Post by Rei Kai on Nov 30, 2016 7:22:25 GMT
"So what was he like?"
"What was who like?" Jin asked lazily. The intermission between preliminaries and the first round of finals marked one of the few breaks in an extraordinarily busy day for her, and she was taking full advantage of it as she leaned back and sipped at the caramel latte that had just been delivered to her by one of the interns.
"The Kai Sen Ken kid... the first round winner." Her cohort snapped his fingers as if the sound of it would jog his faulty memory. "The guy who won the first block. By Kami it is on the tip of my tongue."
She couldn't help but laugh. Roburg was her mentor and perhaps amongst the best color commentators in history, herself included, but he was garbage when it came to remembering the names of fighters. It was such a problem that even now she was half convinced that the reason she had been promoted so quickly through the ranks was that she was the only person to ever work alongside Roburg who could consistently help him remember the crucial names, or save him from himself when he was flubbing on air.
"Rei." She replied after letting him stew on it for a few more seconds. There was a list taped to his desk for this exact reason, and if he was going to be wrong off air she might as well get a good laugh out of it.
"Right, right. His dad was... M-"
"Sei." Jin cut in before he could get it wrong.
"I knew that." Roburg pouted in a way that suggested it was anything but the truth while the woman across from him allowed herself a very unladylike snort of bemusement. "Bit of a silly name if you ask me. But you're dodging. What was he like?"
The old timer was clever, she had to give him that.
"He's... naïve. I mean, he doesn't strike me as dumb or anything... but most guys who make it into the best thirty two have been training their whole lives for a shot at this moment, they're tense and they know everything about everything. He seemed, I dunno, it almost felt like he was just a tourist if that makes any sense."
"Hard to make it here as a tourist." Roburg observed.
"Yeah, I felt that way as well. He's obviously put in the effort and training to have earned his chance, but he doesn't seem to care at all now that he's here." She shrugged then. "If he gets through this round I'll try to snag an interview."
"Let me guess, he took a liking to you." The salacious tone drew rolled eyes from Jin. "Did he go all puppy dog like a lot of your fans?"
A bright light began to flash on the bank of instruments before them, the signal that the network was going to kick the broadcast back to them and that festivities were soon to be underway once again. An instant later her producer began chattering into her ear about the angle the network was pushing, and across from her she could see Roburg pushing a digit to his ear to help him follow the dialogue. "Oh look at that 'Burg, we'll have to his conversation... never."
"Fifteen seconds." The voice in her ear said as the light atop her console began to flash more vigorously.
Time to put your game face on. Jin thought to herself as she turned to face the nearby camera. A small monitor rested beneath it, giving her instant feedback on her looks that she used to make final adjustments to her outfit and posture. As the voice continued to count she steeled herself and gave one last look to Roburg where he sat beside her.
The other man was ready and waiting as if he were born from the chair. She always fussed in the moments before the cameras turned on them once again, but he was a calm and serene pond amongst the storm. She'd grown up watching him announce this very tournament, and apart from a bit of grey at the edges of his blonde hair and a lot more wrinkles not a thing had changed. Not that dark suit, the cream colored undershirt, not the bright red tie and sadly not the garish oversized sunglasses.
"I will never understand why you insist on wearing those." She muttered in the last moments.
"Tradition." Came his reply.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to ZSPN's continuing coverage of the 699th Jinmaichi Budokai, the Strongest Among Worlds Martial Arts Tournament."
"As always, I am James Roburg."
"And I am Jin Centum, the Voice of Battle."
"The opening salvos have been fired, the preliminaries have been completed, the lots have been drawn and we are all set for our very first matchup to kick off the Best Thirty Two."
"That's right James." Jin cut in smoothly without interruption, as though they'd practiced this opening a hundred times. They knew each other well enough to start or finish the other's sentences and they so often did on screen. "We've had an amazing morning, with thirty two competitors wading their way through the best of the best in order to get their chance at the warrior's hall, and now that the drawing is complete we know our first competitors for the evening."
The screen beneath the camera directed at Jin shifted from a display of her face to one of their standard graphics, a split screen of red and blue with the fighter's faces and relevant details fading into view as they were announced. "And here we have them. Cauri, A Saiyan straight from the SSE and his opponent, the homegrown newcomer, Rei."
