In a stance so she could take any punch and turn it around Queen stood. Her opponent was rather large but she didn’t particularly mind it. Big guys usually get full of themselves and especially against women. She would win this fight and prove that she’s not scared anymore. She felt this way with all her heart and in a certain corner of her heart, she wanted to win and ease the burden on the stupid man sitting in the dugout.

“Let’s get this party started!”

“So you want your funeral to be a party? How lively of you.”

Raleigh opened with an unoriginal one-liner like he was some character from a movie and Queen responded with her usual style, cold and belittling.

With a quick first step, he entered Queens range and threw a left aimed for the bottom of her chin. She immediately dodged to her left and fired a rapid combination from her fists into his arm. He retaliated by attempting to sweep her legs but she held firm and unwavering. His leg slammed hard into hers enough to crack the ground she stood on but even so she remained upright.

“Fist of the king!” She hurled her right fist with cold and calculated rage into the brow of her enemy. Marie’s fist connected and Raleigh rebounded off the ground as if he were made of rubber. With much the same motion as hitting a ball off the ground as hard as you can Raleigh flew through the air and landed some distance away.

Marie resumed her stance and hoped that the man might stay down.

“That hurt like a bitch! I am wide awake now yessir! Nothing like getting your ass whooped to sharpen your mind a little. Now then let us try that again shall we”

Her hopes were immediately dashed as Raleigh hit the ground a few times in indignation as if he had stubbed a toe. Before getting up and revealing that the mighty blow from earlier only left a minor cut and a bruise on his forehead. He took on a look of engrossment as he entered a stance.

“Try it all you like you’ll receive the same treatment as last time.” Trepidation took hold of Marie as she stared down at the changed man in front of her. Gone was his wishy-washy personality from before now replaced by a true warrior. Something she wasn’t something she wanted to be. He was the real thing and that scared her.

A right connected to her jaw as he took no time to close the gap. Her body buckled as the pain shot straight to her brain. His left fist indented her gut as she was falling down causing her to fly backward. More pain racked her body. This was a much more brutal fight than the last one she faced even though she had only suffered two hits.

“I thought I was going to receive the same treatment or are you all talk little lady.” He slowly crept forward with his guard up even though he was mocking her being so weak. She stood up and gathered herself she would need to use it now before she got too beat up for it to do any good.

“First gate of mana.” She placed her left thumb directly over her heart and pointed at it. Soon after her body emanated an otherworldly blue glow as every drop of mana in her system was being constantly sacrificed. Her body at the moment was treating its reserve mana as if it were coal on an old train. To make her body stronger and faster she would constantly sacrifice a set amount of mana every minute until she ran dry. This was the main theory behind the four gates skill.

“Try it again then, if you’re so confident in yourself.” She entered her own form of zone but unlike Ryuji, she didn’t use magic or any skill besides the ones that were engrained into her body over years upon years of training.

“I like that attitude!” He wore a smile that very much resembled a kid who just found another kid willing to play. This realization that Queen had looking at him made her cringe with despair. It was always harder to beat the idiots who loved fighting rather than the ones who were just trained to do it.

He ran at her and before arriving decided to slide as if he were trying to get safe on a base. His leg aimed for Queens left foot before it ever got close enough to touch her she immediately reacted and launched a barrage of fists into his face. Each was aimed at a different spot. His momentum was killed as the onslaught of fists stopped him dead in his tracks. His eyes seemed dead by the end and she aimed her finishing blow.

“Blue dragon shock!” Her left fist became a torrent of blue energy that vaguely resembled what a dragon might look like in a children’s fable.

His right glove flew off and his newly exposed right fist was on track to collide with her dragon covered one. “Got ya!” The rigid hand of a grown man collided with that of a young woman but something was off. Even though she should have ripped his hand to shreds she couldn’t, reality wouldn’t let her.

“Huh?” She looked as if she were punching some kind of intangible barrier her fist wavered back and forth but could go now further against the opposing fist. They never touched and that both stood in equilibrium until.

“Wave crash!” His fist generated an even more powerful barrier which obliterated her hand. When she pulled back her arm it hung limply from her left side. She gazed down upon her hand which now looked like rolled up and used tubes of toothpaste. The pain hit her and she collapsed while clinging to her now useless arm.

-----Hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts!

“Why are you backing up? You won’t win that way, little lady.” He casually took off his other glove allowing him to use his full might. His face looked like he got stampeded but it still wore the smile of someone having a good time which only served to freak her out more.

-----Stay away, stay away, stay away!

“This is getting pretty boring you know. I wish I could have fought that swordsman. He had a fire in his eyes that really spoke to my soul ya know.” He purposely stopped pursuing her and let her have a moment of reprieve. Queen knew this was just so the fight wouldn’t end in some boring way.

“Ryuji… huh.” She thought of the guy she was forced to run away with. The guy who made her use an entire year of her life at an academy she strongly hated. A guy who has some questionable mental issues to deal with. A guy who was easy to talk with and always willing. A guy who trained harder than everyone else even though he wasn’t getting any results. A guy who managed to befriend three drastically different girls who were each a huge handful. A guy who did and would put his life on the line to help someone even if he didn’t know them. A guy who she respected and appreciated. Her first friend and her ideal.

“I…” She stopped backing away. Her spine straightened while her fist turned white and shook. The grip spread pain as blood fell away from her hand.

