The midair exchange ended in a draw, with gravity reasserting itself over Krillin, forcing him back to the ground, fortunately unharmed.
Krillin jumped again, thrice more. Each time, the exchange of punches and kicks lasted a bit longer, their mutual powers canceling out gravity for him just a bit longer than the last.
Each exchange ended in the same way: A draw.
Still, Krillin was undeterred. Ranged attacks would just be a waste of energy. Getting in close was his only chance, even though he needed to be extremely wary of the massive gulf in their base physical abilities.
Tien, of course, was perfectly fine with letting Krillin choose the course of the battle. The gulf in their strength went directly to the core. Just powering himself up to the point where he could exchange a blow or two with the stronger Tien burnt through Krillin's stamina at a rather impressive rate. He only had one or two more of those exchanges in him before Krillin's power began waning, and both fighters were extremely aware of that fact.
Feeling that this was his final chance, Krillin made one last jump. His fist hammered into Tien's guarded chest as his leg slammed into Tien's. The shockwaves made it all the way down to the concrete below, the sudden shockwaves slipping straight through the holographic images of their forms shown, fighting onstage.
This exchange lasted longer than the four prior. The aura radiating from Krillin's concerted effort kept him afloat via sheer raw power. He held nothing back. Every single hit shook the first few layers of Tien's skin, penetrating almost all the way through the dense, controlled ki guarding his body from the force of the blow… but none made it all the way through to do any actual damage. Krillin was taking most of the beating from this seemingly-equal clash.
Finally, the bright light of the smaller fighter's power dimmed for a moment, and Tien took the chance to slam his knee right onto the younger boy's waiting gut.
But rather than falling to the ground, Krillin's body floated backward, wobbling uncertainly.
Over the course of his five flying clashes with the already flying Tien, Krillin had figured out the theory behind Tien's flight technique. While what he was doing couldn't quite be called true flight, it was good enough to allow him to unsteadily hover in midair.
Realizing that Krillin had learnt the flight technique that'd taken him several months of concerted practice to master over the course of two battles, Tien was shocked, his eyes going wide.
Krillin didn't waste the opportunity. "Ka…Me…Ha…Me…HA!"
Tien smirked. "As if a weak blast like that could do anything against me." He muttered to himself.
The difference between their power, now that Krillin'd wasted most of his on that last flurry of attacks, was absolute and insurmountable. The three-eyed assassin-in-training didn't bother to dodge the energy wave. Instead, he simply raised his arms and began flying straight through the energy, parting it like it was made of water instead of energy concentrated enough to melt steel.
Unfortunately Tien wasn't able to see the smirk dawning on Krillin's face from the origin of the energy wave.
Parting the final section of the wave, Tien drove a powerful hammer blow directly into… the afterimage's head.
Krillin's foot then slammed right into his butt.
Tien staggered in midair as Krillin drifted away as quickly as he could… which wasn't quick at all.
By the time the three-eyed Crane student had recovered from his midair stumble, Krillin was around fifteen feet away, and Tien's face was red with embarrassment and rage.
"I'm going to kill you for that!" He shouted, his aura surging as he exploded into motion.
"SOLAR FLARE!" Krillin shouted at the last moment.
Not expecting it, Tien was blinded by his own technique. His flight continued right past Krillin and kept going as all three of his eyes squeezed shut. Then, several energy blasts slammed into his back, shot off by Krillin to keep him going on his flight path.
A path headed directly for the grassy buffer zone between the arena and the stands.
"Tien!" Chiaotzu shouted from the stands, realizing what was about to happen.
The clown-looking little boy raised his hands in order to use his power to stop Tien's fall toward instant loss, when Tater growled softly, annoyed by the mere thought that those people who he already didn't like would even dare think of cheating.
As if he'd been pumped full of a sleeping drug, Chiaotzu instantly fell unconscious, as Tater slammed killing intent directly into his small body. Just killing intent, not his actual aura, and the older Saiyan still held back quite a bit, but it was still more than the young Chiaotzu's body could actually take.
My enhanced SSJP senses could actually hear Chiaotzu's heart stutter for a few moments as Tater's sheer annoyance, by itself, literally brought him to the brink of death for a second before Tater pulled it back.
Meanwhile, without Chiaotzu to stop him, Tien's feet touched the grass outside the arena. Despite being virtually unharmed, a single moment of carelessness had led to Tien's loss.
The Solar Flare technique really was incredibly useful.
Krillin had won the semi-finals. Winning the rest of the tournament was a simple thing for him.
Afterwards, he and Kakarot sparred for the sake of sparring. Naturally, Krillin went down almost instantly, despite the young Saiyan holding back massively.