A little less than a week had passed since both the incident with Eliot and him leaving Vincent and Fang for his own cell. In that time, Vincent’s mind had been busier than usual. While he tried to concentrate on his fight with the champion, he couldn’t help but get distracted, thinking about his friend. Every thought seemed to wiggle its way, one way or another, back to something related to Eliot. Something hadn’t bothered him like that in years, and even back then, it didn’t consume as it did during those days.

Before he knew it, it was the day of the big fight. The days both flew by and dragged on. It was a weird sensation. When the guards came to escort him to the arena, he was shocked and confused for a second before remembering that it was the day that he had to fight Marezi. He turned and looked at Fang, who wished him good luck, and then left with guards.

The walk to the Collider was the same as before, but Vincent didn’t notice that. In fact, he hardly noticed anything during the walk there. If there was a hole in the ground, he probably would've fallen in it. His mind was still focused on Eliot and how he had changed so much after what happened. Granted, most people would probably break down even more. Still, there were so many unanswered questions that he didn’t have a clue about how to answer.

However, all those thoughts vanished from his mind when he saw the doors to the Collider. Instead, a burning anxiety began to well up inside of him. It wasn’t nervousness, it wasn’t fear…no, it was excitement and hatred that burned inside him. The only people that filled his head were Marezi and Lucretia.

He used the fumes of whatever he was thinking about before to fuel this energy. He wanted to kick Marezi’s ass so bad because of how lazy she seemed to him, but even more so, he wanted to beat her just to spite Lucretia. He wanted to show her that someone could be a champion without selling themselves to one of her lackeys. Oh, he hated everything about her. In fact, at that moment, he realized that it was her fault for what happened to Eliot. If she didn’t exist, then Eliot would never have had to fight and he wouldn’t have had to relive all that trauma.

And with that, the doors opened. The familiar light of the battle pit flooded into the hallway and illuminated the path forward. Vincent hesitated for just a second before he walked past the open doors.

What he saw before him was something different than what he was expecting. He thought that the stands would be packed—after all, it was a fight involving the champion. However, the stands were pretty empty and quiet. His fight with the crab guy had more spectators than this fight.

The weird thing about it all was the fact that it still sounded like there were a lot of people in the stands. It sounded like there were speakers sounding out generic stadium cheer noises. It was a bit off-putting, but he didn’t think about it for more than a few seconds—there was something else that grabbed his attention.

On the direct other side of the arena was the champion herself: Marezi. She was currently talking to someone in a pompadour with a microphone. As soon as Vincent looked over, both Marezi and the guy looked over. Marezi’s eyes seemed dull and devoid of life, while the man’s eyes lit up with obviously fake excitement. The man then spoke into the microphone, which carried it all throughout the Collider.

Oh, this guy is the announcer, Vincent realized.

“Ladies, gentleman, everyone in between and outside, welcome to the event you all have been looking forward to!” the announcer exclaimed.

The crowd cheered a bit, although only about half of them really seemed into it. The rest of the cheering came from the speakers.

“This is a fight that’s unexpected, both in its inception and what can happen in it,” the announcer continued. Every word he said seemed to bounce and hop in a typical showman way. “The hot and popular rookie, Vincent, is looking to take down yet another veteran of the Collider. However! His opponent isn’t any ordinary veteran fighter!”

The lights then went out and a drumroll was heard all throughout. A few spotlights turned on and danced around the stands and floor, until finally landing on Marezi.

“Give it up for the Collider’s 2-year champion, Marezi!” The drumroll ceased and both the stadium’s and speakers’ cheers filled the room.

The lights then fully lit back up. The announcer was standing next to Marezi and he began to speak again.

“So, Ms. Champion, do you have anything you’d like to say before we get started?”

She just barely looked over in his direction, not moving her head at all. She threw her hand up in a dismissive manner and the announcer nodded his head in understanding. He then walked over to Vincent.

“Mr. RRRRRRookie, what do you have to say before the bout?”

Without hesitation, Vincent shouted into the mic, “I’m gonna beat her ass!” while pointing at Marezi. He then turned around and looked at Lucretia’s penthouse at the top of the stands. “And when I’m done with her, I’m coming for you next! I’m gonna show everyone here that you ain’t shit!”

The entire stadium went completely silent. Not even the speakers cheered. Both the faces of the audience and the announcer were frozen in various expressions. The only one whose demeanor wasn’t shaken was Marezi, who simply rolled her eyes and maintained a neutral face. The announcer’s shaky hands pulled the mic away and slowly walked to the center of the arena.

“W-well, let’s get the fight started!” he halfway announced. With that, they walked through their special door to his booth. The fight had begun.

Immediately, Vincent charged forward towards Marezi, relying on that fire within him to fuel his movement. No thoughts entered his head, and therefore, his body moved entirely on instinct and emotion.

