"This came completely out of nowhere!" the announcer yelled out, striking a flashy pose as if he was the superstar in this situation as opposed to the competitors putting up an incredible slobber-knocker down in the ring. "Just when it seemed like Yoibetsu-N's flashy Lightning Armor technique had ended, Yoibetsu-N pulled out the Substitution Jutsu off again and now his Lightning Armor is not only back, but it's rowdier and harder-hitting than ever! I've seen plenty of hard-hitting tavern brawls in my day, but it doesn't take an expert to tell that even a knucklehead like Hanomahal Moenaka has felt those calamitous blows!"
While one certainly could have debated about how aware the Sun Disc arena's announcer was about the state of each combatant and their techniques or the dynamics that different fighters might have had in the arena, this time facts spoke for themselves. The announcer had pinned the matter down exactly as it was–the situation was completely reversed for the first time since the proclamation of the start of the match.
It also didn't require that one had years of combat experience to predict what Yoibetsu-N was going to do–he's done all his planning and did an impressive job doing so at that. Now that the planning was done, all he had to do was execute his plans and reap the fruits of his labor. Meanwhile, Moenaka was put into the exact opposite position. His labor now was to figure out how he would survive until Yoibetsu-N ran out of stamina or his body broke down from the sum of the injuries he couldn't avoid so far.
"Royal Superkick Stamp!" Yoibetsu-N muttered, vanishing with a roaring thunderclap once more. This time Yoibetsu-N moved slowly enough to rip through the arena like a raging beam of condensed electricity, burrowing through the gravel and tearing through in an uncompromising crusade toward his opponent.
Moenaka's eyes widened. It shocked him to be able to see his opponent. To be offered the chance to respond, unlike the last time. He crossed his arms in front of him, covering his head to prevent his skull from being caved in. No part of "Royal Superkick Stamp" in particular appealed to the Union Ball forward. Little did he know, but he had less choice than he thought. Instead of a kick to the teeth, the entire rowdy thunderbolt socked into Moenaka's shins, tripping him up and positioning him on his knees.
Meanwhile, like a rolling twister of azure electricity, Yoibetsu-N whirled onward, passing the tripped Union Ball player by as the whirligig blur he had become leaned in an awkward angle and made a drastic turnaround. Yoibetsu-N roared like a strident thunderstorm this time and moved with no hint of delay. As soon as one could comprehend that a moment had passed since the last time they could perceive anything, Yoibetsu-N was hovering over Hanomahal Moenaka's head with his foot raised for a stomp and drove it into the back of Moenaka's head, shoving it into the floor.
The audience winced and rumbled in pain, covering their ears as a boisterous boom accompanied a rising pillar of shooting air tunneling straight up into the sky. The arena rumbled and split in half while a concussive halo expanded around the epicenter of the wicked, lightning-infused curb stomp that flattened Hanomahal Moenaka face-down.
"He's still doing it!" Shige-H leaned forward with a shocked expression. "Even when the battle's basically his, Yoibetsu-N is still worlds ahead in terms of forethought! His technique required for Moenaka's guard to be up, so he slowed down the initial hit deliberately, remaining in the range of his vision. Then, after tripping his opponent up, he resumed attacking at full speed and transitioned from horizontal attacks that emphasize speedy movement into vertical attacks that put one in between the opponent and the rock-hard ground. Not only is he moving and striking harder than ever, but he's optimizing every opportunity he gets."
The audience howled again, this time it was when the strident azure shock didn't clear out and continued glowing from inside the bundle of brown dust. Yoibetsu-N wasn't finished with his attack yet. Spinning upside down in some hard-hitting mash between breakdancing and fighting, Yoibetsu-N spun out from the cloud of dust that resulted after the curb stomp and performed another drastic 180 turn. With Hanomahal Moenaka's upper body bouncing off the ground after the stomp and returning to a wobbly, kneeling position, Yoibetsu-N turned around and rolled on in for a third strike.
When Yoibetsu-N delivered his high side thrust kick to the front of Moenaka's face, delivering the promised stamp of his foot from the second side and the previously delivered stomp to the backside, the Lightning Armor aura burst forth around the entire body of the Kumogakure ninja before beaming out and through Moenaka's head. The beam shot off through the whole arena and embedded into the protective wall on the other side, leaving no damage to the wall except for a trail of black char. In the same way, the kick didn't blast a hole through Moenaka's skull when it delivered that beam, but the rowdy stream of condensed discharge of raw heat and electricity flushed through the athlete's skull and brain by squeezing through his body on a cellular level.
