Heheheh.
With my head still lowered to the ground, a smile slowly began to spread across my face. Someone was beginning to laugh; I think it may have been me. In either case, Angel stopped smiling, looked down curious, and then began to grin again. Without even looking, I could feel Angel preparing to strike me down again. I could hear the shifting of the air as she re-settled her arm to swing at me.
And that's when I let all of my pent-up hell break loose.
It was like a silent explosion; an invisible but semi-visible shockwave of energy enveloping me and then expanding far outwards. The ground around me broke and fissured many times over, and Angel, caught in mid-swing, was blown away like a feather. Then like thunder, the heat collided with the cool air and produced a sound like none ever heard, like nuclear thunder from some distant cloud from hell.
I stood up, confident, powerful, and unafraid. I looked the same, but the strength was different. It felt even more different than from the holloluse; much more personal and severe this time. The air around me rippled like the air around a barbecue; and my body seemed to radiate with a red energy.
Angel had been blown back several feet, and when she finally recomposed herself, she looked at me with that expression of concern again. This was the real fight. We were both maxed up and ready. Only this time I could definitely feel this battle would be different from any I had ever been in. This was all out strength. All out power. Neither of us was holding back anything. Without words of any kind, we both knew this. The final test of the championship.
We both flew and struck at an impossible speed.
The next few minutes of this battle... were almost unbelievable.
I lunged at her so quickly the rest of the world became a blur. The only clear object, the only object moving at my rate of speed, was Angel. I arced overhead and downwards with my right fist, trailing energy as I lanced down at her head. Angel, in mid-lunge, allowed her left foot to touch the ground long enough to slow down and execute an extremely powerful kick. Both fist and leg connected solidly, creating an explosive spark, but almost as soon as both blows connected we both were gone from that position.
With my attack failed I jumped straight up. Angel was only a millisecond behind me, appearing right in front of me as soon as I reached about fifteen feet in the air or so. I tried to sledgehammer her again, but she was ready; it was incredible how she had already began to adapt to my moves. I instead tried to kick her with my powerful right leg but she blocked that with her left knee. It was so frustrating! Landing a blow on her was almost impossible.
Angel smacked away both hands that I was using for my sledgehammer attack and now, with both hands free, decided to barrage me with both her fists at the same time. I didn't have enough time to swing my arms back in front of me again to block her, as funny as that may sound. But I had another idea. I leaned back; all the way back. Her first two blows passed harmlessly above me, and I now used this new leverage to grab her entire waist with both of my legs.
"Argh, what-- what are you doing?" She literally shrieked at me. I didn't respond.
It was time to do a couple of Andrea maneuvers. Improvised, of course.
With both legs wrapped completely around her I now leaned completely back so that my head was literally pointing towards the ground, forcing Angel's body to face the same direction. And now, no longer with the momentum pushing me forward and with Angel's added weight, we began to drop towards the ground. But Angel wasn't flying or squirming her way out of this one. It was almost suicidal, I know, but I was banking on the fact that while her power had increased, I don't think her defenses did.
Me and Angel plummeted, my legs still constricting, my wings rippling in the wind. Angel squirmed, bolted, but nothing was letting me lose my grip. Her bolts of rage felt like feathers tickling against my body.
As soon as we were only a foot away from the ground I used all of my speed to force my hands towards the ground. At the same time, I released my hold on Angel. My arms were plenty strong enough to withstand my own controlled impact; especially since I landed on my hands. Angel, however, didn't have as much luck as I. She impacted heavy, splitting the ground, causing me to almost lose my balance. I flipped off my hands and put myself ten feet away from the crater I, or rather Angel, had created. There was a bunch of smoke and debris everywhere, but I was fairly certain that Angel hadn't been defeated by that attack.
"Amazing!" Papria yelled out. Oh, I forgot about her. I turned to look at her as she raced onto the battlefield. Idiot! I could only imagine Angel was pretty ticked right now. The last place Papria wanted to be right now was a mere five feet away from her crash zone.
"It looks like Angel took a pretty heavy hit! I'll start the countdown now! One! Two!"
No movement.
"Three! Four! Five---"
KKKKKKEERZZZZZZZZZAAAAP!
I knew it.
BOOOOM!
"Wha? Aaaaaah!" The poor announcer was blown clear off the platform. Electric energy snaked from the crater, literally cremating anything it touched. Bolts scattered and botched the field, but I stood in the middle of the storm, unaffected. I sensed so much power from her; what kind of training did she do to get to such a high level of power?
