A/N: Shout out to MangaStoryFan for the sketch of Metallic above!

Last chapter, the crew met for lunch on the second day of the ticket to Dalkan event- in which Seric broke down and headed back to the crews private room after being reminded of what's at stake. Quilline also told a interesting story from her past that she called "creepy" in order to break the silence after Seric left.

Finally, later that day the third game of the ticket to Dalkan event began- which is a fighting tournament, with a few extra rules added to it so that every fighter has a chance, no matter their weight-class. Amandeath won her first round, then proceeded to win her next two rounds which brought her to the semi-finals of the game- with her current opponent being Popshot.

Amandeath's P.O.V.

"Hey again. Sorry that I'm gonna have to beat you here, you seem pretty strong from the matches of yours I've seen- so I'm gonna have to go all out. The offer still stands for me to sell you the ticket if I win this whole event by the way." Popshot says with a grin as he bends down and sticks his clenched fists out in front of his face.

"We'll see." I mumble as Domino announces my name again, then start thinking, "Right- Seric said Popshot's blessing let's him throw a punch or kick, then freeze his entire body in place while his limb is still in motion, and then unfreeze himself a second or two later to make the punch or kick hit way harder. Sounds like a weaker version of my blessing, but he'll be using his at full strength unlike mine... that's if he is using his blessing though, it technically isn't allowed. Buuuut he probably will be, since it's not like many people have ever registered their blessing with the governme-"

"GO!" I shake my head when I hear that, and Popshot surprisingly doesn't take the chance to ambush me. Instead he just stays on his side of the stage, while hopping up and down and stepping side to side slightly.

"Hmmm- he's about my height but a lot more buff. Might be able to push him around still though, let's see." I think to myself, then run at him with my palm out to pretend that I'm gonna grab him- but he doesn't even flinch. Instead of blocking or dodging my fake-out he throws out a quick jab, which slams into my chest just before I jump back.

"Watched your matches Amelia, I know your tricks." Popshot laughs as he sticks to his side of the arena.

"Wait- what if I got him disqualified for using his Blessing? I'd have to prove it though... which based on what Seric told me, would probably be kinda hard." I think to myself after taking that punch, since that quick hit already did some damage even without his blessing. The pain feels good at least, but this isn't looking good for my odds of taking the win.

"Your odds are better trying to-" I interrupt him by side-stepping and hopping past Popshot over to his side of the arena. Just before I land though I can see him swing his leg out towards me, then freeze his entire body in place.

"Ohhhh dear that's his blessing."

I land, and stumble towards the energy barrier that surrounds the arena just before his blessing powered leg launches right into where I was standing less than a second ago.

"WHOA- how'd you kick so hard there? Doesn't seem natural." I exaggerate my surprise to start up my plan of getting him disqualified, which makes Popshot shake his head and frown.

"Are you usi-" I get interrupted by Popshot lunging at me, and he throws a punch right at my face- which I manage to dodge as I push myself to the side and off of the energy barrier.

Popshot also subtly froze his body in place mid-way through the punch that missed to use his blessing, so I take the chance to step back towards him since I'm already out of the way of his hit, and-

"Ouch! Right in the calf!" Domino's voice blares as Popshot's leg slams into my own leg, guess the punch was a fake-out and he was charging up a kick instead. Fucking WOW that literally knocked me onto my ass, Seric wasn't kidding about how strong his blessing makes his hits.

No time to enjoy the pain though, Popshot's already on the ground trying to keep me pinned down on my half of the stage. More specifically he's wrapping his arm around my neck so tightly that I can't even talk, and he's got the rest of his body lying on top of mine as well to help keep me trapped.

I manage to wiggle one of my arms out from underneath him though, and then jab my finger tips into the side of his neck- riiiight where a pressure point should be.

"Ow!" He cries out in pain as his whole body jolts, and thanks to his weakened grip- I slip the rest of my body out of his grapple while he's trying really hard to pull his neck away from my fingers.

After a few seconds I fully crawl away from him- then kick myself back up again right after I unjam my fingers from his neck.

"If you promise to shut up I won't be as aggressive here." He says with a serious face, with both of us standing on his side of the stage now.

"And if you promise to play fair I won't have anything to talk about, bless-" Before I can even finish my roast he's already lunging at me again with his fist out- damn. But he freezes mid-stride, while making it seem like he's just being funny- and also doing it in a way that would be possible for almost anyone to do physically.

"Must have a lot of practice secretly using his blessing." I think to myself as I move to grab his frozen-in-place arm, but before I can pressure point him he swings a quick jab at my face with his other arm- huuuh? That un-freezing time was way too fast, he must've just pretended to use his Blessing there- which I guess Seric did warn me about too.

"Ugh I should've seen that coming, those pills must be screwing with my head for real." I think to myself as I step back onto my side of the arena by accident- damn.

Plus I don't even get the chance to rub off the blood from my nose before Popshot is coming at me again. I raise my arms up to deflect his hit- but instead of punching me, he steps forward and wraps his arm around my neck with a tough ass grip.

And yet again his grapple makes it hard for me to breathe, let alone even move- but at least we're standing up this time I guess.

