Chapter 5; Fighting Adepts

*********************ROUND 9: ZEALOT VS. ERICA*********************

Zealot and Erica stood, facing each other, Zealot with his arms crossed and Erica lightly shaking in fear. People knew that Zealot would win, and that he could take down Erica whenever he wanted, but what was he waiting for? Erica was thinking the same things, hoping for it all to be over soon.

She suddenly felt a strange trickle in the back of her head.

'Just because you're cute,' she heard, 'I won't dispose of you right away.'

Erica's eyes widened in shock, but Zealot simply smirked. She finally shrugged and grabbed her dagger. Zealot noticed this, and pulled out his own dagger.

Erica whistled in wonder and said: "Nice blade!"

Zealot smirked.

"It was my dad's, before he died," he said, not noticing a person in the audience flinch lightly.

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'But if that dagger belonged to his father… that means that he's…'

"You okay?" Onyx asked. "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine," he said, and left for a little while.

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Metal clashed, and both Adepts had their free hand on their back, so as not to cheat. Erica lashed out at Zealot's face, but he jumped aside, and lashed out at Erica too. Erica blocked with much difficulty, but she managed. Metal continued to clash, and they jumped aside, before running back at each other, lashing out and running past.

They stopped a few feet further, not moving.

Zealot looked straight ahead, until he felt something trickle down his cheek.

'What the---?' he thought and allowed his tongue to lick it up. 'Blood?!'

Zealot's brows furrowed, but he kept his calm. He found it odd of himself. Had she been anybody else, he would've exploded in anger. But he didn't, and he was starting to wonder why that was.

Erica panted silently, feeling the wound on her right arm burn. It ran from her elbow up to just below her shoulder, and of the arm she fought with too. Erica knew she hit him, and she figured he'd soon explode in anger. She'd heard that no one had ever been able to make Zealot bleed, and he would be pretty pissed off at her right now.

Silence reigned, with people holding their breath for awhile. Zealot finally straightened up, and Erica heard, so she stood up too. They didn't turn around yet. Zealot sighed through his nose, and turned around. Erica turned her head first, then fully turned. They stood, face-to-face, blood running down Erica's arm and Zealot's cheek. Zealot raised his free hand and moved his thumb across his reopened scar, then looked down at the blood on the offending digit.

Erica gulped. She was dead.

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"She's dead," Cecilia mumbled, jaws clamped together in fright.

"This can't be good…" Sara said, leaning on her staff.

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Surprisingly, Zealot didn't do a thing.

Erica waited patiently, but nothing happened. The duo stood, facing each other, neither making a move. Zealot finally spoke.

"You're the first in two years to scratch me," he said with a smirk.

His free hand moved up, and grasped the side of his hood.

"I must say, I'm impressed." And with that sentence, he lowered the hood.

Erica gasped audibly. He was no older than she was! He had pure golden hair and the same shade eyes. His eyes spoke of wisdom far beyond his years, and he had a single wound on his face.

"Uh… thanks…" Erica said.

Zealot smirked and sheathed his dagger, before pulling out his sword. Erica switched weapons too, and both of them took on a battle pose. Zealot's sword was made out of gold as well, but Erica tried hard not to focus on that.

She finally managed to succeed, and they stood, waiting. Neither of the combatants moved, until Erica lost her patience. Her foot shifted a millimeter, and Zealot smirked, before they both ran toward the center. Swords clashed loudly, and the battle began again. Everyone was seated on the edge of their seat, figuratively speaking, seeing as there weren't any chairs.

Zealot lashed out, Erica blocked, Erica stabbed, Zealot dodged. Sideways slash, duck, upward slash, block, swordtwirl so the other's stuck in the ground. Erica was going to regret this, but she kicked Zealot to his chin, sending him away. Zealot growled and rubbed his chin. It didn't hurt, but it had surprised him enough to drive him away.

He looked at Erica, who was watching him with a determined look on her face. Zealot growled again, and pure purple spirals surrounded him.

"SPARK PLASMA!!!!" he screamed, and lightning shot down on Erica, who cried out in shock, and was close to unconsciousness.

She wasn't about to give up though. Blue spirals circled her, and she aimed her palms at Zealot.

"FROST!!!" she screamed, and before anyone knew it, Zealot became encased in a block of ice.

Erica stood up on shaky legs, trying to stay conscious. Nothing seemed to happen for the first few seconds, until the ice suddenly shattered. Zealot looked at Erica with an amused smirk on his face, arms crossed over his chest. Before Erica could stop him, his elbow was buried in her guts.

