Orie took a few steps back and turned away from Waramaki who was still on the ground. He finally got his heart to stop racing and his breath was under control. The announcer was about to declare a winner but was suddenly stopped by the hand motion of the referee.

  "That move was something else" Waramaki said with a wide grin on his face as he struggled to get up.

  "Why don't you use it more often"

  Orie could not hear anything Waramaki said, the sound also affected him and his ears were still ringing but he was in a better state than his opponent who was bleeding from the left ear and readjusting his jaw. He couldn't hear anything but he could tell that the match was not over yet.

  The two men began to slowly approach each other, dragging their bodies with the little strength they had.

  "What the?!!" Ellie exclaimed suddenly. She saw something but didn't know what it was, it had no proper shape or form and was akin to a feeling but she was sure that it was detected by her eyes.

  "Is this what the final matches are like?" She muttered as she watched the two men suddenly speed up hit each other with flaming fists.

  Suddenly, Orie and Waramaki no longer appeared to be tired, they were dishing out punches to each other while blocking and evading at incredible speeds. Each clash was a different element from the last and each strike had its own unique pattern that was aimed at ending the match but the two men were just too much for each other to handle.

  The crowd could no longer go wild, everyone was watching with sharp focus, wait for the moment it would all be decided.

  "Where is all this energy coming from?" Ellie wondered as she watched with her eyes wide open.

  "I was very clear that they had run out just a moment ago so how are they moving like this right now"

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  Ellie wasn't the only one asking this question, everyone watching the match had the same thought. The two men went from struggling to walk to clashing so hard that Kojiro's barrier kept breaking. The storm in the arena was stronger than it was when the match first started, and the mood of the crowd had gone from excitement to worry.

  "AUTOPHAGY" Victor said in response to Ellie's question

  "What's that?" Ellie asked

  "Their energy reserves have been long depleted and they are burning their own flesh as fuel with every strike"

  "The energy released is powerful but this act cannot be kept up for long"

  "They will both end up on the ground unless one of them yields quickly"

  The clash remained intense, an innumerable amount of strikes were sent out from both sides but there was no direct hit, just a few scratches and near misses. The outcome of the match seemed to hinge upon whoever was going to outlast the other but Waramaki wasn't willing to take that chance. He may have had a higher energy level than Orie but he was still an old man when compared to him, his own strikes may have been stronger but Orie was better at taking hits so he knew that if it was a battle of attrition, the odd were against him.

  The two men both needed one thing in order to win, time. Orie had a good chance of winning if enough time passed as they clashed but Waramaki needed time in a different way.

  Using a sudden gust of wind, Waramaki pushed Orie back and also sent himself backwards, then he immediately started gathering flames in his hand.

  Orie saw it and instantly darted back towards him but not in time to stop the formation of the attack, a compressed flame that shot through his shoulder. He was brought to complete halt as it shot through him and hit the barrier behind his, causing a huge explosion and leaving it with cracks.

  The two men looked at each other and made no further movement. They locked eyes for a little while till Orie fell on the ground.

  "THE WINNER OF THE FINAL MATCH OF THE NEW WORLD TEACHERS' TOURNAMENT IS...."

  "FUJI... WARAMAKI"

  There are two things that happen without fail at the end of every final match of the tournament. The first was that the crowd would get extremely loud and excited, people screaming out their lungs as if they themselves had won the tournament. The second was that the moment a winner was announced and Kojiro's barrier came down, the medical team rushed in to take both contestants out of the scene. Orie was strapped with a monitoring device on his left hand and a sealing spray was applied to his deep wound to stop the bleeding, he was then laid on a stretcher and taken out of the stadium into an ambulance. Waramaki, though still standing, could not move any part of his body, they had to also lay him on a stretcher and carry him out the same way they did to Orie.

  The teachers' section of the tournament was over, a winner had been announced, the anticipation had been met with results and the excitement became a silence. All bets were settled and those who placed them went home with their wins and losses alike. Some liked the outcome and some didn't but all could agree that it was a good watch.

  Everyone had worked hard, the organisers, the technicians, announcers, the cleaners and even the spectators who cheered with all their might, they had all worked hard and it was time for a little break before the students step into the arena in a week.

  The tension had subsided but a new one could be felt brewing in the air already, majority of the participating students had begun preparing and the tickets were already sold out, the students' tournament was a week away but it felt like it was happening the next day.