"First things first," Itzel said, standing like a professor in front of a lecture hall while using the recording projected from the device like a blackboard. She pointed at Siergi with the Broadcast on pause. "Let's take a look at Siergi's stance. What does it say about him?" she asked Gurk. The crocodile's big yellow eyes stared at the screen, his head tilting a bit to the side as he inched his body closer to get a better look. The man in question was clear and visible, taking up most of the space on the screen. Despite the footage being still, the scene that had been captured depicted motion.

He stood with his right side angled towards his opponent. The front leg was raised at the knee with only the ball of his right foot touching the ground. His left arm was in front of his chest with closed a fist while his other hand was down in front of his waist. On his face was a look of confidence; the grin he wore was long and narrow as he narrowed his eyes to his opponent.

Gurk stared at the still frame in silence for an extended period, focusing on Siergi. "Dunno," he said after some deliberation. Itzel huffed and slunk her head back.

"You can't tell me anything about his stance, Gurk? I don't even watch the guy and I already have a rough idea of his fighting style!"

"Explain," Gurk said in a low voice. He wrapped his blanket tighter around his legs.

"Fine!" Itzel moved across the projection and stood right next to the projection of Siergi. "The first thing I noticed was his face!" Her pointer finger hovered over his lips. "You see that grin? Those eyes? That's the look of someone who's cocky! He thinks he has this Ranked Challenge in the bag, so he won't take on this Collin guy the same way he would a real opponent."

"Yeah right," Gurk mumbled under his breath. Itzel gave him long and cold glare but said nothing. She then pointed towards his arms.

"See that? He's leading in with his right side. That means he's right-handed so that's where most of his power is going to come from. And the bouncing legs? It means he’s agile. Siergi is going to focus more on speed and offense."

"Press play!" Gurk said.

A short shake of her head accompanied the response before she resumed the Broadcast as Gurk had requested. She stepped away so that both Janus and Gurk could see the entirety of the recording. The opponent lobbed a fireball towards Siergi as soon as the Challenge started. With a short dash to the side, Siergi was able to avoid the attack altogether. He then balanced his weight on his rear leg and lifted his front one. The knee bent back before extending forward, hitting the opponent in stomach with a push kick. Lightning flew out from his foot, setting the area where he struck alight. Itzel paused the Broadcast once more to Gurk's chagrin.

"What now?" the crocodile groaned.

"The first attack can set the tone for the entire match! You see how quickly Siergi was able to answer his opponent's opening attack with a counter of his own? He knew that the other guy was going to go for a projectile at the start of the round! He's probably got his teammates doing research on his opponents before they even show up on the Broadcast. Who knows how much of your footage they've gone over."

"Not much," Gurk replied.

"That's one good thing about you being broke all the time. You're not spending your cash on extra Concentrate because you're too busy buying second and third helpings of cauliflower to Broadcast! But even though they don't have much footage to work with, they can still check out your Command List on your Rumble Circuit profile. I'd bet some good Tokens that they're working on a battle plan as we speak!"

"Doubt it," Gurk said.

"Is that so, huh?" Itzel said crossed. She tapped her foot on the ground while crossing her arms in front of her body. "And why are you so sure of that?"

"Talented."

"You think Siergi is just 'talented?' You really believe that he just takes on all of these fighters on the fly and wins ninety-nine percent of his matches just because he's gifted?" Itzel put an emphasis on the last word of the sentence.

"Yeah."

"No, no, no," Itzel said while wagging her finger. "That's definitely not the case. We've gone over this multiple times. Siergi is personality first and fighter second! Everyone he picks to go on his broadcast is low-ranking! That way he can get easy wins to look good in front of his audience. And that's why his ranking is so low for someone so famous!"

"What's his rank?" Janus asked.

"He's not even high enough to be in the worldwide rankings! Last time I checked he was just above one thousand! But he's too scared to risk too many of his points taking on some of the city's best. Even Gurk is higher up than his usual competition. But I guess with so many of the Exterminators vanishing, he needed a new gimmick to revitalize his audience other than just being flashy and winning."

"And if Gurk wins, then Siergi will take a huge hit to score, correct?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"That's half the reason why I want Gurk to clench this!" Itzel said, forming a fist with her hand. "Of course I want to see him succeed and possibly make a name for himself. But Siergi getting knocked down a few pegs makes would make it all that much sweeter."

"Press play," Gurk called out.

"Fine! I'll just let the entire Broadcast play out this time! But I will be quizzing you once it's done." Itzel let the Broadcast resume. She took a seat next to Janus on the couch, frowning as she watched Siergi's recording continue. Janus managed to get a glimpse of Itzel's face as the footage continued. She was stuck in a perpetual scowl, but her eyes remained opened and focused on the action.

"Thunder Wire!"

Janus' attention was brought back to the battle. Siergi's opponent had taken an electric heel to the chest. The challenger was launched into the air, courtesy of Siergi's Special Technique. The trajectory brought them both upwards at a steep angle with bolts of lightning trailing their arc. Siergi's other foot followed up the first kick in mid-air, dragging his opponent further upwards with another attack. The process was repeated one last time, putting both fighters several yards above the ground.

