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CHAPTER 5
Darious was observing the battle between Garret and Lucille high up in the upper stands when he felt it.
"Whoa, impossible...." Darious commented, completely surprised and startled. He had been watching as Lucille delivered a devastating energy blast at Garret when he felt the enormous power surge that made the energy blast seem weak in comparison.
"It can't be," Darious said to himself unbelievingly. "That power... I knew he had improved, but--" Darious was astounded. "His power level is close to rivaling even mine. In such a short time period. I can feel his power even from in here." Darious couldn't help but marvel at his young apprentice's power. He was proud to be his teacher, that was for certain. And he was even prouder that perhaps he and Kimao were right about him after all.
The match was over. Lucille completely overpowered Garret. But Darious wasn't even paying attention. He was too busy monitoring Amarene's fluxing power levels, stupefied by the amount of energy he was producing at such an early age.
"Kimao will be pleased to hear about this," Darious said finally after Amarene's power level had finally dropped to normal. "She'll be very pleased."
* * *
I made it outside into the arena about twenty minutes later. I figured I had enough time to regain the energy I had lost while powering up, but as soon as I got out there it was time for me to go on.
"Alright everyone!" Papria stated, ready to begin the sixth matchup. She was cute, but she was the most annoying tournament announcer I had ever heard in my life.
"It's time for match-up number five! From our board, it looks like Amarene will be facing off against one of Brimsdale Academy's finest, Treiko!"
I heard a bunch of yelling in cheering from one of the stands to the left. Evidently I guess they all came from the same academy. I heard Terrone and a couple other of my fellow classmates cheering for me from the right, but only because I have super-sensitive hearing. Even with my hearing I was surprised I could hear anything above all of the yelling and screaming.
Without further ado, I casually walked up and leaped nimbly onto the platform. The lights from above blazed down on me, and I could see the electronic message board centered right above the platform, throwing off screens of valuable (or invaluable) information to the audience.
That's when Treiko showed up.
I have to admit, I was mildly surprised at first glance by Treiko. He had a pretty impressive build and probably had me outweighed by fifty pounds. And not fifty pounds of fat, either. Fifty pounds of muscle. This kid was pretty built, but he looked slow. I was analyzing him from the moment I saw him; something every intelligent fighter does before commencing battle.
Treiko powerfully jumped up onto the stage, staring me straight in the eyes. He had cinnamon colored skin and his hair was in some cross-shaved design that's hard to describe. He had a small gold earring in his left ear, and he wore a sleeveless white t-shirt with black shorts. He also wore large black boots; and I almost laughed if he believed he was going to be able to move anywhere wearing that kind of footwear.
"I hope you all aren't telling me this is the twerp I have to beat into the pavement, are you?" He remarked to the announcer, who just smiled sweetly at him as if to say "Why the heck are you asking me?"
Treiko then proceeded to turn towards "his" side of the audience and yell, "HEY! WHAT'S IT TIME FOR EVERYBODY?!"
Almost immediately the response was, "Beatdown!!!!Beatdown!!!!Beatdown!!!" from the audience from the left. There was a lot of clapping, a lot of yelling, a lot of sadistic rude comments like "Pummel his face into the dirt, Trike!", and so on and so forth.
"Um, okay," Papria said, confused and perplexed looking. "Well, if all of that is over with, let's say we get this match started, shall we?"
There was more commotion from the left side that lasted for about twenty seconds. I stood still, concentrating on the foe that laid in front of me. I tuned everything else out, including the announcer.
"Okay fighters. Ready? Begin!"
Treiko turned towards me, his body almost oozing arrogance. He had his pep talk from the audience and I could almost tell that he probably felt like he could take on the world now.
"You know what, shrimp?" Treiko said, grinning. "I'm feeling generous today. So I'm going to let you get in the first miserable hit, okay? I kinda want this battle to last more than ten seconds, you know. I've got an audience to please."
I grinned right back. "Well, that's very kind, coming from someone who probably can't even spell the word 'generous'."
