Round One

Cyrus and Amber stood on opposite ends of the arena. Cyrus eyes quickly moved to observe the area. Nothing that could give an obvious advantage seemed to be present. Just Amber, and an open space where her shadows could flourish.

Amber looked at the arena. The second one on one fight here. She remembered the edge of the arena, where she awakened her powers and killed Valentina. Even then, the sense that Valentina was still around lingered like a ghost. Was Cyrus thinking that, she wondered? He would have to remember the place she died, and he wasn't looking. Almost nothing about the situation seemed to faze her.

"Okay, fight until one of you stays down. Or you die, that's totally allowed." Leonie's voice blared from each of their watches. "Now, let's begin!"

Cyrus stood still, waiting for Amber to approach. Her attacks had range, but not enough range to hit from the opposite side of the arena. As he expected, she started running towards him, gathering the shadows from the lights at the sides of the arena into her left hand until a shapeless black void formed into her hand. Once she got close to him, he darted behind her. He saw her back turned to him, and he sharpened his thumb in the blink of an eye. As he slashed across her back, the shadows moved to hit him without Amber even needing to face him. But that was to be expected. He quickly snapped the exposed bone off his hand and let the shadows grab it, delivering a low sweep to Amber, who fell onto her back. The shadows in her hand quickly formed a wall in front of Cyrus. Before he knew what was happening, the wall collapsed on top of him, covering his body in inky blackness. He couldn't see a thing, the only thing he felt was a million tiny shadows piercing his body. He once again hardened his body, taking a breath and sharpening his bones around all ten fingers, slashing to break out.

Amber watched the shadows break around him, quickly gathering the ones that broke off with a flick of her wrist. Cyrus approached her, each finger tipped with a jagged edge. She immediately wrapped her shadows around his legs, throwing him back a few feet. Cyrus approached her once again, and Amber tried to hit him with a few shadows, using less in case he tried anything. Sure enough, Cyrus attempted to flip through the air, dodging the tendrils. He landed on his feet in front of Amber, landing a right hook to her face. Amber stood perfectly still, returning the favour with a punch to his stomach, with a fist loaded with shadows which quickly spread out to the front side of his body. Cyrus swung his hands forward, but Amber's remaining shadows leapt out to meet him, restraining his arms. She finally kicked Cyrus over and watched as he struggled to break out.

"Give up, Cyrus." She whispered softly.

After more time than she expected, Cyrus stopped moving.

"Fine, you win." He sighed.

"And Amber is moving on to round two!" Leonie yelled. "Now then, if Andrei and Vanessa would kindly make their ways over to the arena for the next match, that would be swell."

Vanessa made her way onto her side of the arena, with Andrei on the other side. He was bouncing around slightly, limbering himself up.

"Andrei against Vanessa! The street fighting physical wall against the cult joining parasite wielder! Who's gonna win?"

"Andrei wins!" Vanessa yelled. "I give up!"

"Ex-excuse me?" Leonie's voice asked from her watch.

"I'm not fighting. I'm okay with losing this one." Vanessa affirmed calmly.

"You…are?" Leonie asked. Even if she couldn't be seen from the arena, her eye was probably twitching. Her voice was doing that wavery thing it does when something doesn't go her way.

"Okay, what about this?!" She yelled, the sound of a fist slamming down being audibly heard next to her. "If you quit now, I'm doubling any votes cast against you!"

"That's fine." Vanessa replied as calm as ever. The chances of her dying were low, even if this rule was added. Amber probably wasn't gonna vote for Micah, but Wendy could. Andrei would be easy to convince, and Cyrus and Odebode hopefully wouldn't take much convincing. Silvia was a probability with the way she protected Wendy. So four votes for her with six for Micah meant one thing. Micah was gone.

"Guess Andrei's fighting Amber next." Kalea's tired voice announced over Andrei's watch. "Congratulations, Andrei."

"Uh, thanks." Andrei replied quietly. He quietly walked backwards towards the door and out of sight.

"Now, can Micah and Wendy come up for their fight? This better be good." Leonie asked, exasperated.

Micah stood at one end of the arena, looking at Wendy. Ever since yesterday, the aura coming off Wendy has been nothing short of malicious. Makes sense since Eric died. But the aura could still be felt, even with the distance between them. She was slowly running one hand through her hair, probably building something up. He could quit, maybe. But if he did that, any votes against him would be doubled. Vanessa would definitely vote for him, Wendy probably would too. Andrei was a definite maybe with a little convincing. Not to mention, everyone else would probably pick him if they had to pick somebody. Realistically, fighting Wendy was his only real option. But she was just a kid. Beating her should hopefully be easy, even ignoring the metal pole she had. He sliced his finger and formed the blood into a blade on each arm, just as he always did.

"Alright, both fighters seemed to have made their preparations!" Leonie announced over their watches. "Here's to a great fight, everybody!"

It was over in less than a minute.

Micah ran over to Wendy, arms outstretched. Wendy sent a hand forward, releasing her pent-up electricity into Micah's body. He fell to the floor. She looked over his body, metal pole in hand. She started beating him over the head with it. Blood was leaking from his head, only some of it crystalizing. She started kicking him too, stomping on his face which was already damaged to the point of being unrecognisable.

A few moments passed. Micah wasn't moving for any of them.

"And…Wendy wins!"