Will of a Prince

The wood groaned from the combined force of everyone in the Rose Clan darting towards their opponents. William was the first to reach his opponent. He started throwing a fist aimed at Sydney’s cheek. However, Sydney was able to harden a small part of herself in time.

"W-What the hell?! How are you so fast?!"

William didn’t let up. A kick went soaring towards Sydney’s thigh. Unfortunately, she was not prepared for this attack and took a direct hit. The sound of impact was deafening. The force reverberated through her whole body, and she was thrown dozens of feet sideways.

"Don’t underestimate us. We may not have much battle experience, but every single day we push our body to its limits in the field."

Sydney quickly regained her balance and hardened her whole body, ready for another strike to hit her. However, William had other plans in mind. Using his rend power, a large beam of light started forming in his hands. He dashed forward to close the distance. He held the concentrated beam of light in his left hand while his right hand was sent flying at Sydney’s stomach.

Right as Sydney braced herself, the light seemed to explode in his hand, completely blinding her. Instead of hitting her stomach, a punch landed right on her cheek. A loud crack sounded across the raft. However, it wasn’t Sydney’s jaw that cracked, it was William’s fist.

He didn’t make a sound while his hand started to drip blood on to the wood. He instead kept up his assault with all other limbs he could.

’I don’t think I can hurt her this way. This leaves me only one choice.’

Sydney was still reeling from the blinding attack of her opponent. She had to counterattack to stand any chance. She started swinging her fists blindly, aiming at the direction where she heard her opponent’s footsteps. A few times, she managed to get a lucky hit. However, her hope was quickly diminished when she was suddenly tackled to the ground.

William wrapped his legs around her neck, grabbed hold of her arm and started pulling it in its opposite direction in an attempt to break it.

"Submit or I will break it!"

"Go to hell!"

A loud snap could be seen from under Sydney’s smooth skin. She let out painful cry and started thrashing on the wooden surface.

"Submit! I don’t want to break another one!"

Desperation grasped Sydney’s heart. Suddenly, she felt William wrap his arms around he her leg next. Her movement was still heavily restricted from his legs keeping her in a chokehold. She started to panic and desperately tried to put all her hardening into the leg he was holding on to. It was no use. She could already hear her own bones creaking under the pressure.

"...I submit! Please let go!"

William loosened his muscles and rolled away from her.

"I’m sorry it had to be this way. Maybe I can treat all of you out to dinner after this to make up for it."

Sydney simply pouted on the ground, holding her broken arm. Suddenly, the platform he was standing on started to tremble and shake. It felt like something massive just landed on it. Looking over to check on his other team members, he could see only what could be described as a giant.

Gabriel Katra grew himself larger than thirty feet and was now running around trying to stomp Caleb. Lucy was close by him offering support. She created an iron shield for herself and had Caleb duplicate enough for everyone to have. Bart was there to help strengthen the shields whenever Gabriel decided to throw a kick or punch at them.

"Hey, you made weapons! That’s not fair at all!"

"All we made was shields. That can hardly be called a weapon."

"I’m going to talk with my dad about this, and you all will-"

Lucy threw her shield at the giant’s face, causing him to stumble backwards and hold on to his deformed nose.

"Ow! See! You are only proving me right! That is a weapon!"

Lucy created another shield and closed the distance on the giant. After side stepping a few stomps, she reached his heels. Throwing her entire body weight behind the shield, she him aimed to send him toppling over by making him lose his balance.

After crashing into the back of his foot, Gabriel couldn’t keep himself upright anymore and fell down with a massive boom as he collided with the raft. Lucy took the chance to create massive iron shackles to wrap around his feet. After safely securing them around his ankles, she called over to Caleb.

"Duplicate them around his hands!"

Caleb quickly rushed forward and started the process. Slowly, more shackles began to form around Gabriels hands. However, he finally came back to his senses and tried breaking the cuffs off.

"Strengthen them, Bart! He’s going to break free!"

"I’m on it!"

The more Gabriel struggled to break the chains, the more helpless it seemed. If it was just ordinary iron, he could break free no problem. However, Bart’s ability strengthened the iron to unforeseen levels. As Lucy dashed toward his face to break in his nose some more, Gabriel started crying out.

"I submit! Please just don’t hurt me anymore!"

A very confused expression went across Lucy’s face.

"Why didn’t you just shrink yourself and escape the shackles?"

Gabriel stared at Lucy blankly, trying not to show everyone that he never thought of doing that. Excuses poured out of his mouth at every moment possible to hide his embarrassment.

"Well, you know I just felt so bad since you guys have no experience! Oh, and I haven’t eaten yet today so that always affects how I fight and how I think! Oh, and is it just me or is the sun a lot brighter today? That also messed me up too! You all just got lucky today!"

"I’m just going to go now."

"Wait, you aren’t going to let me out of these shackles?!"

Lucy continued walking.

