the beam, a large shapeless red energy spread around the beam. It engulfed the beam then shrunk it to the size of a beach ball. Fred's eyes widened and his mouth fell agape.

"I'll be returning this," Kris retorted angrily before blasting it back to Fred. It smashed into Fred before he could block, and a huge explosion erupted, spewing out waves of red and green energy. Cracks began to form on any point the energy wave touched. The violent wind caused Kris to lift his hands to guard his face as he implanted his leg into the ground. The smoke-energy cover began to relax gently and soon a large, deep crater was revealed. The ref headed to the crater and stood with his body going cold. The crowd gasped as they could see his reaction. After a brief moment, Fred began to emerge from the crater with the steam rising from this body reduced. He looked as though he had taken very little damage from the blast.

Kris and everyone present in the hall were visibly shocked. He started walking towards Kris maintaining a straight face. Kris bent his head forward with his hair covering his eyes and began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Fred asked.

"I thought I could end this quickly but you are quite stubborn."

"No, I just find it hard to back down when I make up my mind."

"That's what I said, stubborn." Kris eyes glowed red as he fired a flash-shot at Fred. It drilled a bit into his shin before it exploded. Fred yelled out in pain before falling to the ground holding his bleeding leg.

"Oh that hurt?"

"Kkkaaa..." Fred cried out.

"Where is the spunk and confidence you had earlier?" Kris shot another and it drilled into Fred's shoulder then exploded. Fred cried out as he fell backwards holding his shoulder.

"If that's getting you riled up then..." He merged the remaining flash shots and they formed a bullet. He shot it to where Fred was laying. It drilled into the ground then exploded upwards tossing Fred into the air. Fred felt a ringing sound in his ears as the explosion lifted him to a certain height. He coughed out blood, his eyes began to close slowly and he could feel the burn of the explosion course throughout his body. He stretched out his hand weakly as though he wanted to hold onto something while falling helplessly to the ground, head first. After impact with the ground, his body laid there without moving for a while. Soon he gasped and turned to his side. He couldn't hear anything but the ringing sound. His weakened eyes caught a sight of Kris, who stood with a scornful grimace, before slowly moving across the arena in his range of view, seeing horrified expressions and people chanting words he couldn't understand. His eyes scrolled up a bit and he could see Su in the final waiting room. She had tears in her eyes and she was yelling out something to him.

"Hang...in...there..." He spoke weakly as he read her lips. He folded his fingers thereby scratching the ground till he was able to fully clench his fist. He placed his left hand on the floor and began to rise to his knees. The crowd began chanting his name at the top of their lungs.

Kris clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He was annoyed and frustration crept in as his energy rose slowly from his body.

"Why are you still trying to get up?! FRED!" Kris yelled out visibly tired and genuinely confused about Fred's struggle.

Fred's pupils barely showed in his eyes as he was on a thin line between being conscious and unconscious. He staggered to his feet with his mouth opened a bit and blood dripping from his body.

"This is making no sense at all. Why do you choose this huh? Why are you still struggling? What's the point of engaging in absolute futility?! WHY DON'T YOU JUST. STAY! DOWN?!"

There was no response from Fred. Fred just began walking slowly towards Kris and Kris was irritated by this.

"Fine. If this is what you call resolve then so be it." Kris' eyes glowed and energy spiralled around his right hand

"This will put you down!" Kris dashed closer to Fred. He launched a heavy right fist at Fred. But as it got close, Fred dodged leftwards avoiding it and in that moment, Kris saw Fred's fist covered with a double cloak rising towards him. 

"Ffuu..." Kris tried to speak before Fred's fist smashed into his face. Fred yelled at the top of his lungs while pressing his fist deep into Kris's face. The crowd yelled along to give him more boost as he  summoned all his left over strength to push deeper and a large green energy burst from behind Kris tearing the ground as it passed above it. Kris' eyes rolled back and his mouth opened wide in surprise as blood splattered from his nose. Kris started to collapse backwards, but he was able to stop himself by stomping his right leg. The crowd gasped, then fell to silence as they watched his energy burst out and concentrate on his right leg. Kris roared as he lifted his leg into the air for a powerful kick. As he smashed his leg into his target, his eyes emitted a long, solitary, wavy trail of red energy, ripping through the silence as the energy spread out violently. Soon the energy calmed down and Kris saw that the ref was blocking his kick with his arm while Fred was laying on the ground unconscious.

