I sat near the center of the crater, my leg propped unsteadily against a rock as I stared down at the body in front of me. If I had the strength in my limbs, I would've picked up one of the various loose rocks, or a clump of dirt, and sprinkle it over my unconscious former teammate just to annoy him, but the fact was, I didn't even have the power to move my own limbs at this point. The only reason that I was better off than the unconscious Tater at all was because I hadn't used SSJP or the Ikari form during our fight.
His chest heaved, his eyes closed, but as far as physical injuries went, Tater wasn't in much worse shape than me. Definitely not danger, not that I had the energy left to go out and get him help.
In fact, my back fell against the dirt, as I watched the announcer drive up to the edge of the crater and get out of his car.
I didn't even really listen as he congratulated me for winning the fight.
…
After the fight, Tater and I were both taken to the local hospital in separate vehicles. Once we got there, I passed out, waking up to a lecture from Pepper.
Why was Pepper lecturing me? Because she was worried about me?
No. She was annoyed because Tater and I's fight was too high up in the atmosphere.
Due to that, while the crowd was still entertained with an incredible light show that probably felt mildly apocalyptic to some of them, Pepper didn't need to lift a hand to protect the innocent people from the shockwaves that Tater and I emitted during our fight.
Which was the entire reason that I'd banned her from competing in the tournament. I'd wanted the girl to be fresh, in cast Tater and I's battle reached the heights that it, in the end, had.
Had we been much lower to the ground, our battle could've very easily leveled this entire island. Lynn or Zeck, by themselves, would've been blown away in the breeze against million-class power levels like the ones Tater and I had just produced, but Pepper's power level was roughly twice Tater's, and she could access the Oozaru's strength, though only for short periods right now. Even at his full power, Pepper could easily spank Tater for short periods, and the definition of 'short periods' would probably start notably stretching if Tater was her opponent rather than me.
In fact, if Tater's strength was enough to force her into a longer fight, it was entirely possible that the competition could bring her skill with Ikari to the point where she ended up stabilizing it into SSJP like I had with him. In theory.
Anyways, since Pepper hadn't needed to protect anyone, I'd basically stopped her from fighting for no reason at all.
For all she knew, she could've been set to face Roshi before I did, if I'd let her compete. She had every reason to be mad. Lynn didn't look too happy about the fact, either. She'd been considering entering the tournament too, before agreeing to take Pepperwatch instead, since Pepper listened to her more than she did Zeck, who needed the experience more anyways.
Once Pepper had calmed down, Lynn was nice enough to give me the facts.
Apparently, Tater had a broken jaw, a strained back, and several broken ribs, when he'd woken up, about six hours before I had. Everything else was, for the most part, surface damage. He'd probably end up with a scar on his chest, where I'd sliced it open with my finger, but nothing else particularly of note, though his ki was completely exhausted.
After Lynn went to see him in his hospital room (and apparently got angry at him, which ended in her breaking his leg), Tater had fallen back asleep (while the doctors put a cast over his broken leg). Zeck was currently speaking to Tater's companion, a woman named Cynthia, giving her Celatian medicine. Celatus's medical science, while not perfect, was notably more advanced than Earth's. They had pills that could slice recovery times in half or more.
She handed me one of those, and a Celatian-made nutrition pill as well, just in case.
I swallowed both while she continued to explain non-Tater related things.
The tournament event organizers had partially expected people to get fairly beaten up in the final rounds of the contest. As such, when I'd, despite winning my battle against Tater, been hospitalized with a severely ravaged (but not broken) right arm, several broken ribs, and several dozen other minor injuries, including a missing tooth, which would've been a lot more annoying, if the Celatian pill wasn't capable of regrowing lost teeth, the finals, the battle between Kakarot and I for the title of World's Strongest Martial Artist, had been postponed until tomorrow.
Which was today. I still had several hours, but if I wasn't ready to fight by later today, then the title would automatically go to Kakarot without a fight.
Luckily for me, I didn't have a broken leg like Tater did. Now that I'd gotten a good twelve hours of rest since the battle, I was perfectly capable of defeating a kid as comparably weak as Kakarot, even with a purple arm and a few broken ribs.
For now, though, I'd lay back for a while in my hospital bed and do my best to try to heal as much as possible before the fight.
Then, after the fight, I'd return to the hospital and have a long chat with my former teammate. He likely wouldn't be doing much of the talking, since I'd broken his jaw, but I'd be satisfied as long as my chat with Tater went better than Lynn's chat with him.