Jin allowed herself a sigh and a slight slump to her shoulders once she finished with the introductions. Beside her Roburg did what he did best, rattling off an incredible wealth of facts and statistics about the two fighters. It always baffled her, the man couldn't remember their names, but he could remember their hometowns, historical matches, fighting styles... basically every facet of their existence save the one thing that literally defined them.
Not that Cauri was particularly memorable at the best of times. The saiyan had been a tournament fixture longer than she had, and in those years he had never proven to be anything more than average. He even looked average, like the actor a director might cast in a film about one of the many saiyan conquest. Cauri was neither tall nor short, handsome nor ugly apart from that garish scar that ran from jawbone to just above his right eye. He wore the same black body glove she'd seen under the armor of a hundred saiyans and like nearly every saiyan she had ever laid eyes on he had that ever present spiked black hair. No super saiyan here, that much was clear.
She answered here or there, interjecting herself only with the occasional bit of levity or tidbit she felt Roburg hadn't done enough justice to, though to be honest there was scant little to say. Cauri was a fifth time competitor who consistently reached the best of thirty two, whereas Rei's only fighting history had been broadcast only hours before. They lingered longer than they normally would have on Rei's father, and on the discussion of Legacy entrants and their effects with the tournament, but the young man was taking his sweet time reaching the stage, and if there was one crime worse than forgetting a name, it was dead air time.
"... So you've met him personally, how do you think this match is going to stack up?"
Jin shot her co-commentator a dirty look at that question. James liked to keep her on her toes when she started to drift off, but they both knew that she hated to be put on the spot to try a prediction in even the most one sided fights. She had a bad reputation of picking losers at the best of times, and this... there simply wasn't enough information to even hazard a guess.
"I... well look, let's be honest, this is a really difficult match to predict."
"Do I sense a 'toss-up' guess coming up?" Roburg interjected.
"You have to let me finish before you start needling me." Jin shot back, though she knew the he didn't have to do anything. In fact, needling her before she could delve deeply into claiming it was too close to call was the perfect way to prevent her from waffling on the issue. "I'll admit it is probably going to be dangerously close. Rei came out in the prelims like he had something to prove and he destroyed a lot of his competition. Cauri did what he did every year and played it safe, teaming up with a competitor and backstabbing him at the earliest opportunity for a comparatively easy win."
"Sounds to me like you're leaning towards Rei."
Jin shook her head, though the cameras didn't catch the motion with their attention glued to the preliminary instructions being given by a suited man in the center of the stage. "Now I didn't say that at all Roburg. Rei came out strong but... and this might just be my personal feeling from speaking with him, I'm wondering if he has the drive to carry him through this. Cauri plays it safe, but this is his fifth year in. He knows what he has to do to win, and after four years of being knocked out in the Best Thirty Two you just know he has to be eager for a win into the Best Sixteen."
"Good points all around." James replied, a certain bemusement lining the wrinkles of his face as he turned his attention from her to the ring itself. "And it looks like we're about to find out. The referee has them headed to their starting positions." The elder man paused to grin in delight, to draw a moment of breath to utter a catch phrase just as the referee shouted for the fighters to begin. "Cauli Vs. Rei. Here we go."
"And as predicted Rei is starting this fight off strong." Jin observed with a sly smirk as the young man launched himself bodily across the stage at a full sprint. It had worked well for him in the preliminaries, but with only one opponent he simply wasn't going to catch Cauli off guard. "A handful of quick blows aimed to the head but he isn't really landing anything significant here."
"No, and he better be careful circling around near the edge of the platform like that. Cauli has a lot of experience in the Best Thirty Two, and I'm not sure Rei is aware just how different the melee of the preliminaries is compared to this one on one." As if on cue Cauri swung towards Rei's instep with the heel of his right leg. The impact of the blow resounded painfully across the arena, its damage reflected in the immediate wince that passed across Rei's face.
More dangerous was the way the younger man's leg buckled as he shifted his weight onto it. Like most of his kind Cauri tended towards traditional saiyan combat styles, but it appeared that this year he was willing to stretch the boundaries of 'honorable combat' to include joint strikes if it led him to victory. And from the way Rei was having difficulty putting his foot down it very well might have.
"That looked like one hell of a wakeup call." Roburg observed, the minor curse word drawing an instant rebuke over their earpieces from a producer back in the booth.
