Tension is filling the stadium air.

Madame Mummy: Begin.

Hayze nor Silver moves.

Wes: D- did they hear her?

Aaron: Of course they did, Wes.

Wes: Then why aren’t they-

Aaron: They’re waiting to see who moves first. It’s like we’re out in the old west… waiting for the first cowboy to draw.

Hayze and Silver are staring each other down.

Silver: (Come on, Hayze, I know you want to attack me.)

Hayze: (Silver hasn’t opened his canisters yet, meaning currently his only defense is his silver armor. We’re so close to each other… this might be the only shot I get at a direct hit.)

A bead of sweat rolls down Hayze’s face.

Silver: (Just do it!)

Hayze: (No! I have to fight with my head, not my heart!)

Hayze leaps back to create distance between himself and Silver.

Silver: (I guess he really is smart.)

Silver opens two of his canisters; the silver dust comes flying out and starts careening towards Hayze.

Silver: (But not smart enough!)

Hayze's eyes turn red; he forms three small orbs in between each of the fingers of his hand, he throws them directly at the wave of Silver.

Hayze: Heat Grenades!

Three small explosions go off, stopping Silver’s dust wave and melting the front batch of the silver. Silver recalls his dust and spreads it on the ground around himself.

Silver: A new move? Good to see you’re practicing.

Hayze: I’ve been working on that one for a while now. It’s not much, but it stopped your attack.

Silver: That’s cute, but I could do that when I was five.

Silver holds out his palm and some liquid silver starts to ooze out from the pores of his hand; it then levitates upward and forms into three silver balls that start orbiting Silver’s hand.

Silver: Let’s see how you handle these!

The balls come shooting directly at Hayze; he ducks in time for them to whiz over his head. He looks back to see them circling around.

Silver: It’s not that easy!

Hayze continues to dodge the balls as they come shooting at him over and over.

Hayze: (If those things hit me, they'll rip right through me like cannonballs! I have to get to the forest and come up with a plan, there's no way I can beat him head-on!)

Hayze starts running towards the forest, the balls come chasing after him.

Silver: (Making a break for the forest, eh? He knows that the balls aren’t tracking him, so if he leaves my sightline, he’ll be safe, but I won’t let that happen... for free anyway.)

The balls come to a dead stop and fall to the ground. Hayze looks over his shoulder at Silver, confused.

Hayze: (What, why did he-)

Hayze looks forward and sees that Silver is directing his dust pile to block Hayze’s escape into the forest.

Hayze: (That’s right, Silver telekinetic powers require a lot of concentration, so he can’t send the dust and balls at me at the same time. Notes for later...)

Hayze lights up a fireball in his hand as he runs toward the wall of Silver; he throws it into the center of the wall disintegrating a large chunk in the middle that Hayze is able to jump through and escape into the forest.

Hayze: (I’m out of his sight for a moment.)

Hayze drops a heat grenade at the base of a tree and continues running.

Hayze: (Save that for later.)

Silver retreats his dust back to himself and coats the ground around him again.

Silver: (His quirk eats away at his energy at a fast pace. Forcing him to exhaust himself early will make it easier for me to administer the final blow later on. He can hide in the forest and try to make a plan, but he’ll never break through my defense.)

Aaron slams his fist on the stadium railing.

Aaron: Hayze is already running away! What the hell!

Jace: It’s not the most dignified way to go, but what else can he do? He hasn’t even attacked Silver yet. It’s all been defense and evasion from him.

Zach: Yeah, I don't see how Hayze can do anything to Silver. He's shown that he can stop the silver dust from capturing him with his fire attacks, but there isn’t much else outside of that.

Gus: Yeah… Silver’s probably gonna conserve his energy and let Hayze exhaust himself.

Kevin: That’s the smartest thing he can do. He’s got 3 more matches to fight after this one.

Justus smiles, overhearing Kevin’s comment.

Justus: (He only has 2 more matches, Kevin, but you’re right in saying that he’s making the wise decision. If Silver wants to beat me, he’d better be as close to 100% as he can get.)

Alexis yawns.

Alexis: Silver pretty much has this in the bag, only a matter of time before he stops being nice and ends it.

Karma: Yeah… this looks pretty bad for Hayze.

