Post by Amur on Apr 12, 2011 18:08:20 GMT -5
The “overseers”, a powerful group of four beings, whom willingly accepted the burden of the “Third Eye” and survived eventually ascending past the need for flesh entirely, not much is known about these four beings but it is thought that their power is greater than that of The Gods themselves. However, they never get involved within the affairs of those they watch, well, except in rare instances where boredom overcomes them and they host their own tournament.
: “You’re serious? Damn, running out of ideas there Princess? That sounds more like a convenient plot device as opposed to anything else.”
These tournaments are usually grand in scale and vicious, each combatant fighting for victory and glory untold.
: “Good God you SUCK at this. These overseers are meant to keep balance over a universe they clearly don’t give two shits about and this tournament is solely for their amusement with the contestants fighting for it.”
And so here we are, at what is by now, an undetermined number, here to bear witness to the monumental power struggles to come. It’s going to be an intense ride unlike anything you’re ever going to have seen before.
: “Hey, hey, HEY! That’s enough there Bucky, you’re doing our job for us now! Roll credits! ... Oh that’s right! Two seconds.... And here we are!”
: “BEWM! Supah original, eh guys!?”
“Hello and welcome viewers to what is likely to an exciting event. I’m your host Mr. E!”
: “... I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR!”
Mr. E: “No, seriously, my full name is Ethan Enigma.”
: “... Dick headed parents, eh?”
Mr. E: “You’re drifting.”
: “Oh shit! And I’m your co-host Amuruaien. But to save confusion later you can call me Nasha, guys. And yes viewers this is a blatant self-insertion but don’t worry. I can’t garry-stu myself when all I’m doing is commentating.”
Mr. E: “What the hell are you on about?”
Nasha: “Oh that’s right, I’m the only one that knows, how very Deadpool of me.”
Mr. E: “I have to say I’m very interested, and very excited to be here and I am looking forward to the action to come, what about you Nash?”
Nasha: “well first, let’s give it up for the sick muvah fackahs that think it’s a good idea to potentially destroy everything in existence with this little event.”
*crowd applauds*
Nasha: “And I have to say, that despite the circumstances of this ‘tournament’ that it is very awesome it’s being run like a high-budget very real TV event. Need me to write you down some more ideas sweetheart?”
Mr. E: “Right you are Nash, let’s give them our full appreciation since without them this event wouldn’t be possible!”
*crowd applauds*
Nasha: “Did you even listen to a word I just said? Regardless! There are some very exciting fights to look forward to throughout here viewers. I would say we have some real fan favourites but the only one people are likely to know as I say this is Solomon Latro, though only God knows how they managed to get him here. Isn’t that right Sparky?”
Mr. E: “I have to admit that I’m loving the look of this line-up, we have some oldies here, Celt Amuruaien among them. Though I can’t imagine how they managed to get him to agree to come here, it’s not like he’d just agree to this, looking at his profile.”
Nasha: “They didn’t ask people Ethan, they just took them.”
Mr. E: “But you just said-“
Nasha: “Doesn’t make sense to you? Don’t worry Ethan, there’s going to be a lot of that between now and the end of this event.”
Mr. E: “... Ok then, as I was saying, they have Celt Amuruaien; they even managed to get Ruien Amuruaien. All that and more to come, I don’t want to give too much away to the viewers but some of these match-ups are looking very exciting.”
Nasha: “I’m impressed, it’s not every day people pronounce Amuruaien correctly.”
Mr. E: “... And moving on, I have to say this opening match is looking as though it could be interesting to watch.”
Nasha: “I’m kind of torn about it, I’m happy that I’ll be winning a shit-ton of money from it, but let down that Solomon is so badly out matched in his first damn match!”
Mr. E: “Aren’t the odds like 1,000 – 1 in Celt’s favour?”
Nasha: “They were, but being the cheating bastard that I am I changed those odds so that they were 1,000,000 – 1 in Solomon’s favour. Shame really, I was quite looking forward to seeing how he fared against some of the more appropriate people on this list before he was put against someone he had no chance against.”
Mr. E: “How... Never mind. The info I have on Solomon Latro here says that he’s intelligent and highly resourceful, it’s entirely possible we could we could see an upset here Nash.”
Nasha: “Intelligent? Yes. Resourceful? Yes. The God Damned Batman? No, he doesn’t have an answer to everything so believe me when I say this is an upset that isn’t going to be happening Ethan.”
Mr. E: “You know, intelligence and resourcefulness doesn’t have to be on Batman’s level to win someone a difficult fight.”
Nasha: *laughs* “Take a moment to look at what Celt has done in his life and then get back to me on that Ethan.”
Mr. E: “Ok.” *sound of mumbling and shuffling papers* “I’m sorry, they deemed THAT a fair match? What the hell were they smoking?”
Nasha: “Well, if what I think happened did actually happen I imagine he’s got a massive troll face just waiting for me somewhere down the line.”
Mr. E: “Seriously, I’d love to be you for a day.”
Nasha: “I know how we can make that happen Ethan, but that would just be several hundred words we’d be better off avoiding.”
Mr. E: “Wait, what?”
Nasha: “Never mind! It looks as though the stage is set for our first fight here viewers; I hope you’re ready to see some, eh.... Incredibly one-sided action for this first fight.”
Mr. E: “Without further delay, Solomon Latro versus Celt Amuruaien.”