"Another devastating attack from Yoibetsu-N! Could this ruthless mugging seal the deal for Hanomahal Moenaka!?" the announcer leaned forward to peer if he should have ruled in the elimination. Clearly, the announcer had expected the fight to end in a ring-out, instead of a beatdown in the middle of the stage.
Moenaka laid sprawled out. His bulky arms and legs spread to the side, his jaw open, eyes rolled back. His face was black from the charred scorching and being stomped into the gravel and sandstone tiles and gruesome swelling colored his shins. Without a doubt, these injuries to his legs would have ruled out any attempts to build momentum for a devastating running tackle that the Union Ball forward preferred so much. Then, out of nowhere, Moenaka breathed in, inflating his bulky chest and raising one arm, as if trying to grab hold of empty air to drag his flattened body up on its feet.
"This isn't looking good," Damisan noted. "Blitzing around that fast and hitting that hard couldn't have been welcoming to Yoibetsu-N's body. And yet his opponent's standing up with scorches and bruises, but standing on his own two feet. That more intense version of Lightning Armor must be burning twice the amount of chakra."
"That's putting it in optimistic terms," Shige-H weaved her fingers together while staring at the developing situation in the arena. "Lightning Armor Level Two is a jutsu that's only been used by jounin, Black Ops, or the past Raikage before. It doesn't merely double the chakra that it requires to maintain it compared to the inferior version, it doubles the chakra required to maintain it with each passing heartbeat. Without a doubt, the tax of this technique will burn one into the ground before long."
"What an odd jutsu," Asuka smiled, enjoying the show of two men beating their faces in for her amusement, with little to no personal stakes for her whatsoever. "It seems to be mostly meant to bolster physical ninja, taijutsu, or weaponry specialists, mainly. However, it also requires such tremendous chakra resources that would only be available to ninja specializing in massive chakra pools like ninjutsu, sealing, or genjutsu specialists. That way, the ones being able to utilize it effectively won't be able to get that much out of it, while those that most need it won't be able to sustain it long enough to make a difference."
"While Yoibetsu-N has clearly thought this whole fight through during his day off, he might have ended up underestimating just how tough his opponent's jaw truly was. Ironically enough, that was the one strength he was most likely preparing to overcome," Damisan noted. "Now he ends up in an unfavorable condition of burning through chakra and tearing his own muscles apart for these high-stake moves because he cannot afford to half-ass it. Faced against any softer opponent, he could get through with just ordinary taijutsu combinations that didn't put his body at risk. Against this guy, he needs to dust off his hardest-hitting moves just to make it a gamble instead of certainty of defeat."
"I've figured out your one decent trick," Yoibetsu-N spoke with his mouth instead of his fists for a change. "You don't have another one in the books. It's been a blast, but how about you wrap this up already and stay down?"
"No can do," Moenaka nearly fell over on his front, just barely stopping himself from face planting by shoving his arm in the way and assuming a position for a front dash, despite grave injuries to his shins. "A game of Union Ball consists of exactly 20 offensive charges. Sometimes you get blocked, tackled, and dragged through the dirt in the first few, but you have to keep going because there are no timeouts or substitutions in Union Ball."
"Must I make the obvious observation that we're not playing Union Ball right now?" Had Yoibetsu-N the elementary ocular features necessary to determine it, instead of beaming torchlights of bursting electricity flowing from his eyes, one could have seen him roll his eyes. "But have it your way. I'll just have to keep bringing it as hard as I can."
With eyes whited out from berserk rage, Moenaka forced himself up while clutching two chunks of the busted fighting stage. With the same unskilled aim yet powerful flinging arm, he threw the chunks at Yoibetsu-N, only for the Kumogakure ninja to vanish from where he stood and avoid being hit by the incoming debris each time. However, as he scrambled on his wobbly feet, Moenaka employed the unruly strength in his shoulders to dislodge larger and larger chunks of the destroyed ring and fling them at Yoibetsu-N.
"Unbelievable!" the announcer, burdened by a sweaty face, leaned closer to the railing separating his stand from the audience. "To think that Hanomahal Moenaka still has that much strength left! Without a doubt Yoibetsu-N's last kicking attack has hurt Moenaka's feet, however, the Union Ball forward is relying on his upper body strength, instead of his lower body, to lift these unruly chunks of debris! You cannot disrespect this level of upper body strength!"
"I don't think the point of this attack is to showcase Moenaka's physical strength at all," Damisan noted.
