Shokyo, with a distorted grin drawn across her face, stared at Tempo as he remained frozen in place with enlarged, gleaming white eyes. 'How can she do that? Is she also a time manipulator?' His eyes would shift from her gaze back down to her left hand which was gleaming with yellow energy. 'Her right hand can cut through reality, so what does her left hand do? Does it interact with time in a way?' It was then that Tempo came to a realization about his opponent. 'No… I've been thinking about her powers too literally. She can seemingly warp the physical fabrics of reality. Space and time go hand in hand! She isn't just a reality warper, but a space-time manipulator!'
Tempo used his Temporal Recall once more, landing beside Celsius who'd taken space away from his slimy opponent after nearly being defeated within seconds. Using his spatial construct of a sword, Tempo blocked Celsius from moving forward. "We need to stop going in blindly." Tempo told him, being the voice of reason between the two of them. However, Celsius was already on the same page by that point.
"I know– I became overzealous. You know, he told me they've been watching us. They've studied the matchup." Celsius was both visually and audibly frustrated, which was seen by the Japanese twins. They found pleasure in watching their opponents panic, watching them from the other side of the arena with wicked grins. It wasn't fair that Team New York had to go first, allowing everyone else to watch them fight and study them as an athlete would study film. Due to Team New York dedicating their time to physical training, they were going into these matchups completely blind.
"I figured." Tempo mumbled, his eyes still locked onto Shokyo. She was practically taunting him with her eyes, standing relaxed with her hands in her jacket pockets, just waiting for him to make his move. "We can't fight like how they want. Notice how they aren't even attacking us right now. They're defensive. They want us to attack them. You've played fighting games, right?"
Celsius nodded. He'd played every genre of game on Earth, as did most beta testers. It was part of why they were chosen. "I've played Street Battler and Iron Fist 7 a little bit. Why?"
Tempo leaned toward Celsius, speaking quietly into his ear. "Let's say your opponent knows your character's matchup in Iron Fist 7, what do you do? You don't try the same things over and over. You have to learn a new strategy on a whim. You have to change the way your character is played. You have to change the way the matchup is played."
Celsius chuckled ever so slightly, breaking it all down in video game terms was both humorous and easier to understand. "Have you ever seen the character Yoshinobu? The one with the sword?" Celsius asked.
Tempo's head moved up and down. "Yeah, the party animal character. He basically plays the game using his own rules. Any good Yoshinobu player is completely unpredictable."
"Exactly. We have to be two Yoshinobus. We have to become completely unpredictable."
The two of them were on the same page. "Yet there needs to be a method to the madness." Tempo added.
"Well, no one knows each other's fighting style better than we do, right, Tempo?" Celsius was right. The entire arena only witnessed them in short bursts. However, they trained together for an entire day, learning the ins and outs of each other's abilities. If anyone could find the method to their madness, it would be each other.
"You're right. Are you ready?" Tempo's black-and-white energy began to swirl around his hands as they formed those claws of his. Meanwhile, Celsius did the same, this time opting for a double-bladed staff made of ice. As if they were truly synced, the two of them pressed their feet off of the ground at the same time, dashing toward their respective opponents. Tempo, with his claws trailing behind him, hauled ass toward Shokyo, waiting for his moment to strike! Shokyo, scoffing at the boy attempting the exact same strategy, lifted her right hand, the one infused with purple energy and began swiping at the air in front of them!
Just before she could warp the space between her and Tempo, he suddenly disappeared out of thin air! Shokyo frowned, her eyes darting all around her to see where exactly it was that he must have teleported to, but she seemingly had lost track of the time manipulator.
Meanwhile, Celsius and Nijimideru were engaged in hand-to-blade combat. Celsius wanted to maintain range with his melee weapon of choice, however, his great sword lacked speed. With that double-sided staff of his, he could use his own momentum to build power, along with speed, making for a better matchup against his opponent.
And so, with an onslaught of spinning attacks, Celsius began cutting through his opponent with rapid slashes. However, Nijimideru would simply heal himself, just as Celsius would during his battle with Tempo. 'This guy is like me. He can just heal himself. Despite that, Tempo found ways to beat me! So I can too!' Celsius continued with his strategy of overwhelming his opponent, compelling Nijimideru to then form a weapon of his own, which started out as formless sludge before taking the shape of a hammer, a blunt weapon capable of fracturing ice. It was obvious that Celsius, with this slightly adjusted strategy, was gaining the upper hand, but they both knew something needed to change.
On the other side of the stage, Shokyo eye's were still sharply looking from left to right. However, as if she could sense Tempo's temporal energy, she blindly swiped her right hand in a circle the moment when Tempo reappeared behind her. As soon as he became visible, Shokyo gritted her teeth, "Tsukamatta!" she bellowed; that purple trail of distorted energy was aimed directly at where Tempo's head would have been if he were standing.
