The katana collided with Eva's spear, resulting in a loud explosion that shook the arena, and she was flung back following the explosion because of the tremendous force of Claude's attack. Claude on the other hand, landed gracefully on the ground, and immediately shot forward, heading for Eva who was still in the air.

"Damn it! I can't lose! I have to take my revenge!" Eva was pissed. She definitely wasn't expecting this. And from a junior no less! She had promised herself that she would avenge her brother, and yet here she was, on the verge of losing to a junior. This was humiliating to her!

She twisted her body in the air and landed on the ground by planting both her feet and her hands, and raised her head up only to find Claude who had appeared right in front of her with a devious smile. 

"Sh*t!" Eva cursed out loud, and at the same time, multiple blade lights shot out from her palms and headed towards Claude!

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Claude easily deflected the hastily thrown blade lights using his katana and continued his descent downwards. Eva, who had bought herself a few milliseconds using the blade lights immediately sprung backwards, missing Claude's strike by only a hair's breadth. 

BOOM!

Claude's katana struck the ground instead, causing another explosion and flinging dust and debris all over the place. But just a split second later, Claude shot out from the dust filled spot, cutting through the air and heading towards Eva, who had just found her footing on the ground.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" She cursed out loudly once again and swung her spear right towards the fast approaching Claude as countless streaks of lights burst out from the tip of the spear!

"You're going to be needing a lot more power if you really wish to defeat me, senior sister!" Claude said with a devilish grin on his face and he swung his katana, cleaving through each and every one of the spear lights without even losing his speed. 

ZOOM!

Within a few milliseconds, he had appeared right in front of Eva once again. 

"Take this!" Confused and angry, Eva screamed loudly as she stabbed towards Claude, who was standing right in front of her.

"Too slow. You've got to improve more, senior sister!" Claude ducked his head down in an instant, and the spear stabbed just the air. 

Claude then immediately moved his katana to his weaker hand and balled his dominant hand into a fist, and punched her right in her stomach.

BAM!

The tremendous force of the punch flung Eva backwards, and her body bounced on the ground repeatedly before she could control herself. When she finally stopped her motion, she found that she was gasping and wheezing for air. 

"Pah!" She suddenly spit onto her hand, and found blood on her palms. 

"For f*cks sake..." Eva gritted his teeth. She was frustrated. She had only thought about Leroy Wayne as her opponent, basically considering herself as the winner of this match before it had even started. But reality was different, and it seemed like she wasn't even going to get a shot at beating Leroy. Nothing was going according to her plans, and she was angry.

This was bad, she thought to herself. She needed to find a way to win, and she needed to be fast. Otherwise, her defeat was basically guaranteed.

"Don't lose your focus! I'm not done yet!" But before she could even formulate a plan, Claude had once again appeared right in front of her, and swung his fists.

"Don't think that the same attack would work again on me, punk!" She screamed loudly as she raised her spear and stabbed at his fist.

BAM!

The two attacks collided with each other, resulting in a burst of air that shot out from the centre, but right then, Claude swung his weaker hand that was holding the katana and slashed it right at Eva, aiming for her chest.

The attack was too sudden and it was unexpectedly close to its target. Eva didn't even have a chance to react.

BOOM!

A bright light shot out from the katana as it struck Eva, followed by a loud explosion that flung Eva back in the air once again.

Claude looked up in the air and clicked his tongue. "As I expected, my weaker hand is less powerful at dealing high level attacks." He knew that Eva still wasn't unconscious, which meant that the fight still wasn't over yet. But he didn't look annoyed.

He clenched his fists and smiled, and as the spectators watched, his figure disappeared from everyone's view yet again.

Whoosh!

Claude reappeared right above Eva, with his katana raised high up in the air. 

Goddamn it! Eva cursed in her mind. She couldn't even defeat someone who's a junior to her. And it looked like he was just playing with her and not taking the fight seriously at all. How on earth was she planning on beating Leroy? 

"You can't defeat me!" She yelled out and immediately raised her spear high up in the air, as a bright light began enveloping her. "One strike!" She whispered into the spear, and in a split second, she had transformed into a stream of light along with her spear and shot up towards Claude, who watched the whole event happening right in front of him with a wide grin on his face.

"Your techniques are extremely similar to your brother. I must say, it's very impressive!" Claude said as he held up the katana to receive the strike!

Whoosh!

The bright streak of light shot towards Claude, colliding with the katana with such intensity that the entire sky was blinding to even look at!

Claude pushed his katana upwards in mid-collision, and the bright streak of light turned direction in an instant, deterring from its intended trajectory and grazing Claude by, but not before Claude extended his hand and grabbed at the light from its side, like Leroy did.

BOOM!

A burst of air shot out from Claude's hands as the bright light disappeared in an instant, and a struggling Eva appeared in his tight grip.

"But just like your brother, you're going to be defeated!" Claude said with a smile as he pulled back with his fist and swung it hard, aiming right for Eva's chest.

BAM!

The punch was so ridiculously strong that Eva's eyes rolled back and she gasped for air, and her body shot down like a meteor. 

Zoom!

Right after he landed his hit, Claude's body disappeared from everyone's view once again, and reappeared right next to the falling Eva."You know, I'm not as strong as Leroy, so this might take more than a punch..." He pulled back his fists. "But I assure you that it'll end the same way as his fight!" He smiled before punching her right in the face!

BOOM!

Eva crash landed right in the middle of the arena, and an enormous amount of dust and debris flew out, causing the spectators who were standing near the arena to have to step back a few steps in order to not get engulfed by the dust storm.

"Woah! What the hell? That was just too powerful of an attack!"

"Seriously… I can't believe that Claude is actually this strong! Perhaps he might even have a shot at clenching first place in the contest!"

"I can't wait for his future fights. I'm sure it's going to be just as exciting as this!"

The crowd began to whisper with one another. They were impressed by Claude's skills and techniques, and most importantly, his power.

"Oh yeah! I'm definitely going to enjoy fighting him!" In the spectators stand, Russell Davies had a wide grin on his face. 

"That's only if you are going to be matched up with him in a fight," Wilfred Beldon said, and Russell turned to look at him with an annoyed expression. "What do you mean by that? As long as he doesn't lose, our fight would be inevitable. Or are you suggesting that I might lose before?"

"You do realise that there's only four people remaining, right?" Wilfred Beldon turned his head towards Russell and smiled. "And that's including Javier Banderas over there."

Russell shifted his gaze towards Javier, who turned his head to meet his gaze. Wilfred Beldon continued, "So there's a chance that you might end up facing him first, rather than Claude!"

Both Russell and Javier continued staring at each other, never breaking eye contact. 

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to defeat you," Russell said with a grin, and Javier narrowed his eyes.

Back in the arena, a figure stepped out from the dust storm. It was, of course, Claude Rayforth, who raised his katana up in the air as the crowd erupted into cheers!

Elder Kenneth walked up to the unconscious Eva, and after making sure that she was not in critical condition, he walked over to Claude, raised his hand, and declared, "The opponent has been knocked out! Claude Rayforth wins!"