Chapter 48: An Unrelenting Challenger

Everyone was sitting in the waiting area as things were being prepared for the next fight. Noca was still with Pan and Holline. He was asking her all about her training with Gohan and the power she had learned to utilise from that training. Vegeta was lingering over, listening in on the conversation. He was also very interested to know how she had achieved such a large growth in power.

"What do you mean?" Noca asked, sounding like he didn't believe the last thing Pan had said. There was a half-chuckle in his voice. Pan shrugged, smirking.

"I just don't understand it, Dad didn't explain it very well," Pan expanded, looking to Holline and shrugging again, the two of them smiled a laughed together. Noca was trying to piece it together.

"Vegeta said that you were using your current potential, do you understand that, at least?" Noca asked, hoping for some sort of coherent answer. Pan tilted her head slightly.

"Say please," Pan requested, trying her best to hide the smirk. Noca's smile faded.

"Will you be serious?" He demanded. Pan had to bite her lip to stop from laughing but let a little one out. Holline joined and the two were laughing at Noca. "What is so funny?"

Vegeta finally stepped towards them.

"Gohan obviously taught Pan how to access her potential similar to how the Old Namekian did it back when fighting Freeza, and then again when the Elder Kai did it for him," Vegeta explained, clearly having experienced it more and having a better understanding. Noca took a second and looked to Vegeta.

"The Elder Kai has a way to bring out potential?" Noca asked. Vegeta nodded. Noca looked to Pan, a look of confusion on his face. "That old bastard, why didn't he do that for me?"

Far away in the World of the Kai…

"ACHOOOO!"

The Elder Kai sneezed loudly, waking him from his slumber. The Supreme Kai seemed shocked.

"Oh my, Elder! Are you ok?" The Supreme Kai asked.

"Those damned kids fighting again have disturbed my sleep!" The elder yelled, looking up at Goku and Cilu sparring together in the sky.

"Maybe he knew you were strong enough already?" Holline suggested, a questioning tone in her voice.

Noca didn't seem too satisfied with the answer but moved on and went back to asking Pan about everything to do with her power, and her potential, and her training with Gohan. He wanted to know all the facts.

Meanwhile, Sofia, Joji, and Yaiko were sitting in their corner. Sofia was laying on a bench, Yaiko sitting beside her, slouched down with his headphones on and his hood up. Joji doing push-ups to prepare himself.

"This is gonna be so easy, I'm gonna be right there beside you in that final," Joji said, confidently. Sofia scoffed. Joji stopped and stood up, looking down on her. "You don't think so?"

Sofia opened one eye and closed it again, not intimidated by his presence.

"You might walk through this next opponent, but what makes you think you'll get to the final?" Sofia asked, trying to get Joji riled up.

"Just you watch me," Joji cracked his knuckles and looked to his opponent. Torai. The young man was sitting by himself, cross-legged on the floor, hands together in front of him. His eyes were closed, and he was clearly meditating and channeling his energy before the fight. Joji sneered and turned back to his allies. Joji noticed Sofia didn't care for anything he was doing and was just trying to nap. And Yaiko. Joji didn't need a reason to be angry at Yaiko. He grunted and stepped up to the boy, smacking him across the head, knocking his headphones off and causing the boy to slip from the bench to the floor with a thud.

Everyone reacted to the scene, turning to face the trio. Noca and Holline both stood up, while everyone else just looked over. Torai was broken from his meditative state and glanced over. Sofia's eyes snapped open and she immediately went to Yaiko, helping him up. Then she turned to face Joji, but stopped herself, upon remembering they were around a lot of people.

"What you gonna do?" Joji questioned, smirking. Sofia glared up at him and clenched her fist. Joji motioned towards the back doorway and Sofia turned around. Yaiko was no longer behind her. She looked back to Joji.

"End your fight quickly," She said, bluntly, and then turned to go find Yaiko. Joji chuckled and went to sit down, but the announcer's voice sounded out.

"We are ready for the next bout! If Joji and Torai could please step out onto the stage!"

Joji walked to the door and stepped out right away. Torai stood up slowly, took a deep breath and walked on. They were both outside and saw the stage they were presented with. It was a similar rocky stage to the previous one, just without the water and was a semi-flat surface with a few rocks dotted around. The announcer described the stage to the crowd and introduced the fighters as they stepped onto the stage and readied themselves in positions.

