CH68 (298), Regional Champion Twice Over, Kinda (1)

Once I made it back to our seats, everyone congratulated me, and I got dragged into a lot of hugs. However, I did not stay with them for long, since my personal fight was up next.

Since I had made it to the semi-finals in both categories, I would be fighting back to back, the same would happen for the finals. At least I would get to relax for a bit before the finals since the fight after mine would count as my break.

Anyway, I made my way back to the battlefield barely 5 minutes after I sat down, and took my place on the side assigned to me. Adam was already in position as well, and the host began to do our introductions, not that we needed them since everyone should have heard it once or twice by now.

The referee did his usual thing, and I decided to finish the fight as quickly as possible since I wanted to relax for as long as possible. The finals would start at 7 p.m, so each minute I finished early was another minute I got to relax.

So, as soon as the starting signal came, I shot toward Adam while boosting my legs for extra speed. Adam obviously saw me approaching and assumed a defensive position. He managed to stand at ready just as I arrived in front of him.

I changed from a leg boost to a full body boost before doing a fake-out, the maneuver not the move. I faked delivering a punch from the right, which he tried to block while doing a half spin to move to the right of his body, which gave me free access to Adam's unprotected right side.

I delivered a devastating liver blow which made Adam involuntarily fold his body. I mercilessly followed that up with a leg sweep, to make use of his unbalanced state to cause him to fall, which succeeded.

While he was down, I moved to his backside before going down as well to grab him in a headlock. Since I was at his back he could not hit or kick me, so he tried to buckle his body in hopes of loosening my hold.

Unfortunately for him, I was boosting my arms and back with aura, so he could not get rid of my choke hold. Still, he kept struggling until the end, but once it was obvious that he could not get out, and that he was about to lose consciousness, the referee declared me the winner, so I let go of Adam, who proceeded to take deep breaths.

The whole fight lasted less than 4 minutes, with the first part of my offensive taking 10 to 25 seconds, while the struggle on the ground took nearly 4 minutes. Adam actually managed to endure a chokehold for such a long time while actively struggling, which showed how much better our physiques were compared to the regular guy or gal, who would have succumbed to unconsciousness within less than a minute.

I stood up and stretched out my hand to help Adam up as well. He took it and once he was up, I thanked him for the fight. He actually thanked me for showing him that he still had a lot to learn before declaring that he would win the next time.

The main reason I had managed to win this fast, was that I was stronger than him, and had more experience thanks to the weekly trashing I received with Mr. Burns's support, along with the daily spars I had with Tyson, Mars, and the others.

Well, that and the fact that I took him by surprise with my fake-out supported by my fast speed. His own somewhat lacking experience facing those as strong or stronger than him helped as well.

Anyway, I made my way back to the stands, and thanks to my quick victory there were still 25 minutes until the next semi-final fight. Most people used that time to go for a quick washroom stop or to buy some snacks, but our group had brought along enough snacks, so I could just snag some from them if I wanted to.

Not that I needed it, since I had more than enough berries and self-made snacks stored in Utopia that I could pull out. Anyway, I got teased good-naturedly by the others because I rushed the fight just to laze around a bit before having to fight in the finals. I just shrugged because it was true.

Still, I added that I only did that because Adam had already reached the semi-finals, so there was no need for me to give him some time to show his mettle. Besides, he made it to the continental competition either way, so there was no need for me to feel bad for any reason.

The topic shifted to other stuff, and before we knew it, it was time for the last semi-final fight. I pulled out some of the self-made snacks and distributed them to everyone before nibbling on some while watching the ongoing Pokemon battle.

Stephanie Dola from Jeanne Aura Academy in Orleans City ended up being the winner, which meant that I would be facing her in the finals. She only used her (high) silver stage Hitmonform and (mid) silver stage Gardevior to win the battle, but I had read up on both competitors, so I knew that she also had a (high) silver stage Sylveon as well as a (low) silver stage Lucario, neither of which got a turn this time around.

Stephanie won within 20 minutes, so there were still 10 minutes before the finals began. Since I had made it to the finals of both categories, I had to partake in both battles, so I made my way to the battlefield under the well-wishes of everyone.

Mom gave me a bone-crushing hug before she let me leave, and I jokingly asked if that was her way of making the finals more equal. I heard the others laugh while I was moving to the battlefield, and once I reached my position I saw my opponent Saiki already in his, waiting for the fight to begin.

He actually gave me a nod of acknowledgment after I took my place, which I naturally returned. Introductions happened, and the referee gave the starting signal after his usual spiel.

I dialed my senses to the max, and as soon as the signal was given, Saiki disappeared using his teleportation. He appeared 20 meters to his previous left, and as soon as he did I felt his reappearance.

