Starbound: A Space Odyssey 43 Hangover 11

The female Floran's feet missed John's face by centimeters.

After a few exchanges, John was able to find a balance between his body and mind, by controlling how much he want to slow down the world around him.

To fight against the Apex and the middle-aged man he used his Bullet Time to the maximum, slowing down the world to ten times the real speed.

John was forced by the female Floran's onslaught of attacks to find the proper balance between the speed that his mind was working and the speed that his body could accompany.

After being beaten up like a ragdoll for a few minutes, John found out that the best was to slow down the world by three times.

*Woosh*

John dodged another attack.

He was now able to dodge, but... He was unable to counterattack.

John rolled backward gave her a low kick.

The Floran easily jumped, wanting to make John's attack useless, but...

*Bam*

While his leg was in a horizontal motion it suddenly stopped and then flew vertically, hitting the Floran right in the jaw.

She flew backward for a few meters and then graciously landed on her feet.

She blankly stared at John like she was confused about what had happened.

John finally found a way to hit the Floran despite her speed.

When he tried to give a low kick it was, in fact, a faint. The real attack would come later, when he attacked he switched the 3-time slower Bullet Time to the 10-time slower, with this change he was able to see in details every motion made the female Floran. He used this to his advantage and predicted her next move when this was done he switch it back to 3-time slower and changed the attack.

Using this switching technique he can give a faint attack, predict the opponent's next move, and then change his attack accordingly.

[I can do this.] John's whole body was covered in bruises and wounds from the Floran's almost deadly strikes. He cleaned his bloodied lips and faced the Floran that had already recovered from her confusion.

The Floran was enraged and immediately charged toward John.

John nonchalantly entered in fighting stance and threw a punch forward.

The Floran dodged by simply inclining the head to the side, making John's hand miss the target by centimeters.

She was ready to follow up with an attack when John's arm suddenly stopped and moved to the side.

*Bam*

The Floran was sent to the side by John's elbow attack.

John ran toward her and tried to catch her.

The Floran bent her body and escaped from John's clutches.

She did a twirl and landed with her hands on the ground.

She immediately threw a roundabout kick.

*Whoosh*

John inclined his whole body backward, making the kick miss the target. He swiftly returned to normal and reached his hand for the leg.

He caught the Floran's leg, lifted her high and mercilessly threw her in the ground.

*BAM!*

The Floran spat a mouthful of green blood and started to moan in pain.

John stopped for a moment to catch his breath. His head was starting to hurt from the multiple uses of Bullet Time, and his whole body was screaming in pain from the Floran's earlier attacks.

John almost fainted when he saw that even after that devastating move the female Floran was able to stand up again, even though she was trembling, she was back.

Deciding to finish this as soon as possible John charged, he didn't give her time to recover.

*Bam*

*BAM!*

She was unable to dodge in time, her whole was a body was weak after John's move, and she was flying and hit the barrier of the arena with full force.

John followed her and arrived next to her not even a second after she hit the barrier.

*Bam*

John mercilessly attacked with his fist at the Floran's torso while she was still by the barrier.

*Splat*

She spat a mouthful of green blood all over John's body and then fainted.

John fell on his knees. His chest was waving up and down as tried to properly breath. His whole body was a mess of bruises, sweat, red and green blood.

The judge entered the arena when he saw that the Floran fell and wasn't moving. He approached and checked her situation.

After he saw that she had just fainted he walked toward John and lifted his arm high in the air. "We have a winner!" He announced.

...

John dragged his body toward the resting room.

He saw that Lenny was sprawled in the couch with the hat in his face, loudly snoring.

The headache was attacking with full force so was the pain in his entire body.

He moved toward the freezer and took another bottle of alcoholic beverage.

He drank a mouthful at once. He coughed a little, but it was worthy, his headache showed clear signs of reducing.

"d.a.m.n..." Lenny woke up and blankly stared at John. ", You're really beaten up badly this time."

John nodded his head. "Of course. She was no pushover..."

"She?" Lenny questioningly glanced at John. Lenny had already sobered a little since the last time.

"Female Floran..."

"Oh... Now that makes sense."

John sat on the chair and drank another mouthful of beverage.

"How was it...? The power, Bullet Time, I mean."

"I was able to activate it and deactivate it at will during the match." John drank another mouthful of alcohol. "But the side effects came earlier and possibly stronger. I don't know how strong it would be if I was sober, but I'm certain... It would be very painful."

"Hehe..." Lenny snickered. "Stop whining like a little kid, Connor."

"Why don't you try yourself then!?" John was annoyed. "You have the power, but didn't you said you couldn't control it... Why don't you take a try, huh?"

"f.u.c.k off." Lenny lazily laid on the couch. "I'm lazy and I'm not a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t to go through this painful training."

"Wait, what?" A sudden question popped up in John's thought. "If you haven't trained like this... How do you know it will work?"

"How would I know?" Lenny laughed. "I never trained this power before."

"What!? Were you f.u.c.king playing with me all this time!?" John stood up and raised Lenny by his collar.

"Yes and... No" Lenny said jokingly. "Yes, I was playing with you, but at the same time I was testing on you if my hypothesis about how to train this power was correct."

"f.u.c.k you!" John threw Lenny at the couch with all his strength. "You used me as a tester."

"Yep."

"..."

"Ah come on, stop being so mad about it. It worked didn't it?"

"Just... Just shut up. I'm really mad right now."

"Hahahahahahaha..." Lenny joyfully laughed at John's predicament.