Psychic Overlord

If Lucian’s match was surgical and silent, the next match promised to be loud and painful.

As the arena’s obsidian tiles restructured themselves into reinforced stone, a new name thundered across the display.

[Match 5: Tessa Asano "Titaness" vs. Jin Park]

Lysandra’s voice rang out like the bell of war. "Brace yourselves! Because the indomitable brawler of Madam Sylvia’s trio is stepping in! Let’s hear it for Tessa Asano, the Titaness!!"

The crowd’s mood changed instantly as cheers and stomps echoed from the lower stands as Tessa stomped her way into the arena like a freight train.

She cracked her neck once, then her knuckles, before tossing her golden bomber jacket into the wind. Beneath it, her sleeveless compression armor revealed her stacked, muscular build and her arms alone looked like they bench-pressed semi-trucks for breakfast.

"Oh, we’re gonna enjoy this, I like her. She breaks people." Rina grinned wickedly.

Eleanor Seltzer snorted and looked away. "Brute."

Rina chuckled. "Don’t be angry that she beats you up during training, Elie. She’s just too fast for us."

Eleanor blushed angrily and pursued her lips. "I do not get beaten up by her! And I told you not to call me that!"

Across from Tessa stood Jin Park, already in defensive stance. His steel-colored skin shimmered under the light, his A-Class ability allowing his body to generate and control growing layers of living steel like a mixture of Colossus and Magneto.

Even with Tessa grinning and kicking her feet at him in a taunting manner, using her toes to say ’come on!’ to the cheers of the crowd, the fellow didn’t speak, which Kaizer felt was smart.

Lysandra raised her hand. "Begin!"

Tessa didn’t wait for even a second as she dashed forward with a speed unnatural for someone so muscular. Jin barely raised his guard before her fist slammed into it, sending reverberations down the length of the arena.

CRACK!

The first layer of his steel-armored skin shattered like cheap glass and sprayed all over the stage, piercing into it.

Jin grunted, stepping back as new layers surged up from his shoulder, reinforcing the fracture.

"Oh no you don’t, Steel Boy." Tessa smirked, her eyes glowing faintly orange now.

Her body glowed with that same light as her muscles tightened, compressed and then perfected themselves.

BOOM!

She dashed again, this time going low, causing a small scale sonic boom due to her initial velocity breaking the sound barrier right away.

She lifted Jin by the waist with a full-body shoulder slam and body-slammed him into the ground, creating a crater that cracked the nearby floor panels with ease. The audience gasped as shards of metallic armor flew in every direction.

"Titaness has entered gym mode." Roland muttered, taking a slow sip of his drink.

Kaizer observed quietly. "Her strength increases with her understanding of physics. Every move is improved... not just brute strength but calculated power."

Sophia nodded. "That’s why it’s called Perfect Body. It grows through action."

Rina snickered. "Do you know what I called her? I called her Kefla, and when she found out who that was, she immediately agreed hehe!"

Sophia was confused. "Who or what is Kefla?"

"A hot babe from an old fighting anime. She is part of a special alien race that can grow stronger endlessly through training and fighting." Roland explained casually, giving Rina a thumbs up for culture.

Rina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, Joseph Joestar."

Roland spat his drink.

Back on the battlefield, Jin staggered to his feet again, his body now fully encased in metal plating as if he were a walking knight. He launched a flurry of punches, each one landing with force enough to crack walls, their speed unhindered by his metallic casing.

However, Tessa parried each with elbow blocks, redirecting them into glancing hits that did not even leave a bruise on her skin nor did it make her flinch in the slightest.

Then, with a sudden burst of movement when she found an opening, she launched a straight punch to his chest.

BOOM!

The metal there bent inward, causing Jin to spit out a mouthful of blood and stagger backward.

"Time to take out the trash!" Tessa roared, lifting him in a suplex grip and spinning.

One full rotation. Two. Three.

Then she threw him all the way across the entire field. Jin bounced twice against the ground before skidding into the barrier, where he remained motionless, out cold.

DING!

"Winner: Tessa Asano, the Titaness!" Lysandra called, fist raised in approval.

Tessa flexed once to the crowd, grinning wildly before casually tying her jacket back around her waist.

Back in the stands, Rina gave a sharp whistle. "Now that’s a baddie."

