Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 23:05:27 GMT
Alexander gave a small sound as he looked at the small group in front of him. “Really?” he asked simply, folding his arms over his chest. “Is this what it's come to?” he asked, though his disbelief was definitely faked. He was, at this time, not at all surprised. The ones that stood before him were not only the strongest, aside from the Student Council, but also the second, third and fourth strongest as well. “I suppose the message I delivered through William was worth it.” He closed his eyes then as he moved, leaning back against the near wall.
The leader, who was a brash, red-haired young man gave a low growl, pointing at Alexander. “Don't give me that cocky shit. You're pissing me off,” the boy, who went by the name Rath, spoke. His bright blue eyes were narrowed angrily, and he slammed his fist into the wall, causing the plaster and brick beneath it to crack. “This is some horseshit. This is the little prick that William is scared of?” he asked, looking to his friends to try and get some backup. They were all over the board, and he found it odd that the top four were all a sort of pseudo gang. He supposed they might be trying to overthrow the student council.
“Calm down, Rath,” the blue-haired male spoke. He had deep blue eyes like the ocean, and he seemed to be a great deal more friendly. From what Alex remembered, he went by the name Lucian. “He's just a pompous jerk. Not too much different than you,” he said, giving his friend a smirk, which only led to Rath's eyes narrowing further. “Vergil, Tim, you two help me out here before he blows a gasket,” he spoke, looking to the other two.
Tim was a young man who looked like he should have been the leader of this little ragtag group. His blond hair was spiked, and his blue eyes reminded Alexander of the infamous super saiyans. “Look, he's gonna freak out because someone's even more arrogant than he is. Just let him be. Vergil isn't throwing a tantrum about this guy trying to be more cool,” he spoke, glancing over toward his friend. He looked much like Alexander did in his general bearing. He leaned against the wall, his off-white hair messy and falling around his features. He had an unlit cigarette between his lips, the boy's eyes closed. All in all, they were a fairly motley group of individuals.
“Enough's enough. He thinks he's worth a shit, then he's going to fight the gauntlet. No one's ever come out on top on that before. Well, except Kerren. But that fucker doesn't count,” the boy spoke, gesturing toward Alexander. “You hear that, you pompous shitbag?” he called out, pointing toward Alexander again, who just barely opened his eyes to look at Rath. “Right now. Gauntlet. You and us. We'll wipe that arrogant look right off your face, and shit down your throat, too,” the boy spoke, and Alexander began to realize that this fellow might have been the strongest, and the most outspoken, but he definitely wasn't the most intelligent.
“Convince me again why you lot are worth my time? I have better things to do,” Alexander spoke, not really wanting to deal with this for the majority of his day off. He had needed to train a bit more, to prepare for his fight against Kerren. These four weren't even going to scratch the itch that he needed to reach in order to match the strongest at the school. He had no idea what he was going to do next, but he'd let life dictate that. He had been seeking Beryl Roarke as well, but he hadn't ye found any evidence of the man's whereabouts, leaving him without almost nothing to do but to train.
Rath lunged forward, Lucian and Tim stepping in to stop him as the boy gave a rather guttural-sounding growl as he swiped at the other, trying to get to Alex. It was at this point that Vergil pushed himself off the wall and began to walk toward the void-user, which got the attention of just about everyone. It seemed he didn't often make his presence known and so when he did, just about everyone stood up to take attention of it. “I know about the Void that you use,” he spoke, and those words sent a lightning bolt down Alexander's spine. He had been hunting for Ayumu for what felt like months, and someone right here could tell him what he had needed to know? “If you fight, and if you win, I'll tell you. But you have to beat all four of us.”
Alex's green-eyed gaze narrowed, meeting Vergil's own black. “...Fine. I'll agree to your terms,” he spoke, his vision moving to take in the four of them, judging their strengths and weaknesses. “If I beat the four of you, you'll tell me everything you know about the Void,” he continued, making certain that there wasn't going to be any sort of going back on the deal. Alex wasn't fond of such- it was all or nothing, as far as he was concerned. Granted, if Vergil held back, then he'd beat the man within an inch of his life, or worse. Alexander had to know, at any cost.
Vergil nodded, glancing back to Rath then, the boy moving to make his way back over to the wall, leaning against it. “There you go. Fight's on,” he said simply. It seemed like the quiet one was the brains of the group, and if Rath was the muscle, then he had to wonder what the other two did. Perhaps just varying degrees of those particular attributes, or maybe they had other abilities as well. He had no idea what the fighting style was used by any one of them, only their relative strength. It was an interesting thought to consider. He supposed handling this many opponents might actually be worth his time, after all.
“Well, then let's head over to the gravity chamber,” Tim spoke, drawing himself a little taller. He was going to be the first opponent, Alex knew. He and Vergil were fair close in power, and then Lucian and Rath were as well, but exactly where they fell, he didn't know. He wondered what their fighting styles would be, and how it would differ from his own, but didn't ask aloud. Instead, he merely made a motion for them to move onward, to lead on to the gravity room. He was realizing that this was also something of a sparring room as well, given that nearly every fight he'd had here had been at this location. It was an interesting spot, but he was getting a little...tired of it.