"Yeah," Asuka smiled with a sly squint. Almost as if she was enjoying a cold, fruity drink. "I guess that athlete guy is no numbskull either. He might not be as sharp as the boss lady's classmate here, but he's got a head on his shoulders. All this junk scattered about won't let that Kumo ninja reach his top speed and will provide obstacles to hamper his speedy blitz and waste his time."
"Time is exactly what will be the deciding factor in this bout. Hanomahal Moenaka is a competitor deserving of his success to realize that," Shige-H observed.
Instead of being the one to dictate the terms with his peerless speed and force bolstered by his brisk acceleration, Yoibetsu-N found himself surrounded by hefty chunks of debris while Moenaka stumbled behind one of the troublesome obstacles. The focus of the Kumo ninja shifted between the different dislodged chunks of clay and sandstone, noticing multiple versions of Hanomahal Moenaka appearing and disappearing between them, surrounded by dust.
"Again with that trick?" Yoibetsu-N scowled. Although Moenaka was using the same Clone Jutsu, he had the advantage of only appearing for a very brief amount of time while utilizing both the more difficult terrain and the raised tufts of dust that helped conceal the absence of footprints amongst his illusionary doppelgangers. "You'll need to step out from the cover to attack me eventually…"
"You idiot, the one that's short on time, is YOU!" Moenaka rumbled behind a rocky chunk of debris while shattering it and appearing amidst its collapsing pebbles with a wound back punch. Yoibetsu-N flickered, throwing an invisible kick that only dispelled an afterimage. The fact that Moenaka would go this far for his opening caught Yoibetsu-N off-guard. The Union Ball player would have had to shatter the stone himself while leaving a clone to charge through, meanwhile, Moenaka himself repositioned himself behind another chunk of debris.
A raucous rumbling preceded a tough slam against Yoibetsu-N's back as the real, corporeal Moenaka pushed his foot into the back of the clay chunk and sent it soaring straight at Yoibetsu-N's exposed back while he was off-guard. The clay chunk shattered on impact, throwing Yoibetsu-N off balance while Moenaka rushed in, looking to unleash a flurry of blows. The punch only dispelled a vivid field of azure electricity that passed with irksome resonance across Moenaka's body.
Meanwhile, vocal thuds resonated from across the entire arena. Moenaka tried to look around him and try to pinpoint where exactly his speedy opponent was, but it was of no use. Even after taking that hit and getting distracted, even after exposing such a blatant opening, the Lightning Armor had amped up Yoibetsu-N's nervous system so much that he completely brushed away the impact from the clay chunk and then vanished without as much as a trace.
"What unbelievable reaction, what peerless speed!" the announcer began singing Yoibetsu-N's praises. "Even when getting caught off-guard, Yoibetsu-N's ridiculous reaction, working in sync with his acrobatic skill and unique evasiveness of his fighting style, allowed him to evade any of Hanomahal Moenaka's follow-up attacks!"
With a swoop and an electric chirp, the blue electricity sizzled down and evaporated from Yoibetsu-N's body, settling his hair down into place and snuffing out the light in the Kumogakure ninja's eyes. At the same time, Yoibetsu-N's movements became visible and he skidded across the arena, shuffling in between separate chunks of debris to try to control the immense inertia from his previous state.
"He's run out!" Shige-H exclaimed in shock. "That surge of chakra necessary to push his senses and body into overdrive must have tipped Yoibetsu-N over the edge."
"Well, well… Whad'ya know, you seem a lot more manageable right now!" Moenaka pounded his open fist with a smirk of excitement on his face.
"Running Knee!" Yoibetsu-N hissed out, charging out from cover. Moenaka looked excited about the fact that his opponent was attacking him head-on. He turned to intercept and tackle Yoibetsu-N to the ground with enough force to cut him in half. Something was wrong though, the burly athlete collapsed to one knee, wincing in pain as Yoibetsu-N crashed into him with a running knee strike and shot him flying backward.
Moenaka grunted in pain while Yoibetsu-N continued his running offensive. Taking it to the air, he performed a dive kick that bounced Moenaka off the ground before delivering a barrage of vicious backhanded slaps to the athlete's chest, tearing his shirt off and exposing grievous red swelling where Yoibetsu-N was battering the athlete. Spinning around his axis, Yoibetsu-N plunged forward with a spinning lariat that knocked Hanomahal Moenaka flat.
