The next matches all the way up to the finals were hard paced and furious, but all in all I was fairly disappointed.
Alice and Corie had an amazing match, but in the long run it was Alice's adaptability that gave her the victory; Corie simply couldn't keep up with Alice's constantly changing battle style.
Lucille thrashed some other guy named Jerall with ease and went on to face Alice. I ended up against a couple of opponents whose names I really couldn't remember, and then in the long run I ended up heading off against Alice, who had a fairly halfway decent match with Lucille. Alice was a good opponent, but her tricks were repetitive and old. Effective, yes; just not against me. A few well placed blows took her down fairly well; Alice wasn't the greatest defense master and as fast as she was, she was nowhere near my speed.
My matches were tactless and crude; one opponent I even annihilated with one shot (it was quite humorous, though). Eventually I found myself heading off to the finals. I faced a pretty average opponent named Blake who put up a halfway decent fight (water attribute; interesting), but in essence he was just a special attack version of Treiko; slow, cocky, and not too bright.
I was sitting in the bench where everyone before would wait for their next matchups. The numbers had dwindled greatly since me and Andrea had talked. The only people left really were the people who lost but were still conscious enough and able enough to watch the rest of the event unfold.
There were three other stadiums where there were competitions taking place right next to us. Blake was the finalist from one (now defeated), and I was the other. After a few moments of sitting around it was clear that the finalist from the one stadium defeated the other. So now there were only two left; me and my mystery opponent. At the time I had no idea who it was; I prayed that they were stronger than the trash I had come through in my coliseum. But at the same time I hoped that the finalist wasn't some overly strong brute; if my opponent was anything like Andrea I could have a problem.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the road has been long and hard, but we've finally made it to the final match!" Papria shouted with enthusiasm, revving up the crowd. There were cheers and applause; some because they really wanted to see the last match, others because they just wanted the whole thing to end. "Our finalists are Amarene Arlen from this very own academy, and Angel Heartily from Oaksdale Academy!"
Angel Heartily?
"As we've seen in this very coliseum, Amarene has put on an impressive show of wiping out all opposition. No matter the opponent, Amarene has shown us that he can handle nearly anyone with complete ease; the way he battles is almost legendary! We expect great things from him this final match!"
Yeah, yeah. Blah blah whatever.
"From what I've heard, Angel has put on a most impressive show the entire tournament in coliseum 1, battling with nearly the same superhuman abilities as our very own Amarene. I don't know about you, but I've managed to see some clips from some of her battles between breaks and man, let me tell you, girl power! This girl's got attitude and the moves to back them up! All I can say is that I'm looking forward to this upcoming match! It will definitely be the greatest event of the year!"
I shifted my attention from Papria to the projection cube thing that hovered above the battle platform. It read five minutes countdown before the final match. I had five minutes to fully prepare myself for the event that would change my life from this day forward.
"Wow, lots of tension, huh?" Someone said, "sneaking" up behind me. I knew well in advance; Terrone. I was surprised to see that he actually managed to make it into this area of the coliseum without being stopped by anyone.
"I don't know," I responded. "This Angel character sounds like she's the real thing, compared to some of my previous opponents. I don't know how strong she is, but I haven't come this far to lose."
Terrone patted my shoulder with his hand. "Well, good luck to you. I really hope you manage to make it into the S.C.I. elite class. I know you'll do well."
I turned to him and smiled. "Thanks. I think I'll do okay."
"Yeah, whatever Arlen!" I heard the familiar sneer. I noticed somehow Devlin made in in there with the rest of us, too. He walked in from the battle room entrance, looking angry, and most of all... pretty beat up.
"Wow Devlin, looks like you were in a pretty heavy tussle." I said, attempting to refrain from laughing. Terrone did it all for me; I thought he was going to fall to the floor, he was laughing so hard. Devlin just gave us that angry squinting glare, hiding menacingly behind his silver rimmed glasses.
"You think you're tough, Amarene, but that Angel girl will thrash you," He said, adjusting his glasses on his face. "I don't know why I came over here to converse this matter with you inferior rug-rats, but I just thought I'd be nice for once and make you aware how badly you'll get beaten before the match, that way it won't be any surprise when you lose."
"You know, Devlin, just because she kicked your ass from Jupiter to Pluto doesn't mean everybody else is gonna get the same weakling treatment that you did," Terrone countered, regaining some control of his laughter. "You relied entirely on one technique against your opponents and when you faced her it didn't work. That's why you lost. You aren't a well balanced fighter, Devlin, and any third-rate contestant could have told you a dozen places where you went wrong when you faced her."