Treiko's grin dropped an inch or so, then it re-rose. "Well, it's too bad your body isn't as tough as your insults, boy. I'm going to let you make the first move, but I'm getting impatient."
"Oooh, another big word." I leered at him.
Treiko was beginning to get angry. Good.
"Okay, I'll just save both of us a lot of time and attack okay?" I finally said, becoming bored with him.
"Your tombstone, man." Treiko sneered.
I raised one hand. Slowly. I only needed one. "No Treiko," I said solemnly. "Yours."
I fired Pyrosphere.
There was a buildup of energy, and then a bright flash. I channeled the recoil of the attack throughout my body as to not put stress on the hand and forearm. A blasting pulse of flaming heat energy soared through the air and collided into the dead center of Treiko's chest.
Treiko slid a couple of inches back, but took the blow fairly well. I was pleased that my first attack hadn't knocked him flat on his back. It would have been highly disappointing if my first match was against a complete weakling.
Treiko came out of his defensive stance and stared me straight in the eyes, smiling. The audience yelled some more in the background, cheering like crazy. But Treiko didn't fool me. He withstood the attack, yes. But that certainly didn't mean it didn't hurt him.
"So, is that all you've got, shrimp?" Treiko sneered. The expression on my face was emotionless, and I gave no reply.
My hand was still raised. I considered blasting him over and over again with the same attack until he wilted, but that wouldn't be any fun.
"Well, I guess my attack was too weak," I said to him, still with no expression. "I guess it's your turn."
Treiko's grin grew so big I thought his face would break. "Ha, it's about time you figured out you don't stand a chance." He said with complete confidence. Then, pushing forward with all his might, he jumped up high and flew through the air towards me, planning on nailing me to the ground with one blow. He was moving so slow I almost cried. Well, not really, of course. But you know what I mean.
Almost comically, I simply turned around and walked away from underneath of the range of the attack. I certainly wasn't going to use up valuable energy by running. And especially not from an attack that a snail could probably outrun.
Treiko hit the ground with his fist with incredible force. The ground split and ruptured, but I was too far away for it to even matter.
That's when I realized that Treiko was just a little bit smarter than what he appeared to be at first glance.
After impact, Treiko rebounded off his hands and flew towards me to deliver a powerful kick. And unlike his last attack, this one was much faster. The original attack had only been a decoy.
Unfortunately for Treiko, it was still moving way too slow to hit me.
I hopped to the left and easily dodged the maneuver.
Treiko landed on the ground, skidding a few feet before stopping. He turned back towards me, enraged that his combo attack against me had failed.
After a while, Treiko recomposed himself and stared at me once more with a grin. "So... you're pretty fast, huh?"
I didn't reply.
Treiko's grin dropped and once more he stared at me angrily. It was clear that he was beginning to lose his patience with me, and that's what I wanted. Sometimes you can't test someone's true power until you enrage them to the point where they go all out.
Just as I wanted, Treiko's rage began to overpower his own willpower. Instead of trying to act all cool and confident like he had been doing for the past five minutes, he looked like he was ready to drop the tough guy act and just run me over. Perfect.
"Alright, fine runt. If you want to play with the big dogs you gotta hit like the big dogs," Treiko literally barked at me. "So let's see if you can hit!"
Treiko pumped his leg muscles and flew at me, attempting to hit me with a power close-line. It would have been way too easy to dodge his attack, but if he wanted to see me hit, he could.
The distance closed fast, and just as I expected, his right arm extended and chopped it's way through the air towards my throat. With lightning quick speed I smacked his arm away with my left hand. My weak hand.
Treiko momentarily lost his balance, not expecting the type of counter move I had just executed. He tried to steady himself by landing on his left foot and striking me away with his left arm. But because of the way he landed he couldn't get anywhere near enough leverage to hit me with any sort of force; even if I did let the attack hit me. I didn't of course, I simply leaned back and let it pass safely in front of my face. Treiko was now wide open, and I now had the opportunity to show him how hard I could hit. I focused back my strength into my right arm, and then hit him with one of the most simple physical attacks I had at my disposal. With one blasting force of energy, I punched him dead center in the chest with Rocket Punch. My fist went deep, and Treiko's expression turned from anger to pure agony. I didn't blame him; I heard at least three ribs crack myself. Treiko was blown backwards at least five feet, landed on his back, rolled onto his stomach, and lay there a while. Papria was saying something, but I wasn't paying attention to a word she was saying. Her sounds were meaningless to me right now.