“I won’t…” She trembled violently at the thought of facing this man. The pain he would bring terrified her. A memory came to her then, she remembered a little man facing down an insane god. She smirked and to everyone else, it looked like she found her own situation laughable. Which was partly true. In truth, she thought of how stupid it was to fear this man when compared to the god he faced down.

“I won’t run from you!” Raleigh felt her resolve as her voice broke midway. This wasn’t a concern of hers however she was far more worried about backing down here and making a mockery of herself. “Second gate of blood.” Her body ignited from within.

-------Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

“What is this?”

The mana that resided in one's blood was stronger and more potent than the kind you stored in a body’s mana pool. The mana gained from sacrificing the blood within your own veins would be about three times stronger than regular mana. You might be asking then why doesn’t everyone use this? The answer is simple.

“FUUUUCK!” To acquire the mana, you must forcibly extract it from the blood within your veins which is unbearable painful for many reasons. The first is that you feel every blood vessel that gets its mana torn away which is the equivalent of being stabbed in the arm by a needle. The second is that extracting creates mass amounts of heat within the body.

Tears of agony trailed down her face. The air around her sizzled and became distorted. Steam rose from the sweat and then from the tears. Every move she made signaled suffering in the form of obscene pain. Even still she kept moving. With a look of determination that would make any trained soldier flee she slowly started to approach Raleigh.

“Beautiful! You are just… so… astounding!” Excitement and life were breathed back into the fighter. He entered his stance to take her head-on. Her speed picked up as she steadily got used to bearing the pain. She kicked out using her left foot but was readily stopped by his cross block.

Kick after kick flew towards Raleigh as he struggled to keep up. Each one rang through his entire body no matter how safely he blocked it. Her kicks became more rhythmic the pace slowly getting faster and faster. A right to his ribs, a left to his chin, a right to the back of his knee. He no longer could block them all.

“Wave crash!” A left launched with the same invisible barrier as before but this time it was Queen that was waiting. She smiled gritting through the pain and clenched her fist sending the burning energy straight into it.

“Red Tempest!” A whirlwind of red mana swirled around her fist as it connected with the invisible something around Raleigh’s fist. If he had a barrier around his fist, then one would liken Queen's fist to a drill that could pierce and dig into anything. With each passing second, her fist inched closer and closer.

“Wave crash!” Desperately he lashed out with his other fist and connected with her jaw. The vibration that shook her skull would have made trained jest fighter pilots who experience high Gs pass out. Her vision resembled a tv on a stormy night. Her jaw no longer functioned and the bone that once rested there had become the same consistency as figgy pudding.

“Puuuuuuush!” Still, she continued her attack. She didn’t need to see clearly to know that her fist was still on a direct course for a fatal blow. Before Raleigh could wind up for another his barrier failed. Her hand pushed through his like it was paper-mache. His arm no longer existed and neither did the shoulder that used to connect it to the rest of his body. It all disappeared into nothing as a flood of blood escaped his body.

“Wave crash!” He didn’t slow down or even think about his lost arm. The fist that destroyed her jaw cocked back to deliver what would be the final blow.

‘I won’t give up now!’

She cocked her fist back and felt a surge of new agony.

‘I can do this!’

A forearm of blood and brimstone started its course to Raleigh’s skull. Her expression would have made Raleigh wet himself and run if this wasn’t a fake fight.

“ORA!” Unfortunately for her, it was a fake fight and so he didn’t show a single moment of hesitation. His fist collided with her temple causing her final attack to go off course.

‘I guess…’

Her thoughts left her as she collapsed in a pool of blood.

‘…I’m still useless.’

“Round 3 winner is Raleigh!”

“Good match!” Raleigh extended his hand.

“You too.” Without looking back Queen walked towards the dugout with fists clenched.

The space was quiet as Ryuji had no clue what to do. As the silence continued, he realized that no one else knew either and were probably secretly relying on him to solve it since he had known her longer. Ryuji sighed and sat next to her.

“What is it?” Her usual sharp tone had been sharpened beyond anything he had ever experienced. Just hearing her made him wince. “If you have nothing to say then I would appreciate it if you kept your distance from me.”

“I just wanted to say that um well you were really amazing out there.” The low voice carried appreciation and honesty in it so much so that Queen had started to tear up without even realizing it. With a look of knowing Ryuji got up and sat back down in his original seat while Jessy moved in and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible to make you feel better okay?” Her smile was radiant but the rest of her face suggested a much more negative emotion. Queen feeling the weird presence she was giving off simply nodded.

“I didn’t know the sunshine child could look like that. It’s a little scary.” Dot passively remarked while leaning back into the wall.

“Round 4 Jessy vs Mikasa!”

“What?” Ryuji shot up and surprised both the girls. ‘That’s the first Japanese name I’ve heard of since coming here and she has a katana. This can’t be a coincidence… right?’ Ryuji made a katana his main weapon in part because he was a massive weeb but also so if anyone else from japan existed here they might see it. He thought that she might be doing it for much the same reason.

“Round 4 start!”

The second the encounter began a stone-faced Jessy ripped leather and fanned the hammer of her revolver. The fight in front of him made Ryuji think of the coolest type of scene in any western, the part where the good guy draws first. “BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!” Every bullet was reminiscent of a tank's main gun. Each ripped through a different part of the girl before she even had a chance to draw her blade.

“The winner of round 4 is Jessy! This means we have a draw on our hands! We will randomly draw two opponents from the teams to decide the tournament.

‘Please not me, please not me, please not me!’

“Ryuji vs Raleigh!”