Round 1: Preston Andrews vs. Sarika Warren

Preston took a step back as a dark cloud erupted from her fingertips and wiped his forehead from the heavy heat. She really was determined to pull as many old nerdy references out of her ass as she could manage, he'd give her that. Maybe if they weren't trying to kill each other, the two of them might have hit it off or some shit. The fog indeed make it's way towards him, but he wasn't too afraid. In the Hunger Games, they were in a rain-forest or some shit, with lots of water everywhere on the ground, with little to run.

Here they were in the middle of the scorching savanna with nothing but open plains, giving him plenty of room to move still. The young man took a few more heavy steps back seeing his glaive pierce the ground. It was in the fog and still piercing hot still it seemed. Whatever, he didn't need it. "How about I cut you a deal instead?" Pres shouted back after her, running at a strange diagonal, narrowly avoiding the fog as it spread more and more thinly out. He wanted to get as close as possible to her, refusing to be the one to flee. Why did he always get the ones who liked running away?

"Either you just call it quits right now and save the pain from that pretty face of yours," a bit of the darkness hit his shoe, burning through like acid and causing him to leap back, gritting his teeth and holding back a few choice curse words. Fuck this. "Or how about you just die already?!" For a third time, he struck away at her, fiery blue streaks piercing through and over the dark fog.

Okay. Now was a good time to focus. If Sarika focused hard enough, she would be ale to pull off a feat that would change everything. 'Just a little more...' 

But she didn't have enough time. She heard it before she saw it. Lightning so hot just a simple touch would scar. All Sarika could do was curl in a ball before she knew things would end soon. As she closed her eyes and grit her teeth, she put all her power into condensing darkness into a solid - what would be a perfect shield - around her body. Her plan failed as she felt a hot, piercing pain worse than anything else she had ever been subjected to in her foot.

Sarika opened her eyes, fearful of what she would see, but soon became confused. She couldn't see anything. With a quick thought, she dispersed all the darkness, and looked away from her body. She must've looked like shit. Instead, she stood up and glared at Preston. He would pay for that.

As she drew up her bow,she made a decision. All or nothing. Conjuring up so much darkness and making it a solid took a lot of focus. Her earlier plan didn't work - the shield took too long to condense - but the arrow would be easier. Instead of a normal-shaped arrow, she aimed at Preston, shot, and there was a lingering ribbon of darkness that she quickly grabbed onto. The end result was an arrow made of darkness that reminded Sarika of a tadpole. It would be fun to see Preston try to get out of that. 

"No. You die."

He could feel the blood oozing from his foot as he danced through the dead grass, doing his best to hide his wincing as he lowered his hand. By the way she cursed and hopped around, it seemed he'd gotten her own foot as well. One for one. Preston could've laughed then, but he was left watching curiously as the girl withdrew all her darkness away, attempting to summon it all around her in a strange manner. Or so it seemed before she was thrown off guard, shooting him a dirty look.

Pres didn't wait around to see what else was up her sleeve. As soon as the fog had cleared, he'd seen his weapon stabbed into the earth, all her power seemingly drained away. He broke into a sprint for it, or at least, ran about as well as he could. From the corner of his eye, he spotted her dock her strange arrow and made a quick dive through the earth, letting the attack soar overhead. Thorns and bristles dug up against his skin, but he couldn't bother to pay them any mind. With a quick roll and a groan, his glaive was back in his hands and he pulled himself back up onto his feet.

He wasted no time in coming back towards her, running past the strange dark ribbon with determination blaring in his eyes and sparks crackling across his skin. He refused to lose now.

Preston would collide with Sarika any minute now, so she did the first thing she thought of. Seconds before he would have stabbed her, she condensed all her remaining energy into a shield, made of both demonic power and darkness. "Time to end this!" There was no going back now. Either Preston would move out of the way and she would only have her weapons, or he would collide with her and they would both go down (but Sarika was resistant to her own powers...) and there would be a winner.

He chose a third option.

Preston might not have had the power to do much to her shield with his glaive alone, but he still had a gift of his own. And after years of training with the school, he still had plenty of gas in the tank that he was willing and ready to use. In the blink of an eye, he turned blinding, enveloped in snakes of electricity that whipped around him, turning his weapon a tint of red and making his hair stand up on ends. "About time!" He snarled. With a single thrust, he pierced into her shield, the energy all around him surging forward into the darkness before him with a deafening thunder.

Sarika knew she would have to sacrifice something to win. So she did. As soon as Preston's glaive pierced her stomach (which wasn't bleeding thanks to the heat of the blade), Sarika released her hold on the darkness, but only just enough. Instead of completely dispersing her friend, she let it wound around her and Preston as a fog. 

'Eventually he will be too numb to move. An eye for an eye.'

For a brief moment the two of them stood there, he had felt his blade pierce through his shield and into her stomach, and to him she had seemed rather lost - or perhaps that was just his imagination. As she began to move again, the dispersed shield changing shape, Preston took a firm step forward, turning the blade in his hands and thrusting it upward, twisting it deeper into her - closer to her heart. He'd tried this once before the last tournament. The Autumn told himself he wouldn't it fail him this time.

The fog surrounded him both and the pain soon became excruciating, seeping through his clothes and his skin, he tried to hold his breath and hold back a scream. It didn't work. And in that blinding moment, he put everything he had into his last attack, sending the electricity coursing directly through her body from the inside out. With luck, it'd be enough to kill her instantly, and spare him enough time to end the match before the fog did him over.

Sarika knew what Preston was going to do. He was going to electrocute her. With her last thought she aimed the darkness at Preston's face and nose before she passed out.