Chapter 42: Finals
The stadium crew quickly cleared the city from the arena, leaving an open circle for the final round.
"Citizens!" the announcer's voice boomed. "We have reached the grand finale! The 1-on-1 tournament! The remaining students will battle in a single-elimination bracket until only one champion remains!"
The screens above the field showed the bracket.
Chloe was on the left side. Marlon Shaw was on the right. If they both kept winning, they would meet in the final match.
The first few matches went by quickly. The students were tired from the previous rounds, and the fights were messy.
Then, it was Chloe's turn.
She walked onto the field. Her uniform was torn at the shoulder, and she had a bandage wrapped around her arm, but she still walked with perfect posture.
Her opponent was a Forbe student with a super-speed Blessing.
The buzzer sounded.
The speedster blurred forward, trying to end the fight instantly.
Chloe's eyes glowed pink.
The speedster suddenly screamed, skidded to a halt, and fell to his knees, grabbing his head. He thrashed on the floor, crying and begging for it to stop.
From the box, we couldn't see what he was seeing.
"What is she doing to him?" Genevieve asked, looking a little disgusted.
"She's casting a nightmare illusion," I said, watching Chloe stand perfectly still. "She's making him see his worst fear. It's all in his head."
Ten seconds later, the speedster tapped the floor frantically, surrendering.
"Winner, Chloe Fawn!" the announcer yelled.
Chloe smiled, waved to the crowd, and walked off the field without breaking a sweat.
Next was Marlon Shaw.
He stepped onto the field. His opponent was the rock-armor guy from Metropolitan who had tried to protect Chloe earlier.
The buzzer sounded.
The rock-armor guy charged, his fists raised.
Marlon raised his right hand and shot a concentrated beam of fire directly at the rock guy's chest. The stone armor instantly began to glow red and crack from the intense heat.
Before the rock guy could recover, Marlon raised his left hand and shot a blast of ice.
The extreme cold hit the superheated stone.
The rock armor shattered completely, exploding off the student's body. The shockwave knocked him unconscious.
"Winner, Marlon Shaw!" the announcer cheered.
The crowd went wild.
"He's brutal," Captain May noted. "No hesitation. Pure destructive efficiency."
The tournament continued.
Chloe and Marlon crushed every opponent they faced. Chloe used terrifying illusions to make her enemies surrender in tears. Marlon used overwhelming fire and ice to physically break his opponents' defenses.
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Finally, the bracket was empty except for two names.
"This is it, folks!" the announcer roared. "The match you've been waiting for! The S-Tier Grudge Match! Chloe Fawn versus Marlon Shaw!"
The crowd's cheering was so loud it shook the glass of our box.
Chloe and Marlon walked out from opposite sides of the arena and met in the center of the circle.
They stared at each other.
"You got lucky in the team round," Marlon said. "Your fake lava won't work on me again."
Chloe smiled. "It won't have to. You won't even know what hit you."
They backed away from each other.
The referee, an official in heavy armor, raised his hand.
"Begin!"
The buzzer blared.
Chloe's eyes instantly glowed.
Suddenly, there were ten Chloe’s on the field. They surrounded Marlon in a perfect circle, all smiling, raising their hands to cast another illusion.
Marlon slammed both of his hands into the ground.
"Burn!" Marlon roared.
A circular wave of fire exploded outward from his body in every direction. It covered the entire arena, leaving no safe spots.
The wave of fire washed over the ten Chloes.
Nine of them flickered and vanished, revealing they were just illusions.
The tenth Chloe screamed.
The fire hit her. It didn't burn her to a crisp, but the heat was intense. Her uniform was scorched black and she was thrown backward by the force of the blast, tumbling across the ground.
"She took a direct hit!" Genevieve gasped.
Chloe scrambled to her feet, coughing. Her hair was singed, and her face was covered in soot.
She looked furious and raised her hands again, trying to cast a new illusion to hide herself.
"Freeze!" Marlon yelled.
Before Chloe could finish her illusion, Marlon unleashed a wave of freezing mist that blanketed the arena floor. The temperature dropped drastically.
The sudden cold shocked Chloe's system. She shivered violently, her concentration breaking. Her pink eyes dimmed.
He walked slowly toward her, his right hand glowing red with fire, his left hand glowing blue with ice.
"You rely on tricks," Marlon said. "But tricks don't stop power."
He raised his right hand, preparing to end the match with a concentrated fireball.
Chloe was on her knees, shivering and burned.
I saw the desperation in her eyes.
She closed her eyes and screamed.
She pushed every single drop of her BP into one desperate attack, aiming it directly into Marlon's brain.
Marlon froze.
He dropped his hands and his eyes went wide with terror.
He started screaming.
It was a horrifying shriek of agony. He fell to the ground, clawing at his own face, tearing at his uniform.
"Make it stop!" Marlon shrieked, rolling around. "It's burning my brain! Make it stop!"
From the box, it looked like he had gone completely insane. There was nothing touching him.
"What is she doing?" Mr. Graves asked, looking unsettled.
"She's bypassing his visual senses," I said. "She's directly stimulating the pain receptors in his brain. She's making him feel like he's being tortured alive."
Marlon thrashed on the ground for five more seconds. Then, he slammed his hand against the floor over and over again, tapping out.
He surrendered.
The referee blew his whistle and rushed forward, waving his arms. "Match over!"
Chloe dropped the illusion.
Marlon went limp, gasping for air, tears streaming down his face. He wasn't physically hurt, but his mind was broken.
Chloe tried to stand up to celebrate.
She made it halfway to her feet, managed a weak smile for the cameras, and then her eyes rolled back in her head.
She collapsed face-first, completely unconscious. Her body had finally given out from the burns, the cold, and the massive BP drain.
"We have a champion!" the announcer yelled, though he sounded a little disturbed. "Chloe Fawn wins the Metropolitan Tournament!"
The crowd cheered, but it was a nervous cheer.
Medics rushed onto the field with stretchers. They loaded Chloe onto one and Marlon onto the other, carrying them both toward the waiting ambulances outside the stadium.
I looked across the arena. My parents were sprinting out of their box, ignoring the congratulations from around them, rushing to get to Chloe.
"Well," Mr. Graves said, adjusting his tie. "She's a little unstable, but the power is undeniable. May, get that contract ready. We'll present it to her parents at the hospital."
The tournament was over. Chloe had won.
As I looked down at the arena, I felt a strange vibration under my feet.
It felt like a tremor.
Then, a massive explosion rocked the stadium.