There was some talking and joking amongst the four as they moved through the hallways, with Alexander merely following, eyes closed. The Void Sense filled him with the information he needed to avoid anything that came his way, as well as get him a read on the four people he would be fighting here shortly. This wasn't something that he had expected to come across, having to fight all four of the remaining fighters that loomed just below the student council, but he would make do. After all, this would then allow him to start putting himself out to fight against Jazz, Trenna, Vice and finally Kerren. He wondered if he could just...not bother with the first three, and jump right to Kerren.
Still, that wasn't something he should be focusing on. He needed to make sure that he actually won these fights. Going against them one right after the other wasn't something that he had wanted to do, if he could help it. However, they were all right here in front of him, lined up and ready to go. It would be difficult to turn that down. His eyes opened then and his gaze flickered over the four of them, wondering if they would understand what true power was, once this was over. He had shown William exactly what his power could do, and the man had been beaten in to submission. Now it was time for him to do the same to the rest of them.
“All right. Everyone in,” Rath called, waving the group inside, giving Alexander a slight glare as they all entered, before he shut the door behind them, leaving them locked in the gravity room. Alex was getting a little...tired of seeing this room, but he supposed he couldn't quite help it. There was only so much that he could do in order to push things away. This is where they were going to end up, one way or another. It was the only room in the school that was designed for the amount of punishment they were going to be inflicting on one another as well as the walls and floors. It would have to be it.
Lucian moved over to the computer then, his fingers moving over the keyboard. “All right. Tim, you're up first. What's the highest gravity you can take without it slowing you down?” he asked. Alex should have known that gravity was going to be coming into play, here. It seemed like it always did. The constant pull of the gravity upon his body was something that he had become unfortunately intimately familiar with over the past few weeks as he had pushed himself to be able to handle as much as he could. His gaze flickered over to Tim, curious exactly what sort of gravity he was comfortable with. That might make things difficult if it were too high.
“I train at one-fourty. So I guess whatever half of that is. That's the usual rule of thumb, right?” he asked as he stretched slightly, watching Alexander to see if the other was going to do anything similar. Alex, however, did not. He simply stood, watching the situation with a mild interest as he stood, his hands in the pockets of his coat. Considering the Void moved his body more than he did, he didn't really feel much of a need to do so. “Seventy,” Tim followed up with, not wanting someone else to beat him to the punch as far as getting an answer out there.
“Seventy it is,” Lucian spoke, tapping a few keys on the keyboard, letting the whole system begin to hum a bit more as it began to pull the power of gravity down amongst them. The boy nodded then and teleported back to the side, near where Rath was. Unlike William, who seemed to just move at high speeds to the point of teleporting...that had been a true teleportation that Lucian had just performed. Space and time had seemed to bend around him for the duration and then he was just...somewhere else. That was the first thing that Alexander had seen that had made his interest pique at all with these four.
Tim gave a small smirk toward Alexander as he finished rolling out his neck and shoulders before he took up a fighting stance that seemed to emphasize variability. It didn't particularly commit to any one standard or another, and Alex had to wonder if that versatility was going to serve him well, or if the lack of specialization was going to end the fight before it started. “Sure you don't want to stretch at all first? Even if you make it all the way to the top, you're going to have to fight four, back to back. Can you handle that?” he asked, and Alexander wasn't certain if he was being honest, or attempting to poke fun at the monitor for going through with this.
“I can handle it,” Alexander returned, moving to extend out his right arm, letting that darkened energy follow along with it. “I'm not concerned at all with me. It's you that I wonder about,” he returned, earning a few jeers from the other three in Tim's direction at the burn. The blond-haired boy gave a small grunt in response, the friendliness fading from his features. Alex wondered if perhaps he should have played along. None of them seemed as amicable as Tim did, and now he'd lost that sort of companionship with him, leaving him alone against the four. That was fine, however. He wasn't frightened in the slightest. This was his element and where he thrived, in combat.
Tim extended out his right arm then, a strange glowing light beginning to emanate from his hand. It was his ki, Alex was certain, but it was brighter than most other ki that he'd seen before. He frowned, his eyes narrowing a little to cut the light out as it flared outward toward him, forming into the shape of a long, one-handed blade. A simple technique but a helpful one- Alex thought he might try to mimic that later on...or perhaps in this little encounter, if he so chose. Tim's left began to glow as well, pulling energy from his body and forming it into small orbs of ki that he held tightly, before they began to circle around his hand, forming together into a chain, one that fit neatly on his wrist. “I'm ready. You sure as hell make sure you are.”
Alexander didn't respond right away as he closed his eyes again, letting the Void flow through him. Since he had become the Knight of She Who Watches, the amount of Void that he was pulling in was incredible. He could do so without having any real fear of waking her, as she seemed to always be awake, now. She merely watched, most of the time and he wondered if perhaps she was looking for something...but she never spoke, not a word. True to her name, she merely observed, as if she was curious at what he did. A dark aura began to whip up around him as he pulled in that void energy, his gaze over on Tim, standing before him.
The other gave a small nod, the two seeming to show that they were ready for this gauntlet to begin. Alex wondered if perhaps Tim was just a test. He used that variability to see where he excelled and where he did poorly in order for the others to come up with adequate strategies against him. It was a worthwhile task if such were the case and he couldn't deny that such a thing was creative. Using one of your own as a sacrifice was a certainly interesting way to fight, but he had not expected to see it, here. That seemed more like a saiyan tactic than anything else, to use one to find weakness in many.