Nasha: *audible grumbling*
---
Celt had lost count of which flash of light this one was, the last thing he remembered was fighting off an army single-handedly and then a flash of light. Then he was sat in a sealed room, the room itself wasn’t all that bad, comfortable, plenty of food and drink, even a facility for him to clean his coat. That was probably the only part of the room he had really appreciated, wherever he was he did not want to walk out to face someone with an already blood-stained trench coat. He wanted to demoralise his foes personally, not have the state of his clothes do that for him, that was one of the best parts of the fight itself.
The light faded slowly, leaving him blind for some additional moments and even without the luxury of his sight he knew what kind of place he had been transported to. The roaring cheer of an excited crowd gave everything away within seconds; this was some kind of coliseum. His vision cleared and at once he sighed with the usual disappointment he expressed when he managed to predict how someone was trying to surprise him, however, moments later that disappointment turned into rage when he saw his opponent-to-be.
“A HUMAN CHILD!?”
He roared. Celt was most definitely not one to turn down a challenge, but what stood before him now was about as far from a challenge as things could get. Surly whoever had taken the time to organise this affair had some idea of his previous accomplishments and current abilities, but to pit him against a foe this inferior was one of the worst insults Celt had ever faced. Sure, this child boasted an impressive set of scars and even a damaged eye from past brawls. Hell, even his trench coat was a damn work-of-art (even if it was too small for Celt). But even by Human standards he was barely more than a child. Celt was insulted and he let it show, how DARE these people insult his prowess by forcing him to fight a Human child.
This was as confusing as things got for Solomon, one moment he was hunting a high-profile person, the next he finds himself blinded and trapped in an odd room. He was known for his calm level head and ability to analyse just about any situation he found himself in among other things back in Empire Nirvana but this once Solomon had no clue what was happening. Not to mention that everything in this room was completely alien to Solomon, he had never before seen any of the objects that the room had contained so he merely stood rigidly in the middle of the room until he either had some kind of plan, died or the light took him again.
As it turns out the latter option came first, and once the cheering began Solomon did not know which was worse. The fact that he had been taken by an unseen force, the fact that he now stood in a huge open arena with a massive crowd watching and cheering, or the man he stood facing.
He was relatively tall, perhaps about half a foot over Solomon, and his build was a fair bit broader. Not to the point where he seemed huge, just his muscles weren’t as discreet as Solomon’s were, his clothes confused Solomon further. Perhaps a plain black pair of trousers, a pair of shin-height buckle boots and a fabric kind of shirt beneath a long coat (which was not made of wyvern skin. This too was some kind of odd fabric Solomon had not seen very much of with the inside lined with dark sheepskin allowing the collar of the coat to stand just above his jaw line.) He wondered if this man had any kind of idea what kind of threat he would be facing if he worse those clothes into battle.
And then he looked at the man’s face and his breath caught. Despite looking very human there was something very wrong with his appearance, his eyes for a start, they were a dark blood red colour and his silver hair hung down the side of his head in un-styled curtains.
His rage was palpable; he physically pushed past Solomon and began shouting up at someone. Solomon had noticed when he pushed past that this man’s ankle length coat was cut into two flaps at the back from the waist down and that his hair fell to a length just past his shoulder blades. What Solomon had managed to take in was that this was some kind of arena and that this man was intended to be his opponent, he had ignored Solomon completely and was shouting aimlessly into the air.
He didn’t even have a weapon.
He had given Solomon an advantage he intended to use. He turned to look at the man fully, drawing his bow and snapping it open he fitted one of his arrows and drew it back, holding it for a moment. When the man continued shouting at... Whatever it was he was shouting at Solomon loosed the arrow, aiming for where the man’s chest would be. His goal, to make him choke to death on his own blood.
Nasha: “.... Shit, this just got real! Are you TRYING to make either of them look bad Bucko?”
Pain and then stunned silence as Celt looked down to see and arrow protruding from his left lung, what audacity! The child actually had the balls to attack him, to attack HIM Celt Amuruaien? Slowly Celt turned to face the child, taking in his expression of shock as he rapidly let another arrow fly at Celt, this one getting him through the right lung. Celt cocked an eyebrow and slowly began advancing toward his “foe”, almost laughing at his expression of terror as he began to rapidly take steps away while desperately trying to work another arrow into position.
He continued walking forward with deliberate slowness, allowing panic to cause the child to fumble, the distance was closing slowly and then.
More pain
Celt looked at the child in shock as the arrow flew and got him right between the eyes, the pain began to intensify as Celt swayed on the spot and then fell to his knees, taking note of the expression of relief that had crossed his foes face. Celt allowed a small smile to creep its way across his face, if only this child knew what he was in for, he wouldn’t be relaxing just yet.
Mr. E: “No! What are you doing, don’t relax yet!”
Nasha: “Don’t listen to Ethan! I have a lot of money on this!”
Solomon allowed his relief to show, ignoring the screams from the two oddly dressed men sitting on the sidelines. What he had just witnessed was far from what a normal human would have been able to endure, two arrows to the chest alone should have dropped just about anything. Regardless, the fight was over and Solomon had-
Laughter, the sound of laughter caused Solomon to freeze in something very close to horror, how, how was that possible, the arrow between his eyes should have put an end to him. How was this man still alive? Nothing could survive such serious wounds, there was no way.
He rose to his feet, laughing hard; leaving Solomon too shocked to move.
“Not bad kid, it takes some real balls to attack me at all. What’s the matter? Never seen this before? Oh kid, you have my attention now, let me show you how out of your depth you are here.”
His voice, arrogant, cocky, mocking, tones Solomon had never had used against him before, he was laughing off what should have been a death blow and actually mocking Solomon for it.
