There was a pinch in Yue Shan"s eyebrows.
He looked at the Explosive Man seriously.
"Are you hearing what you"re saying?"
The innocuous question never reached the Explosive Man. Instead, what he heard was Zhao Yao"s heavily edited version.
"I"m going to count to 10. If you do not get on your knees and beg for forgiveness by the time I reach 10, you"ll suffer a fate worse than death."
Explosive Man fixed his eyes on Yue Shan. "Have you guys gone mad?"
Once again, that went through the Zhao Yao filter and came out as, "It"s been decided then? I"ll have you know the more you fight it, the more excited I get."
The super creepy threat raised the hairs on the Telekinetic Knights" necks. Two of them lunged forward, but Yue Shan raised a hand to stop them from attacking.
"Don"t be rash. There"s no point in this. We"re near the pit stop. Let"s just get there."
He then turned to face Explosive Man, arms raised in surrender.
"We don"t mean any offence," he stated firmly.
Explosive Man could see the gesture, but what he heard was completely different.
To him, Yue Shan was still talking trash, "See this? I don"t even need a weapon in my hand to fight you. I"m going to start counting now."
"One...two...three...four…"
The vein running down the Man"s forehead was bulging again. It looked as if it would break through the skin"s surface.
He was seething with rage.
This time, Zhao Yao did not even have to transform his words.
"I"ll grant you your death wish."
He launched himself at the trio.
"Hey?! What"s this?" the Cat King of the North exclaimed, staring at the showdown on the screen with his mouth wide open, "Don"t know what happened between them, but they"re fighting. They"re actually fighting."
Explosive Man had propelled himself forward with the explosive energy he generated. Yue Shan responded by raising his hand and clenching his fist. He had bound the man with a telekinetic grip, but that was shattered when he made a series of explosions.
The Explosive Man was still fighting to reach the Knights.
The impact of their collision was earth-shattering. The camera could not pick up the sonorous boom that it created, but it recorded the mushroom of smoke and dust that erupted.
One of the Knights ran straight into the middle of the clash.
The King of the North noticed.
"Gos.h.!.+ One of the Knights just charged right into the battle. Let me see, I have no idea who"s this...Metalhead? Yes, Metalhead has gone in!" he shouted.
As the dust settled, the outline of Explosive Man holding Metalhead in a chokehold. He broke into another explosion, which ripped Metalhead"s clothing into shreds, revealing the coc.o.o.n of metal that had wrapped around every part of his body.
Metalhead threw a punch at Explosive Man"s chest.
They were called the Telekinetic Knights, but that was technically incorrect. Only Yue Shan had telekinesis. Metalhead was a metal man, while the remaining teammate was more like a rubber man.
The combined impact of their powers was astounding, so Explosive Man was quickly subdued.
"The Explosive Man is down! The damage from telekinesis is inescapable. The metal man and rubber man are practically human s.h.i.+elds. The Telekinetic Knights make an undefeatable team! The Explosive Man has no chance."
The Explosive Man knew this as well. There was indignation in his eyes, but he stopped fighting back. Instead, he made a run for the beach.
He could not win them, at least not now. He would have his chance after he got past this round.
Time went still before he could take more steps forward.
The entire world descended into silence.
"Not so easy," Zhao Yao laughed.
He had appeared next to the Explosive Man in a split second. He could move and even think six times faster than before. This expanded his 12-second TimeFreeze into a comfortable 72 seconds.
In that time, he fished for the sapphire from the Explosive Man"s s.h.i.+rt pocket, then balanced it on the lip of the pocket. He pulled the edge of his s.h.i.+rt.
When time resumed, the Explosive Man felt a force tug at his s.h.i.+rt as the sapphire dropped to the ground.
He did not hesitate to jump to the conclusion that Yue Shan was behind this. He was trying to steal his sapphire with telekinesis.
"What the f**k is wrong with you?!" he yelled.
He launched another explosion in Yue Shan"s way, not as a form of attack, but a s.h.i.+eld. He did not want them to see him as he dived for the fallen sapphire.
Unfortunately for him, time stopped again when his fingers grazed the gemstone.
Zhao Yao had appeared next to him once more. He studied the sapphire"s position, looked to Yue Shan, then back again.
He gave it a forceful kick.
When the seconds started ticking away again, the sapphire was already hurling towards Yue Shan.
Yue Shan had no clue what was coming his way. All he saw an incoming shadow. Instinctively, he caught it with his telekinetic force. He dropped the sapphire when he saw what it was.
Taking more than one sapphire for yourself was grounds for elimination.
"Explosive Man, take your sapphire and just leave. We"ll take it that nothing happened between us," he suggested.
Like the Man, Yue Shan had no desire to continue battling. He just wanted to advance to the next round.
Of course, this intention was completely lost in translation thanks to Zhao Yao.
His words sounded like a challenge in Explosive Man"s ears, "The sapphire is right here, kid. Why don"t you get on all fours and crawl to me like a good dog? You can hold it in your mouth like a frisbee, then crawl back like the good dog that you are."
Flames were practically erupting from his eyes.
"You...are...too...much..!"
The showdown continued. Zhao Yao made sure to stop time whenever there was an explosion. He would turn out the pockets of the Knights and scatter the sapphires. To the undiscerning eye, it looked like they inevitably fell out from the intense scruffle.
The trio hardly noticed that their gemstones were gone. The Explosive Man kept closing in on them, forcing them further and further away from the entrance.
He was going at them with all that he got. As government officials, the Telekinetic Knights could not do the same. They could only defend themselves as best as possible.
"This is unbelievable," the Cat King of the North commented, "There must be bad blood between those two. Why else would they fight to the death when they just met?"
There was a flurry of discussion among the captive audience in the elimination zone. It seemed like no one expected such a fierce battle to actually take place in the compet.i.tion. The weird part was it seemed to have started for no reason at all.
Liu Yun was one of those who had no clue what was going on. Fishball, however, had an inkling.
"Why do I feel that this has something to do with that Zhao Yao fella?" he wondered, eyes glued to the screen.
On the naval vessel, Inspector Ho slammed both hands on the desk angrily.
"What the h.e.l.l is this?" he demanded, "Why have Yue Shan and the team started a fight with Explosive Man? Did we not tell them that the objective of this round is to just pa.s.s? We take out compet.i.tors the next round!"
Lin Chen was still standing next to him. Compared to the Inspector, he was the paragon of calm.
"It"ll be fine. It"s only been 15 minutes. Yue Shan still has 45 minutes to get to the pit stop," he said.
Now that the fight he started was in full swing, Zhao Yao was ready to execute the next stage of his plan.
He instructed the Serval to keep an eye on the video footage of the battle, then took his leave.