"Not a chance! We earned this fair and square," Mako retorted, not backing down.
Even though they had just gone through a tough battle, Erin was the only one who a low on energy as she had to maintain the ice walls, but Mako and Iris still had plenty of juice to keep fighting, making this a bit fair 2v3.
Mako and his team had defeated the Water Sentinel fairly and now they had the right to take the crystal and claim victory but Bill and his team weren't just going to accept that without a fight.
The tension in the room escalated as both teams faced off against each other. However, before a full-blown battle could erupt, the Water Crystal in the center of the room began slowly began to regain its glow which went unnoticed by everyone.
Iris rushed toward the center to grab the crystal as she was the closest, but Leon didn't let that happen as he conjured a small fireball in his hand which looked like it wouldn't do much, Mako and Bill both knew about Leon's new skill.
"Flame Wall!" Leon shouted as he launched the fireball forward as far as he could.
As the small fireball traveled through the air, a thin wall of flames erupted from the ground, following the projectile's path.
The fireball projectile curved around Iris, just as she reached the pool surrounding the crystal and the Flame Wall quickly followed cutting her pathway and preventing her from getting any closer.
"Not so fast, Iris! I will be taking that!" Leon shouted as he sped over towards her dodging Mako's barrage of Fireballs and Lightning Strikes.
However, before he could reach the crystal himself, Leon suddenly felt something slippery underneath his foot which is something really bad for a person moving at that speed.
'Uh oh,' Leon thought as he couldn't do anything at that moment and so his feet slipped, causing him to skid forward due to the momentum his body was carrying and scrape against the floor while decelerating and coming to a stop.
One of the biggest cons of Speed ability users is that even though they have great versatility and potential, it is just too risky to be moving that fast as if an accident occurs where the user was moving very fast loses his footing, the consequences can be dire.
Leon eventually slowed down after bumping and scraping against the floor several times and finally came to a screeching halt.
It just so happened to be that Leon had skidded and stopped right in front of Erin who was the culprit behind Leon's slip in the first place. Even if she had less energy, it didn't mean she couldn't fight at all as just a small patch of ice is all you need to deal with a speedster.
Erin placed one of her feet on top of Leon's weak and shaky body as she taunted him by saying, "You may have four abilities or whatever, but you still are no match for me in terms of skill and technique!"
Leon looked up towards Erin who looked like the final female boss from a video game with one eye as he appeared quite weak and flustered; although, there weren't many visible injuries on his body if all.
"That's one more down, Mako! Hold off Bill, while Iris takes the crystal!" Erin said to Mako in a hurry.
Bill quickly realized that he was on his own and quickly rushed forward to meet Mako's assault head-on. He had to deal with Mako quickly if he had any chance of securing that crystal, which was a big ask considering how hard it was for him to deal with the first time, and at that time, he didn't even have the Earth ability yet.
Mako and Bill clashed head-on with different abilities and skills colliding with one another as they both tried to quickly take care of the other. Both of them used everything in their arsenal to try and breakthrough, but both of them just kept countering each other by using completely opposite abilities.
Mako and Bill were locked in a stalemate and Iris was inching ever closer towards the crystal. It seemed that Team A would be the one to claim victory in their first training match.
However just as Erin thought that, she heard the sound of laughter from underneath her. She looked to see Leon who was still under her feet, laughing.
Erin was very confused at Leon's odd behavior as this was not the time to be laughing, but Leon let Erin in on why he was laughing.
"Oh... Erin, I specifically have this ability just to counter my speed's greatest weakness!" Leon said while laughing.
It took a second for Erin to realize what Leon was referring to, but by then it was too late. Leon activated one of his new speed skills that were perfect for this scenario.
"Kinetic Impulse!" Leon shouted as a white colored shockwave erupted from Leon Body in all directions, blasting Erin of his body.
The shockwave was quite strong and packed a good punch as not only was Erin launched several meters, but after she couldn't get back up after landing on the ground.
"Damn... I forgot about his hardening..." Erin said weakly.
Leon quickly got back on his feet and looked pretty much unharmed. He observed that Bill and Mako were locked in a scrimmage with no one winning just yet, which left only him and Iris.
He turned toward Iris who had already crossed the pool and was inches away from the crystal.