"That's enough." The ref spoke to Kris. The armor on his arm cracked and small pieces of it broke out. Kris put down his leg and stared at Fred.

"WINNER KRIS!" The ref called out. The crowd didn't know how to react. There were misgivings on what next to do. Suddenly they heard a distant clap coming from the VIP's section. It was Louis. He had a grin on his face. As people noticed him clapping a few of them joined in but it wasn't a loud appraisal. Kris sighed, then turned towards the exit. As he walked, the medics rushed to the stage. Kris was directed to a separate waiting room from that of Su. The medics checked Fred's pulse and they couldn't feel it. A medic placed his ear on Fred's chest and his heart beat was low. They put an oxygen mask on him and brought a defibrillator and tried to restore his heart beat. After three tries, they were able to restore it. They placed him on a stretcher and rushed him off the stage.

AT THE VIPs

"Well this was entertaining to say the least," Louis commented.

"I thought his awakening to a guard type would give him the edge." Elizabeth spoke while she looked at Louis.

"Maybe if it was a healing type. Guard type awakening doesn't help your previous injuries get better per say. You'd still feel its brunt. The steam signifies that your body is getting tougher and more resistant. The boy might have lost today. But when he wakes up he'd be a whole other beast. The benefit of being a guard type is that we become ten times more resistant to the total damage we take, anytime we happen to take damage and survive."

"Bloody cheats."

"You are not one to talk. Healing from any type of damage as long as your core is intact. What's that supposed to mean?"

"I am not having this argument with you. For now I appreciate the fact that we have a very promising cadet and I won't let you guys steal him to France." Elizabeth eyes glowed at Louis.

"I didn't say anything with regards to that," Louis chuckled while she rolled her eyes.

AT KRIS WAITING room, Kris sat and rested his back on a wall. His breathing was a bit heavy as his injuries stung. His mind flashed to the just concluded fight. He felt so much irritation that he soon smashed his hand into the wall.

"Woah, that's not the celebration expected from someone who just made it to the finals. Congratulations is in order," James spoke.

"Just one more hurdle and it will be over with."

"You still plan to choose the American base if you win?"

"Without a doubt, I can't shake the feeling that that Old man is hiding something. Some new medicine that suddenly makes you feel better?  As much as I want to believe that, I also want to be there to ensure that it's true."

"For that, you'd have to beat Su. Considering what you did to Fred... Lets just say good luck."

"Wow, so much faith, thank you," Kris rolled his eyes and there was a brief pause.

"You aren't going to say anything about the fight?" Kris asked.

"You want me to?"

"No, not really."

James sighed, "There is no point in regretting when you choose to make a hard decision. I understand why you went full throttle but it was too far regardless. He is someone you've fought beside and being in the same corps makes him a comrade. Your actions reflect your type of judgement and these judgements are what people look at in order to place their trust in you. Remember that everyone is watching you. Even if you want to go solo, there will be times you'd have to work with people and the value of trust in these situations can't be overemphasized. Keep that in mind when next you want to beat someone silly."

"Yeesh, I said not really."

"Too late."

"Ugh..."

AT THE MEDIC ward, Su sat on a chair beside Fred. He was lying unconscious in an ICU, with bandages, an oxygen mask, on a standing drip and his heart rate being monitored by a cardiac event monitor. The entire fight ket replaying in her mind and she was barely able to control her energy. She palmed and squeezed her fist. In a simpler term, Su was pissed 

"The final contestants should head to the stage!"

She stood up, looked at Fred for a bit then turned around without uttering a single word. She headed to the stage and saw Kris already standing there. She walked to the center circle while looking downwards.

"Ready!".

Kris took a boxing stance and brought out his cloak from his fists. Su remained motionless with her eyes still looking downwards.

"BEGIN!" The ref called out.

"Does the end justify the means to you, Kris?" Su asked in a very cold tone. Kris didn't respond. He looked away, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before maintaining a serious glare at her.

Trails of dark yellow energy began to rise from Su, then she lifted her eyes and glared with murderous intent. Her energy burst around her and her cloak formed.

"Very well then..."