Clark was about to make the first move when he noticed the silver threads running over his opponents body start to shimmer. Jor-el, monitoring the fight closely, also noticed this.
"Look out! He's going into…" Jor-el searched desperately for a word that his son might understand, "overdrive!"
For a second this puzzled Clark, until he remembered what Jor-el had told him earlier about the Archan. He had the ability to move very quickly for a short time, but it also left him vulnerable and weak for a short time afterwards. Clark immediately knew what he should do.
The Archan leaped forward and took a swing at Clark. It happened so fast and Clark was so distracted figuring out a plan that the Archan landed the blow into the center of his chest. It sent Clark across the arena and slammed him into the shield, which then sent him straight back. It happened so fast and hurt so much that Clark forgot his newest ability and ended up slamming into the ground without even trying to slow himself down using his flying abilities.
Clark lay there, stunned. He had never been hit that hard in his life. He could take on a ten ton bus without a scratch but being hit by this guy was like nothing he had ever encountered before. There were simply no words for how hard he had just been hit. Opening his eyes, Clark saw the Archan charging towards him to finish the job. Putting the pain he felt aside for a moment, he went into 'Clark time', where normally everyone around him seemed to stand still, but not this time. The Archan was still moving. In fact, he was moving almost as fast as Clark was. Almost, but not quite as fast. It gave Clark an advantage, one he knew how to use.
Clark got up and started running. Clark could run all day if he needed to, at least normally. Unfortunately, the hit that he had just received had knocked the wind out of him, and he was having a tough time getting it back. It was slowing him down and making it hard to keep ahead of the Archan that was chasing him. Soon his body was burning for oxygen that his lungs weren't taking in. His breath was coming in short gasps, and his lungs weren't allowing him to take the large breaths he needed to sustain his pace. The Archan was suddenly starting to gain on him. As he looked back he could see the smile that crossed his opponents face as he too noticed the shortening gap. Clark knew he didn't have much time left and he also knew that he couldn't fight in this condition. One more blow to his midsection and he would black out from lack of oxygen. His only choice was to keep running.
The Archan was almost upon him when the smile that had been on his face turned into a look of dismay. Suddenly it seemed as if the Archan was standing still like everyone else around him. Clark realized what had happened. He had run out of energy. Clark stopped and caught his breath. It took what seemed to him to be around ninety seconds for him to get his breath back, but in real time it was only slightly more than a single second. Clark knew that he had a limited time span to work with before the Archan would recover, so he set about doing what he had to do.
Clark hurried over to the still form of the Archan, who was now slightly bent over, as if trying to catch his breath. Clark swung his fist with all of his might, hitting him straight in the center of his chest. The Archon went flying into the shield, much as Clark had done just a few moments before, only this time, he wasn't going to have the chance to land. After the Archan bounced off of the shield he flew towards Clark. Clark sped forward, extending his arm straight out from his side, and effectively cloths lined (sp?) the incoming giant, sending him straight into the ground so hard that he bounced off of the metal floor and was lifted off of the floor nearly two feet. By the time he reached his apex, Clark had recovered from his maneuver and was well on his way to delivering his next blow.
Using the momentum from his previous maneuver, Clark ran around in a tight circle, gathering speed. As he approached his starting point he reacquired his target. Homing in on the Archan, he jumped forward onto his left leg and kicked the Archan in a move used by many a professional football player to send a ball down the field to a field goal. This had much the same effect on the Archan.
Flying off once again, the Archan bounced off the shields and came back towards Clark. Only this time, instead of being upright, the Archan came in head first, parallel to the ground, with his back to the ground. Clark immediately took advantage of this, and once again sprang forward to meet the incoming Archon before he could hit the ground. As the Archan passed by Clark at just below shoulder height Clark placed both hands over his head and drove them both as one force into the chest of the Archan. Once again the Archan slammed into the floor and once again bounced several feet into the air. Clark decided to get in one last blow before slowing down to see the results. Bending his knees slightly to allow him access to the Arcan's side, he back handed the Archan across where ribs would have been on a human. This sent him skipping across the length of the arena, his body coming to a stop only a few feet from the shield.
After running across the pit Clark slowed down to normal time to asses the damage he'd done. The Archan was struggling to get to its feet, but before it could it collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Clark let go of a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. The match was over. The announcer came on and pronounced 'the Kryptonian Kal-el' to be the winner. He also announced that there would be a slow motion replay of the fight before another fight took place so that the audience could see what had happened.
As the shield came up off of the floor, disappear into the ceiling, Clark made his way back to the trough. On the way there he happened to glance up at Chloe.
Chloe was astonished. She had seen Clark move fast before, but nothing like that. Before, there had at least been a blur for her to see. This time he simply seemed to disappear altogether. The entire fight had consisted of Clark being hit very hard, both fighters disappearing, around three second of nothing, one second where the alien fighting Clark had appeared, and then two spots had bloomed on the shields for no apparent reason, and then the alien fighting Clark had come to a rest near the shield on the other side of the arena. In all, it had taken all of nine or ten seconds. She watched as Clark walked out of the pit and headed towards the room where all of the fighters came from. She saw him glance up at her for a second, but before she could react he continued walking.
Realizing that she had come to her feet during the fight, Chloe sat back down. She glanced over at Lana who had a stunned look on her face. Chloe could relate. Hearing Clark talk about his abilities and seeing them used like this were two very different things.
Chloe's attention shifted to a large screen as it was lowered in front of the audience. On the screen appeared a warning that due to the fast pace of the match the footage they were about to see was slightly grainy and would happen very quickly, but they would show still photos at the appropriate moments so that the audience could see what was happening. At first, all Chloe could see was the alien and Clark squaring off in the middle of the ring. They both seemed to be absolutely still.
Suddenly the alien seemed to blur as he raced towards Clark and hit him, sending him flying. Chloe winced as the blur that she knew to be Clark bounced off of the shield and hit the ground. She was amazed to see him get up and run after taking that kind of a hit. The screen showed a still of the alien's face smiling as he began to catch up to Clark. After another second of a blurred chase scene they showed another still of the alien's face as it slowed down to real time, capturing it's dismay perfectly. Chloe watched the rest of the fight, paying close attention to the still photos of Clark hitting the alien and of the results. Chloe was spellbound until the very end.
After the rerun ended, she slouched down in her chair. She couldn't believe how incredible Clark was. She'd seen him catch a car before, but that was nothing compared to what he'd just done. How could someone that powerful be as humble and as gentle as Clark was. She couldn't understand it. He could do anything. He could take over the whole world in a few hours. Nothing was beyond his reach, and yet he chose to be a farm boy. Oh sure, when someone he cared about was in danger he would save the day, but what he chose to be when he had the opportunity was still a normal person. Chloe could honestly say that she had never met anyone else that she thought would do the same, herself included. It was then that Chloe truly understood just how special Clark was. Not because of his abilities, anyone who played around with meteor rocks long enough would get those, it was his heart that was special. He cared about others enough to give up whatever he wanted and could acquire by force and instead chose to play on a level playing field for it.
Chloe sat in stunned silence for several minutes before she was startled out of her thoughts by the shield being lowered. It looked for all the world like a curtain made of energy being lowered over a stage. As it hit the floor of the arena its light blue color and the pink flashes that coursed through it both turned clear to give her a perfect view of the next fight.
TBC