I laid my gaze on Treiko, who was just now attempting to stand back up. I was relieved. I thought for certain that that one attack had done him in completely without me having the chance to show him the true power I had obtained.
Treiko finally made it back onto his feet, and he was looking pretty mad. He clenched his fists, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his left hand, and was preparing for a second assault. It was suicidal, of course. All I really had to do was just lay in another blow on his already damaged chest and the match was mine. But I had a different idea.
Before he could follow through with whatever maneuver he was attempting, I flew at him with tremendous speed. He couldn't follow my movements at all, and before he knew it my knee collided dead center into his face, knocking him another couple of feet back. He re-steadied himself, but before he could confront me I was already in another location; more specifically, behind him. This time I landed a Mega Kick right into the middle of his back, and he went flying in the other direction. Somehow he still managed to stay on his feet after that, but I was about to make sure that my next attack clipped him for sure.
That's when I started to hear it.
It was confusing at first; I had no clue what it was. It was bothering me because it was distracting, but something was telling me that it was not a distraction but something I should be paying attention to and watching out for. And then that's when it appeared.
Before I could follow through with my next attack, Treiko's body erupted with green energy. The noise became deafening, and it stopped me almost dead in my tracks. I stopped my assault instantly and leaped back away from the resulting shockwave and braced myself. My body vibrated a little and a horrible noise passed by overhead, and then it passed. I fell out of defensive stance just to see Treiko standing fifteen feet in front of me, snickering.
"Heh heh... you're a lot tougher than I took you for, runt." He sneered, barely able to stand. A small trickle of blood ran from his mouth, and his eyes were almost crimson; I'm not sure whether from anger or pain. The green energy glow I had seen was gone now, and I had no further explanation in my mind except that I had just been hit by some strange attack I had never seen before.
"I see you're not too fond of my little special skill," Treiko continued. "It's an attack I designed myself called the Hell Bell Drum. It deflects almost any assault by emitting a wave of high intensity sound energy. You may have the upper hand when it comes to speed, but if you try that stunt again you'll just get blown right back to a nice, safe hitting distance."
I held my ground, simply staring at him. I almost pitied my opponent. He could barely stand, and the clothing that he initially began the battle with had already been nearly shredded to all hell. Yet, he still kept that loony grin, in spite of all. Probably because he believed he finally found a technique that would keep me at bay until he had enough strength to physically attack me again. Unfortunately for him, I had already saw the undoing of his special attack. Right on the ground by his feet, small fissure lines were beginning to form from the shockwave impulses from the Hell Bell Drum. If he continued to use the attack, he would soon find his feet buried under several inches of concrete. That would be my cue to take him down. But first I had to make sure he buried himself deep enough.
Okay, yes, I know, I could have easily taken him out with one super powered blast right then and there, but I was trying to be creative.
I paced back and forth a little in front of Treiko, never losing eye contact. I pretended to act like I was trying to find a way around his strange sound wave attack, even though I knew if I fired Hyper Beam it would literally rip straight through his Hell Bell Drum. Treiko's confidence was beginning to build; I could read the expression straight off his face. That was wonderful for me, though; in some way it would make the taste of victory of this battle even sweeter, even though I was fighting a crappy opponent to begin with.
I stopped pacing, held my ground for about three seconds, and then I struck.
I flew forward at an amazing speed; the distance closed shockingly fast. But Treiko was ready; his Hell Bell Drum was already being fired as soon as he saw me "disappear". I, of course, was also ready. So as soon as I made it within three feet of Treiko I automatically stopped and doubled back, reversing direction. I ended up a shy two feet away from my original striking position, and in front of me I could see the shockwaves being emitted and thrown in a spherical wave away from his body. I was away from the actual impact, but the noise still hurt my ears a little.
