Vincent stood there on his side of the arena—the roar of the crowd was at an all-time high. As opposed to every other time he had stepped onto that stage, there was very little stress present in the air. He was more excited than anything for this fight. After all, it was a chance for him to spar off with a friend.

On the other side of the arena stood the lanky form of Fang Nola. Their sunset-colored hair tumbled straight down and their beanie rested a little back on their head. Even through all of that, there was a warm and casual expression on their face. Behind that was a smile that showed their hidden excitement for the fight, almost matching Vincent’s.

Just as the announcer started the fight, Vincent and Fang looked at each other with a knowing glance. At the same time, regardless of what the announcer was saying, they both charged at each other with a smile.

Vincent allowed himself to grow a little colder, all the while, he felt a thrum at the front of his head, pointing in Fang’s direction. Around their arms, the Electronic Eyes appeared and vibrated a bit.

The moment arrived when they both clashed at the center of the Collider. Vincent slid on the ground, trying to outmaneuver whatever move Fang had in mind. Unfortunately, Fang had also seemed to think ahead.

As Vincent was sliding on the ground, he looked up and saw that there was a vibrating Electronic Eye pointing down at him. He changed his game plan and immediately braced for impact. And he was definitely impacted.

A vibratory force, much like the weight of water, pushing down on a diver, rocketed down and took the breath out of Vincent. Below him, the ground cracked and shook, as the vibrations moved through him and into the ground. After the initial impact, he felt his body slightly shake as he quickly stood up.

Looking around, Vincent found Fang kneeling on the ground, slowly getting up. There was some dirt on their clothes and they were about 10 feet away.

That’s kinda weird, I wonder why he’s all the way over there? Vincent wondered. I don’t think I moved that far.

As Fang stood up, they laughed a bit and bushed themselves off. “Man, I still need to get used to this. I can’t believe I flew this far back. The knockback on these things are rough.”

“That was strong stuff,” Vincent casually replied, cracking his neck. “Let’s get back to it.”

With a smile, Vincent began to rush in, once again. Unlike last time, he didn’t even make it halfway there before something happened. Fang banged the Electronic Eyes together, like symbols, and they began to violently shake back and forth. They then slammed both of them to the ground, which saw immediate results.

Like a sudden earthquake, the ground began to vigorously jerk back and forth. That caused Vincent to slightly lose his balance and slow down for a second. Before he could advance anymore, the shaking reached its apex, causing a tremor to tear through the ground in a straight line. Still a bit off-balance, Vincent jumped out of the way of the crevasse, narrowly avoiding danger.

Whew, he thought, that sucker is like 4 feet deep. Looking back at Fang, Vincent saw the sly smile across their face.

“You’re not going to be able to get close, Vincent,” Fang called out. They then bashed the Electronic Eyes together and they once again began to reverberate.

“Oh really? What makes you say that?” Vincent half-smiled. He then reached down towards the torn ground and picked up a piece of rubble. He then wound his arm back and began to throw the rock at Fang. Just as the rock reached his fingertips, he created a void at the end of his hand that propelled the rock even faster.

As it flew through the air, Fang’s eyes seemed to narrow and focus. Before it collided with them, Vincent watched as their vibrating arm snapped up to block the projectile. The rock then hit the still-shaking disc, shattering before it completely made contact.

“It’s too bad I’ve already seen—” But before Fang could finish that statement, Vincent was already in melee range. It worked. Vincent didn’t plan on that piece of rubble hitting them, but he did plan on using it as a distraction. He then wound back his arm, felt a chilling sensation make its way through his body, and prepared to unleash a starbreaker.

With their other Electronic Eye still up and vibrating, Fang used it to haphazardly block the incoming strike. The starbreaker landed, causing Fang to be shoved back a number of feet. However, at the same time, the vibrations that weren’t absorbed by the void impacted Vincent, also causing him to be launched in the opposite direction.

Both of them tumbled as they hit the ground. They stood up quickly, now with a good bit of distance between them. With an equal look of respect and amusement, both of them stared at each other and let out a quick laugh.

Vincent hadn’t had that much fun in such a long time—he had forgotten what pure, primal fun was. He kept his eyes locked on Fang and taunted, “Ya like that little move? I almost got you, there.”

With a smirk still halfcocked on his face, Fang replied, “You know what? I liked that move so much that I think I’ll give it a shot.”

Vincent curiously looked at Fang as they reached down and grabbed a handful of rubble and tossed it into the air. They then wound their arm back, across their body, much like they were preparing to backhand someone. The moment the rubble dropped in range, Fang swung their arm forward. The vibrating Electronic Eye slammed into the rubble, firing them like a shotgun blast towards Vincent.

