“This will be the final match of the tournament.”
All eyes in the room were focused on Master Kirin, who stood in the center of the arena floor. The old woman held an arm out to each side, gesturing towards Billy on her left, and Ryuna on her right.
Ryuna felt a familiar sensation of cleansing energy begin to flow throughout her body. And then, the golden sparks of her chi aura began to manifest around her, crackling and flickering in all directions. She hopped in place, all while whipping her hands outward, clenching and unclenching her fingers, tossing in a few practice jabs to warm herself up.
Across from her, Billy stood completely still, eyes closed in calm meditation. The pale blue light of his own chi aura encased him like a bubble, perfectly rounded, and just as unmoving as he was.
“Give this match your all,” Master Kirin said. “Focus your mind, heart, and body, channel your chi as best you can, and fight to the best of your abilities.”
Ryuna nodded her head. “Easy.”
“Begin!”
Ryuna dashed towards Billy with such speed that Master Kirin hadn’t even finished stepping out from in between the two combatants. However, no collision occurred, as the master seemingly became incorporeal for the brief instant Ryuna’s body would have made contact with hers.
Ryuna was similarly undeterred by the prospect of crashing into Master Kirin and ruining her entire attack; she was too preoccupied with said attack, seeking to get the drop on Billy as quickly as she could. While she was never the type to believe any opponent could best her, even her ego knew Billy had made it this far for a reason.
It was the perfect moment to strike, too, as Billy’s eyes were still closed, thus giving her a window to unleash, at the very least, one strike before he was ready, and her fist was primed to be that strike.
But despite crossing the distance in record time, despite clearly being in range to land the attack, and despite clearly seeing her own fist make contact with Billy’s jaw, the attack had failed.
A ripple of blue light, like the tiniest waves pulsing in a pond, emerged from the fraction of an inch of space between Ryuna’s knuckles and Billy’s face. Not only did it stop Ryuna’s first punch, her entire body had lost all momentum, and she’d even stopped thinking.
Billy’s own hand shot back at Ryuna — palm rather than punch. It struck her directly in the chest, sending her sailing backwards; back to where she had originally been standing before Master Kirin had called for the match to begin. It was like….like she’d been pushed back in time.
What made it even more confusing for her was the realization that the attack hadn’t even hurt. Not really, anyway; it was akin to slapping your own chest to help get a burp along its merry way. Completely non threatening and inconsequential.
Very out of place in a fight.
Ryuna kept her eyes on Billy as he slowly opened his own, meeting her gaze with a stoic expression. To try and stay on top of the situation, she smirked and held her hands out. “No way, is that all you got, dude? How’d you beat anyone with hits like that?”
Not one to fall for trash talk, Billy answered as calmly as ever. “I will not fight you in the same way I have fought the others, Ryuna. You are a different beast entirely, and I will adjust my strategy accordingly.”
“Thanks for the compliment, handsome, but it’s not gonna stop me from whooping your ass.” She rolled her neck and brought her fists up into her usual boxing stance. “Mama’s got a tournament to win.”
Off to the side, Master Kirin’s eyes honed in on Ryuna’s fists, and the fading yellow aura around them. A tiny spark of electricity danced around her wrists and fingers at a speed in which only the master would be capable of observing.
She brought a hand up to stroke at her beard. “That’s a bit better….”
It was clear to see that Billy would not be the one making the approaches in this duel. Ryuna mentally subtracted more points from her attraction level to him; she had no interest in cowards.
She cut across the battlefield in a flash once more, throwing out a combination of quick and brutal punches from all angles.
This time, Billy was forced to actually engage in the exchange, bringing his own arms up to block and deflect the strikes.
And even though none of her blows landed, Ryuna was satisfied with the result. Each time her fists struck Billy’s forearms, there was actual physical contact being made, and no blue ripples in sight.
She threw a wide left hook, which he was able to block. However, Ryuna had been banking on that, using the momentum from her deflected punch to spin around in a leg sweep, catching him right on the ankle.