“Ready,” Alex responded then, the dark, ephemeral aura surrounding his form. Tim nodded, glancing quickly back at the others as if to make sure they were watching before the battle began in a rush so sudden that Alexander nearly missed it. Tim's feet left the ground, and a moment later, he saw the blade coming down at him. He wasn't certain where Tim had even gone to, but the fact that the attack was there meant that he'd lost either memories or time. He didn't know what the Void did to his mind, but he wondered if that might be a cause of such.
The movement was swift, and not only was it that, but it was fluid and well-practiced. But at the same time, unlike many of the other students that he'd seen here, it felt instructed and tutored as well. It was as if Tim had been trained by someone other than himself. Many students were self-taught in the ways of fighting, here. They did what they did by instinct. But Tim felt like he had been taught by others, and that made his fighting style both predictable...and dangerous. Unlike the woman he'd fought before in the shop, to which Alex had actually forgotten about completely until he connected the line of thought, this style that Tim used had not been taught to him by Fudendrenk.
As the blade came down, Alexander turned swiftly, letting the void surround his right arm as he thrust it upward toward the edge. It bit into the aura surrounding him, but even with as much power as he'd put behind it, it hadn't been able to pierce the armor of the void that surrounded him. “Is that all you've got?” Alexander asked, mostly meaning to be mocking as he was both curious if that was all that Tim had to offer, but also because that irritation, that anger at being so casually dismissed was something that tended to rile up a lot of people and when he did so, they tended to make more mistakes as a result.
Tim's response had been a movement from his left hand as he extended his palm outward. The strange bracelet of ki pushed outward, a single sphere from it moving through his hand and coming out of the flesh of his palm. It pointed outward, and with no hesitation, Tim let it fire. Such was not something that Alexander was unused to, but the simple ferocity of the action made him wonder if it was supposed to have been something more of a stealth attack, rather than something more ferocious as it had been. Regardless, he would need to find a way to defend it.
His own left hand, free, began to move to interpose itself between him and the oncoming attack, even after the Void began to circle around it. He caught the attack, giving a small hiss as he did so as it contained a great deal more power than he had anticipated. The Void hungrily leapt over the ki, resulting in splashes of grey liquid bursting around them, but Tim's attack was highly concentrated. The void burned through several layers before it reached the core, and he hissed as he had finally turned it aside, but now he was several feet away from the other. “That was at least interesting.”
Tim gave a small sound then, holding his blade out to the side. “Well then. I guess I'll go all out for you,” he spoke, his aura beginning to glow a golden color. Alexander watched, curious, as the boy began to steadily grow brighter, and before long, it felt like Alex was looking into the sun. He had never seen a technique like this and it was mildly frustrating as it came, constantly pushing outward, the luminescence spilling over the ground and making it difficult for Alexander to see as there was too much light. It was as if there were dozens of spotlights all going off around him.
“Tim's comes from a long line of vampire hunters,” Lucian called from the side, explaining the gifts that he saw before him. “They use the power of the sun to banish away the night, and to hunt the vampires. So you'd best have a good way to fight against that or this fight is already over,” he called out. Alexander's gaze flickered to Lucian for a moment before he looked back to Tim, the pieces starting to fall into place. He was likely trained by his parents, then. That explained his power, his strength, and now, this light. That would make things...difficult if it continued.
The sword was pointed at Alexander then, the weapon bathed in a radiance so bright that it was difficult for him to look at. “Let's see if that power you wield falls away beneath the sunlight like vampires do,” he spoke, before he darted forward once again. He was like a mobile sun, and Alexander couldn't help but to frown as that glowing archangel approached. The man couldn't defend against something that he couldn't see, but he never would have thought that he'd have trouble seeing something that was so well illuminated.
Alexander recalled the arms that he could forge out of void and gave a small sound as he pushed that energy to his right hand, forging a blade of Void from it. He moved, his entire body turning and thrusting the blade upward, catching the oncoming attack from Tim. The two weapons clashed for a moment, but Alex had the unfortunate disadvantage that he knew nearly nothing about sword fighting. He knew enough, from instruction from Fudendrenk, but not nearly enough to match someone who had done so his entire life.
His aura, void and empty, flared up around him as he saw another burst of movement from Tim's left hand, the attack searing out towards him. He had no way to defend against it directly, and as such, he was starting to feel almost a bit outmatched, which was not something that Alexander liked to feel. Not at all. The man opened the full level of the void from his right arm, letting its energy pour into him as he began to feel like he was on cloud nine. The rush he got from using this power was almost surreal, and his muscles began to relax as the void took that slow control of his body for him, reacting faster than he would have, and with far more force.
The oncoming broadsword was thrust away then, even with the lack of leverage at his current location, simply through raw strength alone. Tim's blast slammed into his stomach, and he gave a small grunt, but his aura ate through it, reducing it to that grey liquid in a matter of seconds, unlike what it had done before. He was using the full scope of his power, right now, and it was exhilarating. No. No he could do more. He remembered where he had been against the previous Knight, and he was only about halfway there. He could still get more power if he needed it.
He growled, his voice echoing slightly as it was wont to do when he was bathed in Void, his left hand curling into an open fist, his fingers splayed out like claws. “Whatever your power is, it reminds me of the filth that my father takes care of on a daily basis,” Tim grunted, watching as Alexander seemed to be handled by something that was altogether unreal. It wasn't like anything that he'd seen before, and down at his core, it was slightly terrifying. Whatever that strength was, it wasn't gained by hard work and effort. It was as if Alexander had sold his soul for it. That was the one parallel that he could draw from Alex. He seemed to be a soulless monster, much like that which he was trained to hunt.
