Halfway There

Amber gathered the shadows from the gates, washing them over Kalea. The others attempted to get out of the way, with Eric shielding Yun-Yeong and Wendy with a small wave he managed to make. The shadows enveloped Kalea, coating her in a pitch black. When the shadows returned to their places by the door, Kalea was knocked down. But in front of her was what looked like a series of crystals on her body. All covering the sensitive areas, like the head and limbs.

"What even is…" Amber whispered to herself.

"Something up, Amber?" Andrei asked.

"Look, I don't know if this is true, but the laser eyes and crystal powers are both things higher ups in the Rosethorns had." Amber replied, her breathing getting heavier.

"So wait, are your friends powers stuck inside her?" Micah asked.

"I don't know, maybe?" Amber yelled back. "Andrei, can you run up to her? I need to test something!"

Andrei nodded, summoning his greaves, running full force towards Kalea as the crystals started to deform. Odebode followed, sword in hand. Once the two got up to her, Kalea spread her hands in front of them, and both of them fell to the floor.

Andrei felt like a pile of bricks just fell on top of him. The weight was crushing his bones, and he could barely see straight.

"Is that something they could do?" Micah asked.

"It…it was." Amber mumbled, looking like she was about to vomit. "Okay, everyone at close range, sit this one out! And don't let her get near any buildings! Eric, Wendy, you two are good for this! Cyrus, Vanessa! You two can be backup! The rest of you, provide support!"

Eric immediately ran up to Kalea, summoning water out from under his fingernails. He started with the classic, cover her head in water and wait for the challenge to stop. He tried it, but Kalea just covered her head in the crystals. Wendy tried adding to it, moving her hands across her hair and throwing her hands in front of her, causing a shockwave to surge through her body. She slumped over slightly, and Eric undid the water.

"Is it…over?" He asked, looking at Kalea's unmoving body. When she started twitching, Andrei and Odebode quickly got up and moved out of the way.

She stood up again, locking onto Eric and landing a punch into his stomach. It was instant, and Eric couldn't summon water to shield the hit, sending him into the old dorms they used to sleep in. Kalea ran up to him, and Amber sent a quick wave of shadows her way.

"Andrei, get her! We need to stop her getting into the building!"

Andrei did as she said, with Cyrus and Wendy following. Cyrus let the trees of bones spurt out of his elbows, trying to snake their way to Kalea and stop her from advancing. She stopped in place, setting up a gravity field that forced all the bones to the ground, along with Cyrus himself. Kalea started moving towards Eric, who was stumbling to get up. He summoned another set of water to shield himself, and Kalea locked onto him once again. While he didn't go as far as the last time, he still went backwards, hitting his head off the metal. His eyes widened as he fell forward onto the floor. Everyone, including Kalea, stopped in their place.

"He's still breathing, people! Get a move on!" Leonie's voiced yelled over their watches.

Kalea looked over Eric's unmoving body, turning around to the other competitors. The wave of shadows hit her, and Andrei followed that up with a kick to her head, while she was still disoriented. She stepped back, tripped over Eric's unconscious body, and hit her body into the building.

"No!" Amber yelled. "Guys, get out of there!"

The rest of them did as instructed. Andrei picked up Yun-Yeong, who was running towards the building in an attempt to get Eric back. The nine of them looked on as the first floor of the dorms collapsed around Kalea, and when she stumbled out, she was covered in misshapen metal over parts of her body, with crystals filling in the rest.

"Is that what you expected to happen?" Micah asked.

"Kinda?" Amber replied. When her old subordinate Dolph did it, he covered his entire body in whatever he absorbed. But she did it poorly, covering her body patchily as if someone glued a bunch of metal to her body.

Kalea once again locked on, this time to Andrei. She lunged forward, and he blocked it with his foot, holding her in place for a few seconds. Cyrus dashed behind her, putting his elbow into her back, and spurting bones in her skin. Almost instantly, he felt the crystals cover his bones and reach his elbow. Kalea activated her gravity force, slamming Cyrus into the floor. She picked him up, throwing him back into the old dorms, jumping in to knock him out. As she went into the hole she made, even more of the building collapsed onto her and Cyrus. Cyrus hardened the bone around his body to avoid anything happening to him. The damage he was taking was reduced compared to everyone else, but he couldn't keep it up. He had about five more locked on attacks to his ribs before they broke, give or take a few. She had about a second every time before attacking, so he could hopefully get out beforehand. When he coiled her arm back, he kicked her in the side of her stomach, which didn't seem to have any crystals or metal on it. Once she flinched, he dug some bone out of his foot in the hopes of hitting her deeper, which managed to work, as she grunted and stopped her onslaught, letting him out.

Andrei once again tried kicking her, and managed to slam her against the building, with even more of the dorms collapsing on top of her, and she once again emerged covered in metal. Amber tried sending another wave of shadows towards her, but all of them bounced off her.

"Hey Amber, can I try something?"

Amber turned around, and Yun-Yeong was behind her, staring straight ahead at the pile of metal and crystals which Kalea was probably under.

"What is it, exactly?" Micah asked.

"Amber, you'll need to hold her down. You'll be able to do that, right?"

"Probably." Amber replied with a nod.

"Okay, cool." Yun-Yeong took out her knife, making a cut across the palm of her hand.

Amber once again summoned her shadows from the dorms, thicker this time. She wrapped them around Kalea's body, and Yun-Yeong looked for an area of exposed skin to put her bloody hand onto. She found one in the side of her stomach and put her hand on it. Kalea let out a scream, but her gravity field wasn't working.

Which meant the paralysis was.

"Quick, Andrei!" Amber yelled. Andrei went in to unleash a final kick to finish the game, and Amber let her shadows go just as the blow was to be dealt. Andrei kicked her without summoning his greaves, and Kalea shot backwards from the impact.

"Did we win?" Andrei asked, panting.

"I…I think we did!" Yun-Yeong replied with a smile on her face, covering up the wound on her hand.

But behind her, more of the building started falling around them.

Kalea was barely conscious, and her new powers were still active. Small chunks of metal were still clinging to her, and the foundation of the old dorms were falling. Amber quickly wrapped shadows over both of them as well as Eric, pulling them out just as the building collapsed on top of Kalea. A scream was heard while they were being pulled back, presumably Kalea's.

"Did I get everyone?" Amber yelled. "Where's Eric?"

"He's breathing!" Silvia replied, checking his pulse.

"I'm here!" Andrei yelled.

"So that leaves…" Amber turned to where Yun-Yeong might be, her eyes widening at what she saw.

Yun-Yeong stood with a metal pole lodged into her heart, as she gave a weak smile and struggled to stand up.

"S…s…someone wake up Eric!" Micah screamed.

"It's…fine." Yun-Yeong replied weakly, spitting a small bit of blood as she did.

"Yun?" Wendy yelled, tears in her eyes.

"Wendy?" Yun-Yeong said quietly. "Tell Eric I'm sorry I couldn't be here when he wakes up."

"Yun!?" Wendy yelled again, her sobbing reaching hysterical levels as Yun-Yeong's legs stopped working. Without a word, she fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Well…it appears we have our conclusion." Leonie's voice announced over their watches, quieter than usual. "Yun-Yeong Yi is our tenth-place player."