Billy only stumbled for a brief moment, but it was enough for Ryuna to land a follow-up strike in the form of a thundering right cross directly to his now-open chest.
That is, until the ripple bounced her fist away.
Billy’s foot caught her in the stomach, pushing her backward with the same amount of power she’d put into her own punch — a fuck ton.
With a heavy gasp of a breath, Ryuna shot backward several feet, stumbling at the very end and falling onto her ass.
She began to feel her face heat up and redden; not from pain, but embarrassment. She cursed herself for tripping like she had; it would have been better if she’d just exaggerated and thrown herself onto her back. At least then it would have looked like a natural consequence of a strong attack rather than a bumbling misstep on her part.
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More yellow sparks danced around her, letting off puffs of smoke.
As she pushed herself back onto her feet and dusted herself off, she heard Billy say, “The power in your strikes is formidable. You should be proud of that.”
Her eyes narrowed as she took his words in the most condescending way possible. Like he was giving lessons to a child or something. “Yeah, I know. Way stronger than anything you got, that’s for sure. That’s why you keep stealing it, right?”
She had been hoping for a nice gotcha! moment in which she’d watch his calm visage break out into surprise as she revealed she’d learned the secret to his fighting style, but unfortunately for her, that was not to be, as Billy simply nodded his head in affirmation. “Indeed. When you are outmatched, using your opponent’s strength against them is the best course of action.”
Ryuna rolled her eyes, mentally criticizing herself for ever having been attracted to this guy. “Fuckin’ know-it-all….” she muttered.
But that did call for her to pause and think about things. That blue ripple hadn’t appeared when she struck his forearms or his ankle, but it had shown up when she tried to punch his face and chest. Was it something he had to actively use, and he simply chose not to use it when his arms would suffice? Or was it some sort of emergency barrier that only protected his vitals?
She thought back to his match against Hai Tien. She’d seen the ripples appear when the ninja girl kicked at his face, so that theory seemed to check out. If that was the case, that was annoying as hell and a total bitch move, but it did make sense, she begrudgingly supposed.
The real question was, what the hell was it? He hadn’t activated any Installs during the fight, and he was too much of a boy scout to cheat and activate it in secret before the fight like whats-his-face with the wooden sword, so it couldn’t be an Install or an Art.
The obvious connection to make was that it was something enabled by his chi aura. The pale blue ripples matched the pale blue light of the bubble around him, so it must have been related to that.
Not that figuring that out was much help to her, given that she knew fuck-all about chi and how it worked, and thus had absolutely no clue on how to work around the ripple.
Gritting her teeth, Ryuna readied her fists once more. “Whatever!” she hissed to herself. “If I can’t punch his face, then I’ll just break his arms and legs!”
She rushed in for a third time, leaving behind a faint trail of smoke as she did. Billy’s hands danced around in smooth half-circles, meeting each of Ryuna’s punches with perfect timing.
A faint smile appeared on Master Kirin’s face as her eyes caught the subtle tightening of Billy’s jaw, and the tiniest bead of sweat began to form on his head. While he kept his defense sturdy, she knew he couldn’t keep it going for the entirety of the fight. Ryuna was much too strong to be kept at bay for very long, especially when she was angry.
Of course, the master knew that that was no indication of Ryuna having the advantage in this duel. Far from it, in fact, as flashes of yellow light flared up each time Ryuna’s fist struck Billy’s arms. While she’d come into this fight with her chi aura more in check than before, it was still far from being properly tamed, and could backfire at any second.
“Keep your focus, Ryuna,” she said, although she didn’t intend for anyone to hear it. “Guide it down one clear path….”
Ryuna pulled her fist back, twisting her hips around to put as much power into it as she could. She then blasted it right towards Billy, anticipating his block.
However, that block never came.
Billy resigned to allow this one charged-up fist to hit him square in the face. Ryuna’s eyes went wide as the biggest ripple yet pulsated from her knuckles into the air around the two fighters.
