Luckily for Jude’s steadily increasing anxiety the next few matches were closer and definitely spent more time than the first of the day. It wasn’t long until Nerissa had to step up to fight.

This was the most anticipated fight of the day, as she was the last to pass it meant she had to fight the first. Though it did not explicitly mean their fighting skill would be as great as their ability to clear the trials, the audience had taken it to be as such. For most this would have been an immense pressure or a way to rationalise losing, for Nerissa it just made her angrier. A reason to prove herself had been presented, she would be damned if she turned it down.

Nerissa entered the arena upon hearing her name called out, however she was so focused she did not hear her opponent’s name or if she did her brain did not allow time to process it. The woman in front of her was immense; she cleared six foot with ease and then kept going, her muscles were on par with body builders. Her name was Natasha Clarke.

Standing near each other only exasperated the difference between two women’s builds. Whilst Nerissa certainly has muscle on her she did not look like Natasha. Nerissa looked like a fighter, Natasha looked like a tank.

But that did not matter, not to Nerissa. Her face was lifeless, drained of anything else that could identify emotion. Her body felt light, all muscles relaxed. Her intricate dress that imitated ancient Greek combat attire, except that the fabric was interwoven with smoke she produced, was calm and still.

“Begin!”

Nerissa made the first move. She quickly closed the distance, heading straight for her opponent. Natasha held her arms out, wind whipping and flailing around her outstretched limbs.

Two cylinders of concentrated air shot towards Nerissa’s feet. They did not find their target, she gracefully moved out of the way. No movement was wasted when she arrived at her opponent. It was not until Nerissa was essentially parallel that she struck.

A fist lodged itself into Natasha’s ribs. As she felt Nerissa try and impale her, Natasha could not even think. Pain shot threw her, all the saliva she had swirling in her mouth immediately was coughed up. The cutting air that once coated her arms had dissipated. Not only did this serve to hinder her attacks since it would mean she would have to set it up again, but it would also prove to weaken her defence.

The realisation of the events that had unfolded took her body just a second too long to register. Instead of being able to retreat and formulate a plan she instead was knocked to the floor. As her body naturally bent in on itself and tensed up it exposed her sides. It did not take long before Nerissa unleashed a fierce roundhouse into her opponent.

It would be unreasonable to expect someone who had been winded and knocked down to notice everything. Especially something that quite a few audience members did not immediately catch onto. The two blows Nerissa had inflicted onto her opponent had two purposes; the first was, of course, to deal damage. However, the secondary effect was allowing her to generate smoke. With the punch grey smoke had plumed out from her elbow and the kick came from her ankle.

Natasha struggled to her feet. Her injuries would have proved no threat to her health had this fight been for real, though she was both in shock and winded so her body immediately felt off. It was not working as she intended. Which one again gave Nerissa opportunities to strike.

With each kick, each punch, more smoke was generated. A smoke cloud slowly engulfed the fight.

With each kick, each punch, Natasha got used to Nerissa’s rhythm. She now understood the smoke.

Nerissa used the smoke to her advantage. She would come in an attack, leaving before she could be caught, and then she would strike from a different direction.

All the while keeping Natasha in the centre of the ring. She did not want to win by default. If victory was to be her’s, it would be on her terms.

Natasha was not in pain. Her hulking muscles took every hit with ease. But she could not see. She had very little opportunity to react. When there are only so many attacks someone uses it just takes repetition to learn how to deal with it.

Natasha had always been big, in her height and muscle mass. She was by no means stupid but she had always been gifted at sports and told to focus on that.

With running, it was repetition to build stamina. With football and basketball it was repetition to master the perfect shot. With jiu-jitsu it was repetition to get the perfect hold and the perfect response.

When alterations, guilds, and courses became available and the new fad, Natasha had her sights set on it. Her alteration was to use wind. With wind it was repetition to make it into making it feel as it were just another muscle she could use. She was the best in her county. She had qualified first. She had proved it right? And yet here was this skinny opponent making fun of her, refusing to take an easy win.

Natasha snapped and unleashed a scream that came with a huge outpouring of wind. Smoke and sand went everywhere in the circle. Nerissa barely clung to staying inside.

It was as if Natasha had created an image in her mind of what Nerissa was. She was beautiful, skinny, and (to her) small. Her she was like a mosquito coming to bite an elephant before fleeing before being swatted. She had pictured that Nerissa had it all on a silver plate. She was a prodigy that had never put in a day’s work in her life. She was humiliating her.

So far Natasha had not got a single hit in. If she could get a hit. If she could grab one stray punch, one stray kick, then she could win. That’s all it had to be. One hit and she could guarantee being able to wail on this natural who does not know the concept of repetition, graft, and willpower. It would take maybe nine hits to knock her out and the tenth to throw her out. She just needed the first.

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Nerissa took up her fighting stance, taking a small breather . She reflected on a memory she was ashamed of at the time. It would later dawn on her that it was the moment she began to change.

The first time she had asked for help.

It was late October, all students had gone home for the day. The lecturers were still pottering around. Nerissa skulked up on Alex and Raymond.

Ray was a bit surprised but Alex acted as if he expected her to be there. “Hello miss Zilla, is there something we can help you with?” she stood there awkwardly for a minute. With a sigh and blush on her face she blurted it out

“How can I use my cowardly power in fighting?” the two men stood bewildered for a moment before Ray burst out laughing. Immediately on the defensive Nerissa snapped

“Why are you laughing? I hate my ability! It is for a coward!”

