Beyond the Beats

Chapter 96. Syndrome

Tejas's aura changed when the first round of the battle began. I thought he would go easy in the beginning, but he was on fire since the first beat.

I witnessed a lot of new combos and polished moves from the past. Like always, I didn't take my eyes off of him and observed every detail.

"Will you repeat the same thing, Boomer?" he challenged.

I gave him a thumbs down. "I will show something better."

He smiled and signalled for me to take the stage as the song changed. I felt a strong urge to copy his moves and alter them, so I mixed and matched some moves that would be termed as pure inspiration.

"Boomer, I know what you are doing," Hriaan commented. "But the audience is enjoying, so keep going."

I ended my round with a split and getting back up enacting reverse motion. Tejas shook his head.

"You are holding back, Boomer. Come on, what are you afraid of? Losing?" he provoked.

I waved him off. "Losers shouldn't talk so much."

Tejas hyped the audience, and I watched in awe when he freestyled to a completely new track Jiya had produced. I looked at her, and she told me that she had one prepared for me too.

After seeing Tejas up the game, I planned on using some tricky stunts. While training in New York, in my free time, I used to try out some breakdance routines that were inspired from foreign street dance.

When my turn came, I did those stunts but kissed the floor when I lost my balance. I quickly got up, but Tejas had an angry expression on his face.

"Boomer, don't try to showoff," he scolded. "If you hurt my girlfriend, I will not spare you."

Vibhan smacked me behind the head and went back to sit in his spot. He told me to not try any stunts that I wasn't well versed in. I understood their concern, but the battle was getting heated by each passing round.

Even after almost everyone beat me up for doing stunts, I still performed the ones I was really excited about. After three-four rounds, I got a hang of it, and in the fifth round, I was on fire.

Like this, Tejas and I kept going on with rounds over rounds, and I even lost the sense of time. At one point, I liked Tejas's song so much that I interrupted him, and he blamed me of completely ruining the game; he sucked at acting angry with me.

"Guys, please stop!" Jia yelled, looking like a skeleton held by her boyfriend.

"Keep the songs coming. I am not done yet. Today, I will end The Emperors' captain," I said and laughed like a villain.

Tejas glanced at Vibhan. "You will lose a crew member today, so be prepared."

"Carry on," Vibhan told him.

Tejas shot me a warning look and grabbed my feet when I started doing elbow spins.

"Why are you disturbing me?" I complained.

He knocked me on the head. "Stop doing stunts every time. Learn to space out your moves and make a strategy. Look," he pointed at my bruised elbows, "You want to break your arms?"

"We are battling, Mr. Captain," I said. "Don't show mercy to your rival. Weren't you waiting for this day for so long? What happened to your fighter spirit? Come on, don't let your feelings come between our battle."

He took a deep breath and spun me like a fidget spinner.

"We will take a two minute break, and only do five more rounds. Got it?" he ordered.