The moment the announcer's hand sliced through the air, marking the commencement of round one, Tempo and Celsius stepped forward, cracking the ground beneath their feet due to their immense power. After experiencing doubled gravity for an entire day, the two of them felt as if they were one with the wind, moving as if they were completely weightless.
In the Hades Realm, Tempo's Temporal Cloak, which was shrouded around his own skeletal system, allowed him to move as he would normally. In the real world, back on Earth's gravitational pull, Tempo essentially was moving faster than any Olympic sprinter thanks to his training. Prior to having any sort of powers, Ky was a decently fast runner despite spending most of his time gaming. His typical running speed was around fifteen miles per hour thanks to his long legs and genetics, however, with bones coated in temporal energy, Tempo was moving at double that, perhaps even more.
Though he had the ability to freeze time, he didn't want to repeat the same mistake he'd made with Spectre, leaving himself vulnerable or worse if his Psychometry ability was nullified. Additionally, for all he knew, a single touch could activate one of his opponent's abilities in the same way that touching Celsius while in his transformed state would instantly freeze his opponent. 'I need to scout out her abilities before I go about touching her.'
The twins from Team Shibuya were impressed with the Americans' speed, however, their resolve did not wane. If anything, this only made things more interesting. Perhaps the undefeated Team Shibuya would finally have a challenge thrown their way. With her fingers pointed in an animalistic fashion toward the center of her palms, the female twin took a single step forward and sliced the air in front of her with her violet-imbued hand. A distorted bubble of violet energy chased her hand as it cut through the air. Tempo, just a mere moment prior, had to have been at least thirty meters away from her, yet the moment her talons sliced through the space between them, he was suddenly within arm's reach of her.
'What the hell!?'
Within the same second, the female twin's hand, with fingers bent toward her wrist like a feral beast, clawed through the space between them once more, but this time, her hooked fingers were aimed at Tempo's body. The time manipulator had more than enough time to avoid her strike, taking a step backward, narrowly avoiding her clawed hand which expelled that same distorted purple trail that emanated with a heat so intense, Ky felt as if he were inches away from a raging flame.
Tempo's feet planted a meter and a half away, his eyes focused on his opponent. However, although her attack had seemingly whiffed, the female twin had a crooked smile on her face, tilting her head as she looked at Tempo's left arm with crazed eyes. Tempo felt an unflattering chill run down his spine as he gripped his weapons tightly, and it was at this moment that he realized that something was off. His right arm seemed fine and fully functional. However, his left arm–
'W- what!?' Tempo looked down at his left arm with wide, quivering eyes. His left arm had been completely erased from existence. There wasn't any blood, nor was the arm on the ground in front of him. His left sleeve had completely vanished as well and his shirt was sewn neatly as if the sleeve was never there to begin with.
The crowd hummed in awe as if they'd just witnessed a magic trick upon seeing Tempo's arm seemingly disappear. Though they'd seen it before when the Japanese team faced off against Korea's team, her ability was still quite the spectacle.
Tempo's Japanese opponent was named Shokyo, a name that roughly translates to Erase or Eraser. Her ability was similar to Tempo's in some ways. However, rather than being a manipulator of time, she was a manipulator of space. With just a swipe of her hand, Shokyo could erase space and physical objects. It was how she was able to seemingly teleport Tempo to her, erasing the space between them both and then stitching it back together the moment Tempo's body was pulled toward her.
Meanwhile, Celsius, with his beautiful great sword in hand, began slicing through the air and his opponent with earthshattering strikes. With each downward or horizontal attack, the crowd could feel the chilling pressure emanating off of his blade, such that many of them began to shiver from the sudden reduction in temperature. However, despite his attacks landing with one hundred percent accuracy, Celsius's opponent seemingly wasn't taking any damage.
Like Celsius, he too was able to transform his body. His name was Nijimideru. His body was capable of becoming liquid, solid, or anything in between. In the same way that water molecules are attracted to each other, Nijimideru's molecules always found a way to reconnect with one another. Whenever Celsius would attack, Nijimideru would simply transform his body into a more liquid state of matter, allowing any attack to pass through it.
'What the hell? He's like if me and that Spectre kid were combined into one!'
Giving up on his weapon of choice, Celsius reached forward and placed his palm on Nijimideru's chest. Just as he did to Tempo during their training, he flash-froze Nijimideru's body with just a single touch. However, the slime boy remained fully functional and encased Celsius's hand with his own slimy matter. Celsius was trapped, trying with all of his might to pull himself away from the human-shaped gelatin, but his arm wouldn't budge. It felt similar to oobleck, where pressure caused the substance to become solid. The more Celsius struggled, the harder it was for him to escape. With his free hand. Celsius began firing ice point-blank at Nijimideru, but the living sludge simply trapped his other arm in place with a gooey tendril as the ice had little to no effect on him.
