Testing The Power

It was starting to get late. The sun was heading West and close to the horizon. However, that meant nothing for the people who were under the sun. Cain was at the training ground as he awaited his opponent. He was trying to learn his power, and was ready for the worse. Cain stood in the center of the training grounds. He held his hand out as a flame appeared in his hand. It started to grow size, but then receded back to a small flame. He held his other hand out as he made another flame. He did the same with the last flame, testing his control. Cain then moved his hands back to his side. Cain the listened to the calm winds as he then let it push his hair, wind passing by his hair. Cain shifted his leg forward and thrusted a forward palm, releasing a mid sized fireball at a target. Cain saw the target get hit perfectly as he then felt pretty good. Cain then sat down and meditated. He relaxed and decided to take a breather, waiting for his opponent to show.

Aiden entered the training grounds, smoking a cigarette as he noticed Cain sitting and meditating. Aiden ashed his cigarette, scratching his forehead with his thumb using the hand that was holding the cigarette, being careful not to burn himself with it. Aiden walked to the opposite side, flexing his hands, and stretching his body as he waved to Cain. Aiden was prepared for this fight. It had been a while, a few days to a week or so at most, and he was getting a little rusty. Beating Cain was going to help him become a better fighter, so that is what he was going to do. As Aiden entered his stance, his arms at ninety degree angles with his elbows aiming directly toward the ground, one leg slightly in front of the other. He motioned his fingers with his palm up, moving his fingers from Cain to Aiden, telling him to come forth. His cigarette rested between his lips as he called out to Cain.

"You ready kid?"

Cain without saying a word jumped up into the air and preforming a back flip. He landed in a crouched stance, one hand on the ground, the other behind his back. Cain remained calm as he saw Aiden was ready to battle. Cain awaited for the proctor to enter and confirm the battle start. Cain readied himself and analyzed the arena and Aiden's stance.

"..Yes.."

The Seireikai Proctor walked into the Training Grounds and smirked looking at the young Cain and the upperclassman Aiden. He was sure that this battle would be eventful since Cain insisted on battling against him. He rose one hand and spoke in a loud voice to allow both of them to hear him.

"Alright..Cain,Aiden..Are you ready, prepare yourselves."

"I'm ready when you are Cain."

"Cain?"

Cain clenched his hand tighter, the one behind his back. He then lifted his one hand off the ground and made a fist, slamming it to the ground. He stared his opponent dead in the eye and stayed focused. He was ready and awaited the starting command. Cain then felt the wind once more hit his face and flow through his hair, which helped him keep calm.

"Ready..."

"And...Begin!"

As the Proctor called out, Cain used his stance to spring up into the air. He began spiraling as he gathered fire in his open palms. As he spiraled, Cain launched one of the fireballs. It came soaring from the left of Cain heading to right side of Aiden. Cain then a second later released the other, heading to the left of Aiden. He stopped spinning as he then put his right arm behind his back, and the left arm infront of him, as he slowly descended to the ground.

Aiden quickly jumped forward, rolling as he ended up closer to Cain, dodging the fireballs that crashed down behind him. Just as he landed he knew the fight was going to be mid to long range and he had to adapt. He held his fingers out towards Cain as instantaneously and for less than a second arcs of lightning came from his fingers towards Cain, in an attempt to shock him. Unlock his other moves, the attack would most likely cause pain should he come in contact with it.

As Cain landed, he quickly jumped to the side. He just barely dodged Aiden's attack, and knew he had to prep himself more. He saw Aiden keep a distance, and figured he was trying to stay on par with Cain's strategy, long distance. Cain utilized this to use some more of his attacks. He gathered two more fireballs and merged them together, making a fair sized fireball. Cain then threw it up into the air as he then launched a spinning back kick, making his heel hit the fireball. As the fireball made contact, it split into many fire like needles that were small, all heading towards Aiden at different directions. He began to show enthusiasm and was starting to get more pumped up for battle.

"This is one of my stronger attacks, try and dodge that!"

Aiden quickly stimulated his leg muscles by sending tiny waves of electricity into them, allowing him to move with much more finesse as he performed a no handed cartwheel only to land and dash towards Cain. As he dashed he held his hand behind him, thrusting it forward as he sent more arcs of lightning from his fingers. It crackled as it burned through the air, piercing the winds as it soared towards Cain. Aiden was completely into the fight now, it focused more on pure power than martial arts and Aiden was beginning to enjoy the new challenge.

"You know you're gonna lose right?"

