Mira had held back on using her new skill against Duni because it was more suitable for killing. But she judged that with Duni’s defense he would be able to handle it.

It surprised her that he had not passed out after one punch, she realized that Duni’s defense was nothing to scoff at, if she didn’t have any other means of attack they would have drawn and if it was an actual life or death fight she would have lost a lot of stamina while Duni would have been unscathed, although in a life or death fight she would have probably used the skill more freely before Duni entered his high defense state.

As for the reason why no one chose to fight a Meta Human, Mira wasn’t alone in her ignorance; Funmi had already chosen a Meta Human to fight. The other representatives of the sanctuary were laughing, not at Mira, but at Funmi who was complaining about the partiality of the crowd. She had chosen a Meta Human because she didn’t want to be outshone she would have picked Lara if she wasn’t a 100% sure she would get her ass beat.

After some fights in between it was Funmi’s turn next. Emeka said “Funmi has challenged Emeka?” to be honest he wasn’t expecting a challenge; he had thought since the representatives had seen his ability they would refrain from fighting such an enigmatic person like him and also because he was a Rank 7.

Funmi thought the opposite; he was someone everyone had all seen and admired for his unusual and powerful ability so he was a perfect person for her to beat to make her the most memorable person in the competition. ‘I’m going to outshine all of you who are just fighting random people. I’ll beat a Rank 7 and make all your jaws drop’ she thought.

Emeka split into two and sent one of his clones to the field and left the other at the microphone. Funmi said “You’re really underestimating me? You’ll suffer for that you know?” like a cliché villain.

The Emeka at the microphone said “Start” and the Emeka on the field multiplied into 10 clones of himself. Each clone multiplied into 10 clones and on and on it continued until they filled the field. These clones were not made of golden energy like the ones he previously made.

Funmi thought ‘Isn’t this cheating?’ She activated her energy control magic and attacked the Emekas thinking ‘they're probably like shadow clones, they must have a terrible durability’, she used her energy control magic to disperse the energy in Emeka’s clones, preventing them from energizing themselves while attacking. This gave her a good advantage, she was faster than the clones, she drew both of her swords and beheaded the first one she reached.

Blood flowed from the clones corpse as the other clones advanced on Funmi, they had no weapons, they came at Funmi with they’re bare fists. Funmi wasn’t too worried; she knew that Emeka would try to swallow her with a large amount of clones and she felt that Karma is a Bitch was a good counter to his ability.

The punches of the first clones to arrive were successfully blocked with a few maneuvers by Funmi, the energy they expended adding to her strength. Before they could draw closer Funmi jumped toward the podium were – what she considered as the real – Emeka was.

The clones followed her and jumped toward her, she spun in the air as she blocked and dodged their attacks getting faster and stronger along the way. But the clones were seemingly in exhaustible. Without care for their lives, they lounged at Funmi with reckless abandon as she cut her way through them in the air.

The battle with the clones caused Funmi to land before she reached the ‘real’ Emeka. Funmi’s speed and strength had already tripled because of the continuous assault and her stamina and energy were swiftly draining as she maintained her skill. The bright side was that the clones posed no problem to her anymore, with her energy control magic preventing them from energizing themselves and Karma is a Bitch giving her more strength and speed, Emeka’s clones had temporarily become meaningless small fry.

She lounged forward ready to slash her way to the podium, she could already taste victory. She slashed at the first clone she encountered… but it dodged. Funmi’s eyes widened as she noticed a faint golden glow around the clone that dodged.

She noticed the same glow on the clones around her, before she could form a thought one of them held her one of her swords tightly. She tried to pull her sword away from the clone but it was stronger than her, not only that but the clones hand didn’t bleed from having contact with the blade.

It was at this moment she knew she was fucked. Another clone held the short sword in her other hand while the others lounged at her and held her down, they all had a faint golden glow. Funmi could not extricate herself from their vice grip as they punched her.

Emeka’s clones had exactly the same stats as Emeka, they thought like Emeka and there was no original among them as they were all authentic Emekas, by combining a certain amount of clones into one Emeka could create special clones that had all their stats amplified. Funmi learnt this the hard way. She couldn’t gather enough momentum for her skill so she was helplessly beaten to a pulp. Her swords could not peirce the clones and she could not pull her self away from them even though she had dispersed their energy.

The audience cheered “EMEKA! EMEKA! EMEKA! EMEKA! EMEKA! EMEKA!” as Funmi helplessly drowned in Emekas with faint golden glows. The clones, both the dead one and the living ones turned into golden dots of light and Funmi was left lying on the ground unconscious full of bruises. Emeka had not used any weapon or armor.

Jola thought ‘So this is a Rank 7. It’s completely different from a Rank 6 fighting a Rank 5, he is in a completely different league!’ The Emeka at the microphone said “I guess I win then… Phew! That was a close one” with fake worry.

Funmi was taken by some children to a clinic. A girl that looked to be 12 years of age, dressed in a doctor’s clothes placed her palm on Funmi’s head and her wounds began to heal rapidly. After some minutes Funmi wasn’t only fully healed her energy was also restored.

Funmi woke up and looked around. She saw the girl who had healed her and said “I lost?” with a face filled of grief. The girl said “Of course you lost. You were so conceited, thinking you could beat Emeka when you’re still Rank 6”.

Funmi’s head hung low as she left the room after being shown the way out. In the room Funmi was healed in, the voice of a woman said from behind the girl that had healed her “The High Sanctuary… I wasn’t expecting such a behavior from one of their leaders. What was her mind like when she saw you?”

The girl in the doctor’s outfit said “She was truly sad about her defeat. The others usually are just filled with greed or jealousy when they notice my ability; it always feels like they want to steal me. But she didn’t even care at all… I didn’t expect being ignored to feel so good”. The voice behind her said “You’re such a masochist”.