Nial was out of his element.
He began to think to himself what was the largest number of people that had ever come to watch one of his practical exams? Well, there was Hao whenever he could, Professor Mayes on occasion, one time his parents and brother even showed up but that was just back during the 3<sup>rd</sup> level practical exams, there was even that time that Kit came just to heckle. All this to say, even if Nial were to compare the total number of people who had ever seen him preform a combat exam, it would still pale in comparison to the sheer number of spectators in the stans right now.
It was like a sea of monochrome black and white uniforms, lining the stans, all looking down on him, ready to watch his fight. How was he supposed to feel. It was like his head was a roulette table, constantly spinning deciding which emotion to land on at random.
Surprised. Nervous. Curious. Happy. Excited.
Thousands of cadets, combatants at that, and who were they waiting to see? Him. Today was the day Nial had been anticipating for the past week. It felt like that feeling you felt right before you got on a really scary roller coaster. Did people call it butterflies in your stomach? To him it felt more like he had ingested several rocks instead. Half of him was excited, the other half was about to shit himself but all of him knew that no matter what he did, the restraints had already been pulled down and he was going up this hill no matter what. Like or not.
On the other side of the arena Kit had just finished putting on her uniform. The uniforms were like typical school gym uniforms though slightly thicker and bulkier than usual. But when you take into account the litany of sensors that populated the inner lining of the dry-fit material you’d expect them to roughly double the body weight of anyone who put them on.
How was she feeling? Trepidatious? Perhaps, looking at her from a third person point of view it was almost as though she was being crushed by the weight of the world. Though the ironic nature of it was that she was being weighed down by the weight of one teenage boy. In that way perhaps these two kids, currently in the most outrageous of circumstances, were just like kids of their same age attending normal university.
On her face was painted a much darker more intimidating expression than even Nial’s. No matter what the outcome it couldn’t be good for her. A: She wins and gets to be painted as a rude hateful vindictive person who fight someone much weaker than themselves for the sake of a petty wound to their pride who is now even deeper in the hole with Nial. B: She somehow loses and is now all of the above, except she lost on top of it.
“Contestants to the Arena!”
As Nial began the agonizing walk out it was like somebody had used their artistic ability to turn up the gravity by 200%. Every step he took felt like it would leave a dent 100 meters in the ground. He looked up to see the ludicrous number of people encircling him. As if a miracle he managed to pick out a bespectacled Asian boy from the crowd.
“Hao…”
How was he supposed to describe that look Hao was giving him.
Worry? Resignation? Hopefulness?
Whatever the case Nial was sure of one feeling he had himself, he was tired of discerning feelings. He locked his eyes on nothing else but the opposite arena exit. Out came the face he was expecting to see. A tall, picturesque girl with golden blond hair tied up into a flowing ponytail and ocean blue eyes staring back at him with a look more mature than any he’d ever seen form her.
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Kit on the other hand was trying her best to not notice Kurt grimacing at her reproachfully from the side of her eye, but she was finding it slightly hard to focus on Nial too. His slightly messy black hair and ink black eyes combined with his super serious expression gave off an impression as if she were going toe to toe with the grim reaper. Though it was also kind of cool.
“Are both you ready? Are there no further preparations needed to be made on either side?”
The officiator never took his eyes off Nial. It was clear what he was trying to say, but Nial firmly shook his head from side to side, he had come to far to back out now.
“Then on the count of three, begin.”
“3”
“2”
“1”
“Begin!”
The moment that word was said Nial disappeared form Kit’s view with a flash of blue light. It was clear what he was trying to do. He wanted to reach her before she had a chance to use her ability, but he had been too late. It took her less than a minute to formulate her dual move set.
At the moment Nial reappeared in front of her another Kit was already waiting there.
<i>Grab him while he’s focused on me, gain control of his arm, take him to the ground and place him in side-mount.</i>
While Kit’s time clone had been focused on executing her move list current Kit moved to take Nial’s balance from him.
Nial was caught off guard by the instant pincer attack but that was also something he knew would happen. How can you guard against someone you don’t know will be there? Simple. You don’t. You adapt your preexisting plan to have them in it.
Instead of countering either attack Nial instead chose to dodge the attack from behind and take the full brunt of Kit’s leg sweep sending him hurtling towards the ground. But along the way he extended his arm to take Kit with him. This would force Kit to step away to avoid compromising herself. Afterall, seeing as how the other Kit had appeared out of nowhere to try to grapple him from behind, he was certain the Kit in front of him was the real deal.
And indeed, Nial was correct. Kit couldn’t let herself follow Nial to the ground as it would then become a grappling match which se would probably have the advantage in due to her relative experience, but it would come at the trade off of it becoming a more even battle due to her likely not being able to focus on her move sets.
As she regained distance and Nial regained his bearing he now realized the spot he had been put in. The plan he and Hao had come up with relied upon him knowing which Kit is which, and due to his recent snuggling time with the dirt he had been disoriented. Now instead of a girl and her clone, he saw to identical girls standing ominously on either side of him.
<i>Charge in, throw a series of hits at his upper body as decoys while I go low again for the grapple.</i>
Both girls flew at him with such tremendous speed that he could only focus on one while he had to expose his back to the other.
“Eeni, meeni, mini…”
He couldn’t finish that thought because at that moment an impact to his jaw sent him reeling. The combat suits reduced pain but that didn’t mean pain was non-existent. One of the Kits had finished their rush first and landed a kick at a critical point.
Kit saw that her time clone managed to land her shot and rushed forward to complete the move, but Nial once again disappeared into blue light. When he reappeared, he was on the other side of the arena with a good line of sight on both of them. Kit was fast, but not that fast, by the time either one of her reached Nial he’d have recovered and would be ready to confront both of her. Her best choice was to take the opportunity to recover herself too.
The crowd could be described as slightly surprised at this point. There had only been two move exchanges at this point, but many had bet Nial wouldn’t even make it past one.
Nial on the other hand was starting to be pressured already. He had lost the initiative, he had opened the first exchange yet he unequivocally lost both. He needed to think up a new method to execute the strategy. His main method to win was to tire Kit out yet that wouldn’t work if he kept needing to take breaks while giving her breathing room too.
What could he do? Nial thought back on his conversation with Hao.
“Dance Dance Revolution, how do make her mess up Dance Dance Revolution.”
All of sudden a light bulb went off within his head. He had an idea.