Chapter 20 - Another Fight 2

"In the Champions' Row. A B-Class Hybrid Superioris. With 47 wins by way of knockout, 5 wins by opponent surrender, 0 draws, and 2 losses by way of surrender. FIRE COLOSSUS!"

*CHHEEERR*

"In the Named Warriors' Row. A C-Class Hybrid Superioris. With 10 wins by way of knockout, 10 wins by way of opponent surrender, 7 draws by mutual knockout, and 0 losses. OLD PHANTOM!"

*CHEER*

The announcer officially introduces the fighters once again.

"Any words before you duke it out?" He asks Red and Fire colossus.

Fire Colossus shakes his head, and Red does so too.

The audience, despite the two fighters not exchanging any more words, feel the mutual respect between the two.

"Alright. Without any further ado… FIGHT!" The announcer hops back in his booth.

Fire Colossus, immediately dashes forward and materializes on his right hand, an oversized fire gauntlet. With it, he throws a punch towards Red.

Red has no problems dodging the straightforward attack, by leaning to the side.

Fire Colossus then retracts his gauntlet and quickly materializes a crystalline orange boot on his left foot as he gives Red a kick to the mid-section. He is almost disappointed to see that Red seems slow to react, but the next moment, he sees Red's cane get in the way of his kick.

He simply smirks in glee as he watches his orange crystalline boot connect with the cane and *BBOOFFFF*, his boot explodes into a blast of orange fire.

Seeing Red immediately hop away from the fire, he goes into pursuit as he materializes his fire gauntlet on his right hand again for an attack.

Soon, Red is in his range once again and he throws a right jab with just enough force to shatter his fire gauntlet in case it makes contact. He is not surprised to see Red dodge his jab once again, so, *whoosh* *whoosh* *whoosh* he keeps throwing jab after jab because Red is still in his range.

Soon, *BOOOFF* his jabs pay off as he lands one on Red's shoulder, followed by another blast of fire.

To his surprise however, Red uses the impact of his punch and flames as a boost to retreat quite a distance away from his range. He stops in his tracks, impressed at Red's display.

"FIRE COLOSSUS LANDS THE FIRST HIT!"

Meanwhile in the audience, this pause in action allows them to process what they have just seen and, *RRRAAAHHH*, they get up on their feet in excitement and applause.

Fire Colossus is about to charge once again, but is stunned at Red's next actions.

Red puts out the singe eating on his long white hair, pulls out from his wrist a hair tie, and ties his hair with it.

Fire Colossus, seeing this, decides to let Red be until Red is ready. He does not want the smallest thing outside the fighter's skills to be the reason for his win.

"…" Fumio, meanwhile this time, is no longer worried for Red. Instead, he is focused in studying Red's evasive techniques even though his eyes can barely process each action that Red and his opponent make.

Soon, Red strolls to the center of the ring once again.

"If there's anything else making you uncomfortable, get rid of it now." Fire Colossus says.

"Just come at me, kid." Red replies.

Fire Colossus is a bit annoyed by Red's tone, but does not let it get to him. He then materializes again his fire gauntlet on his right hand and continues his assault of jabs. He resorts to his previous tactic as he knows that power strikes are easy for Red to evade and the speed of the jab is more likely to land.

*whoosh* *whoosh* *whoosh* Soon however, he feels that Red is adapting.

"I'VE NOT SEEN THIS BEFORE IN OLD PHANTOM! HE'S TRYING TO TRADE BLOWS!" The announcer calls.

With every two jabs that Fire Colossus throws, Red responds with one of his own. Not long after Red starts countering, *smack* Fire Colossus gets hit on the face by one of Red's jabs and he is forced to take a step back.

"OHHH!!"

"RRAAAHHH!!!" The announcer and the audience cheer in excitement at Red's attainment in the fight.

Fire Colossus meanwhile, while not finding Red's jab painful, his heart starts to pump faster in excitement.

"You got it in you all along, old man. I can let loose a bit." He grins as he materializes his fire gauntlet on his left hand, now equipping both his hands with his fire armor ability.

"LOOKS LIKE OLD PHANTOM DESERVES FIRE COLOSSUS' LEVEL TWO! WE ARE IN FOR A GREAT FIGHT!"

"RAAHHH"

Fire Colossus then assumes a proper southpaw boxing stance and he starts throwing punches again.

With his right and left fists alternating, *foo-foo-foo-foo-fooooo*, he lets loose five jabs in a second.

To his surprise, none of his two gauntlets exploded, meaning he did not land a single hit.

This makes him excited even further as he continues.

"OLD PHANTOM CAN'T DO ANYTHING BUT DODGE AND RETREAT! IS HE OVERWHELMED?" The announcer remarks.

"GO! GO! GO!" The audience meanwhile cheer for Fire Colossus.

Soon, after a hundred or so jab attempts, *BO-BOOOOFFF* Fire Colossus finally manages to land two consecutive jabs on Red's body and therefore his two gauntlets explode too.

He then sees that Red, due to the impact of the jabs and the explosions, is lifted an inch or two from the ground and get knocked back ten feet away. He knows however that the fight is still far from over as Red simply recovers his footing, obviously absorbing his punches well.

