Dream of the Guardians I-1: Rising

Chapter 13 - Final Contest

Chris has been in his room for almost an hour, receiving medical treatment from the imperial wizards, although he wants to ask about Guilian, he knows that it is not the right time. He must concentrate on his next opponent, Fist of Dragon Ryuken.

The diagnosis is not very favorable, may his wounds have been completely healed, but if Chris receives enough damage they will reopen, he lost a lot of blood and is advised not to move on, his life is already in danger in his current conditions. But that's not enough to overlook what happened.

Hanna returns to her seat in the stands, what she has felt lately has been more and more intense, and she can't feel calm. She contemplates how excited the audience is forthe final round tobegin.

The preparations during the break are according to the height of the competition, the drums greet Ryuken as he walks towards the Arena. He is waiting for his next match as if it meant nothing, while in the distance a gloomy figure is seen in the hallway, Chris comes out into the light of day.

Hanna can't help but see Chris' gaze full of determination, she is not full of anger, only conviction in reaching the goal, victory. The fight he had against Pierre taught him a lesson, anger will not be enough to win the final, he must overcome any obstacle that comes his way to rise victorious.

The audience is completely silent, the tension increases too much, Queen Alice can't help but watch the two warriors fight with only their presences, at least until she gives the signal. Barely hiding the trembling of her hand by nervousness she begins the final fight.

Chris goes straight to his opponent, kicks his upper body and is stopped with an effective block. Both have experience in martial arts, kick against kick, deflected punch and counterattack, each action is effectively stopped against each other.

With only a few seconds since the battle began, there have already been at least 30 attacks and neither of them gives up an inch of ground. Having spent a few minutes, both stop and back at the same time, they are already done with the warm-up.

Ryuken is somewhat exalted, even without powers, there have not been many people who can keep up with him. It had been a few years since he had last been able to fight someone so much.

Chris is just analyzing what happened, his times were perfect, the postures before, during and after each type of attack, everything is similar. It's too much of a coincidence that they're both at the same "level" of skill in hand-to-hand combat. It is not time to think about solving those types of doubts, so he always has to postpone things.

It's time to raise the level, Chris increases his physical strength and throws a blow of pressurized air, he plans to use the same play as with Pierre. However, Ryuken wraps his fist in flames, becoming wild and very compressed and expels them, consuming the air and leaving the effect totally null.

Chris realizes that his strategies must be improvised and never repeat things, because Ryuken has the total appearance of being analytical with the details, that he could stop the pressurized air is proof of this.

Ryuken breaks the silence between the two:

"Did Hama train you?" a question that perplexes Chris for a few moments, that name reminds him of that time when he was useless in controlling the earth. That woman who taught him how to make the mud bird, the strange woman who supported him in the past.

"Posture, attack timing, defense and counterattack, deflecting the trajectory of attacks, being fast as a hurricane and elegant as a spring breeze, is totally the style of that woman." every word of Ryuken to describe her leaves Chris more stunned by its accuracy, "Hasn't she died yet? She never seems to age one bit."