Cain tried dodging again as he was struck by one of the bolts. As it made contact, lightning went throughout his whole body. He fell to the ground on a knee as he then looked to Aiden. He then started to smile and it looked kinda of dark and sinister. Cain then slipped his hand into a pouch on his hip as he grabbed out a long chain. He then leaped into the air as he then spun the chain in the air as it began getting hotter and hotter. He used his flame manipulation to make heat, making the chain hot. As steam rose off his body from the lightning, he smiled again and wrapped the chain around his fist. The gloves he wore repelled the heat, making it so he had no damage from his own chain. Cain then soared through the air towards Aiden with a hot and powerful punch.

Aiden pulled out a guardless four fingered nine inch long knuckle knife with a curved blade that is serrated along the edge from his inside vest pocket. The hilt is entirely of steel and the knife looks as though it was made completely from one incredibly thick piece of steel. As he held it up to block Cain's attack, the weapons clashed as Aiden's blade let of electrical sparks as he sent his power through it in an attempt to shock Cain from Aiden's body, through their metal weapons and into Cain. Whether Cain was to be shocked from Aiden's technique or not Aiden, spun and sent a back kick with as much power as he could put into it towards Cain's chest in an attempt to knock him off of his feet. Cain was proving to be a very formidable foe. He was of a much higher caliber than most of the people he has fought, in or out of the academy.

"Heh heh..."

As Cain saw the sparks start forming, he pulled his chain covered fist back, letting the chain slip off. As electricity gathered on it, and he saw Aiden coming in with a kick. He then swung the chain in another spinning strike as he came in to hit Aiden's leg with the electric heated chain, but he took damage from the electric too. Cain however tried not to show some of the pain he took, when he in turn was actually good at enduring most of this.

Aiden began sending more pulses of electricity to his leg as he charged it up enough to cock his leg back, dodging the chain, and letting out another back kick towards Cain. As he did threw the back kick he accidentally dropped his cigarette that was between his lips, but he was able to dodge and throw the second kick before his cigarette could even reach the ground. His leg was a blur and compared to his leg the cigarette was taking its sweet time to reach the ground. Aiden's seriousness took hold as he knew he needed to win this fight or kill himself from exhaustion trying, and he was prepared to do that.

As Cain saw Aiden dodge and launch another kick, he tried to block to his best ability. He took the blow and got sent flying back. When he landed, he kicked up a lot of dust which covered him. The battlefield remained silent, and the sound of a chain then rolling down and hit other pieces of it echoed across the field. As the dust cleared, Cain stood with what seemed like pain. He then put his hand infront of his face as he saw sparks of electricity within it. He then looked to Aiden as he then smiled once more. He was on the verge of losing and was ready to give it his all. The battlefield started heating up as the temperature inside of started to increase."I'm not giving up...not here..." In the next instant, Cain pulled out an old looking revolver from his back. He smirked as he then aimed at Aiden as the battlefield started to grow hotter."This is a new prototype weapon I've been working on. By channeling fire in the chamber, I can shoot...well you can guess the rest" Cain then pulled the trigger multiple times as he began launching bullet sized fireballs moving at high speeds towards Aiden, but also taking a stance in case Aiden tried getting up close.

"Well now..We got a Marksman, this is gonna be interesting." The Proctor said with a smirk looking at Cain's customized gun that shot flames instead of bullets. Normally he would have called an illegal move but since it was an altered weapon and it did not actually shoot real bullets, he decided to see how it played off. He began to think to himself if the weapon was a way for him to channel his already limited powers, if so then it was a surely impressive way to do so.

"Ah shit..."

Aiden quickly held his hands up with his knife inverted in his hand as he began trying to dodge and slice at the bullets but this proved to be futile, his clothes was being torn, his skin was being grazed and burned and he needed to move. Aiden quickly used his lightning altered speed to run at Cain while sliding to the left and right as he attempted to gain ground towards Cain. Before he could gain enough ground to be within close combat range, Aiden put his hand behind him as it began to spark with a semi-vehement look about it. He rushed his hand forward as he yet again sent a larger discharge of electrical power towards Cain, propelling from his finger tips and hurling with incredible speed towards Cain. Aiden held this attack for about a second and a half, although by the end of it his fingertips began to painfully smolder, showing that Aiden was unable, atleast for the rest of this fight, to attack with that hand.

Cain started to get used to the lightning shots, and he was able to recognize when Aiden was to launch an attack. Using this knowledge, he dodged the lightning from hitting him, as he then jumped back a bit to gain a little bit of distance. As he was in the air, he spun the chamber as fire began spiraling within. Cain smirked as he kept feeding fire into it making it into one grand attack. Cain started to show signs of exhaustion as he began to breathe heavy, but he wasn't ready to give up. As the chamber kept spiraling, Cain pulled the trigger as a large fire blast emerged from the gun. It spiraled into a double helix that ripped through the air and kept growing larger by the second.