Saiki either could not suppress his life signs, or he did not bother doing so. That made tracking him easier for me, so I was thankful for that. He did another teleportation and appeared closer to me.

I felt the effects of his telekinesis on me, which meant he was trying to gain control over me, but I used my aura to resist him, while also physically struggling against the metaphorical restrictions Saiki's telekinesis was trying to place on me.

Due to being a psychic myself, I knew how to best resist the telekinesis, and where as well as how much pressure to apply to break free, so Saiki's attempt at "taking control" of my body failed. Had he succeeded, he would have been able to immobilize me or levitate me around, slamming me everywhere he wanted.

Yet, he failed, which gave him the equivalent of a mental slap to the face. I saw him briefly wince at the small mental backlash he received, but I also saw how he became much more serious after that happened.

It seemed he decided to change his approach, as he teleported away from me before taking to the air using his telekinesis on himself. He then began levitating nails around himself that came out of his pockets.

I boosted my perception and reaction time to the limit while boosting my legs as well so that I could react to and dodge the nails once he began firing them toward me.

Still, instead of waiting for it to happen, I began rushing toward him. I used small aura platforms to "run" in the air, but I was forced to deviate a lot due to having to dodge the nails Saiki was firing at me. Thankfully he could only control a bunch of nails as a group on top of firing them. If he could have completely controlled multiple nails individually, I would have been much more hard-pressed to dodge or block them.

Nonetheless, even now I was forced to jump around dodging nails flying at me from all sides. Being airborne, I did some somersaults and flips. I even created a platform above me and propelled myself downward after a half-flip.

I created some aura membranes between my torso and arms, resembling those of Emolga, to make use of my momentum to fly. That increased my speed in the air, as well as my mobility by quite a bit, especially since I occasionally created platforms behind my feet to push off from for added momentum.

I became faster and faster that way, and the situation turned into a cat and mouse game, but this time around I was the mouse, or squirrel, a flying one at that.

To be honest, if not for my high reaction speed as well as great senses, I would have been unable to keep "flying", more like gliding, in the air. Saiki did his best to nail me down, and he managed to graze me a few times.

In fact, he successfully struck me twice. Once on my left arm and once on my right ass cheek. The last one managed to elicit an involuntary yelp from me, that I knew would be used to tease me for the next few days and weeks.

I pulled out both nails and decided to return fire, so I began throwing aura-boosted senbons at Saiki while dodging his attacks. This forced him to dodge as well, which reduced his attacking pace, giving me some room to breathe.

Some of my throws forced him to teleport to dodge them, and during those moments his offense completely stopped, since he was taking his nails with him while he was teleporting. He couldn't attack and teleport at the same time, but I couldn't do that either, which is why I forced him to do so.

I made use of this to reverse our previous roles, turning from mouse to cat in our little chase. Our back and forth went on for another 4 or so minutes, bringing our total battle time to nearly 20 minutes.

I noticed that Saiki was slowing down, showing that he was tiring, which was understandable considering how often he had been forced to teleport on top of levitating the whole time.

Another minute later, Saiki teleported to the ground and stopped levitating around to conserve some energy. Seeing this I did not stop peppering him from above but slowed that down instead while diverting some focus on moving around to fire the senbons from different positions.

I was covertly positioning myself for a final ambush while doing that, and right after Saiki's latest teleportation which ended up close enough for my plans, I pushed myself off from a platform right at him.

I used the few precious seconds he had to wait for his next teleportation to deliver a haymaker and despite his effort at stopping me with his telekinesis, Saiki failed to stop me from hitting him.

He crashed into the ground, while I managed to successfully crash land as well. I saw that Saiki was trying to gather his wits, but I had no plans to let him do that, so I rushed up to him and placed aura spikes at his throat to show that I could have neutralized him if I wanted to.

The referee declared me the winner, and after close to 30 minutes of fighting, I was officially the winner of the personal combat competition. This made me the regional secondary education level champion of Rota in personal combat. What a mouthful that was.

Still, I could now say that I was a regional champion, even if I was not THE regional champion or one in Pokemon battling. Actually, that one was going to happen in a few minutes as well. I stopped the idle thoughts and enjoyed the cheers of the spectators.

-----------------------------

Advertising plug-in:

Sketches, drawings of the MC, Variants and maps can be found on my Patre'on. An patre'on exclusive Legendary Lore series can be found there as well.

The first goal has been completed, so for the duration of August the lowest number of advanced chapters available is 4, while the highest number of advanced chapters is 8. Those want access to them can find them on my patre*on.

If the second goal gets fulfilled, the lowest number of advanced chapters available will be 6, while the highest number of advanced chapters will be 10.

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93