Jonathan's words echoed throughout the arena, even making their way to the official recording of matches via camera drones that roamed around the coliseum. These camera drones were responsible for recording videos and posting them on the official video channel of the United Superheroes Academy.
No one had any idea what Jonathan meant by the second round, but they were certainly looking forward to it. Little did they know that the second round would be as uneventful as it could get.
Without saying another word, Jonathan sprinted towards Emma, increasing his speed as he did so. Unbeknownst to everyone in the coliseum, all powers were currently negated in the arena at that moment. This was due to one of Jonathan's special powers— superpower negation.
Aside from his dimensional portal superpower, he could also negate all superpowers in a given area. Of course, it also negated his superpowers but he was trained for that. This was the reason why he was in his prime physical condition.
But what he didn't know was that Emma is in her prime physical condition as well. If any, he was unlucky that Emma is fighting her in the first round of these exhibition matches.
As soon as he was within arm's range, he clocked his fist and unleashed a punch at Emma, who cleanly dodged it by leaning back and taking a single step backward. Using her momentum, she also readied her fist and hooked Jonathan, aiming at his lower jaw.
Jonathan was surprised that Emma could move so smoothly despite being severely disadvantaged. Since she is a girl, and it seemed like she never had any prior training with martial arts, Jonathan assumed that it was only a stroke of luck that she was able to dodge his punch.
Because of that, Jonathan still had full confidence that he would win. Grinning, he lunged forward, this time, aiming a powerful strike right at Emma's solar plexus.
Once again, though, Emma was able to deflect the attack by blocking it with her forearm.
"That won't work. I got you now." Jonathan called out. He was confident that the force of his punch would be enough to break the bone on her forearm. He felt sorry for her but he had to go through this if he ever hoped to win the exhibition match and prove that he was a worthy candidate as a transfer student.
However, his punch didn't break anything. In fact, he felt as if he punched a bricked wall. Flinching in pain, he backed down, wondering why his attack didn't break through the girl's defenses.
Even though Emma looked like a frail girl, underneath her skin was pure muscle, honed to its full potential thanks to her training. She may appear as if her bones could break at any moment, but that was all an illusion.
"H-how?" Jonathan asked himself, looking at his knuckles which had their skin peeled off. At first, he wondered whether Emma had some sort of physical buff activated but that was impossible since he had negated all types of superpowers in the first place. The second thought that occurred in his mind was that Emma was cheating... but that was also impossible, considering that he didn't detect any external interferences or anything of the sort.
"It's my turn," Emma muttered to herself.
Just like Jonathan, she was a bit uncertain of Jonathan's physical capabilities. The moment her dimensional portals didn't activate, she knew that something was wrong with her power... and Jonathan had something to do with it.
And then Jonathan attacked with his fists instead of using his dimensional portals. That's when Emma came to the conclusion that he had negated all the superpowers in the field, including his superpowers. "For a moment back there, I thought I'd lose. If he could deactivate my superpowers while using his superpower... that would be pretty bad."
However, luck was on Emma's side. Even with all of these disadvantages presented to her, she knew she was on edge against Jonathan. The exact moment she knew that was when Jonathan landed his solar plexus punch— instead, it hit Emma's forearm and Jonathan was the one damaged by it.
One thing was for sure. Emma had the upper hand when it came to their physical abilities. This left Jonathan with two things: either he forfeits the match since there was no way he'd win, or he deactivates his skill and he'd have to fight Emma with his dimensional portals and hope to win. However, the latter option was a bit disadvantageous for him since activating his superpower negation drained a lot of his energy. In terms of energy, Emma had also gained the upper hand.
Jonathan hadn't realized any of that though. Right now, he was surprised that Emma was physically stronger than him.
Seeing the victory right in front of her, Emma crouched low and dashed toward Jonathan. There was no way she'd give him a break after he showed him what he can do.
Without hesitation, Emma struck with a punch. It was a feint, however, and she managed to throw Jonathan off. In one smooth motion, she twisted her core and unleashed a kick right at Jonathan's ribs, sending him skittering sidewards.
Before Jonathan could scramble back up to his feet, Emma caught up to him, grabbed his arm, and dislocated his shoulder.
"Aargh!" Jonathan screamed.
There was no other choice.
Before Emma could do anything else to him, he snapped his finger a second time and activated his dimensional portal. Even if it meant draining his energy, he just had to get out of that sticky situation no matter what.
Deactivating his superpower negation also meant that Emma's abilities won't be sealed anymore. And it was only a matter of time before Emma caught up to him, overpowering him with her fluid control of superpower and her masterful physical fighting prowess.
The chase lasted another minute or so, but at this point, everyone knew what the outcome of the match would be. As Emma stood in front of Jonathan who had exhausted all his energy, Jonathan heaved a sigh before saying the words that would end the match.
"Sigh~ I lost." Jonathan exhaled, sitting on the ground before he fell into unconsciousness.
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