"Without a doubt. But you have to give credit to the rookie for not only holding his ground through that, but not even allowing Cauri to use it as an opportunity to pin him against the edge of the stage." Indeed Rei was doing nothing of the sort as he tumbled his way across the ring in a dizzying array of flips and cartwheels. "There is still a bit of tenderness in the way he is putting his weight on the leg, I wouldn't be surprised if he's taken some real damage or if Cauri tries to double down on the damage he's already done."
The intensity of the fight didn't appear to be letting up as Cauri pressed his moment, bearing down on the rookie in a measured ufashion. He had nearly a foot of height on the teenager, and he was using the reach it gave him to its full effect as he rained down sharp but relatively shallow blows onto Rei. A kick here, a jab there, testing the less experienced fighter in the hopes of prying loose and opening in Rei's guard.
Instants dragged on into seconds as Cauri continued his assault with only the occasional retaliation from Rei. Cauri had a clear advantage, but years of losses, including a staggering defeat to an unexpected ki blast had left him wary of his own success. This would not be an instant success but a slow grinding, a pummeling over time to wear down his opponent.
"And here we have a practically textbook example in the advantage of experience." Jin opined, wincing in sympathy as Rei found himself on the receiving end of a one-two combo to his undefended abdomen. "You're fighting a younger, faster opponent so you slow him down and then just get to work dismantling him piece by piece."
"And by slow him down you mean throw a cheap shot to the knee?" Came the snorted reply from Roberg.
"Cauli didn't make the rules, he can only abide by them. It's probably not in the spirit of Jinmaichi Budokai, but if Cauli can go home at the end of the day and look in the mirror and say 'I'm a champion because of that linear kick' I don't think he's going to care all that much about the spirit of the rules."
That much was bullshit and she knew it. If Cauli scraped passed this round he'd be torn apart in the best sixteen or the following rounds. The saiyan wasn't a bad fighter, but he wasn't a champion, and her own comment had her wondering just how he was going to look at himself once he won this fight. Let alone if he lost it.
"Oh Kami! And just like that Rei is on the offensive!" Roburg's exclamation interrupted any further introspection on the matter, drawing her attention back fully to the fight in front of her and the saiyan staggering backwards.
Rei was in hot pursuit, laying into his opponent with a staggering series of punches that threatened to overwhelm him completely. Midsection, chest, arms and head, nothing above the waist seemed safe from Rei's barrage of attacks until the young man finished off his combination with a vicious pointed elbow to the solar plexus that sent Cauri sprawling.
Jin had her own problems. She'd missed it. She'd been so caught up in her personal distain for Cauri and his tactics that she'd been completely blank eyed at the moment Rei had launched his counterattack. At her side Roburg was shooting her an intense look as the silence between them ticked over. She had to say something, anything.
"Hell yeah he is!" She laughed her best 'I'm not nervous laugh' into the microphone and gave her co-host an apologetic look that explained everything even as their producer screamed into her ear.
"I don't think I've ever seen a counter quite like that." Roberg jumped back into the fold to cover up her mistake, playfully elbowing her in the side in a way that told her she'd be paying for her mistake later. "Cauri had Rei fully on the defensive, driving him back towards the edge of the ring. He looks like he's going down, like the leg can no longer bear the weight but mid fall he turns it into a kickover and not only gives Cauri a swift hit in the jaw for trying to seal the deal, he does it with his injured leg!"
"But Cauri's not out of this yet. He's up and he's moving and oh does he look mad."
"I think I would be too if I fell for that sort of move." Robrg chuckled.
"Just look at that technique though, and look how little it matters right now." To his credit Cauri was fighting up a storm with precise moves honed over years of practice. But they were nothing in the face of unleashed ferocity of Rei. The human darted in and out, slipping strong blows through the minute gaps in his enemy's defense or forcing his way through them entirely. There was no talent or skill to it, just raw strength and speed from intense training overcoming whatever obstacles were pushed into his way. "I don't know how much more of this Cauli can take!"
Cauli apparently thought the same thing as he was sent sprawling to the hard stone tiles for a third consecutive time in half a minute. He was losing the close in battle, so he opted for the long range one, kicking off the stage and flying just a few inches above it as he raced for the edge of the stage. Both of his hands were raised in front of him to cup the ball of dark violet energy forming between them as he cried out over the sudden roar of a crowd that could sense the battle rapidly approaching its climax "Take this!"
