The wind blows as the opponents wait for the signal, despite everything that invades Chris' mind, he has only one thing clear: to reach the final and avenge his friend. Pierre can't help but be surprised by the words his opponent said, but it's not time for an emotional chat.
The bugle sounds all over the place and as exciting as all the previous fights have been, neither of them takes the first step yet. Chris remains completely static, the information he received from Tsubaki and Hanna about him makes Chris cautious, while Pierre continues with his atmosphere full of mystery.
The tension increases so much that the audience begins to feel short of breath, and then, Chris takes a pose he has used before, prepares his body and throws a punch into the air. The same pressured-air punch he used against the salamander is perfect for attacking while keeping his distance. Pierre can't help but be forced to dodge, but it's too late, Chris has disappeared from his sight.
—Never start a fight you can't win, prepare your strategies before you even take the first step and never use your best cards until the end. —are the words his teacher taught Chris while training him with.
Despite having incredible strength if he sets his mind to it, Chris always tries to avoid using all his power, as he understands how easily elemental powers can cause death to other people.
Distraction and disappearance are basic elements to destabilize the enemy's mind, but Pierre remains calm, no matter what happens, no matter what his opponent does or when, he maintains composure. Right between his feet the earth begins to climb, and Chris comes out quickly with his fist covered with dirt up to his elbow.
As Chris expected, Pierre "reacted" to his strategy and uses his water stream to destroy the earth that covers his hand. The speed of his water is impressive, as it almost instantly destroys most of his improvised protection, but before reaching the skin Chris raises a wall between the two, deflecting his arm and pushing him back.
It is the first time in the entire tournament that even something touched Pierre, also to push him back. Preparing a defense in case your attack fails sounds logical and sensible, but it's something that no one really considers. "You do this, and then what?" The less you leave to chance, the better.
As the two analyze the "greetings" they just exchanged, Chris can't help but highlight that he didn't perceive Pierre's movements, what good was his training? How does his ki manage to be imperceptible? "The answer is always in plain sight; you just have to change your perspective." They are the words he remembers whenever he doesn't understand something at the first opportunity.
Immediately, Chris sets out to cut the distance, increases his strength more and more, and just as he takes his last step before being one arm away from Pierre, he throws another blow of air, and another, and another, consecutively, without any pause. The pressurized air is shot in a concentrated way by the combination of movements in an attempt to hit his target, but he dodges them anyway.
His movements are very strange, despite how violent the series of attacks is, he moves with great tranquility and harmony, as if he were dancing without a single worry in this world. Chris does not sit idly by, he pays special attention to Pierre's movements, not with the ki, but with the sight.
He knows exactly the trajectory of the air from his blows, so he can know where his "projectiles" are and how he dodges them. Habits, movement patterns, analysis and prediction, the more you use the mind to analyze information the more you prioritize using the head instead of the body.
Chris was distracted, he was paying so much attention to Pierre's movements that he didn't notice how the distance was shrinking between the two of them. Pierre's hand passes almost rubbing against his cheek and leaves him with a series of cuts, barely the area turned red from losing a thin layer of skin.
A small opportunity, with so little distance between them it is impossible not to deal him a blow. However, it was too big and risky, Chris tries to hit him with air on the head and abdomen, but Pierre backs up and dodges both attacks.
A small pebble on the ground trips Pierre, causing him to lose his balance and Chris immediately rushes to give him a direct blow, but Pierre has a face of "I got you". As he falls, Pierre lifts one of his feet and covers it with his stream, hitting it directly on the left side.
The momentum from the kick is enough for Pierre to fall to his feet as Chris tries to endure the pain he feels from even trying to breathe. If his wound is not treated within minutes, his life may be in danger.
—«Don't lose your cool, a single moment can make you lose more than the fight. » —Chris tells himself as he tries to recover from the damage.
Chris barely manages to stand up and tries to regulate his breathing rhythm, yes, that same breathing he taught Hanna at the campfire. Each breath with a big breath of air, not paying attention to the intense pain, just watching it fade away. It is not that you stop feeling pain, but by controlling your breathing you can create intervals of lack and great oxygenation.
The head begins to spin, his heartbeat begins to fade, but the pain is successfully mitigated, allowing Chris to begin to clear his mind. Yes, he has the fervent desire to reach the final, but sometimes being too cautious can close the door to an opportunity. It's at times like this, when people start remembering seemingly random things.
Yamamoto Temple, five years ago, on a sunny spring day the breeze is filled with the smell of pollen from many flowers. Chris, with 16 years, is practicing with mud from a small lake to try to squeeze the water, without much success he barely manages to make it move as he wants a part of the mound, the rest shooting out everywhere and his face covered as if he had gone to a spa.
Discouraged, he remains thoughtful as he contemplates the ripples in the water next to the sound of tree leaves. A woman's voice sounds from behind, among the trees:
—Why the long face? —says a beautiful woman who appears with a kind smile and eyes with a strange glow, as if she were contemplating a pair of precious gems.
Everything is strange in that woman; she has a strange air that makes the calm overwhelming. She is right in front of him, and at the same time it is as if she does not exist, and despite this, she continues to speak to him. With a strange sense of personal space, the strange woman suddenly stands right next to Chris as she sees the mess with the mud.
With a lot of shame Chris ends up admitting that he can't control the mud well and doesn't do what he wants. He ends up resigning himself to moving dry land and is embarrassed lying on the shore of the lake.
—But mud is easier to move than dry land, it is soft, versatile and you can give it freer and more aesthetic shapes. You can even make beautiful sculptures with mud. —the strange woman interrupts him in a cutting way.
