"Haap~!"
"Hu-haap~!"
"You have to be precise, don't just lash out without thinking. Every move, calculated."
Bending her knees, Emma lashed out with a low sweeping kick. In response, Tatsuki jumped up and somersaulted in the air. He landed hand-first on the ground, balancing himself on his left hand while grabbing Emma's leg with the other. Gaining his foothold, he pulled Emma towards her before reaching out to her neck.
Emma knew that her defeat was inevitable, but she remembered Satoshi's dad's words. Her movements should be calculated. In a split second, Emma let the momentum carry her toward Tatsuki. With the way Tatsuki's hands were positioned, she knew he would grab her by the neck so she covered it with her left hand. She then clocked her right arm and punched blindly.
It took one moment for Emma to land a punch right at Tatsuki's diaphragm. It wasn't enough to make him keel over, but it was enough to stop his attack. A smile appeared on Tatsuki's face as he stood up, offering her hand to Emma who was down on the ground. "That was a splendid hit, now you just got to get more power in there, and boom."
Emma was so out of breath that the only thing she could do was nod in response. From her peripheral vision, she saw Satoshi standing by the sidelines, clapping his hand. There had been countless moments wherein she'd watch Satoshi brawl against his father and they would always take hits one after another to the point that it looked easy. As it turned out, it wasn't. After all, the only thing she could do after weeks of training was land a single lame hit.
Once she had enough rest, Satoshi then positioned himself in front of her, telling her that it was his turn too. This was his regular schedule in her morning training.
.....
The crowd broke into cheers as the first contestants showed up for their exhibition match. While this was nothing compared to the Concrete Arena, or the Official Beast Tournament, this was still one of the few events that people look forward to annually. And to think that this would happen twice in a year was a nice treat for them.
As it turned out, the referee was actually someone pretty familiar. It was none other than Plume, the mascot of the Concrete Arena who didn't have any losses under her belt. With a wave of her hand, she walked towards the center of the coliseum, smiling at Emma as she did so. There were only a couple of times when she met Emma but she was aware that she was a good kid (Plume thinks of her as a kid when she was only a couple of years older).
As soon as she reached the center, she took flight with her pristine wings, bringing down her hand in a chopping motion.
"Start!" She announced, flying to the side as Emma and Jonathan braced themselves.
In a snap of a finger, Emma and Jonathan disappeared, and portals appeared all over the stage. Everyone gasped in disbelief as Emma and Jonathan jumped from one of their respective portals to another, trying to catch up to the other while keeping their distance at the same time. It was a wild goose chase, and it was fairly obvious that they were unnecessarily draining their energy in order to outwit the other.
Jonathan was the first one to break through first. Relying on his instincts, he was able to grab Emma by the hair, pulling her down into one of his portals. Sensing that she'd lose if she were to let Jonathan have his way, Emma teleported herself, disregarding the lump of hair that Jonathan grabbed from her. 'It will grow back.' She muttered to herself, forcefully smiling.
One thing that Emma learned from Satoshi and his dad was that she should always look for a counter even if she was at a disadvantage. That's why, the moment Jonathan grabbed her by the hair, he trapped him by opening two portals— one for her escape, and one to cut off Jonathan's hand.
Of course, Jonathan won't expect it since Emma had already opened one portal to get away. He figured that she wouldn't cut his arm off. To his surprise though, Emma was more heartless than he thought, and she really went through with her intrusive thoughts of cutting his arm off.
To counter the portal, Jonathan had to open another portal and get his arm out of there before it was teleported into nothingness. Sure it would be easy to regrow his arm back with the medical technology they have today, but it would still be just as painful and Jonathan didn't want to go through it.
Fwoosh~!
A sudden rise of wind pressure appeared on the stage. As the audience ducked for cover, all the dimensional portals that manifested had completely disappeared and vanished into thin air.
"You're pretty good. I'd say your control over my dimensional portals is as good as mine." Jonathan commended, clapping his hand as he slowly walked towards Emma. Before Emma could say anything, he snapped his fingers, and a devious smile appeared on his face.
Emma didn't wait. As soon as she got her pace back, she tried opening up a dimensional portal to catch Jonathan by surprise. It didn't seem like he was going to open one of his portals anytime soon so Emma took her chances.
Fwip~!
The colors drained from Emma's face as she ran into thin air. She tried to summon a portal but nothing happened. Confused, she extended her arm for the second time, thinking that she was probably just out of it or something of the sort.
Nothing happened. Somehow, her powers weren't working!
"Heh," Jonathan casually walked to Emma with his arms up. It's as if he was inviting Emma into close-quarters combat, which was weird considering that this is an exhibition match featuring their superpowers.
"It's time for the second round." He announced.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com