"Ha ha ha!" Treiko crooned, snickering malevolently. "Don't you see? There's no way you can get past my Hell Bell Drum, no matter how fast you are. And when you've finally wore down all of your energy, this match will be over. Do you hear me? Over! OVER!"
I took a glance at his feet. The fissures on the ground had definitely become bigger and more defined. Good. Ten more and he would be exactly where I wanted him to be.
I dashed again. Again, he fired the same attack, and again I flitted back fifteen feet around my starting point. I was sure to keep myself in front of him; If I caused him to turn too early my entire plan would be ruined.
Again. Again. Five more times this time. Again and again the same result. I took another glance at his feet. They had sank a good two inches already. The idiot didn't even realize his predicament.
I darted forward four more times, each time the same as the last. When I felt that he had gone down deep enough, I flew forward one last time, but this time I flew straight up and over his head; ten feet into the air and the distance of the jump was at least a good ten feet. I ended up about fifteen feet away from him again, but this time behind him. I waited for Treiko to realize that I was no longer in front of him. It took him a couple of seconds.
"Treiko? Hellooo? I'm over here you idiot." I called out to him. I saw his body flinch, probably at my last statement. I could almost feel the anger radiating from his body. And then that's when it happened.
"You little snot nosed runt! Why I could--"
As far as I could tell, he was trying to spin around quickly to meet my gaze and lunge at me. That's kind of hard to do when your feet are surrounded by three inches of concrete.
Treiko attempted to whirl around towards me, and his body made it, but his legs couldn't join him. With his legs firmly in place on the ground and his body twisting in the opposite direction, Treiko very easily lost his balance. He landed, awkwardly, sideways onto his ribs, and he probably twisted his ankle, too. But the important part was while he was falling like this, I had the upper hand to take advantage and land a K.O.
I flew forward again with tremendous speed. Not only was Treiko too confused and perplexed to use his Hell Bell Drum again, there was no way he could use it now effectively. The ground would absorb most of the attack before it even reached me.
I stopped a good foot away from his body, skidding on my left foot, and then fired a tremendous kick with my right into his rib cage. He literally went flying into the air, and I knew that he was very close to passing out because of the considerable damage I had caused to him in that area already. Defying gravity from the force of my attack, Treiko flew about seven or eight feet into the air; and once his speed finally leveled off and he was prepared to fall back to the ground, I was right there in the air waiting for him to see him off.
Our eyes met briefly in the sky when he finally made it up there to me. There was so much fear in his eyes; it was totally delectable. He couldn't understand how I moved so quickly, or how I had nearly leveled him with one punch. He couldn't understand how I kicked him into the air and then beat him to the exact spot he flew up to in the air, and most of all, he couldn't understand the expression on my face right now. I guess he expected me to act like him; triumphant, completely proud, arrogant. And I had no reason not too; I had thoroughly whipped him this match. I guess he even perhaps expected, if not anything else, an expression of anger and ruthlessness of thrashing my foe. But my expression was neither of these. Throughout the entire course of the battle I had shown a little sarcasm, but for the most part my expression this entire match had been nonchalant and expressionless. He couldn't understand, and in a way I couldn't understand it either. Personality-wise I was usually a smart aleck a lot of the time, and often humorous and sometimes witty. But a lot of the time many years ago I was usually anti-social and completely apathetic, as if someone had shut all of my emotions off. It was something that eventually passed, but as my training recently had increased and talk of the preliminaries had been coming up over and over again, I was focused more and more on how to win and rely on myself and become stronger as a person. And all at once those feelings of self-isolation and apathy began to arise again.
All of this passed through my mind while I was in the air. The whole entire jump-and-meet-in-air sequence couldn't have taken more than a second and a half, yet all of that still managed to pass throughout my mind as I "sat" there in the air, preparing my final blow. I could have simply just let him fall; there was no way he was getting back up from this fall after he fell. But for some reason I just couldn't resist the actual impulse to land a finishing blow. I charged back my fist, and for a split second my mind was screaming to me "Kill him!"
