Chapter 44 - Hard Battle (2)

Siren: 300 Life Points | James: 70 Life Points

James laughed as he looked at his remaining Life Points, which looked like a joke. Compared to the vestal he had defeated before, Siren was in a completely different league. Xayah's power was another matter, not to mention their harmony.

As Siren discarded her gate card and Darkus Xayah reappeared, mesmerizing as always, James thought.

Should he continue? Wasn't this struggle pointless? Every second, he could feel something in his body shifting and awakening. There was no point in fighting a losing battle.

In the current situation, no one would think it wrong for him to retreat. His fight was even good against a freak like Siren. Unlike him, whose fame was just spreading, Siren was too famous.

He had a pessimistic expression on his face. Because of this, everyone thought he would give up. Including Siren. She had a dissatisfied look on her face. She looked disappointed.

Yet, to everyone's surprise, and even his own, he clutched his bakugan tightly and threw it with his eyes fixed on Xayah!

"This is... our last chance! Hammersaur brawl! Hammersaur stand! We will fight together!"

He could feel a feeling rising inside him. His blood was boiling.

The glow in his eyes had faded without a trace, but this time, the color of his eyes had changed. Before, he had black eyes with silver sparks. But now the iris had turned completely silver. The pupils took on a dark grayish hue and took the shape of vertical ellipses.

Soon he lost his self-confusion and went completely with the flow.

There were voices of surprise at this. But most of them thought it was just a little show within the match. That's why everyone suddenly started cheering for James!

"Go, James!"

"You can do it!"

"Show the Pink Star what a man can do!"

One in particular was a very funny form of support. 

Hammersaur came roaring out at this moment. But this time, it did not make its iconic gesture. It took a stance and squinted its crocodile eyes slightly. Just like James, it was clear how much it was paying attention.

"Together... we will win!"

At Hammersaur's masculine roar after James' words, Xayah just grinned.

"Do it if you can, big guy."

Then, her gaze fell on James. She was about to say something, then stopped. Despite the absurdity of her thought, she couldn't think of any other explanation.

<Darkus Xayah> | <Darkus Hammersaur>

<G-Power: 500> | <G-Power: 430>

Siren, meanwhile, found it difficult to hide her surprise at James' transformation. Although her surprise caused concern and more curiosity for James, she exhaled a deep breath to compose herself.

She spoke with a fake smile that she forced herself to show before giving in to the excitement of the battle:

"Then come! Ability active: Cursed Feathers!"

Xayah raised her wing slightly and quickly shot out her feathers. But Hammersaur only ducked slightly against the incoming feather attacks.

<Power Increase: Darkus Xayah's G-Power increased by +100>

At this moment, James, realizing what Hammersaur was trying to do, placed his ability cards.

"Double ability! Crush Hurricane + Dark Mirror!"

<Power Transfer: Darkus Hammersaur's G-Power increased by +200.>

However, just as the feathers were about to strike, Hammersaur disappeared into the ground! Both Xayah and Siren were naturally on their guard, as they would not fall for the same trick twice. Even though the feathers had fallen to the ground and disappeared, they could attack at any moment.

The atmosphere was extremely tense. James, on the other hand, was extremely careful now. His perceptions had expanded, and time had slowed down for him. Unfortunately, he was not in a position to guess why. He had given everything to the game at that moment.

Small, unobtrusive scales had formed around his eyes and were slowly spreading unobtrusively. However, thanks to this, he could perceive things much more clearly.

Meanwhile, the glitched card glowed with a faint white glow, though it was invisible through his jacket.

At that moment, Xayah's shadow flickered. It was like small flickers that went unnoticed, but then they became more frequent, and at that moment, James held his card at the ready.

Hammersaur suddenly came out of the shadow! But this time it didn't punch. It tried to knock Xayah down with a sweep of his leg as it suddenly appeared.

But as it did, Siren shouted quickly.

"Be careful! It's trying to knock you down. Double ability active! Feather Shield + Shadow Speed!"

<Power Boost: Darkus Xayah's G-Power increased by +250.>

With Siren's shout and the successive use of abilities, Xayah tried to cover herself with her feathers in a quick spin. But her speed was not fast enough to prevent Hammersaur from knocking her over.

Hammersaur managed to knock her off balance and knock her down. But the shields she had created from feathers with successive skill uses were enough to block the punches that followed.

James quickly used another ability on top of it.

"Smash! Ability active! Bonecrushing Cyclone!"

<Power Boost: Darkus Hammersaur's G-Power increased by +100.>

Using everything it had, Hammersaur tried to shred Xayah's feathers with a spinning kick. But no matter how good its speed and no matter how slanted it was, it couldn't stop Siren from using the ability in response.

"Ability active! Dark Refraction!"

<Power Boost: Darkus Xayah's G-Power increased by +200.>

A mysterious energy emerged from around Xayah's feathers, rapidly emitting a vibration-like beam from the area where she was trapped. Xayah immediately stood up as this vibration-like beam pushed Hammersaur backwards.