“Hey kid, never stop to think, your gutsy move hasn’t paid off, you should have followed it up.”
Solomon bit his tongue, wondering how he was supposed to know that surviving fatal wounds was perfectly normal for this man. He backed away as with a smirk the man reached up and held the arrow lodged between his eyes.
“You ready?”
With a single, brutal tug he pulled the arrow from his head in a spray of blood. Solomon could only watch in wide-eyed astonishment as he tried his best not to vomit, the man kept his eyes facing the sky and then, with deliberate slowness looked back to Solomon.
“What the hell!?”
Solomon called out, physically recoiling as the man brought his face into full view. Nothing, no gaping hole, no wound, not even a scar from where the arrow had been, not only had this man survived a fatal wound, he had recovered from it completely. In seconds!
“Ah, good, the kid does learn. I hope you’re willing to fight me properly now kid, you may not be up to the usual bar I leap over. But I guess this’ll be some good warm-up for opponents that might actually challenge me in later rounds.”
Those tones of arrogance were still present even as he tore the arrows from his chest and dropped them to the ground, the wounds on his chest healing over instantly. However, his first move was not to advance, no, he merely looked at the holes in his coat and sighed in frustration.
“Kid, I hope you have the money to cover the cost of a new coat. This one was expensive.”
Mr. E: “Wait, did he really just comment on-“
Nasha: “He sure did! Stick with what works, eh, precious?”
Celt watched in silence as the child dropped his bow to the ground and then followed up by removing the quiver of arrows from his lower back and dropped that to the ground as well. His arrows were useless to him that much he seemed to have learned, so it wasn’t all bad, Celt was against someone that wasn’t a complete moron after all. His replacement weapon was no better; however, if arrows had done nothing to him what did the child think knives were going to do to him? He blinked.
“Very well kid, I’ll play with you for a while.”
Celt said casually, almost patronisingly, trying to make it sound as though he was talking to a small child. The death glare he got as a response was priceless; he was getting to the kid. Celt remained stood up straight as the child assumed a tense stance, gripping the knife he held in the reverse-grip style. He began to slowly try and circle Celt, amusing, Celt followed suit, trying to circle the child in the opposite direction.
And they continued walking in a large circle, the kid tense and ready to strike at a moment’s notice, Celt merely casually strolling with his usual smirk of superiority painted across his lips. Surprisingly the child held Celt’s calm gaze with an intense stare, he managed to keep eye-contact and it was then, with some interest that Celt realised that his foe was looking for something he could use as a weakness. Intelligent, but Celt had no idea what the kid had hoped to find.
The silent stand-off continued the two merely holding each other’s gaze until Celt reached the quiver the child had dropped earlier. In a single move he worked his foot underneath the quiver and used his foot to kick it at the child, then the unexpected happened, the child capitalised on his movement.
Nasha: “What the Hell! Come on Zippy, if you’re gonna make things interesting I TOLD you to give me the full thing in writing FIRST so I could make epic comments on it! ... Yes, epic comments... I’ll go with that.”
Solomon had to try hard not to yell out in elation as the man took the bait and tried to mock him with the quiver of arrows he had dropped. As soon as the man had started the movement Solomon broke his stance and tore across the gap between them, ducking under the flying quiver as it passed him. And continued his sprint in a crouch, diving and rolling at the last second so that he was positioned behind this inhuman foe as he recovered, but, he was not going to allow this man time to work off the shock of his movements, he needed to attack.
He kicked the man in the back of the knees causing him to buckle as his knee bent, Solomon was fast to follow up and grabbed the man’s left wrist and stabbed him in the shoulder, with the hand-hold he span and slammed the man to the ground, using a single arm-bar technique to keep him pinned. He couldn’t mock this one; however, he was sure that this man had more than just an inhuman ability to regenerate from fatal wounds on his side. He slammed his knee into the man’s shoulder and held it there, taking a second knife from a concealed sheath within his coat, this needed to end quickly.
There was a sickening cracking sound as the man turned himself to face Solomon, bending his arm the wrong way and breaking it as he did so. He should have expected it, but still the action shocked him enough not to notice the hand wrapping around his throat and soon lift him into the air as the man got back to his feet, shaking the arm he had just broken in discomfort.
“Not bad kid, not bad at all. But now”
The feeling of weightlessness was sudden as he was hurled half the length of the arena, hitting the ground hard and rolling for several seconds after the impact.
“You’ve managed to actually get on my nerves; do you have any idea how much that stung?”
Even after that this man could still mock Solomon? He began to feel angry but knew that he had to keep himself in check, if he rose to the bait and succumbed to rage the fight would be over within seconds. He got up slowly, wincing at the ache his trip across the arena had given him. That was one attack, a single attack and already Solomon was in pain.
“What’s the matter kid? Can’t keep up? But I wasn’t done yet, how very typical of you humans, talk big but can never back up those words of yours.”
Solomon drew in a deep breath; he had avoided speaking for the most part, not until he could gauge what his opponent was capable of. And he had only just had a taste, this man was toying with him and he wasn’t being subtle about it. That was probably the most infuriating part; there was nothing Solomon could do about it.
Mr. E: “Come on this is painful to watch.”
Nasha: “Seriously, if you do what I think you’re going to do I will NOT be impressed”
Mr. E: “What the hell-“
Nasha: “Never mind Ethan”
The kid had managed to stand up again, so he was better than most humans already but was still limited by their stamina and slow regenerative abilities. If he were more like Celt then he might have actually been an opponent worth putting some kind of effort into fighting, but as it stood right now he was too weak to even think about taking seriously.
