Chereads / The Shadow Element / Chapter 3 - Match Start

Chapter 3 - Match Start

After chuckling to myself like a maniac, I noticed another whiteboard next to it:

RULES

1. When a participant faints it is considered their loss.

2. Saying "I give up" is considered a loss.

3. Killing your opponent results in disqualification and expulsion.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

It was the martial arts teacher.

"Go on. You're up!"

she said with a bright smile.

I took my time going up the stairs leading to the arena.

"I should probably gauge their strength first. If they're strong, I'll make it so that I'll lose."

I thought to myself.

When I finally stepped onto the arena, I was dumbstruck by the sheer volume of the audience.

It wasn't only the students, but also various teachers.

Through them all, I could also see the old man and the blonde girl from the testing day.

I slowly turned my attention toward the opposing staircase.

A tall figure emerged as if they were rising from underneath the ground.

A boy with black long hair and a strong jawline -- so strong you could cut anything with it.

He wore a black gi and black pants. His pupils were oddly purple coloured.

He continued to approach me and then stopped right in front of me.

"I, the great Zadd with the greatest element of all shall beat you! You need to learn your place amateur."

"Greatest element of all? If that means he's a shadow element too, then I'll have to use my light element to appear weak."

I thought to myself...

"Begin!"

Shouted the referee.

We both kicked the ground and leapt opposing directions, backing away from each other.

I assumed my battling stance and analysed his.

"I have to make this loss seem genuine!"

I thought.

His stance was full of openings, making it harder for me to fake a loss.

I stood there, waiting for him to pounce at me as if he were to be a wild animal.

And surely he did. He leapt towards me and drove his right arm back, making him completely full of openings --If I were to get hit, this would be a grand embarrassment.

He threw his arm forward at the last second. I side-stepped to the right, grabbed his wrist, slid to his right, behind him and twisted his arm making him fall and subduing him.

"O' great Zadd, you're full of openings."

I said while smirking.

I began feeling his energy rising; he was finally getting serious.

I released his wrist and leapt backwards. I started bringing out my light soul force.

As he slowly stood up, with purple particles coming out of him, I was there charging up the light energy into my hand.

I was slow since I only trained my shadow element.

He began sprinting towards me and covered himself with the purple particles.

"Ninja Arts: Silent Quickness!"

He screamed.

He grew faster, more silent, and almost turned invisible.

After that, I had charged up my energy and released all of it, hoping that it would have the same effect as the shadow element -- neutralises the opponent's element.

As I was shooting it out, I instinctively closed my eyes, afraid of the effect.

When it was released, there was a ringing sound and I was deaf, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that he had stopped in his path, covering his eyes and cut out his energy.

It seems that light removes both hearing and sight when released as an energy.

I didn't hesitate to rush at him.

I grabbed his head and smashed it to the ground, using all the momentum I had.

I raised my right leg and kicked him square on his abs.

"Give up. I don't want to hurt you any more."

I said in a sad tone.

"It hurts."

"It feels like bullying."

"I'm sorry."

Said the voices in my head.

Zadd, almost fainting mumbled:

"I won't give up! I need to help my family!"

I flinched, understanding his words and slowly stepped away.

Zadd started to slowly get up.

"You did this."

"You caused this."

My thoughts were all over the place.

It was my first fight.

I looked at the referee and said:

"I give up."