Ash: Oh, come on, guys! I’m sure he can come up with a plan, just like he did against Colossus!

Karma: Every plan Hayze has ever come up with relied on others, he’s on his own now, and while granted, we’ve never seen Hayze on his own before; I’m not all that confident.

Ash: I guess you are right about that… but, I still believe in him.

Lilith: Me too, Ash! Hayze is smart, and that’s way better than being talented like Silver!

Karma: (In some cases, maybe, Lilith… but Silver’s a different animal.)

Hayze has taken refuge deep into the forest, hiding behind a tree. He’s breathing heavily.

Hayze: (Okay, got away… now what? He clearly can’t see me. Otherwise, he’d be attacking.)

Hayze climbs up the tree and stands on a branch; he can see Silver through the leaves.

Hayze: (He's on guard and ready for any ranged attack that comes his way. He's smart; he’s got his silver dust surrounding him so that he can easily form a shield. If I'm gonna beat him, I have to find a way past that silver dust. I've only ever seen two people land a hit on Silver; Multi did it, but by overwhelming him with an ambush of clones, safe to say that I can't really mimic that. The other was Justus, and he did it by simply overpowering the silver itself; that’s also off the table for me. That means I have to figure out the weakness of a quirk that has never shown one. The biggest issue I have is a lack of information. While I've seen him battle against Justus, Blair, and Multi, none of those battles were extensive enough to help me discern a flaw in his quirk. So, my first action should be to gather more intel.)

Silver is standing dead still in the center of the arena, arms crossed and at attention.

Silver: (Come on, Hayze, people are gonna start throwing trash soon if you make this anymore dull.)

Silver scans the forest with his eyes.

Silver: (I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish by-)

Suddenly an arrow made entirely of fire comes zooming out of the forest directly at Silver; Silver nonchalantly blocks it with a wall of dust; the arrow connects with the wall, melting the front portion of the silver but not really making a dent in the overall structure.

Silver: (Really? What did he think that was going to accomplish?)

The wall drops, and Silver sends his silver balls in the direction the arrow came from and annihilates the tree. However, Hayze had already abandoned that tree and has started climbing a new one, carrying the bow Tara gave him with his mouth while he climbs.

Hayze: (Damn he's quick... barely had enough time to get away. He did exactly what I thought, though, block and then fire a counter-attack. Now to test other scenarios.)

Hayze reaches the top of the tree, ignites the bowstring, and creates a new fire arrow.

Hayze: (Let’s try two arrows back to back.)

Hayze fires the first arrow, quickly forms a second arrow, and fires it as well.

Silver: (Two this time.)

Silver uses the silver wall to block the first arrow; it melts the top layer of silver but doesn't affect the wall’s structure. Then the second arrow connects with the wall and does about the same. Silver lowers his shield and sends his silver balls at the tree Hayze was in, destroying it, but once again, Hayze has already moved on.

Hayze: (So... multiple arrows on the same spot doesn’t do anything either. He even knew that attack was coming; why else would he have left the wall up for a few extra seconds? The only other thing I could do is fire an arrow from directly behind him and see how he reacts to that.)

Hayze takes a deep breath.

Hayze: (You can win, Hayze, just stay calm and don’t let the pressure get to you.)

The crowd begins booing Hayze.

Crowd Member 1: JUST GIVE UP ALREADY!

Crowd Member 2: YOU’RE NOT GONNA BEAT HIM, SO STOP WASTING OUR TIME!

Killian laughs at the crowd’s reaction.

Killian: Haha! This kid’s so scared he’s hiding and taking potshots! The crowd’s right; he should give up. He’s embarrassing himself.

Sydney: I hope he doesn’t.

Killian: Ha, why? You’re afraid of taking this Silver guy on?

Sydney: No, I just enjoy crushing the weak.

Killian: Fair enough. What do you think, Tobias? Should this kid forfeit?

Tobias: You should only forfeit when there’s something to gain from doing so.

Killian: Well, he wouldn’t lose his dignity.

Tobias: If you’re afraid of losing, why fight at all?

Killian stares at Tobias.

Killian: (Man, I hate guys like him.)

The loud boos continue cascading the arena.

Alexis: They’re getting antsy...

Ash: What a bunch of jerks.