Chris ends up screaming, admitting that he doesn't control the earth well and tries to leave, but the woman takes his hand and holds him very tightly.
—Do not try to escape so soon, you can do it now, but sooner or later you must take the reins and achieve it. —the strange woman's words dig straight inside Chris, as if stabbing him straight to the heart, but without feeling any pain.
As if something inside him were taking hold of him, the woman takes him back to the mud to try again.
—Grab mud with your hands. —says the woman, something simple that anyone can do and Chris listens to her —Squeeze your hands tightly. — she says immediately and Chris replies saying that he knows the mud will fly out and the woman forces him to do it.
With mud all over his face, Chris asks what the point is to end up the same way.
—The answer is at first glance; you just have to change your perspective. —says the woman as she puts more mud in Chris’ hands and guides them, taking on an increasingly defined shape, until she becomes a bird.
He is fascinated with the detail with which it is made, it is small, and he feels how fragile it is.
Once cleaned, the woman proposes a challenge to Chris, to try to catch a tree leaf. She climbs a tree, tears off a leaf and releases it, he tries to grab it and slips out of his fingers at the last moment. It seems simple, but there's so much more to it than just grabbing it. Hours pass, he tries to grab the same leaf over and over again without any success and his fingers extremely tired.
Returning to the present, he begins to remember the tiredness of that particular day, he feels the same, despite having forgotten it for so long, Chris manages to recognize the situation. He remembers all the frustration he felt at being eluded by a simple leaf, but he begins to understand one thing, the simplicity of the leaf floating in the air.
Chris’ mind begins to plunge into darkness, the sound of the audience fades until there is no trace left. Realizing too late, he comprehends that everything around him has disappeared, there is absolutely nothing in the world, there is only him. But he does not despair, on the contrary, it seems as if there is not a single concern in its entire existence.
Despite his unfortunate goal, at that very moment, Chris, for the first time in his life, is at peace. The ki is calm, serene, as if he were water from a puddle, without waves that disturb it. He has stopped feeling, thinking, it's just that leaf soaring the wind in his hands that day.
His body moves without even reacting, despite perceiving absolutely nothing, within a non-existent world, he records in his mind the sensation of not feeling anything, the sensation of his body moving without having to react, only action, without apparent cause. He opens his eyes and to his surprise, there is Pierre right in front of him, short of breath.
As it seems, while he was in that trance, without knowing it, Chris was dodging Pierre's attacks until he was a little tired. Even if he tries, it is certain that Chris will not be able to repeat that feat on that occasion, so he decides to leave it for after the tournament.
—Who are you? You are an Earth adept, your technique makes you control the air, you have an internal fire about to explode and, above all, you moved like water. —declares Pierre completely surprised.
That confirms it, the reason why Chris could not perceive Pierre's ki was because he "moved like water”, letting himself be carried away by the current, Pierre becomes imperceptible because he becomes one with the environment in motion, being the river that guides him.
Pierre's condition is not optimal, and Chris cannot repeat that state, so he must take advantage of the situation and circumstances to end the fight immediately, he is beginning to feel that his body does not react due to the loss of blood.
—Why don't you try to attack me? It never hurts to try your luck, maybe you'll finally get it right. —a provocation, that's more than enough for Pierre to lose his cool.
Taking the bait, Pierre begins to lose his character, he feels angry, but Chris can see that his spirit begins to ignite. The water surrounding the Arena begins to gather in his arms, he has accepted the challenge. A direct clash is what will determine the outcome. With effort, Chris increases the strength of his wound muscles enough to stop the bleeding as much as he can, despite the constant stabbing pain.
Chris begins to concentrate his elemental power, he remembers that day, how he witnessed the birth of that little mud bird. How much he trained to be able to mold the earth efficiently, how many months he was trying, leaving his face covered with mud.
Chris begins to smile, the spirits of both participants begin to ignite like burning flames, waiting to see which of the two emerge victorious. That strange desire to fight and win, something he hadn't felt in a long time, something that feels addictive, Chris can't help but get carried away for the time being.
Pierre runs out at high speed amassing large amounts of water in his hands, Chris puts his hands on the ground and a large number of compressed earth walls begin to emerge, one after the other, pushing each other. Their forms are arranged in such a way that they appear to be a single barrier becoming thicker and thicker.
The water finishes forming, the stream completely envelops Pierre, turning into a vortex of water. The sound of the stream is enough to tell that it is more powerful and cutting than before. Pierre collides with the earth wall, smashing the walls one by one as if nothing had happened.
The debris begins to shoot out and leaves a trail of dust around, until Pierre destroys the last wall and arrives in front of Chris, who did not move from his position at any time because of the amount of concentration he needed.
Just as Pierre is one step away from touching Chris with his current... Fwoooooshhh!!! All the water he gathered dissipated in an instant, Pierre is stunned by what happened, and Chris throws a punch at him.
That last second begins to become eternal, Pierre realizes what happened, he did not lose control of the water, Chris took it away. The earth of the walls mixed with the water of his stream and destroyed the flow that kept the water together and moving.
Pierre decides to dodge Chris’ blow but realizes that his body does not respond as he wants. The earth was not only in the water, but it also reached his body. Pierre has his body covered with dirt and does not allow him to dodge at ease.
Pierre takes Chris' blow to the face, with enough force to resonate throughout the Colosseum. A single punch, just what Chris needed to knock out his opponent, but his skills made the fight very complicated for him. The fight is over, Chris reaches the final round.
