Chapter 93: Chapter 92 : To Qualify (Part 2)

‘Ah?’

Levi’s mind blanked as he registered his new reality. ‘It’s over, just like this…’

His opponent’s fist was only a centimetre off from his cheek, being kept at bay by foreign Psi.

The match hadn’t even lasted a second.

Rushing in and seeing Ralf shift leftward, Levi had moved to intercept. But as his punch was being thrown, Ralf switched directions. With a deft Flicker, he appeared on Levi’s right side and fired off a left hook.

A zigzag into a cross; the sequence was incredibly easy to understand, and yet, Levi, Davy, and pretty much everyone was left wide-eyed and wide-mouthed at the result. While the process was simple, Ralf’s speed and power completely floored the crowd. Paralyzed by the shocking feat, a blanket of baffled silence smothered the area, that is, until a hearty laugh, a cheer and a creepy giggle tore it to shreds.

“Hahaha…short and sweet hahaha…”

“That’s my boy!”

“Hehehehe…”

Ralf’s lips curled up at the lively trio before exiting his punching form and relaxing his stance.

He glanced at the statue that was Levi and shook his head. “You held back mister, that’s no good.“ Ralf rubbed his shoulder and sighed, “Guess I’ll have to continue bearing this weight.”

Levi’s face turned wry. “Ah, yeah, sorry about that.”

[Uh, um, match complete. Ralf wins. That was quite the upset, but upsetting it was not. Ralf, it seems I’ve underestimated you. The Fawkes Bloodline doesn’t produce produce, it seems. Ready for another bout.]

Ralf smiled. [Of course. I plan to take the stage tonight, so let’s speedrun this.]

On the matter of qualifying, there were a few hoops one had to go through. First, one had to accrue at least fifty outer ring match victories. One didn’t have to do it in a day and could do this over days, weeks, months and even years.

After securing these fifty notches, one would fight a Gatekeeper. These individuals upheld the standard of main stage battles, and if one could best them in combat, one would qualify.

Importantly, one could only challenge these Gatekeepers if one was on a ten-match winning streak at the very least. This condition meant that even those who had a hundred plus victories remained unable to challenge the Gatekeepers. Another thing to note was that, after losing to a Gatekeeper, one’s record would be reset

The fear of this happening wasn’t something Ralf could relate to. In his mind, his qualification was an inevitability.

[Speed run? I see, then we’ll do just that. Levi out, James in, now. Give it your all.]

[Yes sir.]

Answering with enthusiasm, James leapt into the ring. Unlike Levi earlier, there was no complacency to be found in the other’s eyes; instead, caution and seriousness now swirled.

Ralf showed approval at the finding.

The match’s setup went much faster. With both parties knowing the rules, and Ralf and James both opting for basic conditions, preparation took merely twenty seconds to complete. In this time, a still shaken Levi made his way to the stands.

“Ralf Fawkes was it,” James started. “Levi was just careless, I won’t make that same mistake. I’m going all out.”

“Please do,” Ralf said with a cheeky smirk.

[Fighters ready yourselves. The battle begins in 3 2 1…go!]

Swoosh!

The battle began, and then seven seconds later, it concluded. Using a boxing style once again, Ralf’s combo quickly opened up James’ safe-like guard, and from there, it was all over. Strung along in what amounted to dozens of punches, James’ armour finally gave way.

[Match complete. Ralf wins. The first could be attributed to luck, but not this one. Well done. Okay, let’s keep the ball rolling.]

***

[Match complete. Ralf wins…]

[Match complete. Ralf wins…]

[Match complete. Ralf wins…]

[Match complete. Ralf wins…]

The dominance showed during the Levi and James matches continued; Ralf’s punches proved to be an unanswerable riddle to the outer ring fighters. They threw their attacks, attempted their dodges and blocks, but in the end, all fell into his endless stream. All were made helpless before his prowess; Ralf totally outclassed his opponents.

This was to be expected though. The rank 50 to 40 Combat Arena fighters barely reached the ‘worth fighting’ category in the duo’s mind; these outer ring fighters, especially those who had been here a long time, were fodder to Ralf’s fists.

Skill-wise needn’t be mentioned. Even stat-wise, Ralf was superior to all he fought. And not just in reality, but on paper too. Using the boxing style he limited himself to, he easily slipped and weaved past his opponent’s attacks; zipped around them and landed his hard-hitting attacks.