Karma: I don't blame them; they paid good money to see entertaining matchups, not whatever Hayze is doing.

Lilith: What is Hayze doing?

Karma: I couldn’t tell you; it seems to me he’s trying to figure out how many fire blasts it’s going to take to break through Silver’s wall of defense.

Alexis: The answer is probably somewhere in the range of a hundred given what two did to that wall.

Karma: Yeah, and Hayze will tire out well before he can fire that many arrows.

Everyone starts gagging.

Wes: OH GOD, IT’S LIKE DEATH MIXED WITH FECES.

Blair: Hey! Shut the hell up!

Blair has arrived in the competitor’s seats with her noxious odor filling the area.

Wes: UGH! IT SMELLS SO BAD!

Gus puts a gas mask on.

Gus: I think it smells fine.

Wes: FUCK YOU!

Karma: Blair, do you mind… um, not sitting with us?

Blair: Is it still that bad! I put deodorant on!

Alexis: You’re gonna need A LOT more than that.

Blair: Well, screw you guys, I’m staying!

Blair sits down; everyone else moves as far away as possible.

Blair: Oh, screw you guys!

Hayze has reached the trees behind Silver. He ignites the bow once again.

Hayze: (Alright, Silver, I know you don’t have eyes on the back of your head…)

Hayze creates a fire arrow, draws back the bow.

Hayze: (So what’s your plan for this?)

Hayze fires the arrow at Silver’s back. It zooms toward him, but Silver blocks it with a wall of silver dust without even turning his head.

Hayze: (What! How did he know!)

Silver smiles.

Silver: (I may not be able to see behind me, but I’ve already dealt with that attack three times, I memorized what it sounds like when one is coming at me, the way the arrow brushes the tree leaves aside gave it away.)

Hayze gulps.

Hayze: (Fuck, so he can block my fire arrows from any direction… So what can I do to hit him? Come on, Hayze, think, what could his weakness be?)

Hayze thinks for a moment.

Hayze: (He hasn’t moved an inch this whole time... he hasn’t even rotated his body since we started. Wait a minute, now that I think of it, every time I’ve seen Silver fight, he stands in one spot and surrounds himself with his silver dust. He did it against Justus and Blair and the Multi clones.)

Hayze flashes back to Silver’s dust trap at the start of the first round.

Hayze: (Even then, he trapped everyone THEN started running, he probably could have gotten much more distance if he had a running start. That silver didn’t hold everyone like I’ve seen it before; hell, even the students from the general studies courses got out eventually.)

Hayze gets a look of realization.

Hayze: (Wait a fucking minute, he didn’t fire his silver balls at me this time! And that’s because he can’t see me; he doesn’t know where to fire the balls because he’s not looking in my direction. But… Why wouldn’t he turn around then? Okay, I think I’m on to something...)

Hayze sits in silence, thinking.

Fatal: (What is he thinking? He’s gonna run out of energy at this rate!)

Walker places his hand on Fatal’s shoulder.

Fatal: Huh?

Walker: You seem stressed.

Fatal: Oh… I… I’m just worried.

Walker: Don’t worry, he’s doing better than I expected.

Fatal: You didn’t expect much...

Walker: Yup.

Colossus: I don’t think you should be worried, Ms. Fatal.

Fatal: Huh, why?

Colossus: Look.

Hayze gets a glint in his eye.

Hayze: (You’re going down, Silver.)

Hayze clicks the yellow button on his gauntlet and grabs his swords; he throws one towards the arena wall behind him. It embeds into the wall, right beneath where his classmates are sitting.

Wes: HEY, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR!

Jace: Did he just throw a sword at us?

Gus: Maybe he heard Wes’ bet?

Wes: YOU BETTER NOT HAVE BEEN AIMING FOR ME!

Hayze then loads a fire arrow onto his bow and fires it. Like before, Silver hears the attack coming and puts up his Silver wall.

Silver: (No chance.)

The arrow connects the ground to the left of Silver’s wall, burning the ground a bit; Silver is weirded out by the attack.

Silver: (Did… did he miss?)

Silver grinds his teeth.

Silver: (I can’t just sit here holding the wall up. I’ll drop it, but I’m going to be cautious.)

Silver slowly lowers the wall.

Hayze: 1st rule of strategy: the first move is always a fake!

