Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ben and Martin walked beside each other, one with his hands pocketed while the other with his arms crossed.

"Fighting in the second match? I'm gonna say it. This match was intentionally picked and not randomized," Martin said with a huff.

"Maybe because they think we are at each other's throat?" Ben suggested. "Two close runners for the title and semi-finalists. I'm surprised the first match wasn't Jack against Magnus." Ben looked forward.

"Could be," he sighed and patted Ben's shoulder. "Either way, no matter who wins, either of us has to wipe out Magnus's smug smirk for good."

Ben lowered his head. "I prefer not fighting him if I'm being honest. I think I might have a chance but, there's always that voice telling me that I'm going to lose horribly."

Martin rolled his eyes and pulled Ben into a one-armed hug. "Don't say that. You evolved, my dude. You just haven't realized it yet." He smiled. "That's why I'm going to push you until you realize it."

Ben just sighed once again. "Whatever you say," he muttered as they approached the entrance, as Martin let go of the hug.

They walked through the entrance to the crowd, already cheering for the next fight.

"Give it your best buddy, Overdrive, and Overreach," Martin said, raising his forearm.

"Really? The school motto?" Ben asked, bumping his own against Martin's.

"Better moment than any other, don't you think?" he asked as they entered the ring with each going to their side.

"30 bucks that Minogafreak is going to win," Magnus said, making the remaining participants surprised, while Jack looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"You think Ben will beat Martin?" Jack asked, making Magnus glance up at him.

"Yeah, since Marty is probably going to throw the match for him," he said, making Jack sigh heavily.

"Now makes more sense," Jack thought. "And what makes you think that?"

"Oh, that's pretty easy. I know that you and Marty are willing to bend backward for him. In more acceptable words, I would say that he captivated you two, but I don't want to assume."

"This coming from the guy who's been bullying and after him for four years. If you are having weird feelings towards Ben, you could always talk to a therapist cause bullying him won't make him like you."

Magnus snorted. "Like I would be interested in a weak breed like him," he said, looking back at the arena.

"So much for acceptable words," Jack muttered, doing the same as he wondered which of his friend will be the winner.

Maya stayed silent, unsure what to think about the next fight, while Caroline was the opposite.

"Wow, just the second match of the tournament, and we are going to see one of the highest competitors from last year against this year. This is going to be a thrilling match!" Caroline yelled and looked at her co-announcer. "Don't you agree Madeline?"

Maya took a few minutes to grab the mic. "Ah, well, I'm not entirely sure. This one is going to be a hard match to predict," she answered. "Who do you think is going to win?"

Caroline hummed for a few minutes. "For once, my data won't be able to predict the winner. Minogashita only has a slight advantage over Santiago when it comes to physical ability but in terms of power Santiago is far ahead."

"So, you think Santiago is going to win?"

"Not exactly. From Minogashita's previous fights, we know each year he comes better than the last. So, saying that Santiago wins just because of his powers would ignore Minogashita's accomplishment of beating other participants that anyone would think they have a significant advantage."

Caroline took her phone once again, looking through it. "Honestly, it's going to be a hard fight for both participants. The only thing we can do is watch and wait for the results."

"Well, either way, I wish luck for both participants."

Caroline smiled evilly and leaned closer to Maya. "Especially to Minogashita, I presume?" she asked, poking Maya's cheek, and getting a slight glare from her.

Simon looked at the two participants for a few seconds. "Are both of you ready?"

Ben took a pose with his right arm and leg forward while his left arm and leg stayed back. "As best as I can."

Martin took his pose being his arms behind his back while bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I'm ready."

"Then, let the second match begin!" Simon announced as the two participants looked at each other.

Ben clenched his fists as Martin smiled at him. "Show me your best," he dashed towards Ben.

Martin's boots went from a dark blue to a charged crimson and jumped as flames came under his feet, propelling him towards Ben, who stayed still.

As he was within striking range, Martin threw his leg back as fire covered it, and throwing it forward, it send a wave of flames towards his opponent.

Ben had to duck the wave of flames but still could feel the heat. Leaning forward, he dashed, cracking the floor slightly as he closed the distance in a blink.

Ben threw his fist aiming at Martin's gut, but he noticed it used his flames to propel himself higher, avoiding the punch and dropped, planning on delivering an axe kick on his opponent.

But the brunet blocked with his forearm, causing him to grunt. "Hell, his flames got hotter," Ben thought, gritting his teeth as he could feel the heat burning his forearm. He was about to react, but Martin was faster.

Martin unleashed a bright spark hitting Ben's face, making the brunet stumble backwards.

Ben rubbed his eyes vigorously as his vision was blurry and spotty, making it hard to make out anything. "I can barely see, hell when did he learn how to do that?" he thought.