There was nothing else Hammersaur could do at that moment. So it quickly jumped up again, powered by its feet. Then it grabbed its hands and tried to land a cannonball-like strike with all the strength it could muster in its gloves.

This attack represented both James' and Hammersaur's stubborn refusal to lose.

But the reality was just as brutal. As Xayah dodged it with a nimble movement, there was a small dent in the ground!

The dent was accompanied by a small cloud of dust. Of course, it was soon dispersed under Xayah's relentless feather attacks and the Hammersaur returned to its ball form with a roar of pain and defeat.

The ball rolled to James' side with a deep purple glow. Meanwhile, the card's faint glow quietly faded, and it remained in his jacket pocket in its strange, glitchy old form.

Siren: 300 Life Points | James: 0 Life Points

Silence. The silence was the only thing heard after Siren's victory. This was... for the spectators, the fiercest and most 'effects' fight in the arena.

James leaned on the safety bars of the pillar to keep from falling to his knees. He clamped his hands on the bars. From the unintentional force he applied, the bars bent inwards a little. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He could feel a severe headache.

The short silence ended with the announcement.

"The winner is Siren! With consecutive wins, she advances to the final match!"

The announcement was accompanied by a roar that made it very difficult to hear the commentator's comments. It should be remembered that such a roar never normally occurs during tournament matches. Even the commentator was stunned.

"Did you see James? What the hell was that? He still looks the same!"

"It was creepy. What's that? New technology, special lenses?"

"It makes sense, but... It was so realistic. That aside, it's admirable that he didn't give up until the last moment!"

"Man, that fight was like a Vexos battle! My hands are shaking with excitement."

As this and other conversations were going on, James looked at Siren and pulled one of his hands away from the bars. He balled his hand into a fist, raised his thumb slightly, and pointed it at her.

Siren breathed a sigh of relief, although she didn't say anything more because there were too many people. She was afraid that James would have one of those blackouts. The monstrous change before her eyes only fueled her fear, but also worried her.

Come on, who wouldn't be frightened that someone they had battled had suddenly taken on the freakish eyes of a lizard?

When the pillars came down, even though James signaled that he was fine, the first thing he did was throw himself forward. Disappearing as a fleeting image, he quickly found himself in front of the waiting room.

Well, not many people were surprised by his presence. Only Marucho looked at him with a look of surprise, but he quickly turned away.

James wasn't even in a position to pay attention to him. He went and sat in a corner. He was taking deep breaths, trying to relax. He put his hands between his head. He couldn't put his arms on his knees because of the freakish protrusions on his elbows and had to hold his arm bent at an awkward angle.

He had lost. He hadn't won a prize or anything. It was… just a waste of time. Why hadn't he backed off?

Facing himself, he cursed himself for how stupid he had been. The whole point of coming here in the first place had been to infiltrate the arena to interfere with the Resistance, not the tournament. All that effort had been for just that.

And now, what had he done? He was infatuated with the mad love of the battle. And now, he had lost overwhelmingly to Siren. Not only had he gained nothing in the process, he had become even more of a beast!

He had predicted this from the very beginning from the expansion of his perceptions. It was confirmed by the strange reactions of everyone around him.

Sighing, Fox tried to calm him down.

[Calm down. We still have a chance. It's just that your eyes are a little... changed, that's all!]

James was unhappy. As soon as he heard Fox's voice, he reproached.

"You could have warned me!"

[Would you have listened if I warned you?]

"You don't know that! I was caught up in the moment. Maybe your voice..."

Before he could continue, he was solemnly interrupted by Fox.

[Look, James. As your guide, I'm doing my best to help you in any way I can. Yes, you're right, I should have warned you at that moment. But if I had warned you, do you think it would have made any difference if you had stopped?]

James asked softly in a confused voice:

"What do you mean?"

Fox replied sternly:

[Your change is progressing. If it wasn't this match, it would be the next match. And I thought it'd be a good show to debut your change at a moment like this, rather than in the next fights].

James paused. After allowing himself a few seconds to process what Fox was saying, he could only nod his head in agreement.

Constantly changing in a place where everyone could see was already a problem. In a tournament like this, this show - even if he didn't even think about it - would undoubtedly attract attention. This way, he could continue to attract attention and he didn't have to look for an excuse for this transformation!

Without giving it any more thought, James decided to accept Fox's argument as it was. After all, no matter what he said, it wouldn't do him any good. And more importantly, he had a job to do. He had come here in the first place just to say one thing.

He suddenly stood up and walked, stopping in front of the exit door to the waiting room. With his back to the hall, he turned his head to the side. His silver lizard eyes glanced sideways at Marucho. Then he spoke in an unintelligible, strange voice:

"I hope you thought about our conversation. Because you won't have time to think anymore."

And with that, he disappeared.