“No no my dear. It is not because I find your question funny it is merely because this is the second time this week me and Alex have been asked this exact question. That fellow, what was his name... Ah yes, Jude! He asked something similar because he is finding it hard to do more than do big attacks.

“You see the issue is the more you use that power of yours as a cowards power the more you will use it as one and then the more you’ll associate with that. Use it as an offensive tool.” Ray had said something as if we’re so simple.

“But how do I go about that?”

“If you use your smoke as a shock absorber for when you hit, not only will it put less strain on your body allowing you to fight for a prelonged period of time. Every hit you’ll create some smoke. Then slowly it’ll blind your opponent. But of course only do this if you’re confident you can win an extended fight. Don’t draw it on long if your opponent is stronger than you.” It was Alex who has given the actual advice on the use.

Now here she was, two months later. Not only had she taken on board what they had said but she’d put it into action.

The two fighters stood still, sizing each other upon. Natasha was basically frothing at the mouth.

The audience was quiet. They were all at the edge of their seats.

The smoke that has been blown away had fallen to the floor. Nerissa’s alteration was not just generation of smoke, but controlling it.

As they stood facing each other a tendril of smoke slithered it’s way up Natasha’s massive body and as it was her head it smothered her eyes.

Though she tried to grab and claw at it, it was no use. Smoke is a gas, it’s intangible. You can not just grab and pull at it. Especially not when someone can control it’s movements.

Overcome with rage and no other options two beams and compressed air shot out of the behemoth’s eye sockets.

The smoke had disappeared from around their eyes. But so had the water that should naturally be there. The intense wind had almost immediately dried her eyes out. Which caused immense pain and meant she had to keep her eyes closed.

Not the way Nerissa had intended to make her opponent blind but it was not one she was going to miss.

When kickboxing you have to practice Kata. A show of martial arts prowess choreographed like a dance routine. Routines that had been beaten into Nerissa’s memory. But her mind was not in that memory. It was her body that was.

She began, smashing into Natasha. Natasha trying to get the rhythm down, unable. It felt like Nerissa was leaving less and less time between each hit. It was not her body speeding up but the smoke.

There have been many studies of the Flow state of mind. When someone is so immersed in activity it seems to be perfect. Like a footballer making the perfect run, or an artist painting the perfect piece. Every bit is just as it should be.

Not many had thought about Flow and how it would affect alterations. But this moment right here would spark some minds on it. The tournament was live streamed all around the world and it was here that it was noted what flow could do.

Nerissa was releasing smoke with each hit. But instead of creating a smoke screen instead she used the smoke to give each punch and kick extra force. Every limb was propelled faster and faster every time.

Her mind was elsewhere. She was remembering something that happened two weeks after she has gone for help off of the lecturers.

Upon entering the gym with practice dummies she found Jude, exhausted and slumped over a dummy. Panting he turned around to see her. “Hey” he said weakly as sweat dripped off of him onto the matted floor below.

“What are you doing here at this time?”

“I... I could ask you the same thing.” Words were hard between breaths for him.

“My legs were bored, I came to hit things. Now your turn.”

“I’m practicing a new move. I need to be better at close combat with fire. So... I er... Make a small explosion of flames on my elbow and use that to make the punch... Bigger. Talking. Very hard. Right now.”

“Show me.” Jude demonstrated the move he had spent about a week trying to master. Only for Nerissa to copy it perfectly with her smoke. The additional power behind it was not as great as Jude’s but it definitely added some oomph.

“You cheating bitch.” Jude said gobsmacked. They laughed about it for awhile.

During this memory Nerissa was like a phantom. She left a trail behind her and was now so fast she barely appeared to move. Natasha would just take a hits whilst Nerissa circled her. Each impact hurt more and more. The pain was no longer able to be ignored. She was in pain. She was going to lose.

The problem was, Natasha saw Nerissa as just a prodigy. The truth is she was a prodigy, a genius of her art. To call her just that would be a disservice to all the effort and sleepless night out into honing her craft. She had started at a higher level than most and put in far more work.

All those years, all those callouses, and all those missed days spent as a regular teenage girl led to right now. For Nerissa time slowed down. She was moving so fast, it was the only time she was going to be able to try this without consequences. A tornado kick.

Three points of contact. The first, stepping on the ground forward. The second, spinning round and moving onto the other foot. The third and final, spinning even more to switch feet and slamming the newly airborne one into your opponent.

Nerissa made contact with Natasha’s head, all her smoke exploded out in an instant. The power behind the kick was so great that if Natasha had not been teleported out for her neck being broken, she would have been sent one hundred metres into the wall in two seconds.

And that was it. Nerissa stood in the centre of the arena. A victor, on her own terms.

The crowd went wild. It would go down as the fight of the tournament. The world was watching. There may have been off days, bad days, and world shattering events for Nerissa to come but for right now, this moment right here, she was invincible.

It was the start of her becoming a celebrity on the internet.

But for right now she could only look up at her friends. Everyone was on their feet screaming at the ending. She finally cracked a smile, a genuine one. Only to collapse onto the floor below.

As she rested there was one thing that everyone took away from that performance.

This young woman had fought with everything she had at that moment to show her skills. To prove herself to the world and that had meant she suffered no hits.

Not once had her opponent countered or blocked her.

A perfect victory.