Martin dashed forward once again, closing the distance, and delivered a flame boosted roundhouse kick, sending Ben to the ground.

Ben coughed slightly, covering his right ear as the ringing only worsen the headache and made him grit his teeth even harder. He blinked a few times as his vision finally cleared. "At least I can see again."

"Come on Ben, fight back," Martin thought, sighing as he started approaching Ben, who was shakily getting up.

Finally getting his baring, Ben turned around just in time to avoid a missile kick from Martin.

Martin landed and was quick to face Ben. "Come on Benny, you…" he started, but this time Ben was faster, landing a powerful right hook on Martin's face and followed with a heavy punch on the teen's face, sending him stumbling backwards but still on his feet.

Ben didn't give him time to react. He closed the distance once again and delivered a hard uppercut, sending Martin to the concrete floor with a thud.

The fire user rubbed his throbbing chin, making him flinch. "Okay, he hits far harder than last time," he thought and jumped to his feet, looking at Ben with a slight smirk. "I thought you hit harder than that," he said, spitting some blood on the ground.

"Any harder, and I might've broken your jaw," Ben raised raising his fists. "Might just do it to shut you up."

Martin chuckled. "You can try," and dashed at Ben once again, this time with his fists raised and gloves glowing red like his boots.

He raised his right fist as flames started surrounding it. Throwing forward, he sent a flame javelin to Ben.

He dodged the javelin with ease, but to his surprise, the javelin exploded behind him, making him stumble forward, and Martin used it to his advantage.

Closing the distance, Martin threw a powerful jab boosted by his flames, aiming right at Ben's face.

In the last few seconds, Ben leaned his head to the side, narrowly avoiding the punch, but still left a slight burn mark on his cheek. He countered with an elbow to Martin's midsection, followed up by grabbing his extended wrist and uppercut Martin's elbow joint, sending sharp spikes of pain through the teen's arm.

"HELL!" he screamed as he tried to use his flames to escape, but before he could counter Ben elbowed him in the jaw, interrupting the teen's power.

Ben still grabbing Martin's wrist, pulled him over his shoulder and slammed him hard enough on the ground to crack it and expel the air in the other's lungs.

Martin coughed loudly as he tried to regain a steady breathing pace.

"Do you give up?" Ben questioned, panting slightly as Martin started chuckling while coughing.

"Didn't expect you to break my arm like that!" he yelled, but couldn't resist smiling. "That's what I want to see, the very best you can do," he said, getting up with a grin as flames circled him. "And I'll do the same!" he yelled as the fire grew stronger, but Martin kept himself in place.

"What is he planning this time?" Ben thought, keeping his on Martin, awaiting the slightest movement, and when it did, he couldn't react on time.

Martin's ring of fire erupted in waves of red going all directions, not having a place to hide. Ben gulped and did something he would consider idiotic. He ran straight towards Martin, gritting his teeth as the flames hit him.

Ben had to bite tightened his fists, powering through the flames until reaching the center as he was about to deliver another strike on Martin.

"Fell right into it," he thought with a smirk as he side-stepped at the last moment and countered with a high side kick to Ben's chin, sending him to the ground. As the flames then swirled around them, making a fire tornado with them in the center.

"Okay, new plan. Get out of this fire tornado," the brunet thought as could feel the heat all around him making it harder to breathe. He started getting short of breath while Martin looked not affected.

Martin stomped on Ben's stomach, knocking out any air left and making him cough loudly. And it only got worse when Martin's boot started emitting heat, and it was slowly increasing.

Ben kept grunted as the coughs were getting worse and his vision started getting blurry and spots started appearing once again. "Not again," he thought, clenching his fists. He took as much as air as he could and punched as hard as he could, hitting Martin's knee joint, causing a loud snap to be heard.

Martin's eyes popped wide as, once again, a horrible pain went through his entire body. "Fuck, not again!" he screamed, falling on his back and losing control of his power, making the fire tornado disappear.

"Grud, Grud," he said over and over while Ben pushed himself up to his knees once free, taking deep gulps of air and coughing a few times.

"Damn it, that was near impossible to survive without getting knocked out," he thought, looking over at his opponents, who were still cradling his leg. "Gonna give up?" he asked

"Not even close," Martin said through gritted teeth as he sat up and got into a runner starting position. "What are those bones made of?" he thought, flinching as he now had to depend most of his weight on his only good leg and arm.

Ben groaned as he stood up. "Worth a shot," he said, breathing finally returning to normal. "So, was this the trick you tried using against Jack?"

Martin shrugged. "A part of it, but not the entire thing," he said as flames once again enveloped him entirely.

Ben sighed, and he got back into stance. "Then better finish this sooner than later."

