Annaxia's flame shot through the cloud of smoke, briefly causing it to illuminate into a sunset orange as the flame passed through. Going through the cloud, it then flew straight through and towards the crowd.
A few students watching in the stands immediately recoiled out of instinct before the flame dissipated upon making contact with an invisible barrier. That's a relief. Archer thought as he looked at the cloud of smoke. He couldn't see through it, which was a good thing. It meant that unless Annaxia had an ability that allowed her to see through the smoke she would also lose sight of Luna.
Archer already knew that Annaxia didn't have that talent and it meant that she was going to have to find another way to catch Luna. Even through the murmurs of the crowd, Archer was able to pick up the faint amount of noise Luna was making. He could vaguely make out where she was because of it.
I need to get better at that. I rely on my eyes too much. Archer realized as Luna moved to the second phase of her plan. As Annaxia blindly shot more streaks of flame at the cloud of smoke randomly around hoping to hit something.
This was the riskiest part of the plan that Luna made with the others. Annaxia was currently blind to Luna. So all she could do was spray and pray. The way Annaxia fought and her flame ability meant that she struggled to commit to an attack that would engulf the entire area. It would tire her out and look excessive against an F-rank, which would already be a win for Luna.
So Annaxia had to throw several smaller attacks hoping to hit something. But Luna didn't really have too much room to maneuver about and she was also blind inside the smoke, save for the occasional shot of flame. But as long as she stayed low and moved around the edges she was safe, though her luck will run out eventually.
Thankfully she had no trouble breathing with the mask on and as she adjusted her goggles she quickly moved onto step two of the plan. As instructed by Archer, she used Annaxia's attacks to trace back to where she was.
Equipping a flashbang, she then threw it as hard as she could towards Annaxia. Still too slow for Annaxia, as she easily reacted in time and raised an arm up and shot a bolt of flame at the grenade causing it to explode in midair.
What she wasn't expecting was that the grenade was a flashbang instead of a regular training grenade. The extra flash and noise caused her to pause for a moment. When she refocused herself, she realized that a grenade had been rolled towards her feet.
Eyes wide she put up a flame barrier between it and her only to find that when it triggered, more smoke leaked out it. Quickly she found herself surrounded in a cloud of her own smoke.
"Annoying." Annaxia said through gritted teeth, "Are you planning to hide this entire time?" She shouted out before realizing something else was flying towards her.
Instinctively she blasted it again and found more smoke erupted from it. This time she took a bad inhale of the smoke and began to cough. The crowd watching this fight began to look on in confusion as there was not much to look at now.
It's working so far. Esme said watching, she could actually see the battle pretty clearly despite the smoke. Apparently her eyes also got an upgrade from the serums, she already knew that she could now see in the dark, but seeing through cloudy smoke was not something she was expecting.
"I can't see anything." Alex mumbled.
"Of course you can't, there's smoke everywhere." Selena said trying to squint.
"It's working." Ran said sounding in awe, "She can't hit her."
"But how long will that last?" Emma asked.
Long enough. Archer thought as he watched as he could feel Luna moving to the next step. Speed and timing is everything Luna. Do it. Archer cheered internally. Though Archer's body language was starting to betray him slightly. Ran noticed him staring at the cloud with intensity, could Archer somehow see what was happening?
"That is a lot of smoke." Archer muttered. Maybe not.
Luna took this momentary distraction and ran straight towards the noise. Once closing in she saw Annaxia standing there trying to recover from her coughing fit. Equipped with the baton in her main hand and something else in the other, she now swung for Annaxia, who opened her eyes just in time to barely avoid getting hit by it.
Now in close range with one another and able to see each other the fight now became a melee. While Annaxia was better at a distance, her close-range skills weren't bad and Luna was still physically weaker. Though the smoke in her lungs and the surprise attack made things a lot harder for her.
Though this surprise attack only lasted a few seconds before she began to overpower Luna. Every one of Luna's swings failed to land and now Annaxia readied to strike back. Clenching her gloved hand into a fist, she went to strike Luna, barely missing her.
Luna realized that one direct shot would take her out, regardless of whether the attack was close or long range. So she proceeded with the next step of the plan. Just before Annaxia could fully wind up to try and punch her a second time Luna presented what she was holding in her other hand to Annaxia. Another grenade with the pin pulled already.
Eyes wide with what she was seeing in front of her, Annaxia decided that getting rid of the grenade was most important. Swatting it away just in time she could hear it explode in the distance. A flash. She was starting to recognize the differences now.
However Luna took this opportunity to slink back into the smoke and Annaxia lost sight of her again. In frustration and tired of inhaling all this smoke Annaxia decided she needed to get out of this place.
Reemerging at the edge of the ring where the smoke began to disperse, she was able to take in some fresh air. Unknowingly to her, Luna had followed Annaxia, with the goggles making it easier for her to see through the smoke she could see further in the smoke.
Now just a few steps away from Annaxia and hidden in the smoke Luna pulled out the last grenade she had on her. Triggering it she rolled it out to the smoke as she threw her baton like a javelin at Annaxia.
