He was careless, foolish and careless.  He should not have held back.  In the end, he still won out, but there was a certain sense of having only lucked out there.  Rica was as tough as tough can be, a dangerous opponent for anyone...and that is why he should have pushed the envelope, used his technique, but he didn't want to.  Niko didn't want to use the last thing that Athena taught him, the technique that he had not even mastered perfectly at the time, and it had almost cost him.  It was not only that Rica was dangerous, but because he'd also left himself open.  Yes, she too had been low on strength, but he'd been debating on whether to let her wear herself out by defending or immediately attack, and after the fact...he was pretty sure she would've drained herself almost dry...EXCEPT that she'd unleashed her technique.

She had a special move, and if not for his having [i]felt it[/i], he might've missed the execution.  As it stood, he knew what happened, and it was what he was being escorted off of the battleground for now.  It'd been quick...and so precisely [i]thin[/i] that only the evidence after - the bloody slice upon his body - allowed him to put together what he was seeing there.  Oh, she was good, [i]very[/i] good.  And if she had fought or studied by Lee's side, then there was no question in Niko's mind that Lee could very well be the new Champion Martial Artist of the World.  Others had hope.  They who had emerged victorious thus far would prove to be - no question - his rival, but who would truly win it in the end?

These rounds were just flying by.  He was sure that the previous rounds were only a few [i]seconds[/i] long, with moves that some in the audience will not be prepared to see.  Because of that, Niko stopped once they were off of the fighters' ring.  The man helping him along urged him on.

[b]"Sir, we need to stop the bleeding.  You took a nasty hit.  You're barely on your feet."[/b]

[color=92278f]"Can you just patch me up and let me watch the next round?  I don't think it'll be long."[/color]

He looked at the wound, which was down his chest, but close to the side so that it mainly harmed ribcage and reached no organs.  It was now VERY painful, but he wanted to see how Angela did.  Niko felt that, apart from Bakuto, she and him were the ones who would see this tournament to the end.  And more than just wanting to study how she fought, he felt like he wanted to see her succeed.  In any case, the attendant nodded, and worked on bandaging him through his torn shirt, saying that [b]"If you start to pass out, you're going, no questions asked."[/b].  Niko agreed to that, at least.