Vincent drained everything else in his mind, only focusing and thinking about the immediate threat in front of him. Although he didn’t think about it, his body started to shiver a bit from how frigid it was feeling. His primal senses heightened, and his whole body was focused on the barrage that was coming towards him.

In that instance, time seemed to slow down for just a second. He didn’t know why, but he could almost see where the pieces of rock were going to end up. He couldn’t ponder the feeling, but he understood that it was a weird sensation. He knew that he wasn’t directly predicting where the rocks were going, rather he was anticipating the intent of the attack from Fang. He didn’t fully grasp what that meant, nor did he have time to.

Either way, he managed to twist his body around most of the incoming projectiles, dodging them completely. However, the remaining few at the end were coming in too fast for him to maneuver around. Instead, he raised a hand and created a void at the end to shield himself from the rubble.

As the last piece of debris collided with his void, he got rid of the void and smugly said, “Did you really think that was going to—” But in his hubris, he fell for it.

Fang Nola was already in the middle of launching their next assault. Vincent saw more rocks in the air and Fang’s other arm wound back. Their entire body was wavering back and forth, especially the Electronic Eyes.

In a fraction of a second, before Vincent even had time to react, the pieces of rubble were once again rocketed in his direction. He had no time to concentrate, no time to focus, and no time to prepare himself. Purely using his instincts, Vincent reached both arms out and created large voids at the end of them both.

While they did a pretty good job at protecting him from the attack, the lower half of his body was not so lucky. A few pieces crashed into his legs like bullets, causing his knees to buckle. He fell towards the ground, barely keeping himself up on a knee.

As he looked up from his kneeling position, he saw the shadowy figure of Fang looming over him. Shit, he panickedly thought. How the hell did they make it over here so quick? However, it was too late for such thoughts.

Fang clashed their Electronic Eyes together and swung them downwards. If he didn’t do something fast, Vincent knew he was done for. And so, he sank even lower, tapping into his cold and empty powers, and unleashed a starbreaker right back at them.

As the two unstoppable forces met, the collision sent reverberations scattering through the entire Collider. The ground quaked, the air thrummed, and the vibrations that resulted from it gave most of the audience headaches.

As a result of the colliding attacks, Fang was sent flying and back through the air. Vincent was forced down into the ground, popping and cracking a few bones. The force was so heavy, that Vincent spit up a little blood. In addition, his nose and ears were bleeding, and his head was ringing so loud that he couldn't even hear himself think.

He then stood up, albeit pretty slowly, and tried to orient himself. The world around him was spinning, and his head was throbbing like never before. His entire body wanted to stop, but his very being wanted to keep going. In that dissonance, he found something that he was missing. While his will was always there to always move forward, his body wasn’t always in line. In that moment, he found that his mind began to act like a connecting link, bringing harmony to the other halves of him. It was bizarre, but in his broken and beat-up state, he had never felt more put together.

Looking up at his opponent, he saw that Fang was almost all the way on the other side of the arena. They weren't physically doing much better than him, at least on the surface. They were hunched over a bit, breathing pretty hard. They had both of their hands resting on their knees and there was a bit of blood dripping from their mouth, which they quickly wiped.

The one thing that stood out to Vincent was how Fang’s body was acting. It was slight, but he noticed that their body was twitching. It wasn’t from pain, or at least it didn’t look like it, but rather it seemed almost natural. He had never seen Fang twitch, so it was a strange sight, although he didn't think too hard about it.

Eventually, both of their eyes met and locked onto each other. After a few seconds of intense staring, they both nodded in a knowing way and righted themselves at the same time. With each of them taking a step back, they charged headfirst at each other.

The ensuing few seconds would be the most adrenaline-filled and strenuous in all of Collider’s history. Attacks were launched one after the other in a flurry of might and power. Starbreakers were unleashed one after another, colliding with attacks from the Electronic Eyes.

With each collision, each of the fighters were pushed back a little, but they both held their ground and pushed themselves right back into the fray. With each impact, the very atmosphere of the arena rippled and twisted against the resonating result of the blows. Dust flew in every direction, cracks formed at the center of each clash, and the spectators were blown away each and every time.

However, one of them had to emerge victorious...and one of them did. After what seemed like hundreds of attacks in the span of mere seconds, Vincent broke through Fang’s defenses. With a wild roar, he launched a starbreaker directly at the smiling of Fang.

It cleanly hit them in the face, causing them to be pushed back a few feet, collapsing to the ground. As Vincent walked over to Fang, who was still lying on the ground, his figure loomed over theirs.

With one eye still open and a smirk ever-present on their face, Fang quietly whispered, “You’ve grown so strong, so fast.”

With the same look, Vincent happily replied, “And it’s all thanks to you.”

Fang then closed their eye.