Devlin blinked, surprised. Terrone's battle knowledge of the event must have surprised him; it certainly surprised me. I had no clue Terrone was able to draw in so much information from a battle schematic like that.
Devlin's expression went from astonishment to rage. "You'll have your day Terrone, when I crush you. Keep that in mind the next time we meet anywhere near a battle ring." He turned and stalked off in pure anger.
"Wow, I guess some people just don't take losing well, huh." Terrone said, grinning malevolently. All I could do is shake my head and sigh and grin myself; you had to admire Terrone's personality. A goofball a lot at times, but also highly intelligent and a will strong as steel.
"Five minute intermission up!" Papria called. "The event that you've been waiting for is now at hand! Amarene Arlen and Angel Heartily will now face off in the championship finals of the S.C.I. elite class junior tournament! Amarene, please step into the ring and await your opponent!"
I turned to Terrone. "You better get back inside the audience stand; this could get messy."
Terrone laughed. "You definitely don't need to remind me of that. I've seen both of you fight. I'd have to be crazy to stay in here when the match begins."
Terrone perked my interest slightly. "So, will I be disappointed or greatly satisfied with my opponent Terrone?" I asked him, curious.
Terrone gave me a grin. "Oh, you'll be satisfied alright," he said, laughing. "In more ways than one."
CHAPTER 9
I made my way to the center of the platform, anxious and nervous. The crowd was cheering and whooping, although a small portion decided that they weren't pleased with the outcome of the finals by booing and jeering. I focused my attention all the way to the other side of the coliseum, where there was a walkway leading to a door that connected to the other coliseums. Angel would be coming through that door.
Before I had much opportunity to decide how to begin my match the door opened.
The doorway was dark at first, then brighter, as a young girl emerged. And as soon as I saw her I felt something I never felt before.
The first word that popped in my head was; damn.
I'll be blunt, the girl looked sexy as hell.
Walking in at five feet tall and a beautifully slim figure, Angel looked as though she floated down the walkway. Some guys were making cat-calls at her from the audience. She paid no attention and continued to walk towards my direction. As she got closer her physical details became much sharper. She was a dark blonde, with variations of shade in her hair. Her eyes, her eyes were like burning sapphires, a beautiful intoxicating blue that seemed to radiate a spectrum of green and red at the same time. Her skin was slightly tanned, a beautiful complexion of slightly dyed vanilla. Her steps were light, nimble, the steps of a deadly warrior. I couldn't help but admire her; I could already tell at first glance she was a fatal opponent to tangle with. I almost had pity on Devlin for having to deal with such a person.
Even still, I held my composure. I kept my face solid and stern; serious and prepared for battle. But at the same time I was thinking, If she fights as good as she looks I could have a real problem on my hands here.
Once she made it within ten feet of the platform she simply jumped up and landed right in front of me; a shy five feet away from where I was standing. Our eyes met face to face; her expression was hard to read. She seemed curious about me, and at the same time she was also scanning me to see what kind of information I was giving off just by my composure. I held back as much as possible, not showing her any traces of weakness. She did the same; I could not immediately pick up anything at all from her. Almost instinctively I began to back up from her. Starting a battle at such a close proximity to your opponent is a bad start; I needed plenty of working room. I noticed that Angel was doing the same thing; yet neither of us took our eyes off the other the entire time.
"Okay guys, are you ready? This is the final match; the match that'll determine the definite new member of the S.C.I. elite class. Contestants, start on my mark!"
I glared at Angel, and Angel glared right back.
"Ready?"
Time to have some fun.
"Begin!"
I wasted no time, I fired Pyroshpere the split second after Papria, now forgotten, shouted for the match to begin. But I noticed that Angel had also fired right after the jump, too.
Electricity? She was firing a Thunder attack! Ha! I thought I had to be worried! I was fighting someone whose elemental attribute I was completely immune to. This wouldn't be hard at all.
Both attacks collided in a tremendous bang. Using the explosion for cover, I sped along until I was beside her and fired Pyrosphere again. At such a close proximity, there was no way for her to dodge. Not even I, with my high speed, could have dodged something that close in range.
Angel took the Pyrosphere full tilt, rocking her entire body. It was the first time I had ever hit someone point-blank like that before with one of my energy attacks. I hopped away a couple of feet, not allowing myself to be open in case she recovered from the blow. Not like that would have been easy; I would have been surprised if she was still standing after a shocking blow like that.
However, after the smoke cleared, Angel was standing in the exact same spot, glaring at me.
I was astounded. How? I hit her point-blank! She didn't even flinch!
Frustrated, I fired Pyrobeam, shooting the jet straight at her midsection.
