"I had expected the mechanical creature to perform better in that bout, I must admit," Yr'Arl said. "Both victories thus far have been unexpected things, the opposite of how they might first appear." 

I had to agree. I'd definitely expected the robotic squid to do a much better job. If you were going to upload your consciousness into a metal body, you'd expect some of the benefits of doing that to be increased battle power. Otherwise, what was the point in doing it in the first place?

Either way, that clearly hadn't been the case with Klatissi. They had been overwhelmed by a similar opponent that completely countered them in every way possible. Their tentacles had been stronger, and their ability to absorb beam attacks had put Klatissi on the back foot immediately. 

"It's been pretty cool though," I weighed in. "Seeing so many different fighting styles, I'm really looking forward to getting in there myself!" 

Another white flash of light and two more aliens had been transported from the waiting room and down into the combat arena. 

"Next are two more competitors that we didn't get to formally introduce! We've got Boledo, he doesn't have a homeworld as his species actually evolved in the harsh vacuum of space, hopping from asteroid to asteroid in their star system's outer reaches! There's also Ustrata, from Nichi 6, this crystalline entity is sure to put an incredible performance!"

Boledo, the first of the two that had been introduced, was another alien that would be considered monstrous back on earth. They stood on three heavily muscled legs, that led up to a pyramid-like body that was wide at the base and narrower toward the top. The alien also had three arms, one coming out of each side of the body. Finally, their head. It was narrow and rectangular and had a single banded eye that ran around its entire circumference. Somehow, their brains must have evolved to parse that data and could see in full 360 the whole time. Growing up in an asteroid field, having to jump out of the way of potential impactors all the time, that would have probably been quite useful. It'd be even more useful in combat. 

Meanwhile, Ustrata. They were like nothing I had ever seen before, and the closest thing I could think of to compare them to was Diamondhead from the Ben 10 franchise. Their body was tall and slender, and a slightly see-through blue colour. The surface of their body looked hard and smooth, but their two arms tapered off into pointed, jagged claws. This alien was clearly a physical powerhouse, evolved to survive harsh conditions and deal out a lot of damage. 

Both aliens were, in some ways, similar. Physically strong, incredibly imposing, but they had evolved to deal with their environments in completely different ways, I couldn't wait to see how their fight would unfold. 

"Let the battle begin in three, two, one… begin!" Belana called out. 

Without any charging or preamble, the moment Belana announced that the match had begun, a trio of bright energy beams streaked over the battlefield toward Boledo from Ustrata, each one targeting one of the alien's legs. 

"Ah, impressive technique," Akash exclaimed as Boledo sprung out of the way of the assault, only to get hit by another barrage before they could land back on the ground. "Ustrata is using the natural light in the arena and focusing it through their crystalline body, allowing them to launch powerful energy beams without having to perform an actual spell."

It was an impressive technique, that was for sure. 

For me to launch any energy beams that would be of a similar level of strength, I'd have to first charge the power-up by drawing manna from my reserves. It didn't take long to do, but in the heat of an intense battle, it only took a second to make the difference between life and death. 

The trio of energy beams that hit Boledo knocked the alien down to the ground in a cloud of explosive smoke. But clearly, that wasn't going to be anywhere near enough to take the asteroid hopper down. A flash of light emerged from the centre of the smoke, bright blue in colour so different from a teleportation spell.

Then, Boledo came charging out, heading directly toward his crystalline opponent. Ustrata was unphased, and send another trio of high powered lasers in Boledo's direction. But whatever spell the alien had cast in the moment of downtime after the manna explosion had been designed to counter exactly that. The beams impacted them all at once but harmlessly bounced away in three different directions to explode harmlessly against the walls and floor. 

Boledo moved in close like a champion boxer and launched three attacks of their own. A punch toward Ustrata's mid section was blocked, as was the right hook at the crystalline's head, but the final strike to the alien's middle torso hit cleanly and sent them careening through the air to come crashing into the wall of the arena.

Ustrata was down but was nowhere close to out. They raised a crystal hand up to the sky, palm outstretched, and pointed the other directly toward Boledo, who was already moving to keep up the pressure. 

The air was shimmering around Ustrata's hands, and then all of a sudden, the biggest flash I had ever seen had me covering my eyes to avoid them being damaged. 

<Now that was a smart bit of manna usage as well,> BB praised in my head. 

I blinked away the spots in my vision and lowered my arm to see that Boledo had been knocked to the floor by the force of whatever the attack was, their three hands covering all 360 degrees of their eye. 

<Ustrata channeled the light in a different way, repurposing it into what was basically a flash grenade to obliterate Boledo's vision. That giant eye was always going to be their biggest weakness,> my AI explained. 

While Boledo had been stunned, I had the sneaking suspicion that this fight was only just getting started.