It wasn't a bad tactic. With Rei rushing in headlong there was likely never going to be a better chance to take the shot than the one Cauli had as he loosed his nameless ki blast upon the young human. But as with everything that preceded it, Cauli had never really stood a chance to begin with.
"And Rei with the last second dodge. Incredible!" Roburg's voice was electric, mimicking the energy of the crowd around him as their support swelled for the young man who had dodged that attack by mere inches, losing the very tip of one sleeve as he threw himself into a sideways roll and came up still dashing towards his foe. "I think the last time we had a miss that close was... it must have been Kuma vs The Bear at the 695th tournament."
"Why didn't he fly?"
"What?" The question from Roburg was almost lost on Jin as her glacier eyes were locked so intently on the battlefield before her.
Inwardly her mind was racing, looking for a reason that explained what she'd just seen. Fighters of this caliber still made mistakes of course, but they were minor things, positioning, orientation and the like. But the way Rei had tumbled out of the way of that oncoming attack; any professional fighter would have simply put on a burst of speed and flown out of its path, to the sides or over it. Why lose all that time and risk injury or counter attack.
"Nothing. Just my usual second guessing." She replied at last, putting on her best smile in the instant before excitement flowed into her voice once again. "Though I don't think the new guy cares about what I think. He's on him. Cauli put a lot into that attack, but I don't think it'll be enou-"
"And there it is!" Roburg interjected over her analysis as Rei finally struck home with a flurry of blows that sent Cauli reeling moments before a straight kick to the abdomen sent him crashing into the stone barrier some distance away. "Out of bounds and it is all over!"
"Well I guess that is one more hit to my reputation as a forecaster. Few more like that and people can just bet against me to win a fortune." Jin said with only the slightest bit of sourness in her voice. Truth be told this was better for the tournament. Rei was the more interesting fighter, and looking at the brackets he might even have a chance to make it through to the Best Eight before someone put him down.
Better for her too, she had a lot of questions to ask him.
Word Count - 3374. Zeni please and thank you.
"What was who like?" Jin asked lazily. The intermission between preliminaries and the first round of finals marked one of the few breaks in an extraordinarily busy day for her, and she was taking full advantage of it as she leaned back and sipped at the caramel latte that had just been delivered to her by one of the interns.
"The Kai Sen Ken kid... the first round winner." Her cohort snapped his fingers as if the sound of it would jog his faulty memory. "The guy who won the first block. By Kami it is on the tip of my tongue."
She couldn't help but laugh. Roburg was her mentor and perhaps amongst the best color commentators in history, herself included, but he was garbage when it came to remembering the names of fighters. It was such a problem that even now she was half convinced that the reason she had been promoted so quickly through the ranks was that she was the only person to ever work alongside Roburg who could consistently help him remember the crucial names, or save him from himself when he was flubbing on air.
"Rei." She replied after letting him stew on it for a few more seconds. There was a list taped to his desk for this exact reason, and if he was going to be wrong off air she might as well get a good laugh out of it.
"Right, right. His dad was... M-"
"Sei." Jin cut in before he could get it wrong.
"I knew that." Roburg pouted in a way that suggested it was anything but the truth while the woman across from him allowed herself a very unladylike snort of bemusement. "Bit of a silly name if you ask me. But you're dodging. What was he like?"
The old timer was clever, she had to give him that.
"He's... naïve. I mean, he doesn't strike me as dumb or anything... but most guys who make it into the best thirty two have been training their whole lives for a shot at this moment, they're tense and they know everything about everything. He seemed, I dunno, it almost felt like he was just a tourist if that makes any sense."
"Hard to make it here as a tourist." Roburg observed.
"Yeah, I felt that way as well. He's obviously put in the effort and training to have earned his chance, but he doesn't seem to care at all now that he's here." She shrugged then. "If he gets through this round I'll try to snag an interview."
"Let me guess, he took a liking to you." The salacious tone drew rolled eyes from Jin. "Did he go all puppy dog like a lot of your fans?"