Andrea caught the head of the beam in her hands, the force sliding her back slightly, but other than that the attack was doing nothing. In an eruption of sparks she dispersed my entire beam, negating my attack. Then, with a rapid flash of her hand, she flexed her arm forward and shot out a rapid, high powered burst at my head, shouting "Bolt Gun!"
The blast caught me in the head, blinding me for a moment, then that was it. I still stood there, glaring at her, and she glared back at me, surprised slightly. That's when it finally dawned on me: we were both immune to each other's innate attribute. My fire attacks weren't doing anything to her, and her electricity was pretty much of no use here. The information was so surprising I actually began to smile; this would turn out to be quite a match after all.
Angel looked at me with curiosity. I looked right back at her with the same expression. We both knew neither one of us was really looking at each other just for the sake of looking at each other; rather, we were looking to see the best possible action to take to strike physically while at the same time keeping a wary eye on the other.
I noticed keenly out of the corner of my left eye that she was beginning to shift more of her body weight to her left foot. I realized instantly at that moment that she was going to try to fly at me with a devastating right kick. A second later, her body shot forward like a bullet, her heel raised to smash me in the face.
I leaned back rapidly and grabbed her leg with my right hand, lifting, swinging, and throwing. Angel rebounded easily by landing right onto her hands and recovering her footing--
She flew straight at me again!
I had to dodge completely out of the way this time; Angel was fast, nearly as fast as me. She sped past, barely missing my face with her fist. I knew the danger was not over yet though; if she was adept with speed she knew how to turn an unsuccessful charge to a backside attack.
As I figured, her left hand, the one that hadn't swung at me, charged and glowed with white energy and fired straight back at me. Ready for the assault, I spun around and back-fisted the energy sphere, sending it streaming right back towards her. Angel caught it with both hands, sliding back a few inches, and then crushed it with her palms.
Okay, that was interesting.
We stood there a few seconds, analyzing each other once again. She was fast, no doubt. And she had a high special attack power; there was a lot of power behind that energy bomb. At the moment I could see no real signs of weakness; I would have to wait until the match developed further to find my edge.
Angel took up a defensive stance, as well did I. We were both primed and ready for a one-on-one physical encounter; the question was, who fared better in hand-to-hand combat?
I waited to see who would take the initiative. Angel was clearly waiting for me, but that would put me at a disadvantage. It was best to wait for her to strike first; but if I stood here too long she may have come up with a far more effective plan than a head-on collision.
Without thinking, I flew at her, fists preparing to bear down onto her.
Almost instantaneously she came after me with the same force, both of us headed towards each other at a tremendous speed.
Ten feet. Five feet. One. It all took less than a second.
I struck!
Angel blocked with her own blow and aimed another at me with her left hand this time. I blocked this one with my left hand also, and now she had use of her right hand.
CRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACK!!
We were moving so fast that's all I heard, fist against fist, bone against bone. We hardly budged from our positions since we collided, and the only things moving were our fists and our heads occasionally ducking out of the way when a blow managed to get through our defenses.
A breaking point finally came when she missed her blocking cue; I deliberately created a pattern in my strikes and then switched up on her at the last second, confusing her and causing her to miss her beat. My fist arced from the bottom coming up, colliding with her chin, and she flew backwards off the ground, flying away from me.
But no sooner had I done that, Angel back-flipped, rebounded off her hands again, and jetted towards me at an incredible speed.
I couldn't dodge this time; I took a direct blow in the gut. Flying backwards, I felt the pain welling up inside and expanding.
It didn't help much when Angel's right leg glowed with amazing energy and then she flipped around and nailed me dead center in the face.
I was hit by a big, pulsing electric kick in the face. The flashes blinded me, the force of the kick hurt tremendously, and even though it had some electric attribute to it, the current still slightly numbed my face a little. I was amazed. She had to be on a pretty high power level in order to be able to do that with an electric attack against me.
I found myself sliding dangerously close to the edge of the ring. Feeling ambitious, Angel fired a high powered Bolt Gun again at me, hoping to dislodge me from the edge, sending me crashing to the ground.
I didn't have enough energy to jump. Instead, since I was already stomach-first into the ground, I planted my hands against the ground and fired Pyrosphere. The explosion lifted me clear off the ground as the electric blast passed harmlessly underneath of me.
I turned myself around in the air to have a better viewpoint when I noticed that Angel was after me again! Damn she was persistent. And amazingly quick; her speed rivaled even mine.
I waited for her to get within five feet of me, and then I dispersed a wave of fire energy from my body. The bright glow surprised her and threw her vision off, and I used that opportunity to batter her with my sledgehammer attack, balling my fists together and smashing her back towards the ground.
