Zteel

"Look, I'm not sure what the three of you've got going on," Shiloh complained. "But all you have to do is lie down like the dog you are, and let me take care of one of those guys behind you."

Kilo closed his eyes and meditated. "Haven't really tried this before," he thought to himself. "Maybe something new will happen."

Nyota turned to Sage. "Wait, is he… Is he meditating right now?"

"Heh… well I'll be…" Sage chuckled, his arms crossed. "That's a first. I think he might be making me a proud brother for once."

"What's this?!" The intercoms blared. "It appears as though Kilo is meditating, and not only that, but Shiloh seems to be allowing him to. What will come of this?"

Shiloh rolled his eyes. "At the slight chance this does anything, I'll let it pass."

Kilo continued, uninterrupted. It wasn't long before the area around him started to change into orange and red colors.

Nyota cheered as Sage smiled. "There you go," he said to himself.

Nyota caught the look on Sage's face. "No way," he teased. "I know that isn't Sage smiling at anything Kilo does, of all people?"

"Please, I can be glad every once in a while."

As Kilo's aura intensified, a helical channel of fire materialized and rotated around him from head to toe.

Soon after, the fire shaped into the appearance of a dragon.

"Red Flames MO," Kilo opened his eyes. "I'll call it, 'Dragon Shade.'"

"Are you done, now?" Shiloh asked, aggravated. "I've already spoken more than I intended to, today."

Kilo smiled. Without a rebuttal, he rushed for Shiloh.

"Great," Shiloh grinned before charging back.

The two met again at the center of the court.

"Hey, Jora," Trifon called. Both Jora and Airrion turned to him.

"Yeah?"

"These six are yours, right?"

"Correct," he answered.

Trifon nodded with an amused expression. "They're good."

They traded punches and kicks for minutes, each one mixing in a few special attacks. Kilo utilized his Ruptured Chamber technique and Shiloh used his Flying Phoenix technique from close range.

Shiloh, allowing himself to be hit every now and then, grew frustrated when he noticed that the mirroring impact of his attacks were being negated; his attacks continued to have the same strength and speed as they otherwise would have if Kilo hadn't attacked him.

This did not mean, however, that his attacks were no longer powerful.

With just about every attack he conjured, he did manage to hit Kilo. Nonetheless, it almost seemed as though Kilo's energy seemed more revitalized each time he was successfully attacked.

Not only that, but Kilo's new ability seemed to restrict the amount of damage he took.

"It's almost like he's healing," Nyota observed. "Every time he's hit, he gains more energy."

"It must be his Dragon Shade ability," Sage added. "Just like Shiloh's technique, or at the very least, similar.

I think it's protecting him from incoming attacks and special effects, as well as providing a gradual healing effect.

That plus the fact that he's naturally built a resistance to fire attacks, it's gonna be harder to beat him in battle.

But the question remains, how long can he keep it up?"

"You're not supposed to be this annoying!" Shiloh growled. "All you had to do was step out of the way!"

"You still don't get it." Kilo contested. "You're focused on the wrong guy, I'm the challenge you're asking for.

Plus, didn't you lose to him before?"

The two remained pressed against each other in a stalemate. Kilo continued to provoke.

"It's a shame, you just can't win. And all of a sudden, you're not so scary anymore."

Irate, Shiloh charged up an attack. "Shut up! How dare you challenge me?!"

Furiously, Shiloh repelled off of Kilo and raised both arms high into the air.

"RADIATION MO!!"

Unexpectedly, the sky above the entire coliseum was swiftly covered by gray storm clouds. Thunder roared as Shiloh stood alone, still charging an attack.

"What… the… hell?" Trifon questioned, baffled. Everyone around the arena bore the same reactions, from Noriko and Elwin to other cadets watching the action on live television from the atriums.

Jora responded tensely. "This… this is entirely new."

"Seriously?!" Airrion questioned, his hands extended out to the action. "How do you miss this?! Do you instruct at all?!"

"Can he survive that?" Nyota questioned. "He's got to move!"

"Kilo!" Sage called. "Get outta there!"

Again, the intercoms blared. "OH-HO-HO!! THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! YOU WANTED ACTION, WELL HERE IT IS!!"

Faris was tending to a barely-awake Cadel before he rushed to help him out of Shiloh's line of attack. "Cadel," he called. "Cadel! We've got to move. He's…" Faris looked up, as did Cadel.

Cadel spoke, "There's no way."

"This is absolutely splendid!" Noriko rejoiced. "This crop may really be as good as advertised."