"Take this!"

Aiden quickly jumped to the side, in an attempt to get out of the way of the attack. As he jumped, the double helix of fire grazed his side, and some of his back, burning away some of his vest and shirt. He forced himself to rotate in mid-air as he landed on his back, sliding to a halt. His shirt was now in shambles and he had slight burns on the left side of his stomach and back. As he stood up he tore the rest of his shirt and vest off, revealing the highly toned upper body of Aiden. From the surviving portion of his vest he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. The pack had one left and Aiden took it out, putting it in between his lips.

"Guess I gotta go buy more." Aiden thought to himself as he snapped his fingers, lighting the cigarette with a spark of electricity. Aiden still had his knife in hand as he held it, still inverted so it faced the ground, and protecting his knuckles with its knuckle guard. Aiden went into his boxers stance as he looked at Cain with a happy yet tired look on his face. He motioned to Cain with his fingers telling him to come closer.

"C'mon big guy, lets find out who the stronger of us is."

"Sorry to refuse..." Cain then shot some more fireballs off that all came in to attack Aiden. Cain started as well to shoot off around the area of the Aiden, in case he tried dodging. He saw this battle was starting to take a toll on the both of them, and knew it was drawing to an end. Cain then created another fireball in his hand for defensive purposes, should Aiden come into attack close quarters. Cain however kept firing off, until many small fire bullets came in towards Aiden.

"I'm gonna need the damn Infirmary after this."

Aiden held his hands in an X shape in front of him as he used the last of his exhausted energy to augment his muscles one last time as he moved as though he was a blur toward Cain. As he ran the bullets of fire began to strike him, causing burns on his arms as well as shoulders chest and stomach. In a last ditch effort to win the fight, Aiden threw his knife at Cain after charging it with electricity in order to stab and shock him should it come in contact with his right thigh, being that his right thigh is what Aiden aimed for. Aiden used this as a distraction however as he continued to force his burned body to move towards him, attempting to strike his chin with a fierce uppercut.

Cain saw the knife coming in towards him as he then blocked with his revolver, however, knocking it out of his hand and behind him. He then noticed Aiden charging at him as he figured he was going to try and end it here, and it was the same for Cain. Cain then as well charged forward as the fireball in his hand grew larger and larger, until it was very large. As he closed in towards Aiden, he closed his fist as the fireball then covered his whole fist, down to his elbow. Cain saw they were he was closing in with Aiden as he then took the uppercut sending him a great deal of pain, but as he was struck by the uppercut, he launched his fist at Aiden's torso, sending a quick fire filled punch at pointblank range which would cause second degree burns at best.

Aiden felt a burning sensation in his stomach as his cigarette fell from his mouth. He grabbed at his stomach, having trouble as he began to stagger and sway as he took steps back away from Cain. His vision began to blur as the many burns on his arms and torso began to take a toll on him. Aiden was satisfied with himself. He did not know if he had won or not but all in all it was one great fight. Aiden fought with himself trying to stand as he attempted to see where Cain was, albeit his vision was far from good at this point.

As Cain was sent into the air, he landed on the ground face down. However, he then tried stand but he staggered and dropped to a knee. He breathed heavily as he showed he couldn't even stand, being that he just went all out. Cain smirked as he then gave a thumbs up to Aiden to show that he was pleased with the battle they just had. Cain then however fell over on his back. He dragged himself as he grabbed his revolver and chain, placing them into his side pouch. He then shortly after closed his eyes and passed out due to extreme exhaustion and pain.

Aiden smiled at the passed out Cain. He technically been conscious longer than Cain and yet Aiden still had doubts about who had won the fight. Aiden looked around the floor, finding the half smoked cigarette that had fallen out of his mouth. To his surprise it was still smoldering. Aiden staggered over to it, picking it up to continue to smoke it. As he inhaled he had a slightly content look on his face. Aiden turned towards the Proctor, holding his stomach with one hand and his cigarette resting in his mouth.

"I didn't do too well did I, Proctor?"

"You didn't have to go that hard on him but I guess that you won that one.."

"Sorry Proctor, I guess I just got a little bit too into it y'know? Anyway, I'm going to head over to the Infirmary, I'm hurting in places I can't even name. See ya Proctor."

Aiden began walking to the door, stumbling and staggering as he walked. On his way to the door he picked up his knife, putting it in between his belt and his pants. Cain was even better than Serena, either that or Aiden was losing his touch.