  We present the first X-ray analysis of the diffuse hot ionized gas and the
point sources in IC131, after NGC604 the second most X-ray luminous giant HII
region in M33. The X-ray emission is detected only in the south eastern part of
IC131 (named IC131-se) and is limited to an elliptical region of ~200pc in
extent. This region appears to be confined towards the west by a hemispherical
shell of warm ionized gas and only fills about half that volume. Although the
corresponding X-ray spectrum has 1215 counts, it cannot conclusively be told
whether the extended X-ray emission is thermal, non-thermal, or a combination
of both. A thermal plasma model of kT_e=4.3keV or a single power law of
Gamma=2.1 fit the spectrum equally well. If the spectrum is purely thermal
(non-thermal), the total unabsorbed X-ray luminosity in the 0.35-8keV energy
band amounts to L_X = 6.8(8.7)x10^35erg/s. Among other known HII regions
IC131-se seems to be extreme regarding the combination of its large extent of
the X-ray plasma, the lack of massive O stars, its unusually high electron
temperature (if thermal), and the large fraction of L_X emitted above 2keV
(~40-53%). A thermal plasma of ~4keV poses serious challenges to theoretical
models, as it is not clear how high electron temperatures can be produced in
HII regions in view of mass-proportional and collisionless heating. If the gas
is non-thermal or has non-thermal contributions, synchrotron emission would
clearly dominate over inverse Compton emission. It is not clear if the same
mechanisms which create non-thermal X-rays or accelerate CRs in SNRs can be
applied to much larger scales of 200pc. In both cases the existing theoretical
models for giant HII regions and superbubbles do not explain the hardness and
extent of the X-ray emission in IC131-se.
