Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Leah's wings retracted back into her body once she landed. She looked around her and saw the tattered Alaric sitting on the ground. Burt informed her about what might be going on, so she guessed he was training.

"Okay, class. Today, we are going to continue our matches. Alaric, are you able to use your bright coin yet?"

Alaric stood up and nodded, so Leah said, "good. I'll put you back in a pile then so you can have a rematch.

She stood over her bowl with the names mixed in it and dropped Alaric's name back in the pile. She swished the pile around and pulled out two names.

"Imre and Karen!"

Imre and Karen both stepped to opposite sides of the mini arena, and the rest of the students stepped off to the side.

Imre's family was originally from the Predo Dynasty, and some of their customs remained, so he bowed to his opponent before assuming a stance. Karen assumed her fighting stance.

"Begin!"

Imre's form suddenly began to grow. His muscles bulged, and his veins stuck out as his body grew to three times its original size. He charged towards Karen, who's eyes widened.

Karen reacted by splitting up her body, and suddenly there were five different Karens.

Alaric raised an eyebrow, "so she's the one with the illusion powers."

Eli responded, "yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to go up against her at all. At least Imre's ability is pretty straightforward."

The different Karens split off in multiple directions, and Imre ran towards one of them.

He swiped his gigantic arm at the Karen, aiming to knock her out of the ring, but his arm went right through the Karen.

Imre suddenly felt a kick at the back of his knees, and he crumpled. He swiped behind him, but it went right through the Karen behind him as well.

Another kick at his side knocked him over. He tried to see which Karen did it, but they were all running around his body in a ridiculous way. He couldn't pick out one Karen from another; they all moved the same and kept the same distance away from him.

Eli was commenting on the side, "she's becoming very used to her ability, and she's making great use out of it."

Alaric nodded in agreeance.

On the field, a glowing sword appeared out of nowhere and began slashing towards Imre.

Imre reacted by stepping back and trying to dodge all the movements of the glowing sword but tripped over Karen who was on her arms and knees behind Imre.

He toppled over and fell right out of the ring.

"Stop! Karen wins!"

Imre went back down to his original form and shook his head. The glowing sword and all the Karens disappeared, and the real Karen was the only one remaining. She offered a hand to Imre, who said, "I can't believe you beat me. I thought you'd be completely outclassed, well done."

Karen smiled, "likewise!"

Leah stepped forward, "well done! Both of you! Karen, that was a marvelous use of your powers. If you can, I want you to explore how much of the world you can change in your opponent's eyes. Can you imagine them being stuck in an illusionary world in their mind?! Imre, I want you to practice transforming. Try to make yourself bigger and stronger, but give yourself more flexibility and control. Your balance was pretty horrible on the field."

The two students nodded and stood off to the side.

"Up next...Alaric and Ethan!"

Eli bumped Alaric, "already up again, huh? By the way, I would be careful. Ethan is the topped ranked student in our class aside from myself. He's smart and skilled."

"What's his ability?"

"It's space distortion. It can be a little confusing and tricky, but good luck!"

Alaric nodded and stood on one side of the field while Ethan stood on the other. Ethan was muscular but lean and wore glasses with his dark hair, a seemingly dull appearance almost. His eyes, however, were a bright blue and very intense. They had no emotion looking at Alaric but had complete focus.

"Begin!" Leah yelled.

Alaric was careful with how he used his power over the wind but apparently didn't need to be. He launched a gush of wind at Ethan, but suddenly his gust of wind was launched right back at him, and he was nearly blasted out of the arena with the first shot.

Alaric barely stayed within the boundary, and his eyes were wide. Ethan is a skilled opponent to be able to react so fast.

Alaric moved cautiously away from the edge and kept a wary eye on Ethan. Ethan didn't move but threw a punch from where he was at across the entire field.

The punch hit Alaric squarely in the face, but it wasn't strong enough to do any damage due to Alaric's body increase.

Ethan's eyes widened, but his focus remained. He raised his leg and did a roundhouse kick, and his leg disappeared for a moment and reappeared next to Alaric, kicking his knee.

Alaric's leg buckled, and he tried to find a way to fight Ethan. He couldn't attack him without having his own attack launched back at him.

So he focused, and the air became breezy, then the wind picked up even more.

Soon, there was a twister in the center of the field, and it powerfully moved towards Ethan. Ethan decided to bail on keeping his distance and tried to run as fast as he could around the tornado.

'As I thought. He can only redirect direct attacks, but can't defend himself against an attack on a scale like this.'

Ethan jabbed and punched in the air in front of him, and those attacks reappeared all over Alaric. Ethan landed blows at the back of Alaric's head, at his knees, sides, or even neck. He was aiming his attacks at any weak point he could find.

Alaric only lasted this long due to his powerful new body. He needed to end this fast, so he moved the tornado towards himself while charging towards Ethan, trapping Ethan between himself and the twister.

Alaric launched a few wind blasts towards Ethan, but each of those attacks was redirected towards him. Alaric dodged each attack, but his goal was fulfilled. He needed to slow down Ethan enough to get him in the tornado's pull.

Ethan was lifted off his feet, but his expression didn't change at all. He was being pulled towards the tornado, but suddenly, he disappeared out of the air.

"Wha...?" Alaric said to himself and felt a pair of strong arms wrap around his neck. He was being choked and found it hard to struggle out, even for him.

"Stop! Ethan wins!!" Leah called from the side.

Alaric felt defeated, 'even with my new abilities and body, I still lost.'

Ethan let go of Alaric and held out a hand to help him back up. Alaric took it with reluctance.

"Good match Alaric, I look forward to competing against you again."

Ethan went and stood back off to the side; Leah didn't even give any tips to him.

"Alaric, I would say to practice your control over your wind. Try to conjure a tornado more quickly if you can, and have it move faster."

Alaric nodded and went to stand next to Eli.

Eli said, "dude, that was crazy! You have so much power! Ethan is incredible to beat you."

Alaric glanced over at Ethan who was standing by himself off to the side, "yeah...he is."