Sound came before sight as the sound of a drill against metal rang across the arena. Goliath and Lenz held their position — Goliath punching down with his left and Lenz moving just fast enough to block by crossing his hands above him.
When the dust cleared, Lenz struggled against Goliath, who pressed down harder with his left hand. Both parties shook as they tried to push each other back.
But more importantly — were Lenz's hands spinning? Ethan thought, before quickly shaking the idea off.
"OH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT — THE HUMANS MANAGED TO MAKE MASTER LENZ GO ON THE DEFENSE!" Ora yelled out like a football commentator shocked that the newcomers had scored.
"Quite the fist you've got there," Lenz said through gritted teeth as he parried Goliath off and immediately launched a spear thrust straight to his chest.
Goliath sidestepped it and countered with a punch heavy enough to kick up dust — aimed squarely at his ribs. In almost slow motion, Lenz moved his right hand to block.
It looked like Goliath's punch had more force behind it, but it simply threw Lenz off balance slightly.
But there it was again. That drilling sound.
Lenz launched another attack with his right hand — but he severely miscalculated just how quick Goliath was. He was met with a direct hit to the face, sending him flying backward and crashing into the wall.
The world leaders' box erupted. Ethan stood with them.
"JUST LIKE THAT!" James yelled, fist pumping. "HIT HIM AGAIN, GOLIATH!"
Lenz peeled himself off the wall and popped his jaw back into place, spitting out a tooth and some blood. "Well then."
He appeared in front of Goliath in a flash. "I'll make this hurt."
He thrust two spear hands forward —
Goliath blocked the right with his left gauntlet, the sound of metal scraping echoing throughout the arena. The hand that got through managed to tear a chunk out of Goliath's shoulder.
With his other hand, Goliath swung down — missing Lenz by a hair as Lenz slid underneath him and took another chunk out of his side.
"WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT — MASTER LENZ HAS USED HIS MUTATION FROM THE GET-GO! THAT SHOULD TELL YOU JUST HOW IMPRESSIVE THIS GOLIATH FELLOW IS!" Ora yelled, practically falling out of the announcer's box as she leaned over the edge.
"Mutation?""These freaks have powers now?""Dirty cheaters" — the voices rang out immediately among the noise.
Ethan could tell James was worried. "You're kidding," James said, covering his mouth with his hands as he leaned back.
That's when Ethan noticed Gio standing there like he was a prop.
"So — I was just informed that I left out a rather important detail," he said like a kid who had "forgotten" to show his report card.
"You see, we Anthorians come from a heavily radiated place." He scratched the back of his head nervously. Even Ethan could feel Moe glaring at him from here.
"And that led us to develop what you humans would call... superpowers."
"WHAT!" James jumped from his seat. "We have to cancel the match!"
Gio looked away for a moment. "Unfortunately we cannot do that — it would forfeit Lenz's honor."
"HONOR?! My guy went in there blind!"
"And as an apology, we plan to offer a gift when the match concludes."
Sensing the humans' worry, Lenz dashed forward again, unleashing a flurry of blows that were met with an immovable guard from Goliath's gauntlets.
Is what everyone else saw.
He's stepping back, Ethan thought with horror. This wasn't the being-pushed-back type of step. It's like when you see a wild beast and know you can't win.
Goliath managed to slip past and land a solid gut punch to Lenz's stomach, which made him curl over. Goliath followed up with a right hook, sending him flying.
But before Goliath could prepare a follow-up, Lenz came back with a spear hand to his face.
For a second — no, a millisecond — Ethan saw a hint of shock cross Goliath's face before he swiftly moved out of Lenz's path and readjusted his stance. Lenz came back with a lunging fist, which resulted in Goliath sidestepping and blocking the follow-up.
Can those gauntlets really hold up? Ethan bit his nail. Without them he's done — and I'm hearing some uncomfortable sounds.
Lenz gritted his teeth. "Anyone ever tell you how annoying you're being?"
"Just. DIE!"
Lenz slammed both hands into the ground and a massive dust storm kicked up.
He ran all around, lunging at Goliath — seemingly appearing from all angles at once — landing cut after cut.
Goliath could do nothing but block, but even that didn't work. Flesh was torn off. Bones were exposed. All while Lenz laughed like a maniac, his voice echoing through the storm.
"What happened? Where's the big bad Goliath? Seem pretty scared to me!" He took off a piece of Goliath's ear.
"Come on, people's hero — fight back! You can't beat me just by guarding!" Goliath tried to swing but kicked up more dust, and Lenz took the chance to drive into his side.
"Say — do you think Lady Moe would like your head with an eye scar?" Lenz lunged at his face, managing to land a shallow cut.
With one final lunge, Lenz aimed at Goliath's heart. Goliath managed to parry and connect with a spinning backfist — but not before Lenz's arm ran all the way down his right arm, peeling the skin off in most places and exposing bone in others.
The crowd let out a collective wince.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT — HE BLOCKED BUT STILL GOT HURT! MASTER LENZ TRULY IS ONE OF A KIND!" Ora roared.
For just a fraction of a second, Goliath looked like he wanted to scream. Ethan could see his hand twitching — fighting the urge to grab the wound.
The world leaders erupted.
"DAMMIT, FINISH IT ALREADY, YOU WASTE OF RESOURCES!" "STOP FOOLING AROUND, GOLIATH!"
Idiots. Why don't you go down there yourselves? Ethan's trigger finger twitched. "COME ON, GOLIATH — YOU'VE GOT IT!"
Ethan could've sworn he saw Goliath's eyes flicker over to him — like an athlete finding the one person in the crowd that gave them the courage to go on.
Goliath charged forward with a left-hand uppercut. Both of Lenz's hands met it, repeating that same grinding noise as Lenz threw Goliath off balance.
And in that split second, Lenz lunged forward.
"FOCAL POINT."
This attack was different. Unnatural. Normally Lenz would set up one punch to lead into another.
Not this time.
He angled his left hand to strike across Goliath's lower stomach. Simultaneously, his right hand descended from above in a parallel cut. When the two points met, a giant hole was torn open in Goliath's stomach — and he let out a loud, booming roar.
"AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS — MASTER LENZ'S VERY OWN 'FOCAL POINT!' A MOVE THAT UTILIZES HIS FISTS IN SUCH A WAY THAT IS VIRTUALLY UNBLOCKABLE!" Ora went crazy.
The Anthorian crowd went wild. Ethan tuned all of it out.
Because when he looked at Goliath, he saw something that made his skin crawl.
Goliath was scared.