At this short distance Annaxia chose to dive out of the way instead of trying to deflect it. Quickly stepping to the side, she realized she stepped on something. Looking down, her eyes widened as she realized it was another damned grenade.
Eyes widening she brought her foot back just as the grenade exploded. This time instead of a loud flash or more smoke she was struck by an electric shock. Crying out in pain she temporarily seized up as the electric currents ran through her. As she felt her muscles return to her Luna was once more on her and this time her strike did not miss.
Standing near the perimeter of the ring, they were no longer surrounded by smoke and everyone could clearly see Luna's right hand making contact with Annaxia's face. Annaxia's reaction was something else, it was like she had never been hit in the face before.
Archer now thinking about it, realized that sort of was the case. Sure Annaxia likely would have had a decent amount of combat training since she began to develop her powers thanks to her rich parents. But then she would have only really fought or trained with monsters or hunters with weapons or powers.
Shots to the head would at worst be in the form of projectiles or at best weapons that would be pulled last second. Monsters would never have landed a real hit to her head, otherwise she could be dead as a result. She probably never had another human being fight her with their bare hands, let alone get punched in the face.
As Annaxia was trying to process what just happened, Luna punched her with her other hand and then kept going, swinging wildly. At this point she completely deviated from the plan. In fact the plan was over at this point. No one really thought that she would get past a single strike.
The crowd watched on with shocked gasps, they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. Some F-rank charity case was currently beating up an A-rank. Annaxia at this point brought her hands up to protect herself and began to stumble away in panic and confusion.
As Esme watched she held faint hope that Luna would win this but felt as though Luna's strikes wouldn't be enough. The F-ranks watching on the other hand, were fully in belief that Luna was about to do the impossible and win.
"Come on Luna! Do it!" Emmra cheered on.
"Get her! Take her down!" Selena yelled out.
Ran and Alex also cheered Luna on to try and beat her while other higher ranks watched unable to say anything. Even the teachers around the place couldn't quite believe what they were seeing, it was an upset.
Archer sat closer at the front had now moved up to the barricade while watching the spectacle finally couldn't contain himself anymore and exploded out, "You call those punches? What are you doing? Throw with your body not your arms!" He screamed at Luna in frustration. She was blowing her chance of victory.
Luna continued to widely swing more punches as Annaxia stumbled out of bounds. Immediately a teacher yelled out that they were out of bounds and Luna halted her attack. In this moment of reprieve Annaxia swung out a fist of her own and struck Luna. The blow sent the silver-haired girl hurtling across the ring and landing roughly on the other side.
There was a brief moment of silence where Annaxia stood there catching her breath as the teacher looked lost. Before he managed to recover and loudly announce, "Match over! Victory goes to Annaxia!"
"What? That was cheating, they were both out of bounds when it happened!" Ran complained.
However his complaints fell on deaf ears as everyone began to move on to the next round. Though many students were murmuring amongst themselves over what they saw. How in the world could something like that could have happened? Annaxia should have easily handled Luna, yet there was a scare of her losing.
Annaxia's face was left battered, she was exhausted and bewildered. Blinking a few times and staring at Luna as the smoke was cleared and then in an almost zombie-like state was led by a medic to be checked on as another went to check on Luna.
Archer gave an angry tap on the barricade with a shake of the head before he vaulted over the barricade and rushed over to Luna who was starting to come to. Quickly following behind him were Ran and the others.
"Sorry Archer." Luna apologized looking up to see Archer offering her a hand.
"You did more than better." Archer said picking her up to her feet, "We have things to work on later." Archer said quietly as the others approached to help Luna back to the stands.
"Move out of the way, you're stalling the fights." One of the teachers said.
"Apologies just worried about her." Archer said apologetically.
"Be quick about it."
As they all returned to their seats after Luna told the medic she was fine, the matches continued to proceed. As the matches continued, Esme texted Luna a "good job," and Julia being informed of the situation was understandably angry. Still, she praised Luna's ability to hold herself in that fight.
"That was amazing!" Emmra said, "How did you think of that?"
"Oh, uh. Well Archer helped a lot." Luna said.
"That's extremely impressive. There really shouldn't have been a way for Luna to do anything to her." Selena complimented.
"I like watching and studying fights." Archer said with a shrug.
"Could you give advice for my fight?" Ran asked.
"I would need to plan for it." Archer said with a helpless shrug.
"Still that was amazing, you guys really proved everyone wrong." Ran said.
"Well it was mostly Luna." Archer said.
"Still you're a genius to come up with that plan." He praised Archer, "Right Alex?"
"Yeah." Alex said quietly with a nervous smile.
"I was just lucky with my guesses." Archer said as he watched students currently fighting one another.
As a few more matches passed and as Luna was recovering from her sore ribs, Archer's turn was up. This time Archer made his way out of the stands normally as he walked down the aisle and towards the ring as the last match was cleaned up.
"Do it Archer, you can beat him!" Ran along with the others and cheered.