“It's not as if I try to terrify you,” Alex returned, a low reverberation to his voice. “This is the power that was bestowed upon me by one of your own. It has since become my path, my journey. If you do not understand or wish to abide by it, then I'm afraid that our time has come to an end,” he spoke, still holding that empty, void blade out to the side. The words that he spoke were not his own, but he didn't try to rectify them. Some of the bits were true, but if Alexander were truly in control, then he wouldn't care so much about whether they understood what he was doing. He would simply drop them to the ground without a second thought. Perhaps he was more brutal than that which dwelled within him.
Tim gave a small snort of derision. “Terrify me? Hardly. I pity you, for being unable to see the light,” Tim continued, before he let his aura grow, piercing rays filling all of Alexander's vision. The room had conceivably gone white, as far as he could tell. Still, there was yet another way that he could see. He closed his eyes, shutting out the burning vision from his gaze, and focused slowly on the sensing of his Void. The more of the Void he had in his body, the easier it was for him to use this ability, sensing where the others might be.
From what he could tell, Vergil, Lucian and Rath still sat against the far wall, merely watching the battle. Before him, having absolutely no void within him at all, stood Tim. The blond haired boy was building himself up, readying for a charge to finish this, it felt like. The fight hadn't gone on for long, but Alex seemed to have sufficiently riled the other up into pushing this far ahead. He wondered if this was Tim's general approach to fights as well, was to just let loose everything at the beginning and start with one's strongest attacks in order to simply overwhelm and end the opponent before the fight got out of control. If so it was an interesting style, and Alex might adopt it.
Even still, he had no time to consider that as the distance between them began to vanish as Tim's body shot forward, still suffused in that light. He wondered if there might be a way for him to handle this, but he knew that as soon as he opened his eyes, that he would be blinded. He would have to watch the man through his movements, and counter effectively using this. The blade came down once more, and Alex was thankful that the attack seemed to be relatively easy to counter once more, as if Tim was so used to things not being able to overpower him. As the weapon came down, once more Alexander thrust his own blade upward, catching it.
With a surge of Void, the empty blade writhed, becoming something akin to a tentacle, extending from Alexander's own flesh, moving to disarm the other. His left hand moved down then, before Tim could fire another one of those blasts at him, and struck his foe in the stomach with the force that he could muster from where he stood. The position of his arm made things a bit difficult, but he could still feel Tim's body shudder beneath the blow. Capitalizing, he wrenched the ki blade from Tim's hand, causing it to dissipate as it no longer had contact with its owner before the strange tentacle-like arm moved about the fellow's neck, lifting him into the air.
Alexander could feel the others tense, but no one moved to intervene on the fight as Tim struggled, his hand unloading blast after blast from that ki bracelet of his into Alexander, but the aura of void simply devoured the attacks as they came in. The strange appendage moved on Alex's skin, from his hand down his arm and then finally from his shoulder to his upper back, freeing up both of Alexander's arms. Fist after fist slammed into Tim's abdomen, each one slow, steady and incredibly powerful, earning a rhythmic 'thud' as each attack connected. After a moment, he sensed consciousness fade, and he paused, releasing the boy from the grip he had about his neck.
Tim collapsed to the ground in a heap, and as Alexander opened his eyes, he saw that the glow had faded. His eyes were closed, and his body lay splayed out beneath him. The male gave a small breath- he hadn't quite meant to go that overboard, but it had happened, and there was no taking it back now. Rather than state anything about apologies, he merely stood, pulling his hands back toward him, placing them into his pockets as the void hand retracted itself into his upper back, and he turned the emerald gaze back toward the others expectantly.
“Hey.” The voice that had been speaking was Vergil, the young man standing, the cigarette still between his lips, unlit. “Rath. Get Tim over to the infirmary will you?” he asked simply as he made his way over toward where Alexander stood. The boy had that same even countenance that Alex did, and he couldn't deny that he was looking forward to this particular fight. “I guess I've got a score to settle, now.” He supposed that Vergil and Tim were close friends. They might have started as rivals, so close in power, but it seemed like the pale young man was going to go all out against Alex.
Rath gave a small grunt as he stood, moving over to Tim's prone form. With an effortless ease, even in the high gravity, he lifted the boy's body, slinging it over one shoulder. “At least turn the cameras on if you're going to school him so I can watch it when I get back,” he said with a small grunt, moving to the door. He glanced back at them for a moment, as if trying to find a reason to not leave, but he didn't have one as he opened the door with a small curse, shutting it behind him. The silence that followed seemed to be thick as a blanket, smothering the room.
“Hey.” It was Vergil again, though it seemed that his gaze was on Lucian now. “Push this gravity up another ten. And turn on the recording, for Rath. He's probably going to want to see this, win or lose,” he spoke, and it was the first time that Alex had heard him mention the fact that he might not win this one. Still, it was going to be a good fight, and of that, Alexander was certain.
