Close match

Kane calmed down. There was no point in holding grudges with Muneer. This was, after all, an examination. If what he did was against the rules, the referee would have called off the match long before it got to that point.

Besides he could not get angry with someone who has done absolutely nothing wrong to him except maybe hurting his feelings.

The third match was soon about to commence. The competitors were Nahla Naifeh and Saleema Nazari.

These two women had made an impression on Kane through their fighting styles. Nahla was ferocious and decisive with her extremely strong claws and Saleema fought by systematically whittling down her opponent's combat ability until they could not even move.

The fact that they were in tier 5 of the mutant realm sent shivers down his spine. He does not even know how to go about fighting them if they were ever matched in the next rounds.

The ladies calmly left their seats and headed for the teleportation platform and were then teleported onto the stage.

After checking their conditions, the referee commenced the match.

Nahla spread out her arms and her nails began to protrude into claws that had a metallic sheen to them. Saleema took the meat cleaver she hung on her waist and assumed a defensive stance.

They both took a few moments to size each other up.

Nahla was the first to make her move. She dashed in her opponent's direction and was soon before her.

She swiped her claw at Saleema's neck but there was a sharp ring of metals clashing when her claw was blocked by Saleema's cleaver.

Saleema was about to aim her cleaver at her opponent's wrist but switched to defense when she saw Nahla's other claw on its way to her neck.

With her more superior strength, she pushed away the claw that was on her cleaver and used it to parry the incoming claw before kicking out with her leg in a bid to widen the distance between them.

Nahla was always aware of her environment because of the more than excellent eyesight granted to her by her eagle beast blood mutation.

She saw the kick coming and she had more than enough time to act. She quickly dodged by spinning to the side with her claws outstretched, forming a sort of human saw and masterfully combined defense with an offense.

Saleema was shocked by the sudden turn of events and she hurriedly brought up her cleaver to defend herself from the flurry of attacks.

CLANG!!! CLANG!!! CLANG!!!

The claws struck the cleaver three times and Saleema's hand was slightly knocked aside from the impact.

Nahla jumped up and drop-kicked Saleema in the gut and sent her flying. She fell to the floor but immediately sprung up and leaped at Saleema who had just got the floor.

She quickly arrived before Saleema and straddled her body that was still lying on the floor.

She extended get claws and swiped at Saleema's neck. She did not hit her target though as Saleema was moving fiercely under her. She only managed to slice across her opponent's cheek, tearing out a large chunk of flesh, and missed her eye by just a small margin.

She continued her attack by swinging her other claw. This did not work out well like the last time as her opponent who did not even flinch when she took the previous attack accurately grabbed her arm.

With her incredible strength, she yanked Nahla off her body and sprung to her feet while still holding onto her arm.

She sent a fierce kick into Nahla's midsection, knocking the girl up by almost two feet into the air and knocking the air out of her lungs.

She raised her cleaver and was about to strike but immediately switched to using it to defend against the claw that was about slice the hand that was restraining her opponent.

CLANG!

Her face was filled with rage and savagery as she successfully blocked the attack with her cleaver. She immediately kicked Nahla's stomach again making her cough up blood.

She could not afford to release her slippery and nimble opponent as that would be too troublesome to deal with. Her cheek which was bleeding profusely with a wound that was deep enough to reveal her bone was a testament to how much damage Nahla could dish out.

She raised her cleaver once more to defend her ankle which had been targeted by Nahla's claw.

She successfully blocked the attack but was shocked by what happened next.

Nahla contorted her body in such a way that she could freely swing her legs just like how she would do with her hand.

The nails of her toes grew at an extremely fast pace, tearing her shoes, and only stopped when it was about three inches long. They then took a grey metallic sheen just like the claws of her hand.

She swung her leg at Saleema's hand that was holding onto hers.

Saleema who had just defended against the claw could not react in time and her arm was sliced by the claws on Nahla's feet. She had no other choice but to let go of Nahla's hand.

Saleema jumped backward and created some distance between her opponent. It seemed like a vein was cut from that attack because she was bleeding quite badly. She tore a part of her robe and tied it around the wound to help lessen the bleeding.

When she was done, she tore another piece and wrapped it around her head to cover the wound on her cheek as she vigilantly watched Nahla who was panting hard far away from her.

Healing potions were not allowed on the stage so the makeshift bandages would have to do.

She never thought her opponent could also grow claws from her feet. That was a serious oversight that cost her a lot. She looked at her meat cleaver and saw the damage marks on it.

She frowned deeply at the damage. Her opponent's claws could shred a weapon rated at tier 9 mutant realm and now she had four of said claws.

She had to go all out from now on. She was losing a lot of blood and her chances of winning got lesser the longer the fight dragged on. She reached into her spatial waist pack and took out another meat cleaver and dual-wielded the two weapons.

She then dashed at her opponent who seemed to have also fully recovered.

Nahla saw her opponent running toward her and prepared herself for the intense battle that would soon follow.

CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

She swung her claws at her opponent who accurately parried each attack. She became really scared as Saleema who was already in a sort of berserker rage seemed to now fight using two techniques.

One meat cleaver targeted her vital organs like veins, arteries, and even her neck while the other targeted parts of her body that would reduce her combat power when damaged like her ligaments, tendons, and connecting tissues.

The clashes were slowly turning to Saleema's favor as Nahla who had so many potential points to guard on her body, could not do so all the time. Although she could perfectly guard her vital organs, she was still sliced at random parts of her body, making fighting and even moving around really painful and difficult.

Her slow reaction and speed opened her defense a little bit for Saleema to take advantage of. She managed to sneak in an attack and aimed her cleaver at Nahla's left shoulder.

She could almost taste victory but her hopes were shattered in the next instant.

Nahla suddenly tumbled backward, sending her clawed feet at the meat cleaver.

CRASH!

The cleaver was shattered into pieces and shrapnel was sent flying everywhere.

Saleema used the other cleaver to block her face. She successfully protected her head from the flying shrapnel but her chest was not so lucky.

A piece of the broken cleaver pierced her chest and the pain woke her up from her previous raging state.

Nahla quickly went on the offensive and swung her claws at her opponent.

Saleema parried the attacks as much as she could and dodged the others she could not block.

She soon began to feel dizzy and weak from the blood loss and she began to make mistakes.

Cuts began to appear in her body because she either did not dodge properly or her defense was not strong enough to keep the claws away.

Her robe was soon drenched with blood and she could no longer see clearly.

Nahla was about to attack again but was stopped by the referee. He had determined that Saleema could no longer fight.

The referee stopped the match and declared Nahla the winner.

She was soon teleported out of the stage and into the waiting room. After getting to her chair, she took out a healing potion and drank it before closing her eyes to rest.

Kane looked at her with worry in his eyes. The only way to even have the slightest chance of winning against her in the exam was if he used Siruzen's sword.