But of course, no, I couldn't do that. And momentarily I was even sickened that I had actually thought that. Had actually wanted to do that.
The blow I landed was fairly weak compared to ones I had landed on him previously, but it didn't matter; in his condition it was still enough to send him flying towards the ground. He hit hard, quaking the platform and shaking up Papria a bit. She had been talking all this time but yet somehow I still managed to tune her completely out.
I landed two seconds after Treiko's impact. Incredulously, the crowd was silent.
It took a few moments for the adrenaline to wear down in my body. But after it did, I began to feel strange. But not different strange. Normal strange. During the battle my body was in a completely different mindset. I was a predator. Nothing else mattered but the prey. And all other emotions besides the ones that would help me defeat my prey were meaningless. But now that that situation was no longer the case, I was back to being my usual self. And the scary part was that was the part that felt like a stranger to me now.
"Amazing! I tell you folks, I don't think I've ever seen a battle quite like this one! The drama, the action, it was simply marvelous! I believe we can all agree that Treiko's not getting back up anytime soon, so Amarene wins by knockout and will proceed to the next round of the preliminaries!" Papria cheered with pure girlish glee. Half of the audience was applauding now and encouraging, and the other half, Treiko's half I've come to call them, were throwing the most horrible of tantrums.
"That was lousy!" "Hey, you know that guy cheated!" "There's no way Treiko would lose to him!" The comments came and came and came.
I don't know why I did what I did, but I just did it. Without even looking in their direction I fired one wave of Mega Flare straight into the left side of the audience.
The basketball-sized spheres arced and twirled and flew straight towards them, and then in a dazzling display of sparks and explosions, detonated right on the safety force shield surrounding the entire audience zone, as I knew they would. The comments from that portion of the audience stopped instantly. A couple actually ducked under their seats, and I'm guessing a couple more may have actually wet themselves.
My action shocked everyone, including myself. But I was well aware that I had done it for a reason. I was becoming irritable and tired of them, and I thought a tiny display of power would shut them up and put them in their place of simply being observers. But doing something like that was usually out of character for me.
Without even waiting to hear what the announcer had to say, I left the platform and took my seat back at the waiting circle, the circle that circumferences the entire stadium and sits right beneath the audience stands. Andrea was still there. She looked at me, surprised, but more intrigued than worried or upset.
"Ha, some show you put on out there, huh?" Andrea winked.
"Yeah, I guess so." I said. I was confused of how I felt at the moment. I felt mixed up.
"Um, if you don't mind me saying so..." Andrea began, cautious.
"Go ahead," I said, curious of her question. "I don't mind."
The paramedics were finally removing Treiko from the battle platform. The other staff was using a new advanced quick dry cement to fill in the pretty holes I made.
Andrea sighed, took in a deep breath, and then began. "You seem a lot different now and on the battlefield than you did before you started. Before you were naturally tense and anxious, but you seemed to be yourself and kept your composure. When you were fighting..." She paused for a moment. "When you were fighting it looked like your entire composure changed completely. It almost seemed like you weren't even trying to fight him. You were... it looked like you were playing with him almost. Toying with him. Like a lion stalking it's prey. Totally confident, expressionless, and ruthless."
I was impressed and surprised by how well Andrea had read me. It was clear that we both possessed a strong sense of character reading.
"So how do I seem now?" I asked her.
She looked at me, cocked her head slightly, and then answered, "Confused."
"Confused?"
"Yes, confused. You look like you can't understand why you shifted yourself to who you were on the field or why you did half the things you did."
I thought for a moment. She was right, though. It was very confusing. I began to think up several excuses; like too much adrenaline rush, because it was a first real actual battle, I was under a lot of stress...
"We will now have the fighters Andrea and Wesley to enter onto the platform!" Papria called out.
"Well, I guess that's my cue," Andrea smiled. "I'll be seein' ya next round. Don't you dare think I'm gonna lose before I fight you."
