Tournament: Part 3

With the girls using essence in bursts, they can optimize the minimal amount of essence one can draw from within their orbs.

Seeing how the sudden and small burst means that there must be something that allows them to increase strength and speed. It looked as if the two girls were now approaching the speed and power from when Susan and Vannessa faced off in the first round, which was peculiar since they were using more minor explosions of essence within their bodies.

'Wait a minute...' Maddox thinks while he looks a bit more closely at the two of them and finally sees what is making the difference.

"It's their quality..." Maddox mumbles to himself as he sees a slight difference in coloration of their essence compared to Susan and Vannessa

It was not noticeable at first, but Maddox could see it a bit clearer now as he saw that it seemed Susan and Vannessa had a lighter shade of essence than Angella and Persephone, whose was a bit darker.

'If this is how much more a slight difference in purity can do... what is mine capable of?' Maddox asks himself since so far has only witnessed golden-colored essence and nothing else like his essence orbs in his mind space

'I will have to ask them about it...'

Turning his attention back to the fight in the ring, Maddox looks at the two women fighting in the middle to see if he can guess who will win based on essence alone.

Now while with his vision, Maddox cannot see how many orbs one has cultivated within their mind space, so he can only go based on how much they are using to understand their limitations. Typically, most people in a stalemate would use more energy to push back the other person, which is what Maddox saw as both Angella and Persephone were increasing their essence use by the second in an attempt to win.

Now it was a battle of attrition between the two to see who would run out of essence first; since they were constantly using up their essence, it was difficult to see which one would be the winner.

'It was a good decision to have them do this,' Maddox thinks, as he would have never seen anything like this in their memories.

Soon though, Maddox sees the change in the face of the battle between the two women in the ring as Angella stops increasing her essence output and keeping it steady, which is terrible since Persephone was still increasing her essence. The winner was soon determined; the two suddenly stopped moving with Persephone's stick underneath Angella's neck, just like Susan did in her match.

"One point to Persephone!" Maddox announces, and both of them retreat to their corners without having to be told to do so

"Ready?"

Both of them nod while getting into a respective stance, with Persephone having her stick behind her while she crouches a bit and has her opposite hand outward just a bit. Angella has a different stance but has her stick lifted from her body slightly with both hands holding onto it while her legs are put somewhat apart.

"Begin!"

The two rush forward but surprisingly, Angella, in a massive burst of essence, springs forward with her stick gently hanging only a few centimeters from Persephone's face while her stick is still on its way to attacking Angella's side.

"One point to Angella"

Both women return to their corners while death glares are thrown back and forth as they stare at each other.

"Alright, enough of that; remember, once we- BEGIN!" Maddox yells out since he wants to see how well the girls would react to this sudden start

It does startle them, but Angella takes the initiative first by moving to strike first and putting Persephone on the defensive, which is the right move considering it seemed that Persephone had used more essence to use than her.

'Though that could be miss direction,' Maddox comments to himself

Sure enough, Persephone unleashes more of her essence to combat Angella's fight on even ground. Their bodies turn into blurs once more, to the point that Maddox has to take out his phone and record the fight so he can rewatch it later to see what is happening.

Still, he could see their essence in their bodies, but only if they were standing still for a moment, and, thankfully, they were restricted to just the ring, or else it would be a lot more challenging to see how they used their essence.

To move at an inhuman speed through essence was a sight to behold; however, Maddox's thoughts were leaning towards how to combat such essence users.

'How will Dog win, though?' Maddox thinks to himself as he looks to see that Dog is staring intently during the fight with some gaze that conveys her seriousness

Maddox smirks at her, seeing that she is probably planning something, considering how smart she should be. Dog should be as intelligent as an adult human considering all the memories and knowledge he gave her; she should hopefully be able to digest it in about a year.

*Bam!*

A meaty hit rings out, and Maddox sees Angella standing over Persephone, clutching her stomach in severe pain.

Maddox rushed over and checked her condition to see that she had sustained a heavy blow to her stomach. Turning her over, Maddox sees she is in terrible pain but not life-threatening, thankfully, just excruciating for her.

"I hit her roughly in the solar plexus area with my fist," Angella says, not caring for Persephone.

Maddox only glances at Angella before injecting some miasma into her and placing himself inside her mind space. Once inside, he immediately appears inside the control station, where the text is awaiting him to give a command.

"Bring a look at Persephone's nervous system," Maddox says

[Understood]

A human-like model appears in front of Maddox, laying out the entire nervous system of Angella with some bright-colored areas indicating which ones are active and which are not.

"Ouch..." Maddox says once he sees where Angella got hit

It was a bundle of nerves near the center of her torse, which were all lit up now, showing that they were active.

