"Why the hell are you running away, Loyalty?!"

"If you hadn't noticed, Chris, I have a blade in my freaking leg. Have you even been paying attention to what's been going on?" Loyalty winced as he pulled the blade out of his shin. It would no longer be safe out in the street; he figured that the safest place for him would be in the shadows. He managed to limp towards a dark alleyway and hide behind a barricade of trashcans, but without Sakura there to heal him more effectively, he would have to rely on his Nature Element healing to make his leg at least walkable. A feat he was poor at.

He pulled a leaf from his pocket and placed it over his bleeding wound. The blood acted as an adhesive, sticking the leaf perfectly in place. Sounds of metal clanging against metal was barely heard from outside of the alleyway. Sakura's tussle seemed to have ended though, leaving Loyalty uneasy on the outcome. "Chris, is Sakura still alive?"

"Yeah. She's won, but Joel is in bad shape. He managed to take out a member of the enemy team, but he's not in- whoops. He's dead."

"Damn bastards," he murmured as he placed his hands over the leaf blade. "Eíthe to pnév̱ma ti̱s fýsi̱s therapéf̱sei óles tis pli̱gés." The leaf absorbed into his wound, slowly dulling the pain. This would be a lot easier if Sakura was here. "How many fighters are left?"

"Our side has three surviving members. Team Archambeau has only two. Jeremy easily took out their team leader. I'd hate to be on the aft end of that axe. Sakura's gone deeper in the battleground to look for you."

He took deep breaths, combining his energy with the energy of the leaf. He pressed down on the laceration, muttering the incantation under his breath again. "Eíthe to pnév̱ma ti̱s fýsi̱s therapéf̱sei óles tis pli̱gés-"

"Sakura's been killed by your location! Get out of there!" Chris Blade commanded.

Loyalty's breath caught in his throat. "What?"

"You're horrible at healing," a young man's voice called from the entrance of the alley, a voice that he hadn't heard before. His head snapped up to a man in a white uniform with gold trimmings, his blonde hair was cut short, with a silver crest shining under his bangs. He aimed a pistol blade at his head.

Horrid timing.

He smiled sheepishly. "I don't suppose you'd let me live, would you?" Loyalty asked, blending his hand with the brick wall beside him. The man pulled the trigger as soon as Loyalty pulled a section of the wall in front of him. If he were a second later, Loyalty would literally have a bullet in his mind. "See, it's manners like that that are the reason why people have trust issues!"

"That is of no concern of mine," the man sneered.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you're parents never hugged you enough," Loyalty assumed as he fused the metals of the trash cans with his arms. He wouldn't have the time to test the mobility of the metals with his arms. He placed both of his hands on the wall, using it to bulldoze everything out of the alleyway, including the man.

Loyalty vaulted over the wall, planting both of his feet into the man's sternum. He went flying, skidding to a halt on the other side of the street. Loyalty slid the pistol from the holster; both men aimed at each other's head. He recognized him from the last tournament he was in at a different tournament. "You're Maxis, aren't you?"

"Nice to see I'm easily recognizable. I'm assuming that you're Loyalty, son of the legendary Raheem Wolf? It would be an honor beating someone from such an admirable family."

"It's too bad you'll never get the chance," Loyalty said.

Both men fired; their bullets collided mid-air as they both sprinted down the street, keeping their eyes and their crosshairs on each other. Loyalty shot at the man, but each bullet collided with Maxis's. He slid behind a smoldering truck turned on his side, reloading the gun with his last magazine as bullets zoomed past him. He shot blind from behind the truck, hoping to get a lucky hit. He ran out of ammo before finding out. Guess it's time to put this metal to good use, he thought to himself as he dashed towards Maxis, blocking the oncoming bullets with his metal-melded arms. He had to end this; the metal would give out soon.

Using his forearm to knock Maxis's pistol blade out of range, Loyalty smashed his fist against his jaw. He drew his blade, narrowly missing decapitating a stunned Maxis who leaned backwards, watching as the sword flew over his face. He snapped the handle of the pistol back, turning the gun/sword hybrid into a full blown dagger.

Both men's blades sparked as they clashed against each other, laying both of their weight into their struggle. Both were at a complete stalemate, and Loyalty could feel it.

"We're getting are arses stomped in, Loyalty. Ended it already!" Chris Blade said in Loyalty's ear.

Loyalty used the remainder of his strength to force Maxis back. "What are you talking about? We were in the lead earlier." He looked up just in time to block a horizontal swipe from the machete-like blade.

"Jeremy has just been killed. You're the last one on our squad."

They jumped away from each other. Both men was taking deep breaths as they stared each other down. Loyalty was in rough shape. He knew that even if he had managed to kill Maxis, he would also have to deal with the last member of their team. It was obvious that his team was going to lose this round. "Looks like... you're going... to win this one," he said through pants.

"As if you were surprised," Maxis said on one breath, a breath that Loyalty could tell felt like hell to say.

"Even if we do lose, I'm taking you down first!" He dashed at Maxis, who began rushing after Loyalty as well. The both of them held their weapons high over their head as they neared each other and clashed again, the ringing of their swords sounded off throughout the arena. Had it not been for his metallic arms, Loyalty would have felt the rumble of the clash in his bones. Maxis, however, was not so fortunate. His hands were a crimson red; his pistol blade fell to the ground with blood dripping from the handle of the gun and his hands. Without skipping a beat, Loyalty slashed at Maxis's leg, cutting it straight through the patella. As he fell, Loyalty brought the katana is a full swift circle and hacked him in half. Maxis's body turned to grid and evaporated.

Loyalty let out a deep sigh of relief. He swiped his blade down, removing the digitized blood from it, before returning it to his sheath. "Chris Blade, do you have the location of-" A burning feeling in his spine had silenced him. He fell to his knees, silently screaming as Chris Blade's voice grew more and more distant. He felt a foot placed in between his shoulder blades as the remaining member of Team Archambeau pulled his battle axe out of Loyalty's back.

He felt to the ground, and soon fell into darkness.