Eric was unmoved by Vander's full powered punch.
"I expected more from you Vander, but what did I expect from someone who awakened with a common [Record]. What was it again? Heat something." Eric, disappointed in Vander, belittled him. "Even though you can't do anything to me, I'll let you take your last shot. I'm a man of my word."
Doing damage to Eric was hopeless, but Vander didn't care. 'I never thought I was going to put a scratch on you.'
Buying more time for the group, Vander slowly got into his punching stance. Looking around to see how his group was doing. Almost everyone was on the ground injured, some taken away to the medics.
'Fuck, we were never going to win. We were completely outclassed, we couldn't even last five minutes.' Vander gave up.
Bella and Alice were the only one's left fighting. Blood was trailing down their lips while they both fought against one person. Eric's teammates were standing by, watching the two girls struggle.
"Vander, you ain't gonna win. Take your shot and lose while I'm being nice." Seeing Vander looking away, Eric wanted to warn him.
But Vander didn't listen, he was only focused on Alice and her surroundings.
"Hey, let's wrap this up, I wanna sit back down on the seats." One of Eric's teammates got up, about to surprise attack Bella and Alice, who were focused on their two vs one.
Hearing the opponent, Vander rushed towards Alice, completely ignoring the opponent right in front of him. Watching Vander leave, Eric shaked his head disappointedly.
Running with all his might, Vander reached Alice just in time, using his body to protect her from a fire blast sneak attack. Bella wasn't as lucky, getting major burns before quickly being taken down the platform by an instructor.
Vander's [Heat Resistance Lv-2] helped out slightly, only relieving a tiny portion of the pain. But getting hit by the full brunt of the attack, he still received some major burns.
Before passing out from the pain, Vander could see his reward. Alice was completely safe, no burns anywhere. Collapsing on the floor, Vander blacked out with a smile on his face.
…
Waking up, Vander saw a bright light over him. Getting up, he noticed other students from his group, but no sign of Alice.
They were in the medical ward, treatment was complete, most of Vanders burns were gone. His skin was left with a slight red tone, hurting a little, like a sunburn.
"Hey guys let's go." Bella told everyone in the group. "The doctor just said to go back to our seats in the stands."
The doctor held the door open, waving his hand to rush the students to leave. "Your treatment costs were all taken care of by the school because of the tournament. So if you get injured again it will cost you. Now get out of here or I'll charge you extra."
Hearing the doctor's threat, Vander's group quickly left the medical room and ward. Asking for directions, the group finally made it back to their seats in the stands.
Seeing Alice, Vander took the seat right next to her, asking "How are you?"
"I'm fine. And don't do that anymore. I don't need your protection. Remember I'm stronger than you." Alice had a fierce glare, frustrated that Vander jumped in and took a shot for her.
"It doesn't matter if you're stronger than me. You're one of the most important people in my life, I'll jump and save you again if I have to." Vander declared.
"Sure, do whatever you want." Letting go of the subject, Alice ignored Vander and focused on the arena.
With a smile, Vander stared at Alice for a second before turning his head towards the arena as well.
All platforms were filled up, groups were huddled together, probably making plans.
"What round is this?" Vander asked quietly.
"There was a ten minute break, so it's only the second round." Alice responded without turning her head.
With the second round about to begin, some superteams were up against each other. One of them in particular was Eric's group versus a team with two half-steps.
Being the only team that Vander faced and experienced, he focused on that match.
When the battle began, half of Eric's team went up to fight while the other half stayed in the back with Eric. Bringing in the same wyverian form, he stood still with all the other members in the back holding their hands towards him.His body began to glow and shimmer with different kinds of colors, just like a rainbow.
While Eric was getting powered up in the back, the other half of the members that charged in were just stalling for time. Stone walls were formed, a student turned into a turtle, fire blasts were fired in the sky to stop the enemies that could fly.
They held out longer than Vander's team could, but against two half-steps, they couldn't hold out for long.
One of the half-step Alphas, a girl with long dark hair that flowed almost all the way down to the ground, began to transform. Colored metal parts began to materialize on her one by one, turning her into a mini gundam or transformer. With her metal robot form, her right arm turned into a canon that blasted the walls, making them crumble easily.
The other half-step, a burly muscular boy that looked similar to the girl, also began to transform. Transforming into a different colored gundam, but bigger and instead of a cannon, the left arm of the robot mech was replaced by a giant blade. With the giant sword hand of the mech, the defending turtle shell was shredded in one swipe.
The power of the half-step twins were devastating and with the support of their group, they wiped out the team that was stalling. Seeing Eric with his eyes closed, the team charged straight at him confidently.
"You're too late!" Eric yelled.
A giant sword fell down onto the arena right in front of Eric, sinking through the hardened platform like butter with just the help of gravity.