"Might get disqualified if I go for his eyes." I think to myself as I compromise and jam my fingers into his neck, and at the same time Popshot throws a punch at me with his free arm. But right when my hand gets deep into his neck, his whole body freezes- including his punch which stopped just before it hit my chest.

"Ohhhhh shit, he definitely didn't freeze-up because of the pain." I think to myself with a bit of concern after realizing that Popshot just used his blessing, and more importantly that my pressure-pointing did nothing to him while he's frozen up. Which probably means that he can't take any damage or pain while he's charging up his blessing, would've been great to know in advance but oh well.

I start squirming and kicking his shins to try and get out of his grapple or maybe sweep him off his feet, but it doesn't make him move at all, and-

"AUGH." I gasp for air as his blessing powered punch slams into the lower side of my chest, and my vision actually goes blurry thanks to the pain. All I manage to do after that hit is stumble back against the energy-barrier that surrounds my side of the arena, since that small monster let go of my neck whatever damn reason.

"FUCK where did he even hit me to make the pain not even fucking enjoyable?!" I think to myself as I try to catch my breath and force myself to stay standing, kinda feeling queasy as well which is NOT fun at all.

"Look Amelia. I didn't want the fight to go this way, so please, this isn't fun anymore- just give up. I just hit the area around your liver, which is meant to hurt a LOT and kinda shock your whole body. Small chance it could lead to some pretty nasty long term injuries, so you should really surrender now so that you can get a medic to check you out." Popshot pleads which only pisses me off even more- and hey, would you look at that. The pain's allll gone now, which can only mean one thing.

"Ohhh yeah, this brat'll be the perfect way to see how my second blessing will react with those reaction-boosting pills I took." I think to myself after using my last bit of sanity to realize why I'm suddenly getting "better" now.

The crazy amount of pain I took there must've hit the threshold that activates my second blessing, AKA the total painkiller. It does make me lose control and get really pissed at the same time as it gets rid of my pain- but I don't care. All I have to do is beat Popshot to a bloody pulp anyways, don't need any brainpower for that- ha!

Popshot's P.O.V.

"You good there?" I ask as Amelia is staring at me with crazy-eyes that are open super wide, and she's gritting her teeth too. No- she's not gritting them, she's... grinning?

"Um... Amelia?" I try talking to her again. I mean yeah, liver shots are technically allowed in this game so it's not like I'll be disqualified or anything. But still- this is making me look bad I think since the crowd is dead silent, so I should probably do a bit of damage control.

And so I walk up to Amelia to check on her since there's no way she's walking after that hit anyways, and then-

"Whoa!" I scream as she quickly steps towards me and swings her hands up at my face, and I'm about to shove her backwards- but no. I get forced to grab her hands and hold them away from my face instead.

"She's trying to gouge my damn eyes out!"

"What on earth?! Amelia's still in the game folks!" Domino's voice blares as the crowd goes wild, definitely not a time to be cheering though- she's gotta be killing her body to keep moving after that hit!

"Cut it out, you need help from- the medics!" I struggle to say as I pull my right leg up and slam it into her own right leg, but it does nothing to her at all except for making her stumble down a little bit.

"Why should I, no rules against blinding you after all are there?" Amelia whispers after she stands back up to her full height not even a second later. And even worse- she starts digging her long nails into my hands while I'm holding them away from my face, which makes me grit my teeth as she starts scraping them through my skin which makes me bleed pretty bad- OW!!!!

"KEEP COOL, I just need to knock her out." I think to myself as I swing my head forward, then use my blessing to freeze my body in place- which thankfully takes the pain away and makes me immune to any physical damage. For now.

"Go." I think to myself after only charging up my hit for one second so that I don't look like I'm using my blessing at all, and then un-freeze my body. Doing that obviously resumes my headbutt that slams into Amelia's face, at a bit less than double the force it normally would have. Wish it could've been stronger but, it'll have to do.

And thankfully it does make her stumble back again at least, as even more blood pours out from her nose that's totally broken now...

"Definitely disoriented her, but sheesh she still isn't going down..." I think to myself as I watch Amelia stand still with her head drooping down.

"I'm gonna kill you." I just barely hear Amelia mumble, as I take the time to shake my hands- which are still hurting and bleeding a lot from her digging into my skin.

"She has to be on drugs or something. The hard kind probably which Adesia always warned me about. Bummer, Amelia seemed kinda coo-"

"You're still going?!" I shout out as Amelia stumbles towards me like a zombie, with her entire lower face being soaked in blood at this point. Honestly I'm equally as impressed as I am freaked out now, drugged-up or not I don't think I've ever faced anyone this stubborn before.

I walk over to Amelia's side of the arena before she can reach me- and she sloppily throws her hand out at my chest, which I deflect super easily with the back of my own arm.

"This'll do it." I think to myself as I grab the arm of hers I deflected just before she can pull it back. Then I raise my free arm up before she can even react at all- and launch it at her face to finish her off with a classic jab to the head.

I stop the hit mid-way through it's motion though before it hits Amelia, so that I can power it up like crazy with my blessing. Gonna charge this one up by staying frozen for at least four seconds. That'll end this once and for all with around triple the power, and it's not like she can hurt me when I'm frozen. Or get free from my grip at this point either.