Chapter 188: A passionate battle

We marched for the stadium and reached roughly three minutes late. 

Still within the twelve minutes time limit so no harm done. 

I did get stares from the judges though. 

I guess I might have messed up one too many times. 

'I should really take this seriously.' But I wasn't. A part of me wanted to accept Marg's offer. But another part of me reminded me that her powers had their own drawbacks and I didn't want her to suffer because of me.

I was probably being overprotective.

But for now, my only concern had to be the large man in front of me. He was wearing a bathing suit with an American flag drawn onto it. The bottom part was a speedo while he had a top part that went upto his neck that had a bit of open space on his chest- weird.

He was big, like at least three times wider than me: Three or four inch taller than me too. 

I was so concerned about the first fight that I forgot to look this guy up. And I was taking this seriously?

I really wanted to laugh at myself but- I still had a smile. Marg and Elsa were here and I couldn't look like a fool in front of them after all.

'Guess I'll go all out for once-' within reasonable margins of course.

"Alright!" I turned on the saber- Enira didn't come out but- I didn't need her. 

After all, this was my fight. And if I couldn't even win this, there was no point in challenging the Battlesuins. I had loads of handicaps in the last fight but this time, I was in full strength. 

After that fiasco just this morning my fighting spirit had only grown. I felt like a hypocrite while thinking about all that though.

The countdown began.

***

"Begin!"

With the signal, I created a barrier over my body. It was a thin barrier and all I had to do was will it. 

I guess Enira was somehow linked to my thoughts. The very thought made me feel a bit self-conscious thinking she actually knew that I had a thing for those large- ahem! But yeah, it made me uncomfortable. 

I was using a moderate amount of radiation. My sword was with Elsa while Marg's saber was with her. Both of them were staying just outside the stadium and looking eagerly.

But I just had to focus on this guy. 'Why isn't he moving?'

The large man, in particular, grinned and turned on his saber. Funny he didn't even try to charge. I guess with his size it would have been a bit tougher than it seemed. 

His saber turned on- and it looked like a shark. It literally looked like a shark: a blue tiger shark. 'How the hell can plasma do that?'

I really wanted to know but now wasn't the time. 

He laughed out loud. His facial hair and chest hair kind of swayed in the air: very distracting. I didn't know why but this whole thing kind of made me uncomfortable. 

But he still wasn't attacking me. Was he waiting for me?

The crowd was actually cheering slightly. And there were more people this time around. I guess they weren't as afraid as I thought. 

'Something seems to be off?' The whole place almost felt muffled to me. My vision had a slight pink tint. There was also this slightly sweet aroma in the air.

I cleared my thoughts and my throat. I dashed for him and straight for his head. 'Thinking won't get me anywhere, fight!'

I swung hard but the guy just blocked my first attack. His shark saber wasn't just for show. The shark grew larger and almost bit me. I backtracked and made a bit of distance. 

'That thing would be troublesome.'

He didn't move an inch. More like I didn't have enough strength.

I grinned. "Sorry but I'm kind of in a hurry." With that said, I released a decent amount of gamma. It was only a matter of time.

He still wasn't fighting back. And his grin didn't disappear despite his face going pale. Now that I looked carefully, he was actually wearing a wig. He was bald. 'That's my future?' I grimaced inside with just the thought. 

I took a step back, it was about time. 

"BLuehj!" the guy threw up and his back was exposed. 

In one swift motion, I dashed and was about to slice his back and then make him surrender but- he deflected my attack and got up. I had a take another step back.

He stood right back up. There was blood and barf on his mouth, but his grin still was here: he wiped them off. "Thank you for the warm-up. Glad to you know aren't going easy."

"Huh?" He literally sounded like a frigging hard-boiled dude. Just what the hell was wrong with that voice?

Something was off, something really was off. And I felt strangely uncomfortable like something was playing with my mind or something.

And the pink tint just got a bit more saturated. Did something happen to my eyes or something?

"Now, I'll make you feel good too." He winked with a handsome smile. 

'What the fu-?' And more importantly, why the hell did my heart race faster?

In a split second, he was already in front of me. He was fast. With a complexion like his, I couldn't believe he could move so fast. 

I got flustered. 

With a smirk, he brought his shark down and I tried to dodge instead of blocking it. 

He was fast and strong, so blocking might have backfired. But the shark still traced me and I had to take more and more steps back.

But it wasn't enough.

"Barrier!"

A barrier did form but he literally threw me two meters in the air despite the barrier. The barrier crashed against my arm. The impact almost broke my left arm. 

I fell on the floor, rolled, and picked myself up: my nose was bleeding. 'Blood?'

My breath was too erratic. This wasn't just typical excitement. Something really was going on.

I took a deep breath and focused. I immediately started to produce a ball of plasma. Even the plasma looked pink. And my saber kind of had a pink glow around it too. 'What is going on?'

The guy was fast but I could predict his movements thanks to the particles. But he was a bit too fast for me to react on time: and that's why he caught me off-guard. And my stamina wasn't infinite. 

The guy on the other hand hadn't even started to sweat. But he didn't have much time left. 

I was done and threw the plasma ball before anything else: a very pink plasma ball. The guy grinned, showing his teeth, and took the full brunt with his arms. Some scales formed over his skin.