“This is bull,” Kyuhyun messed his own hair, pulling it harshly. “I need to stop this, right now.”

The fourth battle had ended already with Jia versus Hyosung. Both were sisters, Cho allies, and at the end they decided to let Hyosung be the one who passed to the next round.

The sun was already up and neither Kyuhyun, Hyukjae, Siwon nor Hyosung had had any sleep. Their bodies were tired and their minds were messed up by the events that followed every fight the last day and night.

The semifinals started and Both, Siwon and Hyosung gave up against Hyukjae and Kyuhyun. Although Hyukjae wanted to hurt Siwon as much as he had done before to Sungmin, he knew he now had to save all his energy to go against Kyuhyun in the final round.

The fight for the third place took place almost at midday. An hour in which Kyuhyun was so weak he could feel his body begging for some rest. Hyukjae, in change, looked quite fine with water and air over him, controlled by his own powers. No one but the participants and referees could be in the arena. There was no one there to take care of them and no one to cheer for them.

Kyuhyun looked up and looked at Victoria, giving him thumbs up. He looked at Hyukjae. He was being serious. He couldn’t forget the way he looked at him, so terrified. Or maybe it was only Kyuhyun the one who imagined it.

Yeah. Hyukjae wasn’t a saint either and had hurt one of them.

Kyuhyun frowned. 

“Focus,” Kyuhyun told himself. “This is not for me.”

Siwon and Hyosung were standing in the middle of the arena and they smiled at each other as soon as the referee declared the start of the battle. None of them used their powers. At the contrary, Hyosung was the one who started the fight by throwing herself towards Siwon and attacking physically. She was an expert in martial arts and so was Siwon.

The fight went through by periods. Three minutes and they would give each other a few seconds to breathe before they fought again. None of them seemed like winning or wanting to lose. The price was good for the third place and it was basically the right to miss all the classes and get to miss the night practice for almost an entire month without any kind of repercussion on their grades.

Half an hour later, they were still strong as they had been when they started. And it was until an hour later that they started panting softly, asking for air. “I hope you forgive me if I use my powers,” Hyosung said, covering the borders of the arena with ice. “But I think you’ll appreciate it too,” she said, smiling gently.

Siwon could quickly feel the fresh air and their energy was renewed.

They were having fun as they kept on fighting until finally, after another hour of exhausting movements, Siwon decided to give up. “Ladies first,” he said, chuckling.

“What a gentleman,” Hyosung laughed softly.

The referee declared the winner and just a few minutes later, the arena was being prepared for the final round.

It was almost five in the afternoon when Kyuhyun and Hyukjae had to go out for the final ceremony. They stood just a few steps away from each other. As they heard the principal talk about good fighting skills and no harm pacts.

Nothing of it mattered. Hyukjae was terrified, but at the same time, he had the slight hope of winning against Cho. He could see the other smiling at him, as if wanting to be friends. There was something really wrong going on in Kyuhyun’s mind and Hyukjae didn’t want to find out what it was.

“Are rules clear?” The referee asked. He had gone through all the rules once more but neither Kyuhyun nor Hyukjae heard them, thinking in something else.

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun was the first one to reply.

“Yes,” Hyukjae said as well.

“Good,” the referee said, looking at both contestants.

The arena was silent. It was going to be a fight that would last at least a few hours, if they were fast enough. Or days, if they expected something else from the other and saved their energies.

“Ready?” the referee asked and as soon as he said that, both males placed themselves in an offensive position. “START!”

Kyuhyun and Hyukjae weren’t usually the ones to start fighting first. They would always wait for the other to attack. That allowed them to have stable methods of defense and start knowing their opponent.

This time though, both decided to attack as soon as it was possible. Hyukjae jumped back a few meters before throwing Kyuhyun hundreds and hundreds of small stones that rose up the ground one after another, coming back if they passed Kyuhyun.