CH78 (308), Continental Quarterfinals (4)

I saw her increase the density of the miasma fog while I was contemplating how to get rid of it. If I used my psychic powers I could think of multiple ways to do so, but as far as doing so using just my aura was concerned, I was drawing blank.

One of the solutions I could think of was running in a circle at fast speeds in hopes of creating a wind tunnel like in the movies or cartoons/animes. Unfortunately, I was not fast enough to do something like that by a long shot, and after going through all of my potential actions, I concluded that I had no way to get rid of the miasma itself.

My only option was to get rid of the source, which meant ignoring the miasma and taking out Yvonne as swiftly as possible. Since I wanted to avoid coming in contact with the miasma, I settled on pelting her from above with aura-boosted senbons instead.

Well, that proved to be harder than planned due to Yvonne dodging and /or blocking them to the best of her abilities until the miasma mist had risen enough to fully obscure her from view.

Its effect of masking her life signature had also reached the point where I was unable to detect her, and if not for my elevated position allowing me to see the disturbances in the mist her movements cause, I would be unable to find her at all.

Still, I knew that I would lose her as soon as I went into the mist and lost sight of her. That meant that I would have to rely on hit-and-run tactics since pelting her with senbons did not seem to work. The plan was simple, detect her, ambush her from above, and withdraw from the miasma mist regardless of success or failure as soon as I lost sight of her.

This way I actually reversed the usual roles that would be assigned in such a situation. Having made a plan I immediately began implementing it by diving toward the place I assumed Yvonne to be.

My assumption proved to be true and I was right above Yvonne, aiming the aura sticks I made at her head while plunging into her. She managed to react in time despite my "surprise attack" and blocked my aura sticks with her two daggers.

As soon as I entered the mist I felt it trying to influence me. Not only did it try to turn my body sluggish, but it tried to do the same to my mind as well, so once it was clear that I would not be able to finish Yvonne quick enough, and that she was trying to drag it out, probably hoping for the effect of the miasma to increase, I retreated into the air.

I resumed pelting her with senbons while looking for an opportunity to swoop down for a direct attack. I followed the movement of the mist to determine Yvonne's movement, but I suddenly noticed that it moved in four different directions which could only mean that she was trying to confuse me by throwing things in other directions to cover her own track.

I seriously doubted she used her own daggers for this if she did not have more than one pair on her body, which meant that she most likely made use of the senbons I threw at her. Effective use of available resources right there even if it was kind of a slap in the face for me.

Still, while others might have gotten confused due to the multiple movements of the mist, my mind was on another level thanks to the passive enhancements it received as a Tier 2 First-Class Psychic, along with the boost to my vision due to being a Tier 2 First-Class Aura User, so I noticed that three of the trails were thinner and more uniform than the fourth.

It was safe to assume that the three trails were created by the thrown senbon, while the fourth was the one left behind by Yvonne's movement, so I put my focus on it while throwing some senbons toward one of the others to act as if I was aiming at another trail.

As soon as I saw the mist settle, which meant she had stopped moving, I threw a lot of senbons at the other trail to distract her with the thought that I got fooled while swooping down on her at full speed to give her no time to react.

I managed to clap her cheeks, quite literally in fact, since I punched her right cheek with such great momentum, that I sent her flying. Oh, and I heard a crack which probably meant I either cracked her jaw, or I even managed to break it.

Hmm, I think I might have gone too far with that full-power punch. Using a platform to jump downwards for extra speed while using aura to reinforce and power up my punch might have been a tad bit excessive, but in my defense, the whole unable to deal with the miasma mist situation had frustrated me just a teeny tiny bit.

Actually, considering that Yvonne was not getting up, I might have knocked her out with that one punch, which would confirm that I might have overdone it. Still, I shook off these thoughts and went up to her to check her condition.

A quick check confirmed that she was in fact out cold, which made me the winner, even if the way it ended was a bit disappointing, or rather underwhelming.

Also, I ascertained that I had at least cracked something in her jaw because it had begun to rapidly swell. While the referee was declaring me the winner of the fight once he verified that Yvonne was not getting up, I went up to her and used my external aura manipulation to pass along some aura with healing properties to her jaw.

While I was trying to reduce the swelling, Yvonne regained consciousness, and I had to warn her not to move her head before her jaw was taken care of to avoid unnecessarily aggravating her injury.