She hadn't even seen him move.

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Zeros watched Zealot carrying Erica away from the ring over his shoulder. As the battle had progressed, he'd studied the boy's face carefully.

'No doubt about it. It's him, alright,' he thought.

*********************ROUND 10: ZEROS VS. MONICA*********************

The girl popped her knuckles, and Zeros simply watched. This Monica seemed like a worthy opponent… NOT!

She was more like your everyday slut actually.

'I don't even want to know how she got in,' he thought.

Monica smiled and winked at him. Zeros wasn't affected in the least, safe for that it disgusted him.

'Pathetic,' he thought, not noticing someone watch him in curiosity.

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'That's odd,' Zealot thought, blinking behind his hood. 'I can't read a single thought of that guy. What's up with that?'

He suddenly noticed that black haired girl that had been with Zeros, looking down in wonder.

"You're a Jupiter Adept, right?" Zealot asked.

The girl looked at him in confusion.

"Uh… yeah… why?" she asked.

"Have you ever tried to read his thoughts?" Zealot said with a nod at Zeros.

She looked at Zeros.

"Sure did. But he has a strange wall shielding his thoughts. I can't get through," she said.

'Hmmm…' Zealot thought, looking at Zeros again.

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Zeros easily stepped aside, avoiding the girl by a long shot. Zeros finally had enough as he held one hand behind his back. Monica ran at him again, but Zeros brought his hand back and threw a blazing black knife at the girl.

It lashed at her arm, causing her to cry out. Zeros suddenly spread his fingers, forming more of the same knives which he then threw at the girl, who was easily knocked out of the ring, before he left the ring

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Zealot gasped inaudibly, not believing what he saw.

'T-t-that was---' he thought.

*********************ROUND 11: RANDER VS. ANTHONY*********************

The duo stood, each on opposite sides of the ring. Rander was smaller than Anthony was, but both knew of the other's abilities. That was what would make this battle last longer than everyone would suspect. Anthony was holding his club in his hand, and Rander had his sword in his grasp. The duo nodded at each other, just before the fight started.

"FIREWALL!!!" Anthony immediately shouted, red spirals shooting up around him.

The blast would've hit Rander, hadn't he rolled aside at the last second.

"GRAND GAIA!!!" Rander suddenly hollered, and an earthquake of an enormous size suddenly struck, nearly sending Anthony out of ring.

Nearly.

Anthony shot up, and avoided a slash from Rander's sword, then lunged out with his own weapon, only to have it blocked. Rander kicked Anthony's feet away from under him, making the other fighter tumble over. Anthony rolled aside to avoid Rander's blade, and managed to kick Rander to his chin while still on the ground. He used the momentum he was going at to backflip back to his feet.

Weapons clashed, and Psynergy was hurled in almost every possible direction. People couldn't see the Psynergy, but they had already learned what it was.

Finally, Rander had had about enough, and managed to kick Anthony out of ring, knocked out.

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Zealot blinked at Rander when the fight had stopped, and wondered if he'd have to fight this guy too. However, his eyes soon turned back to someone else.

Zeros had also been watching the battle, not even moving an inch, as if he wasn't fully with them, but trying to make people think he was.

'If only I could read this guy's thoughts!'

*********************ROUND 12: RAY VS. BRETT*********************

Brett got onto the ring, and stared his opponent down for a while.

Ray was about 5'10, had long, dirty blonde hair, and a tanned skin. His eyes were of an odd silvery gray color. He wore some dark gray pants, a white long sleeved shirt, a blue tunic over it, and some black gloves. Ray was holding a dirk in his hand, and Brett figured that he fought with that. The strange part though, was that he had a Psynergy Aura around him.

Ray smirked and said: "About time I had a good workout!"

Brett quirked an eyebrow at Ray, but said nothing. They stood there for awhile, just watching each other, until the starting shot sounded. Ray furrowed his brows, and ran at Brett, who waited for a few seconds, until running at Ray. They were about to hit, when Brett jumped aside. Ray stopped mid-step and changed directions.

'He's fast!' Brett thought, and managed to block a lash from Ray's dirk.

He lashed out again, but Brett ducked under the swing, and managed to punch Ray in his guts, making the other man double over.

Brett whirled around and kicked Ray to his spine with his heel, sending the other man into the ground. Ray rolled out of the way of Brett's sword, and kicked the boy's feet away. Brett used his hands to break his fall and shot back up to block another blow from Ray. The duo jumped away from each other, before lunging out again. This process continued, until Ray seemed to tire of it.

"BOLT!!!" Ray screamed.

