Hey, King Spike Rules here and I'm back to write Kengen Ashura: Next Gen. I feel better and my mind has many more ideas for future matches of this tournament. Please enjoy.

Chapter 12: Flexing Reflexes

Taaru was currently in his locker room, taping his hands up with bandages as he looked at the door where his employer stood, watching him with a worried smile on his face.

Trying to cheer up his employer, Taaru said "You need to relax." And then, the fighter stood up and walked towards him with a smile on his face, placing his hand on his shoulder before adding, "I'm not going to lose. Not until I get to him."

"But the guy you are facing won over 20 times in a row and is not none for standing down." Kenta said worried for Taaru who just walked down the hall to wait for his call. Kenta watched him until a figure appeared behind himself. Kenta could feel the individual, staring behind him. Turning to look at them, his eyes widened as he realized it was Shibo, smirking down to him.

"I hope you know what you're doing" he stated before turning around and walking away, making Kenta feel uneasy as the tall man added, "I want to see him reach the finals as much as he wants to kill me." Kenta sweated nervously as he watched Shibo walk away. Then he leaned against the wall while breathing heavily just from being close to the imposing fighter.

"H-how can a-a-a-a man like him be real?" Kenta asked himself as he tried to calm down and stand up to meet up with Taaru for his match.

Miyuki stood in the middle of the arena, ready to call out the next fighters while she watched all of the crowd cheering at her, soaking in their cheers and enjoying them calling out to her before she even started to announce.

"Okay. Our next match will host the young blood of a new member of the Kengan matches with only one match under his belt. Master of the new Kuma Style! Coming from Alaska of the United States of America, standing at 6'0 and weighting in at 210lbs. Representing Toshio Leasing."The Roaring Ursa." Taaru Mota!"
She said and put her hand out while smoke filled the arena and metal music played as Taaru came out and did a few basic punches and kicks for the crowd to enjoy.

Then, Miyuki added "His opponent, coming from the wonderful country of Italy. Standing at 6'5 and weighting in at 269lbs. With a record of 24 wins and no loses. Representing Meraviglioso Hotel. "The Bronze Bull" Miguel Leone!" Carmen began to play while a figure appeared in the smoke and started to dance to it, spinning around and dancing as they followed the rhythm. Then, the figure revealed to be a man wearing a matador outfit along with a cape and hat.

The man had a rose in his mouth and looked at Taaru with a smug smile. Taking the flower out of his mouth, Miguel offered it to Miyuki, who blushed and took it from him as she sniffed it. She walked away from the area as the referee walked out to them and looked at both fighters, Taaru stood in his place with arms up in his normal stance with his fingers curled up to show his palms. Miguel was standing there with his cape, as if he was posing for a photography.

"Hey, no weapons!" the referee stated, Miguel looked back at him with a smile as he replied.

"It is not a weapon, it is a piece of cloth attached to my arm." Miguel extended his arm to the referee, the man looked it over and then called up to the judges.

"Alright, they say you can keep it so long as you don't hurt Taaru with it." the referee said and Miguel nodded, looking at Taaru and standing in front of with the smug smile still on his face.

Seeing that both fighters looked ready, the referee yelled, "FIGHT!" Taaru took his chance and moved forward with quick steps while having his hands up and ready to strike, watching Miguel closely for any move he may try to pull. Seeing he only stood there watching him, Taaru threw a punch only for Miguel to throw his cloth over his head. Taaru was blinded quickly and soon tripped, falling forward only to have a kick strike him in the face, sending him staggering back a few feet until he caught his balance and held his face in pain.

"Olay," Miguel said with a mocking tone before doing a few dance moves and move the clothes around, much to the crowds cheers as Taaru was starting to get mad.

"Asshole." Taaru said charging at him again and throwing a flurry of punches at Miguel, who continued to redirect them with the cloth and landing cheap shots whenever Taaru left an opening. This annoyed Taaru so much he started to swing his fists out with a fury Kenta could tell he had never seen before. He was getying worried as Taaru seemed to start to lose himself in this fight.

"I don't get what's going on." Kenta said to himself while watching the fight from the tunnel and looked nervous as he saw Miguel make Taaru look like a blind bull.

"That's simple." a voice called out and Kenta's eyes widened out of shock. He turned around and saw a pair of strong men walking up to him. He didn't know who these two were. But he could feel something was off with them as they were wearing suits.