Roland grinned. "Bet she cracked three power-lifting records in one fight."

Lucian simply nodded. "Strong."

Kaizer eyes narrowed with seriousness. "She gets stronger mid-fight... this is interesting."

Tessa walked off the platform with a victorious saunter, one hand raised in salute to the crowd.

Given her nature and even with her beautiful looks, she didn’t care about elegance like her ’fellow apprentice sister’ Eleanor.

Tessa only came to punch people into next week... and it worked.

[Match 6: Roland Hayes "Tide" (S-Class – The Wave) vs. Bren Irisa (A-Class – Pulse Zone)]

"Next up, let’s welcome the chillest disaster in this bracket, Roland Hayes! Also known as... The Wave!" Lysandra announced, unable to contain her grin.

Roland casually stepped onto the field like he was arriving at a beach party with his hands in his pockets, white and blue jacket flaring behind him, sunglasses still on despite the shadows.

A strange silvery gray mist curled around his ankles like a familiar pet. It shimmered unnaturally, as if space itself warped where he stepped.

From the opposite side, Bren Irisa approached with a more serious demeanor.

She was a sharp-eyed woman with spiked hair and a suit reinforced with pulse sensors. She was known for generating concussive shockwaves via rhythmic beat patterns—essentially turning her heart rate into a battlefield tempo.

Her ability - Pulse Zone - was a localized force-field resonance that created zones of pressure that could repel, crush, or disorient opponents based on frequency.

She activated it the moment Roland stepped onto the arena as ten glowing domes flickered into place around her.

"Roland Hayes, Esper alias Tide. S-Class. Ability: The Wave. Manipulation of vibrational forces within a controlled field. Area-type dominator." Lysandra listed to give the crowd an idea of his power.

He didn’t even blink.

"And his opponent, Bren Irisa. A-Class. Ability: Pulse Zone. She converts her bio-signals into directed shockwaves."

The crowd waited with curiosity, as this wasn’t a battle of fire or lightning. This was a war of sound and frequency.

"Begin!"

Bren didn’t hesitate as she stomped the floor and pulsed forward, her fists firing off small wave bursts. The ground around her shimmered with kinetic rings as she punched the air, sending directional pulses meant to rattle bones and rupture balance.

In return, Roland didn’t even move.

Instead, a subtle shimmer formed in the space around him, like heat waves on a desert road.

Thumm!

The first pulse from Bren warped and collapsed two meters in front of Roland, its frequency instantly inverted.

Bren’s eyes narrowed as she understood. "Field disruption?"

Roland smirked and adjusted his shades. "Tsk, someone should have warned you, girl. I’m all about the vibes."

She switched tactics, launching a high-frequency shoulder charge and unleashing a double pulse punch straight toward Roland’s chest.

The moment her fist reached within a meter of him, an invisible ripple launched her backward like she’d punched a trampoline made of thunder.

She landed hard, rolling once before getting up, bruised and stunned.

"He’s canceling her waves by setting inverse patterns across the air itself." Sophia said with impressed eyes.

"Not just canceling, this bastard is surfing them." Kaizer added with furrowed brows, noting how Roland used her every motion as the rhythm for his own counter.

On the field, Roland raised a hand and finally stepped forward. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

His fingers moved in fluid arcs, like he was conducting an invisible orchestra. The air shimmered, and then—

FWWWWRRRM!

A circular wave rippled outward from his feet, low-frequency and wide. Bren tried to stand, but her own body vibrated out of sync, knees buckling.

Then came a high-pitched ping, followed by a pulse directly beneath her.

SLAM!

She was thrown into the air and caught mid-fall by a downward counter-wave, slamming her into the floor with a loud crash.

She groaned... and didn’t rise again.

"Winner: Roland Hayes, Tide! Smooth, elusive, and very vibey." Lysandra declared with a small smirk.

Roland gave a two-fingered salute to the crowd, still wearing his sunglasses as he strolled off the platform like it was a red carpet.

Lucian watched him leave and muttered. "Sloppy posture, but tuned the field just right."

Rina grinned. "He plays around too much, but... damn, that was art."

Even Tyrron gave a begrudging nod. "I don’t like music... but that guy’s got rhythm."

Roland winked up at Kaizer from the exit tunnel. "Your move, boss-man."

Kaizer, arms folded, smiled slightly. "Well played."