"Go check with the agency and see if they're done. Have them report to me if they are, and I will allow open matches again." She smiles. "And be careful, for the sake of those you care about."

"Thank you Master Essam," I say, as I'm halfway out of the doorway. "I don't tell you this enough, but I truly do appreciate everything you have done, and do, for me."

"And I, for you."

I gathered my energy for a moment and took off towards the arena, soaring through the air at high speeds. Reaching it a few moments later, I skidded to a stop and landed in the middle of the arena. I turned to see about a dozen men with guns trained on me, each with a startled look. Realizing I was a student they slowly lowered their weapons and one of the detectives finally spoke.

"What are you doing here? Master Essam said no arena matches." He said, tiredly.

"Well, she wanted me to see if you all had finished up. If you were then you are to report to her." I explain with a slight laugh in my voice.

The same man sighed again rubbed his temple with both hands, "yes I suppose if we haven't gotten anything yet we won't for a while."

"Okay, well you can finish packing up here, I'll let her know," I tell them.

"Thanks kid," the man nods gratefully.

After a quick trip back to Master Essam's office, I was now camped out in the middle of the Academy's arena. Knowing what is coming, I calmly wait for Jerek to show up at the arena with his challenges. Sitting in a meditative posture, I don't actively relax my mind, choosing instead to let it take whatever course seemed best. It took only a few moments before I sense the power of two beings. The weaker one I tag as Nani Moana's, who seems to be trailing Jerek either accepting his invitation, or trying to convince him not to fight me.

"Nani," I speak before either of them addresses me; my eyes still fastened shut. "This is a school of combat, stop trying to save him. He knows what he's getting into."

"So you managed to get the arena opened again," Jerek circles me. "Not bad."

"You seemed so eager to provoke me," I stand up. "Now I'll gladly hit you."

"Let's wait," Jerek adopts a mockery of my previous posture. "I want the school to see this."

"What happened to not waiting?" I cock my head to the side. "It won't take that many people to carry you off of the arena."

"Let's wait for some more people to come down here," he remains stubbornly sitting.

My anger grows with the few passing moments that I wait for Master Essams announcement while Jerek arrogantly watches me. My aura slowly creeps into existence as a symbol of my frustration.

"Jerek, you have 1 minute. Then you'll either fight me or die," I tell him as I turn to face the academy.

The P.A. system rings out the words I expected, and over the next few moment's people filtered out to the arena. The chatter seems to take a noticeable rise as they see the three of us already at the arena. Even more odd was Nani's rare appearance from behind her desk. I think to myself how marked this battle will probably become with Nani watching it.

"You got into another fight?" Edana asks me wrapping her arms around my body and resting her head on my back as she only comes up to my shoulder blades.

"Do you see me fighting?" I twist my head, meeting her lips with my own briefly.

"You've been out here since before the announcement, you got the arena opened up for a reason." Edana reasons to me.

"I took it easy on Alwalda," I explain simply.

"I don't know if I should let you do this," Edana walks around to my chest and looks me in the eye concerned about my violent indications.

"This boy needs to learn he is not cause for fear," I look past Edana at Jerek stretching.

"Fight smart," I hear Janiko's deep voice as he pulls Edana's shoulder so that she is no longer between Jerek and me.

"Now that your girlfriend is out of the way," Jerek strikes a fighting pose.

"It's not too late to reconcile with me," I advise him.

He whips a ki blast at my chest for his response. I make an x in front of my body with my arms, rather than let it fly and hit the oncoming audience.

"So be it," my voice drops to a dark tone.

My power suddenly rockets up as I power up to my max, a black aura once again exploding around me, a cloud of dust swirling around me showing just how much power I'd called upon.

"It's amazing that Kale didn't kill you on contact," Jerek taunts.

I mildly register just how widespread the story of Saturday's events were, when Jerek suddenly takes off at me, his elbow poised for my nose. I fire off a simple ki blast at the ground between the two of us then sidestep the reckless blow, as Jerek had hurtled headlong through the dust and dirt that blocked his vision. As soon as he's next to me, his head turns in shock that he'd missed by such a small margin and Jerek mistakenly slows his speed so that he can turn and attack me again, but I palm a ki blast into his side and blow him away from me. His impact with the arena surface seems to cause more damage than the small amount of ki I had just inflicted upon him from such a point blank range. The crowd's audible "ooh" satisfies me and Jerek slowly sits up, his back in obvious pain.

"Aren't you glad I missed our match yesterday?" I start to walk over towards the struggling fighter. "I would have put more effort into since it would have mattered if I won or not."

