Opening song: The walking dead of Dropkick Murphy's. Third fight of the hackers. Oh, for your guys information. This may seen like pairing, but I intens to make them rivals. Sorry for your hopes.


Charlotte and Laura both stood ready when their opponents faced them. Kashal stood in front of Laura and Charlotte in front of Raton. Chifuyu sighed. "Begin the match." She shouted.

It took one second for Kashal to fire off to Laura. The German girl reacted by putting up her energy rifle. She shot at him, but he was a devil, evading on the split second. When Charlotte wanted to help her friend, she found a few explosions before her feet. "I'm your opponent."

Raton was on his skateboard. Supposedly, he had transformed his arms in a grenade launcher. "You." Charlotte took off and flew after him. When she aimed her machine gun, she fired at him and she hit target. "Got you." But she remarked that the boy had an arrogant smirk. "If you wanna win with an attack like that, you got to fire a lot." He said before he threw the bullets up. "Ah, that's better." He said with a relieved voice.

Charlotte was obviously disgusted by what the boy had done. She looked at what he got out of his body and found her bullets in it. "Nice thing right. That's not even my nature. If I get shot with bullets, my body immediately take them out. Or by using themselves or throwing up." He looked cocky.

"Now, it's my turn." He made an assault rifle with his hands and he fired at her. She backed away and flew from him. He immediately got after her. The two were busy in a dance of firing and evading. Charlotte understood that her machine gun wouldn't work, but maybe her shotgun would. She switched to her shotgun and fired at him. He made a summersault and when he was with his head downwards, he aimed with his hands after his back and he fired a few bullets himself. He didn't stop firing and went after her. She switched back to her machine gun, but she couldn't believe the speed the boy had.

In a mere flash, he had his machine gun back on and he fired a few bullets at her. They penetrated her shield and made it nearly impossible for her to launch a counter attack. She looked to Laura, but her friend was occupied with Kashal. The seeing of it was downright frightening.

After Charlotte was taken away from her, Kashal jumped to Laura. From her eye, she could see him flying towards her. "Fool." She said and she put up her shield. The boy flew right on it. "This shield is impossible to break through. Back off before you get yourself hurt." She had no problem focusing on her opponent, but she got another problem. He pushed with so much power on her that her shield started to crack. She couldn't hold it up, because it began to hurt.

The boy put so much pressure on it that she was ashamed that someone could beat her military training. "You better put your shield down before you get hurt." He said not showing any sign of stopping. "Dammit." Her shield cracked until he broke through. Immediately she put up her light sabers. She launched herself on him, but found that his hands had taken it and threw it up. Chifuyu was amazed. What were those guys?

When her arms were up, he attached his feet on the side of her body. He cracked his fists and had a savage grin.

"That's why they don't take little girls back home as soldiers." He said. He began to ram on her, he wasn't focussed on destroying her Infinite Stratos, but just purely on damaging Laura herself. He took her arms and gave her an upwards kick.

"You suck." He said and with a knee punch, he flew off and landed at the ground. He looked to Laura and he gulped when she threw a wire to him. "Didn't you learn anything from the fight you had with Kerlongsj?" He asked. He took the wire and with strength, more than she could judge in the boy, he pulled her towards him. When she got close to him, he punched her Infinite Stratos with such power that she was buried in the ground. He took the wire and broke it off. She was kneeling in front of him and looked up.

"Care for another round or did you learned it now?"
"You." She aimed her rifle and he nearly avoided the energy line. He backed off and looked to her. "I will not lose to you."
"Tough words, but can you prove them?" He asked.

Charlotte broke off her shield and flew towards Raton, activating her Gray Scale. The firing of him got of her ram and she activated her bullets. He felt how they pierced his right arm and shred it to pieces. He fell on the ground, heavenly breathing. She landed a few meters from him.

He got up and held his left hand to his right shoulder. Despite, he was heavily wounded, he was smiling. "What's so funny?" She asked. He looked up to her. "Is that your best shot? Because if it is, it isn't much." He laughed to her. Not the laugh of a insane person, but that of a guy who heard a good joke. When he stopped, he looked to her. "It's nothing compared what I suffered when I trained with Kerlongsj. You think that taking my right arm you win? You just forced me to use my Nature, even if I don't want to."

What was left of his arm, he made a giant rifle.
"What's that?"
"This little beauty is a gift from Erzof. He gave me his previous canons when they got too small for him. I customised it and I'm going to rock you up." He said when he fired his gun. She felt how different types of ammunition fired at her. Shotgun shells, machine gun bullets, explosions.

Laura still suffered a lot damage when she got up. "Bodewig, stop." She heard by her transmitter. "You suffered a lot of damage."
"Instructor, don't stop me. I still have enough shield energy to fight." She closed her communicator.
"You better listened to your instructor. Because I don't damage Infinite Stratos, I destroy the pilots in the centre." He smiled and stood back. "I still have a trump card." She opened her eye patch. "Eye of Odin." She attacked him and when it was activated, she got at the boy. In an extreme speed, she had the boy in the air. Her dagger hit target.

