Luis vs Ralph
"I'm glad you're in the final eight," Mikey begins to say, causing my eyes to widen.
"What…did you say…?" I ask, my voice slowly trailing off. I pause in my tracks again.
"YOU HEARD ME!" Mikey snaps, before looking away and blushing. "I was hoping that we could face each other in the actual finals, but this would do. We're going to win both of our fights!" Mikey booms as he points to me. "And then…I'm kicking your ass in the semifinals! And I'll win this tournament!"
My eyes widen even further, and then, my shocked expression curls up into a smirk. "Not unless I beat you in the semifinals!" I say.
"You dumbass!" Mikey snaps with a smirk. "I just told you that I'm gonna win!"
Mikey and I then continue walking again, onwards to our respective arenas, to our respective battles. And as we pass by each other. we give one another a strong fist bump.
I make it to the end of the hallway, and without a moment's hesitation, Mikey's words having lit a fire inside of me…I enter the arena.
When I enter the arena, I feels like I was in a dream. The sun is shining so bright so I had to shield my eyes from the white flash. Hundreds of people are sitting in the audience, cheering. I spot Nick in the skybox and flash him a thumbs up. Peering back to the audience, I give Ella, Ivy, and Lycan a small wave. Surprisingly enough, I spot Gabby and my mom sitting besides them, and I give them a wave as well. They're cheering wildly. Gabby and my mom have been watching the tournament from home, but it looks like Gabby was finally able to convince my mom to come watch my final matches in person, since I've come so far.
From the opposite end of the arena, Ralph enters, doing the same things as me. Eventually, the two of us make it to the center of the arena, standing face to face. Ralph smirks at me. I take a deep breath in…then out, wiping my sweaty palms on my pants then turn back to face Ralph with a scowl. The ref holds his hand out in between the two of us. "I want a good, clean fight," the ref begins to say. "Remember, this isn't a fight to the death. Attempts to deliver a fatal blow will cause you to be disqualified."
"Now…" the ref begins to say as he waves his hand upwards. "Let the fight begin!"
As I expected, being a ranged fighter, Ralph's first move is to jump backwards a few feet, establishing some distance between the two of us. Ralph then constructs a bow out of his golden Cursed Power and knocks back an arrow, aiming it at me. That's what I expected Ralph to do at the start of our fight, it's perfect.
"Morale Arrow: Single Shot!" Ralph shouts as he fires his arrow off at me.
"Wind Control: Wind Blade!" I shout as I draw my katana and swiftly prepare my Wind Blade, before swinging my katana downwards and using it to slice straight through Ralph's arrow.
"I've always hated the anime cliche where the characters don't go full power from the start when they fight, so I'm gonna break it!" I call to Ralph as I begin wrapping the very same wind that I used for my Wind Blade around my ankles, a trick I've learned from Kaze, reinforcing my legs with Cursed Power, before summoning a tailwind from behind me.
Though that's a lie. Me going full power would be using my Blue Demon powers, not that I really can anyway, not on command. My generic anime protagonist rage mode.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Luis!" Ralph calls back to me as he continues gaining some distance between the two of us.
"Wind Control: Sky God's Anklets!" I shout as I dash towards Ralph at insane speeds, speeds fast enough that my body can hardly handle moving that quickly, stacking my wind around my ankles to increase my speed like Mikey's flame exhaust, on top of a tailwind, on top of using Cursed Power Barrier to reinforce my legs. Though not nearly as fast as Grover or as Nick, of course.
As I dash towards Ralph, Ralph fires a few more arrows my way, but by preparing another Wind Blade and slashing it downwards, I'm able to slice through Ralph's arrows with ease, before continuing onwards, dashing towards Ralph.
"Woah!" Ralph cries, clearly startled by my surprising display of speed, and jumps even further backwards. "Morale Arrow: Single Shot!" Ralph cries as he fires off another volley of arrows my way. And this time, in order to counter, I use my Sky God's Anklets as well as my tailwind to leap high into the air above Ralph, dodging his attack.
"Wind Control: Wind Blade!" I shout as I bring my katana high into the air above my head and prepare a Wind Blade. Once I'm on top of Ralph, I swing my katana downwards, falling down upon Ralph as I slash my Wind Blade towards him. In response, Ralph grabs his golden Cursed Power bow with both hands and brings it up vertically to block, my katana clashing against Ralph's bow.
Ralph's bow is far sturdier than I thought it would be, and I'm shocked that -unlike his arrows- my Wind Blade isn't immediately able to slash through it. After struggling against one another for a little bit, Ralph kicks me off of him, sending me stumbling backwards a bit, but I catch myself with my wind, setting myself safely on the ground.
"Morale Arrow: Valley Shot!" Ralph shouts as he fires an extra-powerful arrow into the air, which explodes, sending dozens upon dozens of mini golden Cursed Power arrows raining down on the arena below.
I've seen this attack a million times before, so I know better than most how difficult it is to dodge this attack. But I do know how to counter.
Ralph's Valley Shot isn't an accurate attack, but it doesn't need to be. With the amount of arrows that Ralph's Valley Shot spat out combined with its insane distance and radius, the attack had no need for accuracy.
"There are too many arrows to use my Sky God's Anklets or my Air Control to dodge," I begin to say. "So I'll just have to do this!"
With a smirk, I peer upwards, facing Ralph's rain of arrows. "Something else that I've learned from my fight with Slayer Kaze!" I shout. "Air Control: Air Lock!" The wind that I used for my Wind Blade attack against Ralph then begins swirling around my hand, which I trust upwards, sending a powerful gust of wind lying upwards towards Ralph's arrows. Once my Air Lock comes in contact with Ralph's arrows, I pause my wind, keeping it still and steady above me, like an invisible roof shielding me from attacks. I peer back down at Ralph and smirk, who stars up at my Air Lock with a disgruntled frown.
"It's a good thing that I fought with Slayer Kaze before this, because right now…I feel unbeatable!" I say.
***
Speaking of which…
After my fight with Slayer Kaze, the man himself came to my room in the infirmary to check on me, which seemed odd.
"Sorry if I got a little too riled up during our fight back there," Kaze apologies. "I'm just not used to meeting someone else with the same Cursed Ability as me. I…just felt like I needed to prove myself back there. I was also a little offended by your lack of ability to truly control wind. Like you're bastardizing my Cursed Ability."
"Uhh…yeah, no hard feelings," I awkwardly reply.
"You use your wind well, in ways that even I can't, like your Air Lock, or your Sky God attacks," Kaze continues.
"Well after fighting you, I'll never forget stuff like using the same wind to attack multiple times so as to not waste Cursed Power, or using my wind to fly," I reply.
"You're strong and you've learned a lot from our fight, but you can become stronger," Kaze smirks as he jams a thumb into his chest. "If you ever need a lesson on how to better use your wind, I'm your guy!"
"I'll keep that in mind, I can use a good wind teacher," I reply with my own smirk. "But look out! Train me too hard, and I might beat 'cha next year, Kaze!"
"Just call me "Jay"," Kaze-er…I mean Jay smiles, causing me to smile back at him.
"I'll beat you next time, Jay!"
***
Ralph looks a little bit frazzled after his Valley Shot fails to do anything, but Ralph's confident smirk returns mere seconds after. "Morale Arrow: Homing Strike!" Ralph shouts as he constructs an extra powerful arrow out of his golden Cursed Power, knocking it back. "Try this, my undodgeable attack!" Ralph exclaims as he fires his Homing Strike my way.