Hayze loads his 2nd sword into his bow instead of an arrow and fires it at Silver. It flies over Silver's halfway lowered shield and collides with his back.

Silver: (WHAT!)

Silver’s silver armor protects him from injury, but the momentum transfer causes Silver to stumble forward. The wall of silver dust instantly tumbles.

Hayze: I’VE GOT YOU NOW!

Hayze loads a fire arrow and launches it at Silver.

Silver: (I can’t defend!)

The arrow collides with Silver's back, setting it ablaze and knocking him to the ground.

Silver: AHHHH!

The fire melts away the armor on Silver’s back. The whole stadium is dead silent, in shock.

Aaron: Did he just… injure Silver?

Wes: I think he did…

Justus’ eyes are wide open, he grinds his teeth.

Justus: *under his breath* I wanted to do that!

Silver rolls on the ground to put out the fire on his back. He gets on his hands and knees, breathing heavily, with a worried look on his face.

Silver: (He… he… he actually figured it out…)

Hayze starts firing a barrage of arrows, but not at Silver. Instead, he’s attempting to destroy Silver’s collection of silver dust.

Silver: (No! I can’t lose that!)

Silver gets to his feet and starts forming what’s left of his dust into a shield to keep safe.

Silver: Well, Hayze, I'll give credit where credit is due. You figured out the weakness of my quirk... if I don't have both my feet planted on the ground, I can't control the silver not connected to my body. It's an unusual weakness, but it’s simple to work around and hide. You probably noticed I wasn't rotating my body to look at you and realized that there was a reason for that. I knew it would be a little suspicious, but I didn't think you'd have the deduction skills to figure it out: I didn't want to take my feet off the ground out of fear that you'd strike at that exact moment, leaving me helpless. So, I guess I underestimated you...)

Silver smiles.

Silver: (I've let you have your little moment, but now it's time that I show you why I'm the future number 1 hero!)

Silver opens up two more canisters and adds all of his silver dust together.

Silver: I’M TIRED OF YOU HIDING IN THAT FOREST!

Hayze’s eyes widen.

Hayze: (Oh crap!)

Hayze starts running back towards the arena wall. Silver's dust starts forming into a massive shuriken above him.

Silver: You can’t hide in the forest if there is no forest! Serrated Shuriken of Destruction!

The massive shuriken starts slicing through every tree in the forest, leaving nothing but stumps and slashing the rest into wood chips.

Silver: (He doesn’t stand a chance of surviving this.)

The shuriken reaches Hayze’s part of the forest as he continues to run towards the wall. It destroys everything and dispels it into nothingness. A slight gust of wind blows through the arena in the wake of Silver’s attack.

Silver: (It might have been overkill, but I couldn’t let him embarrass me any further.)

Silver looks toward Madame Mummy.

Silver: Clearly, my opponent is defeated; you should call the match now and get him to Recovery-

Suddenly Silver gets hit with a fire arrow in his shoulder, setting his uniform on fire and melting more of his silver armor.

Silver: AHHHHHH!

Silver drops to the ground and rolls around to put out the flame.

Silver: HOW DID HE SURVIVE THAT!

Hayze: *from afar* Madame Mummy, clearly my opponent is defeated, you should call the match now.

Silver looks up to see Hayze standing on the sword he threw into the wall earlier on.

Silver: (When did he do that!)

Hayze: 2nd rule of strategy, always have an out.

The rest of the competitors have surprised looks on their faces.

Karma: (He thought that far ahead? What?)

Alexis: (Smart might have been an understatement.)

Hayze looks back at his classmates.

Hayze: Sup guys, oh hey Wes, enjoy paying that bet out to Aaron.

Wes: NO, PLEASE! LOSE, I DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY!

Jace: That’s just sad…

Hayze starts firing more arrows at Silver.

Silver: (Shit!)

Silver starts running to avoid the arrows.

Silver: (I’m letting him walk all over me! I have to start fighting back! But I only have two more canisters of silver now… if I use that, there’s no way I can win three more battles in this tournament!)

Hayze continues firing at Silver.

Hayze: *under his breath* That’s right, keep going….

Silver eventually reaches the “forest.”

Hayze: 3rd rule of strategy, always have an ace in the hole.

