“What is she doing?!” Teran was the first to shout, though her confusion was soon shared, and audible, among the audience.

“Why challenge her comrade when there is only one enemy, even if he is quite strong…?” Tsurum wondered.

“Is she sabotaging the tournament for her own sect?” Feris added.

“Was she not a disciple after all?”

“How wonderful…” Kel spoke with such sincerity that the other contestants fell silent. Even Tae had been holding back her displeasure.

“What is wonderful about Blue challenging Micro, young master?” Tae asked with a frown.

“To challenge somebody regardless of their sect…” Kel continued.

“Could there be a more honourable challenge?!”

“Ah…!” Tae gasped.

While Kel and Tae looked knowingly into each other’s eyes, the other contestants rolled theirs.

“Kel was always the type to misunderstand things, but this…” Feris said while shaking her head.

“It is his path to walk as he sees fit…” Gor softly rebuked his comrade.

“It is a matter of his own sect’s honour. It is not our place…”

“I’m going to fight Blue now?” Micro asked with some excitement.

“Are you better prepared to face an opponent in battle this time, master?” Kel asked with a wide smile.

“You’ve grown accustomed to the path of a cultivator?”

“Well, fighting Blue is more fun…” Micro replied as he considered his reasoning.

“She’s funny!”

“He just said fighting a blue pixie was fun, didn’t he…?” Feris said, looking to Gor for confirmation. The Earth River Sect’s contestants all started to back away very slowly from Micro.

“Again…” Gor replied.

“It would be best not to interfere…”

“Just get it over with.” Lena sighed, grabbing Micro’s shoulder and thrusting him toward the stage.

“I will not interfere, but please, leave the arena intact…!”

“I’ll try!” Micro replied, looking around at the newly repaired arena.

Several workers smiled at him as he caught their eyes, and he nodded inconspicuously in return with a subtle wave of his hand.

“They sure work fast though.” Micro thought to himself.

“They even had time to paint some more pictures here and there. If only they put the same effort into roads…”

“I-” Yin stuttered as Micro walked by.

“I’ll wait, then… Excuse me…”

“Have some tea!” Micro called out to Yin as he retreated to the waiting area with some relief on his face. Micro then climbed the stairs to find Blue standing at the centre of the stage with her arms crossed and her eyes burning.

“So we meet again, Micro.” Blue announced with a heavy tone that didn’t quite suit the high pitch of her voice.

“Let’s try not to make too big a mess, okay?” Micro asked as he looked around at the smiling workers.

“Hmph.” Blue snorted back.

“They’ll be scraping you off the wall!”

“The contestants…” The announcer called out as the crowd braced itself.

“...may begin!”

Blue surprised Micro with a straightforward assault the moment the announcer began the match. She jumped forward, her wings propelling her faster and faster through the air, as she wound back her fist for a straight punch. Micro was about to laugh, but he noticed a familiar glow in her fist as she channeled internal energy to it.

THUD

At the last moment, Micro managed to summon a small energy shield to keep her fist from reaching his head, and the collision of her fist against the shield sent a shockwave throughout the arena that elicited several nods of approval from the audience.

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She bounced back and landed on the floor once, but Blue immediately jumped straight forward again with a second punch, loaded with even more energy than the first.

“Woah!” Micro shouted as he blocked the second punch with another shield, but this time his shield was shattered. He tumbled backward and jumped to the side to avoid another punch, but the energetic pixie turned midair to follow him with another.

However, as he turned to brace himself with another shield to block her punch, he was surprised to see her flying over his head with a glowing slingshot in her hands, aiming a ball of energy straight down at him. He covered himself with the turtle shell armour of the Turtle Art in time to save his head from the powerful projectile, but several more quickly found their way into the side of his head as Blue descended, causing him to lose his footing slightly and stumbled away.

“You’re flying a lot now!” Micro shouted through the helmet with a smile as Blue hovered above the ground taking aim.

“I just needed a little rest!” Blue shouted back, suddenly equipping herself with her own armour.

The two cultivators, vastly different in size but wearing nearly identical, translucent armour, squared off for a moment while the crowd’s interest in the battle increased. The apprehension of the weaker cultivators had even started to give way to excitement, and the other contestants nodded in approval at Blue’s decisive attacks.