“What, that all you can manage? After seeing how fast your wounds healed I would have thought a single strike would have been all you needed to kill me.”
The child asked. The mock was so unexpected that Celt actually stopped his advance and laughed.
“That’s it!” Celt returned “Mock me as much as you like kid, at least this way I’ll have some kind of entertainment from this ‘fight’ before I end it.”
The child merely returned Celt’s smug smirk with a tired grin of his own.
“The way you’ve mocked me so far had made me believe that I was inferior to you for a moment. But that display just there, allow me to thank you for putting my fears to rest. You’re just as human as me.”
Celt laughed once more, his advance beginning anew.
“Nice try kid. But you have a lot to learn before you can taunt me, I’m still toying with you. I have a full intention of breaking you before I end this. Shouldn’t be too much longer now, you humans all have weak mentalities.”
The kid was very self controlled, that much Celt had to admit impressed him. The kid took another two knives from somewhere within his coat as Celt drew closer and made his move. It was a blind rush, Celt had gotten to him.
A stab was aimed at his gut, Celt merely raised his left hand and allowed the knife to go through his hand, the kid let go of the knife. A second stab was aimed at his chest, as with the previous stab Celt raised his remaining free hand to intercept the strike, allowing the knife to slide through his hand. The realisation hit before Celt could pull his hand away from the blade and the kid let go of the knife, this weak foe was starting to become a minor irritation.
“Almost impressive kid, almost.”
With no walls around that tactic may have been the deciding factor of this fight, with his hands now disabled he would not have been able to fight back. But the kid had overlooked the walls, a fact he did not realise until it was too late as he began to try and attack Celt head-on in an attempt to prevent him from reaching any of the walls.
Futile, Celt was much faster than this kid was. As he closed in for his attack Celt simply span around him and moved backwards rapidly until his back was pressed against the arena wall. He raised his arms and slammed them against the wall with enough force to drive both of the knives out of his palms in a single movement.
He flexed his fingers and hands slowly, working off the cramp that had worked its way into his hands after the knives had been removed and bowed low to the child, making the gesture as mocking as he could.
Mr. E: “An unexpected but very well thought out plan of attack there! But Celt is always one step ahead, I don’t think there’s anything Solomon can do here.”
Nasha: “Well at least he’s keeping things interesting, Solomon has performed better than I thought he would here. Then again that’s either because he wants as many words as possible or because Celt really can’t take the guy seriously enough to kill him.”
Solomon’s mocking had been unsuccessful and while his plan of attack had worked his foe had already derailed it by using the wall to drive the knives from his hands. Solomon was fast running out of ideas and trying his best not to panic about it, however, he had no time to even consider his next plan of action. Before he knew what was happening he was hit by a powerful force and sent from one end of the arena to the other, intense pain coursing throughout his body as his right arm broke from the impact along with several ribs. The force of the impact also slamming his head against the wall, and for a brief moment time slowed to an agonising crawl as Solomon fell to the ground, his peripheral version lost to inky blackness.
Mr. E: “Well folks, this is over. Solomon made for an interesting fight though.”
Celt advanced on his fallen foe, smirking down at the child as he fought to keep his eyes open; well the impact had failed to kill him. That was what Celt had hoped.
“No shame in it kid. Tell you what; I’ll leave you alive so that you can wallow in this loss. Next time that should give you some incentive to avoid me.”
Celt turned his back on the barely conscious child and began looking for way to leave the arena, it was then he heard it.
Celt blinked, what kind of stupid question was that?
“Of course! There’s little point in killing someone not worth the effort.”
Nasha: “NO! Celt! Kill him you arrogant mother fu-“
And then he was engulfed by a bright light and back in the room he had been in before the “fight” had even started the words. “Celt Amuruaien loses by default” echoing loudly in the silence, and all he could feel was rage, he had just been screwed out of his victory.
Nasha: “NO! FUCK YOU! You just screwed me out of a lot of money! If I were an emo kid I would KILL you! I hate you, you cheating Son of a bitch!”
Mr. E: “Are you ok?”
Nasha: “I KNEW he would do that to me, I knew it and still went a put everything I had on that bet. FUCK, I’ll never forgive him for that!”
*Plate of cookies appears on the desk*
Mr. E: “The Hell?”
Nasha: “It’ll take more than-“
*A large bag of money appears next to Nasha*
Nasha: “Well it’s a step in the right direction.”
*A second plate of cookies appears on the desk*
Nasha: “You know I love you right!?”
Mr. E: “What the hell just happened? And why didn’t I get any of that?”
Nasha: “Because Ethan, you don’t break the 4th Wall which means that you aren’t epic enough to get what I just got.”
Mr. E: “What... is-“
Nasha: “Never mind! That was a better match that I thought what about you?”
Mr. E: “Indeed it was, and don’t worry folks! That most definitely isn’t the end of Celt’s run here.”
Nasha: “Certainly not, once enough people have lost their matches there will be some epic fights in the ‘loser brackets’ to allow those that lost to fight their way back into the tournament and give them another chance at victory. This is more a way to keep people happy a while longer as opposed to anything else... It’s almost as if someone out there knows what to do to really drag things out for longer than necessary, isn’t that right peppy?”
Mr. E: “Indeed it is Nash, the guys running this affair really know how to keep us on the edge of our seats, we could be in for some real upsets.”
Nasha: “Do you have any idea how annoying this is going to get champ? You could have at least given Ethan some knowledge on breaking the 4th wall... what is this? Just some way to try and get a few cheap laughs out of the reader?”
