It was the day of the next match, and Ardlan's return to the ring. Cosmic Energy manipulation had not seemed easier over those three days, but he did learn a few things, just that they might not help in a fight.
After lessons were over, and students were excused, the gold twins approached Ardlan. Domitia had a subtle smile on her face, while Aelius wore his same stoic indifferent face.
The three moved to the Lance-two trooper after a little small talk, and then began their journey to the neon glowing planetoid. Enoone was a moving artificial planetoid, and it travelled through space reliant on its owners' whims.
Faster than light speed had not been utilized back when they had first arrived, but upon looking the coordinates, Maxine the trooper AI jetted the spacecraft at faster than light speed and in about an hour, it decelerated, and then halted before the gigantic ball of metal splotched with neon lights and activities.
They drove the trooper into a docking bay and approached the pit. Ardlan caught sight of the prostitutes they had met earlier and he had already cringed, but they had learnt from their previous encounter not to approach them.
The three were let in without trouble once more, and they met a match in process. Ardlan had already changed into his red and white signature costume as Primeboy and awaited his turn.
Not long after they entered did the match end and another was to take place. Domitia and Aelius left, moving to the elevated platform for the lords of the match.
Two fights occurred, and then, it was Ardlan's turn. His opponent was a round furry creature that stood upright on four legs, four arms complimented them, and it was just as tall as Ardlan.
Ardlan was quite good in Xenology as his mother was a Xenologist, but he had not seen such a creature in any webpage or electronic books. He was amazed by it.
The alien was calm. It had green eyes that looked like they were netted with black lines, two sunken holes that were its nose and large fangs that jutted from a small mouth. It looked like a cross between a giant man and a spider.
Ardlan was more curious about what it was than looking forward to the exchange of fists, and before he knew it, the announcer had shouted fight.
His alien opponent sprung forward, and swung up its two right arms for an uppercut.
'Fast," Ardlan thought, his legs left the metal ground as he soared upwards, escaping the punch.
He looked down at it from above, 'I am not exactly surprised.'
Then something surprising happened. The creature's mouth gaped, and a large tongue latched forward.
Ardlan's eyes widened, his fists balled. The tongue came for his face with a dangerous swiftness, but once again, Ardlan demonstrated his high reflexes, turning to his right and dodging it.
That had seemed like it was over except the tongue drifted from its linear position and then swung to the side to hit Ardlan. It struck him hard on the chest, hurling him away, and onto the ground.
"Arghhh!"
His opponent didn't have it end there however, it swung down its thick tongue on Ardlan repeatedly, hitting him heavily and incessantly.
"Ohh! This is not a good position for Primeboy, is this it for the man from Ganymede?" The Announcer cried, taking advantage of the scene.
Ardlan laid in a fetal position and it seemed he would continue to get beat when his hand went up and he gripped the creature's tongue.
Cosmic energy on its tongue.
He rose up into flight and glared at his opponent. Suddenly, he pulled its tongue, drawing forward the creature and then he landed a strong punch into its round gut. It wheezed as air escaped its lungs.
Ardlan didn't stop there however, he struck another, landing it squarely on its face, and then left it to fall.
The creature fell with a thud, but it came up swiftly like nothing had happened, though swollen bruises revealed themselves beneath its fur where Ardlan had struck.
Ardlan blinked his eyes repeatedly, he wanted to be sure he was seeing his opponent growing aura perfectly and it was not a hallucination generated by the blows he had received.
He was sure he had inflicted great damage on his opponent, heck the blows would have killed some other opponents so why? Not only did it look unaffected save for the present bruises, but it looked even more energized, and its wide lipless mouth curved to a smile.
Am I fighting a masochist?
The furry creature crouched, preparing itself and then launched at Ardlan, holding two balled hands to strike.
Ardlan entertained its attack, and drifted, lunging a punch of his. Fist met fist, but unlike his opponent, Ardlan could fly, the blow made them momentarily still in the air, but Ardlan quickly maneuvered himself, moving to the creature's back and grappled it, his strong arms holding strongly its torso. He held hard and pulled them both upside down, suddenly diving down and then slamming the alien hard on the ground.
Ardlan surely heard cracks, no way it was getting up after that. He looked down on its face from above, and saw that it had blacked out if it was not dead.
The Announcer was close to counting to Ardlan's victory when it sprung back up.
'Is it immortal?' Ardlan was utterly bewildered, the creature did not seem particularly durable, so where was it finding this might to continue to get up without trouble?
The way it had got up hinted subtly that neither its organs nor supporting structures sustained significant damage, that its black out had merely just been an inactive state it had moulted out from. So, just what would put such a creature down?
Once again, Ardlan could see the field of energy about its fur brimming even more. It was like….
"Is it getting stronger with every damage it takes?"
The creature jumped, not to Ardlan but to the electrocuting force field of death, yet the creature was not harmed by it. It stayed at the side as if it was attached to it, and it peered at Ardlan above.
With his super vision, Ardlan saw that its fur had flattened, and somehow could not conduct the bolts of electricity trapped within the field. A thin yet dense line of cosmic energy laid over its flat fur preventing the invasion of electricity.
"Bring it," Said Ardlan.
As if heeding to his instructions, the creature jumped to another spot on the field, and then again, and again, bouncing from position to position, accelerating with every leap until it was a blur.
Even Ardlan struggled to see it, and when he did, it was above and it sent its powerful tongue down, coating it with copious amounts of cosmic energy.
It was too late for him, the blow struck him squarely on the head, and he felt his world turn over, losing control of flight and crashing on his ground.
"It doesn't seem to be able to manipulate the external cosmic energy well. However, it seems like it got something incredible in return. By collecting hits, and moving, receiving both kinetic and potential energy, the cosmic energy within it surges, turning it to quite an adversary." Domitia explained up above with the other alien sponsors and hosts of the matches.
Ardlan blacked out shortly and then regained his vision, though blurry and then blacked out, and again regained his consciousness. This occurred for a few seconds when he heard the announcer yelling to knock out.
"Ten, Nine…"