Blind Phoenix

Talent Versus Training

Two weeks had passed and little progress had been achieved. It was the day of the fight, Byur, Lynn, and Maria approached the hexagonal arena in the middle of a large martial arts stadium hidden in a forest portal north of Barrik. As they approached the arena, thousands of alien spectators filled the stadium with incessant chatter and yelling. Lynn was frowning and visibly angered, as the three walked she said to Byur, “Two damn weeks of training and you didn’t even meet half my expectations. How do you think you’re going to survive the first round?”

            The young man looked at her for a second and said nothing. Lynn scoffed at Byur and looked away. They had reached their destination; the arena had a transparent shield around its perimeter in order to keep the fighters inside the ring. Maria bowed and wished Byur good luck as he stepped his way up the arena, Lynn stood there with her arms crossed.

            Byur looked around and saw many different races. Some were small, some were big, some were scaly and some were made of rock. It was truly a sight to see for someone like him. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he saw his opponent inch closer to the arena. His adversary was a blonde haired male in his late twenties. He seemed to be wearing the exact same apparel Byur was, maybe Lynn had taught this man a few years back, he thought. He turned his head to Lynn for an answer, and she nodded.

            As his opponent entered the ring a tree-like creature appeared in between them as they stood in opposite corners. The creature was seemingly female; she was holding a cue card in her left hand and a microphone in her right.

            “Alright ladies and gentlemen! The first round of the Beginner’s ‘OWL’ Tournament is about to begin! We have two human martial artists today, both initially trained by Lynn Beck.” Her voice was beautiful, calming, but very loud, even for someone using a microphone.

            “In the red corner we have Byur Lambert, fighting out of the hidden city of Barrik on Earth. He is 175cm tall and weighs 41 units, which for any humans watching is 82 kilograms! His record is zero wins and zero losses. This will be his first fight!”

            Byur noticed that the announcer had a small sphere-shaped robot next to her, translating every word she said to the language whatever listener understands.

            “In the blue corner we have James Todd, fighting out of the state of Michigan on Earth. He is 182cm tall and weighs 43 units! His record is an impressive 13 wins and 3 losses! For a beginner, that’s marvelous! This fight will have a total of three rounds, each seven minutes long.”

            The two martial artists headed towards the center of the ring.

            “Ok, you have both been told the basic rules but I will go over them again. You may not gouge your opponent’s eyes, grab their hair, or sever any of their limbs! You may however, break their bones. The first fighter to be knocked out for twenty seconds or is unable to defend himself properly for an extended period of time, loses. You may not hit an unconscious opponent. I will be the referee, but I will not be inside this ring at any time until the rules are broken or if the fight should end. Shake each other’s hands if you wish and we may begin!”

            Byur and James shook hands and James said “I won’t be going easy on you, new guy. Don’t worry about it too much if you lose, which you’re going to.”

            James gave a genuine smile and backed up two steps.

            “Fight!” said the announcer as she teleported out of the arena.

            Byur raised his arms and bounced around on his feet while James assumed a strange stance. He kept his right arm down and his left arm raised with his right foot forward. He rushed towards Byur and threw a left jab, hitting him directly on the nose. Byur was pushed back but his stance did not break. He hurled two spin kicks and attempted to strike James’ body with his right hand. James was able to use his right arm to block the strike and landed a left hook. The grey haired young man lost his balance as he wobbled, nearly losing his footing.

            Lynn began to yell at him, “You know how to dodge, don’t you?”

            His demeanor did not change, that punch connected well, but it did not cause as much damage as it seemed to. James jumped in and began using several combinations. Most of them were dodged but a few were able to hit Byur. He was unable to retaliate; a swift head kick to the temple sent him flying. Byur fell onto the floor face-down, motionless. The crowd became exuberant. After a short moment he was able to stand up, causing the crowd to grow louder. The young man was losing and was having the time of his life at the same time. His body’s muscles cried out in joy.

