Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 5: Intermission

(Artwork is done by AI. It's Sortelina Glacia.)

Back at the gong,
I returned to my announcer voice.
"Bout four, begin!"
I hit the gong,
and Seth rushes in,
unlike yesterday,
where he was focused on purely having fun.
He took the match a bit more seriously while still having fun or as fun as it will get for him.
Seth releases a flurry of slashes and stabs with his bokken,
but Maddie blocked, parried,
deflected,
and remained stationary as she moved in a 360-degree circle and only moved to the side,
not once taking a step forward or backward!

Seth goes for a diagonal stab only for his bokken to get slapped down by Maddie's bokken.
Seth starts fighting a bit more aggressively,
and Maddie begins to move around the room instead of staying in one spot.
Seth tries a vertical slash,
then diagonal stab combo only for Maddie to block it,
tackle Seth,
then release a devastating slash, launching Seth onto his back just like Selena!

Seth looks confused for a second as he stares at the cieling, then he springs to his feet with a smile and rushes again, this time being mindful of his footwork as Maddie takes him a bit more seriously but just like before,
Seth was blocked,
tackled,
then,
right before he was about to get launched,
he backflips away instead of falling off balance!

There was one more minute on the clock as Seth took on his serious face and got into a kendo stance.
Maddie goes from fencing stance to a kendo stance as well and returns the same look.
Both clash for the final time as Seth parries and the two dance around each other,
slashing, stabbing, parrying, deflecting, then Maddie coats her bokken in a wind spell,
slashing at Seth who blocks,
and at most,
her Wind Magic causes his trench coat to flap in the wind.
Seth strike,
Maddie blocks,
and both their bokken was severely damaged from the sheer intensity of their sparring match!

In the end,
Seth managed to land a punch to the stomach and a slash to the jaw before his bokken broke,
and Maddie broke hers after counter slashing Seth in the leg.
The bout ends there with Reed's alarm going off and Maddie the clear winner. Even though Maddie has better experience in swordsmanship,
it was clear from watching the fight that Seth evolves as a swordsman by learning from his losses and adapting mid battle.
An extraordinary battle,
to say least,
but this minature tournament was coming to a close as Zoey and Elizabeth had a shooting contest.

Whoever shot the most targets had the faster reload time,
and the quickest to take out the targets won the round.
We had to relocate to the shooting range, but in the end,
they tied.
Had it been anything else like a sword fight or a fist fight,
Zoey would have won without a doubt because I remember Alexander mentioning that Elizabeth only uses guns and no other means of fighting.

So we have a loss,
a win,
another loss,
and a tie.
To my knowledge,
this is the final bout as we come back into the sparring dojo.
Reed vs. Chase,
team captain,
vs. team captain will now begin.
I hit the gong,
and Reed throws his chakrams.
Chase dodges the first,
then casually limbo ducks under the second,
as Reed calls his chakrams back to him with his magnetic gloves.

He can turn them on and off with his magic,
giving the Mjolnir effect illusion.
Chase beats the snot out of him with simple punches and kicks,
not really taking the sparring session seriously.
Reed kicks Chase away and throws these orb like gadgets that generated electricity,
and Reed kept them floating in the air by keeping his aura tethered to it.
"Ooooh. So you're gonna make me actually work for a victory, huh? Well, it's your unlucky day, big fella. I'm a consummate professional!"

Reed says as the orbs fired off vertical lightning bolts,
no doubt generated from his magic. Chase dodges a bit faster as he is dodging litteral lighting,
and when he gets in close to Reed,
he pulls out his bilit sticks with built-in tazers and pops Chase in the jaw, then pops him on the other side diagonally, then vertically!
Chase grabs Reed's bilit stick and rips it from his hand.
"Did you just pop me with this?"
Chase asks seriously.
"So what if I did? What are you going to do about it, tough guy?"
Chase bops Reed in the head,
and Reed goes from a smug face to annoyed.