"All you had to do was give me what I wanted! Now, I'll take you down right along with him and your brother!!"

Unsure of what to do next, Kilo gulped followed by a nervous chuckle. "Guess I hit a nerve?"

Shiloh's pending attack built to a colossal size, the circumference of the orange floating orb growing to the magnitude of Faris's wave from earlier. The attack resembled the sun.

"Kilo!" Sage called once again.

He retreated back to Nyota and Sage. "Yeah, I know! I heard you!"

"There's no dodging that," Sage reasoned with Nyota.

Nyota nodded. "We've got no other choice." Immediately, he readied an attack of his own.

Forming an orb of lightning in each hand, he fused the two together to become one much larger in size. Suspending it above his head, he prepared to launch it.

Sage did the same, cupping his hands to his side.

"Ready?" Sage shouted as he could hardly hear himself over Shiloh's radioactive attack.

"Only when you are!" Nyota replied.

"No more games!" Shiloh yelled. He launched his massive attack at Nyota, Sage and Kilo. "Your lives end here!

RADIATION MO: FLYING PHOENIX!!"

"BLUE LIGHTNING MO: ROARING FLASH!!"

"BLUE FLAMES MO: GENESIS BEACON!!"

Nyota and Sage's blue attacks joined together before meeting high in mid air with Shiloh's massive sun bomb.

The magnitude of his attack was so great that the two of them struggled to put enough strength into theirs to keep up in defense.

After willing themselves to push their limits, their attacks managed to overpower Shiloh's.

The final impact of the clash resulted in a resounding boom and strong gust that blew high into the coliseum stands.

The sky began to clear back to the way it was before Shiloh's storm.

The intercoms roared again. "Your eyes aren't lying to you, folks! Nyota and Sage combined their abilities to fend off Shiloh's deadly assault!

So far, this battle may be the most difficult one to top in the entire tournament!"

"Nyota!" Shiloh shouted as he pointed at him. "You owe me! I want our rematch, right here, right now!"

After a short silence, he made a decision. "Kilo," Nyota called.

Kilo nodded in affirmation. "All yours."

He then looked at Sage, who also nodded to him.

Nyota then took a few steps forward toward Shiloh. "It's just you and me now." Clenching his fists, Nyota's aura intensified, and lightning flashed all around him.

"What's this?!" The intercoms announced. "Nyota appears to have stepped in for Kilo, a matchup that Shiloh seemed adamant on having! Could this be the result of personal unfinished business?"

"Great!" Shiloh laughed deviously. "Let's go."

Without another second to spare, he rushed Nyota within the blink of an eye.

Nyota stood upright for a moment longer before doing the same.

The two clashed, trading a dazzling medley of kicks and punches. Although Shiloh was slightly faster, Nyota managed to keep up fairly well.

"I'm sure he's already fatigued from earlier," Nyota thought to himself. "But then again, so am I."

"You're doing well, Nyota!" Shiloh shouted. "But I have so much energy left in store! Let's see how you manage to fight now!"

Shiloh's attacks sped up and grew stronger over time. More of his attacks clearly began inflicting considerable damage to Nyota.

"That's right," Nyota remembered. "His ability from before is still active, and I'm not like the brothers where I can naturally build a resistance to it.

But I can't afford to back down. We have to win!"

Despite the damage inflicted onto him, Nyota refused to surrender. He continued to challenge Shiloh, but with every counter, Shiloh seemed to grow more invigorated.

Unfortunately, Shiloh's attacks only continued to get stronger, and it became clearer to everyone watching who had the advantage.

"I don't know, Sage," Kilo began. "It's not looking good."

Even Jora, who spectated from a distance, grew anxious.

"Oh, man, that Shiloh boy of yours is one hell of a fighter!" Trifon turned to him.

Jora sat still, his hands clenched firmly onto the railing in front of him.

Airrion added. "I'm not sure how much longer Nyota can hang on out there. And if he goes down, I guess that means Shiloh's trio advances."

Trifon laughed. "Is it possible to trade? I suppose not. But even if it was, I suppose it's too late to trade cadets now at this point."

Airrion crossed his arms and shook his head. "Enki, Tatius and Idalia should still be favorites by a mile. But man, I would hate for mine to face off with him otherwise."

"I know I shouldn't show favoritism for my cadets, but…" Jora lamented to himself. "C'mon, Nyota, pull through."

Nyota continued to struggle, and his struggle only heightened when Shiloh began utilizing his Radiation Modus into his medley of close combat.

It wasn't long before Shiloh had his way, and the battle reached a point where he could do whatever he wanted.