"Is that the top of the German Army?" He asked with a cocky smile. He caught the dagger and hold on the arm of her Infinite Stratos. "How did you?"
"Sucks if moving at extreme speed is also my Nature. The only thing is that I can accurate my moves and I learned to control it. Better learning something than getting something."

After that, she felt how he jumped off, taking his arms at her shoulders and he got over. When he landed at the ground, he pulled her down and let the Infinite Stratos crash in the ground. She was buried in the ground. He got up and looked to her. "Maybe you better learn something for our next fight. Defend your body. My close range is nearly as good as Tizof or Izolf's, but I got in this group, because I can equally kick ass. The reason you lost is, because I'm not as strong as them nor as resistant. So I have to be something else and I've chosen for efficiently." He left with his hands in his pocket looking to his friend. His fight was almost over.

Charlotte suffered a lot of damage of his firing and her ammunition was low. She looked to her ram and what she left of fire power, she put in her final weapon. She flew to him and thanks to her firing, she made it possible to come close. Just after a second, she slashed her ram. She didn't see him anymore and she saw him jumping off. She looked to her belt and activated her knife.

Before she could look up, she felt his feet kicking her hand. She let the knife go and saw how his rifle had a bayonet attached. She couldn't turn her ram and felt how he cut on her. He didn't have any sign of holding back and with one cut, he left a terrible impact. With a scream, she deactivated her Infinite Stratos and fell to the ground. She was wounded and her suit was shredded.

"Dunois." Chifuyu shouted when the girl fell down. Charlotte looked up and saw how Raton caught her. He pulled her towards his body. "What are you?" Charlotte was shocked how he could catch her now he was wounded.

"Hold on tight, this is gonna hurt." He said. They crashed on the floor. Despite he lost half of his right arm, he held on to Charlotte. He let her go when she opened her eyes. The two were on the ground. Kashal walked to his friend and he gently put Charlotte away before he took his friend up. He took the left arm of his friend and he shook his head when he put it on his shoulder. He took him away and looked to Charlotte.

"Good thing for you that replacing an arm is easy shit for Anaton. You're lucky he caught you. You would have died." Charlotte looked to Laura. She was picked up by medics and brought away. "You better got yourself checked, Dunois. No doubt, you're wounded."

Only after he said that, she felt the pain of the cut Raton gave her. It hurt more than she wanted. She fell on the floor and couldn't hold out the tears. "Man, you two went way overboard." An irritated voice said.

Anaton landed and walked to Charlotte. "Better let me take a look at it. I'm 100% sure that you won't have a scarf." He started to heal her. At an amazing speed, she felt how the pain faded and how her wound healed. "Well, that's done. I only looking after your cut. Get yourself checked at the infirmary. I hope you can walk."

She nodded. "What about him?" Anaton sighed when he looked to the boy and face palmed himself. "Kashal, leave him here. I'm going to heal him here." Kashal let his friend go and Anaton started to heal. Everyone could see that on the screen Anaton made an arm out of nanites and gave it to his friend. Raton looked up and pointed out to Charlotte.

"Good fight. Now get our ass out of here." He grinned. "Yo, Orimura-sensei?" He shouted towards the stage. "Who has won this fight?"
Chifuyu looked it up. "Well, Bodewig has lost the fight, but you and Charlotte are both wounded so that means that this is even." Raton covered his eyes with his hand. Charlotte fell back on the earth. She was caught by Ichika. Kashal looked up and Anaton clenched his teeth. "We're giving each other time?" He asked.

Anaton nodded. "Yeah, take her to the infirmary. I'm not done with him either. Fight in half an hour." Ichika nodded. "Hold on tight, Char." She had a huge blush when they took off. "How does he do it?" Kashal wondered when he saw them leaving the arena. "Raton?"

"I'm sorry, guys. It's my fault. I was too careless." Anaton shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, you get better. This time, only 50% of your arm is lost. The first time we trained you lost both. How many time did you lose your arms?"

"6 times?" Raton answered like it was a normal answer to a normal question.
Anaton smiled and nodded. "Aye, that's true. And we're done." Raton moved his arm and his fingers. "She was good, Dunois. Even better than I." Anaton gave him a hit on his head.

"Don't fuck it up anymore. You need to train quite a bit." Raton got up, followed by Kashal. The two left and the score board had 2-0 for the hackers, under it, one withdrawn. Anaton sighed. He had to win this fight, otherwise, it would have been a complete sucker. He didn't have to wait long, because he saw Ichika returning and Kanzashi leaving the stage.