Martin smirked as the flames then subsided minus on his legs instead, making them glow a brighter red. He went sprinting at Ben as the flames boosted him, making him fly towards Ben with a dropkick aimed at the brunet's chest.

Ben barely sidestepped the attack, but Martin used his flames to redirect him into an axe kick, this time connecting with Ben's shoulder, making the brunet stumble but like before, another bright spark went off, blinding him once again.

"Shit not again," he thought trying to back away but Martin was on a full out offensive following his attack with bicycle kicking Ben's chest causing him to take a step back with each kick and finished with another roundhouse kick sending the brunet stumbling nearing the edge of the ring but he kept himself from falling.

"Fuck, I'm going to get him back for this," Ben thought, panting heavily as he could fill his entire chest burning up and the adrenaline pumping through him making it almost impossible to hear anything besides his sped-up heartbeat.

"If I keep like this, I'll lose for sure," he thought as his vision went back to normal faster than he expected and just in time to dodge a missile kick aimed at his face.

Martin widens his eyes as Ben dodged the attack and got some distance from Martin, causing him to chuckle slightly. "If you were this resistant against Jack, you would've probably won last year," he commented, hovering looking at Ben, but the brunet noticed the flames looked dimmer than before.

"Doubt that I would last longer, though," he replied as he retook his stance. "Is he at his limit?" Ben thought, looking closely at Martin, who smiled back at him.

"I can't keep this up for longer," Martin said, twitching slightly as the pain of both broken limbs was taking a toll on him.

"Can't believe you made me reach my limit," he chuckled slightly as a sweat drop fell from his forehead, but it quickly evaporated. "What do you think of finishing this?"

"I couldn't agree more," Ben replied with a slight smirk of his own, as both participants dashed toward each other, but midway Martin stopped as his body erupt in flames once again but it all went to his good arm and threw another fire javelin but this one was far larger than before to the point the force sent him back.

"Shit!" Ben thought as he was still running, and the javelin was near reaching him, he gulped and hoped for the best applying as much strength he had causing cracks on the floor as he did a diagonal jump nearly covering enough distance, but the javelin still hit his right leg leaving a first-degree burn.

Ben landed with a grunt but pushed through the pain, dashing towards Martin reaching him, before the fire user could react as Ben slammed his fist hard enough to knock out the air. He used the momentum to slam his opponent to the ground once again.

Martin coughed loudly as pain wracked through his entire body, but Ben didn't let up and grabbed Martin's good arm and twisted slightly. "Move and I'll snap this one too," he threatened.

Martin grunted. "Okay! I give up!" he announced as sirens went off, making Ben let go of him and fell backward and setting on the floor panting as finally, he could relax.

"Winner by Surrender Benjamin Minogashita!" Simon announced as the crowd cheered and clapped the fight.

Ben looked at Martin, who was coughing loudly. "Lack of air?"

Martin nodded. "Yeah, and as well. I feel like I was in a fight against Wild Rumble," he grunted. "And also, I didn't know you could punch that hard!"

"I rarely do. As you know, it could break concrete," he said with a chuckle caused by Martin's glare. "But you requested my best, didn't?" he asked, making Martin sigh. "Also, payback for fucking blinding me twice."

"You still on that? At least I didn't break your fucking arm or leg!" he shouted, making Ben to chuckle slightly, causing the hazel hair to glare even harder and tsk.

"Where the hell was this strength when Magnus bullied you?" he asked, stopping Ben's chuckles and frown slightly as the paramedics approached.

"I'll tell you later," he said. "Go get healed up first," he said, getting up as the paramedics laid Martin on the stretcher.

"Fine, you better not lose this tournament!" Martin yelled while making Ben chuckle again as he started making his way to the participants's stands. He glanced at his burns and groaned slightly.

"Damn right!" Maya cheered at the result, but she quickly fake coughed. "Ah, that was an impressive fight," she said, trying to pretend to be professional well, at least as professional as she could, while Caroline smiled at her.

"I have to disagree. It was an amazing fight we just witness!" Caroline yelled, making Maya stumble and cover her ear once again. "Santiago gave a hard fight but Minogashita grabbed the win at the victory with ferocity!" she said, extra thrilled, just like Maya. "Madeline, what do you think of such a fight?"

"It was an amazing fight from both participants, I will be honest. I thought Santiago had a leg up over Minogashita during some parts of the fight."

"Of course, this was a way more balanced fight than the previous, both participants had many achievements to the point, it was near impossible to predict who would be the winner and with, both being Student of the year contenders with close points this year for sure, was the best display both have done compared to the others."

Caroline said. "If I may predict, there will only be 2 more interesting matches today that will reach this kind of intensity and surpass them."

"Isn't that a bold claim? They are still 8 participants left. I'm sure we are going to have great fights ahead."