I smiled back towards her, giving her a thumbs-up. Normally I would have left to go occupy my time and rest before the next round, but I wanted to see Andrea fight. I needed to know what I was up against.
Andrea jumped gracefully up onto the platform. I marveled at her build. Her hair hung loosely, coming all the way down her back. She was at least a whole foot taller than me, and she was more muscular than some of the guys participating in this tournament. Her nails -- or more correctly talons -- on her hands were black and a couple inches long, looking like they could cause some serious damage. Her talons on her feet weren't exposed, but she probably didn't need to use them often anyway; her upper body strength seemed strong enough. Her wings put mine to shame; wings powerful enough to grant flight to her entire body. She had really nice curves, too. That was in no way important to the battle concept, I suppose, but it was another plus on her part.
"Okay fighters, you know the rules," Papria began as usual, citing off her lines. "Ready? Begin!"
CHAPTER 6
Before Andrea and her opponent began to bash at each other, I had a few moments to analyze myself. Lately my behavior was beginning to confuse and scare me. When I first arrived here around the age of five or so, I remember not being very social or expressive. After I began to meet people and make friends (especially Terrone), it passed and I was able to "come out of my shell" so to speak. Everything was fine up until about two weeks ago. I was presented with the term paper for Ms. Dubose's class, my training increased for preparation of the junior preliminaries, and then I began to have horrible dreams I can't remember, except for the fact that they carry with them a negative energy. Ever since then I had been switching between normal, to irritable, to emotionless, and then back to my usual self again. When we were called down to begin I felt normal. After the holloluse I definitely felt way different. During the battle I felt like I was in a completely different mind completely, and now I feel I'm back to my normal self, though shaky a little. I couldn't understand what was going on, and I wasn't sure if anyone else would either. But perhaps maybe Darious could help me later with my problem, or suggest a physical exercise that would help clear my mind.
I cleared my head long enough to re-concentrate my focus on the match and on to Andrea's opponent, Wesley. Once more, I cleared Papria's voice from my mind so I could focus.
Wesley, well, looked just like a Wesley. He wore a simple battle outfit; durable black pants, a white comfortable looking battle shirt that looked very roomy and un-restraining, and no shoes. He seemed to be the type of person you would dress in a business suit and ship off to a cubicle somewhere. I guess there was just something about the face.
I looked at Andrea (at a very nice angle, too) and focused my attention to see what she would do first. It took her only five seconds for her to scan her opponent; I could tell by the way she looked at him. And then after she felt comfortable enough, she decided to go defensive and wait for Wesley to advance. Perhaps she saw something I didn't see; I saw no reason for her not to get the action started herself. But I accepted her judgment and waited to see how Wesley would respond.
Wesley put his hands together in the shape of a triangle and closed his eyes. Nothing was happening at first, but--
That's when the attack formed.
The attack didn't fire from Wesley himself; instead, it came up straight from the ground. Andrea was caught right in the middle of it. A blue triangle of energy emitted from the ground right below Andrea's feet and erupted with force.
Initially I thought there was no way Andrea could have avoided that. However, I soon realized dodging it was never Andrea's intention. She somehow actually predicted his attack!
Andrea actually used the force from the eruption to fly high into the sky. The attack never caused any actual harm to her. It took a few moments to process, but I finally figured out the element that Wesley used was a psychic elemental attack. The psychic element suited him well, I thought. It was a perfect ability type to match him.
Andrea was up about thirty feet, dangerously close to the projection viewer dangling over the center of the platform. I was worried, though. Even though Andrea had somehow managed to read Wesley's move, she was still at a disadvantage to psychic powers in the air. Psychic energy is very effective when it comes to moving things.
But Andrea wasn't about to let a little bit of blue energy erupting from the ground intimidate her. She arced her wings back and dived at such a tremendous speed I could almost feel the wind reverberating from her body. She flew straight towards him, talons outstretched, ready to shred him like paper.
And then he disappeared.