"What's this?" Shiloh teased. "Where's the challenge?! Where's the mighty Nyota Atar from before, the one that beat me fair and square?

Where's the heart?!" He laughed maniacally as he knocked Nyota to and fro.

"We've gotta help him!" Kilo protested.

Sage held him back. "We can't."

Kilo was greatly confused. "Why not?! He's in trouble!" He tried to push past Sage to help, but he didn't budge.

Sage closed his eyes, as though any explanation he would grant Kilo wouldn't have even sufficed for himself. "It's the principle of it."

"What?! Now isn't the time to be worried about principle!"

"And what did we do for you?" Sage continued. "We let you challenge yourself, and you unlocked a new ability, did you not?" He looked back to his brother.

"In the real world, I'm with you. If our opponent doesn't care about principle, why would we? We're not stupid.

But this is the tournament, it's recreational. We're still at the root stages of our potential, so this is a chance to grow.

I wholeheartedly believe in each of our abilities to defeat this guy. So let's not forget, we're here to have fun, too."

Reluctantly, Kilo listened, not before knocking Sage's arm away from him.

Elwin, who stood at ease to Noriko's side, chuckled to himself. "The kid's a goner. I don't know why I was so convinced that I knew him."

Noriko, who heard his words, paid him no mind and continued to look over the fight intensely.

"The kid's struggling," Enki observed. The Big Three watched the action from their atrium.

"Poor Nyota," Idalia grew disquieted.

"It's a shame," Tatius shrugged. "I was really looking forward to facing those three in the final match."

"For once, I genuinely don't know what to do." Nyota thought to himself, his eyes closed throughout Shiloh's barrage.

"He has the advantage, every time I attack, he gets stronger. My lightning doesn't work, it only strengthens him."

He thought about Sage and Kilo and wanting to not disappoint them.

"If I lose, maybe Sage can win for us. He's pretty strong, and smart too. He'll know what to do.

But if he loses… I don't know. No offense, but I'm not sure I trust Kilo just yet.

Is this it? Is this the end?"

"Nyota… Nyota!" A voice called in his head.

It was Nora's, although it wasn't her herself speaking, but simply Nyota's memory of her. An image of her began to manifest in his head.

He thought of her and their conversations with one another. His image of her consisted of her grinning at him.

Finally, he recalled a specific conversation that he and the brothers had with Jora.

His image of Jora assumed center stage in his mind, and the image of Nora began to fade away.

"I've been meaning to ask you—and you, exclusively," he remembered Jora asking. "Why are you here?"

Nyota contemplated the answer to himself. "I owe Noriko… right…? No…"

"Where's the conviction?" Jora probed again. "Make me believe it."

Nyota thought again, but he still couldn't find an answer that he felt was appropriate.

"I…"

"Where's the conviction?" Jora's question grew louder in his head.

"I…" Nyota continued to raise his voice to an equal measure.

"Where is your conviction, Nyota?!"

"I…"

"Where is it?!"

"I don't know!" He sharply replied. His depiction of Jora relaxed from wrathful to concerned.

His voice trembled. "I don't know…

I still don't know what I'm fighting for."

Nyota recalled one last line from Jora. "It's one thing to fortify your physical strength. But up here…" He pointed to his head.

"Up here is where the real battles are fought. Now do yourself a favor and get that through your head."

Jora's image faded away, leaving Nyota to himself within the empty space that was his mind.

"Ah… this is embarrassing," he thought to himself.

"Now I know how Kilo felt after asking us for help," he chuckled. "It would be embarrassing if I lost right here, and a loss here almost certainly spells a loss for me and the brothers.

I can't afford to lose," Nyota clenched a fist. The vision of sparks of lightning began to flash around his headspace before trickling out and manifesting around the rest of his body.

"I still don't know," he stated one last time. "I still don't know why I'm here, or what I'm fighting for…

But damn it, I'ma figure it out!"

Quickly, he snapped out of his mind and lightning flashed around him again. Within the blink of an eye, he summoned lightning in his hand and propelled it into Shiloh's abdomen.

Shiloh gasped before the impact launched him tens of meters backward, driving him into the concrete court.

"WHOA!! IN ANOTHER TURN OF EVENTS, NYOTA'S APPEARED TO HAVE COME BACK INTO THE FIGHT!"

"There we go, Nyota!" Sage and Kilo cheered in unison, as did the rest of the crowd. Jora, too, as well as the Big Three, were amused.

Noriko, too, smiled in amusement. Seeing this, Elwin snarled.