Lucian moved, Alexander's gaze following him as the blue-haired youth tapped a few keys on the keyboard. In response the pressure from the gravity seemed to increase further, and Alex gave a small grunt as the weight from his jacket dug even more fiercely into his shoulders. He considered removing it, but once more, he decided to leave it on. Only when he had no other choice would he remove it. But until that point, he would fight to his fullest power and unleash that potential when there was no other option.
The leader, who was a brash, red-haired young man gave a low growl, pointing at Alexander. “Don't give me that cocky shit. You're pissing me off,” the boy, who went by the name Rath, spoke. His bright blue eyes were narrowed angrily, and he slammed his fist into the wall, causing the plaster and brick beneath it to crack. “This is some horseshit. This is the little prick that William is scared of?” he asked, looking to his friends to try and get some backup. They were all over the board, and he found it odd that the top four were all a sort of pseudo gang. He supposed they might be trying to overthrow the student council.
“Calm down, Rath,” the blue-haired male spoke. He had deep blue eyes like the ocean, and he seemed to be a great deal more friendly. From what Alex remembered, he went by the name Lucian. “He's just a pompous jerk. Not too much different than you,” he said, giving his friend a smirk, which only led to Rath's eyes narrowing further. “Vergil, Tim, you two help me out here before he blows a gasket,” he spoke, looking to the other two.
Tim was a young man who looked like he should have been the leader of this little ragtag group. His blond hair was spiked, and his blue eyes reminded Alexander of the infamous super saiyans. “Look, he's gonna freak out because someone's even more arrogant than he is. Just let him be. Vergil isn't throwing a tantrum about this guy trying to be more cool,” he spoke, glancing over toward his friend. He looked much like Alexander did in his general bearing. He leaned against the wall, his off-white hair messy and falling around his features. He had an unlit cigarette between his lips, the boy's eyes closed. All in all, they were a fairly motley group of individuals.
“Enough's enough. He thinks he's worth a shit, then he's going to fight the gauntlet. No one's ever come out on top on that before. Well, except Kerren. But that fucker doesn't count,” the boy spoke, gesturing toward Alexander. “You hear that, you pompous shitbag?” he called out, pointing toward Alexander again, who just barely opened his eyes to look at Rath. “Right now. Gauntlet. You and us. We'll wipe that arrogant look right off your face, and shit down your throat, too,” the boy spoke, and Alexander began to realize that this fellow might have been the strongest, and the most outspoken, but he definitely wasn't the most intelligent.
“Convince me again why you lot are worth my time? I have better things to do,” Alexander spoke, not really wanting to deal with this for the majority of his day off. He had needed to train a bit more, to prepare for his fight against Kerren. These four weren't even going to scratch the itch that he needed to reach in order to match the strongest at the school. He had no idea what he was going to do next, but he'd let life dictate that. He had been seeking Beryl Roarke as well, but he hadn't ye found any evidence of the man's whereabouts, leaving him without almost nothing to do but to train.
Rath lunged forward, Lucian and Tim stepping in to stop him as the boy gave a rather guttural-sounding growl as he swiped at the other, trying to get to Alex. It was at this point that Vergil pushed himself off the wall and began to walk toward the void-user, which got the attention of just about everyone. It seemed he didn't often make his presence known and so when he did, just about everyone stood up to take attention of it. “I know about the Void that you use,” he spoke, and those words sent a lightning bolt down Alexander's spine. He had been hunting for Ayumu for what felt like months, and someone right here could tell him what he had needed to know? “If you fight, and if you win, I'll tell you. But you have to beat all four of us.”
Alex's green-eyed gaze narrowed, meeting Vergil's own black. “...Fine. I'll agree to your terms,” he spoke, his vision moving to take in the four of them, judging their strengths and weaknesses. “If I beat the four of you, you'll tell me everything you know about the Void,” he continued, making certain that there wasn't going to be any sort of going back on the deal. Alex wasn't fond of such- it was all or nothing, as far as he was concerned. Granted, if Vergil held back, then he'd beat the man within an inch of his life, or worse. Alexander had to know, at any cost.
Vergil nodded, glancing back to Rath then, the boy moving to make his way back over to the wall, leaning against it. “There you go. Fight's on,” he said simply. It seemed like the quiet one was the brains of the group, and if Rath was the muscle, then he had to wonder what the other two did. Perhaps just varying degrees of those particular attributes, or maybe they had other abilities as well. He had no idea what the fighting style was used by any one of them, only their relative strength. It was an interesting thought to consider. He supposed handling this many opponents might actually be worth his time, after all.
“Well, then let's head over to the gravity chamber,” Tim spoke, drawing himself a little taller. He was going to be the first opponent, Alex knew. He and Vergil were fair close in power, and then Lucian and Rath were as well, but exactly where they fell, he didn't know. He wondered what their fighting styles would be, and how it would differ from his own, but didn't ask aloud. Instead, he merely made a motion for them to move onward, to lead on to the gravity room. He was realizing that this was also something of a sparring room as well, given that nearly every fight he'd had here had been at this location. It was an interesting spot, but he was getting a little...tired of it.
There was some talking and joking amongst the four as they moved through the hallways, with Alexander merely following, eyes closed. The Void Sense filled him with the information he needed to avoid anything that came his way, as well as get him a read on the four people he would be fighting here shortly. This wasn't something that he had expected to come across, having to fight all four of the remaining fighters that loomed just below the student council, but he would make do. After all, this would then allow him to start putting himself out to fight against Jazz, Trenna, Vice and finally Kerren. He wondered if he could just...not bother with the first three, and jump right to Kerren.
