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Chapter 24: Iryoku Fights! Part III

Aro stepped into the field part of the ring, head held high to look confident. Though, she was a little startled and unnerved by her opponent. Not by the name, mind you, Pegigon didn't really sound all that threatening. To be honest, it made Aro think of a penguin. It was his looks that scared her. She had to see if he just looked tough or was tough. Best way to do that was to look someone in the eye. Sadly, when she tried to look, his helmet protected her from doing so.

"BEGIN!" The announcer's shout made the crowd go insane with cheers and boos all mixed into a static mess. Aro cringed at the sound.

"A girl?" Pegigon's voice was deep and rolled his R's. Aro knew what was coming up, "You expect me to fight a GIRL?" He exploded into laughter. The crowd—or, most of it—joined in with Pegigon. Aro, after a second, joined as well. Pegigon stopped laughing abruptly, head jerking to look down at her. He was only half a foot taller than she was.

"Yes! Yes! A girl! Oh, how sad is the world when a man has to go against a woman! Oh, woe is you, of all things to fight, a girl!"

At this point, the crowd fell silent as well. Pegigon leaned towards her a little, as if under the shadows of his helm, he was narrowing his eyes. "What are you laughing at, little girl?" This only got her to laugh harder. A wave of nervousness passed through the stands.

Her laughter slowly began to slow as she wiped away a fake tear. Pegigon was shaking slightly. From fear or anger, she could care less; as long as she got to him, she was glad. "Sorry. Sorry… I just couldn't help myself. You see, I just find you TOO funny…"

"Are you saying you could beat me?"

"Undoubtedly beat you." She corrected.

"Aro!" A metallic voice came to her. She didn't move at all.

'A headset?' She thought to herself.

"Aro! Be careful! It's a fight to the death!" Pegigon suddenly started to charge towards her.

'NOW he tells me!" Aro darted to the side, drawing her sword. 'THIS IS INSANE!' She shouted in her mind. A strong and fast vertical swing of the great axe and Aro felt her hands start to tingle from anticipation of the fight. She ducked down below it and brought her sword up towards his knee. The sword stuck in the metal of his armor. "Kuso…" She muttered, jumping out of the way of the on-coming vertical attack. She landed a few feet away, commenting with a small smile. "You're not too…"

"Bad? Why thank you, you're very quick." He pulled the sword out of his armor and tossed it to the side. He ran his finger over the deep cut in the armor. "Nice sword, little girl…"

"I was planning on saying 'smart' before… bad just doesn't work at all." Aro stood, and took a few skip-steps backwards. Pegigon acted just as she had planned: he got angry.

"YOU SMART MOUTH GIRL!" He charged at her, yet again, but this time in a berserk mode. Aro continued taking skip-steps back.

"Oh, come ON! CHILD would have been a WAY better choice of words!" She waited until the last second before dropping down and jumping at an angle between his legs. Although she didn't get to see it with her own eyes, she felt it in her tumble landing. Pegigon had a head on collision into the wall. The ground shook and some gasps—ok, a LOT of gasps filled the air, as the bleachers were shaken.

"Wow…" Aro muttered aloud as she slowly stood. Her hands had no feeling in them as she walked towards her discarded sword. She smiled as she reached for it, but frowned when she grabbed it. Something caught the corner of her eye—or rather, the corner of her glasses, rather small mirror on both sides of her glasses. She continued to stand but kept and eye on Pegigon as he started to stand as well. "Double wow…" There was a large hole where he crashed.

Pegigon turned and shook the rubble from his shoulders. "That kind of hurt, little girl…"

Aro gave an annoyed sigh, "Alright, this is getting annoying…" she muttered. She kept an eye on him while she pretended to inspect her sword. He didn't do anything too threatening. That is, besides pulling his axe back and charging at her, yet again. "What a moron…" She returned her shade settings to normal, readying herself.

"You pest!" Pegigon shouted before trying to decapitate her. Aro jumped up and barely passed over the sword while spinning for a horizontal strike. Her sword sank into the metal easily and stopped after a little bit. Blood ran down the blade as Pegigon's body dropped to its knees. Aro smiled as she landed and pulled the blade out.

"I win…" She whispered, then added, "Ooo… beaten by a girl…" With a loud laugh she started to walk back to her dugout where the boys were cheering. Cap raised a can up to his mouth with a smile.

"Good job, Aro. Quick and easy! Though, the insults were kind of over… doing…" The metallic voice left suddenly and was replaced with four yells from the boys:

"WATCH OUT!"

Aro turned, ducking low. The axe flew at her, heading right for her head. 'Predicting me correctly?!' She bit her lip, "Ah hell…" She jumped up and over the axe as it flew into the woods. She watched it cut through the forest for a bit, and turned back. Pegigon was right there! She went for an attack at his mid-second, but Pegigon kicked the blade into the air. Aro watched it fly into the sky and out of sight. She looked back at Pegigon as he grabbed her throat and lifted her into the air.

"You cocky little girl…"

"Enough with the sexism… I'm Ora…"

"And I don't care… I'm gonna crush your wind pipe and end it all…"

"That's not very nice…"

---

"Okay… How do you feel?"

"Like I can't move…"

"Normal, good."

"No, I feel like I can't move."

"That's normal."

"How is that normal, child!"

"Immi says so. You've been dead for twenty-four hours, maybe a bit more." Immi frowned down at Robrion as his eyes darted around the room. Veldoro walked in, followed by Serisha.

"Immi already left?" Veldoro said, looking around.

"Yes sir. Immi says make sure he knew not to fight too much or move until he's back to 100. "

"Understood. Come, it's time for the fights. The first match should be over soon." The group left Immi alone in the small house.

"Immi should make sure they really are trust worthy…" She followed them silently.

---

"Any last words, Little Girl."

Whatever strand of sanity was holding her back snapped. "Don't. Call. Me. Little. GIRL!" She swung her legs so they rapped around the base of his arm. She hugged to his arm tightly.

"Trying to strangle my arm, little—" He let out a short scream as Aro started to stretch and bend backwards. "LET GO!" he swung his arm around wildly, "LET GO, WOMAN! LET GO!"

"HELL NO!" A loud snap and she let him go. She fell to the ground and looked up at him. He glared at her, pulling back his fist to punch her. She waited, then jumped on his arm. She ran up to his shoulder, and jumped in the air. A shine in the air made her reach out her hand. Something passed by her fingers and she grabbed it. She brought it down with all her might upon his head.

The crowd fell silent.

The air grew thick.

Aro slowly gave a sad smile.

Pegigon's body fell to the ground, cold and stiff with death.

The sword's blade shined with blood from Pegigon's head.