Byur stretched his arms, saying “You’re fast. You might be a few steps ahead of me, but I didn’t train two weeks for nothing. You better be ready, I’m going to show you a technique I think the crowd will love.”

Byur’s face had become red and began to swell on the spot the strike had impacted. James wiped a bead of sweat off his own brow.

“The crowd sadly can’t help you, here.”

The fight raged on until the end of the first round. Byur was battered, bloody and was breathing heavily. Maria and Lynn entered the arena and approached him; James’ team did the same.

“First rounds over,” said Lynn, “you’re losing badly right now.”

Maria wiped the blood off her friend’s face and applied ice to the swelling. Byur had not landed a single blow that entire round; they were either blocked or dodged.

“There’s no way you’re going to beat him with your fists, try some energy blasts. The fight doesn’t have to go the way he wants to, mix it up a bit, will ya’?”

“Thanks, Lynn. Don’t worry, though, I’m nearly certain I can win.”

The bell rang and round two began as both teams exited the arena. Byur stood in his corner with his guard down and beckoned James to attack. Irritated, he flew towards Byur. He landed a hit with his right hand, hitting Byur directly on the nose. The punch released a fairly large shockwave that was heard through the crowd’s noise. James slowly removed his fist from his opponent’s visage. Byur’s face had caved in and all his teeth had been crushed. His eyes were popping out and blood flowed from his jaw. His friends looked in unbearable horror at his demolished face. Even James could not believe his eyes. He took a step back and looked at Byur in disbelief.

            “What the hell…he didn’t try to dodge? Or maybe, he couldn’t? Oh, s**t, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-“As he tried to finish the sentence someone from behind delivered a powerful blow to his neck, his foot was then grabbed and he was smashed onto the floor. When he opened his eyes it was Byur who was now sitting on top of him.

            “Man, I’m glad that wasn’t me.”

James looked at the figure he had hit; its body was slowly fading away. It was merely a clone of Byur which was conjured by him moments before the strike landed. As his opponent was distracted Byur gathered energy and initiated a barrage of attacks onto his adversary. James covered up as best he could; the punches seemed to go through his defense. Byur’s fists began to catch on fire. This was a result not from speed, but from his own, new technique. He continued his onslaught of punches as the fire became more visible. He raised his right fist and brought it down like a fiery hammer shaping a blazing hot blade.

            “I like to call this the forging punch!”

            James saw the strike and time seemingly slowed down. The fist grew closer and closer to his face. He could feel the overwhelming power and heat emitting from the punch, if it landed in the position he was in, he could lose his life, an unintentional result on Byur’s part. He clenched his teeth and kept his eyes wide open. It was almost there, his face was about to be a finely made sword. With less than half a second remaining, he avoided the punch. It impacted the arena’s floor and carved a large hole into it. James looked at it, realizing that could have been him.

            He saw an opening and landed a body shot as he threw Byur off.

            “You could have killed me.”

            “S-sorry. I don't know how to hold back."

            “Was that your all mighty technique you were talking about? Powerful, but I won’t be getting hit by that anytime soon."

            “Nope, that wasn’t it.”

Maria and Lynn were still in shock. They quickly refocused onto the fight taking place in front of them. Byur began taking the exact same beating he was in the first round; he landed a few shots but was still ineffective. His confidence, though, did not fade. With a minute left on the clock he suffered a vicious body kick from James. He fell onto the floor once again as all his energy seemed to fade away. Lynn started screaming, “What are you doing? You kept a promise, right? Be a man!”

            As Byur once again circled around James looking for an opening, the bell had rung a second time. Both fighters returned to their corners. The annoyed black haired woman questioned his tactics.

            “You’re not even using any of the skills we went over, what’s going on with you?”

            He cleared his nose and mouth of blood and said “I’m just testing something…keep your eyes on me, friend, keep your eyes on me.”

            As the final round was initiated, Byur walked out of his corner with a hardened and pressuring demeanor. James quickly assessed his foe’s energy levels, they were nearly depleted. He stepped forward to start his attack, but a numbing chill ran down his back.

