1260 No Cowards Author's Note: Unedited Chapter -------------- 'But what if we're not together or in one piece...' Guatav didn't want to voice out his concerns and sound more troubled than he looked so he only nodded in response. "You're right..." Gustav and E.E continued discussing for some time as E.E threw in occasional jokes to lighten the mood. Gustav couldn't help but chuckle a couple of times before he finally decided to retire to his room and channel his bloodline for the rest of the night. ------ The next day arrived in a jiffy and the IYSOP participants were once more gathered in the arena. Cheers~ Cheers~ Cheers~ Spectators cheers for their plamet representatives to boost their morale as they stepped into the arena. Spectators from disqualified planets were allowed to remain present till the end of IYSOP. Some of these spectators were still sour from their planets losing but others had already gotten over it and picked new favourites to support. -"I will stake my bets on the Draconets," -:Nah for me I'll pick Ozious, captain Vilax is my current favourite," -"I'll place my bets today with logic instead of favouritism," -"If I see two participants paired and I'm sure one is more powerful than the other, I'm placing my bets today on the more powerful one," -"I'm with that Kid from earth Endric," The arena was loud as usual before the computerised system began picking out participants for the next batch. Now that less than six hundred planets were left, it would only take around four batches for every planet to have one representative each who had been picked by the computerised system. This would mean that after 80th batches, every single participant would have gotten the chance to be picked to be a challenger at least once besides getting challenged. The first batch since the disqualification started off high as more participants from higher ranked planets were seen on the list. -"Captain Strum?" -"I can't believe one of the strongest captains was picked again," -"Who do you think he will challenge?" -"Doesn't he have a bone to pick with earth's captain?" -"In his previous batches he picked other opponents though," -"This should be interesting," The crowd went nuts after spotting Captain Strum's name amongst the first batch after disqualification. The participants area had an air of tension permeating the environment. Besides Captain Strum, a lot of other strong participants were included in this batch. Some of them hoped they wouldn't get picked by participants from this batch since it was filled with a lot of strong foes. "Do you think he will issue a challenge now?" Aildris asked from the side. Gustav at this moment was staring at the stage on ths northeast area of the arena. Despite how distant this stage was from their waiting area, he had locked eyes with a particular participant. "I don't think so... for whatever reason, he might be biding his time," Gustav responded while maintaining eye contact. The person he was staring at was none other than Captain Strum who was also staring back at earth's spectators area as he tapped on the participant he intended to challenge. -"Is he challenging Captain Crimson?" -"They're really glaring at each other, aren't they?" -"He might actually challenge him," -"Oh my..." Trrinnhhhh~ The screens displayed the participants that had been challenged in the next instant causing those who were expecting a showdown between the two captains to display looks of disappointment. < Strum Xilgard (Planet Draconet) Vs Zilk Flawen (Planet Phixiq) > Captain Strum challenged the captain of Planet Phixiq. -"Well that was a twist," -"I think the battle might still be fun since they're both captains," -"Who do you think will win?" -"I am with Captain Strum," -"Without a doubt Captain Strum has this in the bag," The battle between participants soon began after their opponents has accepted the challenges. Gustav and the others watched as the battles began. They were finally seeing battles between opponents that had never been paired before. Planet Phixiq was not weak but they also were not amongst the top hundred. At least not since the versus battle challenge began. Captain Zilk despite being one of the five hundred captains, was truly not a match for Captain Strum. The battle was entirely one sided with Captain Zilk continously sending forth attacks that Captain Strum would evade or reverse with his time spear. From the start tull finish of the battle Captain Strum played with Captain Zilk, completely humiliating him with barrages of attacks that would only inflict a little damage. It almost seemed like it wasn't a battle between Captains as Strum completely decimated Zilk at the end of the Battle like he was just a random foe. < Strum Xilgard Wins (Planet Draconet) > < 1000 Points Attained > 'Well that's disappointing... he just raised his number of points by another thousand,' Gustav thought while staring at the holographic number floating above Captain Strum's head. '5,700 Points' Gustav currently had '4200' points floating above his head and was already closing in on Captain Strum's points initially but now another 1000 gap had been put in between them. -"That is scary," -"Captain Strum might be the strongest captain," -"It is hard to tell when Captain Irand has never taken damage from a single battle as well," -"Let's not forget Captain Crimson," -"And Captain Vilax," -"It is truly difficult to tell," -"This edition of IYSOP holds one of the strongest generation of youngsters ever," The participants couldn't deny that watching Captain Strum's battle made them more wary of him than anyone else. While it was difficult to tell who the most powerful captain was, there was no doubt that Captain Strum seemed to be the most brutal and prideful. No one was interested in challenging someone like that. Most of them believed they'd have a better chance with other captains. The batch soon came to an end with Captain Strum and Captain Irand being the highlights of this batch. They had both dealt with their opponents easily, although Strum had fought a fellow captain. The next batch soon arrived and another 150 participants moved towards the stage. Amongst them was the captain of the Klaxosapes. The crowd went bonkers again, as it seemed like every batch was starting to have captains in it. They wondered who he would pick as he walked onto the stage that looked like an ancient ruin of sorts. There were already cracks and fissures on the ground which was charred. Multiple wrecked battle spacecraft were scattered across the place and the air on this stage reeked of destruction and death. It looked like a real battle field with multiple platforms floating in mid air and the center of gravity happened to be weird as well. Thrrriiihhnnn~ Occasionally destructive red beams would shoot down from above, causing the area it collided with to be decimated. This meant that, even during battle, the participants had to be careful so as not to get hit by the red beams. The red beams happened to be very random and would hit unexpected places so they truly had to keep an eye out for that while facing their opponent. A lot of spectators were focused on Klaxosapes captain stage in particular since they felt he was the strongest captain that was picked in this match. The other participants picked their opponents quickly. Klaxosapes Captain picked his opponent as well and as soon as the spectators discovered who he picked, they went bonkers once more. ----sss Fwwwhoooomm~ The circular beam flew off into the distance with the beast within, returning a bit of tranquility to the environment. 'Lucky,' E.E face displayed a relived expression once more as he moved to the side and took a seat. On the other side, Gustav hugged Angy's body to his as he fully regained clarity. "Thank you," He whispered. "Hnm, I'm glad you're alright," Angy voiced while rubbing his back affectionately. Gustav face displayed a smile as he relaxed completely for a while, closing his eyes and soaking in the warmness of her body. After some time he opened his eyes with a single thought in mind, 'What was that?' He wondered for a couple of seconds as he tried to recall what could have brought about that. 'Fear... even though I told the system to restrict itself and go offline, it shouldn't be a reason for me to develop such deep fear that would cause a panic attack,' He thought. After thinking for a few more minutes, Gustav finally figured it out. The encounter with these beasts here and wearing himself out... his last thoughts before he entered the state of panic was... powerlessness. While he hadn't noticed it, he subconsciously feared going back to being plain old Gustav with only the ability to change his hair color and a strong penchant for suicide. He thought he had forgotten the feeling of powerlessness... He was unaware that he had been cultivating the fear of going back to being the same weak and useless person he used to for years.𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 An incident like this was the only thing needed to trigger the overwhelming fear of powerlessness that had been creeping from deep within. Internally he was extremely grateful for Angy and E.E's presence since he had no idea what he would have done if they weren't here. < 10,000 Points > "My life points have maxed out," E.E voiced from the other end as he stared at his Iov bracelet.