Arena Fight(2)

The giant noticed that the bloodlust from his opponent vanished. As he managed to get up, he thought that he imagined it before and got himself fired up once more by cocking his arms.

Ben saw this and decided to act defensively for the following clash. He got into a boxing stance and lightly jumped on his toes while he waited. The giant ran towards him, his steps leaving deep imprints on the compact sand. The tamaranean quickly tried to grab at Ben but was evaded. The giant realized that he was too slow for his opponent so he decided to try his finishing move.

He jumped in the air and started to fly upwards, trying to gain as much altitude as possible. Ben squinted as he looked up and could figure out what his opponent was likely to do so he just patiently waited. Once the giant reached a good height, he started to descend as fast as he could, barreling down like a meteor aiming towards Ben.

Ben slightly crouched and waited.

Seeing that Ben looked to not be planning to move at all, Zatanna grew worried even though she speculated that nothing could hurt him. Even though he appeared to not be moving at all, he was actually tensing all of his muscles in preparation. Right before they collided, he smiled.

The crowd felt a huge earthquake as the fighters collided. A large dust cloud erupted from the spot where Ben stood and blocked everyone's vision to what happened. Most thought that Ben was squished and died while some thought he pulled a trick from seeing his prowess earlier. Zatanna abruptly stood up and shouted Ben's name but Blackfire just sat with furrowed brows.

As the dust settled, a huge crater was in the middle of the field. In the bottom, Ben was seen sitting on the now unconscious giant. Zatanna sighed in relief and Blackfire grinned.

"Good fight buddy," Ben patted the guys back before jumping out of the crater and stretching his arms.

*Anyone else you want me to beat?* He telepathically sent to the queen, which earned him a smirk in return.

*I have to admit. You're good but I want to see how you measure up against our champion,* she replied.

*And who would that be?*

Blackfire stood up from her seat and addressed the audience.

"Because of this challenger's astonishing performance, would you all like to see him fight the champion?" she said loudly to them and got loud cheering in return.

Surprising Zatanna, she then faced Ben and slowly flew down to the arena floor as some attendants retrieved the beaten giant. When she touched down, she answered Ben's previous question.

"I'm your opponent," she said with a playful grin.

"Are you sure, your majesty?" he replied, a bit of sarcasm in his voice. He was confident in this transformation's strength but he was slightly nervous about Blackfire's energy abilities.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"Wouldn't be my first time beating a planetary leader," he replied.

"Oh? But you're fighting as only a tamaranean now," she said, "and I have an advantage."

"Well, we'll just have to see then."

The queen nodded to someone up in a box and a short siren followed, indicating the start of the match.

The two wasted no time as they both ran towards each other at full speed. Blackfire sent a powerful right hook towards Bens temple but was blocked by his raised forearm. Ben then punched out to hit her gut but she grabbed his fist, locked her other arm around his neck and twisted him to the side, breaking them apart.

Ben laughed as he caught himself from stumbling and shook the arm that blocked his opponents punch.

"That was some hook," he said.

Blackfire also shook out her left hand that caught his punch.

"That was some punch," she chuckled in response.

Getting some playfulness out of the way, they began to circle each other. Blackfires eyes lit up before she sent a dark purple energy blast Ben's way. He jumped to the side, narrowly dodging the beam and quickly ran close to her. Before she could fire another beam, he kicked some sand up to distract her as he crouched and swung his leg at her feet, making her fall to the ground. Before he could close in for a finishing move, he felt a big amount of ultraviolet energy emitting from Blackfire as she stood up.

When she fully straightened out, the energy coalesced next to her and began to take a humanoid form before becoming a being completely identical to Blackfire. The crowd cheered and hollered when they saw this.

"Duplication? Seriously?" Ben faked a sigh, actually impressed.

"Yep," she smiled, "though it's not a complete copy. It's tangible but it can only do physical stuff," she said, giving Ben a wink.

"Two on one isn't exactly fair, is it?" he asked but wasn't really concerned.

"We-"

"But I digress," Ben interrupted her and shot towards the two.

Blackfire was caught off guard but her clone went to meet him. Ben felt the abundance of energy coming from the clone so he knew he wouldn't mistake it for the original. He also relished in the fact that he wouldn't need to hold back at all against it. Right when it looked like the clone would punch him, it suddenly dropped and slid between his legs. As he turned to face it, Blackfire came behind him and kicked out the back of his knees, causing him to almost kneel.

The clone sent a kick which connected to Ben's face, sending him sprawling. The crowd all stood and cheered while Zatanna was worried as she's never seen Ben like this.

Ben rolled over on his back and kicked up to stand. He rolled his shoulders and head around for a second and then taunted his opponents with a hand beckoning them. Zatanna was relieved to see that he was okay and tried to settle into her seat.

Blackfire and her clone split in opposite directions to cover his flanks. Ben wanted to get rid of the clone and theorized that if he hit it hard enough, the energy will destabilize and disperse. He ran to it and blocked an upcoming punch. He grabbed it by the throat and slammed it on the compact sand, causing a dent. To avoid Blackfire stepping in, he sped away, occasionally slamming the clones head on the sand along the way to an inner wall of the arena.

Once he reached it, he punched the clone's face into the stone and dragged it across as he ran along the length of the wall. The crowd quickly quieted as they saw this savage act against their queen, even though it was only a clone. Blackfire tried to catch up as she felt the energy draining from her clone. As the clone was made of energy and couldn't feel pain, it did try to fight back.

It clawed at his arms, dragging its nails and leaving marks. Ben barely grimaced as he continued dragging its face. He saw Blackfire catching up so he suddenly split from the wall and ran straight to her. As they were about to meet, he threw the clone out in front of him. The queen, not wanting to be hit and to recollect the energy, quickly dispersed the clone and tried to absorb the energy. However, Ben himself took a bit of it and sped up until he appeared right in front of her. Before she could do anything, Ben took a step back and spoke.

"I surrender," he said.