‘Hey, hey… don’t tell me the pressure is getting to him as well.’ Eddy thought, looking at the sweaty and tired Gary. ‘I guess these guys are kids after all. They don’t have much experience yet, but I thought he was different. Maybe I was wrong in the end.’
“Everyone, remember, the outcome of this match doesn't matter whatsoever.” Eddy reminded those from the facility. “Even if you lose in one punch, you will still be granted entry to the real academy. You have already made it. That being said, I advise you to try and avoid such a fate unless you want to get teased by your peers about it.”
The joke made some of them chuckle, at least. “These fights are tradition and their purpose is to show you how far you still have to go, and of course what you can achieve by giving it your all during your stay in the AFA! If you give it your best, one day you’ll be the ones teaching others a lesson!”
Eddy’s little pep talk had lightened the mood a bit, especially for Izzy, Ian and Numba. All they needed to do was show their best and that’s exactly what they intended to do.
The group followed the teacher through the large double doors, and on a bench, just outside the fighting octagon, the students were sitting down waiting. All the nerves that had disappeared from their bodies had come back in a second, seeing them again.
“Man, I’m worried I might let out a log during the fight. I should have gone to the toilet or something.” Ian commented.
“You're so disgusting, you're going to make me sick,” Izzy replied.
“Please don't be sick, when someone’s sick, that just makes me sick,” Numba replied.
The others could all hear this conversation and couldn't help but smirk, but at the same time, it just made the other group more confident that this whole thing was going to be a walk in the park.
Xin moved her head, trying to get a look at a particular student, and that's when she could see Gary, walking sloppily behind the rest of the group.
‘He looks quite pale… and he's already sweating, I think I just saw some drip from his nose. Is he really sick or something?’ Xin wondered, as she couldn't help but worry, but the conversation from before had entered her head, making her clench her fist.
‘I'm sorry, I don't know what your situation is Gary… but if what Ryan found out is true, I don’t really know how to act.’
Numba, along with the others, sat on the bench on the other side of the cage. Both groups could see each other but only through the cage, so they were unable to see clearly one another.
“The order of the matches isn’t fixed, and I’ll use a random generator app to will be in a random order through my phone random generator app!” Eddy held his phone, showing everyone. “A number between one and five will show up and you guys will have to enter the ring and face your opponent.
“Just to let you know, your own rank will determine who you face on the other side if you know what I mean.”
Izzy certainly understood, both rank 1s would go against each other. Which meant that there were going to be no easy matches for any of them.
Pressing the button on the app, the numbers rumbled through and eventually stopped at number three. All heads turned to the first person which had surprised them all.
“Ha, you guys are already shaking in your boots.” Sty stated, standing up confidently. “If you're worried about something like this, then you’ll never make it far in the AFC.”
For a second, Sty paused his tough talk as he looked at Gary who still had his head held down and a towel over his head. The whole time he had consistently been drinking water, rehydrating himself.
No one had talked to him today. He had made it clear to his friends that something was up with him, so they had collectively decided to not bother him, at least not until his match was over and done with. “As for you, I'm the most disappointed in you out of all of them. I can’t believe I lost to someone like you.”
Sty walked over and entered the octagon, while his opponent did the same. Standing opposite Sty, was a tall specimen of a person. If one thought Blake was the ideal candidate to become an Altered then they had yet to see the student known as Stark, who had a superhero like figure in the movies they all used to watch.
“Rank 3, huh. Let's see if your group is as interesting as the last lot.” Stark said, slightly crouching down and having his hands away from his face, getting ready to fight at any moment.
“Oh trust me, I’m the best of this bunch of losers, so tough luck!” Sty shouted as his whole body transformed. His wings came out, his mouth elongated into a fly’s proboscis, and immediately he started to fly straight towards Stark.
Just like in the battle against Numba, Sty shot out a strange liquid from his mouth. Using just his toes, Stark pivoted avoiding the strange liquid, and while doing so, he spun his body backwards throwing out a spinning back fist at the Fly Altered’.
At the last second Sty was able to fly upward avoiding the attack.“Oh, you have fast reflexes. I guess this won't be a boring fight after all. Let’s see if you can entertain me as much as that Wu guy.” Stark commented as he could see Sty flying towards him throwing out his leg for a kick.
******
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