CHAPTER 23: SPIRIT BOMBS

The 24th to 27th round went by smoothly and without grievous injuries, some notable battles occurring, one of which consisted of a dark skinned boy with very short black hair who dominated his opponent completely with his metal manipulation.

He didn’t even give his opponent any moment of respite as he just bound him with the metals he scavenged from certain parts of the amphitheatre and whisked him out of their assigned stage, throwing his body violently against the stone bars that surrounded the audience area, granting his opponent a swift loss and him an effortless win.

It was now the 28th round, and as usual, Xenon searched for the most promising match. After few seconds of perusing the arena below he found a blue haired boy matched with a tall guy with long, raven black, hair that reached his waist.

"Red, white, blue... isn’t it weird how there’s one of each type of persons in this year’s entrance examination. That red head, me and this blue haired guy. Surely his match should be worthwhile". Xenon contemplated and focused on the guy.

— — —

"May I know your name? dear opponent" The boy with waist long, black hair addressed his opponent.

"It... it’s Aoi... Aoi Mitsugo" His timid opponent replied, twist a lock of his blue hair around his right index finger out of nervousness.

"Aoi, nice to meet you. I am Bèishù."

"Nice to meet you too, Bèishù"

"The pleasure is all mine." Bèishù smirked. "I just wanted to inform you that I am in no way intimidated by the colour of your hair and will by all means try my best to defeat you." He said while moving closer to Aoi and outstretched his hand in an invite for a handshake.

"Oh... really? That somewhat relieving to hear." Aoi’s anxiety lessened, he smiled faintly and grabbed Bèishù’s hand in a firm handshake. "I hope you will still feel this way by the end of the match no matter the outcome." He said as they moved apart and got ready for their confrontation.

Aoi stood firmly, ready to dash to any direction as the situation may call for, Bèishù however stood straight with both arms outstretched downwards to the sides.

As Professor Arkham’s voice resonated a firm ’Begin’, Bèishù moved his arms in all around his frame, forming afterimages that solidified into corporeal arms.

Xenon’s mouth stood agape, unwillingly to close up. "There’s a lot of astonishing and unique abilities here today. I wonder what my opponent’s own will be." He said to himself not taking his eyes off the match below.

Bèishù’s 23 arms –excluding his actual arms– hovered around him in a circle, all the palms pointed towards Aoi who hadn’t moved an inch from his position.

On each palm, a tiny yellow ball of energy pulsed and then expanded gradually till they reached the size of a large orange, Bèishù locked eyes with Aoi and started firing the swirling balls of energy at him one after the other.

Aoi jumped, swerved, ducked, twirled and twisted, dodging each ball of energy with practiced ease, each ball creating a mini explosion wherever it landed. He tried to close in on Bèishù but Bèishù increased the rate of his attacks, making him stop in his tracks and dodge the yellow balls.

"This is useless." Bèishù muttered when Aoi kept dodging his attacks as if what he ever trained to do in his whole life was dodge attacks.

He stopped shooting the balls of energy to conserve spiritual energy and sent out the arms to attack instead.

Aoi parried every attack the flying arms tried to deal, landing blows of his own, he was so concentrated on bring each individual arm down that he didn’t notice the ones he previously dodged or hit surrounding him in a tight cage. He hit one more, expecting the rest but stood frozen by shock as he realized the trap he fell into. All he could do was cross his arms over his face as he got illuminated in yellow light.

All of Bèishù’s 23 arms surrounded Aoi, bathing him in yellow light from the balls of energy on each palm, and shot him.

The balls collided against Aoi’s body and each other, creating a large but not extremely fatal explosion. The arms retreated, showing the blackened and bruised body of Aoi under singed clothes, he dropped to his knees and spat blood unto the arena floor. Bèishù gathered his floating arms in a large circle, all of them charging up one giant ball of energy together, this one emanating a light blue colour.

"Come on blue boy. You can’t let it end like this!" Xenon muttered, biting on his fingers. His anticipation grew from suspense as the unmoving body of Aoi stood on his knees, being bathed in the blue light of the slowly charging energy ball on Bèishù’s palms.

"I’m very disappointed, Aoi. I expected more from you" Bèishù said as he prepared to launch his final attack. "Let me end this quickly for you. I’ll make sure you pass out on contact with my spirit bomb, making you feel no pain till you’re healed."

The blue glow of the giant ball of energy deepened before shooting out in a beam straight towards Aoi.

"H... how is that possible?" Xenon’s eyes widened at the spectacle going on below. Just before the blue beam hit Aoi, his hair turned white and he dashed out of the path of collision with the beam, moving so fast that Xenon almost lost track of him.

"Think again" Aoi whispered into Bèishù’s ear before kicking him squarely in the back, throwing him forward a few meters.

Bèishù looked at Aoi in shock. His opponent’s hair was now white, his blue eyes more striking than before, his body was still covered in burns but now they emitted a faint radiance that made him look slightly menacing.

"What are you looking at me like that for. You should be glad the other guy wasn’t interested in fighting today." Aoi said to him.

’Which other guy...’ Bèishù was saying to himself before his train of thought was disrupted by his opponent.

"Is this what you were trying to do?" Aoi spoke loudly, he held one of Bèishù’s arms in his right hand. Before Bèishù could ask what it was doing with him, the arm enlarged, hovering above Aoi, it’s skin turned black. A crack appeared in the middle of the palm, splitting it in two and a faint white glow emitted from the crack.

The arm’s shadow fell upon Aoi, covering his entire body, while and ever growing white ball of energy showered Bèishù in light. The audience held their breath in anticipation of the disaster the giant black arm was bound to wreak. Bèishù gulped loudly.

"What was it you called it? Spirit bomb?" Aoi asked not waiting for a response before firing the giant white ball of energy at Bèishù.

The arena was bathed in white light, everybody went blind for a few seconds. The light receded, revealing the badly burnt arena floor, a barely standing Bèishù with burnt hair and badly singed garments, he was breathing heavily. Aoi gazed at him with disdain, the giant arm above him dissolving to ashes.

"What a shame the objects I use can’t survive the use of their own full power, I would’ve liked to finish this off with one more blast." Aoi said in a tone that showed slight sadness.

Bèishù stood upright and raised his fist, he had used all his conjured arms and most of his spiritual energy to survive that attack. "Wanna go about it the old fashioned way?" Bèishù smiled shamelessly.

Aoi’s hair reverted back to it’s light blue colour, his skin losing their radiance, he also stood with his fist pointed made ready. "With pleasure." He replied in his normal, shy voice, a slight smile on his lips.

They rushed at each other, Bèishù throwing a punch as soon as Aoi got within reach. Aoi dodged it and threw two that hit their mark at Bèishù’s gut.

Bèishù stepped back and swirled around, aiming a kick at Aoi’s head, Aoi blocked it with his forearms, moved in for a one–two punch which was blocked and earned him a punch to his right eye by Bèishù.

They continued their boxing for a few minutes before Aoi delivered a punch to Bèishù’s right ear and nose respectively, making him lose his orientation and fall to the ground. He waved his arms in defeat, declaring Aoi the winner.

The audience and even the hosts enjoyed their last boxing performance and awarded them with applause at the end of their battle.

"For the 29th round..." Professor Arkham called fifty persons as usual, this time Xenon being part of them.

’Stage 17’ Professor Arkham said into Xenon’s head, informing him the stage his battle was to take place out of the 25 ones distributed around the arena floor.

"It’s high time!" Xenon said aloud as he made his way to the arena.