"Thunder cage!"
The sparks around Raiden became even more active and started countering the steel petals. It was a reckless move since it was apparent that Hiroshi was able to make them burst at his will.
"Bloom!"
Instead of turning around and avoiding the attack, Raiden looked straight at Hiroshi and charged forward in a zig-zag pattern. Using his speed, he avoided the bursting petal, and the cage prevented them from getting too close to him.
Hiroshi needed a lot of concentration to maintain an attack spell of this scale. Even though he was keeping track of his enemy, it was hard to defend himself while attacking at the same scale. So, as the distance between them grew closer, he started focusing more on defense than offense.
Since the petals were metallic, the lightning could react to them at a speed that was barely visible to the eyes of the audience. And not just that, the cage could also increase one's physical capabilities when it came to short-distance attack. Somewhat similar to how a shield can be used offensively when the enemy is near.
Slowly Hiroshi started being overwhelmed. The enemy was several times stronger than what he had assumed him to be. And not just that, just by looking at Raiden, he could tell that he wasn't using his full strength yet.
It was obvious that if he were to still think of offense at this stage, it would be utter foolishness. So, instead of foolishly trying to attack, he used the rest of the petals as a shield to defend himself and fall back.
Hiroshi sighed as he jumped back. His most powerful attempt ended up in a failure as he wasn't even able to slow Raiden down. What's in front of him was a real lightning monster — a beast.
This was the moment when thoughts started coming to mind on a rapid scale, or simply, he started panicking. There were a lot of things that he could do, but every route he could think of led to the loss.
He realized there was no way to win, but giving up now was not an option. In that short window of time, he thought of every possible opportunity he had, but none led to his victory. In the end, it was apparent to him that he was going to lose.
Now that loss was obvious, what was the next best thing that he could do? He was no coward to give up, or at least he didn't want to appear as a coward to the crowd. So, there was only one thing that he could do.
When your back is against the corner, you push back. You show resistance in the hope that it reaches the audience. Even if you are not able to win through it, you will get the most important thing one would want from a crowd — sympathy.
To put it simply, Hirsohi's only option was to do his best and win the crowd's favor.
Now that he had to control a lesser number of petals, he had room to activate another spell. He waited for Raiden to close in and pushed him back with the rose wind. He had already set up a few of the remaining steel petals behind him as traps. But the cage reacted to them before he could even activate them. As a result, the petals were pushed back even before he could cause an explosion.
"IS THAT ALL!"
Raiden's voice echoed throughout the stadium. He looked like a bull ready to charge against the enemy in anger. And as he said that, the lightning sparks around him got even more intensified and started reacting to every metal around the stadium. It was the demonstration of raw strength of utmost caliber.
The audience was left speechless, and so were the judges and announcers. Old man Kin was staring at him with a grin of curiosity on his face, while the other two were showing the natural reaction of shock.
Hiroshi was breathing heavily, and so was Raiden. But it was apparent that Hiroshi had used most of the card up his sleeve, and now his hand was empty. He still had to wait for a while before he could reactivate the Dance of the Steel Petal, but at this point, time was what he lacked the most.
"Tch!"
Raiden dashed forward. His speed was, as usual, phenomenal. When he was close enough, he jumped high in the air, which made it apparent that he was going to attack from above.
If Hiroshi still had a few of his petals left, this would have been the perfect opportunity to counter-attack. But since he had none, all he could do is move back and try to dodge the attack.
He jumped back and dodged the attack. But due to the lack of stamina at this point, he could barely make it in the nick of time. Although, at this point, that was not enough since Raiden still had a lot left in him.
As soon as Raiden stepped on the floor, he dashed towards Hiroshi. Hiroshi saw that coming, but before he could do anything to avoid the attack, Raiden was already close.
He tried activating the Rose wind to push Raiden back, but before he could, Raiden grabbed his arm and slammed him on the floor. He then used his speed to reach up to him and kicked him on the shoulder.
He was on the edge of the stage, and the impact caused him to fall on the ground. But even before that, he was already knocked unconscious by the earlier slam.
Everything was within the rules, so the result was evident at this point. The crowd started cheering for both Hiroshi and Raiden, but for apparent reasons, there were more cheers for Hiroshi than Raiden.
The ladies in the audience seem to be crying as they saw the medical team rush to unconscious Hiroshi. Some were even trying to break through to the stage, but the guards stationed in the audience kept them from coming closer.