Gamer spirit part two

With the first battle of the Grava Acadamy tournament going strong, the crowd cheers loudly. On the battlefield, Kage gets up after taking one of his energy beams to the face.

"You know I hate lag too, but you're making me hate it even more with those powers of yours."

"Good, everyone should hate lag just as much as me, or the world wouldn't make sense."

Kage and Dexter start walking around the ring.

"Now that I touched you, you will have to deal with lag for the rest of this fight."

"So what! Should I give up?"

"No offense, but I want to show off a little more. It's that gamer mentality, you know. I might add this to my highlight reel."

Dexter slightly smirks. In the student stands, Liz says, "Uh, oh, Dexter has that look on his face."

Dexter's body once again starts to flicker. Kage gets into a strong fighting stance.

"Not again!"

Kage starts to calculate his situation in his head.

"Ok, so because of his lag, my energy beams will either take a minute to release or completely go in a different direction. Just like a fucking video game."

Kage smiles as OGI flows into his muscles.

"What's so funny, Kage? This doesn't seem like a situation you would laugh at."

"Nah, this is a perfect moment to laugh! This is just like when me and Unknown play against each other online from each other's houses!"

"Oh, I see you're a true gamer, just like me!"

Kage uses the accelerate technique to rush toward Dexter.

"If I can't use energy beams, I'll need to get close!"

"Dang, only if that was the right move!"

Kage gets close to Dexter, but all of a sudden he appears where he was standing prior.

"Damn it!"

Dexter appears next to Kage, and with the flex technique applied, he throws a punch at him. Kage dodges the punch, but instantly he gets sent back to where he was standing originally. Kage gets hit by Dexter's punch.

"This is starting to get fun!"

Kage slides back from Dexters's punch.

"That power is so annoying, but I can't lose here!"

Dexter once again starts to flicker all around the battlefield.

"Can you find me, Kage? With my lag, I can be everywhere at once."

Dexter kicks Kage into another Dexter, and then another Dexter punches him in the stomach. Dexter starts punching Kage in the face over and over again.

"Fuck off!"

Kage attempts to use Energy Canon, but nothing comes out of his mouth.

"Input delay again!"

Dexter kicks Kage in the face.

As Kage flies backwards, he smiles.

"Yep, the input delay again!"

Kage opens his mouth wide and releases a huge beam of energy towards Dexter.

"You dumbass, I already showed you before that I can cause those energy beams to go haywire!"

Kage's energy beam starts to flicker and starts to twist and fly up.

"Haha, I told you!"

Suddenly, Dexter gets hit in the stomach by two balls of energy.

"What!"

The balls of energy send Dexter flying back. Dexter flickers out of the way of the two balls of energy. When he reappears on the left side of the battlefield, he grabs the left side of his torso, which has been torn off by Kage's energy ball.

Mr.Brown screams out loud in excitement on the mic.

"Oh, it seems Kage might be turning this battle around!"

While holding his side, Dexter slowly gets up.

"I guess you're an advanced gamer."

"Hehe yep! There was a time during the summer when my internet went out for two weeks. To play video games with Unknown I had to connect the hotspot from my phone to my console."

"What! Playing with a mobile hotspot for any kind of online game is impossible! You wouldn't even be able to move without your screen completely glitching out!"

"Yeah, that experience taught me an important lesson!"

"Wait, don't tell me!"

"Button mashing!"

Kage sends multiple beams of energy at Dexter.

"Shit!"

Dexter starts to dodge all of the energy beams coming at him.

In the student stands, Liz looks at the battle in confusion.

"Wait, I don't get it. With Dexter's powers, he should have won by now."

Unknown laughs after hearing Liz's reaction.

"Haha! I can't believe all those times he beat me with 300 ping are actually going to come in handy."

"What?"

Selena cuts into Liz's and Unknown's conversation.

"I think I understand what's going on. If I understand video games correctly, lag can be annoying, but it can also be used as a weapon."

"Yep, that's right, Selena! When Kage lost internet in his house and had to play off of a hotspot, he struggled at first, but eventually he got used to the extreme lag, and after that, I couldn't beat him. I don't know how but he played better with lag than without it."

Back on the battlefield, Dexter is doing his best to avoid Kage's energy beams.

"Who would think I would fight someone like this? A man who has mastered lag! Haha! This is so much fun!"

Dexter starts rushing towards Kage.

"Oh, you're done running away now!"

"I can keep causing your attacks to delay or go all over the place, but if you keep making inputs!"

"One of them has to hit its mark, even if it's by accident!"

An energy beam hits Dexter on his left, making his injury worse.

"Finally, a person who can fight in my realm!"

Dexter throws a punch at Kage, but it instantly gets caught. Kage flips Dexter and throws him into another energy beam.

"Ahh!"

Dexter falls to his knees while breathing heavily.

"Hehe, I haven't had this much fun since..."

Dexter starts to think back to a few months before the Grava Academy entrance exams. He lived in a small house in a small town on the south side of the mud zone. Dexter would spend every day playing Music Mecha Royale on the handheld console his parents gifted him, and on this special day, it was no different.

"Damn it, stop lagging!"

With his room full of trash, Dexter had his headset on and was playing with his online friends.

"He's on your left, dumbass! Shoot that motherfucker and piss on his grave already! Wait, you died! How the fuck do you die, stupid fatherless whore! I guess I have to clutch this game!"

Dexter sits up in his seat with a focused expression on his face.

"Yes, I knocked his shield! Now it's time to end this!"

