Chapter 74: Let's Dance

"Infiltration successful…

...I'm in."

[Thank you for your hard work, sir. We've also contacted Ms. Sunday as you ordered, she says her team is ready to move at any moment at your advice.]

"Alright. Keep your lines open, January."

[Roger that, Mr. Wednesday.]

"..." With the communication line cutting off, Mr. Wednesday quickly looked around him if there was anything amiss; but as soon as he confirmed that there was no one moving in the hallway, his jet-black suit instantly changed to that of the guards.

And now, with his face and uniform… and even his voice similar to one of the guards he incapacitated, there should be no one who would be able to see through his disguise that easily. Mr. Wednesday then moved the unconscious guards to the side of the hallway, before placing his hand on his back. And seemingly, out of thin air, a cloth appeared as he slightly pulled his hand.

And with him fully stretching his arm to the side, the cloth was revealed to be a large blanket. He then immediately placed the blanket on the guards, making sure to cover them completely; and with a snap of his fingers, the blanket instantly disappeared… along with the 3 guards.

"Rest for a few days," Mr. Wednesday then whispered as he started to walk through the Academy's spacious underground hallways. At his 5th step, however, he once again snapped his fingers. And as soon as he did so, several linens fell from the ceiling, revealing the cameras that were placed all over the ceiling of the hallway.

"Now, where could you be…

...Riley Ross."

***

"Too bad for those who lost… but they were just too rough. I don't want my hero to be handling me like that. Uwu!"

"..."

With Ben Jackson once again hosting the event, those who lost the Race event could not help but be even more depressed of their defeat; it was as if his every moan pierced their ears, crawling until it reached and crushed their already broken hearts.

They have been training for this for months, but to think the Academy added one single factor that completely changed everything for them. Just one single object, and the training that most of them did completely withered away.

A package. Containing a dozen eggs that they needed to bring to the finish line-- if even one is cracked, then it didn't matter if they came first; they would be disqualified. 

One of those that were disqualified just happened to be Hurricane Katrina. She was doing fine halfway through the race since she was able to control her wind abilities quite well-- but alas, there was one single thing she forgot… her breasts were too big. When she went over an obstacle, she let the package flow with her using bits of wind. But as she was about to catch it, it landed on her breasts… and the rest were history.

"Haa…" Katrina could only look at the bleachers where Riley was previously watching, but found that he was no longer there, "Hm…

...Maybe next time."

At the same time, the first elimination of the Kata competition had also come to an end; with Tomoe being the one to end it with a bang, a literal bang. She created multiple ice spheres with multiple gaps inside, vibrating them at an extremely high speed until the steam caused by the sudden change of temperature erupted-- creating an explosion that had an even stronger impact than a grenade, creating a rain of craters around the empty arena when it was over.

Of course, she did all this while staring down on one particular judge, Katherine, aka, Scarlet Mage, aka, Silver Moon, aka, First Subordinate but not for long, aka, Greatest Pedo-- according to Tomoe.

Obviously, she was able to move on to the next stage. There were actually already veteran Supers with the same ability who were able to do the same... but to do so with as many as she did and all at the same time truly cemented her as one of the favorites to win the exhibition.

And now, with the Kata and Race competition over, the students were scrambling to get seats to the next event-- The 2nd Elimination round of the Combat Tournament.

It might not seem fair that the Kata and Race competition were held at the same time, while the Combat Tournament and Rescue Event had an exclusive time allotted only for them… but that's just how it is; even the Academy itself had predicted that the two events would garner most of the attention of the people.

"Oh man, so our fated battle is finally happening."

"..."

And now, with the Combat tournament about to start, Riley was once again wondering why there was another person mentioning talks of fate to him.

Unlike the round yesterday, the arena was now a desert wasteland, and one could even see the other combatants from other zones as the only obstacles that could be seen were pieces of debris from what seemed to be broken ships and other types of vehicles.

As for the person in front of Riley right now, she was from the same class-- Bella Jackson, aka, Black Bell.

"It has been a while since we last talked, Black Bell," Riley nodded as a greeting, "But… why are you talking about fate as well?"

"...As well?" Bella slightly squinted her eyes, the metal mask that was covering the lower half of her face was moving with her mouth, "We didn't get the chance to compete with each other during the 2nd day, remember?"

"The 2nd day?"

"Scarlet Mage took you off the group since she needed an 'assistant'," Bella breathed out, doing air quotes with her fingers as she reached the last word of her sentence, "Remember? Or is the only thing you remembered the thing you did after the class!?"

"No. I remember, Black Bell," Riley once again nodded, "You fainted--"

"Enough talk, old friend!" Bella got into some type of martial arts stance before Riley could finish his words, "Let's dance!"

Bella then slid her left foot forward on the sand, before stretching both her arms to the side and sticking them back together. And as she did so, the metal container that was peacefully resting near Riley split in half; creating a screeching noise as they suddenly shot towards him, threatening to swallow him whole.

And before it could completely swallow Riley, Bella folded her arm into a 90-degree angle; causing the already torn container van to split into 4 pieces, completely trapping Riley inside. She did not stop there, however, as she closed both her hands into a fist-- crumpling the metal cage into a ball.

Bella was still not satisfied, however, as the veins on her hands began to show as she used all of her strength-- without hesitation, without holding anything back. The large metal ball, however, soon turned into the shape of a human.

"You… fucking monster," Bella then breathed out as her hands started to tremble. Her raw power with manipulating metal was enough to compress a whole airplane into the size of a bowling ball, and for the cage she made to turn into Riley's shape would only mean that his telekinesis was strong enough to counteract hers.

It wasn't fair, she thought. Riley was able to move everything with his mind, while she can only control things with metal properties.

At the very least, she shouldn't lose when it comes to controlling metal.

"Riley Ross!" She was about to let out a roar and use the last of her strength to compress the metal even further, but before she could do so, she heard a voice seeping from the metal statue in front of her.

"I am afraid you are going to faint again if you use your powers like that, Black Bell."

"You--"

And before Bella could even respond to Riley's words, the metal cage she painstakingly made with almost all of her strength was ripped open like tissue paper as Riley took a step forward.

"You can't win against me with your telekinetic abilities, Black Bell," Riley then let out a short but deep sigh as he waved his hand, and as he did so, the ocean of sand beneath them began to tremble.

"What… are you doing?" Bella then said as her eyes turned to look at the ground.

"This."

And as soon as Riley's word reached Bella's ears, she felt the ground beneath her disappear. If it wasn't for her costume being made of metal, then she would have probably fallen a few meters towards the silver floor.

...Silver floor?

Bella then quickly turned to look at Riley, only to see him also floating in the air. That is not what caught her eye, however. But instead, it was the mountain of sand that now surrounded the perimeter of their zone.

"Did you… just push all of the sand away?" Bella whispered. But after a few seconds, she shook her head and let out a short but deep sigh, "If this is your way of showing that you're stronger than me, it worked."

Bella then slightly bit her lip as she looked at Riley, "It's your win, I surren--"

"Judging by your movements, you are a practitioner of martial arts, Black Bell?"

"...Sorry?" Bella then blinked her eyes a couple of times as she saw Riley slowly descending towards the silver floor; casually taking off his long white coat and proceeding to fold it before carefully placing it on the floor.

"What... are you doing?" Bella curiously muttered as she too, slowly descended to the floor.

"You were using Shaolin Kung Fu earlier, correct?" Riley then muttered as he got into the same stance that Bella did earlier, "You still would not be able to win against me, but as you said earlier...

...Let's dance."