’He’ll remember how to escape them eventually... I hope. I mean, I just told him to his face how and he still hasn’t.’

To everyone’s surprise, there were only three members of the Katra Clan left. Slowly, the Rose Clan started closing in on them.

"If you guys submit now, we won’t have to feel bad about hurting you."

Slade started laughing maniacally.

"You are all fools. You took out the weakest ones first! Bryce, do it now!"

Suddenly, mounds of wet dirt started flying out of the water and came right towards them. Strangely, it all flew right past them and aimed for Slade instead. A concerned look grew on William’s face.

"What on earth is he thinking attacking his own team?!"

However, instead of attack Slade, it started lifting him and Bryce into the air while solidifying around them for protection. That left only Harold to fight all five of them at once.

"You’re leaving your friend behind? You people are so low!"

Slade started smiling darkly looking down at the Rose Clan.

"Who say’s we’re leaving him behind?"

Suddenly, just as they looked down to see where Harold went, he had completely vanished. Then, William fell on the ground, coughing up blood while holding his stomach.

"What?! When did he-"

Something zipped past the Rose Clan and William’s limp body was thrown hundreds of feet away. Standing in his old place was Harold. His entire body was steaming, his clothes were ripped, but he still held a creepy smile on his face.

"One down. Only a few more to go."

Lucy was the next to react. She quickly created an iron armor around herself and held up her shield, trying to predict the next attack. Bart strengthened it with all his might, but it was utterly useless. The shield crumpled like paper. The center of it melted from the overwhelming speed of Harolds punch.

Lucy braced herself as much a she could, but the first broke through her armor and punched her right in the gut. Just like William, she crumpled to the ground in pain, completely taken out of the fight.

The teams were now completely even. It didn’t take long for Caleb and Bart to share similar fates to those of their comrades. All that was left was Peter. Throughout this entire fight, he had stood completely unfazed by the speed of Harold.

As Harold stood in front of Peter, steam was coming out of his mouth as he breathed like an engine.

"Looks like it’s only you old man. Got any last words?"

Peter looked off in the distance to think to himself.

"Don’t you feel a little slower?"

Harold looked at Peter confused for a moment. Suddenly, a bad premonition grasped his heart. He looked behind him at the dirt tower. Sitting high above at the top, was Slade and Bryce, both completely passed out with wooden trunks wrapped around their necks.

"Don’t worry, I only put them to sleep. They will be fine."

"Y-You’re going to pay for this!!"

Harold blinked away. Peter could hear the air break apart as his opponent moved at unreal speeds. A kick was sent flying at Peter’s head. Without moving, Peter created a thick piece of wood to absorb the impact in front of him. The wood was splintered into thousands of small pieces.

However, Harold still had enough momentum to carry his kick forward, only it was much slower now. This was all a part of Peter’s plan. He wrapped his arm around his leg to catch him and sent a fist flying straight at Harold’s face.

The fist collided with a loud crack that resounded across the raft. Everyone spectating was left speechless. Even Zeke was left in shock. For the first time since they’ve been a part of the Katra Clan, Harold and Slade had been defeated. By a single man, nonetheless.

Using his power, Peter created long wooden sticks that wrapped around everyone on the raft to carry them back on the sidelines.

"Phew. That was really fun! Thank you Miss Lidia and thank you Mr. Katra for organizing this!"

Both clans were still too stunned to speak. Even Lidia had no idea of the extent of Peter’s power.

’How terrifying. I guess he is one of the oldest in the clan.’

Lidia walked back towards the lake and faced everyone.

"Well, with that we will prepare for round two! Everyone get on the raft, and I will announce your names and powers!"

Slowly, both clans other five chosen members got on the raft."

"First, we have the people representing the Rose Clan! First up, we have Serena. Her power is heat-manipulation. Abby is next. Her power has to do with regenerating the state of physical objects. Emma. She can control the growth of organic life. Jack. He can sense vibrations through the ground and air very easily. Lastly, we have Cane. He can manipulate the water in his body."

People in the Katra Clan started snickering hearing the last man’s power.

"How the hell can that be called an ability?! There’s no way that’s useful!"

"Now I will call the Katra Clan! Lee. His power is density manipulation. Steel. He can sharpen himself like a blade. Bo. His power is invisibility. Maddy. She can suppress any sound she makes. And lastly, Zoey. She can create fire."

The Rose Clan started pouting.

"There’s no way these teams are balanced. We’re doomed!"

"Everyone get on the raft before I throw you on!"

Everyone followed Lidia’s request and started walking towards the middle of the raft. Each clan gave each other plenty of space.

"To be fair, I will have Mr. Katra do the count down this time!"

Zeke walked closer to the raft, cleared his throat, then let his loud voice ring across the sky.

"EVERYONE FIGHT NOW!!"

Lidia slumped over looking at him.

’Some countdown that was...’