Jerek launches another ki blast before I cover even half of the distance between us, which I slap away with a smirk at his already desperate measures. Then I feel a sharp sting at the base of my head as I sense a power approach me from behind, and my eyes get wide as I feel the heat of his ki blast on the back of my neck again. I turn just in time to catch a ball of energy directly into my chest, and I'm tossed to the side as I had been hit from a slight angle.

"Note to self," I mutter rising to face the other fighter who was now standing. "Destroy all his ki attacks for good measure."

"Was that a prayer to Kami you're mumbling?"

I begin to sit up, and Jerek moves in strongly, forcing me back to the ground with a knee to the chest. I slide backwards a couple of feet as he pounces quickly planting a fist into my nose and another one into my right side. Feeling the damage to the ribs, I yell in pain, the crowds chattering rising even greater at the prospect I could possibly lose the fight. He stands up, and aims a kick at my head, but I catch it on pure reflex. Then, I consciously rejoin the fight and my mind begins to make the decisions again. I roll away from Jerek's body pulling his foot with me; the result rolls his ankle painfully forward before yanking the fighter forward and face first into the arena. I stand up quickly, and hold a palm down at the fighter. With a roar of vengeance I release a ki ball into his back and the explosion shakes the ground slightly, engulfing the two of us in dirt and dust. The shroud clears to reveal Jerek rushing at me again. Waiting calmly, my aura pulsating with my power, I drop into a fighting stance. I lean to the left to dodge his initial punch, but having thrown his right fist on purpose Jerek reacts perfectly. He bends his arm so that his elbow snaps out into my right temple, which ends up knocking me off balance more than causing damage. However, off-balance was all he aimed for, and he comes through with a right knee into my stomach and twists back slamming a vicious left fist into my head. My body suddenly rockets away from Jerek's blow, my eyes rolling unfocused in my head as I'm lifted off of my feet. I land on my back heavily, and darkness clouds my vision. I feel the blood dripping from my mouth and wipe it off rather clumsily. My body finally rolls to a stop and Jerek is suddenly over me again.

"Kami seems to have ignored your pleas." He sneers before kicking me in the ribs again.

An indistinguishable noise of pain escapes my lips but it's cut off abruptly by bolt of ki to the face. Now the noise of pain becomes a clear roar of agony as the heat of his blast lightly cooks my body. As soon as the attack subsides, I quickly jump to my feet in preparation for another assault. Jerek throws a ki blast, which I decimate with my own, but he's suddenly back on me with another round of combos. I smirk as I dodge to the left and right avoiding his first two punches. I lean back, avoiding his uppercut, and Jerek drops his elbow back down aiming at my head. I move slightly to the right and let him drop it into my shoulder minimizing the damage I take. Then I fly up just high enough to toss Jerek into the air and I drop back to the ground. The boy's eyes get wide in sudden fear as his body drifts back towards the ground, and I realize that Jerek can't fly. I press my wrists together, fingers spreading out to the left and right, and I fire off a beam of ki that catches my opponent in the chest just before he hits the ground, shooting him towards the edge of the arena. I slowly work my over to my prey, noticing the sounds of my teams cheers of encouragement, and sit back down in the meditation position I'd been in before the fight had begun. I let my mind wrap itself around the power I now felt flowing freely through my body. Rather than try to enhance or unlock it any further, out of self-fear more than anything, I simply embrace the feeling as I watch Jerek stagger his way back to his feet. He yells in anger and humiliation and takes off to attack me again. Deciding to make his inability to fly a blatant weakness, I fire a ki blast at his feet as soon as he's about 7 feet in front of me. He jumps over it easily, and I suddenly launch myself to my feet planting an uppercut into his stomach, raising him even higher into the air. I step under Jerek's free-falling figure and spin into a whipping backflip, planting my foot into his back and slamming him face down into the ground. The sounds of the shocked reaction from the crowd spur me into my next move. I grab Jerek's collar and pull him onto his feet for a moment, then I use a squat thrust to toss him into the air. Then I let off another ki beam into his stomach. But instead of it detonating on contact, I let it carry him into the air before I stop feeding it energy. The final explosion tosses Jerek's limp form a little higher into the air, and then he begins to fall from the almost 15 feet in the air. I step under him and cock my fist back for an uppercut aimed at his open spine. A sharp intake of breath is clearly audible from the crowd, but I step back at the last second and let him crash into the ground. The final slam into the ground finally knocks Jerek out, and I walk off of the arena, letting my aura dissipate.

"Well, how'd I do?" I ask Janiko as I reach my team with a satisfied smile.

"You finally held back," Samantha speaks the obvious.

"Good or bad?" I don't even bother to attack her comment.

"Let better suffice," I hear a serene voice behind me. "This definitely shows promise for our meeting Friday."