— Is it serious that this guy fell for that! — Yuji exclaims, indignant. Henrique remains thoughtful, questioning himself in silence: "How did I lose to this guy?"
Rokko stays completely silent, closely observing the unfolding of the confrontation in the arena. In the medical wing, Jhony also follows the broadcast and murmurs to the screen:
— Hey kid, you're not going to give up. —
At that exact moment, confined by the metal, Yasoke begins to mentalize a projection. In his imagination, he sees himself under a waterfall, meditating on a rock while the violent flow of water beats down on his body. He remains motionless. However, in this mental waterfall, rocks and logs of wood begin to crash directly against Yasoke's back, requiring him to endure the impact.
To resist, Yasoke begins to concentrate pure macogo throughout his entire body, managing, through this energetic manifestation, to tolerate the waterfall and the debris. Transposing the technique from his mind to the reality of the arena, the youth tenses his muscles and bellows:
— I BROKE FREE, DAMN IT! —
With the pure macogo expanded through his body, he shatters the chains that suspended him and lands majestically on the arena floor. The feat elicits applause from Zulmy herself.
— Congratulations, you finally thought. It wasn't even that hard! — the girl ironizes.
Yasoke restarts his warm-up movements.
— Now let's start for real! — he warns.
Zulmy sighs and dashes forward at high speed. Prepared for the collision, Yasoke also advances rapidly. Both combatents rush to meet each other and telegraph their respective punches.
The youth in slippers demonstrates greater speed and unloads the blow first — or, at least, that was what he assumed. With precise reflexes, Zulmy blocks the attack using her chains and, in the same movement, delivers a resounding counter-strike to the pit of Yasoke's stomach.
"Damn her!" the youth rages internally. "Caught you, you disgusting brat," the girl mentalizes, victorious.
Taking advantage of the opening and recalibrating her stance, Zulmy initiates an incessant sequence of blows. She strikes Yasoke's face repeatedly with punches coated by her chains, forcing the young man to retreat a few steps.
In the stands, the reception to the onslaught is mixed.
— Finally a little action! — Yuji manifests excitedly, attentive to every detail of the clash.
— You're only enjoying it because they are hitting each other like two animals! — Henrique points out, although he cannot conceal his own excitement with the dispute. Rokko, however, remains silent.
Seeking to establish a better angle to counter-attack, Yasoke continues to back away.
"Even though I won't be trapped now, I also can't attack properly. What a piece of shit! I'm going to have to think," the youth notes mentally. "This bastard is retreating. You know what? Instead of me going forward, I'll start staying far away," Zulmy plans strategically.
The young woman interrupts the pursuit and dissolves the chains that enveloped her arms. Next, she extends both hands toward Yasoke. The youth anticipates the danger in thought: "She's not going to do that!", to which his opponent responds mentally with determination: "I am going to do that!"
From the palms of Zulmy's hands, new chains begin to emerge. The metal lines triple in volume instantly and go after the opponent. Yasoke dodges the first onslaught and, noticing the approach of the others, assumes a runaway route at a full sprint across the arena.
"You've got to be kidding me, right?" the youth exasperates. "Now I just have to increase the chains. I'll waste a lot of mana, but it will be worth it," Zulmy calculates.
The girl expands the amount of metallic structures crossing the map even further. Overtaken by desperation, Yasoke just keeps running to save himself.
"I'm going to make the chains penetrate the ground," Zulmy decides.
With a sharp movement of her leg, she steps heavily against the arena floor. One of her chains pierces the solid surface, hiding itself and advancing beneath the earth. Noticing the maneuver, Henrique exclaims:
— We're screwed! —
Yuji turns to Henrique and asks:
— Why are we screwed? —
— Zulmy planted a chain in the ground — Henrique explains.
— WHAAAAAAAT! Where is that? — Yuji starts.
— Look at her leg. —
Yuji forces his vision and glimpses the real scenario: it is not just one subterranean chain, but rather three distinct lines piercing the soil.
While fleeing, Yasoke begins to feel the exhaustion of the pursuit. "I've been running for a long time and I'm starting to get tired, but she doesn't show anything. On the contrary, she's smiling?!" The youth takes a deep breath and deciphers his rival's expression. "Yeah, we're fucked!"
