A few minutes pass and suddenly, a tournament matchup tree gets shown through a bunch of holograms. In the arena for the people to see and in every changing room for the participants.
Raiden says: “Aw poor you. I’m on the side with Enzou and you’re on the other. So whatever happens, you’re either getting a rematch with me or a fight with him but not both.”
Ketsuki replies: “Then so be it. But you’re not fighting him in the first round. If you don’t focus on the enemy right in front of you, you’re not going to make it far.”
Raiden smiles: “Oh you’re worried about me all of a sudden? I promise I won’t disappoint you.”
“WEEEELCOME DEAR AUDIENCE, I HOPE YOU ARE ALL READY FOR THE DUEL PHASE OF THE TOURNAMENT!!”, the moderator screams.
“Today there will be seven fights in three rounds because of the eight fighters who survived the battle royale round! And do you want to know what’s special about today? FIVE NEWCOMERS MADE IT THIS TIME!!”
The audience cheers loudly and Atsume, Erika and Shurui are getting hyped for the fights. The crowd cheers after every sentence he shouts.
“Since this is an illegal underground event, you’re not allowed to film any of this!! Seriously don’t try it because we’ve got mercs that’ll kill ya!!”
The audience cheers again and the moderator starts: “Please welcome the fighters of our first duel today!! On this side, we have our legendary: ‘Burning Fist - ENZOU’!! He’s the current champion of this club with his unprecedented winning streak of 17 months!! And today we’ll see if he can defend his title, yet again!! On the other side we have: ‘Sting Lady’!! She is already a well-known participant from the previous two tournaments and has proven to be quite strong! This will be the perfect battle to inaugurate this month’s tournament!!”
The audience cheers once more and then they get silent to let the fighters concentrate on the fight.
“You don’t stand a chance, Fist! I’ve acquired new moves that’ll defeat even you!”, Lady shouts.
Enzou only replies while smiling: “Whatever you got up your sleeve, that won’t work on me Ocriba girl! I know that I’m way stronger than you and that’s all that counts!”
He charges his fists with flames, just like Raiden does with his lightnings, dashes forward and tries to punch Lady’s tentacles with his “Burning Fist!”. She dodges and tries to retaliate at Enzou with her tentacles. Before any hits land, they throw out lots and lots of attacks. After quite some time, Enzou finally lands a hit but Lady uses her tentacles to protect herself with her “Sting Shield!” and looks like she’s letting him hit. It’s just now that Enzou notices little thorns on her tentacles. He backs away with a surprised look on his face and sees her grin. He looks at the puncture wounds, then notices that there are more in his face.
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Enzou thinks: “I don’t even need to find out what effect those thorns have. I just know that something will eventually happen to my body and I need to end the fight quickly!”
Lady takes the time to explain and Enzou listens: “Ha! How do you like that, Fist?! I won’t fold so easily like last time! I’ve injected poison into your blood! It only lasts for about half an hour but after three to four minutes, you shouldn’t be able to move anymore. Every time you hit my ‘Sting Shield’ these three to four minutes will become shorter.”
Enzou shouts in response: “None of that matters if I punch you into the ground before that!”
He goes into offense and tries to hit once more but he focuses on dodging way more than before. He gets hit twice and realizes an attack pattern, so he finally figures out how to dodge the tentacles. He tries another “Burning Fist!” but misses the attack.
He backs away again and Lady asks him: “Why are you backing away again? Can’t find a way to defeat me quickly? You’re scared aren’t you? You’re impressive winning streak might end in the first round!”
While the girls are watching the fight, Atsume asks: “Are those poisoned tentacles universal powers of Ocribans?”
Shurui explains: “Nope. Those are her own powers. Are you asking because you want to know if you could copy them?”
Atsume replies with a smile: “Yeah! Wouldn’t it be super cool to have that ability?”
Shurui asks back: “Do you really not have such a common species as a shift yet?”
Atsume explains: “No, no, I do. I just thought she might be of some special race among their species.”
“Well, looks like I need to take this a little more serious.”, Enzou says as he stops moving.
Lady looks confused and Enzou makes a hand sign just underneath his chin, puffs up his cheeks and blows. Out comes a big fiery fist which he calls “Flying Fist!”.
Lady thinks: “That’ll hurt!”, and dodges the fist but then notices three more coming her way.
She keeps dodging to the right three more times and it has now become predictable where she will be. Enzou rushes in and hits Lady with another “Burning Fist!” right in the stomach. She spits out some blood, gets blown against the boundary wall of the arena and faints. The crowd cheers loudly as he raises his fist in the air. Not everyone is cheering though as some people bet money on Lady.
In that moment, Raiden stands up in the changing room to leave and says to Ketsuki: “I’d prefer it if we could get a rematch to decide who really deserves the authority here!”
Ketsuki asks: “Is that what our fight would settle for you?”
Raiden replies: “Well, I could then order you to never kill someone under any circumstances.”
Ketsuki gets annoyed: “If you bring that up again, I’ll kill you. I always try to not kill someone. Accept that already.”
Raiden doesn’t reply and just waves goodbye as he leaves the room with a smile.