"Have you tried freezing Jello before?" Nijimideru spoke with a thick accent, yet his way of speaking was fluent. "It is still flexible, even when frozen! My sister and I watched your last battle. Your friend too. We have been waiting to face you."
As Nijimideru spoke, a silver tendril began forming from the center of his back before taking the shape of a boulder-sized fist. Celsius could do nothing but watch as this hulking fist was then reeled back before striking his chest with the force of a speeding automobile. With just that single hit, Celsius was shattered into pieces, though he was of course still among the living.
Upon seeing Celsius reduced to shards of ice, the crowd erupted, cheering on the clear favorite of the two teams. "Ladies and gentlemen, it would appear Tempo has already fallen victim to Shokyo's devastating ability! And at the same time, Nijimideru has shattered Celsius into a million bits and pieces! It might be over already, folks! What a display!"
To those watching, the match was all but over. Celsius was shattered, still regenerating himself, but shattered nonetheless. Tempo was still standing, but he would only be fighting with just a single arm. However, Tempo knew that this match was only just beginning.
These events had all occurred within seconds, all happening simultaneously. As Tempo stood across from Shokyo, with his arm missing, he furrowed his brow and began reversing time. 'Pay attention to her movements.' Tempo watched closely as time reversed and his body reversed with it. His body hopped forward and Shokyo's arm sliced the air in front of him once again, but this time, in reverse. Tempo paid close attention to his arm seeing that during the moment she swiped her hand, his arm reappeared in an instant. Just as he expected, it wasn't cut off, it was literally erased from existence.
Time continued to move backward, and once again, Shokyo's arm clawed through the air in a reversed motion. In an instant, Tempo found himself back on the other side of the stage alongside his icy partner. Time resumed, and Tempo immediately tried to gain his partner's attention. "Wait, Celsius!" he called out, but the ice user ignored him. Since he hadn't experienced what'd just happened, he was still hungry to fight. 'Damn it, you idiot!'
Tempo's eyes then locked onto Shokyo, whose eyes shifted from confident to analytical. For the first time in Ky's career as a beta tester, the exact same events didn't play out once time resumed. If things had gone as they normally would, Shokyo would have already swiped at the air in front of her, erasing the space between them. Instead, she stood in place, calming her hands and placing them back in her jacket pockets. For some reason, she decided to just watch Tempo closely.
'Why is she just standing there? There's no way my calling out to Celsius made her rethink her strategy, right? Or maybe her ability only works if I'm within range? But even if that was true, what the hell is up with her expression?' The most jarring part of the whole ordeal was how that permanent smirk on her face, which had been there ever since she stepped on the stage, had all but vanished. Fear would be an inaccurate description of her expression, it was more so a look of caution or intrigue.
Tempo's glowing white eyes squinted and the two of them were having a stare-down from across the stage, both wondering what the other was thinking. Meanwhile, the same events from before were occurring with Celsius and Nijimideru. Once again, Celsius tried to use his flash freeze ability on Nijimideru, only to find himself trapped within his slimy grasp.
'Good thing I mapped out the entire stage before bed last night.' With that thought, Tempo used his Temporal Recall ability to end up behind Nijimideru and sliced the tendril off of his back before cutting Celsius free just a second later. Though Nijimideru was able to simply reform himself, Celsius was free from his grasp and the timeline had been successfully changed.
'Alright, Celsius is safe. Now to deal with Shokyo!'
Snap!
Tempo snapped his fingers and the world around him froze; he then found himself eyeing Shokyo from a distance. Within the next five seconds, he'd barely make it to her but barely was all he needed. 'Since I moved so far, my teleport is still on cooldown but that doesn't matter. She can cut through matter all she wants. As long as time is frozen, she's playing by my rules.'
Tempo, through frozen time, began sprinting toward his opponent, transforming the claws of temporal energy in his hands into two short swords. Things had changed since his last fight, he was fighting for survival; it was kill or be killed. The tournament was no longer a place for comradery or respect. The only thing that mattered was taking down the opponent before they could do the same
Once Tempo found himself about ten steps away from the space manipulator, something sent a jolt through his entire body and stopped dead in his tracks.
Shokyo tilted her head backward, turning it toward Tempo slightly as her eyes locked onto his, and a nasty grin formed across her face. 'She's–' Tempo was completely speechless. For the first time ever, an opponent was able to move through his frozen time along with him. During the duration of what remained of frozen time, the two of them just stared at each other, that smile on her face growing larger with every moment that passed. It was at his moment when Ky truly understood what he was up against; he could tell immediately that they were undefeated for good reason. The part that horrified Tempo the most wasn't even the fact that she was fully conscious during his time shenanigans; no, the truly frightening part of it all was that left hand of hers, shimmering in yellow energy. Tempo, by this point, had already shown her his entire hand, yet that mysterious golden hand of hers was still a mystery. He couldn't help but wonder what other strategies were tucked away in the brain of hers.