She then felt Billy’s own fist push into her stomach at an upward angle.
The next thing she knew, she was soaring into the sky, nearly hitting the ceiling before flipping backward on her way back down.
She hit the floor with a loud thud!, her body kicking up a wide puff of dust and smoke.
Billy took a deep breath, bringing his arms down to his sides, rubbing at the sore muscles. They’d taken a pounding in that last exchange; if he’d tried to block that last punch of Ryuna’s, he was sure his bones would crack.
Brise glanced over at Master Kirin as the match fell into a quiet spell. “Is the match over?” she asked.
The old master shook her head. “No. Billy has taken control of the match, but Ryuna is certainly not out of it yet.”
Brise turned back to the battlefield as the smoke cleared. Ryuna had pushed herself back to her feet. Her yellow aura was now hazy, and the region on her back seemed to be sizzling like a flame, but she was certainly still ready to go, if her fierce gaze and upheld fists were any indication.
“I believe we’re about halfway through this duel,” Master Kirin continued, observing Ryuna and Billy in turn. “Three more strikes.”
“Three more strikes?”
“Yes….Three more genuine strikes. Three more chances for Ryuna to break through Billy’s defense. If she succeeds, she’ll win. If not, the victory shall go to Billy.”
Settling her eyes on Billy, Brise said, “Is he that powerful?” Truth be told, up until this point, she’d been convinced Ryuna would win the match quite easily. While Brise did not find Ryuna’s personality to be particularly appealing, the girl’s natural skill and confidence led to undeniable results. Billy, on the other hand, had flown under her radar for the duration of the tournament.
“Indeed he is,” said Master Kirin. “He is about as skilled with chi as one could be without proper instruction and as a fighter, he is a perfect mirror — he is as powerful as his opponent is, no more, no less.”
“Fascinating….”
Ryuna brought her arm up, wiping away at the sweat forming on her head. That last hit hurt like a motherfucker. She felt a bit stupid having not realized that Billy could just let one of her attacks hit his ripple shield, enabling him to reflect it back at her.
“How are your arms feeling?” she said with a smile.
Billy held them out in front of himself, gazing down upon them. “Sore, and heavily beaten by your attacks, but otherwise firm. My chi will be able to recover them back to full strength.”
She huffed from her nose, finding his direct answers quite annoying.
But that was true; with their chi auras amplified by Master Kirin, they’d recover from their injuries very, very quickly during the fight. Ryuna’s hard work wearing his arms down could be completely undone in just a few moments, throwing her entire strategy out the window.
She was going to have to break through that ripple barrier of his….but how?
Almost as if on cue, a surge of yellow light, shaped like a mixture of a lightning bolt and a line of flames, danced across her eyes. Duh, she thought to herself. How to break through a chi barrier? Use your own bigger, better, stronger chi, of course.
The question was, could she actually harness it well enough to pull that off? She’d had a few clutch moments during the tournament thus far, but she’d had her share of things going wrong and blowing up in her face as well. Against someone like Billy, who seemed to have a hell of a strong grasp on his own chi (a thought which made her question why Caedo never got on his goddamn case) already, a backfire could spell the end of the fight, and her run in the tournament.
But she’d have to try, right? No, not try — she’d have to do it. It had to work.
Otherwise, what was the point of all this? Flying all the way out here, keeping her hustle in Welca, defeating professional fighters — if she didn’t get her shit together and win it all, then what was the point of any of it?
She took a deep breath, and brought her fists back up, locking eyes with Billy as he took his own defensive stance.
Keep her at bay, Billy thought to himself.
Make it all worth it, Ryuna thought to herself.
Both chi auras began to pulsate, shining more potently than they had been up until this point. One half of the room was bathed in Billy’s pale blue light, while the other flickered with Ryuna’s gold-to-orange-to-bronze glow.
Just three more strikes to go….