Elemorts

Chapter XIV - Grudge Match

"Well, that is an added bonus, I admit." Mert chuckled. "But allow me to demonstrate its real power. Ms. Artis, if you will, would you strike Utsu as hard as you can?"

"I suppose he will block my blow and throw me to the ground?" Seluna asked uncertainly.

"No, he won't do a thing," Utsu chimed in. "I will take your blow with full force."

"Oh," Seluna exclaimed.

She pulled up her fists and gingerly moved toward Utsu while the latter stood straight, his chest puffed out, arms folded behind his back.

Pinz watched in consternation as Seluna pulled her fist back and then smacked Utsu's face with all her might. Utsu grimaced a little as the turquoise aura briefly pulsated at the point of impact along with a 'bop' noise. Above him, a bit of red crept into Utsu's turquoise health bar indicating the damage he had taken.

"Did it not hurt? Not even a bit?" Pinz asked Utsu.

"Ah, a funny vibration in my head, but other than that, no." Utsu shrugged.

Without warning, Utsu brutally socked Seluna in the face. Pinz jumped in shock, and a shriek escaped her mouth. Seluna's life bar turned completely red as yet another hologram materialized in midair, displaying the words, Fighter One Wins.

"You should have told me before doing that!" Seluna said indignantly.

"My apologies, ma'am," Utsu said, bowing.

Mert cleared his throat. "We here at Galactic Enterprises have always found fighting a bit too... savage, shall we say? Kicking and punching and generally beating your opponent into an oozing mess of enertrons just for sport... it's something that should be best left in the past." The way he spoke, as if in a trance, he might as well have been talking to himself. "The fightsense gear and the fightsense arena shroud the combatants and the battlefield in a polarized force field. The gear also accurately analyzes the combatants' skills and physical conditioning. It tracks the force applied by the attacking combatant in each blow and the endurance of the defending combatant to calculate the damage caused... all the while protecting the combatants from real pain or injury. Even throwing the opponent down onto the floor and knocking them into walls will not hurt them."

Despite herself, Pinz found herself marveling at what she was hearing. Technology designed to eliminate pain from a sport had to be something good. But then, she remembered that Bastelle was dead. Are these people really involved with that? Pinz wondered. "What about twisting your opponent's joints?" she asked.

"The force will be applied, and the joint will be immobilized, but again, the force field will not allow it to be twisted to the point of pain. But since the gear analyzes everything, including endurance, it will automatically cause the defending fighter to lose due to submission if its calculations show that the fighter would have given up had they felt the pain," Mert explained.

"That's... amazing," Pinz whispered.

"Isn't it? So, are you ready? Your fans are waiting up there for your fight. Shall we?"

"Let's!" Pinz replied.

...

"How long do you suppose we have to wait?" Heraclark asked as he lay on the floor, staring at the passageway ceiling.

"We will leave the hotel when that actress of yours does, along with her fans," Jayrock replied, slumped against a wall.

"But, I need to get my blueprints."