Mateo swung around straight away, trying to figure out if Xaawo was more of a danger to him than the six players going out of their way to kill him. He tried quickly regaining his senses, and felt something brush against him, to his left. Elijah and Valerie weren't visible, so it was them. As he turned to his left, Elijah leapt out of the bubble Valerie had made, orange lines coursing through his hands. Mateo stepped back, and Elijah fell flat on his face, his hand hitting the ground. The piece of metal floor his hand landed on turned a light orange, but nothing erupted into flames. He cursed before seeing Mateo stand over him, his gauntlets summoned and swinging a fist down. But Blair stood between the two, brandishing her inky knife upwards and forcing Mateo to redirect his fist. instead of following up, Blair started breathing erratically, barely noticing the snakes coiling around her leg until it was near her thigh. With full force, she was flung across the room and made to drop her knife, landing alongside Elijah, both feeling the pain of the metal floor hitting their heads.
"Tedros, you're up!"
The two landed in front of Tedros and Ines. Tedros jumped in front of Ines, grabbing her waist and holding her to his side. A mild upside to her being so frail was that she was relatively light for her age, so carrying her across the room wasn't hard to do. He quickly placed two dots on the left side of the room, before dashing to the other side of the room, ducking under Elijah's swipe and sweeping the leg to trip him in the middle, alongside a kick to Blair's stomach to force her on the ground. He placed the last dot, and the pillar erupted from the two dots on the other side of the room, barely missing Elijah when he came back up.
Tedros ducked underneath the pillar and returned to where he and Ines were before Elijah and Blair were flung towards them. He didn't know the full extent of Xaawo's powers, but he could lure someone on the other team, perhaps Blair, over to this side. He'd fake being in danger in the hopes Xaawo would come in to save him, and then trap her in a pillar by 'accident' and once that was done, Blair could land a killing blow, and one god would be down.
Valerie was alone, staring down both Mateo and Xaawo, and internally declared this wasn't worth it. She activated the invisibility field and fled back towards the others. Ulysses was still stood shocked, and Latrell was glancing over her shoulders to make sure nobody was coming for them. Gabriela just made a body double, interally instructing it to crawl under the pillar Tedros made and punch until it hits someone. The double did just that, meeting Tedros and Ines. Ines was the first thing the double recognized as human, and so it landed one precise strike on Ines stomach. Ines heard the strike before she felt it, but it felt like her entire body began to condense into one point at her stomach before the pain spread to the rest of her body, forcing her against the wall. Tedros got in front of her before the double could do any more damage, trying to land any hits on it in case it did anything. It was obviously better at landing blows, and Tedros could do nothing but defend himself and hopefully Ines in the process. The real Gabriela jumped over the pillar, landing on Tedros and knocking him over. The double went back to attacking Ines while she attacked Tedros, forcing Mateo to slide under the pillar and throw the double attacking Ines into Tedros pillar and land several punches until the double stopped moving, fading into the air. Unfortunately, the weight seemed to be too much for Tedros pillar, and that also faded away. Mateo ignored the other three, trying to get a bruised Ines back on her feet. Ines felt like several of her insides were in the wrong place.
"Okay, Mateo?" Tedros asked. "I have an idea. You take over protecting Ines."
Tedros dashed away from the duo, into the crowd of Latrell, Ulysses, and Natalie. The two girls would be useless for his plan, so he grabbed Ulysses by the head and dragged him to the opposite end of the warehouse. Xaawo watched with a smile on her face.
"I'll need help taking this one down, you're helping me!" He commanded. Xaawo responded with a puzzled look, like she wasn't certain where this was going. But something told her this man had another plan he wasn't willing to share. But it was nothing she couldn't handle, she wasn't Junichi levels of oblivious.
Tedros repeated the process of making another pillar, turning around to a terrified Ulysses and punching him in the face. Ulysses looked in horror as he felt the first drops of blood drop from his nose, but before he could process what was happening Tedros was landing more punches. Latrell and Valerie both tried helping, but Xaawo turned her hands to snakes and quickly discarded them, deciding to stand by Tedros as he beat Ulysses.
