*Chapter 2*

'You're not serious?! I have to fight against him?!' yelled Burter as he looked at the draw. Jeice and Burter would be fighting against each other in the semi-final of the tournament. It would certainly be Jeice's first real challenge of the night after fighting against opponents with power levels well below his own.

('This time I might just break a sweat...') thought Jeice to himself.

'Come on Burter, it'll be fun.' shouted Jeice, and with that his 'friend' glared at him with apparent annoyance.

'Jeez... what the hell did I do?' Jeice asked Kiros, who shrugged his shoulders. It was perplexing to say the very least.

Jeice jumped into the ring, where Burter was already standing. This was sure to be the fight of the tournament, and it was widely acknowledged that the winner of this bout would probably win the whole thing. The other semi-finalists had a combined power level of 29,000, half of Jeice's own.

'Burter...' Jeice said as he walked towards the massive fighter in front of him.

'Look Jeice, leave me alone, alright? I'm really not in the mood right now.'

'What the hell's wrong with you, you...fucking weirdo?!' yelled Jeice at the top of his voice, and most of the innermost people to the ring turned to see what was going on.

'Goddamnit Jeice, it's none of your fucking business!' Burter roared and let fly with a weak energy blast which caught Jeice by surprise and struck his right leg, knocking him to the ground. However, Jeice immediately got to his feet and stared at his friend. This was too weird. It simply wasn't like Burter to act like this.

'...I'll get you...!' muttered Jeice as he backed off to his corner of the ring, but Burter was already looking away. Suddenly the loudspeaker above the ring signalled for the fighters to get ready, and within seconds, the two were charging towards each other, ready for battle.

Burter threw out a massive flurry of punches aimed towards Jeice, which almost all missed their initial target, with the ones that did hit being too weak to do any real damage to his opponent. Jeice was simply too fast now to take any pain from such an assault, and with one quick kick Burter was sent sprawling across the ring, almost falling to his feet but not quite losing balance. However, the opportunity for Jeice to win this fight was very clear, and in a flash both fighters were bounding around the ring with incredible speed, with the force of the energy from the punches and kicks almost knocking even the more experienced fighters from their seats at the front of the ring. With a combined fighting power of 106,000 between them both, they weren't lacking in power for sure. But their already unsteady alliance was about to fall for good.

Burter jumped up into the air after yet another kick from Jeice, and threw his hands out in the air with great force, and then his head was tilted forward. Jeice looked upwards, and could see the face of Burter glaring down at him. And it was then he realised, that Burter was ready to kill him. It was a split second decision, and one which would stay with Jeice for the rest of his life, but before he could think his energy started to swell, and within a moment both fighters had fired their blasts at each other.

Jeice could feel Burter's power rising even now, but he refrained from pouring all his energy into the beam. What the hell was Burter trying to do? Jeice knew that this was completely insane, but at the same time he might have expected it from someone he didn't know quite as well. He had been fighting alongside Burter for well over five years, and they'd saved each other a markable number of times...and yet now, it seemed to count for nothing. Jeice looked up, and could see the faint figure of Burter still pushing everything he had into his energy blast. And suddenly Jeice threw his arms upwards and pushed the beam towards Burter's body. There was an incredible scream above the arena, and the sound of the massive explosion which nearly shook the room to pieces, and the noise of terrified lower class soldiers running for the exits. But Jeice heard or saw none of this, for all he knew was one thing. Burter was dead. By his hand.