There was a brief moment of stillness before the fight started again. It was the lead up to the song getting into a hard and continuous rhythm in the short space where it’s just building up to the main event, that was their moment of silence.

Yugai tightened his body and lowered his body and got ready to start going wild again. Kentarou was no longer dancing in place, his right foot was firmly held behind his left, and his fists followed the same style of positioning. Then a massive banging sound from at least ten sets of heavy and large drums radiated through the air! That would be the starting shot for the match to go underway.

Yugai leapt forward while ducking his head down and forced his body to become a wrecking ball. Once he knew that his arms could reach his adversary he lashed out with his claws, right then left, just like he did before, wide and dynamic swings like the reaping of a scythe. Kentarou dodged again, this time with basic steps backwards, but he made sure to keep his stance the same despite the assault upon him, His eyes locked on the left side of Yugai’s head. He was loading the bullets he needed to take the tiger down. His right leg tightened to take aim and press on the trigger.

“His patterns are far too predictable. Just right and left with his arms… it’s a pendulum blade, if it touches me it might hurt, but it’s not mobile and can only follow the fixed pattern it has.” The hound from hell was just about ready to force a shutdown on the robot before him. Hakuro then whispered into the ear of his pupil.

Tch, I guess you’re too worked up to stop throwing those wide blows. Fine, we’ll use that to our advantage. Mix it up. Add the short swift strikes in between your power sweeps, keep moving forward with more weight in your body. Once in a while throw a low kick at his legs. Not often. A rare hit that reminds him there is more than one danger zone. Even if you get hit, stay standing and attack until there’s nothing left!”

Encouraged and filled with a plan by his mentor, the machine takes up up a gear and advances with even more power and speed than he had shown before! A wide right swing! Dodged with a backstep to the left. Followed up by a short straight spear-like strike directly forward from the left arm! Kentarou hops back on one foot to get out of range but Yugai doesn’t stop. He lets loose off a sweeping kick with his right leg aimed at the left ankle. A mumble leaves Kentarou’s lips as he is forced to hop again using both legs and it messed up his stance for half a second but as he landed he returned to his proper form.

That was about the time both Raimon and Kentarou made an observation, Yugai had been growing in the middle of the fight at an alarming rate. He had started slow but was now at least twice as fast as he was before. It was very unusual. No one improved that much in a few minutes and no one could hold back that much either when they held such a dangerous look in their eyes. “He has a Gimmick.” They came to the same conclusion at the same time. It was the most reasonable answer as well as the correct one. Not everyone had been given a Gimmick by whatever system governed the Peak but some people did and Yugai was one of them. Raimon sighed as he watched Yugai improve by the second. His blows were becoming far more accurate with each attempt.

“He didn’t come to this club just to learn and meet other Disciples. He came here to learn how to be charming. He’s a Charisma type Gimmick. I’d also guess from the looks of it, he has very little life experience. So everything and anything new to him is basically a whole new world for him. That’s what we’re seeing. By making basic human interaction, he’s going to grow. He’ll hit a wall eventually, and Gimmicks can be curses or blessings, well usually both, but…” Raimon grinned widely, this was going to be exciting for him. “He’s an empty cup. He can be taught just about anything without any extra silliness.”

Yugai continued to press the attack with his triple strike variation, adding in the kick, the scythe, and the spear interchangeably, his arsenal was finally beginning to take shape! In time he would be forged into a deadly living weapon. Yugai then made a mauling right and missed again. Kentarou clicked his tongue, stepped back and threw his right leg high! A black flame clouded Yugai’s vision. Then a slicing impact smacked into him. Kentarou grumbled as his leg lashes back to its starting position like a bungee cord. Yugai was still standing and with both arms raised in a cross that shielded the left side of his head. He had blocked the impact in time with swift reaction speed and remarkable toughness. It looked like he was basically unfazed. This was far from the truth.

“Holy shit! That felt like… his leg was a scalpel and he just cut through my arms!” He had moved his mana to his arms and did the transmutation trick he had been taught before, but even though his arms were to resemble metal, they were penetrated with a single swift kick. If his arm took a few more, they’d fall apart and become nothing but rusty scrap. “Alright, I’m going to push forward and keep atta-!” Slash. Slash. Slash.

