Chapter 96: CAN BE SKIPPED)

Twin flashes of light whisked away both Akash and Xyalla. 

I settled into my seat and put my empty plate down to the side. The meal had been good, but this fight was going to be even better. I was hoping that I'd get to see Akash get genuinely pushed up to his limits. 

The only time I'd ever really seen that before was in his fights with me, and then I hadn't really gotten the chance to observe and enjoy his fighting techniques because… well… I was the one that was fighting him. 

Besides, we'd all come a long way since that first conflict back in the battle royale arena. I had no doubt that Akash was going to show us something truly special. 

There were set win conditions for Akash in this fight, as well. Xyalla was said to be fragile, which meant there was something strange going on with their bulbous and oversized body. If Akash was able to get in close and land a solid physical hit then they would probably be out for the count. 

It was just a matter of actually scoring that hit. 

Xyalla's psychic powers were something to truly behold, whether any physical attack could break through them was something that I had no idea about, and so far I'd never seen Akash use energy-based attacks. 

<Even the projectiles that he used in his last fight were technically physical by nature,> BB weighed in. <If Xyalla's psychic defenses operate on a similar level to your Corona Shield, just on a wider radius, then there's a chance that not even those would be able to get through it.>

Short of Akash bringing out his battle form, I had no idea how he was going to be able to pull this off, and there was no way that he could use his battle form because there was no wood in the arena for him to bulk up with. 

"It's the first match of our semi-finals, Akash Vs. Xyalla!" Came the ecstatic voice of Squadron Leader Belana from the comms system. "While our first matches were conducted in the standard battle arena, that was just to gather as much information as possible about our fighters. We will now be introducing a new battle arena, specifically attuned to both of these fighters strengths and weaknesses to give both of our Initiates the best chance to win!"

The white box of the battle arena flickered and warped. 

Somehow I hadn't realised it at the time, but just like the training room that Akash, Yr'Arl and I had fought in previously, the battle arena of the tournament was in fact a hologrid. That should have been obvious, yet in the excitement of the tournament, I had somehow missed it. 

The flickering and warping got worse and worse, until eventually, with one final flicker everything stabilised. Akash's side of the field was, somewhat obviously, a densely populated forest. It would give him everything he needed to bulk up into his battle form, considering he had been able to use the hologramatic trees in our training fight. 

Toward the centre of the battlefield, the trees thinned out to a plain grassy area, neutral ground. 

I was surprised, however, by the side of the battlefield that belonged to Xyalla. 

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As the grassy area moved into Xyalla's side of the battlefield it broke off in craggy chunks, until there was no ground left at all. The battlefield had become a cliff, with Xyalla hanging in the air far away from Akash's forest. It felt a little bit unfair, especially since Akash had never shown any propensity for taking flight. 

<Fairness doesn't really play into it,> BB said. <To be a good member of the Guard, or rather to be good at fighting against other species which is something the Guard does, you're going to need to be able to take on just about any other species on their home field where they have an advantage. That's the point of this.>

That made slightly more sense, if the Guard were going to bring in a bunch of top tier fighters they'd want to know that they could do more than just fight in basic simulated conditions. They'd need to fight in a variety of conditions, and those conditions would often be the ones where their enemies thrive. 

It was a startling display of competency from a group that had elevated someone like Belana to such a high level. 

<You know, the whole of the Guard isn't like him, a lot of them are actually pretty up there and competent,> BB said, defending them. 

Then, he was likely to try and defend the Guard. I was sure that somewhere in his subroutines there was probably some code telling him to do exactly that. He was Guard technology after all. 

That raised a question, if I were to leave the Guard with the rest of my team, would that mean giving my BB up? 

<They can certainly try,> BB scoffed, <I doubt either of us are exactly keen on letting them get a hold of me, especially when you consider what I know about you.>

Too right, they could ask for BB back if they wanted, but there was no way that I was going to give him back without a fight. 

"Let the first Semi-Final battle begin in Three… Two… One!" The voice of Belana cut me out of my thoughts. 

In previous fights, the two competitors had launched attacks at one another straight away. It was clear that wasn't going to be the case this time. 

Instead of launching an attack, Akash was taking things incredibly seriously. Trees were disappearing into his body at a record rate, bulking him up to his battle form in mere moments. 

Across the battlefield Xyalla merely waited, biding his time. 

<He's not just biding his time,> BB said, <He's building power. Take a closer look.>

I narrowed my eyes at the floating alien, and that was when I saw it. A slight flickering around the alien's body. Both of them were ramping up their power. This fight was going to be something else!

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