Satoshi was well aware of the Nailgun's maximum capabilities. He knew just how powerful every piece of nail it fired from its casket, how it could pierce through anything he willed it to. And well, Sai Tama wasn't exactly the opponent that Satoshi would hold back on. He was a formidable superhero, and this prompted Satoshi to attack him with full force.
Despite all that, the nails seemed to bounce off his skin. Satoshi's confidence dwindled. Because at that moment, he was fairly certain that he had caught Sai Tama off guard. In doing so, he left a lot of openings on himself that second when he counterattacked, and Sai Tama wholly took advantage of it.
eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ "That was pretty good, Satoshi, but you have to do better than that if you want to defeat me." Sai Tama smiled to himself as he held Satoshi by the neck, raising him up.
Then again, Sai Tama didn't squeeze the life out of Satoshi. He just held him there as he flailed helplessly in the air. Out of desperation, Satoshi teleported himself out of Sai Tama's grasp. He was careful enough not to cut off Sai Tama's hand when he teleported out of there.
As soon as he got out, Satoshi turned around. This time, he wasn't stepping on any breaks anymore. Before Sai Tama could make another step, Satoshi summoned the Kraken Queen and Sain (his chainsaw familiar), integrating with them. Tentacles came out of his lower back, and chainsaws appeared on all his appendages.
"T-that's... wow," Sain muttered to himself. He couldn't believe that in such a short span of time, Satoshi had become a powerful beast tamer, almost to the point where no one could match him. Then again, he wasn't just anyone; he was the head director of one of the most prestigious superhero schools in Japan.
Countless tentacles shot at Sai Tama, weaving and piercing the air in a whipping motion. There was no way he could dodge all of them, so he stepped sideways and prepared for the worst. Once the tentacles closed in on him, he started dodging and parrying each one of them. Every attack connected, but Sai Tama deflected them relatively easily as if he was swatting flies.
Closing in on Sai Tama, Satoshi continued flailing his tentacles and regrowing those that were cut off. It didn't take long before the entire arena was filled with wriggling tentacles, splashing about here and there like separate entities. Once he was within arm's reach, Satoshi started flailing his appendages with his tentacles, pressuring Sai Tama both with his tentacles and chainsaws.
Although Knighthawk was supposed to be giving real-time commentary on how the fight was transpiring, he didn't speak a single word. He was too shocked to even utter anything. Unexpectedly, Satoshi was keeping up with Sai Tama. Toe to toe, they fought with neither side backing down.
On one hand, a portion of the audience couldn't believe that a first-year could execute such movements in a high-leveled exhibition match. And on the other hand, there was a portion of the student body who felt pressured, knowing that a first year was better than them. Both sides stopped cheering. They were too engrossed in the match that they just hung their jaws open while their eyes were fixated on every second of the match.
"We only had like... one month break from school, right? Right?" Hiroshi asked, turning toward Midori and Kuroe, who were seated to his right. They nodded in response, wondering why Hiroshi asked something so obvious.
"I mean, we've seen how he fought during the Official Beast Tournament, right? He was already pretty proficient as a beast tamer back then." Shiroi commented, turning over to Hiroshi. "He's gotten stronger since then."
"You know something, don't you?" Sakura Cherry skeptically raised an eyebrow at Shiroi— to which Shiroi responded by guiltily averting her gaze. "I knew it! No wonder we couldn't reach any of you this past week!"
"Eh?! So that's why Satoshi wasn't available this past week? Where did you go? Did you go to a secret mountain to train or something? Did you train the ninja way?" Midori asked, swinging his hand all over the place with a vague imitation of ninjutsu hand signals.
Meanwhile, Kuroe just stared at Shiroi. Since the question was already asked, there was no way Shiroi could stop her thoughts from leaking out. It only took Kuroe a single second to read what was inside Shiroi's head, and she smiled at herself. "So you went to Emma's dimension. That's pretty cool, why didn't you bring me with you? I've never been to another dimension." Kuroe whispered.
"It was an emergency," Shiroi whispered back, almost as if she was hissing at her.
"Riight~ you should've called me! I wouldn't wanna miss out on an adventure, you know." Cherry called out, popping her head between Shiroi and Kuroe while they were talking. It only took them a moment to realize that they were talking to Cherry's alter ego, Sassu.
"Guys, focus on the match!" Out of nowhere, Kobayashi Siril appeared from behind the group. He was well aware that he didn't have that much of a screen time, so he hopped into the scene and interrupted everyone's conversation. (Kobayashi Siril, superpower: Dragon Form)
Somehow, Sai Tama was deflecting all of Satoshi's attacks no matter how fast he was. Satoshi was already debuffing him as it is, thanks to Sera. Furthermore, he was attacking Sai Tama on all sides, thanks to Ghast, who manifested dozens of dimensional portals all over the arena. It was like two last bosses fighting each other, with all the tentacles, portals, and everything in the arena.
With every second, Satoshi was becoming more and more precise with his attacks. To a novice, it would seem as if he was pushing Sai Tama to the edge since he was always in a defensive stance. But from an experienced perspective, one could tell that both of them were evenly matched.
And then came the upset.
Somehow, even with all the attacks going on around him, Sai Tama managed to step forward and grab Satoshi by the neck again, slamming him on the ground before he could even react. Satoshi was putting up a good fight as it is. However, Sai Tama made it look so easy by pinning him on the ground like that.
"That was a great match. If I didn't take you seriously, I'd have lost." Sai Tama smiled to himself as he prompted Satoshi up and raised his hand.