Unlike Ruben, his current opponents didn’t take hits too well. They quickly became frazzled and unbalanced. This led to their attacks and movements becoming very predictable, which Ralf readily punished.

But stating things in this manner made the fighters seem more incompetent than there were. In truth, everyone present was well above your average psionic in terms of skill.

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Psi combat was a well that ran deep, very deep. To fully master every aspect of it, one needed to dive far into its depths, but not everybody had the talent or experience needed to achieve this - rather, most didn’t. Included in this ‘most’, was the outer ring fighters present. In a Psi battle, one had to juggle several things at once.

All could do it at the start, but once the ground grew shaky and more things were added to the juggle list, things eventually fell apart. And what made it worse was having Ralf as an opponent. Usually, their blunders and inaccuracies would go unnoticed and unpunished, but against Ralf, all were punished harshly.

“What? Some kid is rolling the competition?”

“Hmm, a kid?”

“Fawkes? Here in Zudrad and he’s doing what again?”

The shock and awe of Ralf’s one-sided thrashing didn’t stay confined to the immediate surroundings for too long. Those in the crowd quickly spread word of it to others.

The news of it spread like wildfire, and in the passing minutes, the crowd’s numbers bloated several times over. Besides those previously at the other rings and those from the Combat Arena dome, others more distant were made aware of it and subsequently viewed the matches from afar. Many important eyes locked onto Ralf’s existence at this moment.

[Match complete. Ralf wins. That makes ten in a row. At this rate, we’ll be done in ten minutes. Okay, lets-]

[Um, I need a two-minute break.]

[Ah, of course of course. Okay, then, Ralf out, Cordan and Smithy, you’re up.]

*Swoosh*

With a Psi fueled hop, Ralf made his way back to the stands.

“Good showing Ralf, it’s just what I expected,” Samuel praised with a rosy expression and a wide smile.

“Hmm, if it just as expected, then I’ve failed. I’ll try harder after the break.”

“Haha,” Greg chuckled. “Instead of trying harder, I think you should hold back some. I knew you were strong but didn’t think it would be so one-sided.”

“Hold back…I’ve been doing that this whole time,” Ralf shrugged then plucked a biscuit from Hana’s tin and said, “even limited myself to just punches,” before tossing into his arrogant maw.

Hana nodded. “Yeah, you’ve done none of those flashy spinny kicks of yours. You’re fighting more Ray-like. Speaking of him, “she turned his way, “ what’s he doing right now? He’s missing out.”

“Missing out? He doesn’t see it that way. When I asked him if he wanted to take turns with this, he said I should handle it myself and wrap it up quickly.”

Ralf plucked up another biscuit and waved it in front of his face as he went on to explain the difference between him and his other selves.

“Rei…he loves fighting just as much as I do, we’re addicts at this point. But where I can fight for fight’s sake and be satisfied, he’ll only get revved up if the opponent is strong enough. If they’re not strong enough or the situation doesn’t call for it, he won’t bother himself. Silver is the same, even worse actually.”

“Hmm, they both seem to like fighting me though.”

“Of course, they would, you’re the strongest person in the multiverse.”

“Oh, I’m that strong?”

“Yeah, super. You’re the only person Silver, the embodiment of arrogance believes he has no chance against.”

“I’m that powerful huh,” Hana chuckled at the notion, “maybe I should hop into the ring then.”

“Please don’t, I want to keep my record loss-free.”

“I see, then very well,” she ruffled her son’s head, “I’ll save you the embarrassment.”

“Much appreciated mom.” Finishing these words, Ralf, having intoxicated himself with the biscuit’s aroma, tossed it into his mouth and began chewing.

Seeing him so casually indulge in snacks and chatter, the gazes of the crowd turned queer. The more they saw, the more fascinated they became at the strangely dressed youth who suddenly rocked up.

Swallowing, Ralf licked his lips and savoured the aftertaste before speaking. “About your earlier question…Rei, he’s currently making new songs.”

“New songs,” Hana’s eyes lit up.

Ralf nodded. “And not just new songs, but also new types of music. Jazz, rock, heavy metal, and even trap.”

“Rock, heavy metal and trap? What strange names for music. They sound more like attack names.”

“Well, they definitively hit hard,” Ralf smirked as he said, “at least, the stuff that I heard so far, do. You’re in for a blast.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear it,” she said, Ralf standing up. “Ready to jump back in?”

“Yeah,” he answered with a nod.

“Give them hell.”

Ralf smiled then did a salute. “Will do.”

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