A bright light began to flash on the bank of instruments before them, the signal that the network was going to kick the broadcast back to them and that festivities were soon to be underway once again. An instant later her producer began chattering into her ear about the angle the network was pushing, and across from her she could see Roburg pushing a digit to his ear to help him follow the dialogue. "Oh look at that 'Burg, we'll have to his conversation... never."
"Fifteen seconds." The voice in her ear said as the light atop her console began to flash more vigorously.
Time to put your game face on. Jin thought to herself as she turned to face the nearby camera. A small monitor rested beneath it, giving her instant feedback on her looks that she used to make final adjustments to her outfit and posture. As the voice continued to count she steeled herself and gave one last look to Roburg where he sat beside her.
The other man was ready and waiting as if he were born from the chair. She always fussed in the moments before the cameras turned on them once again, but he was a calm and serene pond amongst the storm. She'd grown up watching him announce this very tournament, and apart from a bit of grey at the edges of his blonde hair and a lot more wrinkles not a thing had changed. Not that dark suit, the cream colored undershirt, not the bright red tie and sadly not the garish oversized sunglasses.
"I will never understand why you insist on wearing those." She muttered in the last moments.
"Tradition." Came his reply.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome back to ZSPN's continuing coverage of the 699th Jinmaichi Budokai, the Strongest Among Worlds Martial Arts Tournament."
"As always, I am James Roburg."
"And I am Jin Centum, the Voice of Battle."
"The opening salvos have been fired, the preliminaries have been completed, the lots have been drawn and we are all set for our very first matchup to kick off the Best Thirty Two."
"That's right James." Jin cut in smoothly without interruption, as though they'd practiced this opening a hundred times. They knew each other well enough to start or finish the other's sentences and they so often did on screen. "We've had an amazing morning, with thirty two competitors wading their way through the best of the best in order to get their chance at the warrior's hall, and now that the drawing is complete we know our first competitors for the evening."
The screen beneath the camera directed at Jin shifted from a display of her face to one of their standard graphics, a split screen of red and blue with the fighter's faces and relevant details fading into view as they were announced. "And here we have them. Cauri, A Saiyan straight from the SSE and his opponent, the homegrown newcomer, Rei."
Jin allowed herself a sigh and a slight slump to her shoulders once she finished with the introductions. Beside her Roburg did what he did best, rattling off an incredible wealth of facts and statistics about the two fighters. It always baffled her, the man couldn't remember their names, but he could remember their hometowns, historical matches, fighting styles... basically every facet of their existence save the one thing that literally defined them.
Not that Cauri was particularly memorable at the best of times. The saiyan had been a tournament fixture longer than she had, and in those years he had never proven to be anything more than average. He even looked average, like the actor a director might cast in a film about one of the many saiyan conquest. Cauri was neither tall nor short, handsome nor ugly apart from that garish scar that ran from jawbone to just above his right eye. He wore the same black body glove she'd seen under the armor of a hundred saiyans and like nearly every saiyan she had ever laid eyes on he had that ever present spiked black hair. No super saiyan here, that much was clear.
She answered here or there, interjecting herself only with the occasional bit of levity or tidbit she felt Roburg hadn't done enough justice to, though to be honest there was scant little to say. Cauri was a fifth time competitor who consistently reached the best of thirty two, whereas Rei's only fighting history had been broadcast only hours before. They lingered longer than they normally would have on Rei's father, and on the discussion of Legacy entrants and their effects with the tournament, but the young man was taking his sweet time reaching the stage, and if there was one crime worse than forgetting a name, it was dead air time.
"... So you've met him personally, how do you think this match is going to stack up?"
Jin shot her co-commentator a dirty look at that question. James liked to keep her on her toes when she started to drift off, but they both knew that she hated to be put on the spot to try a prediction in even the most one sided fights. She had a bad reputation of picking losers at the best of times, and this... there simply wasn't enough information to even hazard a guess.
"I... well look, let's be honest, this is a really difficult match to predict."
"Do I sense a 'toss-up' guess coming up?" Roburg interjected.
"You have to let me finish before you start needling me." Jin shot back, though she knew the he didn't have to do anything. In fact, needling her before she could delve deeply into claiming it was too close to call was the perfect way to prevent her from waffling on the issue. "I'll admit it is probably going to be dangerously close. Rei came out in the prelims like he had something to prove and he destroyed a lot of his competition. Cauri did what he did every year and played it safe, teaming up with a competitor and backstabbing him at the earliest opportunity for a comparatively easy win."