At entrance A, Houki, Tatenashi, Cecilia and Rin came back after they didn't want to miss the last fight. At entrance B, the four other fighters greeted the two. They didn't blame Raton for the loss, he fought with anything he had and he gave the guys a spectacle. They turned to the arena. Byakushiki and Uchigane Nishiki stood ready. The guys grinned and the rest of the hackers were super hyped. For them, the rest of the fights were good, but Anaton was a legend for them.

Anaton sighed when he walked to the two. "Ready for this?" Ichika asked. Anaton grinned at his response. "I just hope you can hold it longer out than lost time." Chifuyu sighed. Her pride had been shattered to pieces. The girls weren't nearly as close to the hackers. She knew they were good, but the hackers had slaughtered them. An even was the thing she got after the last match. Kerlongsj respected her, but she didn't knew that he had raised such good fighters. Of course, he wouldn't see it that way, neither would the hackers see it that way. They only saw it as a fight that determined their rights. He told her about it. The guys would give anything to fight what's their right.

"Begin." She said. Immediately, the two flew off. Ichika aimed his canon and fired at Anaton. Kanzashi fired her rockets as well. "Yeah, we got him." They looked up and they saw Anaton shielding himself. "Did you forget, Ichika? I'm a supportive type, I'm the only one using shields." He jumped towards them and flew towards Kanzashi. She was protected by Ichika who made a shield and the young hacker flew on it. "You guys, did you think you learn something from the fights of my friends?"

He started to hack in Ichika, broke down his shield and kicked him away. Kanzashi pulled out her sword, advancing towards the boy and slashed at him. He parried it with his knife. Kanzashi looked up. He had the knife from under the sleeve of his hand. The two broke off and Ichika joined his partner. "Ichika." He smiled to the kid. "You didn't do a lot."
"Don't want to. I want to enjoy our fight. But first, I need to take out her." He pointed to Kanzashi.

Ichika flew in front of her. "I won't let you."
"I hoped for that." Ichika flew towards him and pulled out his energy claw and clashed with Anaton. The two warriors flew towards each other and broke it off. Ichika found it strange. He fought a boy. Since he became a pilot, he only faced girls, because he was the only male. Ichika saw him coming closer pulling out the knife. He stood ready for the attack and caught the boy. "Got you. What?"

Anaton smiled as he forced the knife in the machine. Before Ichika could react, he saw how Anaton pulled his right hand to his main body. Ichika went with his right arm to his belt taking out Yukihara. Anaton noticed and pulled out the knife and gave Ichika a kick and flew off. That gave Ichika the time for taking the sword with his two hands. "So, you get your absolute weapon already?" Anaton asked. "Yeah, but you won't see its power. Kanzashi!" Anaton looked to the girl. "Mountain Storm." The rockets flew towards the kid and Ichika made sure he had enough distance. It was a huge firework and the two looked to the stage.

"They got him."
"Shows them right."
"Told you, Orimura-kun is so cool."

The hackers were less positive, but Anaton's friend just looked to the dust. "They really did it now."
"Yeah, to think he would go so far."
"Didn't have much of a choice."

"Huh?" Ichika looked to the dust and they saw how a huge amount of energy floating around the boy. Anaton loosed his neck. "Man, that wasn't a good idea. You gave me access to the fifth circle. You're going hit the ground now." He looked to Kanzashi and she was frightened. Chifuyu blinked at it and noticed something. Anaton's eyes were glowing with energy. It was something weird. The previous hackers didn't do that, but he did. The only other hacker she saw that doing was Kerlongsj.

"Hell's Fire. Fith circle of Hell. Orlejov's special. Laa shay'a waqi'un moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine"

Ichika looked up and he got a flashback from several years ago. He heard those words before and he was reminded of many more. The energy began to flow toward his whole body. He stood back and got to Kanzashi. "I can't fire anything." She saw how Anaton got in front of her and he put his fists together above his head and punched her in the floor. The impact was astounding. A flash covering the whole arena. When the light stopped, Kanzashi laid on the floor. "Kanzashi." Anaton looked to Ichika. "Don't worry, Ichika. I made the nanites safely land her. But you can't say that she's undamaged. I told you that I want to fight you. Only you. So that you have to reason to hold back."

"You. You. Bastard." Ichika couldn't remember a time he was so angry. Maybe the last time that he faced that mysterious M, who said she was his sister.

"Come at me, Ichika Orimura and we'll see who's going to embarrass their only family." Ichika clenched his sword in his hand and Anaton pulled out his hidden knives.


And that's it for this chapter. I want to leave the final showdown between Ichika and Anaton for the coming chapter.

I hope you guys enjoyed it. still, I know I suck in fighting scenes and maybe it sucks to let them fight one on one, but well, practice make perfect.

Groeten uit Vlaanderen.

Kerlongsj Evert Orlejov.