With his elbows and wrists pressed to his sides, Yoibetsu-N bellowed from the bottom of his chest, causing the audience to roar in excitement with him. The Kumogakure ninja took off with a free-form run toward the nearest clay boulder, running up its side and vaulting off the top for a somersault splash onto the fallen Union Ball player. After concluding his combination, Yoibetsu-N rolled off the battered body of his opponent and performed a couple of evasive vaults before shuffling in between the scattered chunks of hardened debris.
"Even without his Lightning Armor, Yoibetsu-N is a martial arts specialist in his own right! The rumbling coming from this audience, it's a rare occasion that the public opinion on a fighter changes this drastically, but, from the sounds of it, the audience is now fully on the side of the Kumogakure ninja!" the announcer pumped, and screamed out with a jaw widened to an alarming degree with even his face turning red from tension.
"I guess that strongman took more damage during his scuffle with Yoibetsu-N than he thought," Asuka smiled sheepishly at the sight of a flattened pro athlete.
"Yes, but some credit needs to be given to Yoibetsu-N as well. He didn't lose his cool upon losing his Lightning Armor, instead, he took back control of his body from the wild force of inertia and realized that he could use these conditions that Moenaka made happen work for him while determining the most awkward angle of attack from which Moenaka's bruised body would collapse trying to defend itself from. It was a perfectly executed attack," Shige-H agreed.
"This audience, it's abandoning Moenaka, isn't it?" Damisan noticed the rumbling in the audience and their tendency to play off of Yoibetsu-N's attacks and taunts.
"It's only natural. The musclehead's show of strength and toughness is impressive, but one can only be entertained by getting knocked down and standing back up for so long. His gimmick is getting old," Asuka replied with blown-out cheeks as she looked at the fallen Union Ball player with a judgmental look. "He came to this fight with nothing but an Academy-level ninjutsu technique. He should just realize that he's outmatched and either kick the bucket or quit while he's still walking."
"I don't think that is possible," Shige-H shook her head, calmly admitting that this fight was bound to continue until one of these two would be utterly unable to fight, rather than one's admission of defeat. "Yoibetsu-N's earlier attack wouldn't have been possible if Moenaka knew his limits. Yoibetsu-N specifically relied on Moenaka's eyes being easily able to track his movements while he deluded himself into thinking he could whip his worn-out body into following up with what his eyes saw coming. I don't think even Yoibetsu-N counted Moenaka out just yet."
To a series of mixed emotions from the audience, howls, gasps, cheers, and claps at the railing, Hanomahal Moenaka stood back up with a charred, dirty, and bloody upper section of his face, shaking and swollen legs and halfway-torn shirt with battered red spots underneath the tears and holes. With the eyes of a man-possessed, Moenaka stared to a blank point off in the sky somewhere, unable to trace his opponent but not fussing too badly over it.
"There he goes again," Asuka sighed. "This guy must have the toughest skull I've ever seen, and I don't mean it as a compliment."
"You don't understand what this is all about to the pro athletes," Damisan replied, scanning the audience's mixed reactions with a worried look. Having assisted Ryoku Genshi with getting prepared for his match yesterday, Damisan got to understand the athlete's perspective better. "Yoibetsu-N isn't even fighting to claim this land for himself. He's fighting because his superiors implored him to by assigning this mission to him. To the pro athletes, this land is a golden opportunity. A chance to be seen as something more than useless freeloaders, just man-children playing with balls. To someone whose entire life revolves around the game they love, this tournament is their lone chance of validating their existence. This is their statement that they're willing to write in blood if they have to. They'll fight to the bitter end for the sake of the World Sports Games, for the sake of being acknowledged."
"Yeesh," Asuka rolled her eyes. "It might be beneficial that I'm sitting in between you two fanboys, but it sure doesn't feel like it from my point of view. I'm surrounded by groupies from both sides…"
"Come on!" Hanomahal Moenaka cried out in a low-pitched voice, leaning forward with his bestial battle cry. "I've just now begun to register your punches! After making me taste blood, the least you can do is give me a proper fistfight!"
With a blurry blitz, Yoibetsu-N dashed on top of the hardened clay platform he hid behind with his arms crossed. Despite the vast difference in toughness, because he played this match so much smarter than his opponent, Yoibetsu-N seemed to be in a much more favorable fighting condition, however, his chakra was a different matter entirely. In a case such as this one, the fight was bound to revolve into a dirty, slobber-knocking affair of two hardy warriors trying to shove each other's teeth down their throat, scratch, pound, claw and bite their way toward victory if they had to.
Even if the opening match was approaching its final stage, it didn't seem to be about to slow down at all.