"I don't doubt it, but there's few who will make an interesting match but I could be wrong and eat my words," Caroline said, getting a nod from Maya.

"I'm curious. What matches are they?"

"Minogashita vs Ozzein or vs Sharp, either way honestly. The three remaining frontrunners are the most dangerous participants, especially Sharp and Ozzein."

"By saying that aren't you undermining the other participants?"

"Those are the statics, if I'm wrong, I don't mind admitting it, but at the moment those three are the biggest and most dangerous participants in the tournament."

"Ouch, didn't expect you to be this direct," Maya said, making Caroline shrug as they waited for the match.

Ben walked into the participants' stand. "I'm lucky. I won with little burn marks," he thought, looking at his forearm. There was a large burn mark, but luckily it didn't look to be too serious. "But what dumbass came up with the rule, for medical help only for participants who reach the finals or loss?" he thought, sighing as he took a bottle of water from the mini-fridge near the entrance.

He quickly opened and drank, cooling himself. "I needed that," he thought as he took a seat next to Jack.

"Congrats man, you did great out there," he said with a smile, patting Ben's shoulder making the brunet flinch. "Oh sorry," he said, making Ben wave it off.

"It doesn't hurt, it is just extremely sensitive," Ben reassured. "I'm alright, just need to cool down for a bit."

"Ah, alright, well anyway. Didn't I tell you; you are better than last year?"

Ben shrugged. "You can say that, but I haven't fought Martin in a tournament before, so I can't say that I'm stronger compared to last year."

"Aren't you a killjoy?" Jack asked, making the brunet sigh slightly. "I've fought Martin, and he isn't as strong as you when we spar," he added, making Ben look down.

"Aww, arguing? Can't you see Jack? Minogafreak knows he isn't anything and is only here because of his parents," Magnus commented.

"Can't you shut the hell up? What is your problem with Ben? He has done nothing bad to you but you act like he killed your dog?"

Magnus got up, looking at the two. "If you haven't noticed dumbnuts, the freak there is powerless. Tell me another schoolmate who is powerless? Heck, even the lowest work in the school, people working there have powers." Magnus said. "This freak is the only powerless here, and his parents happen to be high-ranking heroes?" he questioned.

"I call bullshit, this trash is only here because his parents are high-ranking heroes and they probably pay for his so-called achievements."

"That doesn't nothing---" Jack tried to reply, but Magnus cut him off.

"Don't give me that crap!" he yelled, approaching the two, causing the other participants to back away, but Ben and Jack stayed still. "You better than anyone else here knows how taxing is this school, especially for us in the hero course," he said, looking disgusted at Ben, who still had his head down.

"And you are telling me a powerless shrimp like Ben can keep pace with us? Us born from heroes with strong genetics while this piece of shit's only "real" achievement is being born to successful parents," he said as Ben stood up.

"What are you going to do? Cry and hide behind your friends?"

"That's enough Magnus! You don't know what you are talking about," Jack said, making the teen snort.

"I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the Gene…" Magnus didn't get to finish, as a fist slammed into his face, hard enough, making him stumble back.

Magnus had to hold his aching nose, actually feeling the sting of something that surprised him as Ben got up with his head still lowered.

"I'm tired of your rants," Ben said, tightening his fists. "You know nothing about me. You don't know how hard I had to study to be at the top of my class for four years in a row," he muttered, clenching his fist. "How hard I had to train to be here just keep pace with those you consider having weak powers," he started shaking as he tightened his fists even harder.

"And for sure, you don't know how hard I had to keep myself from punching that smug face of yours," he said, lifting his head to glare at Magnus with a glare fueled by bottled-up hate and anger.

The room was totally silent for a few minutes, everyone was too shocked to talk. But it wasn't for long as the announcement of the next fight broke the silence.

"Magnus Ozzein Vs Jackson Sharp!"

Magnus shook his head. "Nice shot," he said, approaching Ben. "It's the only free shot you'll get before I humiliate you in front of everyone. Especially that bitch you call your best friend," he said, looking at Jack. "But before that, I think I'll use Jackie as an example."

Jack snorted at the threat. "As if," he said as Magnus left the room. "Well, guess it's my turn," he said, looking at his friend. "Though, I have to say nice hit."

"Yeah… be careful. I think I just made things worse for both of us," Ben said sitting down as he unclenched his fists, looking at the slight tears caused by him.

Jack chuckled. "No need to worry about me. I'll repay him for last year," he said, heading towards the door.

"How did a weakling like him dares to punch me?" Magnus thought as he let go of his nose, seeing a bit of blood on his hand. He stared at his hand for a few seconds and then closed it, smiling wickedly. "I guess I have to teach that freak. His place," he chuckled as he made his way to the ring.