"Sounds to me like you're leaning towards Rei."
Jin shook her head, though the cameras didn't catch the motion with their attention glued to the preliminary instructions being given by a suited man in the center of the stage. "Now I didn't say that at all Roburg. Rei came out strong but... and this might just be my personal feeling from speaking with him, I'm wondering if he has the drive to carry him through this. Cauri plays it safe, but this is his fifth year in. He knows what he has to do to win, and after four years of being knocked out in the Best Thirty Two you just know he has to be eager for a win into the Best Sixteen."
"Good points all around." James replied, a certain bemusement lining the wrinkles of his face as he turned his attention from her to the ring itself. "And it looks like we're about to find out. The referee has them headed to their starting positions." The elder man paused to grin in delight, to draw a moment of breath to utter a catch phrase just as the referee shouted for the fighters to begin. "Cauli Vs. Rei. Here we go."
"And as predicted Rei is starting this fight off strong." Jin observed with a sly smirk as the young man launched himself bodily across the stage at a full sprint. It had worked well for him in the preliminaries, but with only one opponent he simply wasn't going to catch Cauli off guard. "A handful of quick blows aimed to the head but he isn't really landing anything significant here."
"No, and he better be careful circling around near the edge of the platform like that. Cauli has a lot of experience in the Best Thirty Two, and I'm not sure Rei is aware just how different the melee of the preliminaries is compared to this one on one." As if on cue Cauri swung towards Rei's instep with the heel of his right leg. The impact of the blow resounded painfully across the arena, its damage reflected in the immediate wince that passed across Rei's face.
More dangerous was the way the younger man's leg buckled as he shifted his weight onto it. Like most of his kind Cauri tended towards traditional saiyan combat styles, but it appeared that this year he was willing to stretch the boundaries of 'honorable combat' to include joint strikes if it led him to victory. And from the way Rei was having difficulty putting his foot down it very well might have.
"That looked like one hell of a wakeup call." Roburg observed, the minor curse word drawing an instant rebuke over their earpieces from a producer back in the booth.
"Without a doubt. But you have to give credit to the rookie for not only holding his ground through that, but not even allowing Cauri to use it as an opportunity to pin him against the edge of the stage." Indeed Rei was doing nothing of the sort as he tumbled his way across the ring in a dizzying array of flips and cartwheels. "There is still a bit of tenderness in the way he is putting his weight on the leg, I wouldn't be surprised if he's taken some real damage or if Cauri tries to double down on the damage he's already done."
The intensity of the fight didn't appear to be letting up as Cauri pressed his moment, bearing down on the rookie in a measured ufashion. He had nearly a foot of height on the teenager, and he was using the reach it gave him to its full effect as he rained down sharp but relatively shallow blows onto Rei. A kick here, a jab there, testing the less experienced fighter in the hopes of prying loose and opening in Rei's guard.
Instants dragged on into seconds as Cauri continued his assault with only the occasional retaliation from Rei. Cauri had a clear advantage, but years of losses, including a staggering defeat to an unexpected ki blast had left him wary of his own success. This would not be an instant success but a slow grinding, a pummeling over time to wear down his opponent.
"And here we have a practically textbook example in the advantage of experience." Jin opined, wincing in sympathy as Rei found himself on the receiving end of a one-two combo to his undefended abdomen. "You're fighting a younger, faster opponent so you slow him down and then just get to work dismantling him piece by piece."
"And by slow him down you mean throw a cheap shot to the knee?" Came the snorted reply from Roberg.
"Cauli didn't make the rules, he can only abide by them. It's probably not in the spirit of Jinmaichi Budokai, but if Cauli can go home at the end of the day and look in the mirror and say 'I'm a champion because of that linear kick' I don't think he's going to care all that much about the spirit of the rules."
That much was bullshit and she knew it. If Cauli scraped passed this round he'd be torn apart in the best sixteen or the following rounds. The saiyan wasn't a bad fighter, but he wasn't a champion, and her own comment had her wondering just how he was going to look at himself once he won this fight. Let alone if he lost it.
"Oh Kami! And just like that Rei is on the offensive!" Roburg's exclamation interrupted any further introspection on the matter, drawing her attention back fully to the fight in front of her and the saiyan staggering backwards.