Mr. E: “Nasha, do you hear a voice?”
Nasha: “No Ethan, I do not. Never mind about that, you’ll look like you’re going mad! However, I’m almost out of things to say at this point, which is a complete shock to me, so I’ll let you tease the next fight. Don’t forget to be dickish about it!”
Mr. E: *laughs* “Very well, Nash. It’s not going to be anywhere near as one-sided as the last fight; it might actually end up being a fun one to watch. I’m not going to spoil things too much for you, but I can tell you that all participants are human! We’ll see how intense this next fight gets shortly, don’t go anywhere, there’s far much more to come.”
: “You’re serious? Damn, running out of ideas there Princess? That sounds more like a convenient plot device as opposed to anything else.”These tournaments are usually grand in scale and vicious, each combatant fighting for victory and glory untold.
: “Good God you SUCK at this. These overseers are meant to keep balance over a universe they clearly don’t give two shits about and this tournament is solely for their amusement with the contestants fighting for it.”And so here we are, at what is by now, an undetermined number, here to bear witness to the monumental power struggles to come. It’s going to be an intense ride unlike anything you’re ever going to have seen before.
: “Hey, hey, HEY! That’s enough there Bucky, you’re doing our job for us now! Roll credits! ... Oh that’s right! Two seconds.... And here we are!”: “BEWM! Supah original, eh guys!?”“Hello and welcome viewers to what is likely to an exciting event. I’m your host Mr. E!”
: “... I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR!”Mr. E: “No, seriously, my full name is Ethan Enigma.”
: “... Dick headed parents, eh?”Mr. E: “You’re drifting.”
: “Oh shit! And I’m your co-host Amuruaien. But to save confusion later you can call me Nasha, guys. And yes viewers this is a blatant self-insertion but don’t worry. I can’t garry-stu myself when all I’m doing is commentating.”Mr. E: “What the hell are you on about?”
Nasha: “Oh that’s right, I’m the only one that knows, how very Deadpool of me.”
Mr. E: “I have to say I’m very interested, and very excited to be here and I am looking forward to the action to come, what about you Nash?”
Nasha: “well first, let’s give it up for the sick muvah fackahs that think it’s a good idea to potentially destroy everything in existence with this little event.”
*crowd applauds*
Nasha: “And I have to say, that despite the circumstances of this ‘tournament’ that it is very awesome it’s being run like a high-budget very real TV event. Need me to write you down some more ideas sweetheart?”
Mr. E: “Right you are Nash, let’s give them our full appreciation since without them this event wouldn’t be possible!”
*crowd applauds*
Nasha: “Did you even listen to a word I just said? Regardless! There are some very exciting fights to look forward to throughout here viewers. I would say we have some real fan favourites but the only one people are likely to know as I say this is Solomon Latro, though only God knows how they managed to get him here. Isn’t that right Sparky?”
Mr. E: “I have to admit that I’m loving the look of this line-up, we have some oldies here, Celt Amuruaien among them. Though I can’t imagine how they managed to get him to agree to come here, it’s not like he’d just agree to this, looking at his profile.”
Nasha: “They didn’t ask people Ethan, they just took them.”
Mr. E: “But you just said-“
Nasha: “Doesn’t make sense to you? Don’t worry Ethan, there’s going to be a lot of that between now and the end of this event.”
Mr. E: “... Ok then, as I was saying, they have Celt Amuruaien; they even managed to get Ruien Amuruaien. All that and more to come, I don’t want to give too much away to the viewers but some of these match-ups are looking very exciting.”
Nasha: “I’m impressed, it’s not every day people pronounce Amuruaien correctly.”
Mr. E: “... And moving on, I have to say this opening match is looking as though it could be interesting to watch.”
Nasha: “I’m kind of torn about it, I’m happy that I’ll be winning a shit-ton of money from it, but let down that Solomon is so badly out matched in his first damn match!”
Mr. E: “Aren’t the odds like 1,000 – 1 in Celt’s favour?”
Nasha: “They were, but being the cheating bastard that I am I changed those odds so that they were 1,000,000 – 1 in Solomon’s favour. Shame really, I was quite looking forward to seeing how he fared against some of the more appropriate people on this list before he was put against someone he had no chance against.”
Mr. E: “How... Never mind. The info I have on Solomon Latro here says that he’s intelligent and highly resourceful, it’s entirely possible we could we could see an upset here Nash.”
Nasha: “Intelligent? Yes. Resourceful? Yes. The God Damned Batman? No, he doesn’t have an answer to everything so believe me when I say this is an upset that isn’t going to be happening Ethan.”
Mr. E: “You know, intelligence and resourcefulness doesn’t have to be on Batman’s level to win someone a difficult fight.”
Nasha: *laughs* “Take a moment to look at what Celt has done in his life and then get back to me on that Ethan.”
Mr. E: “Ok.” *sound of mumbling and shuffling papers* “I’m sorry, they deemed THAT a fair match? What the hell were they smoking?”
Nasha: “Well, if what I think happened did actually happen I imagine he’s got a massive troll face just waiting for me somewhere down the line.”
Mr. E: “Seriously, I’d love to be you for a day.”
Nasha: “I know how we can make that happen Ethan, but that would just be several hundred words we’d be better off avoiding.”
Mr. E: “Wait, what?”
Nasha: “Never mind! It looks as though the stage is set for our first fight here viewers; I hope you’re ready to see some, eh.... Incredibly one-sided action for this first fight.”