Still, that wasn't something he should be focusing on. He needed to make sure that he actually won these fights. Going against them one right after the other wasn't something that he had wanted to do, if he could help it. However, they were all right here in front of him, lined up and ready to go. It would be difficult to turn that down. His eyes opened then and his gaze flickered over the four of them, wondering if they would understand what true power was, once this was over. He had shown William exactly what his power could do, and the man had been beaten in to submission. Now it was time for him to do the same to the rest of them.
“All right. Everyone in,” Rath called, waving the group inside, giving Alexander a slight glare as they all entered, before he shut the door behind them, leaving them locked in the gravity room. Alex was getting a little...tired of seeing this room, but he supposed he couldn't quite help it. There was only so much that he could do in order to push things away. This is where they were going to end up, one way or another. It was the only room in the school that was designed for the amount of punishment they were going to be inflicting on one another as well as the walls and floors. It would have to be it.
Lucian moved over to the computer then, his fingers moving over the keyboard. “All right. Tim, you're up first. What's the highest gravity you can take without it slowing you down?” he asked. Alex should have known that gravity was going to be coming into play, here. It seemed like it always did. The constant pull of the gravity upon his body was something that he had become unfortunately intimately familiar with over the past few weeks as he had pushed himself to be able to handle as much as he could. His gaze flickered over to Tim, curious exactly what sort of gravity he was comfortable with. That might make things difficult if it were too high.
“I train at one-fourty. So I guess whatever half of that is. That's the usual rule of thumb, right?” he asked as he stretched slightly, watching Alexander to see if the other was going to do anything similar. Alex, however, did not. He simply stood, watching the situation with a mild interest as he stood, his hands in the pockets of his coat. Considering the Void moved his body more than he did, he didn't really feel much of a need to do so. “Seventy,” Tim followed up with, not wanting someone else to beat him to the punch as far as getting an answer out there.
“Seventy it is,” Lucian spoke, tapping a few keys on the keyboard, letting the whole system begin to hum a bit more as it began to pull the power of gravity down amongst them. The boy nodded then and teleported back to the side, near where Rath was. Unlike William, who seemed to just move at high speeds to the point of teleporting...that had been a true teleportation that Lucian had just performed. Space and time had seemed to bend around him for the duration and then he was just...somewhere else. That was the first thing that Alexander had seen that had made his interest pique at all with these four.
Tim gave a small smirk toward Alexander as he finished rolling out his neck and shoulders before he took up a fighting stance that seemed to emphasize variability. It didn't particularly commit to any one standard or another, and Alex had to wonder if that versatility was going to serve him well, or if the lack of specialization was going to end the fight before it started. “Sure you don't want to stretch at all first? Even if you make it all the way to the top, you're going to have to fight four, back to back. Can you handle that?” he asked, and Alexander wasn't certain if he was being honest, or attempting to poke fun at the monitor for going through with this.
“I can handle it,” Alexander returned, moving to extend out his right arm, letting that darkened energy follow along with it. “I'm not concerned at all with me. It's you that I wonder about,” he returned, earning a few jeers from the other three in Tim's direction at the burn. The blond-haired boy gave a small grunt in response, the friendliness fading from his features. Alex wondered if perhaps he should have played along. None of them seemed as amicable as Tim did, and now he'd lost that sort of companionship with him, leaving him alone against the four. That was fine, however. He wasn't frightened in the slightest. This was his element and where he thrived, in combat.
Tim extended out his right arm then, a strange glowing light beginning to emanate from his hand. It was his ki, Alex was certain, but it was brighter than most other ki that he'd seen before. He frowned, his eyes narrowing a little to cut the light out as it flared outward toward him, forming into the shape of a long, one-handed blade. A simple technique but a helpful one- Alex thought he might try to mimic that later on...or perhaps in this little encounter, if he so chose. Tim's left began to glow as well, pulling energy from his body and forming it into small orbs of ki that he held tightly, before they began to circle around his hand, forming together into a chain, one that fit neatly on his wrist. “I'm ready. You sure as hell make sure you are.”
Alexander didn't respond right away as he closed his eyes again, letting the Void flow through him. Since he had become the Knight of She Who Watches, the amount of Void that he was pulling in was incredible. He could do so without having any real fear of waking her, as she seemed to always be awake, now. She merely watched, most of the time and he wondered if perhaps she was looking for something...but she never spoke, not a word. True to her name, she merely observed, as if she was curious at what he did. A dark aura began to whip up around him as he pulled in that void energy, his gaze over on Tim, standing before him.
The other gave a small nod, the two seeming to show that they were ready for this gauntlet to begin. Alex wondered if perhaps Tim was just a test. He used that variability to see where he excelled and where he did poorly in order for the others to come up with adequate strategies against him. It was a worthwhile task if such were the case and he couldn't deny that such a thing was creative. Using one of your own as a sacrifice was a certainly interesting way to fight, but he had not expected to see it, here. That seemed more like a saiyan tactic than anything else, to use one to find weakness in many.
“Ready,” Alex responded then, the dark, ephemeral aura surrounding his form. Tim nodded, glancing quickly back at the others as if to make sure they were watching before the battle began in a rush so sudden that Alexander nearly missed it. Tim's feet left the ground, and a moment later, he saw the blade coming down at him. He wasn't certain where Tim had even gone to, but the fact that the attack was there meant that he'd lost either memories or time. He didn't know what the Void did to his mind, but he wondered if that might be a cause of such.
