BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

As Floyd struggled to stand up, Anderson quickly dashed toward his old friend to deal the finishing blow. However, as he was just a couple of meters away from him, Floyd used his power to erase Anderson's arm's momentum, effectively stopping him from attacking.

The young man felt like there was a wall in front of him that he couldn't breach or surpass. Though, the young man had all his other appendages free, so he attacked with his other arm.

However, Floyd had regained enough senses to avoid the attack, and so he did. Though, at that moment, the power restraining Anderson's arm disappeared, so he was again able to fight against Floyd.

From there, the two contestants mostly parried or evaded punches and kicks. Though, Floyd was having a hard time. If it weren't for his power, he would have been hit by many attacks. Only by decreasing Anderson's motion energy he was able to evade some of the attacks.

Though, since Floyd was still A RHO1 he didn't have many neural links, and his mana expenditure was high. Coupled with the fact that he did not stop just one punch or a kick, he rapidly found himself with low mana reserves.

<Seriously? Is this how I get defeated? Because of mana exhaustion?> Floyd, though.

He then tried to take the initiative by decreasing the energy on Anderson's leg, trying to disrupt his balance, and even landing a couple of hits on him.

Though, the explosion artist was a beast in hand-to-hand combat. As soon as he felt hard moving his legs, he placed them in the most optimal position so that he wouldn't fall down, lose his balance, or be hit.

Obviously, he couldn't do it every time; he was no god, but he managed to do it a good 80% of the time. Much to Floyd's frustration.

"Floyd is going to lose soon," Gwen said. Her battle senses were as sharp as always.

"You are right. I give him ten minutes at best..." Amber added.

"What the hell are you two saying?" Erik interjected, clearly too inexperienced to see how much Floyd was struggling. "They are fighting equally; he still has a chance!"

At that moment, Anderson managed to land a heavy blow on Floyd's face. Leaving Erik dumbstruck. <Shit, I should trust their judgment...> he thought.

The crowd was ecstatic. Anderson's fights were always worthy of being seen. Be it because of his overwhelming strength, be it because of his battle awareness, be it because of his tremendous experience. Anderson was talented. There was nothing to say about it.

That punch destabilized Floyd, he lost sight of his opponent for a moment, and that was all Anderson needed to finally close this match.

He raised his arm again, clutched his hand in a fist, and swung it toward Floyd's face. One time, two times, ten times.

His opponent's face was now swollen and bleeding, yet he continued to resist. But the damage was already too much: Floyd could barely lift his head anymore, let alone dodge Anderson's blows. In less than a minute, he was completely knocked out.

A cheer rose through the arena when Anderson raised his arms triumphantly after knocking down Floyd. The audience loved him!

Erik was stunned. It took some time before he realized what had happened.

Gwen looked at him, "As predicted," she said. "You still have a lot to learn, Erik..." The young man could only nod at that.

"AND THE WINNER IS ANDERSON WORTHINGTON!" the referee said while the healers rushed to heal Floyd. His condition wasn't the best, but he wasn't that wounded.

At that moment, Anderson rushed down the ring and joined Aaron and Mikey in their celebration. Mikey was still upset about his loss against his friend, but he was a realist; he knew he was bound to lose against him.

At the same time, Floyd was brought to the infirmary by the healers, and Amber, Gwen, and Erik followed them to the room.

"How is he?" Gwen asked the healer when they arrived at the infirmary.

"He had some concussions, but we healed him. He should wake up in a couple of hours. His brain needs to recover from the shock."

"Thank you very much," Amber said, shaking the healer's hand with gratefulness.

In the meantime, the next contestants went to the ring to fight. They were Karl Moran and Luisa Zamora. Both were among the top students, with the first being Nathaniel's friend.

Karl was a tall sixteen-year-old with long blonde hair that he wore in a ponytail. He always had a smug smile on his face, and being Nathaniel's friend, he had a horrible view of lower talented people.

He wasn't like Conal, Orson, and Logan, who usually bullied and did beat people. He simply ignored them and, at most, made fun of them; however, he wasn't a good person.

The young man was dressed in combat attire. He had a tight black shirt that covered his pectorals but left his belly exposed and wore black and tight elastic shorts that showed his muscular legs.

Karl was a DRHO2D individual with the power to turn into smoke, making his body unable to be hit with conventional attacks.

Despite being well-known that he had to solidify to attack, it was hard to understand from where he would do so in his gaseous state.

Luisa was instead an average-looking girl with short brown hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. She had an athletic physique which was enhanced by her training.

As a member of the Zamora Clan, Luisa received private tutoring and spent almost every day practicing martial arts.

Although not gifted in any specific area, she had exceptional sharpshooting skills and was a promising soldier.

Her power was pyrokinesis, the signature brain crystal power of his clan, who took small children who awakened this power and made them part of their family.

Unlike Karl, she was more friendly toward others. However, there was still an air of supremacy around her, which probably stemmed from the fact that she belonged to a powerful family.

Although she didn't care much about other people, she respected those that worked hard to achieve something. And unlike Karl, she never laughed at the others.

The young man was obviously nervous before the fight, he didn't know if his power would be enough to win against Luisa, but he couldn't get a bad result and bring shame to Nathaniel, so he steeled his resolve and walked inside the ring. Then the match quickly began.

Luisa looked at Karl with contemplative eyes, then shot a fireball toward him. When the projectile was close enough for him to feel the burning sensation, he turned into smoke, vanishing and filling the entire ring with the substance.

Visibility inside the ring became extremely poor as soon as Karl used his ability. Besides, she knew that the young man could hit her at any moment from any angle.

"What are you going to do now?" Karl exclaimed.

"Shut up and just fight!" Luisa shouted back.

At that moment, Karl's arm materialized behind his opponent's head and hit her.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAH, YOU WILL NEVER GUESS FROM WHERE I'M GOING TO ATTACK!" Karl sounded like a lunatic.

Karl's right arm suddenly vanished completely, leaving empty space between them.

"Motherfucker!" Luisa said.

The young woman knew that to hit her opponent, she had to wait for him to materialize. However, understanding where he was going to attack wasn't easy. The young woman started concentrating and focused all her attention on the mana around her to understand where Karl was. The move worked because, as soon as she felt mana fluctuating wildly, she turned in that direction, and another arm appeared. Luisa threw another fireball in Karl's direction and the young man barely had the time to turn it into smoke again.