TIME TO HELP. Reader X Neo X Amber X Silver X Blake?

CHAPTER 18 THE END

I was in the medical bay. The finals were starting. The one v ones. Silver was somewhere else. Blake left me when we got to the arena. All of the finalists were standing on the stage.

Port: Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one finals!

Yang was smirking confidently as the camera panned down the line showing Sun, Penny, Mercury, and Pyrrha. But she looked like something was troubling her.

Port: Barty, why don't you explain the rules?

Oobleck: Ah, it's quite simple, Peter. Instead of a bracket system, each round of the finals will be randomly determined immediately before the match takes place!

Port: Much like any good hunt, there will be zero time to prepare!

Oobleck: Ah, yes, yes! Now, let's see who our first match will be!

Screens appeared and started spinning, this time for competitors instead of biomes. The screen ended on two competitors.

Port: Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!

Ruby: Break a leg, sis!

I smiled at Ruby's comment.

Port: Would all other combatants please leave the stage!

The rest of the lineup did so, and I pulled Pyrrha into the bay.

Me: Me and you need to talk after this match. We would talk now but I have a job.

Pyrrha nodded. I looked out to see Yang walking up to Mercury in the middle as the floor around them opened once more, with a ring of spotlights rising up to automatically fix their lights on the remaining two.

Yang: You better not go easy on me.

Mercury: You wish.

Both brawlers faced the crowds one last time, then slowly started advancing on each other, arms raised defensively until their hands can almost touch, as the final countdown commenced.

Port: Three! Two! One! Begin!

Immediately, Yang threw a punch, and Mercury spun his foot to meet it, creating a shockwave between the weapons that launched him back. He closed the distance quickly and aimed at her feet with his boot, but she leapt over it and fired off a shot of her Ember Celica that he rotated to avoid. They fought fist-to-fist for a moment, Yang getting in a fiery blast on her opponent at the cost of him also landing a blow on her. She fell back on her feet when Mercury shot himself into the air to get farther away from her, looking up and smiling.

Yang didn't relent for a second, launching shot after shot only for Mercury to dodge each of them, sliding around the stage on clouds of air until he attempted to come down on her with his leg. She blocked and pushed away the attack, but he went under her shotgun burst and managed to land a kick on her, though she still landed in a crouch, now grimacing. She launched forward with a double blast and continued landing blow after blazing blow on him, right up to when he roundhouse kicked her in the back and attempted to hit her with his heel. She got out just in time and punched the ground trying to get him, but he leapt out and twirled to get a hit on her. One of his kicks seemed to pass over her, but then he brought it down hard enough to shatter the steel underneath, which Yang narrowly rolled backward to avoid.