>>5971419“Mel...O...Ka...” you mutter, recognizing yourwife's shout through the haze in your mind. Suddenly, you remember what happened, blinking and finding yourself face-down on the ground. Shit, did you get knocked out?
“SEVEN!” the announcer shouts, you realizing he's counting for you! If you don't get back up, you're going to lose. So, gritting your teeth you plant your palms on the tiles, pushing yourself up onto a knee shakily. “EIGH-What's this?! Contestant Karn begins to rise! Can he still compete?”
“I'm. Not. Done.” you say, getting a foot underneath yourself, planting your hands on your knees and rising up to your feet. The sounds of cheering can be heard distantly through the ringing in your head, your vision swimming. But you see the man standing behind the announcer, and for just a brief moment through everything swimming see a look of fear on his face. He clearly hadn't expected you to be able to get up after, well, whatever it was he did to you. Rising up to your full height, arms hanging limply by your sides, you're back up. “Not yet.”
“Impossible.” Hit mutters, the announcer running up to you.
“Contestant Karn! Do you still have the strength to continue the match?” he asks you. Looking down at him a moment you then look up, past him to the assassin standing there, waiting. “Can you keep fighting?”
“You should stand down. I don't want to accidentally kill you.” Hit says, the tone in his voice catching you by surprise. The hardened killer, NOT wanting to kill someone? “Because of your tenacity, you've pushed me to do something I never thought was possible. But, because of that, you can't compete against what I am now. Give up, there's no reason to keep going.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvtowY2d0MY“No reason? Shows what little you know.” you say, your vision returning more to normal as you retake your fighting stance. “I don't know if you can hear them, but that's my family up there. Every single one of them believe in me, that I can beat you. That no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, that I'll be the one still standing. That no matter how bad things get, that I'll be there to save them. And I'm Not! About to Let Them DOOOWN!!”
With a shout you draw upon everything you've got, aura blazing as it shatters what was left of your Energy Body. Only when it breaks do you realize how little of it was left, holes the size of his knuckle punched through it all over your upper body. You blaze your aura boldly, drawing upon everything you've got. There's no way you're falling here, not now. And not to him.
cont
