Chapter 170: Preliminaries
With a little less than a half hour passing, one of the older monks at the temple ascended one of the four stages and drew everyone's attention to him with a microphone. What followed was a very brief explanation of the rules before everyone was asked to draw lots, resulting in Vahn being put in block two with the number 37.
"Number 36 and number 37, please step onto the stage!" shouted one of the monks serving as a referee.
"Looks like we're up. Good luck, you two," said Vahn, ruffling Goku's hair as the young Saiyan's number had similarly been called up to participate in the first match on the third stage.
"Alright! And good luck to you as well, Vahn...!" exclaimed Goku, smiling happily before making his way up to his stage where a nearly 240cm tall man with the burly build of a wrestler awaited.
Turning his attention to his own opponent, Vahn discovered a man with sharp blue eyes and neatly styled blonde hair standing shirtless atop the second stage in baggy blue pants and black martial arts flats.
"You're my opponent...?" questioned the man, narrowing his eyes as Vahn casually hopped onto the stage, sporting a black and grey martial arts gi with his seven-winged golden circle emblazoned on his back and the kanji for Ryu(Dragon) on his left breast. And in place of a black belt or sash, his was pure white, which, more often than not, denoted someone as being a novice in martial arts.
"Unfortunately, you're not mine..." responded Vahn, exhaling faintly from his nose as the man glowered at him and got into a strange, mantis-like pose.
"Begin...!" shouted the referee, making a cutting gesture that prompted the blonde-haired man to rush forward, shouting, "It's you who isn't my opponent!" before striking at Vahn's forehead with his fingers and thumb pressed together like a beak. Vahn permitted the strike to land, but even without his Aura of Karmic Protection activated, it barely felt as though his forehead had been tapped.
Since he didn't want to injure the man too severely, Vahn moved his left hand in what he perceived as slow motion to cup the man's exposed right side. Then, applying very slight pressure, he caused the man's body to gradually deform around his hand before sending him flying off the stage with a casual push which, to everyone else present, resembled a lighting swift smack that strangely produced no impact sound.
"T-The winner is nu-nu-number 37...." stammered the referee, taken aback by Vahn's display of power. It wasn't uncommon for people with abnormal strength or special abilities to appear at the Tenkaichi Budokai, but he had never personally witnessed someone on Vahn's level.
"Uwoooooooh...!"