Vincent and Stefen stood on opposite sides of the Collider, both ready in their own way for the fight. Stefen was shaking a bit, showing obvious signs of fear and nervousness. Vincent, on the other hand, was bouncing back and forth in a relaxed fighting stance.

“No hard feeling, dude,” Vincent casually said. He wasn't the biggest fan of beating up people when he had no reason to, but there were extraneous circumstances in this case. If Vincent couldn’t win, then there was no way for him and his friends to be safe.

With that, Vincent burst into a dead sprint towards Stefen. He wasn’t going to hold back and he wanted this to get over with as quickly as possible. He figured one punch was good enough, and besides, if he took out Stefen quickly, then he could probably win the fight before Stefen could use his powers.

As Vincent got closer, Stefen yelped in fear and cowardly hid behind his hands. If that was a trick to try and slow Vincent down, he wasn’t buying it. However, unfortunately for Vincent, he should have taken that second to hesitate.

When Vincent got about 10 feet from Stefen, a creature apparated from his body and swiftly took a swipe at Vincent. Vincent didn’t quite see the creature in whole, but saw a blur of motion and somewhat dodged the attack.

The swipe gashed part of his chest and it caused him to jump back for a second. Taking that second to observe what happened, he saw the Apparition that emerged from Stefen. It looked like a 4-foot tall brown crab of some sort. It’s outer body was extremely crustacean-like, although it looked rougher and as brown as the earth. It’s legs looked more spindly and flexible compared to that of a normal crab—more spider-like than crab-like.

An Apparator, huh? Vincent thought to himself.

The last thing that Vincent noticed about the Apparition was what it used to make such a slashing wound on him. Instead of the usual claws that crabs have, this creature had what he could only describe as scythes at the end of its arms. This creature, in Vincent’s words, was a mix between a spider, a crab, and a praying mantis. Even so, Vincent continued to think of the creature as Crab.

After a few tense seconds of Vincent and Crab staring each other down, Crab did something completely unexpected—it started to dig right below it. Within a few seconds, Crab was completely underground, leaving behind only a small mound of earth from where it entered the ground.

Vincent was taken a bit back from this and took a few steps back in order to prepare for the unexpected. With the speed of a cannon shot, Crab emerged from right below Vincent and slashed at him with its long and silent weapons that it had for hands. Completely caught off guard, Vincent took a little too long to completely dodge the attack. His shoulder was sliced, and that gash was larger than the last one. Luckily, thanks to his natural athleticism, he was able to avoid any serious or life-threatening injuries.

As he got slashed, he backed up and prepared himself to launch a starbreaker at Crab the moment it attacked him again. But again, to his surprise, the creature didn’t pursue him. Instead, it took a defensive stance and just eyed up Vincent like a predator to prey, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Crab then went underground again. Unlike last time, Vincent realized that it seemed to know his location, and so he immediately started to run around the arena. His plan was to wait for Crab to emerge and then make a plan on figuring out its pattern for how and when it emerges.

While he was running around the center of the arena, his eyes were completely focused on where he originally was, so he didn’t see Crab emerge right beneath him. Again, caught off guard, Vincent fell to the ground and received another slash, this time across his forehead.

Crab then continued to swiftly stab downwards at the Vincent that was now on the ground. The attacks were quicker than he could perceive, almost unnaturally so, but he still tried his best to dodge them.

He rolled to the left and right a few times, feeling the sand kick up from the absurdly fast strikes of Crab. When there was a split-second window, Vincent rolled away and propped himself up. Fortunately, he managed to only receive minor cuts on several parts of his body before he was able to stand up and put some distance between him and Crab.

What’s going on? Vincent thought to himself. This thing is way too fast for me to be able to hit it with a starbreaker.

He then just stood still in a defensive position, much like what Crab was doing. He needed to take a breath and think.

Every time it goes underground it seems to know where I am and I don’t know where it is. It holds the advantage the entire time. I’m the only one getting surprised.

Crab then went underground, leaving Vincent alone with his thoughts. He didn’t know how he was supposed to fight this kind of creature. If he couldn’t find a way to get the upper hand, then there was no way he could beat something like that. And if he couldn’t beat it, then there was no way he could beat…

And that’s when it hit him. Wait a second, this is just like that time with the Pirate dude. All I have to do is beat the Apparator, and then the Apparition just goes away.

With that thought renewing his confidence, Vincent charged blindly ahead towards Stefen. After all, Crab was now underground, so Stefen couldn’t summon it like last time. At least, that’s what he thought. He wasn’t sure of the accuracy of that statement, but it seemed right.

Vincent ran as fast as he could towards Stefen, giving into the void in his heart. As he got closer, Stefen’s eyes widened and he waved his arms in a very oh please don’t hurt me fashion. He then stomped on the ground with his heel a couple of times and backed up, seemingly in fear of Vincent.

Just as Vincent was about to get into starbreaker range, Crab rocketed up from the ground, in front of Stefen, and slashed at Vincent. Vincent was able to use a void to deflect one of the attacks, but he knew that he couldn’t keep that up.

He took a few steps back and had another staredown with Crab. What he noticed was that Crab was taking an even more defensive stance than normal. It seemed like it was protecting Stefen above all else.

That’s when Vincent began to understand what was going on, but only a little bit. He realized that the reason why Crab wasn’t overly aggressive was because it was meant to defend Stefen, not defeat Stefen’s enemies. That was the extent of what he figured out so far.