I was stupefied. There was no way he could have moved fast enough to evade my sight. Unless he actually did disappear.
Andrea was totally baffled. She had to stop her assault immediately to avoid colliding into the ground. With rapid, powerful wing bursts, she managed to slow herself to a stop as soon as her feet touched the ground. But Wesley was ready. Neither of us could see him, but it was apparent that Wesley could see Andrea quite well because the instant Andrea touched the ground her entire body was rocked with a blue shockwave that seemed to form out of thin air. There was no doubt in my mind that somehow Wesley had the ability to cloak himself from vision.
Andrea flew several feet and landed on her butt with a thud. She didn't immediately stand to her feet, though; instead she slowly rose while scanning the area in front of her. My first thought was that maybe she was using her other senses to find Wesley's location. It was the sensible thing to do, considering that she couldn't see him. But she needed to act quickly or--
Andrea swung one arm out rapidly and almost instantly a bright wave of energy arced out in front of her. There was an impact, and then suddenly Wesley's figure appeared from the impact out of thin air and fell onto his back, momentarily stunned. I was astounded that Andrea had located him so quickly. She couldn't have used hearing to locate him; I realized that Wesley had never changed his position since the match began, therefore he made no sounds of movement. So how did Andrea figure out that Wesley kept his position the entire time?
Wesley managed to get back onto his feet. He gave Andrea a fierce look, and then in the blink of an eye he was gone again.
I could hear him leave the ground; he was definitely going for an arboreal strike this time. But I couldn't pinpoint his location in the air. I was in the dark. Somehow Wesley was able to move through the air without generating any sound at all.
Andrea stood completely still, staring into the air as if she were looking at something. And then a few seconds later, SMACK! Andrea swung another powerful blow through the air with her right hand and connected with Wesley again. Wesley bounced out of the air, fell, and landed face first into the ground. I was amazed at how Andrea located him. Was it possible that her hearing was even better than mine? Or maybe she was using smell?
"I have to admit, that's a pretty good trick you've got going on, with the disappearing and all," Andrea commented to Wesley, moving her hair back away from her face with a backhanded motion of her left hand. "But if that's the only thing you've got going for you this battle, you might as well forfeit this match now. You shook me up at first because you caught me off guard, but I hope you know I can see you almost as clearly with or without your invisible gig."
I have to say I was almost as shocked as Wesley's expression. I was beginning to admire Andrea's abilities more and more. She could still see him even after he turned invisible? The only thing I could say was that her vision must be incredible for her to be able to do that.
Wesley went from being astonished to just plain mad. I guess lady luck just wasn't on his side today if his first opponent was someone who was immune to perhaps one of his best maneuvers.
Wesley closed his eyes and then began to glow a vibrant blue color. There was a bright flash, and then a new, bizarre, confusing scene blossomed. It was clear that there were now ten Wesleys standing on the field, all glowing, all glaring at Andrea with hatred. I was definitely impressed with Wesley's skills; they were top-notch and seemed as if they could be very potent to some opponents, even opponents who were many times stronger than him. But I could already see that in the end, Andrea's adaptability would give her the victory this battle.
I couldn't differentiate the head Wesley from the copies, but I didn't doubt for a moment that Andrea could. Andrea took an offensive stance this time, ready for anything that the "Wesleys" could dish out. But instead of immediately closing in for an attack, the Wesleys simply all disappeared.
At first I was disappointed. It didn't work last time, and with nine copies Wesley was going to see it not work ten more times instantaneously, I thought to myself. But then I saw his plan. Three Wesleys appeared only a couple of feet in front of Andrea, and she immediately turned towards them, but then they disappeared and five others appeared behind her. She turned to them, and then they disappeared and several others simply began to appear and disappear all around her. I could tell Andrea was confused; all the images were beginning to throw her off. But now with the movement I could tell which were real and which one was the real deal Wesley. Wesley was leaping to and fro around her, dropping and lifting his cloak on and off like his cloned counterparts. The clones, as far as I could tell, weren't even really solid; they made no sound when they moved. They most likely were simply projected thought images that appeared and disappeared to Wesley's will.