Rei was in hot pursuit, laying into his opponent with a staggering series of punches that threatened to overwhelm him completely. Midsection, chest, arms and head, nothing above the waist seemed safe from Rei's barrage of attacks until the young man finished off his combination with a vicious pointed elbow to the solar plexus that sent Cauri sprawling.
Jin had her own problems. She'd missed it. She'd been so caught up in her personal distain for Cauri and his tactics that she'd been completely blank eyed at the moment Rei had launched his counterattack. At her side Roburg was shooting her an intense look as the silence between them ticked over. She had to say something, anything.
"Hell yeah he is!" She laughed her best 'I'm not nervous laugh' into the microphone and gave her co-host an apologetic look that explained everything even as their producer screamed into her ear.
"I don't think I've ever seen a counter quite like that." Roberg jumped back into the fold to cover up her mistake, playfully elbowing her in the side in a way that told her she'd be paying for her mistake later. "Cauri had Rei fully on the defensive, driving him back towards the edge of the ring. He looks like he's going down, like the leg can no longer bear the weight but mid fall he turns it into a kickover and not only gives Cauri a swift hit in the jaw for trying to seal the deal, he does it with his injured leg!"
"But Cauri's not out of this yet. He's up and he's moving and oh does he look mad."
"I think I would be too if I fell for that sort of move." Robrg chuckled.
"Just look at that technique though, and look how little it matters right now." To his credit Cauri was fighting up a storm with precise moves honed over years of practice. But they were nothing in the face of unleashed ferocity of Rei. The human darted in and out, slipping strong blows through the minute gaps in his enemy's defense or forcing his way through them entirely. There was no talent or skill to it, just raw strength and speed from intense training overcoming whatever obstacles were pushed into his way. "I don't know how much more of this Cauli can take!"
Cauli apparently thought the same thing as he was sent sprawling to the hard stone tiles for a third consecutive time in half a minute. He was losing the close in battle, so he opted for the long range one, kicking off the stage and flying just a few inches above it as he raced for the edge of the stage. Both of his hands were raised in front of him to cup the ball of dark violet energy forming between them as he cried out over the sudden roar of a crowd that could sense the battle rapidly approaching its climax "Take this!"
It wasn't a bad tactic. With Rei rushing in headlong there was likely never going to be a better chance to take the shot than the one Cauli had as he loosed his nameless ki blast upon the young human. But as with everything that preceded it, Cauli had never really stood a chance to begin with.
"And Rei with the last second dodge. Incredible!" Roburg's voice was electric, mimicking the energy of the crowd around him as their support swelled for the young man who had dodged that attack by mere inches, losing the very tip of one sleeve as he threw himself into a sideways roll and came up still dashing towards his foe. "I think the last time we had a miss that close was... it must have been Kuma vs The Bear at the 695th tournament."
"Why didn't he fly?"
"What?" The question from Roburg was almost lost on Jin as her glacier eyes were locked so intently on the battlefield before her.
Inwardly her mind was racing, looking for a reason that explained what she'd just seen. Fighters of this caliber still made mistakes of course, but they were minor things, positioning, orientation and the like. But the way Rei had tumbled out of the way of that oncoming attack; any professional fighter would have simply put on a burst of speed and flown out of its path, to the sides or over it. Why lose all that time and risk injury or counter attack.
"Nothing. Just my usual second guessing." She replied at last, putting on her best smile in the instant before excitement flowed into her voice once again. "Though I don't think the new guy cares about what I think. He's on him. Cauli put a lot into that attack, but I don't think it'll be enou-"
"And there it is!" Roburg interjected over her analysis as Rei finally struck home with a flurry of blows that sent Cauli reeling moments before a straight kick to the abdomen sent him crashing into the stone barrier some distance away. "Out of bounds and it is all over!"
"Well I guess that is one more hit to my reputation as a forecaster. Few more like that and people can just bet against me to win a fortune." Jin said with only the slightest bit of sourness in her voice. Truth be told this was better for the tournament. Rei was the more interesting fighter, and looking at the brackets he might even have a chance to make it through to the Best Eight before someone put him down.
Better for her too, she had a lot of questions to ask him.
Word Count - 3374. Zeni please and thank you.