"Ten, Nine…..Seven."
"What?" He blurted as he sat up, spotting his opponent glued up above opposite him with its insectoid eyes locking his.
"Oh fuck this," He stood up with a stagger, clenching his hands tightly, cosmic energy collecting on them.
"He's using cosmic energy." Domitia commented, getting off her seat and walking to the guardrail, watching Ardlan intently."
Blasts of energy projected from his fists, zooming to the creature. It escaped the blasts, landing on another spot on the spherical field. Ardlan attacked some more with energy blasts, and once again it escaped.
He continued this pattern, greatly increasing his speed leading to a barrage of energy blasts.
His opponent was fueled by these attacks, building on its kinetic energy and with this, its internal cosmic energy.
It saw no use in retreating from the attacks any longer and instead curled into a ball, launching onto Ardlan.
A dense layer of cosmic energy was about it as it descended upon Ardlan. Ardlan saw this furry ball of destruction and braced himself. He poured as much cosmic energy into his right fist, and as the creature closed in, he responded with a cosmic energy reinforced punch.
There was a violent burst of energy, the energy shield shuddered, and a light encompassed the field's within.
The light disappeared revealing the alien lying motionless on the ground, its fur strung about the pentagon, leaving behind merely a naked husk.
Ardlan stood over it. His spandex suit haf seen better days, though most of it hid his essentials, the part around his right fist had totally come off.
It was obvious who the winner was.
"X12 was not the underdog as we wanted, and the win goes to Primeboy."
Ardlan stared blankly at the creature, he felt nothing. Just a glance could tell one that it was dead, he didn't have to rely on his super senses to reach the conclusion. This fighter pit had made him do things he had not imagined he would do until he was a super soldier for the empire, or at least graduated from the academy.
It was not a hassle in a legal sense, even if the conditions had been different, like perhaps that had fought in a super market. Celest rules differed from region to region but in places were populations were allowed to be armed, life was a fleeting thing.
The match had taken a lot more time than intended, Ardlan was hoping to save his energy for the next opponent, but this one had pushed him so far as to utilize cosmic energy.
The surface where the creature's body lay sunk and it was out of sight, however, its fur still remained strewn about, messing up the place. Most of it was stuck on the force field.
He took deep breaths, the obstacles to the semi-finals were not over yet, he had one more opponent to bludgeon.
Upon the disappearance of X12 was the arrival of his next opponent, and so far, it was the most menacing looking of all opponents he had faced, and also the most prepared.
It was tall, taller than Ardlan by at least a foot. Thick muscles stretched its leathery wrinkled skin, and it limbs were as thick as trees.
Ardlan swallowed, he felt a modicum of fear, the first time feeling such since entering the pentagon.
Of its limbs however, one each of both were not flesh. They were machines—augmented cybernetic prosthetics. One stood in as its left arm, and the other its right leg.
Large tusks jutted from its large mouth, and next to them were rows of needle-like teeth. It looked like a monster bred for war and destruction, and it was.
Ardlan knew this notorious creature. They were bred for battle and hordes of them were occasionally sent to cities to rampage them. They were not as efficient as super soldiers and not exactly as strong but they got jobs deemed too lowly for celebrated officers done.
An Exorc. It was Ardlan's first time seeing one up close, and It was just as threatening as he had thought it would be when first came across it on a xenology textbook page.
Could he truly face a monster bred and reared for war?
He turned to his right where he saw Aelius and Domitia watching him. It seemed to him that they too had their doubts about whether he could defeat such a monster, especially having just faced a powerful foe.
An Exorc was a beast in the truest sense, they were vicious and were known to shred their enemies. To have it participate in a fight in a controlled setting meant that either it was drugged or domesticated.
He was truly in with a beast. He steeled himself, he could not afford to make mistakes nor go easy. He would have to be just as vicious as it was.
Soon as the announcer cried fight, the creature stormed forward in a frenzy. It closed in the little gap between them in an instant and drew down its claws. Ardlan caught its arms by its wrists stopping it from scratching him.
It was strong, not as strong as he was but still quite formidable. It landed a nasty headbutt stunning Ardlan and causing him to stagger, then followed with a thrust with its cybernetic arm, its fingers morphing into a sharp blade.
Ardlan spun slightly, moving out of the way, he took a hold of the cybernetic arm and tried to break it. It didn't budge, it was tougher than he had expected it.
He released the arm and instead landed a killer uppercut squarely on its jaw sending it falling. The creature rolled to its feet from the punch unfazed.
Ardlan held out his fists. Things were about to get very nasty.