"NO!" Leon shouted as he dashed toward Iris at his top speed, but it was just too late, Iris would retrieve the crystal and then it would be quite difficult for them to steal it back from them.
Time slowed down as Leon ran to his maximum limit to try and catch up to Iris, but it looked like he wasn't going to make it in time, but apparently, someone else was.
Just before Iris could touch the crystal and grab it, a claw attack formed from the blood that appeared to her right and was coming straight for her.
Since she was so focused on getting the crystal, she was completely unguarded against the Blood Claw attack and was just barely able to move out of the way such that it would be a direct hit.
The Blood Claw hit the floor right between Iris and the podium on which the crystal was placed and exploded upon impact in a shockwave of blood that pushed Iris back, making her collide with Leon who was running towards her, sending them both flying back.
From the top of the nearest wall, a beast appeared, a blood wolf to be exact.
It was Nathan. He had recovered from the initial attack he had received from the Water Sentinel as he had not activated his Enhanced Perception skill yet and as a result, the sentinel got a clean hit on him, but luckily, just before he got hit, Nathan managed to use blood hardening to reinforce his body to absorb the force of the attack.
Since then, he had been carefully observing the central area and watching the others fight it out, waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump in.
Nathan jumped down from the wall and transformed back into his human form. He quickly began walking toward the crystal, given that now there was no one there to stop him.
"Stop!" Mako shouted as he launched a fireball toward Nathan whilst continuing to fight Bill.
Nathan tilted his head slightly as he kept walking and the fireball grazed past him, without touching a single hair on his body.
This act shocked Mako and even Bill as Nathan had just dodged an attack without even looking at it perfectly and didn't pause walking at all.
Mako was in big trouble now. Both Erin and Iris were on the ground, recovering from being blasted away and now he somehow had to prevent Nathan from getting to the crystal while also battling Bill.
Mako fired a couple more Fireballs in between moves toward Nath to try and slow him down, but he dodged them all effortlessly again.
Mako looked at his other options of which he had little left as Nathan was almost at the crystal.
In a moment of desperation, Mako activated the only skill that was going to buy him some time, but might just backfire on him in the long run.
[Electrical Discharge has been activated]
Mako released a pulse of electricity to paralyze Bill. Given Bill's strength and Electrical Discharge being under-leveled, Mako would be lucky if he could paralyze him for ten seconds, but that was enough time for him to confront Nathan, even if it meant he had to fight the two of them at the same time.
[Sprint has been activated]
Mako activated his fastest speed skill and dashed over toward Nathan, with a fist locked and loaded at his head.
Nathan sensed Mako's presence and ducked accordingly to dodge the attack, allowing Mako to fly over him, but this is exactly what Mako wanted.
He had purposefully slowed down at the end so when he would get dodged, he wouldn't go flying straight into the pool and it worked like a treat allowing Mako to stand in front of Nathan and block him from moving any closer.
"Move, if you know what's best for you!" Nathan shouted with a threatening tone, but Mako had heard worse from Bill when he used to Bully him so this had absolutely no effect.
Mako began charging his lightning to launch a strong attack, and Nathan responded by turning his arm into a Blood Wolf arm and launching another Blood Claw attack.
[Lightning Claw has been activated]
The two claw attacks collided with each other, forming a great explosion, pushing both of them back.
Mako used his earth ability to dig his feet into the ground so that he wouldn't get blown away and Nathan transformed his feet into the Blood Wolf Legs to grip the ground so that he wouldn't get pushed back.
The shockwave finally ended with both Nathan and Mako staring at each other from afar, acknowledging each other's strength.
Bill quickly joined Nathan's side much to his disdain soon after and now they closed in on Mako who was really running out of options on how to deal with two strong opponents at that same time.
The two quickly began their assault having no sync whatsoever, but still managed to overwhelm Mako who was barely hanging on thanks to the Stone Skin and Fortified Stance skills, giving him a boost in Fortitude.
Slowly but surely, Mako was getting pushed back by Bill and Nathan's continuous attacks, and it looked like it was going to be a victory for Team B after all.
As the three of them were fighting, they were all suddenly caught off guard by the crystal itself shining brightly like a star, and soon after a second Water Sentinel emerged from the pool that they were two feet away from.
"OH SH**!"
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