“What happens now?” Ian asked. “Do we have to wait for the first one to regain consciousness? Does Sty keep his position as rank 2, while Numba gets upgraded to rank 3?”

“I’m not sure.” Izzy shrugged. “The rules state that a fight is over once someone is knocked out, or when they remain on the floor for more than ten seconds. It’s been double that length, yet both badges remain unchanged. Maybe the system just hasn’t been programmed for this type of scenario.”

Seeing how no one was doing anything, one person decided to act. Jumping over the rail guard, he rushed down to the main arena. Without any hesitation, Gary knelt down and put his head towards his friend’s chest, searching for a heartbeat.

“You guys call yourself teachers? Don’t you know anything about care? Just because they’re both Altered, doesn’t mean they’re not human! Come down here and check if that guy is okay as well!” Gary berated the adult.

The students were a bit stunned by the green haired teenager’s action, but they knew he was right, and it sprung the teacher into action. He reported something into his collar, and a few moments later, both students were being taken away on stretchers.

‘I hope Numba’s alright. That last attack of his was powerful… but it was also a double-edged sword. Accelerating towards his opponent made this attack stronger, but the force of his legs jumping added to Sty’s attack when getting hit as well.’ The Werewolf analysed as he watched the two disappear.

For the rest of the day, the other students were theorising about how the teacher would judge the outcome of this match. Many assumed that the adults might have the two of them enter a sort of rematch to clarify who was the stronger one. Others thought that Numba might just get automatically assigned rank 3, or that the current rank 3 would have to defend his position against the Goat Altered.

However, everyone agreed on one thing, and that was that the current rank 15 Altered deserved a position in the top 10. He certainly was strong-willed and determined, putting off many that had intended to challenge him before today’s performance.

Towards the end of the day, an announcement gathered the students in the main hall. All the teachers appeared in a military-like camo uniforms. It was strange to see all of them in one place, and even more surprising was the fact that there appeared to be only ten of them in total.

Standing in the centre in front of everyone was one who wore a red beret hat. It was clear he was the leader of the supervisor teachers. The whispers of him possibly being the one in charge of the entire facility quickly spread, though it was impossible to tell since this was the first time he had appeared in front of the students.

On the stage, slightly behind the leader of the supervisor teachers, were Sty and Numba. Gary, seeing him, was happy that his friend seemed to be doing okay. His head looked fine, and only his cheek was still a bit swollen, but nothing that wouldn’t heal in a short period of time. However, one thing that did worry the Werewolf was the look on the Goat Altered’s face.

“As you’re all aware, there was a fight between two contestants earlier today, one which seemingly ended in a draw. I’ve called you all here today to clarify the matter. After reviewing the match in its entirety, we have decided to declare the outcome of the match as void due to the interference of a certain student!” The leader of the supervisors stated.

“Did someone interfere, I don’t remember that happening?” Heads started to turn and whispers were shared amongst the students. Seemingly having expected this reaction, a clip started to play above the lead supervisor, showing Gary run towards an unconscious Numba.

“This student has interfered in the ongoing match between his fellow students. As most of you should be aware of, only us teachers can conclude any match. However, since the responsible student has not been here for long, and his reason for interfering had been deemed to have been a selfless one, we have decided not to punish him. Nevertheless, this match will be regarded as if it had never happened.” The man concluded.

‘Wait a second… did he just say that I was the reason the match voided?’ Gary thought as his brain was starting to process what had just been said. Looking over to Numba, he also understood why he looked so unhappy and frustrated.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Izzy complained loudly. “We all saw the match! We all saw that both of them had been knocked out for over ten seconds! There was absolutely nothing that Gary did that would qualify as interference under any definition! He just came forward because he had been concerned for both of their health!”

The lead supervisor listened to her nonchalantly, before he simply stated. “One void match won’t make much of a difference in this place. If your fellow student deserves that rank, we’re not stopping him from earning it by fighting once more.”

Izzy understood there was no use arguing with the man, but she was still miffed that the school would make such a decision and blame Gary, of all people. With the announcement over, the supervisors returned to their usual position.

Numba and Sty also went their separate ways, but not before the Fly Altered made a snide comment. “Didn’t I tell you that staying with that friend of yours was a bad idea? You got lucky once, but don’t for a moment that I’ll fall for a trick like that again! Good luck, and see you tomorrow.”

The Goat Altered didn’t even react, still too downtrodden about his loss. He simply walked over to the waiting trio. When he finally reached the others, his arms flopped to his side in defeat.

“I’m sorry Gary… I really wanted to win. I really wanted to win so the two of us could go through together. If I won that fight today, then I would have been able to pass with you today. We both could have held our ranks for the full week after the assessment. I tried so hard, I tried so hard.” Numba said his legs were getting weak as it looked like he was about to fall to the floor and on his knees, but as he was falling his head had hit a solid chest.

“It’s okay, Numba… you got cheated… and I have no clue why,” Gary replied with gritted teeth. “Since those bastard are blaming me for your loss, let me be the one to fix this situation. We’re going to leave here together, and that piece of sh*t fly won’t be able to stop us.

“Numba, I challenge you to a fight!” The Goat Altered lifted his head confused, but Gary’s eyes told him to just trust him, so he accepted.

A few moments later, there was a change on a certain badge, which was suddenly displaying the number 3.

“What the…”

*****

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