The Announcer has no sooner finished speaking than you stride forward, confident in your skill, your power, and your self.
"Ah, Mister Harris. Very well; please draw."
You do so without further preamble, pulling forth a small white tab with a single word in English: FIGHT.
Somehow, you're not surprised.
"And it looks at though Alexander will be one of our fighting semi-finalists, folks!" the Announcer proclaims. "Would the next competitor please come forward?"
There is a moment of silence as Altria looks at Gorn. When the green-skinned, skull-faced boy makes no move to step up, the British blonde does so instead, nodding politely to you as you step back out of her way.
Altria draws.
Her lot says: PASS.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Drake has drawn the bye! That means our semi-final match will be between Alexander and Gorn!"
...
Well, shit.
NOVICE DEMON-WARRIOR OF DARKNESS: GORN
As the other humans vacate the ring and your demonic opponent takes his stance opposite to you, plans flash past your mind's eye. Keeping in mind that, as a Mohra demon, Gorn can regenerate from just about anything short of having his third eye smashed in, you pretty much have to discard all the plans that involve beating the other boy unconscious or into resigning. That leaves pins and ring-outs. You also recall that Gorn is pretty ridiculously strong - you're probably going to have to use Maximum Power to even that particular playing field - and very skilled.
A notion presents itself. It will take a bit of time to set up, but you believe you can manage if you lead-off with a delaying action. You have just the tactic in mind; it's served you reasonably well already, and you see no reason why it wouldn't work again, especially once you've cranked it up to full power.
"Ready?" the Announcer begins. "FIGHT!"
Gorn moves.
You've faced fast opponents in this tournament. Amae, Ranma, Ayane, Kahlua - in that order, as it happens, ranging from "quick" to "supernatural." Gorn is definitely on the Kahlua end of that scale, and he's taken a page from Ayane's book, charging straight at you with the clear intention of making the first strike. If you hadn't chosen to dispense with the unnecessary theatrics, he would have hit you but good - and whether it came as a punch or a kick, without some form of physical enhancement up to meet the attack, you doubt you'd be left conscious in the aftermath, let alone standing.
But you did set aside the useless bits, in favor of getting your first spell off as quickly as possible. You also crammed as much mana into the weaving as you could, saturating it to the point of near-collapse.
When you release the spell, it's like a bomb going off. Not the mere firecracker-analogue that you used on Amae, but a true explosive, akin to one of those round blue things you recall seeing Link throw around almost like they were confetti. Even with the spell tweaked to direct its sound and fury away from you, you can still feel a slight shockwave ripple through the air, not to mention the sudden dazzling gleam as the intense light bounces off every reflective surface in the arena.
All of this happens in Gorn's face.
He goes down with a howl.
"And Alexander opens up with his stunning flash-bang technique!" the Announcer says. "Only this time, it's clear he's not pulling his punches! If it were any other contestant, we'd be considering a disqualification for excessive force, but given the sheer resilience we've seen from Gorn - and yes, there it is, folks! The boy's already back up!"
And so he is, blinking fiercely and glaring in your general direction. All that power, and it barely fazed him.
Still, it did its job well enough. You've just completed your second spell, which you release into your own body with a surge of dark purple lightning.
"Magic power," you intone, clenching your fists at your sides, "make your master GROW!"
Gained Words of Power F++
Gorn blinks again, harder this time, and then backs up a step as - amidst plumes of violet flame and ebon smoke that you don't recall being a normal part of this spell, to say nothing of the cries of shock from the audience - you riiiise above him, growing rapidly from your usual, impressive for an eight-year-old but fairly average for an eleven-year-old height of four-foot-eight, to a towering nine-foot-four. You feel an impulse to cackle maniacally, but repress it.
"INCREDIBLE!" the Announcer howls. "Folks, I have no idea how, but Alexander Harris has just turned himself into a giant! Somebody call the Prism Rangers!"
As Gorn stares up at your face, you give a brief shout that is more for psychological impact than any necessity and invoke your Maximum Power, bursting into dark golden radiance.
"And now Alexander has used another special technique! For those of you who didn't have the chance to see it in action during the preliminaries, our fight analysts believe that this golden aura increases Alexander's existing physical power by a factor of three! Combine that with his massive boost in size - oh, I would not want to be in Gorn's shoes now!"
From the expression that has replaced the normal cold mask of his features, Gorn has his doubts about being in his own shoes right now. He was out of your reach a moment ago, but now, he's well within range of your long arms - and more importantly, the massive fists attached to them.
"Knock him out of the ring, Alex!" you hear Tatsuki cry.
You oblige the girl, and take a swing.
Gorn tries to dodge, and manages to get mostly out of the path of your punch. Mostly, however, is not entirely, and your fist clips him hard on the shoulder, sending the demon spinning wildly backwards. He doesn't fall, but it's a mad scramble for him to keep his footing, and even then, his stance is ruined. He's visibly alarmed, now, having just gotten the measure of your strength and - to judge by his reaction - finding his own to be inferior.'
Ranma's attempted taunt from the previous day comes back to you, and for a moment, you give serious thought to indulging your inner kaijuu and stomping around the ring, unleashing blasts of raw destruction at the panicked, fleeing little person below. Then it occurs to you that this would be a terrible drain on your reserves, not quite as awesome when you're less than ten feet tall (as opposed to somewhere well past a hundred feet), and also entirely too close to letting your inner Ganon out to play for comfort. You're kind of riding on the edge of that as it is, what with being a larger-than-life figure looming menacingly over a young warrior - if Gorn was actually wearing green, as opposed to being green, or if he had a sword and shield, you'd probably be having flashbacks at this point.
You're not here to act like a monster, or your Dark Lord past-self. You're here to win a tournament, and the quickest way to do that now is to get Gorn out of the ring.
You advance, throwing great, whooshing punches that limit Gorn's movement - already hindered by the fact that you take up most of one side of the ring - denying him the ability to charge in and attack your legs, while forcing him back, back, back. He realizes at once what you're doing, and attempts to retaliate by side-stepping one of your blows, quickly latching on to your extended right forearm with both hands, and then pulling back hard. Even with all your current enhancements in effect, having one of your limbs yanked full-force by a superhumanly strong demonic warrior is no picnic; there's a brief moment when you feel as if Gorn is about to break or dislocate something in your arm, and you also lean forward precipitously. If he can just get you down on your face, all Gorn needs to do is leap on your back and control your head - you're not so much bigger than him that he couldn't execute some kind of chokehold.
It's just as well, then, that it never comes to that. Though you stagger for a moment, you don't fall, and your free hand immediately comes over to seize one of Gorn's arms and break its grip on yours. This pretty much proves that one-to-one, you have more strength in either of your arms than Gorn does; he knows it as well as you do, and immediately lets go of your right arm so that he can bring both of his to bear against your left, and perhaps break free. Instead, you seize him with both hands and lift him off the floor of the ring.
"This could be it, folks!" the Announcer shouts. "Alexander has Gorn at his mercy, and it looks like - yes, I think he's going straight for the ring-out!"
And so you are. No hesitation, no more fancy tricks. Having picked Gorn up - and keeping him as far from your body as you can manage without dropping him - you stride swiftly towards the edge of the ring. You might be able to throw him out, but you're rather unused to the sheer power of your current form, and have no idea how far you might actually be able to pitch the demon-child, or whether it might be enough to merit a disqualification. There's no need to risk it, when all you have to do is step forward, lift him up, and let go with just a bit of a push-
"And he's out!" comes the expected cry. "Alexander wins the semi-finals by ring-out!"
As the bell rings, you feel the urge to be a little theatrical. How do you respond to it?