"What do you want with me?" Kenta asked, putting up a fake glare and acting up brave in hopes they would think twice. This only made them chuckle at his faux attack, and they quickly cornered him against the wall.

"You see, our boss has a bet of a lot of money against Taaru." one of them said with a smirk plastered all over his face and Kenta instantly realized what they were trying to do. He looked at them with a serious look on his face and was about to say something when the other pulled out a gun with a silencer on it.

"You have to the count of three to quit or else..." he said rising the gun and pressing it against Kenta's head, making him gulp hard as sweat began to pour down his face while taking deep breaths. "One..." he started while Kenta blinked and his mind raced over what he should do to get out of this. In the area, Taaru got another kick to the side and glared at Miguel, who stood there.

"Is that all the great black horse of the tournament can do?" he asked smirking at his opponent while Taaru held his side, the kicks Miguel landed were slowly wearing him out. He breathed hard and stared at Miguel, but his attention was soon stolen by the tunnel, where he saw a pair of guys threatening Kenta at gun point.

"Two..." the guy said pushing it harder into his temple. Kenta silently prayed for a miracle to happen, closing his eyes when the guy opened his mouth to say, "Thr….." A hand wrapped around his neck and it was instantly snapped, killing the man while turning the gun away from Kenta.

The other guy pulled out his own gun and aimed it to whoever killed his companion, only to have a large hand wrap around his head. Kenta opened his eyes when he heard screaming coming from the guy and his eyes went wide when he saw that it was Shibo who was holding the guy in his hand.

The imposing man looked down at Kenta, who had a look of pure fear on his face. Shibo gave him a smile before crushing the guys head in an instant, silencing his screams with a sickening crushing sound.

"These two should have known better than to mess with Taaru, or his handler." Shibo said dropping the body of the guy and looked down at Kenta, who was cowering on the floor while feeling a darkness setting over him. Seeing Shibo over Kenta infurated Taaru as he was watching from the area. When Miguel saw what his opponent was looking at, he felt annoyed. Taaru was not paying attention to him.

"Don't act like your above me!" Miguel said throwing a punch at Taaru, who simply tilted his head to the side, dodging the punch.

"Hibernation: Level one." Taaru said before throwing a powerful punch of his own, slamming his fist into Miguel's face and following up with a kick to his side. Miguel was knocked off balance and staggered back before a punch to his stomach knocked the air out of him, and it was followed by a palm strike to his face. Miguel fell to the ground, barely conscious. Not losing an instant, Taaru delivered another palm strike to his face, knocking him out cold. The crowd was shocked as Taaru rose from his position and turned back to the tunnel, only to see a stunned Kenta by himself with no sign of Shibo even being there. The referee looked at Miguel for a few moments before standing up.

"The winner by knock out, Taaru Mota!" he said as Taaru walked out of the area as the crowd cheered loudly and EMTs looking at Miguel. Taaru walked up to Kenta, seeing he was shaking, the fighter put his hand on his employer's shoulder.

"Relax, your safe now." Taaru said to reassure kenta, who smiled back at him and stood up straight, walking with Taaru towards the locker room. Kenta let Taaru some time to be alone, but the moment the door closed, Taaru dropped to his knees. Holding his ribs while feeling sick as he threw up out of nowhere. 'S-shit, level one does this much damage?' Taaru thought, his vision started to get blurry and he held onto the wall.

"Told you your body needed more training." a voice said from out of nowhere and Taaru turned around to look for the owner, but he saw nothing more than what was already in the room, none else was there but him. Collecting himself, Taaru changed back into his normal clothes and walked out to meet up with Kenta.

"Hey, feeling better?" Kenta asked him smiling and wondered how he was feeling from the fight he had just gone through.

"Yeah, but I'm starving." he said holding his stomach, which growled on cue, making Kenta chuckle at the situation.

"Then come on, let's eat. This place makes free food for the participants." he smiled, leading Taaru off down the hall and they headed out, not noticing Shibo was watching them from the other end of the hall.

"He can use level one, as expected from your son." he said with his arms crossed and then vanishing into the shadows, letting them leave without noticing him.

TBC.

There it is for that chapter and I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you think of it. The next match will be a fun one.