Pretty soon Andrea was surrounded, enclosed in a circle of copies and one real Wesley. I figured out which one was Wesley easy enough; the accelerated heart rate and breathing registered quite nicely in my superhuman hearing. But did Andrea know?
All at once, the Wesleys began to all raise both hand simultaneously and charge. A blue sphere was forming at the base of their hands, and was increasing with glow intensity every second. After about ten seconds or so, ten psychic balls of energy erupted and flew towards Andrea at high speed.
Andrea didn't flinch, didn't move one inch. Instead, she folded back both her arms so that they crossed her chest, folded her wings, and then at the exact instant the spheres of energy touched her body she flexed out the extremities of her body with force. All of the energy spheres were knocked away back into a straight line where they came from by the force of Andrea's arms and wings. And all ten psychic balls collided back to their originators with an explosive result.
The copies flared and sparked with blue energy and then disappeared. And unfortunately for Wesley, he seemed to be partially sharing the fate of his clones. Wesley screamed with pain, clutching his head as if it were going to explode. The pain wasn't from the attack that was bounced back at him, though; actually it seemed to be from the feedback of energy he experienced when his copies were hit by their own attack. I wasn't a psychic, but I could imagine it took a great deal of energy to create energy clones like he did, and the reflection of their attack must have overloaded him somehow.
Wesley slumped to his knees, wilted like a dying plant, and fell flat on his stomach. Papria began the count, but it was clear to both me and Andrea that he wouldn't be able to get back up from that. Eventually she reached ten, and Wesley was still on the ground, unconscious. Andrea was declared the winner, and then the paramedics crew flew onto the scene to snatch Wesley up out of the way of the next match.
Andrea came back down to sit next to me. I almost laughed when she pulled out a comb and actually began to comb her hair.
"What's wrong with you? I'm still a lady. Image is very important." She said with a fake snobbish tone. We both started to laugh, and I found myself really beginning to like her.
"Well, it looks like you didn't get to do much this battle." I said to her, watching the platform out the corner of my eye. Two new contestants were about to show their worth.
"Yeah, I know," Andrea sighed. "Looked almost as disappointing as yours, huh?"
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," I said with a laugh. "He might not have lasted long, but he was better than Treiko, I'll give him that much at least."
"He was okay," Andrea admitted. "His defense just wasn't enough, though. After two swipes he already looked like he was ready to kick the bucket. He could dish it out but he certainly couldn't take it."
"That's true." I said in agreement. I was so busy talking to Andrea that I was hardly even paying attention to the match that started. Or the next.
Me and Andrea talked for a good hour. Matches came and went, breaks in between took place, but me and Andrea just sat there, talking, getting to know each other. She was a year older than me, her being 13 and me just 12. My birthday was coming up soon, I was sure to let her know, and she laughed and said she would be sure to get me a gift. We went to the cafe to get something to eat, but we were sure not to indulge ourselves with too much junk food before the match. It was a strange but nice situation. We were friends yet deadly adversaries.
I learned that she had been orphaned as long as she could remember, and that S.C.I. found her after her illegitimate -- not to mention cruel and barbaric -- guardian died. They were very poor so he would make her steal for money or rob stores for food. She told me that he always used her because she had the perfect body to do it; "Always called me a nasty hawk." she commented bitterly. In her younger years she was already as strong as any man, and the fact that she could fly got her out of many situations; with the law and with street trash alike. She was 7 when S.C.I. took her in, and she said she's felt better about herself ever since. Her reason for participating for the elite class was literally the same as mine; to see the world, to feel like she was a part of something important, I knew exactly where she was coming from.
It wasn't long before it was time to put all of that aside.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will now have the matchup between Amarene Arlen and Andrea Phelps. Both fighters please step into the ring.
I looked Andrea straight in the eye, and she looked me straight back.
"Well, are you ready to do this?" She asked me with a serious expression on her face.
"Of course," I responded. Things were casual between us before, but it was time to put that aside for now. "Let's do this."