Show-off:

“Let me show you how it’s done.”

Lucas took his time in walking up on the stage and upon coming face to face with the puppet, he crossed his arms and smirked.

“Are you ready, young man?” Ochi asked, looking excited. Instead of speaking, Lucas simply nodded, smirk only getting bigger.

The puppet was released and faced off against the white-haired boy. Lucas didn’t bother to uncross his arms. “Are you sure you’re ready, young man? These puppets aren’t made weak you know.”

“Oh, I know.” Lucas responded simply before the puppet lunged at him. Without taking his eyes off of the puppet and without any apparent effort, a large, bright golden circle appeared behind Lucas’ left shoulder. To many of the students, there was nothing more than a flash of light then a small smoke stream where the puppet was. But to Ochi, he easily saw the beam of light that erupted out of the gold circle and completely cover the puppet before the thing even had a chance to react.

Lucas turned to the stunned crowd and reveled in it. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was that too quick for you?” He asked sarcastically.

Ochi grinned so wildly, it was a miracle his face wasn’t in pain. “That’s quite enough, young man. You’ve shown more than enough.” There was a quiet applause in the audience of students to which Ochi joined. “You may return to your seat.”

Lucas did as he was told but not without casting a challenging glare to the crowd. Upon returning to his spot, he noticed Rikuto glaring at him.

“What?”

“Show off.” Rikuto huffed. “Was all of that really needed? You barely even use your power against me.”

Lucas smirked. “Was that needed? No. But I was sending a message.”

“To who?”

“Any of these maggots who think they have a chance of taking the top spot this year.”

Some time had passed before Rikuto’s name was called. He felt nothing but anxiety and he shook slightly as he arose. Lucas gave him a hearty pat on the back. He mouthed him something that looked like ‘stop being weak’ and gave him a somewhat threatening smile. Rikuto cringed somewhat by his friend’s higher standard but tried to take his advice to calm his nerves. He slowly edged his way to the center of the stage where he nervously turned to face everyone with a shaky bow. Ochi eyed him curiously.

“Hello, young man!” The old man said gleefully. “Are you ready to showcase?” The older man had been so excited by the previous displays that he let his excitement get the better of him. Before even waiting for Riku’s response, a puppet was summoned. It was slightly different in build than Lucas’, appearing more like a gorilla than a tiger, but it lunged at him quickly all the same. Rikuto, having seen Lucas easily dispatch of the puppet before, greatly underestimated his opponent. His body took on a light silver glow and he raised up a palm to block the impending strike. He quickly learned that this was going to be anything but easy as the fist connected and forced him to slide back several meters and nearly threw him off the stage.

“What?!” He exclaimed as he was forced to dodge the second incoming hit. Rikuto moved purely on instinct when his hand slid under the puppet’s and he landed a clean hook to its body.

“Ah, it’s going to take much more than that to defeat these things, young man! Show me your moves!” Ochi encouraged as Riku was once again forced on the defensive.

‘Damn it,’ Rikuto thought. ‘This thing has no technique, it’s just swinging!’ During the brief moment of thought, the puppet’s wild swings caught him on his guard. Rikuto was flung back like a ragdoll and was only stopped when his back came painfully into contact with a thick concrete wall. He barely composed himself in time to roll out of the way of the puppet’s swing and was thankful that he did when he saw the many cracks forming where the creature’s fist connected.

Thinking quickly, Rikuto placed both palms on the ground and elevated himself slightly. With impressive flexibility, he spun himself and swept the puppet’s ‘legs’ from under it and during the very small moment, he continued to spin until he gathered enough momentum to deliver a crushing blow. It was the puppet’s turn to be thrown back and while it did, the silver glow around Riku grew substantially.

Ochi made a sound of interest as Rikuto’s speed increased greatly and the next blow he landed had more of an ‘oomph’ to it. The silver flash went from one side of the stage in an instant and hit the puppet with a sharp elbow to the head. Instead of recoiling how Rikuto expected, the puppet simply flailed its mighty arms and hit Riku on both sides of his body. He felt the blow down to his very core but continued his onslaught by kicking the puppet squarely in its ‘chest’. The kick was strong enough to put some space between them both and he used it to transfer all of his aura to his right arm.

“Nature’s Blade!” He exclaimed as a long cleaver made out of his silver energy appeared out of his palm. With one quick step, Rikuto closed the gap between him and the puppet and moved to slice it in half vertically. His attack easily bisected the puppet but not before Riku took a heavy shot to the chin. He stumbled under its immense power but stood tall as the puppet fell into two pieces before fading away into a cloud of smoke. He rubbed his throbbing cheek and knew by the metallic taste in his mouth that he was bleeding.

“Excellent performance, young man!” Ochi applauded. His cheers slowly leaked into the crowd and by the time the noise reached its apex, Rikuto face turned red, both from bruising and embarrassment. Moving with as much awkward grace as he could muster, Riku darted back to his seat, leaving nothing but his silver glow behind him.

“That shouldn’t have taken that long.” Lucas reprimanded the moment Rikut took his seat.

“That took less than ten seconds, though.” Came Rikuto’s retort. “And those things are much more durable than they look.”

“I wouldn’t know. But listen, you did good but there’s still a lot you need to work on.” Lucas crossed his arms. “You’re still too slow. You need to think less during battle and rely more on reflexes.”

Rikto groaned. How many times has he heard this speech in his life?

“The next person is about to go up. Can you save the speech for later?” Riku pleaded.

Lucas rolled his eyes but said nothing.

As Riku noted, someone else went on stage after him. This girl, according to Lucas, was the very definition of a maggot. She had a petite upper body with surprisingly toned legs from what Riku could see. She was short with stark white hair styled in a bob with one long purple streak on the left side which came down longer than the other side. Her eyes were a vibrant cherry color and she seemed to be completely plain save for the choker around her neck.

“Um, is she in the right place?” Lucas questioned. “Poor thing must be lost. I can’t sense anything from her at all.” He eyed her closely. “I wonder if the old man will actually let her fight that thing.”

“He wouldn’t… right?” Rikuto went pale in the face as the girl lazily took center stage and gave Ochi the nod of approval.

“Well, whatever the case, this is going to be ugly.”

And ugly it was.

The moment Ochi summoned the puppet, the girl vanished from view. Rikuto’s eyes widen and Lucas scowled at the girl’s sudden speed burst and before the former realized what had happened, a fierce impact rocked the entire building. Debris from the stage flew into the crowd and forced students to shield their faces and when they looked back, jaws dropped.

The frail and seemingly powerless girl brought down an axe kick to the back of the lion puppet’s head with such power that the entire mostly wooden stage had nearly been completely split in two. It happened so quickly that even Lucas was caught off guard and following the girl’s display, Ochi’s booming laughter removed the shocked atmosphere.

“May have gone a bit overkill there, young lady!” Ochi continued with a hearty laugh and a round of applause.

“Can I go back to my seat now, please?” the girl’s voice was deceptively sweet and quiet. Ochi nodded before the tiny girl slowly but surely dragged herself back to her spot, completely ignoring all the stares she received.