The movement was swift, and not only was it that, but it was fluid and well-practiced. But at the same time, unlike many of the other students that he'd seen here, it felt instructed and tutored as well. It was as if Tim had been trained by someone other than himself. Many students were self-taught in the ways of fighting, here. They did what they did by instinct. But Tim felt like he had been taught by others, and that made his fighting style both predictable...and dangerous. Unlike the woman he'd fought before in the shop, to which Alex had actually forgotten about completely until he connected the line of thought, this style that Tim used had not been taught to him by Fudendrenk.
As the blade came down, Alexander turned swiftly, letting the void surround his right arm as he thrust it upward toward the edge. It bit into the aura surrounding him, but even with as much power as he'd put behind it, it hadn't been able to pierce the armor of the void that surrounded him. “Is that all you've got?” Alexander asked, mostly meaning to be mocking as he was both curious if that was all that Tim had to offer, but also because that irritation, that anger at being so casually dismissed was something that tended to rile up a lot of people and when he did so, they tended to make more mistakes as a result.
Tim's response had been a movement from his left hand as he extended his palm outward. The strange bracelet of ki pushed outward, a single sphere from it moving through his hand and coming out of the flesh of his palm. It pointed outward, and with no hesitation, Tim let it fire. Such was not something that Alexander was unused to, but the simple ferocity of the action made him wonder if it was supposed to have been something more of a stealth attack, rather than something more ferocious as it had been. Regardless, he would need to find a way to defend it.
His own left hand, free, began to move to interpose itself between him and the oncoming attack, even after the Void began to circle around it. He caught the attack, giving a small hiss as he did so as it contained a great deal more power than he had anticipated. The Void hungrily leapt over the ki, resulting in splashes of grey liquid bursting around them, but Tim's attack was highly concentrated. The void burned through several layers before it reached the core, and he hissed as he had finally turned it aside, but now he was several feet away from the other. “That was at least interesting.”
Tim gave a small sound then, holding his blade out to the side. “Well then. I guess I'll go all out for you,” he spoke, his aura beginning to glow a golden color. Alexander watched, curious, as the boy began to steadily grow brighter, and before long, it felt like Alex was looking into the sun. He had never seen a technique like this and it was mildly frustrating as it came, constantly pushing outward, the luminescence spilling over the ground and making it difficult for Alexander to see as there was too much light. It was as if there were dozens of spotlights all going off around him.
“Tim's comes from a long line of vampire hunters,” Lucian called from the side, explaining the gifts that he saw before him. “They use the power of the sun to banish away the night, and to hunt the vampires. So you'd best have a good way to fight against that or this fight is already over,” he called out. Alexander's gaze flickered to Lucian for a moment before he looked back to Tim, the pieces starting to fall into place. He was likely trained by his parents, then. That explained his power, his strength, and now, this light. That would make things...difficult if it continued.
The sword was pointed at Alexander then, the weapon bathed in a radiance so bright that it was difficult for him to look at. “Let's see if that power you wield falls away beneath the sunlight like vampires do,” he spoke, before he darted forward once again. He was like a mobile sun, and Alexander couldn't help but to frown as that glowing archangel approached. The man couldn't defend against something that he couldn't see, but he never would have thought that he'd have trouble seeing something that was so well illuminated.
Alexander recalled the arms that he could forge out of void and gave a small sound as he pushed that energy to his right hand, forging a blade of Void from it. He moved, his entire body turning and thrusting the blade upward, catching the oncoming attack from Tim. The two weapons clashed for a moment, but Alex had the unfortunate disadvantage that he knew nearly nothing about sword fighting. He knew enough, from instruction from Fudendrenk, but not nearly enough to match someone who had done so his entire life.
His aura, void and empty, flared up around him as he saw another burst of movement from Tim's left hand, the attack searing out towards him. He had no way to defend against it directly, and as such, he was starting to feel almost a bit outmatched, which was not something that Alexander liked to feel. Not at all. The man opened the full level of the void from his right arm, letting its energy pour into him as he began to feel like he was on cloud nine. The rush he got from using this power was almost surreal, and his muscles began to relax as the void took that slow control of his body for him, reacting faster than he would have, and with far more force.
The oncoming broadsword was thrust away then, even with the lack of leverage at his current location, simply through raw strength alone. Tim's blast slammed into his stomach, and he gave a small grunt, but his aura ate through it, reducing it to that grey liquid in a matter of seconds, unlike what it had done before. He was using the full scope of his power, right now, and it was exhilarating. No. No he could do more. He remembered where he had been against the previous Knight, and he was only about halfway there. He could still get more power if he needed it.
He growled, his voice echoing slightly as it was wont to do when he was bathed in Void, his left hand curling into an open fist, his fingers splayed out like claws. “Whatever your power is, it reminds me of the filth that my father takes care of on a daily basis,” Tim grunted, watching as Alexander seemed to be handled by something that was altogether unreal. It wasn't like anything that he'd seen before, and down at his core, it was slightly terrifying. Whatever that strength was, it wasn't gained by hard work and effort. It was as if Alexander had sold his soul for it. That was the one parallel that he could draw from Alex. He seemed to be a soulless monster, much like that which he was trained to hunt.