Hayze snaps his fingers; the heat grenade Hayze left on the ground earlier in the battle goes off. Sending Silver flying and destroying what’s left of his silver armor. Hayze grabs the sword from beneath him, slides down the wall, and begins running towards Silver.

Silver: (How did I let this happen? I’m supposed to be the strongest! Yet I let Hayze come out of nowhere and make me look like a fucking fool!)

Silver takes a deep breath.

Silver: (Calm down, he’s not stronger than you, you just allowed yourself to play his game! I can’t change how the battle has gone to this point, but I can dictate the rest!)

“ Silver: My defense isn't as perfect as it seems, and someday someone will figure out how to beat it; I need to be ready for that day. “ - Chapter 13

“ Silver: If anyone figures out how to defeat my perfect defense... I’ll need to be ready to rely on a different form of fighting. “ - Chapter 13

Silver: (This is exactly what I was thinking about… it’s time for me to prove that I can fight differently! My nickname was born from people saying it was the silver and never me that won the fights. That’s not true!)

Silver gets up and locks eyes with Hayze; the two are a mere 10 yards away from one another, both breathing heavily.

Silver: (I was right about his quirk… I haven’t even landed a hit on him, and he’s beaten me to a pulp, and yet we’re both equally exhausted. This battle can still be mine.) I can see that you’re close to passing out. That quirk of yours is powerful, but it seems to have some significant setbacks.

Hayze: *nasal grunt* I’m still kicking your ass with it.

Silver: Ha, I guess you are, but this battle isn’t over.

Hayze: I know, how about we finish this the fun way?

Hayze tosses his bow aside and wields just his sword. Silver stares at him in bewilderment for a few moments.

Silver: Yeah… let’s…

Silver drops his belt of canisters, secretes silver from his wrist, and forms a massive wrist blade.

Silver: You know it's funny, I'm the guy who's been touted as prodigy his whole life, and you're a guy who's barely even gotten past the basics of his quirk, yet here we are, in the same boat at the end of this match, it's kind of humbling.

“ Hayze: You know, it was funny seeing you and Justus form your teams before the second competition. You both kept looking over at each other; it was like you were playing chess, making moves in response to one another. You both think it’s you two at the top, and the rest of us are pawns or, in your words, stepping stones. I may not be the strongest person here, but it’s time someone taught you two a lesson about overlooking your competition. “ - Chapter 16

Silver: Maybe I am a little too full of myself… after all, what kind of "prodigy" gets beat up this badly in the first round of the biggest tournament of his life? I overlooked you, but you've shown me I have a long way to go until I reach my goal of being the number 1 hero. I see now that all of us in 1-A are equals, and I was a jerk to think otherwise; I’m sorry.

Hayze: Don’t worry about it; I’m just glad I was able to back up my words with a good fight.

Silver: Ha… well, enough with the chit-chat; it’s time for me to win this battle!

Hayze and Silver run at each other and start slicing at one another with their blades; with each attack, the distinct clink of two swords colliding with one another occurs as they each block each other's blows.

Silver: (To think that someone like me could be challenged by someone like him. I guess I was a little bit too binary in my thinking.)

Hayze: (I’ve come too far in this fight to walk away empty-handed!)

They continue clashing blades for nearly a minute before they both back off and stare each other down. Both breathe heavy and sweat profusely.

Silver: (Just because you're giving me a run for my money Hayze, doesn’t mean I’ll give up. I’m running on empty, so I won’t try to trash talk. I’ll just let my sword do the talking!)

Hayze: (I can feel my body giving out, but Dr. Moore said I have to win this tournament if I want to get offered an internship… so I HAVE TO WIN!)

They run at each other again, the will to win burning in their eyes; just as they’re about to collide, they both simultaneously lower their weapons and raise their fists, screaming at the top of their lungs as they both punch each other directly in the face at the same time.

Hayze and Silver: (Did I get him?)

A moment passes… Silver falls to the ground. He lies on his back, looking up at Hayze, whose eyes are back to normal. Silver smiles.

Silver: You turned your quirk off at the last second to heal the punch immediately after it happened. You tricked me...

Hayze: 1st rule of strategy...

Silver: The first move is always a fake.

A moment passes as the stadium is dead silent.

Madame Mummy: The winner is Adam Hayze.