Once the announcer had calmed down, he gave the signal to the fighters to prepare and they waited for the announcer to finally call the start. He did and immediately, Joji decided to take control.

The large man rushed in towards Torai right away and aimed a strong punch down on his smaller opponent. The young man jumped back to dodge out of the way of the punch. Joji's punch hit right into the ground, cracking into the dirt and rock. He pulled the arm back and charged forward again, attempting to tackle his opponent, his arms closing in. Torai performed a dodge-roll to the left, avoiding any contact, this caused Joji to fall into a roll, but he continued right back to his feet.

Out of frustration, Joji immediately through a Ki blast for his opponent. Torai managed to easily dodge out of the way of the blast, letting it carry on. The blast crashed into the rocks that were behind Torai and they blew up, as soon as they did Torai charged in for his own attack. He leapt forward moving into a kicking position, aiming for Joji's head. Joji catches the leg and swiftly moved to slam Torai's body down into the ground. He followed on with a fist aimed right down for Torai's centre-mass. Torai's eyes widened as the punch came firing down, he threw his own hands forward, catching the punch and doing his best to cancel out that momentum. He does his best to keep holding Joji's large strength back, but the downward momentum proves difficult. Torai's arms shake just a little bit.

Torai starts to pour some energy into his push, starting to get some control and moving Joji's arm. He charges some energy and pushes the arm away quickly and gives himself a small opening. He would need to make a quick move. He pounces up, springs towards Joji's head and smashed in a strong uppercut, moving into a spinning kick right against Joji's face. Torai then followed up by kick back in the opposite direction with the same leg and after that connected, he charged right into Joji's face with a powerful punch.

Joji is knocked back and stumbled for a few steps before falling into some rocks with a little bit of a crash. Torai drops back down to his feet, but as soon as his feet touch the ground Joji had already made it back to his feet and was charging back towards Torai. The young man isn't equal to the movement and is taken by surprise. There is a powerful knee plunging into his gut. Joji pulls back and then follows up with a low punch, also into Torai's gut. The punch lifts Torai up into the air in front of Joji a little bit and the large fighter reacts by dropping a large fist down on Torai's back, smashing him back into the ground. Torai hits the ground and uses his initiative to roll away immediately, closely avoiding a follow-up stomp from Joji. Torai jumps up to his feet and flips away to gain some distance.

Joji wasn't going to take a break and jumped forward, to follow into the fight some more. Joji managed to strike another strong fist down that smashed Torai into the dirt, but the young man continues and flip back to his feet, Joji drops right in front of him and sends another strong punch straight. Torai catches it and this time they're on a level field so the power is equally distributed. He starts his push back again, but Joji pulls his own arm away and goes to punch with the other arm, but Torai jumped over that one and performed a flip kick down on Joji. He then lands back down in front of Joji and does a quick one-two into his gut and another uppercut, then he sends his hand into Joji's centre with an energy pulse that knocks the large fighter off of his feet and flying back.

Joji manages to get a hand and his feet down onto the front and slows himself down, sliding back towards the rocks. Torai immediately flies into another attack. Joji reacts quickly, punching Torai back across the arena with a powerful hit. Torai stops himself with his energy but Joji is already jumping in again. He misjudged the movement and hit the ground right in front of Torai. The young man jumps back and fires out a quick Dodonpa, it strikes Joji and knocks him back again. The large fighter seems to have cat genes as he lands on his feet yet again. He lands down and starts running back in towards Torai. He throws an energy blast on the way and that hits the ground in front of Torai, creating a barrier of dust and shards of rock.

Joji runs right through that barrier and grabs Torai right around the throat and slams him into the ground, again. This time, he follows up by running along, pushing Torai's body into the ground all the way. He comes to a natural stopping point eventually and throws Torai into some more rocks at the edge of the arena. Finally, there's a lull in the action as Joji stops.

Torai slowly stands out of the rocks and stumbles forward, falling down on his knees. The large man laughed out loud and started to walk over to his young opponent. He set a foot on Torai's back and started to push him down. There is quite a bit of strength being put into that and Torai struggled. He isn't sure what to do to get himself out of the scenario easily. He starts to think about his training and suddenly Tien's voice starts to sound in his head.

"Calm yourself, Torai. You know you can channel your energy and give yourself a boost. Even so, you should also learn there is no shame in quitting when the odds are against you."