Mr. E: “Without further delay, Solomon Latro versus Celt Amuruaien.”
Nasha: *audible grumbling*
---
Celt had lost count of which flash of light this one was, the last thing he remembered was fighting off an army single-handedly and then a flash of light. Then he was sat in a sealed room, the room itself wasn’t all that bad, comfortable, plenty of food and drink, even a facility for him to clean his coat. That was probably the only part of the room he had really appreciated, wherever he was he did not want to walk out to face someone with an already blood-stained trench coat. He wanted to demoralise his foes personally, not have the state of his clothes do that for him, that was one of the best parts of the fight itself.
The light faded slowly, leaving him blind for some additional moments and even without the luxury of his sight he knew what kind of place he had been transported to. The roaring cheer of an excited crowd gave everything away within seconds; this was some kind of coliseum. His vision cleared and at once he sighed with the usual disappointment he expressed when he managed to predict how someone was trying to surprise him, however, moments later that disappointment turned into rage when he saw his opponent-to-be.
“A HUMAN CHILD!?”
He roared. Celt was most definitely not one to turn down a challenge, but what stood before him now was about as far from a challenge as things could get. Surly whoever had taken the time to organise this affair had some idea of his previous accomplishments and current abilities, but to pit him against a foe this inferior was one of the worst insults Celt had ever faced. Sure, this child boasted an impressive set of scars and even a damaged eye from past brawls. Hell, even his trench coat was a damn work-of-art (even if it was too small for Celt). But even by Human standards he was barely more than a child. Celt was insulted and he let it show, how DARE these people insult his prowess by forcing him to fight a Human child.
This was as confusing as things got for Solomon, one moment he was hunting a high-profile person, the next he finds himself blinded and trapped in an odd room. He was known for his calm level head and ability to analyse just about any situation he found himself in among other things back in Empire Nirvana but this once Solomon had no clue what was happening. Not to mention that everything in this room was completely alien to Solomon, he had never before seen any of the objects that the room had contained so he merely stood rigidly in the middle of the room until he either had some kind of plan, died or the light took him again.
As it turns out the latter option came first, and once the cheering began Solomon did not know which was worse. The fact that he had been taken by an unseen force, the fact that he now stood in a huge open arena with a massive crowd watching and cheering, or the man he stood facing.
He was relatively tall, perhaps about half a foot over Solomon, and his build was a fair bit broader. Not to the point where he seemed huge, just his muscles weren’t as discreet as Solomon’s were, his clothes confused Solomon further. Perhaps a plain black pair of trousers, a pair of shin-height buckle boots and a fabric kind of shirt beneath a long coat (which was not made of wyvern skin. This too was some kind of odd fabric Solomon had not seen very much of with the inside lined with dark sheepskin allowing the collar of the coat to stand just above his jaw line.) He wondered if this man had any kind of idea what kind of threat he would be facing if he worse those clothes into battle.
And then he looked at the man’s face and his breath caught. Despite looking very human there was something very wrong with his appearance, his eyes for a start, they were a dark blood red colour and his silver hair hung down the side of his head in un-styled curtains.
His rage was palpable; he physically pushed past Solomon and began shouting up at someone. Solomon had noticed when he pushed past that this man’s ankle length coat was cut into two flaps at the back from the waist down and that his hair fell to a length just past his shoulder blades. What Solomon had managed to take in was that this was some kind of arena and that this man was intended to be his opponent, he had ignored Solomon completely and was shouting aimlessly into the air.
He didn’t even have a weapon.
He had given Solomon an advantage he intended to use. He turned to look at the man fully, drawing his bow and snapping it open he fitted one of his arrows and drew it back, holding it for a moment. When the man continued shouting at... Whatever it was he was shouting at Solomon loosed the arrow, aiming for where the man’s chest would be. His goal, to make him choke to death on his own blood.
Nasha: “.... Shit, this just got real! Are you TRYING to make either of them look bad Bucko?”
Pain and then stunned silence as Celt looked down to see and arrow protruding from his left lung, what audacity! The child actually had the balls to attack him, to attack HIM Celt Amuruaien? Slowly Celt turned to face the child, taking in his expression of shock as he rapidly let another arrow fly at Celt, this one getting him through the right lung. Celt cocked an eyebrow and slowly began advancing toward his “foe”, almost laughing at his expression of terror as he began to rapidly take steps away while desperately trying to work another arrow into position.
He continued walking forward with deliberate slowness, allowing panic to cause the child to fumble, the distance was closing slowly and then.
More pain
Celt looked at the child in shock as the arrow flew and got him right between the eyes, the pain began to intensify as Celt swayed on the spot and then fell to his knees, taking note of the expression of relief that had crossed his foes face. Celt allowed a small smile to creep its way across his face, if only this child knew what he was in for, he wouldn’t be relaxing just yet.
Mr. E: “No! What are you doing, don’t relax yet!”
Nasha: “Don’t listen to Ethan! I have a lot of money on this!”
Solomon allowed his relief to show, ignoring the screams from the two oddly dressed men sitting on the sidelines. What he had just witnessed was far from what a normal human would have been able to endure, two arrows to the chest alone should have dropped just about anything. Regardless, the fight was over and Solomon had-
Laughter, the sound of laughter caused Solomon to freeze in something very close to horror, how, how was that possible, the arrow between his eyes should have put an end to him. How was this man still alive? Nothing could survive such serious wounds, there was no way.
He rose to his feet, laughing hard; leaving Solomon too shocked to move.
