Hikari had determinedly won her preliminary fight against the over two dozen demons against her. While mother had advised both her and Izo not to use their dragons in the fights and to save their energy until they absolutely had to, Hikari so no reason not to use it in the preliminary match. There were too many opponents not to.
In her preliminary match, Hikari used her dragon to scorch the grass and trees on her wooded plain, causing a forest fire that took out all but three opponents. Two of those three took each other, leaving her with just one opponent to defeat.
Izo had also won his preliminary match, but without using his ice dragon at all. He was weakened by the fighting physically though. So while Hikari was weaker spiritually, Izo was weaker physically. She wanted him to win the tournament if she or Father did not, but still did not want to face him in the tournament if possible. Much to her disdain, he had always been one step ahead of her, always stronger both physically and spiritually. Father had used him as a measure to see how to make her stronger.
After their matches and complements from Mother and their uncles, Mother did advise Hikari once more to try to hold her energy back until she absolutely needed it. Hikari half thought that maybe overwhelming an opponent and taking them out quickly would be a better way to go about it.
After that, the first round of tournament was set to start. Hikari cursed her luck when she realized that her match was Izo. She seethed quietly at the idea. He knew her strengths and weaknesses and her fighting style. She was unsure how she would be able to surprise her and get the better of him in the fight.
They journeyed to the plane separately, as was custom. Once they reached the rocky, desert plane however, they were together again. The met in the middle of the plane, standing near and facing each other.
Izo's face looked blank except with a mischievous glint in his eye. After the announcer called for the fight to commence, Izo's mouth curved into a small smirk. "Mother did say not to use our dragons," he said quietly. "But what if we did it just long enough to show what two half human demons are capable of?"
Hikari smiled at that, jumping back away from him to create a safe distance between the two of them. He was actually going to openly defy Mother just to show off and she was all about that. Father would be proud of that in his own way.
Hikari summoned up her dragon around her neck, letting its slim form out loose as large as she could get it. Izo did that same thing with his ice dragon. His hung down around his shoulders, both ends dangling until it they reached his hips on either side.
Hikari next inflamed her dragon with a battle cry, sending the energy from it out to engulf the space around her. A large sphere of fire surrounded her and twenty feet around her. It reached just short of half the distance from where Izo stood.
Izo cried out next, his sounding like her much more enjoyed this than she did. He equally let loose his energy, allowing it to surround the area with his own sphere of ice energy. His was bigger, more powerful than hers. When his sphere of energy hit hers, sparks ignited from the contact of the two spheres. Hikari pushed harder on hers against Izo's, causing more sparks. The more sparks were too much, leading to explosion between the two of them.
Both of them were knocked backwards by the blast, loosing control of their respective energy spheres. Hikari groaned as she stopped rolling just short of the edge of their plane. Then she laughed slightly at the enjoyment off it. She could have sworn she heard Izo laughing as well on the other side of the plane.
She pulled herself up and brushed herself off. Izo was far ahead of her, but not that far. She sprinted over to him, closing the distance with as much speed as she could muster.
Just before she reached him, she skidded to a halt in front of him. She frowned at the fact he did not even flinch.
"No weapons?" he asked her calmly. "No energy? No dragons? Just fists?"
That was when their fight really began. She smiled up at him, nodding. It was also as if they both forgot they were in the Demon King Tournament and fought the way they did when training at home.
She hated how tall he was on a good day, and now it was something extra annoying. He was slightly taller than Mother, and she was just shorter than Father. And while she showed no signs of growing anymore anytime soon, he still was.
She knew though to play her smaller size to her advantage. To get in close so he could not get full extension of his fists when he struck her.
Yet he kept moving, side stepping or backing away from her so he could swing his fists fully at her. After who knew how long, he finally had her down for the count. After an aggressive hook to the side of her head from him, she staggered and fell to the ground, clawing at it for purchase as her ears rang and stars danced behind her eyes.
She could hear the ten count starting. She looked up at Izo standing there, watching her intently to see if she would get up. He absentmindedly wiped blood away from the corner of his lip.
She had to get up, she knew that. The ten count was going. She clumsily brought her hands down beneath her and then tried to get her feet to do the same. She needed to stand. The ten count was going. One foot managed purchase, but just as soon as the second one rose to meet it, both collapsed under her for some strange and tangled reason. The ten count was going, even if the ringing in her ears was so loud that it was all she could hear.
The ground as she skittered for purchase seemed oddly wet and foggy, something that did not make sense at all. The ten count was going, she thought over and over.
She got herself settled on her hands and knees, even though it made nausea roll around her stomach. Hissing through her teeth, she jumped in a way to force her feet into the position her legs were just in. The ten count was going. She pushed her feet apart, half controlling the skid they did to give her a wide base from which to stand from. The ten count had to still be going. She fought the urge to vomit then and there.
She looked over at Izo, somehow there were two of him blurring together. He approached her, standing in front of her carefully. Gently, he brought his hands up to either side of her head, healing the concussion he gave her without being asked.
He let go just after the wave of nausea left her and she could properly hear and see again. "I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to heal your opponent," she said snarkily.
"No one cares what happens after the ten count is finished," he replied back.
"You're kidding me," she said, face aghast. She was certain she had stood up in time.
"It finished over a minute ago," he told her. "Around the time you tangled one foot around the other and knocked yourself back down again."
She frowned up at him, resisting the urge to slap the smile off his face. Instead, she turned away, storming off to where the transports would be to pick them up and remove them from their fighting plane.