Zero to Hero (Prequel/prototype)

Chapter 56. Declaration

When Ken's double boost activated. To Luke and the entire crowd, Ken suddenly seemed like he had stopped moving and as the clock ticked down to 10 seconds. Lucia was ready to freak out as Ken stood motionless.

With only 10 seconds left, Luke suddenly decided to enclose himself with layers upon layers of shields made out of ice, earth and everything else he could think of, realizing that Ken was probably setting up for a finishing blow.

"Ultra explosion slash!" Ken shouted. But before his words could form or be heard. The young man disappeared from the view of everyone except for the most powerful of fighters.

As the timer ticked down to 9 seconds, suddenly, the arena started exploding and just as the confused crowd wondered what had happened, the protection around the arena to protect the audience suddenly shattered with 6 seconds left.

With staff suddenly rushing into action casting shields to prevent the explosion from reaching the screaming crowd, many people grasped in shock and wondered what had just happened.

With 3 seconds remaining, Lucia shouted over the confused crowd that the match was over.

"Ladies and gentlemen and viewers at home! I have just got confirmation from the referee! Winning by protection break with 3 seconds remaining. KEN!!!" Lucia shouted as the confused crowd burst into cheering waiting for an explanation to be provided.

With his dominant arm hanging lifeless and the bones shattered in his dominant leg, Ken did his best to smile and pretend to be good as he waved to the crowd and those at home with his left hand while doing his best to balance on one foot and not show any sign of weakness or injury.

Using his boardsword as a crutch, Ken quickly escaped the arena while Lucia was explaining what had happened in the final 10 seconds of the match. As Ken limped backstage and slumped into the first available seat, a staff member rushed over to check on his condition.

"Shattered right wrist, broken right shoulder, your left ankle is also in pieces and the femur bone is broken too. I can't believe you could get this reckless. Full power double boost without ever getting proper training. You are lucky you aren't dead after pulling that crazy stunt" The staff scolded Ken while casting a healing spell on him as the intense pain started to lessen.

Soon after Ken returned backstage, Lucia happily announced that the student tournament was now officially over and for everyone to tune in for the remaining days for the open tournament, and the excited crowd, most of which had never seen a protection break for the audience began to dissipate.

"KEN! What happened!" Genesis screamed as the girls went backstage when they didn't see Ken return from the backstage.

"Overdid it. I thought a full out double boost wouldn't be that much different from just using a single attack but looks like my body totally freaked out. Broke quite a few bones." Ken replied with a smile.

"You could have easily won if you just used regular boost for the entire match couldn't you? I know you have built up enough stamina to boost for at least 15 minutes." Lovetta replied as the girls checked out Ken's injuries.

"Yep. After sparring for a few minutes. I realized I was much stronger than Luke is now. But it's about sending the message, Lovetta. I wanted to show him that he won't ever be able to catch up to me ever again but I guess proper training is really needed for boost, I didn't expect to get hurt this badly.

Glad I managed to obliterate his protection before totally crashing into the general barrier and almost killing myself. It would have been embarrassing if I didn't manage to hit him and KOed myself instead." Ken chuckled while none of the girls found it funny at all that their lover almost killed himself just to prove a point.