Cadel growled and Faris sighed. "Knew it was too good to be true."

"You moron…" Shiloh emerged from the rubble and debris, dusting himself off. His hood no longer concealed his face.

Red and orange flashes of light emerged around his body, too, much like Nyota's lightning.

"Surely, you have your limits, right?" Nyota said. "We all do."

"I have none! Don't you get that?!" Shiloh raged. "I'll steamroll you, then anyone else after!"

Nyota readied an attack. "And we'll see how much that stands."

"This is my show!" Shiloh did the same. "How dare you stand against me?!"

"It is, huh…? Well, how come nobody told me?" Nyota replied mockingly.

Shiloh blitzed Nyota in a flash.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY!!"

The two clashed again. This time, a lightning orb from Nyota and a radiation orb from Shiloh smacked head on. The resulting impact was a sonic wave that pulsed throughout the coliseum.

The two of them relentlessly continued to go at it.

Although Shiloh's Divarication technique managed to hold up, Nyota refused to surrender. He continued to attack, refusing to cease until his body forced him to give in.

He did have to be honest with himself, though. Even he believed that the battle might as well have been called with Shiloh as the victor. But he refused to stop attacking until he could no more.

"Really… Who are these guys?" Raphael asked as he watched the action with Colt and Khafra from their atrium.

"And how are they this strong?"

"The epitome of not giving up," Colt added.

Khafra agreed. "That Nyota guy in particular's special."

Clash after clash, Nyota continued to push his limits.

Shiloh continued to attack belligerently. However, his assault did begin to waver.

"No, no, no! I'm not done!!" He attempted to strike Nyota back harder as he had done for the last half-hour or so, but Nyota continued to utilize lightning in his attacks.

"Neither am I! Blue Lightning MO: Thunderbolt Drive!!"

Nyota ran his foot across Shiloh's face, propelling him backward and into the ground. Before Shiloh could stand, Nyota had already reappeared above him, ready to drive a lightning-charged fist into him through the concrete ground.

Shiloh rolled out of the way in time and stood upright. But by then, Nyota had already driven yet another kick into Shiloh's chest.

Giving relentless chase, Nyota continued to assault Shiloh with no end.

"No!" Shiloh complained to himself. "This can't be! The effects of my Divarication, they're running dry!

But how did he endure it all?! Was it strictly willpower?!

He's insane. I was doing so well. This all happened so fast! He was just…" He clenched his teeth.

"I had him right where I wanted him!"

Nyota continued with no end in sight. Launching and landing various lightning-charged attacks into Shiloh, there was seemingly no way for Shiloh to recuperate.

Creating space between the both of them, Nyota prepared a massive attack in one swell effort with Shiloh knelt down to the ground.

He formed an orb of lightning in each hand, then merged the two together. Impressively, Nyota held the massive globe suspended in mid air with a single hand, a chilling look of unrepentance written on his face.

"Blue Lightning Modus," he paused as he caught his breath, observing a resigned Shiloh fallen to his knees from many meters away.

He began to feel a tad bit contrite. Calling back his pending attack, he jammed a hand into a pocket.

Finally, he spoke. . "You fought well."

Shiloh laughed as much as his sore and aching body would allow him. He shook his head before reluctantly concluding, "Wow… I let you win. It's not the fact I lost the fight in general, it's that I lost to you, again.

Some champion you are," he finally smirked before collapsing to the ground.

The entire arena rallied, as the fight was now complete.

"You very well might have won if you fought me from the beginning. Consider it a win in your book." Nyota smiled before turning away.

"You've gained my respect. Rest easy now, Shiloh."

Nyota slowly made his way to Sage and Kilo.

"You did it, Nyota!" Kilo began. "We completed the sweep—"

Exhausted, Nyota collapsed into the brothers' arms.

"Nyota!" Sage called. "We need to get him first aid, quick." They knelt to the ground as they laid him down.

"So, does this count as a sweep, or…?"

"Kilo," Sage reminded. "Bigger problems."

"Right, right, of course!"

"Ladies and gentleman, we have a winner! After a flashy turn of events, your victors are Nyota, Sage and Kilo!"

"Unbelievable," Faris sighed.

Noriko gazed from above at the aftermath of the battle, as did everyone else.

After a brief cogitation, she chuckled, letting out nothing but a light, "Hm."

Elwin shook his head before walking away. As he walked through Noriko's custom platform back into the inner workings of the coliseum, he finally remembered something he'd tried to recall for quite some time.

He was shocked initially, but then he smiled. "There's no way…

I think I remember where the kid's from now."