“Not bad kid, it takes some real balls to attack me at all. What’s the matter? Never seen this before? Oh kid, you have my attention now, let me show you how out of your depth you are here.”
His voice, arrogant, cocky, mocking, tones Solomon had never had used against him before, he was laughing off what should have been a death blow and actually mocking Solomon for it.
“Hey kid, never stop to think, your gutsy move hasn’t paid off, you should have followed it up.”
Solomon bit his tongue, wondering how he was supposed to know that surviving fatal wounds was perfectly normal for this man. He backed away as with a smirk the man reached up and held the arrow lodged between his eyes.
“You ready?”
With a single, brutal tug he pulled the arrow from his head in a spray of blood. Solomon could only watch in wide-eyed astonishment as he tried his best not to vomit, the man kept his eyes facing the sky and then, with deliberate slowness looked back to Solomon.
“What the hell!?”
Solomon called out, physically recoiling as the man brought his face into full view. Nothing, no gaping hole, no wound, not even a scar from where the arrow had been, not only had this man survived a fatal wound, he had recovered from it completely. In seconds!
“Ah, good, the kid does learn. I hope you’re willing to fight me properly now kid, you may not be up to the usual bar I leap over. But I guess this’ll be some good warm-up for opponents that might actually challenge me in later rounds.”
Those tones of arrogance were still present even as he tore the arrows from his chest and dropped them to the ground, the wounds on his chest healing over instantly. However, his first move was not to advance, no, he merely looked at the holes in his coat and sighed in frustration.
“Kid, I hope you have the money to cover the cost of a new coat. This one was expensive.”
Mr. E: “Wait, did he really just comment on-“
Nasha: “He sure did! Stick with what works, eh, precious?”
Celt watched in silence as the child dropped his bow to the ground and then followed up by removing the quiver of arrows from his lower back and dropped that to the ground as well. His arrows were useless to him that much he seemed to have learned, so it wasn’t all bad, Celt was against someone that wasn’t a complete moron after all. His replacement weapon was no better; however, if arrows had done nothing to him what did the child think knives were going to do to him? He blinked.
“Very well kid, I’ll play with you for a while.”
Celt said casually, almost patronisingly, trying to make it sound as though he was talking to a small child. The death glare he got as a response was priceless; he was getting to the kid. Celt remained stood up straight as the child assumed a tense stance, gripping the knife he held in the reverse-grip style. He began to slowly try and circle Celt, amusing, Celt followed suit, trying to circle the child in the opposite direction.
And they continued walking in a large circle, the kid tense and ready to strike at a moment’s notice, Celt merely casually strolling with his usual smirk of superiority painted across his lips. Surprisingly the child held Celt’s calm gaze with an intense stare, he managed to keep eye-contact and it was then, with some interest that Celt realised that his foe was looking for something he could use as a weakness. Intelligent, but Celt had no idea what the kid had hoped to find.
The silent stand-off continued the two merely holding each other’s gaze until Celt reached the quiver the child had dropped earlier. In a single move he worked his foot underneath the quiver and used his foot to kick it at the child, then the unexpected happened, the child capitalised on his movement.
Nasha: “What the Hell! Come on Zippy, if you’re gonna make things interesting I TOLD you to give me the full thing in writing FIRST so I could make epic comments on it! ... Yes, epic comments... I’ll go with that.”
Solomon had to try hard not to yell out in elation as the man took the bait and tried to mock him with the quiver of arrows he had dropped. As soon as the man had started the movement Solomon broke his stance and tore across the gap between them, ducking under the flying quiver as it passed him. And continued his sprint in a crouch, diving and rolling at the last second so that he was positioned behind this inhuman foe as he recovered, but, he was not going to allow this man time to work off the shock of his movements, he needed to attack.
He kicked the man in the back of the knees causing him to buckle as his knee bent, Solomon was fast to follow up and grabbed the man’s left wrist and stabbed him in the shoulder, with the hand-hold he span and slammed the man to the ground, using a single arm-bar technique to keep him pinned. He couldn’t mock this one; however, he was sure that this man had more than just an inhuman ability to regenerate from fatal wounds on his side. He slammed his knee into the man’s shoulder and held it there, taking a second knife from a concealed sheath within his coat, this needed to end quickly.
There was a sickening cracking sound as the man turned himself to face Solomon, bending his arm the wrong way and breaking it as he did so. He should have expected it, but still the action shocked him enough not to notice the hand wrapping around his throat and soon lift him into the air as the man got back to his feet, shaking the arm he had just broken in discomfort.
“Not bad kid, not bad at all. But now”
The feeling of weightlessness was sudden as he was hurled half the length of the arena, hitting the ground hard and rolling for several seconds after the impact.
“You’ve managed to actually get on my nerves; do you have any idea how much that stung?”
Even after that this man could still mock Solomon? He began to feel angry but knew that he had to keep himself in check, if he rose to the bait and succumbed to rage the fight would be over within seconds. He got up slowly, wincing at the ache his trip across the arena had given him. That was one attack, a single attack and already Solomon was in pain.
“What’s the matter kid? Can’t keep up? But I wasn’t done yet, how very typical of you humans, talk big but can never back up those words of yours.”
Solomon drew in a deep breath; he had avoided speaking for the most part, not until he could gauge what his opponent was capable of. And he had only just had a taste, this man was toying with him and he wasn’t being subtle about it. That was probably the most infuriating part; there was nothing Solomon could do about it.
Mr. E: “Come on this is painful to watch.”