Once's Siergi's special combination of attacks was finished, both men fell back to the earth but only Siergi was able to land on his feet. The fire-affinity opponent came back to the earth on his back, his body bouncing a bit the mat.

Ouch, Janus thought to himself. Even though he wasn't on the receiving end of the attack, he still cringed from the thought of getting hit by it. "And that's just a Special Technique of his?" he asked Itzel.

"Yeah," she whispered without taking her attention off the screen. "If the first one hits, you're going to get hit by the other two. Looks very annoying to deal with. But if it's blocked, he's left vulnerable. Looks like it's Siergi's favorite move because of how flashy it is. That's probably when he gets most of his Contributions."

"What about the rest of his Techniques?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out for myself. But Gurk would rather focus more on watching replays than analyzing them!" She pointed at the crocodile with her hand. His entire body gently swayed from side to side as he observed the fighters continue to go at it. "Don't know about you, but I don't want to watch an entire Broadcast of this guy if Gurk isn't willing to put in the effort to take it as a learning experience!"

Siergi's face took up the entire screen. He gave a big wink, lifting one hand to brush back the strands of hair that went astray during his Thunder Wire. He pointed at the screen while winking one eye. They could see the opponent in the background trying to rise to his feet while Siergi kept his back to him. "You guys on the other side think he should stay down?" he asked of the viewers. Even though the messages that were sent weren't available for viewing, Janus could imagine them scrolling upwards at a rate that made them unreadable.

Siergi looked at his own screen, watching the messages scroll. His opponent managed to stand himself upright and lobbed another fireball. Siergi lowered his entire body and the projectile went over his body by a wide margin. "Hey man," he called out to his rival, "Chat says you should call it quits, man!" Siergi then chuckled as another fireball came his way. He blocked with his knee, diverting the flames of the attack into a small flaming sphere around him. "Gotta do better than that, man!"

With a wave of Itzel's hand, the screen froze again. Gurk's attention darted to Itzel. He watched her travel from the sofa to obscure the screen once more. "Look at this guy! He doesn't take Ranked Challenges seriously. At all. Now, I know that everything I'm about to say will probably go through one ear and out the other, but I think you can use Siergi's cockiness to your advantage."

"How?" Gurk asked.

"You're big and tough. Your defense is way ahead of Siergi's. You can take a lot of hits. Siergi on the other hand is as fragile as a Lurker. I've checked his stats on his Rumble Circuit profile. He hits fast and hard but probably crumbles like a sheet of paper if any of the challengers he went up against had enough skill to hit him."

"Hmm..." Gurk's head bobbed up and down as his mind pondered what Itzel said.

"That means you just need him to have him put his guard down," Itzel smiled. "There's nothing more that guy loves more than putting on a show. You'd think he'd give up a chance to show off his flashiest moves on a one-of-a-kind opponent like you, Gurk? I say you take it easy at the start of the match. Let him land a few hits on you so he can build some confidence. But the second he takes his eyes off of you to look at all of his messages and contributions," Itzel raised her hands and spread her fingers out, imitating Gurk's claws while making a loud chomp and flashing her teeth. "That's when you start doing what you do best!"

"Kind of like what happened when you took on Enidri at Grub On?" Janus interjected. Itzel immediately dropped her impersonation to pierce Janus with a mean pair of eyes.

"That was different Janus and you know it."

"Not really," Gurk said.

"Yes, really!"

"Nah."

"So you're not going to take my suggestion? If he takes his eyes off the fight to look at thousands of Tokens some stranger sent him, you won't use that opportunity to get the upper-hand and possibly win the Challenge?"

With his lips closed tight, Gurk wagged his head back and forth. "Nope. Dishonest."

Itzel flung her hands up and turned away from the crocodile. "I give up. There's no point in trying to teach someone who doesn't want to learn. Go ahead and fighting that jerk the honorable way and get humiliated in front of who knows how many people on a live broadcast. I'm going to bed. You can keep watching that Broadcast if you want." Itzel vanished into the other side of the room. Her door could be heard slamming, leaving Gurk and Janus alone in silence.

The crocodile resumed the Broadcast. Janus' attention was on Gurk rather than Siergi's fight. "I think some of what she said was true."

"Yeah?" Gurk cocked his head to the side, his right eye looking back at Janus.

"Fighting honorably on a Broadcast in front of countless viewers makes sense. You don't want people thinking you're just desperate for a win by attacking an unprepared opponent, even if it isn't technically against the rules."

"Right."

"But Itzel just wants to see you succeed. A close analysis of Siergi's methods is probably the best way to prepare you for the upcoming Challenge."

The crocodile let out a faint whimper as he looked at the ground. "Fine," he said quietly. He tapped the spot on the floor next to him. Janus saw the gesture and pointed towards himself.

"You want me to help you?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I don't know. I haven't done much fighting myself, let alone Rumble Circuit..."

Gurk scooted to the side to give Janus room to have a seat more towards the center. "Come on," he said as he patted the empty space once more. "Both learn."

Janus grinned, letting a small chuckle slip. "Since you put it that way, how can I say no?"