“The pixie fights more like a cultivator than Micro…” Teran mumbled to nobody in particular.

“It makes you wonder what kind of cultivators other creatures could become…” Gor added.

“What an unsettling thought…!” Tsurum gasped.

Blue crossed her armoured arms as she hovered in place for a moment, then nodded, apparently having decided on her next course of action. She looked down at her feet, then stretched her legs briefly.

“Kicking…” She mumbled before flying back to Micro.

“Why not?!”

As she had announced, Blue began unleashing a variety of kicks, all of which were strengthened by internal energy of gradually increasing quantities. The force of her kicks was difficult to reconcile against the size of her body, but the way Micro was forced back by each impact, despite the heavy looking armour he wore, made it clear that her power wasn’t nearly as small as the pixie herself seemed.

Though Micro was able to track her sporadic movements and brace himself for each impact as she zipped around through the air, it was impossible to predict where the next kick would land. His left foot, his right elbow, his chin, left hand, Micro eventually had to root himself to the ground simply to keep from losing balance as he thickened the armour protecting him from the storm of tiny kicks.

As the audience grew ever more lively, Yin leaned closer to Kel. Without taking his wide eyes off the strange fight unfolding before him, he spoke to Kel.

“If not for her lack of discernible technique, I’d say her martial arts were at the level of a sect elder…” Yin said with a heavy tone.

“But pixies of such a colour have more powerful techniques at their disposal, do they not?”

“Blue was severely weakened by a magician’s spell, or so she claims.” Kel replied quietly.

“She estimated that only a fraction of her power currently remains. I assume that since a pixie’s body functions similarly to a core, her true power will remain inaccessible to her until she has had time to recover the lost energy…”

“So at her weakest, Blue is a formidable jade level cultivator…” Yin mumbled in shock.

“Thank the heavens there is only one pixie with a core here tonight.”

“Oh…!” Kel stuttered awkwardly, averting his eyes from the scene.

“Yes… About that…”

“Hmph!” Blue grunted as she delivered a final, armour cracking kick to the back of his head before bouncing away to hover across from him.

“I guess I can see why cultivators fight like that. It’s a good use of what little energy you have.”

“Do you still feel weak?” Micro asked with a look of sincere worry.

“I might be feeling a little nostalgic.” Blue sighed as she descended slowly to the ground.

“I haven’t been this weak in a long, long time…”

She looked up at the starry sky and frowned for a moment, but then she suddenly shook her head and stomped her foot on the ground. Rooting herself to the ground the same way Micro already had, she closed her eyes and began to draw power from the earth beneath her, but a look of frustration grew on her face and she spoke again.

“Even with a jade core, it’s going to take a long time…”

“You’re coming with me to find an Amber Serpent Sect though, right?” Micro asked.

“We can get an Amber Core there. Then the other one… the blue one…”

“Like a proper cultivator…” Blue chuckled.

Suddenly Blue dispelled her roots and armour with a deep breath and shrugged. Micro did the same and looked at her with more concern, wondering if there was something wrong with her. But his fears were put to rest when she shrugged.

“I’m bored now.” Blue said as she stretched out her arms and wings.

“Let me know who wins the next one…”

“Okay.” Micro replied with a thumbs up as Blue jumped through the air with a single flap of her wings and landed comfortably in his pocket.

The audience looked silently at the stage where now only Micro was visible, then to the announcer who blinked in confusion.

“Is- Is the fight over?” The announcer asked tentatively.

“She’s bored!” Micro replied.

“Your opponent no longer wishes to fight…?” The announcer continued.

“No.” Micro replied, looking into his pocket.

“She’s already snoring. It’s hard to wake her up when she’s snoring!”

Micro turned to Kel and waved, but was alarmed to see Kel’s face apparently frozen. It was hard to tell exactly where he was looking with a distant smile. Micro waved at Tae next, but she was one of several people in the contestants’ area shaking their heads slowly. Micro looked back at the announcer as the spectators began to mumble and argue.

“So…” Micro said, finally lowering his waving hand.

“I guess I'll fight Yin now!”