Thankfully, Maddox was essentially within Angella's mind, so he could control her brain to look at all the incoming nerve signals and then ignore them for the next couple of minutes. Hopefully, this would help her recover faster and force her to sleep to help with the process.

Maddox left her mind once everything was set up on a timer to allow the pain signals to be received again. He returns to his body to see that Angella, who once clutched her torso in pain, had started relaxing a bit before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

Placing her gently, Maddox stood up briefly to announce Angella, the winner, before bending down to pick up Persephone, who was sleeping soundly now.

Picking her up in a princess carry, Maddox returns to her mattress to place her down.

"What happened to her?" Vannessa asks, seeing Maddox bring in a sleeping Persephone

"Took a heavy blow in her last round against Angella and passed out as a result," Maddox answers while lying down.

"Where did she get hit?"

"Someplace called the solar plexus apparently," Maddox says as he leaves the room

Vannessa looked at Persephone, who was sleeping peacefully and was a bit confused about how someone who had just passed out from pain could sleep so soundly. Still, she was not one to question it, so she lay back down again to rest to get back in the tournament they were doing.

"Now I am sure that everyone feels differently about how that last round ended," Maddox tells everyone else, seeing as they all seemed to be distancing themselves from Angella now that she had dealt some severe damage against Persephone.

"With that said, I agree with how Angella won by using all available methods to win, which is sometimes necessary. Next time, please don't overdo it, okay," Maddox adds to ensure that nothing brews from this competition.

Angella only nods begrudgingly before she sits down to watch the final match between Dog and Rubia start as the two of them walk into the ring to their respective corners.

Dog looks at Rubia with an intense gaze from where she sits in her corner while Rubia crouches down to her height on her side.

Maddox had already given Rubia her stick which was now placed behind her, leaning against the hay, acting as a corner of the ring. There was also a stick for Dog placed on the ground for her to pick up if she decided to use it, but Maddox did not think she would, at least for now.

"Alright, start," Maddox says, beginning the first round since he decided setting up a timer that he uses once to start a match is pointless.

"Alright, pretty girl, how about you just walk out of the arena and let me win, okay?" Rubia says

"Aroow?" Dog says, trying to play dumb and not understand what Rubia is saying

"Alright then... how about this? Does the pretty doggy want to play fetch?" Rubia says as she gets up before she grabs her stick and waves it in front of her

Dog follows the stick as if mesmerized by it, and Rubia grins at having a simple match that is practically a freebie and throws her stick out of the ring to get Dog out of the tournament.

An evil-looking grin forms on Maddox's face as he sees Dog finally react as she gets up and decides to act by grabbing her stick and trotting over to Rubia as if she did something good.

"Jeez, Maddox, your dog is lazy," Rubia lets out, thinking that Dog believes Rubia wants another stick to throw

'Not lazy, just smart,' Maddox thinks to himself as Dog gets closer to Rubia

"Alright, then give it here," Rubia says, a bit tired of this

*Smack*

"OW!" Rubia lets out while she rubs her calf

Dog had jolted her head to the side and cleanly hit Rubia in her calf with a lot of force behind it.

"One point to Dog," Maddox says as he decides to follow Dog's plan

"WHAT!"

"NOT FAIR"

"Wait, your dog's name is just Dog?"

All three girls said something completely different, which was understandable since they did not expect this to happen and for him to count that hit.

"Did I stutter? I clearly explained the rules to you all, and that was a clear hit meaning Rubia loses this round, alright," Maddox tells everyone, causing them to shut up.

"Alright, then, fine..." Rubia concedes, seeing as she could just quickly get Dog out in the next round

"Alright, pretty girl come here~ Who's a pretty girl~" Maddox calls over Dog, who gives him a death look, not liking the baby tone of voice he was using as she walks towards him, as he was in her corner.

"Alright, let the next round begin."

With the start of the second round, Rubia walks toward Dog, who also walks forward to face the challenge against her.

"Alright, pretty girl, how about you lie down for a tummy rub now?" Rubia offers since she is usually the one to rub Dog's belly the most

Dog pauses at her words as she walks and contemplates before she drops down and lies down on the floor with her stomach visible awaiting the aforementioned tummy rub.

Rubia approaches Dog and squats down to rub Dog's stomach before she falls on her ass while clutching her head.

"OW! BAD DOG!" Rubia cries out as Dog had clocked her in the head with the stick still in her mouth

"The winner of this match is Dog!" Maddox exclaims

"WHAT?!"

"HOW?!"

"Why is your dog's name just Dog?!"

Again more exclaims from everyone he has to deal with, but still seeing the match, Maddox was chuckling internally at how well Dog had manipulated Rubia before she won.