All of a sudden, Dexter's screen starts to glitch out.

"No! No! No!"

Dexter tried to hold his console closer to the roof in an attempt to get a better connection, but it was too late.

"Fuck! I lagged out of the fucking game!"

Dexter throws his headset onto his bed.

"Go to hell with this bad connection!"

Dexter's mom walks into his room.

"Umm, Dexter, could you please keep it down? Your father is trying to sleep."

"Sorry, Mom, it's just that I lagged out again."

"Well, honey, you haven't been outside this room in two months. Remember what we talked about."

"I'm not going to Grava Academy, Mom. I'm just level one nothing special."

"Well, if you find level three, maybe then you'll be able to improve all our lives."

"Haha, maybe if I reach level two. Then I'll gladly g--"

Dexter's face freezes, which is the first time his level-two powers have been activated. After this, he was sent to Grava Academy. He took the entrance exam and was placed in class three.

On the first day of class, Mr.Chad fell asleep, so Dexter started playing on his handheld console.

"Woah, the connection in this school is amazing--not even a hint of lag! Maybe coming here was the right thing for me to do!"

As Dexter smirks, he hears a voice come from behind him.

"Woah, your level is 980!"

"Yeah, I put a lot of time into this game!"

"Yeah, I can tell that mecha of yours seems strong."

"Yeah, I make sure to keep improving it every season."

"We should play sometime."

"Sure, what level are you?"

"1156"

Hearing that number instantly catches Dexter's attention. He turns around, but when he looks behind him, he blushes.

"Uhh, who are you?"

"Oh, silly me. I didn't say my name. My name is Liz, and I'm the number two of this class which means I'm right above you, Dexter!"

"Wait, you know my name!"

"Of course I do; it would be rude to not know my classmate's name!"

Dexter starts to stutter as he speaks.

"Oh...yeah that...makes sense."

"By the way, Dexter, when I talked about your level early, you weren't confident enough."

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You were answering like those snarky nerds who never hop off the game. A confident gamer is way more attractive!"

Dexter flinches with a blush on his face.

"What's wrong, Dexter?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

After remembering this moment, Dexter starts talking to himself out loud.

"To think if I hadn't discovered my powers, I would never have met her. I ended up surpassing her level on Music Mecha Royale a few days ago. Originally, I thought someone who doesn't know a thing about video games would be that high-level.

I thought, how could someone who doesn't know a thing about video games be that high level? But then I learned that she was only playing the game to meet more guys so she could level up her powers. Even though that's the case, she's still a good person. It's just that after watching her ask so many guys out, I would just wish she would ask me at least once."

Kage, watching Dexter talk to himself, kicks a rock at him. The rock hits Dexter in the head.

"Are you going to talk to yourself forever?"

Dexter smirks at hearing Kage's question.

"Hey, Kage lag messes up a lot of things."

"Yeah, so what?"

Dexter starts moving to the left and right over and over again at great speed.

"Well, lag can also help!"

"Help?"

"Yeah, let's say for example a glitch I can take advantage of!"

Dexter's body starts to flicker, and he turns into a nine-foot mecha.

In the student stands, Liz says, "Yep, here comes his trap card!"

Both Kage and Unknown scream simultaneously.

"So cool!"

From the speaker on Dexter's mecha, Kage hears Dexter's voice.

"This mecha right here is powered by my OGI tank!"

Kage smiles after hearing this.

"So you can't keep this up forever."

"Yep! Now, Kage show it to me! Show me your gamer spirit!"

As upbeat music blasts from Mecha's speakers, he releases multiple rockets from his arms.

Kage uses energy jet to move out of the way of rockets and fly to the mecha's front. With the flex technique applied, Kage punches the mecha.

"Great, you don't have enough OGI to continue making me lag! I got this win in the bag!"

"The mecha punches Kage out of the air and sends him spiraling into the ground. Kage uses the flex technique across his entire body to soften the impact of hitting the ground."

"Energy cannon!"

Kage hits the mecha with a huge blast of energy from his mouth. The mecha starts falling to the ground.

"OK, now we're done here!"

Before Kage can go in for another attack, the mecha smacks Kage with its arm, sending him flying up. The mecha then proceeds to use its rocket boosters to fly above Kage while he's airborne.

"Time to go down Kage!"

The mecha smacks Kage back to the battlefield. When Kage hits the ground, the mecha starts charging something within its core. From the mecha's speakers, everyone here's Dexter laughing.

"This is amazing! Radioactive splurge!"

The mecha shoots a red beam of energy at Kage. As the beam gets closer to him, Kage smiles.

"Using an energy attack against me is a mistake!"

Kage puts his hand out and instantly starts absorbing the energy into himself.

"Energy drain!"

"No, how could I be so careless? An energy attack against someone who controls energy I fucking sold!"

Kage jumps back up and utters, "Energy manipulation:energy release!"

All the energy from Kage and Dexter's battle was released all at once from Kage's body, completely engulfing Dexter in energy. Before the attack started doing too much damage, Dexter started to think to himself.

"You know now that I think about it, I was never about this whole gamer spirit thing until I met her. Hehe"

The attack started destroying Dexter's mecha. After Kage finishes his attack, he lands back on the ground. After him, the mecha slammed onto the battlefield in a complete mess. The mecha turned back to Dexter, who is currently knocked out with many bruises on his body.

The crowd goes wild after seeing this, and Mr.Brown confirms what just happened.

"That's it folks! We have the winner of the first round of the Grava Academy tournament, and it's Kage from class one!"

Chapter 103 end