A healer came to the field and checked up on her before pulling out a bottle with some medicine that he started on her jaw. Afterward, he called out a Vileplume that used Aromatherapy and Pollen Puff on her before she was deemed fit enough to be allowed to leave the field.

Still, the doctor recommended that she should visit the infirmary for a check-up to make sure nothing was overlooked or remained. She thanked him and I did the same, then I thanked her for the fight while divulging to her that she was the first one that managed to frustrate me enough for me to go beyond the norm to win the fight.

She jokingly said that she felt honored to have forced me to crack her jaw. We then went back to our seats under the cheers of the crowd, who had started cheering once they had received the confirmation that Yvonne was alright.

Anyway, with this victory, I made it to the semifinals in the personal combat category as well. I made my way to my seat and my parents, as well as friends, congratulated me on my victory. Mom predictably pulled me into a crushing hug, but as I said that was pretty predictable at this point.

There were 10 minutes until the next fight so I called one of the sandwich sellers over and bought a bunch for myself and everyone else as well. I already knew who liked what kind of sandwich so I got everyone their favorite. Perks of having a boosted mind and memory, you could remember things that made you a great/knowledgable friend.

I obviously bought soft drinks to go with the sandwich since you couldn't eat sandwiches without a drink cause that would be too dry. Anyway, the third quarterfinal battle began while I was devouring my first Pidgey sandwich, after having finished 2 egg sandwiches.

I must have been hungrier than I thought since I practically inhaled those three sandwiches, and only after I finished that Pidgey sandwich did I slow down. I began eating my second Pidgey sandwich at a much more sedated pace and focused more on the ongoing fight rather than my food as well as drink.

The two combatants were Eren from some grass academy in Hoenn and Danielle from some fairy academy in the Orange Archipelago. Well, I actually recalled that it was located in Pinkan Island, and idly wondered if the pink variants had anything to do with fairy energy, cause that would have been really cliche.

Anyway, both combatants were long-range fighters, so their fight consisted of dodging or blocking the opponent's attacks while taking shots at the opponent. Both fighters were at Tier 2 First-Class, and their combat prowess was roughly equal as well, so their confrontation turned into a fight of attrition.

Eren eventually managed to entangle Danielle in his tentacles, I meant vines he grew/created, and forced her to surrender after tying up her whole body.

The final quarterfinal fight followed immediately afterward since the third fight had taken roughly 7 minutes longer than estimated. It was between Haru, a Tier 2 First-Class Fire Elementalist, from a fire academy in Johto, and Marco, a Tier 2 First-Class Ground Elementalist, from a ground academy in Kanto.

By now, I was not surprised when Marco began using the ground energy in the same fashion as those before him did, to create armors, cocoons, or walls to defend himself while trying to crush his foes as his offensive strategy, with the occasional earth spike mixed in.

Nearly all Ground Elementalist around this tier seemed to follow the same or a similar pattern and Marcus did not seem to be exempted from this. During their fight, Haru was on the offensive while Marcus was mainly defending.

Haru kept sending gouts of flames at Marcus who blocked them with earth walls. The heat of the fire made them harden, which resulted in Marcus being unable to manipulate it any further.

This back and forth kept up for some time until Haru managed to concentrate his flames enough for them to punch, or rather burn through Marcus's earth wall. It hit Marcus who hastily reinforced as well as compressed his earth armor, and while that did protect him from being burned or cooked, it was also what led to his defeat.

His armor hardened just as the walls had hardened, which immobilized Marcus, giving Haru enough time to force a surrender out of Marcus, causing the referee to declare him the winner. This made him the final semifinalist in the personal battle category.

The two left the field under the applause of the crowd, and the host declared a short break before the semifinals began. It was currently, 1:28 p.m, and they set the semifinals in the Pokemon battle category to start at 2:30 p.m, to give everyone enough time for lunch.

My fight was the second one and was tentatively set to start at 3 p.m, so I was not worried about being late or anything, so my lunch break was pretty relaxing. I already knew who I was facing, and I was seriously contemplating whether I should just use Stan/Gyarados for the battle.

I wanted to stimulate him in hopes of improving his parameters so that he could break through before the start of the global competition. Heck, I was considering if I should use him during the finals as well if the semifinals did not prove to be enough.

Regardless, we made our way to one of the restaurants near the stadium and made it back in time for the first battle despite not hurrying at all. By the time we made it to our seats, the contestants had just arrived on their sides of the field and the host was doing their introduction.

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