“H-he isn’t stopping!?” Yugai braced his arms as Kentarou continued to release cut after cut with his rapid and repeated kicks that were fast, concise, and powerful. Yugai kept his arms up to block the attacks but each blow felt like the sinking of a tooth into his skin. He could not hide his pain, his face crumbled as his eyes were painted with pain and his teeth bit down to numb any yelps of pain. He pushed his head forward and then the rest of his body with his left foot first, but another shot crashed against his guard and he was sent back to where he came.

Yugai was now stuck defending, he balled his body up to shelter as much of his vitals as he could. The scalpel kicks had evolved in strength and speed. The bullets of a revolver. The gunman was pulling the trigger every other second. There’s a brief pause before each kick, but Yugai had not the strength or skill to take advantage of that tiny opening. He knew that and his frustration reared its ugly head and tore away at his self-esteem. Then he felt a rough and hard sensation on his back. He gasped when he realised his back was against a wall.

Kentarou smiled with a shimmer in his eyes. He pulled his right leg back and placed it hard on the ground. He chose to stop shooting his kicks the moment Yugai was pressed to the edge of the room. Yugai’s body started frantically shivering and trembling. His guard was still up, but his arms and fingers jittered as if they had been shocked by lightning. His breathing was ragged and filled with deep exhales of broken air. Finally, his arms fell down like a gallery of men who had just been hanged to death. They were bright red and bruised from all the damage he had taken, and yet there was still steel in his eye and fangs bared forward.

He assessed his damage. “My arms are so hot and heavy. My legs are terrified of him, they just want to shuffle away. It’s hard to catch my breath. I can feel exhaustion creeping up on me. He’s way stronger than I am. There’s no doubt about that. He’s done this far longer than I have. I just started today. There’s no way I can win.” Yet, despite telling himself that, he began to growl from his gut and glared directly into the gaze of the more experienced fighter. Something welled up inside of him and he had to put his feelings into words and action rather than thought. “I won’t give in. I chose to start living. To start fighting for everything I denied myself up until now. ...I don’t care if I lose, but I sure as hell will die before I surrender! Uwooaaaarrrgggghhhh!”

He forced his broken arms up while he raised his head to the heavens and roared to them. The tiger’s pride had been wounded, and he was going to keep fighting until he couldn’t anymore. Kentarou grimaced as he now knew for sure. Yugai won’t go down or back off no matter how bad the situation got. It was incredibly tiresome and just as troublesome. Kentarou blew out cold air from his lips that had to escape from the side of his face due to his mask. Yugai burst out with hot and wild rage and charged forward shoulder first with his body that was almost brought to the limit. Kentarou closed his eyes. “I really hate the hotheaded types.”

Yugai lifted his right arm to the skies and then prepared to drop it down with the force of a thousand tons, it fell down like a shooting star. The motion was strong and covered a large area but it only took him a tiny bit more effort to escape than the attacks from before. Kentarou did a hop back with his left foot, momentarily placing him midair, allowing him to escape it. Then the meteor halted in place before reaching the atmosphere, in the blink of an eye, it disappeared from the world.

Yugai’s stance had altered as he threw the vertical swing, he had used the weight of his right arm hurdling down to pivot his body, moving the transmuted metal magic in that arm to his right heel, and twisted with breakneck speed so that the left side of his body now faced forward. He has closed the distance between them. His left arm stretched out, the index finger of his hand pointed outwards, gleaming with a talon of silver. It was an extremely similar motion to the last desperate attack he threw against Raimon earlier in the day.

“Mystic Art: Tiger Sting!”

All his remaining force focused on a single attack. A look of disgust filled Kentarou’s eyes as he was forced to recognise the threat heading to the centre of his body. He had just hopped and was standing on one foot, suspended in space before his feet could touch the ground. The sudden burst of strength and speed had forced his hand.

He vanished from Yugai’s vision and then a shattering sound filled the entire dojo.