"You got lucky getting someone the same rank as you." Selena said looking less interested than the others.
Luna locked eyes with Archer and shared a knowing look. Archer smiled at them, nodded his head and walked off.
"So what's your relationship with Archer?" Emmra asked looking for a bit of gossip.
"It's… complicated." Luna said as she thought for a moment before her eyes widened, "It's not like that!" She said quickly.
"Mhmm." Emmra said with a smile.
"Oh, it's not important right now." Luna said in a huff.
"Sure." Emmra said teasingly.
At the same time from the other side crept his opponent, Kaiden Atkins. Even across the other side of the ring, he could see Kaiden's crazed look and Archer wondered internally just how many crazed-eyed people he was going to meet by the end of the month.
Still, call it instincts or a sixth sense but Archer couldn't help but feel a bit on edge as he and Kaiden moved towards the middle of the ring to face one another. There was something more to Kaiden, Archer just wasn't sure what. Archer thought it was going to be stupid, but maybe he would need Kaiden to make the first move.
As the fight began Kaiden gave a dramatic pose and jabbed a finger towards Archer before loudly announcing, "Outsider! Your time of gallivanting around to play your wicked schemes is now over!"
"Right." Archer replied with a nod.
"Witness your destruction!" Kaiden exclaimed before hitting another pose.
It was then that something changed, Kaiden's eyes turned a blood red and Archer's instinct told him danger. Something was emitting out of him, Archer didn't have any skills to be able to analyse what was happening exactly, he could only base this off experience.
Archer has seen a similar aura being exuded a couple of times in the past. It was always psychic-based, something that messes with the heads of opponents. Archer blinked as he realized that there was a literal aura that had now surrounded Kaiden. A faint purple hue was coated around him. Only it was not very stable and threatened to explode.
Archer wasn't sure how a psychic explosion would result, and he really didn't want to find out. The barrier protecting the students was made for physical attacks not mental attacks. It was going to change his plans a bit but he really didn't want to risk the well-being of anyone else.
Closing his left hand into a fist, he brought it across the jaw of the defenseless Kaiden, still charging up his power and leaving himself undefended in his ridiculous pose. Thankfully Kaiden was as tough as your average F-rank and a single clean strike collided across his jaw sending him crashing backwards onto the floor unconscious.
"Uh… fight over. Winner Archer Griffen!" The teacher announced confused at what they just witnessed. It didn't seem like anyone realized the peculiarity of Kaiden's attack.
As Archer walked back he briefly locked eyes with Esme, who looked at him in surprise. Archer gave a look of 'I'll explain later' as he sat back in his seat. His fellow F-rank classmates praised him.
"Pretty lucky with your opponent." Selena observed.
"That was great." Ran said.
"That punch was quick." Alex said watching as Kaiden was being woken up.
"It just felt appropriate. I thought I may as well hit him before something happened." Archer said as he glanced over at a curious Luna.
Luna nodded her head in understanding, "At least you weren't hurt."
"Yeah, it was pretty easy." Archer said as he hoped that this wouldn't affect his status too much. He did just punch a guy, it wasn't all that special, but he did win.
It wasn't long before finally Ran got his turn, he was the last match for this group. The other F-ranks all had far less success than that of Archer. While they fought hard, they lacked the necessary strength and planning needed to beat the higher ranks. Emmra and Joyce both did better than expected but were losses nonetheless.
On the other hand, Esme won her fight. Way too one-sidedly even, she was fighting a C-rank so the advantage was already there. But it seemed as though she wanted to both show off and test out her new powers. Bounding across the entire ring, she completely destroyed her opponent with gusto. Even throwing up a victory pose at the end.
Selena fought the hardest and paid for it. For the last two weeks she became infamous amongst the upper ranks for her brazen personality. The belief that she and others like her could become better. Aside from Ran, it was the second biggest prize to get her as an opponent.
The match was used as a teaching lesson to her and the other lower ranks. The beating was bad enough that Ran nearly jumped in to intervene. Thankfully before any serious damage could be done the match was stopped and she was taken to the infirmary.
After that, Alex's fight was one of the more pathetic showcases. Fear clearly gripped him after that showcase and going next mostly involved him running and being chased. It caused the other students to laugh joyously as Alex was treated as a clown in their fight.
By the time Ran's turn was up, he was rearing to go. Archer could sense the tension emanating from behind him as his friends fell one after another. Ran made his way down to the arena with a cold icy glare of determination in his eyes. His opponent, Kenneth just had a good laugh at the expense of Alex.
His grin only widened as Ran glared at him, it was funny for an F-rank to try and be intimidating. Casually Kenneth grabbed his weapon, a large warhammer, and strolled over to his side of the ring. Ran moved to his side, longsword in hand as he gave it a few practice swings.
"Ready to make me look good?" Kenneth said and garnered no response. Disappointed, he prodded some more, "You know everyone's been betting on how badly I'll beat you. Maybe you'll run like your scared friend. Or maybe you'll be battered like your girlfriend."
"You're going to cry." Ran said simply as the teacher announced them to fight.