~Chapter 4- Ruben's Turn~

Ruben ascended the stage. Khab took his wrestling stance while Ruben lazily put his rocky arms up. Tyro kicked the drum, and the two began.

The stalky wrestler began to circle Ruben, but the young Densius simply stood in place, as if completely unaware that they were fighting.

Khab circled behind, while Ruben left itself completely unguarded. The stalky man wrapped his limbs around Ruben, trying to lock up its movements. Khab threw an arm across its stone neck and squeezed hard to try and choke it out, just as he did with Temp. Khab held him there, soliciting Ruben to tap out.

Ruben gave a stony smirk. Clearly he never fought a Densius before. Khab was astounded at how long Ruben was able to handle being choked out.

"You know, Densius don't need to breathe like everyone else," Ruben said.

Ruben fell back with all its weight directly onto Khab, who wheezed with the impact. The boulder child quickly stood to its rocky feet and landed a quick punch to the incapacitated Khab.

Tyro banged the drum to signal the end of the bout, "Point to the Densius! Khab, you're out!"

Khab left the stage, disappointed in himself. There were only two students of the Fighting Academy left. Ruben was certain it could beat Khab, but really wanted to fight Tyro. He wanted a real fight with him after their brief match at the tournament.

Aero laughed, "Between you and Temp, the rest of us aren't going to get a chance to fight."

Tyro did a limber stretch and stepped onto the stage, "Alright. I'm your next opponent."

Ruben looked at the little girl still sitting on the sidelines who had been meekly watching the matches, "What about her?"

"Don't worry about her. I'll give you and your friends more than enough to contend with," Tyro said as he motioned Kika to stand by the drum.

Ruben thought it curious, but was fine with it. Tyro was the one it wanted to fight anyways, better to cut to the chase. Ruben wasn't fond of fighting a little girl anyways.

Tyro took a familiar sturdy stance, and Ruben took a solid stance to match it. Kika kicked the drum, and the match began.

Tyro lunged forward with a swift and powerful punch, a gust of wind following him. Ruben sidestepped the blow before tucking its limbs around its boulder-like body and rolling around the ring, circling Tyro. Even he didn't know how to attack Ruben like this.

Ruben took a hard turn and tried to ram into Tyro, but he skillfully jumped to dodge and landed with a surefooted stance. He rarely faltered his defense.

Ruben took another hard turn and tried to ram into Tyro once more. But this time, he didn't dodge. He extended his arms and stopped Ruben's momentum. It kept trying to roll, grinding against Tyro's hands and pushing him back.

Tyro gripped Ruben stiffly, pivoted, and tossed the boulder child off of the stage. Kika kicked the drum to denote Tyro's win. Despite losing, Ruben was proud of its performance.