"Um, due to circumstances of battle, I'll record the rest of this from the info-view center," Papria said, pretty shaken up. "Don't be alarmed, audience. Updates will still be given from there. But the field is not safe now. Under no circumstances should anyone come into the arena until the match is completed."
I grinned. It was about time they figured out that nobody should be anywhere near us in the middle of a fight. According to our battle history in this tournament, she should have went into the info-view room before this match even started.
Angel stood up from the crater. Her face was no longer one of concern now. She was angry. Her eyes glimmered with that piercing stare, and her body was still glowing with that powerful blue energy aura.
"Well... I must say you're certainly stronger than anyone I've met here." Angel said, her voice carrying a tone of confidence.
"I must say the same," I admitted. "Your power rivals even mine. I didn't think there would be anyone here that would be a suitable match."
Angel grinned. "Well, I'm happy that you've found me as a suitable opponent. However, I hope you don't mind that I'll have to end this really quick now."
It was my turn to grin. "Well, by all means, go right on ahead."
Without even a moment's hesitation Angel exploded with blue energy and dashed straight towards me. But when she reached me I was no longer there. Using my newly enhanced speed I jumped clear over her and powered three Pyrospheres into the ground around her. The debris from the already damaged platform erupted all around her, and while she was blinded, I landed behind her and delivered a powerful kick to the back of her head. She flew forward, landing on the ground close to the edge, but immediately used her hands to push herself into the air and then back onto her feet. Without stalling whatsoever she dashed at me again. Flaring my wings, I spread my hands, prepared to actually grab her in mid-dash. She aimed one punch towards my face; it glowed with a brilliant energy and there was no mistaking that she charged a large amount of chi, or pure energy, into that attack. I immediately grabbed her arm with my hands, enclosing it like a trap. I was prepared to use her momentum to throw her, but before I could lift her from the ground and swing her, her fist opened into an open-palm stance and fired a bright flash at me.
"Aaaah!" I was blown back; the attack actually hurt. Not to mention that for a moment, I couldn't see at all.
CRACK!
Another powerful blow to my face. A physical blow this time. I landed on the ground, rolling. My vision was slowly returning, and just in time to see Angel floating in the air, her body shimmering with even more blue glowing energy. Using both of her hands, she aimed them at me, open-palmed and side by side. I couldn't determine which move she was using; up until now a lot of things about her remained a mystery to me, including her fighting style. I was trying my best to get up, but Angel hit me a lot harder than I thought she did, and it proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be.
"No more games. I'm taking you out right now!" Angel shouted down at me.
I looked up at her, and her hands were now glowing with a blinding blue energy. She definitely wasn't taking it easy on me now, that was for sure.
"Shine Cannon!"
Shine Cannon?
Her hands erupted with so much energy I thought she would engulf the entire field. Then I saw dozens, no, hundreds of mini bluish-white energy spheres raining down from the sky.
"Uh..." I couldn't think of anything to do. I was trapped and had nowhere to run to.
Then they all collided towards me in a brilliant, spectacular explosion.
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!
For the next twenty seconds that's all I heard. The entire area around me was being cremated. My body was undergoing so much abuse I couldn't recover quickly enough. I thought for sure this last attack would finish me. Energy racked my body and shredded me from the inside out. I couldn't see, I couldn't move, and the noise was so deafening to my sensitive ears it felt as if my head would explode.
Once the attack was finished, all there was was smoke and more smoke. I was in a crater of black, blasted debris, with hardly any energy left at my disposal. I used most of my energy just to stay conscious long enough to weather the attack. For the first time, I was actually nervous. Nervous because I thought that perhaps, maybe, I really was going to lose this tournament. After all the training, after all the anticipation, just to end up like this.
No.
No, I couldn't just lie there and let her finish me. As long as I was still conscious, I was going to put up a fight. I trained too hard to lose like this. Way too hard.
I could feel Angel's energy stronger than ever above me, even though neither of us could see each other through the debris yet. But I could still hear her. Her body was still fluctuating with energy. I could actually hear that.
Alright Amarene, I thought to myself. It's time to use your last reserves of energy. Get up and finish this.
Slowly, I stood. And focusing on everything I had, I bent my legs, and powered up every last ounce of energy I had and leaped straight up out of the smoke.