As the two impressively powerful young girls enter the ring, you bring up your ki sight, slowly scaling it up from its lowest level. Not surprisingly, as soon as you start to get close to the point where you should be receiving useful information, you start to sense Altria's dragon; at that point, you do your best to focus on the Kurokami gi-

!

-Goddesses damn it, not again! You once again hurry to shut your aura sight off before the subject of your scan notices your intrusion, and as before, are still left with the lingering shock - and no small amount of dread - by the memory of what you saw. There is no dragon in Medaka's soul, nor a demon like the Beast that hides in the far dark corners of your own being. Instead, her aura was darkness, a living void imbued with a sense of alien watchfulness and boundless hunger that much of your own consciousness instinctively recoiled from - and that also provoked a growl of challenge from the deep places in your soul where you don't like to consciously tread.

"Black god," indeed.

The good news is that, as dark and unsettling as Medaka's aura was, it gave you absolutely no sense of supernatural power, whether the familiar demonic energy of the Hellmouth or the other essences of non-human beings you've encountered at this tournament. There was also none of the familiar feel of magic, or even the potential for such. As far as you can tell without doing another scan - which you are NOT going to do if you can possibly help it - Medaka is completely and utterly human, merely... different. You also didn't sense any malice in the girl; if anything, she seemed benevolent. Almost implacably so, and that is a word you never before thought to apply as a descriptor for "benevolence."

You rub at your forehead. There's no question that all this looking into auras has been instructive, but it's also shown you a few things you would have been happier not knowing.

Gained Ki Sight E
Gained Traumatic Memories F

As the match gets underway, you cast a spell of divination while looking determinedly at the floor, only very slowly lifting your gaze. The built-in safeguards of the spell should screen out any more panic-inducing visions, but you feel there's no sense in taking chances.

As it happens, you do not suffer another potentially mind-shattering revelation by looking at the two girls, but you also don't learn much about them that you didn't already know or suspect. Medaka's life-force is abnormally strong for any human, let alone a child of her age, whereas Altria almost doesn't register on your spell at all. It's not a lack of life-force or humanity that's causing the problem - you get brief but intense flashes of both - merely the fact that your spell refuses to work properly when you aim it at the English blonde. You've never encountered such a phenomenon before, but your inherited memories recognize it as a sign of resistance to magic. It would appear that in addition to having a dragon's soul and deep energy reserves, Altria also picked up a dragon's ability to ignore lesser forms of magic that are inconvenient to her. You can do something similar when you let your aura out, but not to the level you're seeing here.

As with her prior matches, Medaka spends the first minute observing her opponent.

"Your skill is commendable," the unsettling Japanese girl says, dodging a glowing golden fist, "but if you will forgive me for saying so, unarmed combat does not appear to be your forte."

"Most of my training has been with weapons," the British blonde admits. "Primarily swords, for the sake of tradition, and guns, for practicality, but a few others."

"I see. It's unfortunate that the rules of this division don't allow for weapon use; I would have liked to face you at your best."

"Don't count me out just yet," Altria admonishes.

"I would never do such a thing," Medaka assures her, before going on the attack. She opens up using the same hand-to-hand style as Altria, showing a greater level of technical skill and even some aura control, but nothing like the golden dragon-fire that imbues her opponent's strikes and defenses. After an exchange of punches that send both girls staggering across the ring, it becomes clear that Medaka's greater skill and basic ki enhancement isn't enough to overcome Altria's supernatural power and resilience - so the Japanese girl stops using the English girl's boxing-derived style and begins using something more Eastern in origins. Following another pass and a brief spate of grappling - which Altria proves to have training in, Greco-Roman style - Medaka backs off, grinning savagely.

"You are very good," she compliments her opponent. "I haven't had a fight last this long in years."

That it's only been two minutes tells you something.

"I could say the same to you," Altria replies. She too is smiling eagerly, if not so ferociously.

"Shall we stop holding back, then?"

"Let's."

The Announcer shouts in amazed delight as the ring is filled with two surges of light. As you reflexively look away from the sudden glare, you catch sight of some of the other contestants watching this. Krillin and Liu Kang are gaping like somebody just smacked them in the head with a wet fish - Monkey Boy Goku has joined them from somewhere, and is cheering and grinning like a maniac. Morgiana's expression is flat, but her intense, eager gaze gives away her interest in the spectacle. Gorn has a similar fire burning in his eyes, while his fingers clench and unclench. Most of the "normal" fighters appear awed and terrified by turns - Medaka's friend Zenkichi has his head in his hands for some reason - and Ayane and Taki both look a bit envious. As for yourself... aside from a vague suspicion that everybody left in the tournament is going to start ripping off your ace in the hole, you mostly feel deeply frustrated that you can't risk watching this through your ki sight. Divination is giving you some pointers on aura control, but you'd learn so much more if you weren't getting everything filtered through the limits of your spell.

Ah, well. Some is better than none, right?

Gained Ki Control F++
Gained Maximum Power F++

Surrounded by their manifested auras - Altria's the expected fiery gold, Medaka's a translucency like a heat mirage, which makes the color of her hair appear faded for some reason - the girls resume their clash. The amount of force they're throwing around now is such that every blocked blow results in the surface beneath them creaking loudly, while stomps, falls, and slams produce outright cracks.

Thirty seconds pass. Then a minute. Then two minutes. Several of the tiles give up the ghost under repeated impacts. The two girls haven't stopped grinning even as they try to beat each other senseless.

Finally, about three minutes and eleven seconds since they agreed to go all-out, Altria and Medaka's auras begin to waver. It's just a faint flicker at first, easily overlooked, but the distortion accelerates rapidly; within another twenty seconds, Medaka is no longer radiating more than tattered wisps of ki, while Altria's magic-imbued dragon-power is down to embers. Both girls are messed up, breathing heavily in the torn remains of their respective clothes, with abundant bruises.

"This is it, folks," the Announcer says. "Both fighters are at the limits of their strength. The next move could very well determine the outcome of the match! Who will make it? Who will take the victory?"

Exchanging ideas with a wordless glance, the girls yell and rush at each other, trading simple punches to the jaw. Neither attempts to block or evade, committing their full force to the final attack - and it's Medaka who falls, her inherent superhuman resilience not quite able to withstand one more blow backed by the strength of a dragon's soul.

Even as the Announcer begins the ten-count, Altria sinks to her hands and knees, spent.

"And ten! Winner, Altria Drake!"

Winner? Yes, technically. However, from the way the officials have to carry both girls off to the infirmary, you're getting the feeling that this fight may have been another double knockout. You're not entirely sure how you feel about that.

The Announcer is apologizing to the crowd in advance for the necessary wait while the ring is restored to functionality. Given the number of robed men now swarming the platform, he estimates a five-minute delay. It would seem that this level of collateral environmental damage is nothing out of the ordinary for the tournament.

Is there anything you want to do while damage control is being performed?