~Chapter 9- Corri & Hita~

After seeing how well everyone else had done so far, Corri began to twiddle her thumbs in anticipation, nervous to go out on stage in front of all those people.

Corri looked at the brown-haired girl Hita doing a quick stretch in preparation of their upcoming match. She was agile and nimble. Corri remembered seeing Hita in action back at the Fighting Academy, she managed to beat both Aero and Jirro there. The little girl seemed like the self-improvement type too.

Corri had trained on her own, but not very seriously, only doing it when she wasn't preoccupied with something else. She had to admit, she was about to fight someone who was stronger, faster, and more skilled than her. But she wasn't about to go out there and humiliate herself.

"Now for your next match! Hita Vs. Corri! These two ladies are the youngest of our competitors to make it to the finals at twelve and thirteen years old respectively. Each of them tore through their preliminary matches!" Cho announced.

"This should be quick," Hita said under her breath.

Corri let out a deep breath and forced herself to take on a confident and powerful persona, one that might intimidate her. Corri couldn't help but notice that boy Efilon was still sitting in the corner with his eyes closed.

The two girls walked out with each other to the stage.

"You've got this!" Echoed from the crowd. Corri saw members of the Fighting Academy cheering Hita on.

As Corri looked around at the hundreds watching, she saw her father among the crowd. This was her chance to show him how much she's grown without him. That she was better off without him. It would serve him right for abandoning them.

Corri took a light on her feet stance... but cursed herself as she did. It was a stance her dad taught her that she used on instinct. She adjusted it slightly, so she could call it her own.

She looked across the stage at Hita, she was calm yet focused without a hint of doubt in her eyes. Corri would make her regret underestimating her.

The drum was beat, and Corri leapt forward, her red hair trailing behind her. The look of surprise on Hita's face was priceless. Corri met the girl with a series of punches which she barely managed to evade. But Corri didn't stop, continuing to attack relentlessly at every angle. Through sheer aggression she broke through Hita's guard and struck her in the face.

"Point to Corri! 1-0! Return to your starting positions."

Hita looked at Corri angrily, "That won't happen again," The little girl growled.

"We'll see about that," Corri smirked. She wanted to get her angry, make her sloppy.

Corri figured she'd come in strong again, it worked well before. As soon as the drum signaled them to resume their match, Corri bounded through the air at her opponent. But Hita was prepared this time, she skillfully parried and evaded each of Corri's wild attacks. Hita threw a low sweeping kick which knocked her off her feet and onto the ground, followed by a heel kick to Corri.

"Point to Hita! 1-1! Return to your starting positions."

Corri had trouble breathing from the heel kick, she looked up and saw Hita staring at her coldly. The red-haired girl forced herself onto her feet. As she walked back to her side of the stage, she thought that she simply wasn't aggressive enough. She needed to come in even stronger.

When the drum signaled them to start again, Corri bounded through the air to attack, but Hita did as well, intercepting her in the air and delivering a swift kick to her side, knocking her to the ground with an oomph!

"Point to Hita! 2-1! Return to your starting positions!"

"It looks like the younger of the girls is the better fighter."

"Of course she is! She's a part of the Fighting Academy!"

Okay, that didn't work, Corri thought. The same trick won't work twice on her. Not only that, but every strike of Hita's hurt terribly. Her side was aching from that last kick.

She had to try something else. Maybe she could use Focus to attack from afar. But Corri wasn't very adept with the ability, it might just tire her out. But weaker Focus attacks could be used as a distraction for something else. That might work.

Corri readied herself, and with a drum beat she started punching the air in quick succession, and faint bursts of yellow light left her hands and flew towards Hita. The brown-haired girl bobbed and weaved to avoid them. Corri was obscured by the light. But when one of them struck Hita's shoulder and felt like a mere tap, she knew there was no power behind any of them. Hita charged forward through the Focus Bursts.

But Corri was gone.

Hita looked around the ring and saw no sign of her. If she had looked up, she would've realized that Corri jumped nearly a dozen meters into the air and was now careening down behind her.

Corri clasped her fists together and as she came down she slammed her hands into Hita's back. Hita shouted in pain and fell to one knee from the strike, and the crowd cheered that Corri's maneuver had succeeded.

"Point to Corri! 2-2! Return to your starting positions!"

"Quite the trick that Corri girl pulled!"

The strike Corri landed hadn't seriously hurt anything but Hita's pride. She glared over her shoulder at Corri, and she shuddered at the sight. Hita was angry now.

The two girls took their starting positions. The drum was beat.

Hita moved so quickly that she became a blur. Before she knew it a fist had struck her cheek and she was falling over.

"Point to Hita!" 3-2! Hita takes the match!"

Corri's cheek was bruised and tender to the touch. She looked up at Hita who stared at her coldly, but that look turned to a friendlier one as she extended her hand to her, "Thanks for the match."

Hita picked her off the ground and the two left the ring towards the finalist's lobby, "I'm sorry for underestimating you. You're a much better fighter than I thought."

Corri sighed, "It's okay, I guess. You're a great fighter too."

"I'm glad to see other girls in the competition. If you set your mind to it, you could be truly great," Hita lauded her.

"Thanks."

"You're always around Jirro. Why is that?" Hita asked.

"Oh, he's my cousin. Aero is my older brother," Corri explained.

"Really!? But you three look nothing a like," Hita glanced at Aero and Jirro who were watching from the finalist's lobby window. "Actually, I can kind of see it now. I was sort of worried that you and Jirro were boyfriend and girlfriend."

Corri laughed out loud, "No, no. Definitely not. Wait, what do you mean you were worried?"

Hita began to blush, "Not worried! Just curious!"

Corri smiled lightly. It looked like Hita developed a bit of a crush on Jirro.