Purple spirals surrounded him in a frenzy, and Brett looked up, and could just avoid the blast that would've hit him on the head if he hadn't. Brett looked at Ray, a calculating look on his face, before Brett's eyebrows furrowed.

Furious red spirals surrounded Brett, and he screamed: "PLANET DIVER!!!"

The blast hit Ray head-on, and the other combatant was out for the count within seconds.

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"Thanks for letting me borrow Flash, Anthony," Brett said, returning the Fire Djinni to the Mars Adept.

"No sweat," Anthony said when Flash sat down on his shoulder. "I didn't trust that guy anyway."

"Okay, he was odd, I admit, big deal?" Eve asked, not really knowing why everyone had worried about that Ray.

Cecilia sat up from where she'd been lying on a table (something she always did) and said: "There was an odd air around him. Something I didn't quite trust."

Onyx looked confused and asked: "How could you tell?"

Cecilia shrugged. "Don't know, don't care."

Sara tapped her staff against the ground, thinking.

"Hmmm… Zeros, what do you think of Ray?" she asked, turning to the silver haired man.

Zeros, clearly not listening, looked at her in confusion, before he said: "Ray? Not too sure. I admit, he's odd, but being odd does not mean he can't be trusted. To know for sure, you need to know him like you know yourself. And even then, you can never be too careful."

Zealot listened from his corner in the room, one eyebrow raised. He had his hood once again over his head, shielding his face from the others.

'Hmmm… Canyon, did you hear that?'

Yes, I did. He's pretty smart, don't you think?

'I think he's more of a smart-ass!'

Zealot!!

'Canyon, he thinks he knows everything, but he's wrong! People try to enjoy life, and living only to know you'll die later is no way of living! Some people don't want to die, because they want to get the best out of life! If he learns that, then I might consider him smart.'

……O… kay… guess you have a point.

'Now that I think about it, he's my next opponent!'

Hmmm… go a little easy on him!

'Canyon, he's an adult already! He can handle it!'

Better than you can imagine.

Zealot's head whipped around to the person who had spoken to his mind. Zeros stared at him with a calm stare, no sign of amusement on his face, before he turned to look at Onyx, who approached him and began talking with him. Zealot could only gape at him.

'The Hell?!?! Who is that guy?!'

No answer came.

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Through the halls of the castle, walked a man with long black hair, tied up in a braid. The front half of his head was shaved and there was a vicious glare on his face. His dark black, almost red eyes showed no emotions at all, just anger and hatred. He wore black Chinese robes with black pants, had a black sash around his waist and wore some black slip-ons with white socks.

He stalked into the room, causing the woman inside to turn and look at him.

"Violent Wind," she acknowledged, then turned back to the scroll she was holding.

"Any word from junior yet?" Kai asked not even bothering to look up.

Violent Wind scoffed and said: "Yes. He said it would be almost impossible to track her now."

The woman whirled around, and looked at him in confusion.

"What?!" she demanded, anger clear in her voice.

"She gave her amulet to that guard from Vault, Ray confirmed that he had it around his neck during Colosso," Violent Wind said icily, like he always did.

"She gave our parents' amulet to some---guard---from Vault?!?!" the woman demanded, her hand nearly snapping the scroll in her hand in half.

"Calm down alright, there are other ways to locate her," Kai said, opening his eyes slowly.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!!!" the woman screamed at him, and Kai and Violent Wind instantly backed up, knowing that this was when she was the most dangerous.

She seemed to calm down, slightly, and said: "Kai! Call that Goddamned brat of yours in here! And Violent Wind! Get Janias in here! THIS INSTANT!!!"

Both Kai and Violent Wind dashed from the room, any excuse to get away from the raging woman in the room. The woman growled in anger, exposing razor-sharp fangs.

"SIS!!!!" she finally screamed, facing the ceiling. "YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET DOING THIIIIIIIIIIIIISSS!!!!"

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"Hmmm?"

Zeros gazed out the window, confusion written over his face.

"What's wrong, Zeros?" Sara asked, concern and confusion clear in her voice.

Zeros didn't answer, just stared out the window for awhile, then turned back around.

"Nothing. Just thought I heard someone scream," he muttered, waving the matter aside.

Rander looked a little confused, but finally shrugged it off.

And suddenly, an announcement was made.

The thirteenth round was about to begin.

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Okay, it's not as long as previous chapters, but fighting scenes are tough to write! Next chapter will hopefully be a little longer, seeing as the battle will be longer.

Next fight: ZEALOT VS. ZEROS

New characters:

Ray

Violent Wind