On Another Level

Darla was breathing heavily but there was a smile of accomplishment on her face. The Hermes family ability was a thorn in the flesh even against someone like Darla with lightning quick reflexes.

Hermes had dealt more than a few blows on Darla, bringing her closer to a knockout than anyone had done since the start of the competition. She had only managed to block a few of the attacks by trying to predict his movement and guessing where he would appear next.

But a battle of speed was one thing that was never won against a Hermes, especially the one standing right in her front.

But now he looked like a mouse caught in a mousetrap. He was trapped in the midst of a wall of flames. Considering the height and the heat coming off of the flames, Hermes had really pissed Darla off.

As quick as he was, there was no running through the wall of flames trapping him without getting scalded. The intensity of the heat was already getting to him, slowing his movements.

Contestants were not allowed to kill each other, but Darla planned to make him suffer for the pain and stress he had caused her.

The audience could not get enough of the excitement that this year's competition brought, while some peoples eyes were affixed on the screen projecting the Darla and Hermes fight, the majority though were focused on the wonder kid and his opponent, Nathaniel.

It seemed that Nathan had also sensed Edward's intent to attack due to the rise of energy he could feel coming off Edward.

Water was a natural enemy of fire, this was why Nathan had believed he had the upper hand in this battle. With that thought in mind, he swung both his hands out.

The motion sent out two powerful jet streams of water from the pool of water encircling him.

Edward punched twice into the air ahead of him, the resulting effect were two balls of fire released from his fists.

As the fire and water collided midway on the stage, the heat from the fire vaporized the water, resulting in a cloud of vapour which covered almost half of the stage between Edward and Nathan.

Using the cloud of vapour as a cover for a sneak attack, Nathan quickly moved from his position towards the left of Edward. Concentrating a large amount of his energy, he rapidly changed the water to ice daggers.

Changing the form of the water drained mana more quickly than using it in its natural state and he was beginning to run out of it, but Nathan couldn't bother much about it at the moment.

He was going to take out his opponent with the move, after the fight he would surely have enough time to regain his energy and replenish his mana.

He suddenly appeared at the side, the audience on Edward's side of the arena had not seen him move, they only just saw him appear on the other side of the vapour in an instant.

As soon as he appeared, two large ice daggers hurtled at full speed toward Edward. Unlike most kids his age, Edward was already talented enough to observe energy signatures.

Energy levels were only able to be seen by those in Grade C and above but just at Grade D, Edward was already able to see faint traces of energy signature. He had barely sensed movement toward his right through the vapour.

He was on guard and just as he expected, Nathan had attacked from his left. But what he had not expected were the ice daggers that were rapidly flying at him.

There was no space to avoid the attack, Edward at this point had no other choice. Gathering energy in his hands, he lunged forward and caught the ice daggers in mid air.

Nathan stopped in his tracks, his jaw dropped from its original position. It was at this point that he realized that Edward had been holding back.

He had almost run out of mana, he had put a lot of energy behind that attack and no one on his level would be able to stop his ice daggers even if it was a fire user.

Still frozen in sudden realization, Edward gathered a large ball of flame in his fist and in a flash, he was in front of Nathan. He drove his fist into his chest, the impact drained the air from his lungs, knocking him out instantly.

The crowd went wild with cheers, they had found a new favourite and he was already living up to expectation.

Just a few minutes earlier, one of the big five had been knocked out of the competition and almost immediately another had followed.

Edward stood in the center of the stage staring down at his opponent, there was a round burn mark on his chest, the cloth which covered the area above the burn had been burnt off.

Edward didn't really like to make use of his abilities unless as a last resort, in this case he knew there was no chance of him beating his opponent without making use of them.

Even though he was a bit stronger than his opponent, he could tell that he was a formidable opponent. He was thankful that he had honed his abilities to the max because fighting with a water user on the exact same power level with him would have been a little bit troublesome.

The crowd had yet to quiet down after the series of fights they just watched. The four winners from each fight all had their faces plastered in large squares on the screen.

"Nicki, what do you have to say about the outcome of these fights?" Drake commented into his mic

"Some of the fights ended with the desired results but I must say, it has been a roller-coaster of events. Especially with the emergence of the wonder kid. He has he been such a wonder. He has managed to gain quite a number of fans only after a first appearance in the competition. I guess we have more wonder to witness in the coming round"

"I couldn't have said better" Drake buttered Nicki "I guess we are all looking forward to the next round, I really hope we all can keep the excitement bottled up" Drake added.

At one of the dark corners of the arena, a dark figure shrouded in a black attire spat in disgust.

"Vile creatures, they all deserve to be punished. They all deserve every bit of what is coming to them"