Steelia turned her head to face Adrian, looking around the arena. The sound of his voice in her head sparked an anger in her skin. Adrian, just let me fight to the death in peace, you jackass. Her breath came in great gulping waves and the pain was making everything fuzzy. Li-... you. You made number one? The news seemed to be a weight off her shoulders. Asshole! Now I really can’t lose. Fuck you. She straightened up, her skin screaming where she moved, which was all of it. I can’t hear a word that guy’s saying. Look at him lecturing me…

Mythos was in the middle of a very deep, very kind-looking sermon, at the end of which, he gave her a kind smile. “So, Steelia, you really should give up. You don’t belong in the number one position. You’d be eaten alive. I don’t even think /I/ want it. I really tried to avoid hurting you like this.” he seemed to wait for an answer.

“Shut your bitch ass mouth,” Steelia yelled, a little too loud. “I can’t -and haven’t been able to- hear a word you’re saying all match! You deafened me 20 minutes ago, idiot! Shut up and do something already!” Now I have to win. He’d flatten this guy like a crepe… She’d forgotten for the moment that he could hear her, remembering with a start. I think I’m getting my second wind! Mythos looked visibly startled, but he stretched his arms out, beginning to chant. Steelia could see he was summoning more orbs. “NO!” she screamed, hurling the morning star in her hand at him.

Mythos managed to narrowly dodge, but it caught him up the center of his forehead, leaving two deep scratches up it, causing him to scream unbearably loud, the orbs dissolving into the air. He covered it with his hands, and removing his hands from his forehead, there was blood on them, and a very large, wide open eye in the center of his forehead, and it was bleeding. Steelia saw him screaming at her, and this she understood. “You BITCH!” he was screaming. Steelia spoke that language very well, even without sound. Ha! Yeah, you’re speaking my language now, you unholy piss bucket. Steelia found the angrier she got, the more foul and creative she got.

She saw the flow of energy in the arena changing and something big occurred to her, watching the tiny bombs disappear. With the temporary loss of his eye, his powers were now out. He’d snapped his weapon in two, and now he couldn’t use his powers. He took a step back at the look on Steelia’s face, as she started running towards him, one hand clamped over his eye. He said something Steelia couldn’t hear, waving his hand at her. She stopped. He seemed to repeat it over and over and over, babbling something at the end. Steelia couldn’t understand it, but Mythos was begging and admitting defeat, trying to make her understand. 

Medics flooded onto the field. They clapped their hands onto her ears and then her arms, and suddenly Steelia could hear the overwhelming, deafening sound of the crowd screaming as loudly as they could, shaking the entire arena almost with their energy. Her body mended quickly, taking away that unbearable pain in her limbs. Steelia felt disappointed, staring up at him as she dropped to her knees. “Why did you give up?” the question was difficult on her lips. She’d never been so disappointed in her life.

Mythos didn’t answer her. He didn’t stick around for the interview, either, he turned and walked out the moment he was healed, disappearing quickly. Steelia was stupidly, angrily, overwhelmingly enraged and there was nowhere to put it. Her hands clenched the dry dirt on the floor of the arena, and she felt like she had won without earning her win. The crowd didn’t seem to notice Steelia’s inherent disappointment with the results, they were too busy screaming and chanting her name. The announcer stood her up and held up her hand, and the crowd got twice as loud. Steelia didn’t even bother to look at the audience, she kept her gaze fixed on the ground. Why did he give up? He could have kept fighting. He still could have won. Steelia felt the microphone being thrust in her face, and she knew he had asked her a question and she was overwhelmed and overenraged, and she turned away from it, beginning to leave the arena.