Angel fell fell fell, zooming towards the ground. She was going to hit the ground harder than Andrea, that was for certain. And that was bad for her because I could pick up that her defenses weren't as great as Andrea's was.
But right before she hit the ground, she did something unexpected; she stopped. Dead center in the air. She just stopped falling.
I was surprised; shocked almost. Then I understood. Dammit, she could fly, too. She had no wings, of course, but she had learned the anti-grav energy conversion trick. Basically, it allowed you to use your own natural energy to displace gravity and fly. I never had the time to learn it.
I landed softly, like a cat. Angel still hovered, then settled back down after a few seconds. She seemed concerned now, no longer curious. She had gotten a taste of what I could do, that was for certain. But at the same time I got a taste of her talent; she would be the toughest one yet, that's for sure.
However, I still hadn't gone maximum. In the long run, that was my trump card.
Angel stood perfectly still. Then, staring straight at me, she lifted her forearms up waist level and begin to glow with blue energy. Her eyes seemed to pierce straight through me; her expression one of a deadly predator. She had found a worthy adversary, and now she was going to draw out some more of her power. I had no idea what to expect; Angel's full capability as a fighter was still beyond me. I had to be ready for anything.
That's when she rushed at me again.
She caught me off guard; I had no clue she was going to try to go all out again. I managed to block her opening attack, a very rapid punch to the chest, by grabbing her wrist with my right hand. My left hand was ready, expecting for her to swing with her remaining free hand, but instead she just held her position, straining against the force of my grip.
That's when I began to feel her power fluctuating.
"Hahaha." She began to giggle, smiling at me. All at once her face became playful, like a little kid. I began to feel as though I was beginning to lose more and more control over my grip.
"This is what I like to call... my Triple-Time." Angel said in a low voice, still looking at me with that playful grin.
Triple what? What's that?
Before I could even begin to figure out what happened I felt a flood of energy literally flood through my body. It wasn't from me; it was all coming straight from her. And not flooding in a good way. The power... the mere force of the charging was literally throwing me back.
Very gently and calmly, Angel lifted me off the ground with the hand I still had wrapped tight in my grip and threw me all the way over to the opposite end of the ring. I landed on my back, slid, and almost fell off the edge of the platform. I got up to my feet instantly, not giving her the chance to make a free shot on me. But she kept her position at the other side of the ring, smiling, and glowing with a deadly blue energy. She almost looked like a flaming blue match-head.
I locked all of my senses onto Angel. Her power had literally tripled within that interval of her charging and throwing me all the way to the opposite end of the ring. Triple-Time... ah, I saw it now. An amplification technique. And not a half bad one either. It seemed to be a very effective technique.
I readied myself into an attacking stance again. Angel was tough before, but now she would be even more difficult to defeat. Angel seemed amused; she was more arrogant than I, that was for certain. However, unlike some people, at least she had reason enough to be; her power level far surpassed anyone I've encountered thus far at this tournament.
With a rush of energy I dashed at her, and almost instantly she darted out of the way like a flying arrow. She moved so quickly my senses were having difficulty keeping track of her. But I could tell she would try to appear behind me.
I turned instantly and aimed a sharp, jutting punch, but it hit nothing; Angel was a mirage in the air. I was frustrated; in this state she was actually faster than me. I felt two blows connect from my right side and another devastating kick from my left in almost perfect secession with the first two impacts. I went sprawling, regained my footing, and was hit again from the back. But this time I didn't let her go so easily.
With one rapid thrust I managed to grab her arm. Surprised, she tried to jerk away, but I held her tight. Straining against her newfound strength, I held her just long enough to land a powerful kick to her midsection.
Angel practically flew in the opposite direction of me, but didn't fall, unfortunately. I bore down on her again and aimed a Rocket Punch but Angel blocked it with one hand. I put every ounce of strength into my next barrage of attacks, punching as rapidly as possible. But Angel blocked every blow with ease, and then in a motion that was almost too quick for even me to see, she impacted my head from both sides with her hands. My entire body literally froze; my brain seemed to swell and expand, my vision growing distorted. Damn, what the hell did she just do?
CRACK!
I felt her fist collide dead center with my face. My body fell, but I could barely feel it. Falling backwards, I could see the lights above my head swirling around into an abyss of nothingness.
Pretty soon, my body began to recover, and I was feeling back to myself. But Papria was on 10 count already. She was already on 5! Struggling to make it to my feet, I managed to bring myself to a half-standing, half-kneeling position. Angel was still standing in front of me, enveloped in her Triple-Time energy wave.
"Wow folks, it doesn't get any better than this! This guy can definitely take a hit or three!" Papria shrilled as the audience went wild. Angel seemed to be enjoying herself, thinking she got the best of her opponent.