And just like every other time, Crab once again went underground and away from Vincent’s sight. He had had enough. He was tired of constantly getting surprised by Crab and decided to stand incredibly still and just wait for Crab to attack. He couldn’t be caught off guard if he was constantly on guard.

A few moments passed with no action. The air was tense and eerily still. While the crowd was in an uproar, Vincent heard nothing but silence. He was in a state of complete focus—a state where he drowned everything out except for Crab.

A few more seconds went by with nothing happening at all. That was the longest that the fight had gone without Crab making an appearance and attacking Vincent. Vincent was on edge because of the tension that was building from the lack of movement.

A minute passed by, and still, Crab had not come up from the ground. Now, every single ounce of movement caused Vincent to stir. If there was so much as a grain of sand that caught a stray breeze, his eyes would immediately shoot towards it. His eyes would then continue to dart around the battlefield, hoping to just see something.

It got to the point where he seriously considered just making another attempt at attacking Stefen, but he couldn’t bring himself to, especially after figuring out that Crab protects him. Finally, his impatience got the best of him, and decided on a compromise between being safe and attacking Stefen. He decided to run around the outer edge of the arena, keeping his distance from Stefen while still doing something.

It only took him a second or two to reach the edge, because he was already near it. However, in those few seconds, Crab finally made their appearance and it immediately began attacking him.

Vincent parried an attack from the left, using a void to deflect the gnarled scythe. Just as soon as one arm was deflected, another one came ripping through the air, dead set on Vincent’s head. He quickly spun away, barely dodging the incoming cleave. The impact caused the wall of the arena to break, leaving a massive crack in the wall and a pile of rubble on the ground. The reverberations from the impact could be heard and felt from almost every inch of the Collider.

Soon after getting out of his spin, Vincent instantly jumped back in order to put distance between him and Crab. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who was learning the fighting patterns of their opponent. Crab moved to block Vincent’s means of escape, cutting off the path that he was taking.

With no means of escape, Vincent put his back against the wall and prepared for another onslaught of slashes only rivaled by the grim reaper. The scythes of Crab came fast, and they came suddenly. Dozens of strikes pierced the wall behind him as he constantly attempted to dodge them.

The dust from the wall that was caused by the Crab’s attacks eventually began to cloud Vincent’s sight. In a moment of pure panic and instance, he felt himself grow extremely cold. Not only that, but the world seemed to grow equally as cold as it all slowed down and froze. In that moment of complete nothingness, he created a small void in front of him, completely based on instinct.

As he did, one of Crab’s scythes got caught in it and it was repelled, causing the entirety of Crab to be sent backwards for a few feet. With distance now put between Vincent and Crab, there was a moment of peace, much like all the other times when that happened. And just like those times, Crab once again went underground.

With his back against the wall, Vincent began to think like he’d never thought before.

How do I win? I can’t keep up with that speed, and I can’t rely on lucky hits like that, he wondered.

His mind then wandered towards thinking about what he’s missing about the fight. There had to be something that he was not seeing. There was a reason why Crab didn’t attack for a while last time.

As he thought about that, his eyes naturally glided towards the newly made crack in the wall. That’s when it hit him. It reacts to my movement, he realized.

Vincent carefully reached down and picked up a couple of chunks of the wall and smiled. At the same time, he slowly reached up toward the crack that Crab made, and pulled himself up and off of the ground.

He then tossed the chunks of rock up a few times in his hand and then threw them about 4-5 feet away from him. Within seconds of them clattering on the floor, Crab emerged where they landed and began to attack the ground, just as planned.

For once, Vincent had the advantage and had the element of surprise on his side. The moment Crab started attacking the chunks of wall, Vincent jumped up and attacked it. He unleashed a starbreaker from above on the unsuspecting Crab.

As the void enveloped the creature, its body was forced down towards the ground, crushing it. Its outer shell cracked and bits of it scattered across the floor. With a quick high-pitch wine, the body of Crab immediately went limp.

When Vincent released the void, he saw the crushed and slightly twitching body of the creature covered in blood. Its spider-like legs spasmed a bit, hanging on to the last bits of life that seemed to still be present.

With a crack of his neck, Vincent wound up and gave it another starbreaker, this time launching it in the direction of Stefen. The body slammed against the wall behind Stefen and just splattered against it. Within moments, Crab started to fade out of existence, including all of its blood, bits of shell, and broken appendages.

The only thing left for Vincent to take care of was Stefen, and it didn’t seem like that was going to be a problem. As he strolled up to the cowering Stefen, Vincent reeled back his arm and coldly said, “Let’s finish this.”

Before Vincent could even knock Stefen unconscious, Stefen did that honor himself…he instantly passed out. Because he was unable to continue, Vincent was then declared the winner.

“And it’s all over!” the announcer boomed.

The crowd went wild and Vincent raised his hand in the air in a victorious fashion. Even though he should have been feeling an all-time high, the rush of victory wasn’t as big as he expected.

After the slight adrenaline of the moment wore off, Vincent was escorted back to his room by the same guards that brought him to the arena. The walk back felt a little different than before. He wasn’t sure why that was, but something just felt a bit off. It felt like there was something missing or that something unexpected was right around the corner. It felt like someone was watching him, and that feeling of unease unsettled him.

As approached his cell, those feelings came to light. When he walked into the cell, with the door slammed behind him, he saw something that he wasn’t expecting. Not only was Eliot in there, but there was now another figure in there as well.

“Ah, you’re back.”