vs. Betty Henderson

What started out as a friendly sparring match suddenly became a fight for supremacy...

As the intense battle raged on, the trainers discovered that neither side were truly gaining the upper hand. It seemed that the Dragonair's graceful speed and flexibility allowed her to avoid the crushing power of the machine-like Goruugu.

Now it was only a matter of time...

Seeing that her Dragonair was becoming more exhausted by the second while the Goruugu seemed completely unfazed, Betty decided enough was enough.

"Let's end this Mari! Go, Hyper Beam!"

"Want to end with a bang, huh?" Caelo said to himself. And in the excitement of the battle, issued the order:

"Show us what you got! Machina, Hyper Beam!"

The last thought that drifted though Caelo's mind before the blast hit was, "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea..."

---

Hello! Long time no see!

My first battle in a long long time against the lovely !

Well...I did my best on this. The simple lineart went well, but when it came down to coming up with the right effect, well...I'm not too pleased how it came out. Like I said, I did my best with the shadow effect and the shading, but something still seems off to me...

The overall feel I'm trying to give here (and in future battles) is intensity. Hopefully I at least pulled that off...

Anyhoo, I am welcome to constructive criticism and I would appreciate any tips for what I should and could do better.

in the meantime, wish me luck!

EDIT: Judge's notes (for personal improvement)
"You've got a good amount of energy going in this piece here, and the lighting from the explosion/clash is handled fairly well. I especially like how the firing beam is drawn. However, I think that the darks should be a bit darker--fiddle with the levels in photoshop. Your composition makes sense, but it's a bit too straightforward, head-on, and flat. Try experimenting with different angles and compositions to really push your piece."

Result: lost