Scarlet

My shifted arm’s claws directly clash against his fist, sending a burst of blood and ice out around us, but in the end my blow along with gravity itself helping me sends him back. Before we hit the ground though, I see my arm slowly freezing from the claws up, leaving it as a solid block.

I manage dealing with the pain much better than I would’ve just a month ago thanks to pain diffusion, which I’ve leveled up a few times to level 4 through some rather questionable training methods thought up by a certain tanuki, raising the pain diffusion percentage from 25% to 32.5%. So all I do is grit my teeth before focusing on the cloud of dust that marks where Zero landed from our trade of attacks. And once the dust clears up enough for me to see, I can’t help but let my jaw drop in shock at the sight of him standing with only a single arm and massive amounts of blood draining from his wound.

The shock at seeing his massive pain tolerance doesn’t last long though, as I quickly raise my hand that isn’t frozen and use blood siphon on the blood pouring out of his wound, directing it towards me making it all vanish into either my blood bank or the blood claws on my remaining arm. But he just raises a brow at this.

“This guy is a lot like you in some ways,” Tar says, making my mouth open slightly before he adds, “although very unlike you in others.”

I was about to say…

My gaze doesn’t leave Zero as I step forward while unshifting my frozen arm, making weird scraping sounds come from it before my arm is back to normal again. Then I shift my left arm instead, transforming it into that of a beast.

Zero just snorts and shakes his head, only to look up at me again as a small amount of snow and ice around him begin to swirl in the air. Then the snow and ice grow greater in mass the closer I get, making me narrow my eyes.

I glance at the timer to find that there are two minutes left, then I look at the others to find them actually starting to lose, with Belle struggling to hold back the rune magic.

Shit.

I look at my arm to find the ice beginning to melt on the edges of the wound with the flesh very, very slowly knitting itself back together after it melts. But it’s not fast enough to be of use, so I ignore it to focus on Zero again and his large storm of ice and snow.

Damnit.

The storm continues growing worse and worse, almost reaching the point where it interrupts the others’ fight.

How am I going to deal with something like that with my skills?!

The Commentator’s Booth

“And it looks like team Last Stand is in trouble!!” Scott shouts, his voice echoing across the stadium as the entire audience goes wild at the sight of the massive storm, the wounded Scarlet Wolf, and the even more badly wounded Zero in the center of the storm. “How are they- wait, it looks like our little wolf is up to something!”

Scott – along with everyone else in the stadium – watches as Scarlet raises both of her hands upwards and starts creating two dozen massive maces of blood.

What’s she going to-

His thoughts are cut off when she slaps her hands together, making all of the mallets suddenly smash into each other, forming one giant glob of blood that she then begins to control by slamming her hands down, sending the orb straight towards the man and his unfinished skill.

“Holy bleepin’ heck! Did you all just see that?” Scott shouts, only to backtrack, “Of course you did! It looks like either she used a skill none of us have seen her use before, or the Scarlet Wolf just figured out a new way to use one of her skills!! And it’s an incredibly useful way in this particular situation!”

Scott can’t hold back his excitement anymore, standing up with a large grin on his face as the giant orb of blood smashes into the storm of ice and snow with all the momentum the girl can muster, sending splatters of blood, ice, and snow all over the balcony, hurting all of the other students there regardless of what team they’re on. All except for the source of the incident herself, who is just standing in place panting heavily from the exhaustion of whatever she just did.

“Did the Scarlet Wolf beat Zero?” Scott asks the question everyone in the crowd is thinking right now. But before the answer comes, all of the other students are revealed to have been injured badly enough by the clash of skills that they’re unable to stand. “It looks like whoever came out on top in their clash will be the winning team. But who will it be?!”

Seconds tick away, everyone’s attention solely focused on the screen until, finally, the blood that had turned into a frosty mist mixed with dust finally begins to clear up, revealing Zero lying on the ground, seemingly unable to move.

“And it looks like the winner is the Scarlet Wolf!!!” Scott shouts, his voice once again echoing throughout the stadium as everyone joins in by applauding the girl and her efforts. Meanwhile the girl herself simply staggers over to him before kneeling down and whispering, “It was a good fight,” to him, making his eyes widen, only for a light smile to stretch across his pain wreaked face as she tears his throat out with her remaining arm. She then climbs back to her feet and sprints over to their core, which is located a few rooms away, and destroys it without any hesitation.

Scott’s grin widens even further as he sees the screen beginning to fade to black now that the battle is over.

Another excellent battle. Just what I expected from her.

He then begins commentating to the crowd for a few seconds, explaining exactly what she just did as they wait the minute or so for the next randomized teams to be chosen for combat.