<h4>Chapter 353: A Good Solid Punch</h4>


    Once Rock was back on the pedestal, Seralina put her down, and then Uncle reached into his beard with a fist made out of the same beard to pull out arge rock that was easily as long as he was tall and about as wide. *What? Where the hell was he hiding that?*


    Kamiko''s expression mirrored Kat''s and when Uncle saw this he chuckled lightly and said, "Pocket dimension in my beard. Don''t worry about it" and snapped the rock in half before cing it on either side of Rock.


    "I''m tempted to leave her like this, but I don''t want to inflict ah… hmm, I wanna say five year old? Rock on you all" said Uncle


    Seralina bowed as well as she could as a Lamia. This mostly involved raising part of her snake body a bit further back as it seemed her spine didn''t really bend the same way a normal human''s did. It could go backwards fine, but not very far forwards at all.? "Thank you Uncle. I have no desire to deal with a younger Rock. She has trouble controlling herself at a young age and previously I promised her parents I''d ensure she didn''t make a fool of herself in that form. Luckily, she can do that well enough in her full sized form, but I try" said Seralina with a slight giggle at the end.


    "Right" Uncle said with a p of the two hands he materialised from his beard for that purpose. "Kat are you ready for you next match, all energy returned?" when he received a nod he continued "Ok good, in that case who wants to go next?"


    "I would be honoured if you fought me first" said Percy.


    "Welp good enough for me. Get down there you two" said Uncle


    Kat jumped down and asked as she was gliding to her circle. "What are we fighting till?"


    "Serious injury or confinement" said Percy. "I believe my armour will protect me well enough that first blood would not be enjoyable for us both."


    *That might be true but I''m starting to wonder if maybe I need more practice dodging. I mean sure, my regen takes very little energy even for serious wounds and I can use that to trade for much worse injuries on my opponents but maybe I should get better at dodging faster people or ones that actually hurt? Food for thought I suppose.* "Sounds fine to me" said Kat.


    Percy took a bit longer to reach his own circling, havingnded hard. He didn''t seem injured but when he jumped off it took him a few seconds to start moving again. *I wonder if that''s something I should look out for. Maybe he can absorb damage if he stands still for a bit or something? That would be interesting.*


    Soon, Percy reached his tform, and Uncle started the countdown for them both.


    3, Percy gave a quick stretch and shook his arms out as best he could.


    2, Kat crouched into her running form, tail at the ready for its strike, knowing that her fists would be limited against the armour, and forgetting about the prating power of her nails already.


    1, Percy dropped to a horse-riding stance. He had his arms crossed in front of him, one foot slightly forward and knees bent majorly.


    Kat took off as fast as she could toward the Pit Fiend that was simply watching as she approached. As Kat got closer and closer, it became clearer and clearer that Percy didn''t intend to move in the slightest. Kat took the challenge and mmed a fist into his armoured shoulder, and her tail into his stomach, not wanting to go for his now helmeted head. *When did that get there? Never mind I don''t want to cause brain damage or something anyway.*


    Kat''s opening salvo didn''t have energy backing it and so when she struck Percy, other than a loud ng of impact, he didn''t even react. Kat pulled her hands back, and continued running past him, tail at the ready in case he made some move as she charged past but… nothing.


    *Um… ok?* Kat stopped and turned around and saw he was still there, same position, hardly moved at all. *Is he still in there?* Kat turned her hearing to the guy and realised she could clearly still hear his breathing in the suit. *Well now I''m just confused.*


    Kat walked slowly back towards him, taking her time to n her next move as she did so. *Right, the sounds confirm that he is still inside that armour, and that he isn''t hiding somewhere else. I could use more force perhaps but I''m not sure that is the best idea. I could also try and tear pieces of his armour off… but I''m not sure how easily repaired that is.*


    *Wait no, it''s almost certainly demonic attire, so it should be fine right.* "Hey, is that armour repairable?" asked Kat.


    To her surprise, it was actually Uncle who answered. "Anything you wear into the arena is to be presumed destroyed!" with a shout to carry the words.


    *Ok, first off… why did you yell? Do we not all have super hearing? Actually maybe we don''t, Percy might not, and Uncle probably wanted him to hear. Ok, next… that doesn''t really answer my question. Sure it''s a self-imposed limitation but if I''d be destroying valuable armour I think I can find a better way. I mean, I''m here because of my debt, and while it isn''t too bad, that doesn''t mean I want to send someone else down this path.*


    Kat had reached Percy at this point. She lightly tapped his armour on the back between his wings, and it seemed just as solid as before. *Hmm, wings aren''t moving but…* Kat tapped them as well… and found that they gave a metallic ng when she did so. Huh, interesting.


    Poking at the wings a few more times established that something interesting was going on, and trying to move them with limited force didn''t seem to work. *Right, so Percy seems to be pretty tough. How do I want to break him? Exposed skin clearly isn''t the way because that''s just as hard, or at least close but… wait a second.*


    "Hey Uncle… does this count as confinement seeing as Percy isn''t moving?" asked Kat


    Uncle gave a bigugh, and Seralina was giggling as well. Percy''s brothers seemed less amused at the question, for while innocent, was rather rude in their eyes. "Not really. I''m sure he can move if he wants." said Uncle.


    *Well alright then.* Kat then went to look over the outfit. Her n was to search for any buckles or straps that she could undo to start taking off the armour Percy was wearing, thinking that it would be easier and polite to do so, just in case it was strong.


    What Kat was surprised to find though, is that there wasn''t any. The pauldrons were bolted to the chest, with a leather strap running from the other side to the arm. The chest piece seemed to be practically welded on, and the armguards were just as impossible to remove.


    *What the heck? Was he like baked into his armour or something?* Kat paused for a moment. *Actually if this is demonic attire that isn''t the craziest idea. He can summon and dismiss it as he wants, there are less weak points because the armour doesn''t need toe off, and it''s fitted perfectly because it was made around his body.*


    *Welp, time to punch shit really hard, I guess.* Kat took a step back so that Percy was just barely in punching range, and thenically spun her arm around as she charged it as full of energy as she could. Once a purple mist was spilling out of the arm in question Kat released all that power straight into Percy''s back between his shoulder des.


    What happened next, would be a surprise to both contestants. There was the awful sound of tearing metal as Percy''s boots that were actually connected to the floor were ripped from him as he went flying. His flight mmed him head first into the wall with a horrible cracking noise.


    Percy''s unconscious formy slumped against the wall he''d just hit and Kat stared dumbfounded. Even Uncle''s call of "Winner Kat! Match Over!" did nothing to break her stupor.


    *Ok no seriously what just happened? I mean why didn''t he move at all if he was that weak? I didn''t even use my legs; I just punched the guy? Sure, it was full strength but… that seemed to be his only gimmick? Is… is he really weak or is Seralina and Rock… or maybe just Seralina, actually rather impressive for Rank 1''s?*


    Kat looked over where the boots were still clearly connected to the floor. *Was this… no I don''t follow. Was he trying to use the power of the floor maybe? My punch was too much and took out the weakest link which was the bottom of his shoes for some reason? Maybe I''ll just ask the others…*