Ulysses tried getting some focus as Tedros continued to beat him, and noticed he was slowing down between punches as he raised his arm. He didn't think to question it, and was slowly able to find a tear under reality to break into a black hole. Once it started, a look of fear hit Tedros face, and he let go of Ulysses to try and run away. He accidentally tripped, pushing Xaawo into the growing black hole. She protested as she was pulled in, and a terrified Ulysses ran away after Tedros.
Xaawo was right. Tedros plan was to 'accidentally' get her in a position most likely to kill her without actually going against her team. It was obvious enough to warrant him being penalized. But he was amusing enough to keep fully limbed, so she'd overlook it for now. Besides, he spiced things up by creating a death trap, she just had to get someone else inside of it.
Latrell noticed the shift in gravity at the other end of the room, quickly looking back and seeing Ulysses portal with Xaawo stuck inside it, and Ulysses himself running out. Tedros too, but he didn't bother trying to land a hit on them, just looking back and feigning shock at his divine teammate's predicament. Tedros continued past them and towards Ines, jumping over Gabriela in front of Ines. Gabriela was tapped on the shoulder by Latrell, and notified of Xaawo. She touched the double, instructing it to keep aiming for Ines's stomach. So it did while she ran back to land a final hit on Xaawo.
The double upped the intensity on Tedros and Mateo in an attempt to hit Ines, who in turn tried throwing it to the other side of the room. But it would always come back in a snap, often lunging immediately to hit Tedros or Mateo. Both figured it was a matter of time until one of the other team died with the black hole, so the defensive was the best option. Ines, however, knew how to get an early end to this fight.
She jumped in front of Tedros as the double went in for a kick to the stomach, dropping her body down and taking a full hit to the face. She felt her body fly into the wall with a mighty thud. Her senses felt dulled, and she was a little surprised her head didn't burst. But her nose started dripping a torrent of blood. Exactly what she wanted. She blew her nose to get a bunch of blood on her hand, immediately smearing it on the warehouse walls. There was a shaking, and a face emerged next to her, it's expression one of concern to the smiling woman already dropping from blood loss, watching as Mateo fought off the body double as well as Elijah, still trying and failing to jump out and light him or Tedros on fire. It only took one hit from either of them to leave him lying on the floor for a little bit.
"Collapse near the opposite end, please." Ines whispered to the living warehouse.
"Of course deary!" The warehouse said in a motherly tone. "And get yourself cleaned up after this!"
The warehouse began to shake. Gabriela, who was striking Xaawo in the black hole, stumbled for a second, and Xaawo quickly coiled her hand to a snake, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her into the hole. Ulysses tried closing the hole, but the world kept shaking around them. Latrell quickly pulled him back as the support beams began falling. Xaawo quickly used her snake arm to latch to a falling one and pull herself out of the hole. Her trousers were destroyed, but she herself was perfectly fine.
Gabriela tried desperately to claw her way out of the black hole and Ulysses tried his best to close it, but to no avail. The foundation of the warehouse was quickly destroyed, and one support beam hit her square on the head, and she fell over before that half of the warehouse collapsed on her. Ulysses held out some semblance of hope, but the double stood in place for a few seconds, before collapsing on the ground and fading out a moment later.
"Yeah, she's gone." Xaawo said, slightly panicked. "Let's bounce."
The remaining players all ran out. Mateo had to pick up Ines as she passed out. The warehouse collapsed a few seconds after the end, leaving everyone stunned.
Ulysses looked on at the wreckage, not even able to see the damage he caused. Latrell put a hand on his back to tether him to reality. Elijah and Valerie took one look at the wreckage and decided to head home. Mateo walked off with Tedros while carrying Ines. After a while it was just Ulysses, Blair, and Latrell. But Blair silently excused herself and went home.