Serena was the first one to reach her opponent. She was facing Zoey, the woman who could create fire. Zoey was the first to make a move. Using her right arm, she sent a massive inferno barreling towards Serena. Serena slipped past it easily and threw a counterattack aimed at her leg.

The kick was powerful, but it hardly did any damage to Zoey. Fire sprouted from her entire body, creating an intangible armor around herself.

"I’d like to see you try and kick me now! Unless you want to get burned, of course."

Serena smiled slowly. This was exactly what she was hoping for.

"I hope you can handle your own heat well."

Using her power, Serena started slowly turning the heat from Zoeys flames hotter and hotter. The heat was so incredibly intense that even Serena had to back far away from Zoey to not be affected. The wood underneath her started to catch on fire, steam was rolling through small cracks in the wood, yet Zoey held strong.

"I feel. POWERFUL! We need to become best friends after this!"

She kicked off the ground, leaving a charred crater behind. There was only one way she could think of to dodge this attack.

Using all her strength, Serena pushed herself off the ground and flew into the sky. Manipulating the heat around her, she spun her body around as fast as she could. The hot air that was mixing with the cool air quickly evolved into a swirling vortex.

Zoey was sucked into it, and her flames were extinguished almost instantly. She was thrown dozens of feet back and landed hard against the wooden raft. As Serena fell, she started twisting her body once more, aiming to throw a kick right on to Zoey’s face when she landed.

However, something unexpected happened. The entire front of Zoey’s body started to glow bright red. A massive pillar of flame shot upward and engulfed Serena. The pain was blinding. Here entire body was being burned with every second. Just as quickly as it happened, Serena fell to the ground in pain.

"Sorry I had to do that. I think we could make for a nasty duo sometime! Visit me in the Katra Dorms when you get the chance, okay?"

Serena couldn’t speak. Every breathe she took was severely painful. Right as Zoey turned around to help her clan, a fist was already starting to make contact with her face. The front of her skull felt like it shattered upon the impact, and she was thrown down on the ground right next to Serena. Cane had arrived to try and save her.

Cane didn’t let up on the first attack. He pummeled her body with punches, each one colliding with devastating force. His dark eyes had nothing but malice in them. Zoey was completely helpless against him. She tried coughing out her resignation.

"S-stop... I submit."

That didn’t stop Cane. He kept raining down punches on her battered body with no mercy. Zoey was quickly losing consciousness. Thankfully, Lidia herself seemed to have teleported behind him and grabbed his hand before he could throw a final strike at Zoey.

"Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?"

Cane looked up at Lidia. His eyes still harbored deep anger in them.

"I’m winning. What does it look like I’m doing?"

"Your opponent has already submitted. Why do you keep beating on her?"

Everyone else stopped fighting when they saw what was happening.

"I just wanted to make sure she couldn’t fight anymore. That’s all. She looked at me like I was weak. I saw them laughing at my power."

"So that gives you the right to, what? Try and kill them? Unacceptable. You are disqualified. Stand up."

Cane slowly got on his feet. He kept his head down, refusing to meet Lidia’s dark gaze of disappointment. Lida then did something that shocked everyone present. She grabbed Cane’s eye and ripped it out of his skull, crushing it in front of him.

Cane fell on the ground clutching his face and writhing in pain. No one would have ever expected the kind leader of Rose Clan to do something so scary to her own people. Lidia towered above him and picked him up by the collar and threw him off the raft.

"You’re lucky I didn’t just kill you where you stand. Letting your emotions get ahead of you and almost killing someone’s daughter during a spar. You should be ashamed."

Lidia bent down and gently picked up the two unconscious girls in her arms and carried them back to the shore. She walked over to Zeke and bowed her head.

"I am so terribly sorry for the inconvenience. If you would like, your people may take the win this round and we can break the tie ourselves."

"No need to bow, I appreciate the offer. Let’s just continue the battle, but how about we can have an advantage?" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Certainly. Who would you prefer to face each other?"

"I would prefer to keep Bo, Steel and Lee in. Maddy’s power isn’t really good for direct combat anyway."

"Very well. Is it okay if Jack and Emma stay in?"

"That sounds fair. Just make sure Abby knows she has to get off the raft."

Lidia called Abby over and explained to her the situation. Surprisingly, she seemed eager to stop fighting and went off to the side to keep Serena company. Afterward, Lidia walked back towards the raft to address everyone.

"I am terribly sorry about that everyone. You may continue the fight whenever you are all ready to start."

Emma and Jack were staying close to each other. Across from them, they could only see two of their opponents. The other one was activating his invisibility power.

"Emma, place your hand on the ground and be ready. I’m going to tell you exactly where to grow the wood from the ground."

Emma slowly bent down and put her palm on the surface of the raft.

"I’m ready when you are."

Jack slowly felt the vibrations under his feet of footsteps quickly approaching. He whispered to Emma frantically.

"Try to hit me in the face as hard as you can!"

"What?! What do you-"

"Just do it! Hurry!"

Emma obliged and had a piece of wood grow incredibly fast and attempt to hit Jack in his face. At the very last moment, Jack moved out of the way of the attack. There was a sound that made contact with the wood once it flew past where Jack used to be.

"He’s not down, but he’s hurt! Keep throwing attacks at me, I can use it to my advantage!"

Wooden blocks kept growing out of the ground and flying towards Jack. The spectators were completely shocked.

"Is she attacking her own team? What is she doing?!"

Suddenly, after another loud crack sounded from the wood hitting seemingly nothing, a man appeared out of thing air and hugged his stomach in pain.

"Got him, that only lea-"

Before Jack could say anything, a hand swiped across his chest with incredible force. His shirt was torn into pieces and there was now a massive cut open. Blood started pouring out of his wound. Emma tried to support him by creating a small cocoon of wood around his body, but it was mercilessly torn apart. Jack’s entire body was covered with shallow cuts in no time.

Now, it was up to her to win for the Rose Clan. Despite creating a fortress of wood using the raft, it was easily torn apart by Steel with nothing but his bare hands. There was no doubt that Lee was increasing the density of Steels arms to exponentially increase the attack power. Before they got close enough to fight, Emma raised up her hands in defeat.

"I submit."

Steel glared down at her with a grin.

"What a shame. I was hoping to cut up more people today."

Lidia shouted to everyone around her.

"The winners of round two go to the Katra Clan! Congratulations!"

Cheers erupted from the Katra Clan. They were all giving each other nods of approval and high fives.

"Ugh. Looks like we have to spar for old times’ sake."

"It appears we do. Hand to hand combat, correct?"

Lidia smiled darkly.

"You know me too well. Yes please."

Lidia jumped on to the raft while Zeke closely followed behind her. Lidia shouted over to Peter on the shore.

"Do you mind repairing this thing a bit? It’s bit damaged!"

Peter nodded his head and slowly returned the platform to its pristine condition. Katra walked over towards Lidia holding out his hand.

"Let’s have a good fight, shall we?"

Lidia started laughing.

"Just don’t hold it against me if you end up with another scar, okay?"

The two of them gave each other some distance and faced one another. The wind seemed to stop with anticipation. The only sound was the small waves of the lake slowly rippling against its edges.

With that, the battle between the heads of the noble clans had begun.