Three chains abruptly erupt from the subsoil right ahead of the youth, immobilizing him. In synchrony, the other aerial chains converge upon him, reinforcing the prison's cocoon.
— Come at me, you running bastard! — Zulmy provokes aloud.
With a violent yank, the young woman activates the mechanism. The chains exert a crushing squeeze against the youth's body, squeezing him as they drag him at high speed toward the girl in the dress.
The girl in the dress coats her hand with metallic links and pure macogo, and delivers a powerful punch in the opposite direction of the initial pull, sending Yasoke flying through the air. Before the youth can distance himself, Zulmy pulls him back through the bonds and unloads another heavy punch, establishing a chaotic game of human ping-pong.
The impacts prove extremely effective. Each punch received transmits to Yasoke the sensation of a sword strike piercing his abdominal region. Due to the immense volume of metal enveloping him, he finds himself unable to execute any escape maneuver.
"I can't break free, this is too difficult," Yasoke admits to himself, while the slaughter prolongs itself in the arena.
The torment of Yasoke extends for a good while, drawing the attention of the spectators in the stands.
— Yasoke is screwed! If he concentrates the macogo only on his stomach, he will have his bones broken by the chains. But if he doesn't fortify his stomach, the fight will end — Henrique analyzes gravely.
Yuji lowers his head, discouraged. Rokko, who until then was only observing the punishment, finally speaks up:
— Actually, there is one scenario where he can recover. —
— And what scenario is that, master? — Henrique asks, while Yuji answers promptly:
— He will have to imagine a very intense challenge so that his pure macogo explodes, just like in the rope training. —
Henrique demonstrates curiosity regarding the mentioned "rope training," but chooses not to ask questions. Yuji, for his part, relieves himself internally: "Good thing he didn't ask about that pseudo-training, where I just tied Yasoke to a tree."
In the arena, Zulmy maintains the aggressive rhythm of pulls and punches, beginning to be impressed by her rival's resistance. "This boy isn't going to fall?"
At the epicenter of the blows, Yasoke's suffering reaches its limit. "MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD, THIS IS NEVER GOING TO STOP!!!" He forces his own organism to hold back the vomit and tries to coordinate his breathing. "Calma, calma... How am I going to get out of here? Imagine... Imagine, for love's sake... Imagine, damn it!"
Yasoke closes his eyes and submerges into a new mental projection.
This time, the youth visualizes himself swimming solitary in the middle of an immense ocean, without any sign of civilization around. In the middle of the swim, he begins to feel an extraordinary weight pulling him down, dragging him toward the depths of an indescribably abyssal and dark depth. Yasoke tries to swim against the force, but his efforts prove useless. He activates his pure macogo to power up his movements; even so, the energy is not enough to overcome the ocean's gravity. In return, the weights attached to him increase in scale, sinking him even faster.
Suddenly, a mysterious door manifests above the surface of the ocean. From this opening, an enormous amount of chains emerges and advances directly toward the submerged youth.
"Wait, the bottom is trying to save me? I don't get it..." Yasoke reflects in the illusion.
With no other viable options, the young man makes a bold decision: he turns his own body and begins to swim in favor of the pull, purposely sinking much faster to escape the reach of the upper chains. Concentrating pure macogo with maximum intensity, he accelerates the descent. At that moment, the abyssal depths begin to emit an intense glow. Yasoke swims obstinately toward that light, but the chains from the surface manage to catch and trap him underwater.
Even subjugated, Yasoke generates a concentration of pure macogo so massive that the energy explodes, shattering the metallic bonds inside his mind and allowing him to shoot toward the light.
"Now we're talking," he notes.
Yasoke opens his eyes in the reality of the arena and, in an explosion of real energy, breaks completely free from the confinement of Zulmy's chains.
"No fucking way," Henrique manifests his astonishment in the stands. — No fucking way! — Zulmy externalizes the very same shock aloud, paralyzed before the youth.
Yasoke opens a wide smile, takes advantage of his opponent's completely open guard, and delivers a violent kick directly against the girl's face, sending Zulmy's body flying away.
— But... But how?! — she babbles as she is thrown backward.
— It's the power of imagination, DAMN IT! — Yasoke roars in response.
With the impressive turnaround, the crowd goes completely wild in the stands, while the narrator follows the entire outcome open-mouthed and deeply impressed.