The next day, the arena got filled again as the semi-finals were about to start. The four finalists were standing in the middle of the fighting zone while all those who lost were sitting at the bar to watch the show. The emperor stood up to talk.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you had a good night! Now is time for the semi-finals of the second annual Power Struggle Tournament!" Cheers from the crowd. "Before we start, I ask you to welcome our four warriors who made it to the semi-finals for this year: TOKA!"

The snow leopard was well-cheered. The people noticed that he was wearing bandages around his chest due to the damage his ribs took yesterday.

"SARAS!"

The fox was cheered loudly too as he addressed an hand gesture to the audience.

"KOJI!"

The beetle received a huge cheering pop as he did the victory sign to everyone.

"AND KUAI!"

Unlike the others, the cheetah received a chorus of boos. He simply shrugged.

"Now, I leave the next part to our referee Bindo!" The emperor said as he sat back down while the elephant stepped forward with his box which contained only four papers.

He took two with his big nose and rode the names on them. "So, for the first semi-final match, I call...SARAS AND KOJI!"

"I kick it off again?!" Saras said with an annoyed look before sighing. "Fate must really hate me."

"Come on, boss: you can win!" Shan Qu encouraged him which made him smile as he got down in the fighting zone.

"Cool, I go first. This should give you time to rest a bit." Koji said to Toka, referring to his damaged ribs.

"Don't worry about me: for now, focus on your fight." Toka answered with giving him a friendly pat. His other friends in the audience also gave him encouraging words before he went down in the fighting zone as well.

The two stood face-to-face with smiles. "Koji, Saras, are you ready to start?" Bindo asked them and they answered by a double nod. "Alright, may the first semi-finals match BEGIN!"

Immediately, both opponents got into their respective fighting stance. Koji then smiled. "You're not planning on giving up like last year, right?"

"Don't worry: I'm not planning on getting away without a fight." He replied confidentially.

They then charged forward at the same time and blocked a knee strike from each other simultaneously before starting a close combat which saw Saras using both Kung Fu and his talon claws while Koji used his Samoan Fist style and his horn. Saras was actually getting an hard time from the beetle who blocked his talons every time he would swing them at him.

After ducking a kick, Koji went for another one to the fox's face, but this last one teleported himself in the air at the last second. He immediately turned into his creane form afterward to stay where he was. Koji groaned and also took off in the sky with his bug wings. He charged for a kick which Saras dodged and flew away.

Of course, the beetle flew after him, but Saras was faster thanks to his avian form. So, he decided to shoot secretion balls with his mouth, but the crane dodged them all.

"Arlgith, if it's like that..." Koji though and activated his Sheng Chu technique to get faster and catched up with Saras.

He tried to deliver a kick, but the shape-shifter blocked and an aerian battle started afterward. Even though he did progress a lot, Koji was still far from being as good as Saras who fought as a bird many times before. Eventually, he landed a kick with his skinny leg into the beetle's jest before following with a strong gust of wind that sent him crash really hard on the ground.

"Yeah! The boss is the master both on ground and in the sky!" Shan Qu cheered.

"Don't get too cocky: Koji still got a lot up his sleeves...even though he doesn't have any." Karasu said.

Meanwhile, back in the fighting zone, Koji got back up and whipped some blood from his forehead which he then shook before Saras came back on the ground. Not wanting to waste time, he charged forward with a boost from his wings, but the crane blocked his foot and then turned into his mouse form to jump on it and started running all over the beetle's body.

"Ahahahaha! Stohohohop!" Koji laughed and danced around as Saras tickled him everywhere.

After a moment of tickling, Saras rose his teeth to bit Koji's skin...only to find out that it was too hard and broke his teeth. While he groaned in pain, Koji took the opportunity to grab him in his hand and headbutted him hard before throwing him away. Saras returned to his fox form while rubbing his bleeding face.

"Time to bring out the big force!" He said and shape-shifted into his dragon form which towered the beetle and let out a huge roar that made him widen his eyes in shock.

"Oh yeah!" Shan Qu happily cheered. "Once he turns into dragon mode, it's officially over for his opponent!"

"Looks like I'm gonna have to strike hard too." Koji said and brought an hand to his face while extending the other one as Demon Chi surrounded him before he turned into his Cong Wo form. "Power of the beetle, CONG WO!" He screamed and rose his sword.

Saras blew a breath of fire while Koji shot a jet of red and black Chi which collided and caused an explosion. The dragon then swung its tail at the half-demon who avoided it thanks to his extra-speed and went for a slash to the dragon's back. Unfortunately, he found out that his scale armour was too solid to be pierced by his sword.

Saras took the opportunity to slam him with his huge dragon paw which sent him crashing into the arena's walls. He came out of the dust it caused with his mask a bit cracked and blood on his eskeleton. Refusing to give up, he charged once again and this time, he swung his sword at the dragon's belly to get the same result.

Saras once again smashed him down before getting up in the sky and shooting fireballs from his mouth. They seemed to have touched the beetle, but once the smoke faded away, it was revealed that he actually blocked them all with his sword.

"This won't be as easy as I though." Koji admitted before taking off in the sky and started moving around Saras too quickly to be completely followed.

Even though he couldn't see Koji's movements, the beetle's attacks on his scales only provoked sparles and didn't cause any injury. That was until he suddenly appeared over his head and charged his sword with Demon Chi. "BUG'S BITE!" The powerful Demon Chi attack touched the dragon's head and sent it to crash hard on the ground with an explosion.

As Koji came back on the ground, Saras groaned as he was surprisingly bleeding from the head and glared at his opponent. He then took a deep breath and started shooting many jets of fire which the beetle all dodged thanks to his speed. That was until he swung his tail whose tip scratched Koji's abdomen, leaving a not lethal but bleeding cut.

He landed down and the two opponents glared at each other while panting deeply. They were close to their limit. "Let's finish this with our strongest attack!" Saras said.

"As you wish!" Koji nodded and lifted his sword.

As everybody (except Kuai) was watching with anticipation, Saras took a very deep breath while Koji charged his sword with Demon Chi. "BUG'S BITE!" He shot his powerful attack while the dragon blew a huge jet of fire. Both attack missed each other and went to crash right into the thrower's opponent which resulted in two big explosions.

As the smoke cleared, both men were still standing on their feet, though clearly damaged. It took a few seconds until Koji collapsed on one knee, using his sword to stand still, while Saras fell flat on his face and returned to his fox form.

"Contender Saras is no longer able to battle! The winner of this match is KOJI!" Bindo announced.

The whole arena exploded with cheers as the victorious beetle returned to his normal form and was helped by Toka to go back to the bar. Meanwhile, a disapointed Shan Qu got down to help his best friend to get some medical attention. Luckily he returned to his fox form as carrying him around in his dragon one would have been really hard.

Please! Tell me I did this right without making Saras look like a weakling!