However, Tempo predicted this, teleporting belly down onto the ground beneath her. Shokyo's eyes followed him as her attack completely whiffed, her eyebrows furrowed as Tempo lay face down beneath her. 'There's a horizontal limit to her ability. The ground beneath her feet remains unchanged whenever she displaces reality, meaning it's safe for me!' Shokyo's arm sliced the space between her and where her brother and Celsius were fighting. In an instant, Celsius and her brother were displaced and ended up directly in front of her.
"Yoshinobu!" Tempo shouted as if this was their secret activation code! Celsius was quick to pick up on what it was that Tempo was putting down, twirling his body before sending an incredible horizontal slice aimed directly at Shokyo's head! For once, the expression on her face turned into genuine fear as Shokyo removed her left hand from her jacket pocket, ready to make use of it for the first time during this battle. As Celsius's blade was slicing toward her from the right, Shokyo's left hand, which shimmered in yellow space-time energy, cut the air in front of them from left to right!
Both Celsius and Tempo could feel their hearts stop upon seeing her left hand at work. The final mystery of her skill set was about to reveal itself and the two of them could feel anxiety building up inside of them! 'Come on!' Celsius knew that if he were to slice off her head before her attack would go off, it wouldn't matter what this secret ability was capable of! At the same time, Shokyo was thinking the exact same thing, she needed her attack to go out first!
Tempo, who was still belly-down on the ground, eyed the cooldown for his teleport ability. There was only a single second left. 'Yoshinobu–' he once again thought as that one second passed.
A chilling wind blasted throughout the entire arena, blowing back the hair, hats, and clothes of the audience members who were all watching anxiously, many of them forgetting to blink. Celsius had put everything he had into slicing Shokyo's head clean off. Not only was the pressure of this attack felt, but it was heard, sounding as if a jet had just flown past the arena. However, despite his incredible speed and power, his attack completely whiffed and Shokyo was seen standing at the edge of the stage, breathing heavily as her right hand, enveloped in yellow energy, trembled.
The wind pressure from Celsius's attack wasn't the only thing heard by the crowd, Tempo's blade deflected Nijimideru's hammer; the sound of temporal energy clashing with Nijimideru's solidified matter pinged in a way reminiscent of an M1 Garand reloading, reverberating throughout the entire stadium. The force of it, combined with the nipping air, sent shivers down the back of the spectators. They imagined what it would be like if they were on the receiving end of such an attack; it was safe to say they wouldn't be alive to tell the tale.
Nijimideru was clearly displeased as Tempo protected his partner from being attacked from behind, his slimy eyebrows were scrunched and his teeth were grinding against each other. "Very predictable, Sludgeman." Tempo teased as their weapons clashed. He figured that Nijimideru would retaliate as Celsius went for the kill on his sister, which prompted Tempo to teleport behind Celsius and protect his blind spot.
From the crowd's perspective, Celsius's blade was mere millimeters from Shokyo's neck before she swiped her left hand in front of her, creating space rather than erasing it. Her body had a similar effect of teleportation, moving to the other side of the stage. The literal moment Celsius's blade just missed its mark, Tempo's body instantly teleported right behind him as Nijimideru was about to deliver a downward strike with his silverish hammer, only to have it blocked by temporal blades.
All of this happened within a mere second and it was a safe assumption to say that the crowd was pleased with what they were seeing. They roared, cheering and giving the fighters a standing ovation as if they'd just won the Super Bowl or the World Cup. By far, this was the most visually impressive battle so far. "Holy mackerel, did you guys just see that!? What just happened!?" said the announcer. On the jumbotron, that moment was replayed in slow motion. However, those looking at the screen would miss what was happening next.
"Yoshinobu…" Tempo muttered in a taunting voice before disappearing yet again by using his Temporal Recall ability. The moment he faded out of existence, Celsius's blade cut through the space in which Tempo was once occupying and sliced Nijimideru in half vertically! "I've noticed something about you, Mr. Slime. Your speed lowers the more I cut you down!" Celsius used this small opportunity to reapply his flash freeze status effect on Nijimideru as his body reattached itself. Though he wouldn't freeze completely, he was still slower than before and his body would take even longer to heal until the status effect wore off. "You and I are the same in that aspect. Healing requires energy and energy is finite! And when you're frozen, it requires even more energy to defy my ice!"
As for where Tempo teleported off to, he found himself directly in front of Shokyo, who instantly began attempting to retaliate with that right hand of hers! The moment her violet energy sparked, Tempo used his elbow to block and deflect her arm, causing it to point upward and instead erase space between the ground and the clouds, though to an unnoticeable degree to those on the ground.
