"And the winner, Wepéné the Silver Lance!" The announcer cried and the crowd roared in response. The audience seemed to be in love with this guy, and Ardlan knew that that was a bad sign.
Fights in the pentagon always came in twos. A victor had to face another challenger immediately after winning a match—and now, it was time for Wepéné's second opponent.
Ardlan had no doubt that the match would go as easily as the previous one had gone, Wepène was sure to dominate. He held the steel railing tightly as he intently watched this modified human.
'His form is the free form, and he sticks to no particular style.'
"His opponent, you see them and you don't, a member of the elusive race Gostopen of planet Dum, Ghost!"
Unlike the others who would have themselves lifted up by the sunken metal platform, this one instead, phased through the ground, instantly appearing over the pentagon floor.
Ardlan's curiousity was piqued, he had never seen intangibility displayed in front of him. An individual's body was simply too dense, too confined within its organic form to reach that, however, this one had done it as easily as taking a walk.
The gostopen was uninteresting in shape, it was like a blob of viscous fluid anchored at its center by a force opposing gravity—like a piece of thin fabric held upwards at the center with its edges draping freely.
There was a deep sunken spot at the center of its frame, which Ardlan assumed was a structure of a sense function, and he leaned towards sight.
"Fight!" The announcer urged, and the match began.
Wepéné stormed forward, swiftly like a launched beam, thrusting forward his arm like a sword. He struck, or did he not?
Ardlan could see the momentarily look of surprise on the man's face once he phased through his opponent.
"Now, what would you do Wepéné?" Ardlan questioned, watching intently, and keeping every bit of necessary detail.
The Silver Lance didn't let his surprise stall him or show for too long as he threw himself at his opponent again, jumping and sending a spinning kick across its head.
The powerful kick simply phased through the opponent with no significant damage inflicted, but Wepéné did not stop there. Utilizing his momentum, he spun, his back facing the levitating ghost creature and he threw up a foot. The move was called the foot stab, and Wepéné had targeted the sunken spot, hoping that it was its weakness.
It was not. Suddenly, little buds sprouted from the flanks of the gostopen, developing quickly into limbs. It must have found Wepéné's arms to be deadly and powerful as it created a pair resembling it, and held his leg.
Its hold was firm, they hadn't phased through. With its tight grip, it lifted the Silver Lance off the pentagon floor and then slammed him right down.
BAM!
However, Wepéné had not struck flatly like everyone thought. He prevented that with his right arm, holding himself up, and he pulled himself sideways and away from the creature's grip.
"Ohh!" Ardlan went flying now, giving himself a closer look at the battle.
Wepéné then spun himself upright and on his feet.
"I could feel your grip on my legs, it must mean one thing, you make yourself tangible when you seek to attack your opponent, am I right?" Wepéné said in Celest.
Ghost didn't respond, it simply remained in position, hovering, and facing blanking at the superhuman.
"It does not matter. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this, but I am not as patient as to wait for you to attack before making my moves." In that moment, as he spoke, the thousands of nanobites on body drifted to his right arm, morphing into a shape.
A dull silver double-edged sword formed at his arm, and it suddenly flared with orange light, a plasma blade.
"Not even your kind can phased through this." Wepéné said throatily, and soon as he took a step to lunge at the creature, it cowered and sunk into the floor, disappearing.
"Ohh what's this? Ghost is gone?! Looking at how things were going, I would say that was the right call." The announcer took a pause, and after ten seconds and no sight of ghost, he announced Wepéné as the winner.
"Weapons are allowed into the ring? That's… that's cool." Ardlan cupped his chin, musing, How would I have fought ghost? Would I have won if I had faced it?
Cosmic energy could affect beings from other planes, so perhaps it could affect it. It would be difficult nevertheless, but this Wepéné, he's more capable than I had thought.
He watched as the genetic cheat of a man drifted from the pentagon and zoomed away into one of the exits carved below.
As soon as Ardlan took his eyes off him, he spotted Domitia and Aelius flying his way.
Domitia approached with a slight smile which Ardlan was slightly cautious off, it was not like the gold twins to show anything relating to a human's primal feeling.
"It is time for us to go, you have fought your matches tonight, and well and you have raked in enough money for us. Here's your share, a fifty percent of what we got." As soon as she finished her statement, a notification appeared on Ardlan's holographic contact lens, she had sent quite the sum.
"Six tetrants," he blurted.
"And with that, I suppose we could start teaching you lessons, but! Your part in reaching the semifinals must be achieved eventually."
"Of course, I'm enjoying this a little too much to simply back out now."
"That's the spirit."
Why all this however? It is definitely not for money, they have much more than enough.
It was slightly strange to Ardlan, then he pieced it all together.
'Recognition, yes, that must be it.'
"But I can't simply leave now, I just got in this."
" We believe you will eventually face Wepéné, not today however. He is done with his matches today, and any fight you take part in would just be you revealing more of your pattern of fighting. Are you confident in winning against Wepéné once he knows all your moves?
"Well..."
"Whatever it is, we certainly weren't expecting anyone of Wepéné's might here tonight. There's still a week before the next match." Domitia nagged, Ardlan could tell that despite their faith in his strength, they believed Wepéné would best him.
Ardlan's eyes shifted to Aelius as he took a step forward. He uttered, "You know Domitia, we could increase his chances of winning if he improves his cosmic energy manipulation."