Halford expanded the barrier around himself, pushing everyone around him back and almost smothering the rest. He was no longer toying with anyone, he was fully pissed off and looking for someone to target, landing on Elijah and Valerie. Elijah flipped him off the second their eyes met, and Halford lunged towards him the second he undid the barrier. Elijah wound up a punch, letting his fingertips light up. He swung horizontally across as soon as Halford got into range. As he guessed would happen, Halford put a shield up. But as Elijah also guessed, he was too focused on him for whatever reason to realize his invisible friend.
Valerie was able to quickly latch her hands under Halford's shoulders and land a kick to his back, and when he turned around, Elijah was able to infuse his clothes with flames, setting him alight. A rule he learned from leading the Spades. Make your opponent mad, and you've almost won already.
The flame was small, and Halford had to put a barrier over him to stop the spread and quickly pat it out. He backed away, but Leon hooked onto him and pulled him towards Mateo, who landed a second punch right into his face.
Ines knew she just needed one move, one attack to finish him off. So, she placed her hand on the warehouse once again to give a new command.
'Collapse on top of Halford' she thought.
"Got it, Ines." The warehouse replied, still keeping the macho attitude she gave it. If it had any issues about being asked to die, it said nothing, and she could sense nothing. She just heard it exhale, and the world began crumbling around them.
The falling started where Halford was, with Elijah and Valerie quickly running to the other side. As Halford got up, he was hit straight in the head by a falling support beam, his eyes glazing over right before he slumped over, and the rest of the warehouse fell over him. A small hole crumbled behind Ines, letting the others escape. And as they all witnessed the warehouses destruction.
"Wait, did we kill that guy?" Ramon asked, looking at the others.
"Seems like we did?" Elijah said, still cautious.
"Wait a minute."
Tedros tapped the barrier that surrounded the warehouse. Still up. Hopefully, he was dying and the barrier would fade in a few minutes. But caution was the most important thing here.
But like he guessed, some rubble started moving. Halford emerged with a barrier around him, his head bleeding. He was stumbling, clearly with some kind of leg damage, even it didn't seem broken.
"I think it's time to wrap this up." He said, trying his best to remain composed. He lunged at the group in a full barrier, which Mateo tried breaking with one more punch. Halford ducked under it, undoing the barrier for one quick second when he could grab Ines, and throwing her to the ground. He put his hands over her neck and set up another barrier around them. Ramon began pounding his fists on the barrier, trying anything to break them out. His breathing increased, almost sounding like snarls. Ulysses tried opening another vortex underneath them, and it worked. Halford either didn't bother or didn't think to extend his barrier below him, so it expanded. Everyone took a step back as it expanded to beyond the barrier, watching both Halford and Ines sink into it. But Ines was on the ground, getting swallowed up before him. Combining that with Halford's continued strangling, and she would die way before.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Ramon screamed at Ulysses, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Stop it, she's dying in there!"
"I'm trying to, I'm trying to!" Ulysses replied, panting as he tried to remember how to stop it.
Ramon just watched, snapping his head between Ulysses and the barrier. He saw Ines grip around Halford's hand loosen, and her eyeballs began to retreat into her head. Even the weird toy she had on her was stopping his attempts to jump on her attackers head, just flopping over.
Screw it, he thought. He splashed some blood over at Ulysses, with it landing on the back of his neck. Just as he realized what hit him, Ramon clenched his fist, and the blood exploded.
The vortex slowly stopped. Halford's grip loosened as he looked over to what was left of Ulysses. The back end of his head was completely gone, and the front end merely flopped backwards. Ramon and Mateo ignored it in favour of checking if Ines was alright, while the rest huddled around the corpse. Valerie threw up, and Elijah looked at the new guy, sizing up what he'd have to be dealing with soon enough.
"Well, it seems finally including player twenty was a good idea." Halford said calmly as he joined the circle, picking up Ulysses. The exposed brain caused Tedros to join Valerie in vomiting.
And Halford casually stepped into a portal, leaving the rest to find a way home.
When Tedros was done wiping the vomit off his face, he went to inspect Ines. Her breathing was erratic, but it was slowly getting more stable by the second. Glyle was completely fine, meaning she would at least survive.
"So, guess I'll get Ines back to her house." Mateo announced as he picked her up. "Ramon, you coming?"
"Uhh…I'll pass, for now at least." Ramon replied softly as he held his hands up, almost like he was surrendering.
"Don't wanna talk to your parents?" Tedros asked.
"Look, I'll need a way to explain why I just left them for two years, okay?"
"Checks out." Elijah nodded. "Anyway, challenge is over. Get out of my hideout."
"Oh, so I can't stay here?" Ramon asked.
"Where were you planning on staying?" Valerie asked.
"Dunno. Wherever looks nicest? I checked the forecast, it's not raining tonight."
"Yeah, we don't just let anyone just hang out here." Elijah added with folded arms. "Especially you guys, so get out."
"Crap, guess I'll hang out with…Leon."
"Good idea." Elijah nodded as he smirked to himself.
"What?" Leon replied.
"Look, you live in a two bedroom apartment with some guy named Jay, right? So I can crash on your couch, right?"
"For tonight, I guess." Leon replied, glaring at Elijah.
"Alright, lead the way." Ramon said, patting Leon on the back. Leon just grunted in annoyance, leading him out.
As they left the junkyard, two people were staring in disbelief. One was holding a camera of some sort.
"What was that?" One of them asked.
"Eh, you see people filming stuff all the time, it's probably not too important." Ramon replied nonchalantly.