Shokyo was off-balance, her attack had been reposted and her hand of erasure was out of commission for the time being! Meanwhile, Tempo's claws were on their way to slice her face! At the same time, Shokyo's left hand began trembling with yellow energy, and just before Tempo could cut through her, that energy was released.
A yellow, distorted trail of energy followed Shokyo as she propelled herself into the air after having fired her energy like a missile toward the ground, creating a shockwave of physical space between her and the ground. 'That was cool…' Tempo thought as he and Shokyo maintained eye contact while she somersaulted in mid-air. Tempo was so in shock, that he nearly didn't notice her right hand trembling as she charged her purple energy. "Shine!" she proclaimed in her native tongue as a missile of distorted energy blasted toward Tempo, leaving a purple, contorted trail behind it!
The crowd was struggling to decide on who to watch as everything was happening so fast. Many of them directed their eyes toward Celsius and Nijimideru as the two continued going at it, clashing their weapons together. Just when it seemed as if Nijimideru was starting to adjust to Celsius's fighting style, the ice manipulator would transform his weapon into something completely different, forcing Nijimideru to adjust once more while also repairing his body. Celsius's strategy of overstimulating his opponent was working, in fact, it was the same strategy Ky had used against him when they were training in the Hades Realm. Using a modified version of a Japanese samurai sword, doubling the length of the blade, Celsius continued slicing and dicing through the self-repairing boy made of sludge, dodging any of the attacks thrown at him while maintaining a safe distance to avoid getting grabbed once again.
As the two went at it, Nijimideru spoke once more. "I didn't think I would have to show my newest ability so soon. You are formidable, Celsius." Nijimideru spoke calmly as the two of them dueled, despite being overwhelmed, he was keeping his wits about him. Celsius told himself that he was ready for whatever Nijimideru was about to throw at him, however, even Celsius couldn't have predicted what happened next.
Nijimideru waited for Celsius's flash freeze to wear off, granting him full control over his own body once more. He then transformed his body into a mosquito, using his small size to retreat and fly away from his opponent. Celsius, using his ice to propel himself, began following the tiny bug toward the sky, only for Nijimideru to begin transforming once again. As if he were made of rubber, his body remolded itself, growing hundreds of times in size. His transformation was so intense, that the pressure off of it blew Celsius backward, nearly causing him to lose balance. Once Celsius regathered himself in mid-air, he found himself before a dragon made entirely of silver sludge. This was Nijimideru's newest ability. It was called Fictional Mimicry, allowing the user to mimic the form of any fictional character as long as it is known by them.
"Holy shit." Celsius mumbled as Nijimideru, in his dragon state, let out an earth-shattering roar that vibrated the entire stadium. Though this new form seemed mighty, Celsius's hypothesis about energy was correct. Nijimideru's powers ran on his own energy, that was his weakness in the same fashion as Ky's cooldowns. The more he transforms parts of his body, the more that energy is spent. It goes without saying that this dragon form of his was expending immense amounts of that energy. As Nijimideru entered his dragon form, blotting out the sun from Tempo and Shokyo, the time manipulator teleported beneath Shokyo, dodging her reality-erasing blast before aiming his palms at her. His eyes were wide upon seeing Shokyo's brother taking the form of a giant beast, but he did not let that distract him from the moment at hand. With his hands together, Tempo fired a black and white beam of energy at Shokyo, only for her to hold out her right hand and catch his projectile blast with her palms, erasing it from existence.
Upon landing, Shokyo looked up at her brother, knowing exactly what this new form of his meant, he was going all out, one final Hail Mary to end the battle. She looked at the clock, and time was running low. Shokyo scoffed, she couldn't believe Americans of all people were pushing her to her limit. She too had a new ability, one she was saving for the latter parts of the tournament. However, things were getting desperate and the latter parts of the tournament were no longer guaranteed.
The purple energy around Shokyo's right hand had changed. It was still violet, but the energy started to bubble and boil before she extended her hand in front of herself. However, a portal formed in front of her, and her hand disappeared through it. Tempo, for a moment, panicked. This was a new ability, something that was purely unexpected. Regardless, Tempo erased those feelings of anxiety from within him before a second could even pass before using his Temporal Recall ability to teleport across the arena. His eyes settled on the spot in which he was last standing, seeing Shokyo's hand reaching through a portal that was behind where he once stood, erasing the part of the stage he once occupied. Thanks to this new ability, Shokyo was able to use her Erase ability from range, surprising her opponents from any direction.
For the first time in a while, Shokyo smiled once again, and that smile was followed by a cackle as she turned her neck to face Tempo.
Once again, both Tempo and Celsius found themselves with their backs against the wall after forcing their opponents to reveal their hands. However, both Tempo and Celsius hadn't given up yet.
'Yoshinobu.' They both thought, glaring at their opponents with fire in their eyes and one final strategy hidden deep within their minds.