Torai always accepted the words of his master. Torai closed his eyes and let his sense calm and relax. His body started to relax too, meaning that Joji's strength started to take effect and push down on him with ease, but Torai wasn't going to just let it happen. His eyes snapped open as the young man's aura burst from within, knocking Joji off of him. Torai stood and charged for Joji. He sent a flat-footed kick into Joji's gut, following up with one of his uppercuts and then another kick into Joji's centre, sending him across the arena.

Joji bounces along and hits against some rocks, back first. He is facing forward, his eyes open. Torai blasts in and hits another gut punch. Joji grabs Torai's arm and lifts the young man up, smashing him into the ground again, and then again. Then he throws the boy back into the rocks. Joji swings around and smashes a fist into Torai's centre, crashing him right through the rocks. He leans over and lifts the young man up with both hands on his small head. He smashes in a headbutt, right against Torai's face. The strength sends Torai crashing back into the ground. Joji stops and stands over him.

The young man slowly stands again, body aching. Joji smirks and punches down again, but the wobbling and weakened Torai phases behind Joji. The large man immediately swings around and punches with his right. Torai catches the arm with his left hand and spins in towards Joji's body, punching with his free, right hand and then flips back, kicking up into Joji's chin, dropping back to his feet and following up with a regular Ki blast.

Joji catches that blast in his centre and throws it back down on Torai, but the young man jumped up over it, distracted from Joji's follow up. The large man ran in and jumped up, over Torai, dropping down with his hands hammering on Torai. Once more, Torai is smashed into the dirt as Joji lands. The young man gets back to his feet, but Joji immediately and unreasonably punches the young fighter across the arena, through more rocks.

At this point Torai can hardly find the energy to bring himself back to his feet. Joji has just matched him at every turn. The young fighter believed he had more to offer, but it just wasn't showing itself right now. Joji walked over, calmly, and lifted Torai up, punching him in the face, hard. There was a crunching sound and blood dripped to the floor. A broken nose and probably some damage done to his jaw. Torai was in pain, but he couldn't vocalise it in that moment.

Finally having enough of it Joji throws Torai over his shoulder, hoping for him to hit the ground outside the arena, but Torai, finding one last ounce of stubbornness in his body uses his aura to stop himself. Joji grunts and turns around, firing a blast at the boy. It strikes Torai's body and throws him through the rocks, right into the arena wall. He cracks against the wall and slowly falls down to the grass.

Silence.

"So, Joji advances to the next round," The announcer said, absolutely no enthusiasm in that tone. He then turns to the medical staff, "Someone needs to give Torai some medical attention right now."

Joji walked back into the waiting area as the medical staff rushes past. Even Tien dropped down from the stands and ran to his student, helping him up and leaving the arena with the medical staff.

Back in the waiting area, Joji walks over to his seat and drops down with a smirk on his face. He leans back against the wall, hands behind his head and closes his eyes. Everyone has their eyes on him. Even his allies hadn't returned at that point. Noca looked the fighter up and down, inquisitively, but then remembered the next fight. He turned to face Holline. He immediately sensed the nerves rattling through her body.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned the red-head to face him.

"Keep in mind all of the great training you've had throughout your life. All the challenges you've gone through and the growth in your abilities. You can give it everything out there Holline, and I know you will," Noca said, looking her in the eyes and wearing a serious, but loving expression. Holline smirked and nodded, pulling her oldest friend into a tight embrace.

"You can do it," Pan said, smiling. Holline nodded again and turned to look towards Uub. Her opponent. He seemed unfazed by it all and simply stood and walked past them all, making his way to the door. Holline watched a took a deep breath. Noca put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Vegeta looked to them and then back to Uub, then back to Noca.

"He knows that he has to wait for them to sort out the stage, right?" Vegeta asked, breaking the intense mood. But was that an intentional attempt at a joke. Noca's serious expression turned into a confused smile as he didn't know if he should laugh or not. Pan shook her head and chuckled quietly to herself.

Holline was amused, but her nerves were getting the best of her, she just kept her gaze fixed firmly on Uub.

Relatively shorter chapter and I've uploaded it a little bit late today. Apologies for that. Either way, I hope you've been enjoying this arc so far. We're getting closer to the Semi-Finals (which I have only just started writing!).

Next Time... Chapter 49: Holline Proves Herself