As Vincent charged headstrong, Marezi stood completely still and stoic, unmoved by the approaching challenger. That didn’t deter Vincent in the slightest. Just as he got close to melee range with her, he sank down and allowed himself to become colder, emptier. He then got into starbreaker range.

He threw a starbreaker in her direction, aimed straight at her face. Still, she remained neutral. Just as it was about to connect with her and the void was going to be unleashed, she moved. Her movement was unnatural in many ways. At first, her body moved sluggish and slow, much like a weighed-down turtle, but then it suddenly and exponentially got faster. It was as if her momentum sped up to an unbelievable degree all at once.

Not only did she dodge his attack, but she was already to the right of Vincent, getting ready to throw a kick to the back of his head. Fortunately, Vincent’s fighting instincts were better than most people’s, and he shifted his punch into a block. Unfortunately, something was off about it.

Just as Marezi’s kick began to unnaturally accelerate, Vincent’s arm exponentially slowed. It was like with each inch he moved his arm, more weight was added to it, slowing its movement down to a near stop. With that, Marezi’s kick landed, causing Vincent to summersault forward, ass over teakettle.

As he rolled forward from the unbelievably strong hit, his rolls, instead of slowing down as physics would dictate, actually started to grow faster. Realizing this, he slammed his hands on the semi-malleable sandstone floor and clawed his way to a stop.

Standing up, everything was swirling for him. Honestly, he was surprised that he was still conscious after receiving a shot like that to the head. But there was no time for thinking, because the champion was already strutting her way over to him.

While there didn’t seem to be any urgency in her pace, that, like everything else she did, drastically changed. Like a contorted and twisted monster from a horror film, her pace accelerated beyond that of even a full sprint—all the while her body still looked as if it was walking.

That gave Vincent no chance to react, and before he knew it, her fist rocketed into his gut, breaking a couple of ribs...but her assault wasn’t over yet. With unnatural speed, blow after blow landed all across Vincent’s body. Bones bruised and broke with each punch that collided with him.

As his entire body began to wrack with pain, screaming out for an end, he felt himself slowly begin to fade away. It was a weird sensation—he had never felt more pain in his life, and yet, he had never felt so numb. His body just wanted to find some semblance of peace, no matter what that entailed, but he couldn’t just give up.

Suddenly, that numbness that started to spiderweb around his body turned to sheer cold. Something deep within him swallowed up all feelings, all nerves, and rushed out. In front of Vincent, a void appeared, launching Marezi backwards, temporarily halting her barrage.

He stumbled a bit as his body somewhat recovered from that beating. Blood started to pour out of his mouth, and he could only taste that iron-laced liquid and nothing else. He spit on the floor and finally looked up at the champion.

For the first time throughout the entire fight, he began to actually think. He allowed his mind to actually fire, and when it did, the harsh reality of the situation unfolded before him. Unknown to him until now, the front of his head throbbed sharply in the direction of Marezi. She was a Resonator.

While it seemed obvious, Vincent hadn’t really put any thought into trying to figure out her abilities or anything or the sort. He realized that the entire fight he had been thinking with his heart, not his head. He knew that she was going to be a Resonator, but for some reason, his thoughts never went any further than that. Regardless, that was the past and he had the present to worry about.

Vincent readied himself, lifting his hands up in a defensive stance. As he brought his arms and hands up, he felt so many bones and muscles pop and crack with every movement. While it was annoying, for some reason the pain was more muted than it was before the void pushed Marezi back.

Even though he was in a readied stance, he still was not prepared to handle the speed of the approaching enemy. Marezi, in a span of mere seconds, made her way within inches of Vincent. He tried to preemptively throw a starbreaker at her, but his movements were too slow. It was hard to tell if it was because of his injuries or because of whatever power she had.

The moment she was in melee, Marezi placed her hand on Vincent’s chest and pushed him backwards. As he slid backwards, his momentum accelerated again, much like a tide dragging out a victim to the open sea, pulling them towards their untimely demise. Unlike last time, he didn’t have the energy to stop it and instead he surrendered himself to the waves.

He finally stopped when his body collided with the walls of the arena, cracking them. His head suffered major whiplash, nearly blacking out on impact. The rest of his body immediately slumped down on the ground, defeated and broken.

With the small amount of energy that remained in his body, Vincent lifted his spinning head up. He saw the outline of what he presumed to be Marezi slowly walking towards him. Even so, he did nothing. His body was numb with pain, his mind raced with empty thoughts, and his spirit was crushed. He knew that he had lost.

As the figure of Marezi approached him, it whispered in his ear, “Actions have consequences. You can never defeat anyone like that—there is no hope here.”

And then everything went black.