"OLD PHANTOM IS TOUGHER THAN WE THOUGHT! BUT HIS CHEST MUST BE BURNING BY NOW!" The announcer comments.

"*RAAAHHH*" The crowd also sees through the LCD display, that Red's entire chest is inflamed red.

Soon, the audience is silenced and Fire Colossus himself gets interested at Red's next move.

"WHAT'S THIS? IT LOOKS LIKE WE CAN SEE MORE OF OLD PHANTOM'S CANE WORK?" The announcer says.

Red, after 'recovering' from Fire Colossus' punch, changed his neutral stance a bit by raising his cane horizontally to Fire Colossus' direction, as if assuming a lazy version of a fencer's stance.

Seeing the change in Red's stance, Fire Colossus excitedly charges again...

.

.

.

.

.

"*GROAN*" Fire Colossus wakes up and finds himself somewhere he has not been in months.

"Oh. You're awake! Let me call the doctor." His attention is taken by his agent, sitting beside his bed.

"Don't--. Ah! Sssssss… Damn. What the f*ck happened?" Fire Colossus winces his eyes as an attempt to stifle the intense throbbing pain assaulting the entirety of his face and head.

"You got unlucky. That's what happened." His agent says.

"What? I thought I was winning…" Fire Colossus says in confusion as he tries to remember how he got in one of the arena's infirmary rooms.

"What's the last thing you remember?" His agent asks.

"My gauntlet exploding. My punch landed, right?" Fire Colossus asks.

"Ah… Ye-… well. That's not exactly what happened." His agent says as he opens a video on his phone, before passing it to Fire Colossus to watch.

Fire Colossus realizes that the video is a footage of the match and he focuses immediately on it.

He sees himself in the video throwing blurs of Fiery punches to Red's direction, which he remembers just fine. Suddenly, his left gauntlet explodes before reaching Red, and he collapses shortly after that.

"…" He is almost embarrassed seeing himself drop limply to the ground.

The footage then switches to slow motion. He sees that his gauntlet actually did not explode without a reason; it exploded because of Red stabbing his cane on it. The explosion of the gauntlet obstructed his view for a split second and that was enough for Red to do a quick stab to the middle of his face.

After the replay, Fire Colossus then closes his agent's phone and reflects on what he just saw. Slowly, he remembers that after his gauntlet exploded, he saw a dark shadow zoom to his vision. That is now the last thing that he remembers.

"Fuck." Fire Colossus shakes his head.

"I know. The doctor said you could have been paralyzed from that. Thankfully you were saved just in time." His agent says.

"What do you mean exactly?" Fire Colossus feels a chill up his spine at the news.

"Doctor said the cane hit you squarely on some vital zone on your face. That rocked your brain and even shifted your spinal cord a centimeter out of place." His agent explains.

"…" Fire Colossus is speechless.

"Well. You're safe now and you just need some bed rest." His agent assures him.

"Huuuu…" Fire Colossus sighs in relief.

Not long after, "So. The old man got my seat, huh?", he asks with a bitter smile.

"Yeah. That geezer got to be a champion with a lucky fucking poke of his fuckin stick. The lucky bastard." His agent curses.

"No." Fire Colossus shakes his head. "Was it luck though?" He asks.

"What?" Fire Colossus' agent scrunches up his face at Fire Colossus' question.

"Wait. You don't seem to be in your right mind just yet. Lie back down." He says before standing up to leave, worried that Fire Colossus even entertaining that the loss wasn't due to a fluke, might be a symptom.

A few moments later, "How are you feeling?" The doctor says, after being called by Fire Colossus' agent.

"Worst headache in a long time. But it's still better than the alternative right, doc?" Fire Colossus says.

"Uhuh… Well. Stay a few more hours. After my ability cools down, I'll scan your brain again. After that, you can transfer to a real hospital." The doctor says.

."Why can't he transfer now?" Fire Colossus' agent asks as he points at the neighboring bed with its curtains closed.

"It's no private room, but it's the best room here." The doctor scoffs at Fire Colossus' agent.

"Besides. Your injury will make any doctor suspicious. Let's fix you up enough so you can brush this injury as a result of something not as bad like… sparring." The doctor addresses Fire Colossus.

"Alright. Thanks doc." Fire Colossus is grateful for the doctor's consideration.

Right after the doctor left the room, *shhrrkk* the curtains at the bed beside Fire Colossus' suddenly opens to reveal Blade Tornado sitting down on his own bed, with various medicated patches on his body and his face.

"Hey ~ Ex-champ!" Blade Tornado greets Fire Colossus with a smug grin.

"Damn it..." "Fire Colossus cannot help but curse.

"My friend. Don't be like that." Blade Tornado gets off his bed, drags a chair nearby, and sits himself at Fire Colossus' bedside, facing Fire Colossus' agent.

"Leave us." Fire Colossus orders his agent.

"You sure?" His agent stalls.

"Yeah. Go." Fire Colossus points to the door.

"Alright. Fine.." His agent can only comply soon left the room.