            “What’s going on?” he thought. An orange aura surrounded Byur, currents of his energy slowly slithered around his body. His left eye shined like fire as he stood still. His energy then let out a burst of wind as more gathered around him. His power was increasing dramatically; he clenched his fist and forced his body to output more. His stance changed and he spread his feet farther as he slowly inched towards James.

            “This was the technique I was referring to.”

            “You…your power is stronger than before. That’s impossible, this is not just disbelief. It is factually proven that without emotional stigma you cannot gain energy back like this!”

            Byur looked at James with a gaze of intimidation, his eyes demanded respect to whatever they saw. “I know, which is surprising to me too. It took quite a while to name this and it took even longer to master it in secret. I gave it some thought and decided to call it…” He took a pause and checked to see if his friends were looking, Nico had arrived as well, right on time. The young man looked back at James, who had not moved due to being awe struck. The entire stadium had gone silent.

            “Rising phoenix.”

He rocketed off his feet and seamlessly punched James on the diaphragm. Fire yet again engulfed Byur’s hands as he landed a blow on every spot of his opponent’s upper body. His speed was now easily doubled, his strength, tripled. The energy around him grew more intense every second. The round had just begun; the man standing in front of him was utterly devastated. Somehow, despite all of this, James saw the complete lack of defense in Byur’s attacks and landed a blow right on Byur’s chin. It was a superbly clean strike, a knockout was ensured. Slowly stumbling back, Byur fell back to the ground.

            Everyone was confused and somewhat disappointed. Maria whispered to Lynn, asking “I’m confused…did Byur lose?”

            “I guess so. What an idiot.”

The announcer began to count. Byur’s friends frowned as they readied to enter the ring. Soon the announcer reached the number 18, and then Byur’s body jumped and levitated a bit. His body was stiff; it slowly rose as if his aura was pushing him. He was back up, his feet dropped onto the floor and he opened his eyes. The crowed hollered his name.

            “Not a bad shot, James.”

            His opponent looked at him and remained silent. Byur had received another power boost; at this point he completely outclassed James. Three more shots to the body were all it took to bring the once winning fighter to his knees. Byur slipped his arm under James’ neck and secured a guillotine choke. The energy alone pressured James as the choke grew tighter. He tapped three times to prevent himself from blacking out, it was over. The announcer entered the arena, separated the two and held up Byur’s arm.

            “We have our winner via guillotine choke, Byur Lambert! Three minutes and thirty two seconds into the third and final round, congratulations.”

            Byur gave a faint smile as the announcer asked him question after question. Her final question was this. “That comeback you made was amazing; I’ve never seen a beginner win after being knocked out thrice. How in the world did you do it, was it thanks to your strange aura?”

            “Yes, you see, if my body feels like it’s on the brink of death or in serious danger it takes any remaining life energy reserves and adds it to my regular energy levels. This drastically increases my power for as long as I can get up again. It was my first time showing it to others and I’m glad it worked properly.”

            The announcer, Byur and James all shook hands. Their battle had ended with both sides learning something about each other. James told Byur that one day, they should fight again. Byur apologized for acting arrogant. As Byur walked down towards his friends he was surrounded by them. They set him on their shoulder, not Nico though, he feared for his suit. The four triumphantly exited the arena with their fists held in the air. They had two days until the second fight, another bout was taking place but none of them had the energy to stay and watch. The tall alien from before was about to battle a not so similar opponent.

            The next two days would not include any training in order to keep Byur from becoming exhausted. The small group of friend’s planned on what to do.

Byur was back at home, lying on his couch. The sun was setting and a calm, cool breeze blew through the window from time to time. A faint “tic-tock” could be heard coming from the old clock.

            The fight allowed Byur to understand his powers, and in addition to that, he understood how much he loved to fight. Days filled with new challenges awaited him and he knew this. It made his heart race in joy, after years of no physical activity he had done what very little humans could ever dream of doing. However, James was not an extraordinary fighter. Byur would have to be thousands of times stronger to face Tenno, but before he did that, he had to find him.