Siergi extended another fist bump to Itzel. She remained on her back, looking at the offer with contempt. Siergi lowered further. "Come on," he said in a friendly manner. "It was a good fight."

Begrudgingly, Itzel tapped the front of her of fist to his. The audience clapped and whistled. She turned her head and saw the audience stand up. all applauding and looking at her. From the side of Itzel's vision, she Siergi offer and open hand. She placed her palm in his and he helped her stand upright. The crowd continued with their cheering as the two combatants split up and returned to their respective sides. 

"You didn't do half bad!" Enidri replied. She remained leaning against the back of her chair with both arms resting crossed in front of her chest. Itzel rubbed the back of her neck as she stood in front of Gurk.

"I did the best I could, big guy," she said. Itzel couldn't look the crocodile in the eyes. Her head angled sideways and towards the ground as she spoke with her words coming out shakily. "I really tried."

"Did good!" Gurk replied. He stood up from his seat, but Itzel still didn't make eye contact. A large and scaled hand pressed against Itzel's shoulder. She looked back at him with deep red eyes. Her lips curled downwards while she took in heavy breaths through her nostrils. "Really!" Gurk said.

"Thanks, big guy," Itzel said as she wiped away the small bit of wetness that escaped from her eye. "You know exactly what to say." Itzel turned around and watched Siergi scroll through his personal projection from across the mat. "It's all on you now. I know Siergi's got a lot of EV to work with. I tried to make him use it but his standard fighting style is pretty solid too. Just remember what we went over. The studying you and Janus did with Siergi's replays. Your session with BRUTE. Our sparring in the park."

"Got it."

"But most importantly... just try to have fun. If you lose, I won't be disappointed."

"Really?" Gurk asked with one eye opened a smidge more than the other. 

"Yeah. Really."

"I'll try." The crocodile opened his mouth wide and stretched his head back. Cold air escaped from opened jaws as he let out a long and loud yawn. He then shook his arms and his legs before heading towards the fighting area. Itzel gave him a hefty slap on his back. 

"Knock him out, big guy!" Itzel said as she grinned. She held one thumb up and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. 

"Will do."

"Hey Gurk!" Enidri shouted. The crocodile paused his movement and turned his head back to look at the swordswoman. She paused, looking as if she had difficulty figuring out what to say next. With a bit of hesitation, she too showed him a single thumbs up with her right hand. "Good luck," she said.

"Thanks!" Gurk returned the gesture. 

"You got this Gurk!" Janus called out, mimicking the notion that Gurk and Enidri exchanged except using both hands. 

"Thanks!" The crocodile turned his back to the rest of his team and Enidri. He stepped onto the mat, slowly moving towards the center of the fighting area. Janus and Itzel were focused on the audience. They went silent, staring at the crocodile as he slowly made his way to his opponent. Some stared with open eyes and mouths, words hanging on their lips. Others squinted as if what they were looking at wasn't real or they were looking for any indication that Gurk could be a robot. 

Despite the stares, Gurk paid the audience no mind. He stood in his designated spot, waiting for Siergi to meet up with him. The opponent deactivated his projection and moved to the mat without delay. Even as Siergi stepped foot onto the fighting area, the viewers couldn't remove their fixation from the challenger in the middle.

The two fighters met. Siergi looked up to Gurk; the crocodile stood up straight, almost motionless. Siergi stared at him with his fists resting on the sides of his hips, maintaining a confident look despite the drastic height difference.

"Are you ready?" Siergi asked

Gurk nodded. "Yep."

"Alright. I'm not going to hold back just because you're the guest of honor, alright?" Siergi said. "I'm going to put on the best show possible for my followers. Think you can make sure to put up a good enough fight for them?"

"Yep."

Siergi chuckled. "Alright, alright! When Arva and Maluk showed me a replay of what you did to that Essencima in that park, I knew I'd like you!" He pointed at Gurk and gave him a wink. "Never fought a Neo-Sapia before. Probably never even seen one up close before now that I think about it. I think it'll be a nice change of pace from the usual challengers."

