As soon as the instructor announced the fight to commence, Mako immediately bolted backward to get out of the ring because it was one of the rules of the duel that if the opponent accidentally or is thrown out of bounds; the match will be over and the person remaining inside will be declared the winner.
Mako used this tactic almost every time he was paired with a person whom he knew wouldn't go easy on him.
As Mako was about to reach the boundary of the ring, suddenly a wall of earth emerged in front of him blocking him from moving any further. Mako very slowly turned around to face Bill who had a massive sadistic grin on his face as he slowly started to walk toward Mako.
"Oh, you didn't think I would let you go that easily now did you?" Bill said as he continued to slowly move towards Mako.
Mako immediately thought of ways to get out of his current predicament such as to maneuver to the side of the earth wall and exit the ring but decided against it a second later as Bill could just conjure up more walls.
Seeing as there was nowhere to hide or run, the only option that he had was to fight in hopes of getting knocked out quickly so the duel would be over.
The only way for the match to end was to either get knocked out or get thrown out of the ring, otherwise, the instructor would not interfere.
The only other time when an instructor would call off the duel would be if a student was on the verge of death. Injuries didn't matter nowadays as there were medical healing pills that could be so advanced that they completely healed injuries in a few hours.
However, Mako didn't have access to those pills as he would have to pay a hefty additional fee to receive them on behalf of the school, in case of an injury.
Mako threw out a left jab straight towards Bill's face but it was easily dodged by him. Mako continued to throw punches, kicks, and whatever other moves he could think of but not a single one managed to land on Bill.
Bill continued to dodge everything to the point where all the spectators started to laugh and ridicule Mako at his pathetic performance.
"This is getting annoying! It's time to take out the trash!" Bill suddenly shouted as he threw a crisp right hook onto Mako's gut sending him flying back with saliva coming out of his mouth as he collided with the solid earth wall.
Bill started running toward Mako who was still disoriented from the first hit that he didn't even notice the barrage of punches that were about to come his way.
All the spectators except a few students started cheering louder as Mako was getting tossed around all over the place by Bill who wasn't holding back in the slightest.
There were cuts and bruises all over Mako as he was slammed onto the ground by a bat made by Bill with his Earth ability.
"Come on, Trash boy! Don't die just yet!" Bill shouted as he continued to beat Mako in non-critical spots such as his limbs so that he would still receive the pain of every hit without passing out.
"What? You need your stupid little granny to come to save you...? Oh, she can't! 'Cause she is DEAD! Honestly, that's for the better; at least it's better than to raise trash like you who only knows how to run away!" Bill taunted.
A sudden silence ensued in the hall as Bill uttered these words, and as Bill raised his bat to land another heavy strike on Mako's back; suddenly Mako jumped in the air with all four of his limbs and kicked Bill in the abdomen with as much force as he could muster.
The crowd was in shock as Bill got knocked back a couple of steps and Mako managed to get on his feet in that short window of time. The entire gym became silent with the sound of Mako's quick and heavy breathing being the only sound that resounded throughout.
Mako raised his bloody face to make eye contact with Bill who was also in shock at what just happened. "I have tolerated all of your beatings..., tricks..., and... bullying for almost four years since I got here, and I didn't once try to fight back, but if you F***ING DARE bring my grandmother or any of my family into this then I will F***ING END YOU, SO DON'T GO THERE!" Mako shouted with extreme anger and resolve in his voice while facing Bill as well as the crowd of spectators who were cheering before.
The atmosphere around the ring completely changed with Mako announcing his statement boldly without a hint of fear or cowardice.
After a few moments of shock and silence where everyone was absorbing Mako's sudden change in character, Bill couldn't take it anymore as he busted out laughing at the ridiculous statement that Mako had just said.
Suddenly, Bill stopped laughing as he took on an even more serious and scary expression while stating," I would like to see you try!"
With that said, he rushed forward and attempted to hit Mako in the head with his bat with every ounce of his strength.
This time; however, Mako was able to dodge the bat just in the nick of time as it grazed past his head. After a successful dodge, Mako immediately went into a crouching position and unleashed as many punches as he could muster onto Bill's abdomen.
Even though Mako hit Bill's abdomen many times, his punches were weak and barely left a scratch on Bill's bare body. Bill stood there for a couple more seconds to try and humiliate Mako even more as Mako kept unleashing his fury of punches to try and cause damage but to no avail.
The crowd and Bill started laughing loudly which brought Mako back to his senses and he realized that his anger had just dug his own grave.
Mako slowly started to back away from Bill who was still laughing like a madman, hoping that he would have a sliver of mercy in his heart and just quickly knock out Mako, but Mako couldn't have been more wrong.
Even though Bill was laughing, it was just to ridicule Mako even more as inside his consciousness he was bubbling with pride and anger. 'This mere worm dares to even have the audacity to fight back, and not only that he threatened me? ME?!'
"Oh, you're gonna pay for that heavily, MAKO GREY!!" Bill shouted as he stopped his feet on the ground which made the whole ring shake violently as if they were experiencing an earthquake. This earthquake; however, was only limited to the ring as the spectators didn't feel anything at all, but Mako knew exactly what was coming.
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Bill was one of the few people in Emerald High who had a level 3 ability as they were extremely expensive and the only way to obtain them was to have rich parents or in Bill's case, who has a retired father from the military who could source high-level abilities directly from the military for a lot cheaper.
There was a huge difference in the level of abilities as it was almost impossible for a person of a lower ability to defeat a person of a higher ability. The higher the ability, the more skills the person has access to and the more versatile and powerful the person's fighting style is.
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Bill was about to use a skill that he had displayed a few times before which was where small protrusions would come out of the ground at random positions and erupt all everywhere dealing massive damage to anyone hit by them.
"Earth Pillars!" Bill shouted as he activated his ability and multiple small pillars of the earth having a surface area of a baseball and decent speed were coming out of the ground at random aiming at different positions on Mako's body.
Mako was assaulted from every direction at once as his body was bruised and cut by the pillars that were tossing him about. There was no resistance from Mako as he could barely get his thoughts together at this point while the pillar kept tossing him about like a dead leaf being tossed around by raging winds.
Bill noticed that Mako was about to be knocked out cold so he improvised his strategy to give Mako as much torture as he could physically muster.
"Earth Spikes!" Bill shouted as he activated yet another ability.
The pillars disappeared back into the ground, and small spikes made of earth with pointed ends started to erupt from the ground.
These spikes stabbed Mako all over his backside but didn't penetrate hard enough to damage any organs as that would disqualify him from the match.
Mako screamed in pain as the multiple spikes stabbed and remained inside Mako's holding him in a sitting position where even the slightest movement would cause immense pain and suffering.
Unable to move, Mako watched as Bill conjured another Earth bat and slowly started walking toward Mako. Mako just closed his eyes and accepted his fate as Bill approached Mako ready to take a swing.
As the bat made contact with Mako's head, Mako's body was smashed into the ground with the spikes retracting back into the ground.
Mako was knocked unconscious from that blow with massive injuries as he lay there in a pool of his own blood.
This was by far the most brutal beating Mako had ever received, but still, Bill wasn't satisfied as he didn't back down and conjured a boulder of Earth to squash Mako flat, but before he could drop the boulder on top of Mako, the Instructor stopped the match.
"Mako Grey is disqualified from the duel due to being knocked unconscious, Bill Johnson wins!" The Instructor announced.
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