"Next fight, the lovely, the charming, the pink, Diamanta." Pink came in fast and she came in strong pumping her fists to the cheer of the crowd.

"And facing against her we have the mysterious, the dreadful. D. E. Athra." the announced girl came in in a black, gothic lolita type dress. Her face was bone white, yet her lips, nails and hair were black. She smiled spookily at Pink. So were her teeth apparently. Though the inner side of her mouth and her tongue were white.

"Any questions on how the upcoming fight will go?" the announcer asked, staring first at the one and then at the other.

"Is it too late to go buy an Anti Curse Potion?" Pink asked as she stared wearily at her opponent.

"I'll put you on the tip of my drill ship, Diamanta and drill to the cores of planets, blowing them up, creating so much **death**" she said as she sucked on her fingers, slobbering over them.

"Still not too late to give up." the announcer said cheerfully. "Though, then we'd throw you to the lions," the announcer thought, "but you'd like that."

Pink walked forward, not minding their host.

"Aren't you a little old to be sucking on your fingers?" Pink attacked with some banter. The girl rasply giggled.

"With d-d-d, endings, coming around every corner, what even is old?" the girl asked as a scythe materialized in her palm. She closed her fist around it. With her slobbery hand she dragged her cheek down, drool dripping from it, which caused her eye to open wider. As if that would expand her vision.

"Come, let's fight to d-d, da sweet release." the girl smiled and ran forward.

Before she knew what was going on a loud sound echoed through the stadium. It was a sonic boom. But Pink only heard that after she jumped back avoiding the swing of her opponent's scythe.

She swung it again and again and Pink did her best to dodge every swing. That girl had seen her fight. She wouldn't be swinging around a weapon she knew wouldn't work.

But the girl was too fast for her and Pink was barely keeping pace with her while D.E. seemed to be used to such speeds.

Finally one of the scythe brushed against Pink's shoulder and it passed right trough. Pink jumped far back, landing near the wall of the stadium. She spared a glance at her shoulder but there was no wound.

Weird, but her state of unhurt led her to get fired up.

No, she couldn't rush this, she had to think through things clearly. Obviously her opponent had been trained in speed not strength. That was probably because her weapons didn't requre the latter. So charging in. Bad move.

This is where you have to get creative to win Pink.

Oh right. It was that time already.

Against such weird bladed weapons that passed right through her when they hit and an opponent that was faster than her, she should just become faster.

Pink transformed. She took on a form with less mass that would make her, weigh less. She also made it more aerodinamic with sharper limbs and shorter hair, sharper too. It was spiked. One good headbutt and D.E. would have puncture wounds all over her face. Her whole body was now in fact fairly sharp, meant for cutting and puncturing.

This was called, beating your opponent at their own game and Pink was excited to try doing just that. It was nice that her opponent was a speed freak so their exchange would be over quickly. Pink couldn't keep up this form for long.

"Wind Cutter!" she said the name of her new form.

The girl, not paying PInk any heed, ran forward and tried to stab through her with her scythes.

But Pink was better equipped to deal with her this time. Their speed was about equal and Pink, with her longer limbs, and a bit of shapeshifting, had no trouble cutting up her opponent in several places across her body. But it was as if she was the only one noticing this as D.E. paid her injuries no heed.

Now if Pink could keep this up for a few more seconds, it had been about 5 seconds since she started her onslaught and the girl already had 24 cuts of various severity all over her body, she could handily take this match and continue up the bracket to finals!

Oh, what was this?

The opponent jumped far far back. Well, Pink wasn't stupid enough to let her do whatever she wanted so she followed. No luck. Scyches flew from the direction of the girl, slowing down Pink just a bit.

She reached out for one. Using it as a bladed weapon to bat the others away from her while she advanced would be a good idea. The moment she grabbed the scythe's handle, though, a wave of nausea went over her and she dropped to her knees.

The hail of scythes stopped as the girl ran up the obelisk at one end of the stadium. There were four and they made up a cross in the round stadium if you connected them.

The girl climbed it with no problem despite being horizontal to it. She'd somehow connected a scythe to each foot and was using them to dig into the material.

Once she reached the top she looked down at Pink.

"My master has made me limit my abilities for the sake of not attracting undue attention. But if it is for defeating a foe such as yourself." the girl showed emotion different from insane anxiety for the first time since Pink laid eyes on her. It was a clumsy and twisted smile. Her face twitched weirdly as if unused to the movement of the muscles there. "Prepare yourself for the tip of my blade."

She crouched down. This was Pink's shot, if she could run up that thing and stop her, she might prevent the worst from happening.

From around each of her ankles the girl unwrapped a strange device that seemed to be made of metal. The devices both had a small screen on them.

Pink's eyes widened. A bomb!

She ran for the other end of the stadium, but knew it would be of no use. This was probably the gir's trump card in this competition and she had decided to use it on her. No way she'd get through this without being puffed.

The two devices fell to the ground, Pink flinched right as they connected with the ground. Indeed a huge impact was created when contact was made, a storm of dust shot throug the arena.

But where was the heat? Where was the force behind this explosion?

Or was it really an explosion?

Oh no.

Something that could make such an impact.

The dust started to clear and Pink saw the devices. They had made a large crater around themselves. When she focused enough, even if they were 200 meters away from her, on the other side of the arena, she could make out what was on the screen. It wasn't anything bomb related. Those were numbers she couldn't quite make out due to the dust lingering in the air. But they were big numbers, that she could tell.

So these weren't bombs.

They were - Guh!

For the second time that day, Pink found herself unable to react. D.E. who had been in her peripheral had suddenly disappeared. And she appeared right in front of Pink. Before Pink could make herself jump back, she'd already been slashed 10 times. There were no wounds. Just like their previous encounter.

But if she wasn't hurt, why did she feel so weird.