"I'm excited!" Gurk smiled as best as his mouth would allow. The viewers' projection began the countdown. Both combatants took a step back as they got into their fighting stances. 

"Three..." Despite the stakes of the fight, both fighters faced each other with an air of comradery. They both looked relaxed in their stances and their expressions. 

"Two..." Both adjusted minute aspects of their posture, shaking their legs and arms to rid them of the last bit of nerves.

"One..." Neither fighter prepared themselves for their first move. They both maintained their friendly demeanor as the countdown continued. 

"Fight!" 

Siergi took a step back, keeping his eyes stuck on the crocodile. He slowly moved to the side, keeping his arms up to protect his body. Gurk made a short dash forward, cutting down the distance between him and Siergi enough to put the other fighter in within claw range. Siergi kicked a Blitz Bolt in Gurk's direction. The crocodile put up his hands in front of his face, absorbing the lightning strike. 

With the projectile negated, Gurk attacked with a rising claw slash. Siergi shifted his body to one side, making it so that his arm was only grazed. He then jumped backwards with a flip. The Broadcaster stretched one leg out straight and dove down with a Thunder Wire. Gurk's hands protected the top of his head, negating all damage from Siergi's special move. Siergi performed another kick and landed on the ground a few yards away from the other fighter. 

"Blitz Bolt!"

Siergi did a full spinning kick but in the opposite direction, leading with his heel instead of the top of his foot. The attack was quicker and the lighting projectile that shot out was a long, single bolt of lightning that extended from in front of Siergi straight into Gurk's chest. A powerful crack emanated throughout the room. The point of impact on Gurk's exposed chest flashed a blinding white. The crocodile's entire body shook as his arms stuck out to the side. He then lost his balance and tipped backwards.

"The EV version of that move is strong!" Enidri said in awe. All three sitting down took the time to look at the stats presented on the Challenge Display. Gurk's Stamina had dropped by fifteen percent. Gurk still led the fight in terms of Stamina, but only by five percent. Siergi still had two bars of EV while Gurk was only halfway to getting his first one filled.

"At least you managed to take out Siergi's Defensive Technique," Janus said to Itzel. She stared at Gurk who had quickly set himself up straight but with even more distance between him and Siergi. 

"That's a good point. Gurk is already having a hard enough time closing in the distance. At least now if Gurk manages to get close enough, he doesn't have to worry about Siergi getting away again." Siergi attacked with another Blitz Bolt, sending this one at a lower trajectory that zapped Gurk in the knee. "And with his big size, dodging all of these projectiles is going to be a huge obstacle for him to overcome!"

"Does he have any Techniques that could help him out?" Janus asked.

"Besides Tail Slash beating out projectiles? Not much." Itzel paused, looking at Gurk with a startled expression as something came to her mind. "There is one thing that he could try to use! It's a bit risky and I'm not sure if he'll use it, but it might give him an edge if uses it at the right time."

"What is it?" Janus and Enidri responded simultaneously. 

"His Armored Run."

"Oh, that," Enidri said before looking back at the fight.

"Wait. What's that?" Janus asked, confused.

"It's a Special Trait Gurk has. If he runs at full speed, he can kind of ignore certain attacks. I say kind of because he'll still lose Stamina but he won't flinch like normal. It's situational, seeing as how it's kind of hard for Gurk to stop after running as fast as he can because of his size. But if an opponent throws out an attack at the wrong time and they aren't expecting it..." Both Janus and Itzel turned their heads to watch Gurk get zapped by another Blitz Bolt. 

"Gurk's not going to use that," Enidri said without turning away from the battle. "I can already tell. He's too close to try and run at full speed, but he's also too far away to counterattack all these projectiles! Siergi's got him at just the right distance to keep helpless."

The Challenge Display showed that Siergi had taken a slim lead over his opponent, this time putting him ahead by roughly five percent. His last EV Bar was close to being full again as well. 

"Gurk needs to figure out something fist if he wants to win this fight!" Itzel groaned, sitting only halfway on her seat as her eyes remained glued on the match.