“It's not as if I try to terrify you,” Alex returned, a low reverberation to his voice. “This is the power that was bestowed upon me by one of your own. It has since become my path, my journey. If you do not understand or wish to abide by it, then I'm afraid that our time has come to an end,” he spoke, still holding that empty, void blade out to the side. The words that he spoke were not his own, but he didn't try to rectify them. Some of the bits were true, but if Alexander were truly in control, then he wouldn't care so much about whether they understood what he was doing. He would simply drop them to the ground without a second thought. Perhaps he was more brutal than that which dwelled within him.
Tim gave a small snort of derision. “Terrify me? Hardly. I pity you, for being unable to see the light,” Tim continued, before he let his aura grow, piercing rays filling all of Alexander's vision. The room had conceivably gone white, as far as he could tell. Still, there was yet another way that he could see. He closed his eyes, shutting out the burning vision from his gaze, and focused slowly on the sensing of his Void. The more of the Void he had in his body, the easier it was for him to use this ability, sensing where the others might be.
From what he could tell, Vergil, Lucian and Rath still sat against the far wall, merely watching the battle. Before him, having absolutely no void within him at all, stood Tim. The blond haired boy was building himself up, readying for a charge to finish this, it felt like. The fight hadn't gone on for long, but Alex seemed to have sufficiently riled the other up into pushing this far ahead. He wondered if this was Tim's general approach to fights as well, was to just let loose everything at the beginning and start with one's strongest attacks in order to simply overwhelm and end the opponent before the fight got out of control. If so it was an interesting style, and Alex might adopt it.
Even still, he had no time to consider that as the distance between them began to vanish as Tim's body shot forward, still suffused in that light. He wondered if there might be a way for him to handle this, but he knew that as soon as he opened his eyes, that he would be blinded. He would have to watch the man through his movements, and counter effectively using this. The blade came down once more, and Alex was thankful that the attack seemed to be relatively easy to counter once more, as if Tim was so used to things not being able to overpower him. As the weapon came down, once more Alexander thrust his own blade upward, catching it.
With a surge of Void, the empty blade writhed, becoming something akin to a tentacle, extending from Alexander's own flesh, moving to disarm the other. His left hand moved down then, before Tim could fire another one of those blasts at him, and struck his foe in the stomach with the force that he could muster from where he stood. The position of his arm made things a bit difficult, but he could still feel Tim's body shudder beneath the blow. Capitalizing, he wrenched the ki blade from Tim's hand, causing it to dissipate as it no longer had contact with its owner before the strange tentacle-like arm moved about the fellow's neck, lifting him into the air.
Alexander could feel the others tense, but no one moved to intervene on the fight as Tim struggled, his hand unloading blast after blast from that ki bracelet of his into Alexander, but the aura of void simply devoured the attacks as they came in. The strange appendage moved on Alex's skin, from his hand down his arm and then finally from his shoulder to his upper back, freeing up both of Alexander's arms. Fist after fist slammed into Tim's abdomen, each one slow, steady and incredibly powerful, earning a rhythmic 'thud' as each attack connected. After a moment, he sensed consciousness fade, and he paused, releasing the boy from the grip he had about his neck.
Tim collapsed to the ground in a heap, and as Alexander opened his eyes, he saw that the glow had faded. His eyes were closed, and his body lay splayed out beneath him. The male gave a small breath- he hadn't quite meant to go that overboard, but it had happened, and there was no taking it back now. Rather than state anything about apologies, he merely stood, pulling his hands back toward him, placing them into his pockets as the void hand retracted itself into his upper back, and he turned the emerald gaze back toward the others expectantly.
“Hey.” The voice that had been speaking was Vergil, the young man standing, the cigarette still between his lips, unlit. “Rath. Get Tim over to the infirmary will you?” he asked simply as he made his way over toward where Alexander stood. The boy had that same even countenance that Alex did, and he couldn't deny that he was looking forward to this particular fight. “I guess I've got a score to settle, now.” He supposed that Vergil and Tim were close friends. They might have started as rivals, so close in power, but it seemed like the pale young man was going to go all out against Alex.
Rath gave a small grunt as he stood, moving over to Tim's prone form. With an effortless ease, even in the high gravity, he lifted the boy's body, slinging it over one shoulder. “At least turn the cameras on if you're going to school him so I can watch it when I get back,” he said with a small grunt, moving to the door. He glanced back at them for a moment, as if trying to find a reason to not leave, but he didn't have one as he opened the door with a small curse, shutting it behind him. The silence that followed seemed to be thick as a blanket, smothering the room.
“Hey.” It was Vergil again, though it seemed that his gaze was on Lucian now. “Push this gravity up another ten. And turn on the recording, for Rath. He's probably going to want to see this, win or lose,” he spoke, and it was the first time that Alex had heard him mention the fact that he might not win this one. Still, it was going to be a good fight, and of that, Alexander was certain.
Lucian moved, Alexander's gaze following him as the blue-haired youth tapped a few keys on the keyboard. In response the pressure from the gravity seemed to increase further, and Alex gave a small grunt as the weight from his jacket dug even more fiercely into his shoulders. He considered removing it, but once more, he decided to leave it on. Only when he had no other choice would he remove it. But until that point, he would fight to his fullest power and unleash that potential when there was no other option.