After another week of hard training, the day of his first match finally arrived.
That morning, he woke up as usual at 8, but unlike other mornings, that day his heart was beating a bit too fast for his liking.
He was tense.
The plan for that morning was to meet around 10 in Ri's office, then go together to the location where he'd face Zier, with the match scheduled for 11.
After a hearty breakfast, tainted by his nerves, Shed left his room and headed towards Ri's office.
Along the way, he reflected on the things he had prepared with Ri to face his challenge as best he could. First, in his training sessions with her, he had focused heavily on dodging direct hits to the neck, which, from watching replays of Zier's past matches, he knew were his trademark.
Then, he trained his mind to withstand the effects of his predictive gaze. Shed was now able to use his own self-activating power up to ten times before getting too fatigued. Additionally, he'd prepared some counter moves to exploit his opponent's weak defense.
During his preparation, Shed had to admit one thing: without his predictive gaze, he'd have zero chance of winning against Zier, but with it, he had some hope, however slim.
Arriving a few minutes early at Ri's office, and after a quick review with her of the various strategies they had prepared, the two headed to the match venue.
Time flew by quickly… too quickly.
Shed's breathing became erratic; there were only a few minutes left before the match. His head was spinning, and no matter how much he tried to calm himself, his anxiety kept pressing down on him. He stared intently at the door leading to the arena where he would soon be fighting.
A metallic chime suddenly interrupted the silence and his thoughts, capturing his full attention.
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A warm, strong voice boomed through the door in front of him, echoing in the room where he stood.
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Shed took a deep breath. Ri had told him that after the initial welcome remarks, he would need to enter. He stood up and timidly crossed the threshold.
The arena was dimly lit, creating an air of mystery.
It was only a "Magnolia" match, and yet, the arena's stands were almost completely full.
"Suè! Suè! Suè!" The crowd began to murmur.
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The announcer shouted as spotlights lit up the gladiator on the opposite side of the arena from Shed, dressed in a simple light brown tank top and brick-red knee-length pants.
Since armor was not allowed in simple duels, Shed also opted for simple, comfortable clothing that allowed freedom of movement.
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"Suè! Suè! SUÈ!" The crowd roared.
Zier raised his hands to the sky, inciting the crowd even more.
Shed took a deep breath, trying every possible way to calm himself down.
<
The spotlights now shone on Shed, who, doing his best to appear comfortable, raised his hands in applause and waved to the spectators.
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"Suè! SUÈ! SUÈ!"
The crowd, unsurprisingly, roared even louder, given that Shed was the "newcomer."
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At the speaker's last words, the crowd erupted in unison, and shortly after, the ring was fully illuminated.
*Beep
*Beep
*Beeeeep!
The match officially began.
Zier approached the center of the ring, extending a hand toward Shed, who, understanding his opponent's intentions, did the same and shook his hand.
"Good luck," Zier said in a neutral tone.
Shed, a bit surprised by his opponent's behavior, returned the sentiment.
Then, the two moved away from each other, and Zier's expression suddenly shifted. His calm look transformed into one of pure madness; his eyes widened, and his mouth twisted into an exaggerated grin.
"If you're scared, you can always surrender!" he shouted at Shed.
Not only did his face change, but also his body language and demeanor shifted suddenly.
The man in front of Shed seemed completely different from the one he had seen just moments before.
Shed was still tense, but he knew that to have even a slight chance of winning, he would have to shake off that tension.
He took a deep breath, starting to rotate his shoulders and wrists to prepare them for the impending fight.
Zier's body leaned forward, hunching over. Shed had often seen this particular stance in replays, so he knew his opponent was about to attack. And indeed, a moment later, Zier launched himself at him, reaching for Shed's neck, extending a pointed blade from his palm. Without even using his power, Shed had anticipated such a move, so he managed to dodge it by leaping to the side.
But then…
…a blade emerged from Zier's heel, aimed directly at Shed's neck, threatening to pierce him fatally…
"Seeing" it in advance, Shed ducked quickly, dodging his opponent's back kick, then retreated, putting as much distance between them as possible.
He had already used one prediction.
Zier's attacks continued relentlessly, and after just two minutes, Shed had already used five of his ten autonomous predictions.
He was already fairly tired, yet the match was roughly going as Shed and Ri had planned: they'd decided he would stay on the defensive for the first few minutes, waiting for Zier's power to start waning.
"Trying to waste time, huh? Clever bastard!"
Zier snarled, then attacked with even more ferocity.
He charged at Shed with the force of a wild beast, extending his right hand toward him. Shed thought about dodging the same way as before.
However, just as he prepared to sidestep, his power activated, showing him that Zier's move was actually a feint designed to make him move, only to then attack him with a spinning kick, with a blade extending from his foot.
Shed decided to jump back, but as he thought this, another prediction flashed through his mind. If he were to jump back, Zier would surge forward, slashing his chest with the blade from his other hand.
Was there no way out?
At that moment, Shed made an unusual move, perhaps driven by chance or pure instinct.
Instead of retreating or dodging Zier, he lunged forward, throwing a punch with his right hand where he had foreseen Zier's right arm would be, using that rotation to perform a back kick aimed at his opponent's temple.
As he did so, his predictive gaze activated, showing him that his back kick, before impacting Zier's temple, would be almost completely blocked by Zier's forearm, from which he'd extend his blade to stab Shed's calf.
Shed decided to lower the leg he had used for the back kick mid-rotation, using the move as a feint to instead strike Zier's left knee with a low kick from his other leg.
The strike wasn't as damaging as a back kick to the temple would have been, especially given the lack of preparation behind it, but it still caused some harm to Zier's knee. After taking the hit, Zier retreated for the first time during the match.
Shed wanted to keep attacking, giving Zier no time to recover.
However, his head was growing heavy. He had just used his power three times within a few seconds, bringing the count of total autonomous predictive gazes used to eight.
He decided not to take any further action, catching his breath and trying to regain as much mental clarity as he could.