Nasha: “Seriously, if you do what I think you’re going to do I will NOT be impressed”
Mr. E: “What the hell-“
Nasha: “Never mind Ethan”
The kid had managed to stand up again, so he was better than most humans already but was still limited by their stamina and slow regenerative abilities. If he were more like Celt then he might have actually been an opponent worth putting some kind of effort into fighting, but as it stood right now he was too weak to even think about taking seriously.
“What, that all you can manage? After seeing how fast your wounds healed I would have thought a single strike would have been all you needed to kill me.”
The child asked. The mock was so unexpected that Celt actually stopped his advance and laughed.
“That’s it!” Celt returned “Mock me as much as you like kid, at least this way I’ll have some kind of entertainment from this ‘fight’ before I end it.”
The child merely returned Celt’s smug smirk with a tired grin of his own.
“The way you’ve mocked me so far had made me believe that I was inferior to you for a moment. But that display just there, allow me to thank you for putting my fears to rest. You’re just as human as me.”
Celt laughed once more, his advance beginning anew.
“Nice try kid. But you have a lot to learn before you can taunt me, I’m still toying with you. I have a full intention of breaking you before I end this. Shouldn’t be too much longer now, you humans all have weak mentalities.”
The kid was very self controlled, that much Celt had to admit impressed him. The kid took another two knives from somewhere within his coat as Celt drew closer and made his move. It was a blind rush, Celt had gotten to him.
A stab was aimed at his gut, Celt merely raised his left hand and allowed the knife to go through his hand, the kid let go of the knife. A second stab was aimed at his chest, as with the previous stab Celt raised his remaining free hand to intercept the strike, allowing the knife to slide through his hand. The realisation hit before Celt could pull his hand away from the blade and the kid let go of the knife, this weak foe was starting to become a minor irritation.
“Almost impressive kid, almost.”
With no walls around that tactic may have been the deciding factor of this fight, with his hands now disabled he would not have been able to fight back. But the kid had overlooked the walls, a fact he did not realise until it was too late as he began to try and attack Celt head-on in an attempt to prevent him from reaching any of the walls.
Futile, Celt was much faster than this kid was. As he closed in for his attack Celt simply span around him and moved backwards rapidly until his back was pressed against the arena wall. He raised his arms and slammed them against the wall with enough force to drive both of the knives out of his palms in a single movement.
He flexed his fingers and hands slowly, working off the cramp that had worked its way into his hands after the knives had been removed and bowed low to the child, making the gesture as mocking as he could.
Mr. E: “An unexpected but very well thought out plan of attack there! But Celt is always one step ahead, I don’t think there’s anything Solomon can do here.”
Nasha: “Well at least he’s keeping things interesting, Solomon has performed better than I thought he would here. Then again that’s either because he wants as many words as possible or because Celt really can’t take the guy seriously enough to kill him.”
Solomon’s mocking had been unsuccessful and while his plan of attack had worked his foe had already derailed it by using the wall to drive the knives from his hands. Solomon was fast running out of ideas and trying his best not to panic about it, however, he had no time to even consider his next plan of action. Before he knew what was happening he was hit by a powerful force and sent from one end of the arena to the other, intense pain coursing throughout his body as his right arm broke from the impact along with several ribs. The force of the impact also slamming his head against the wall, and for a brief moment time slowed to an agonising crawl as Solomon fell to the ground, his peripheral version lost to inky blackness.
Mr. E: “Well folks, this is over. Solomon made for an interesting fight though.”
Celt advanced on his fallen foe, smirking down at the child as he fought to keep his eyes open; well the impact had failed to kill him. That was what Celt had hoped.
“No shame in it kid. Tell you what; I’ll leave you alive so that you can wallow in this loss. Next time that should give you some incentive to avoid me.”
Celt turned his back on the barely conscious child and began looking for way to leave the arena, it was then he heard it.
"You refuse you kill your opponent?"
Celt blinked, what kind of stupid question was that?
“Of course! There’s little point in killing someone not worth the effort.”
Nasha: “NO! Celt! Kill him you arrogant mother fu-“
And then he was engulfed by a bright light and back in the room he had been in before the “fight” had even started the words. “Celt Amuruaien loses by default” echoing loudly in the silence, and all he could feel was rage, he had just been screwed out of his victory.
Nasha: “NO! FUCK YOU! You just screwed me out of a lot of money! If I were an emo kid I would KILL you! I hate you, you cheating Son of a bitch!”
Mr. E: “Are you ok?”
Nasha: “I KNEW he would do that to me, I knew it and still went a put everything I had on that bet. FUCK, I’ll never forgive him for that!”
*Plate of cookies appears on the desk*
Mr. E: “The Hell?”
Nasha: “It’ll take more than-“
*A large bag of money appears next to Nasha*
Nasha: “Well it’s a step in the right direction.”
*A second plate of cookies appears on the desk*
Nasha: “You know I love you right!?”
Mr. E: “What the hell just happened? And why didn’t I get any of that?”
Nasha: “Because Ethan, you don’t break the 4th Wall which means that you aren’t epic enough to get what I just got.”
Mr. E: “What... is-“
Nasha: “Never mind! That was a better match that I thought what about you?”
Mr. E: “Indeed it was, and don’t worry folks! That most definitely isn’t the end of Celt’s run here.”
Nasha: “Certainly not, once enough people have lost their matches there will be some epic fights in the ‘loser brackets’ to allow those that lost to fight their way back into the tournament and give them another chance at victory. This is more a way to keep people happy a while longer as opposed to anything else... It’s almost as if someone out there knows what to do to really drag things out for longer than necessary, isn’t that right peppy?”
Mr. E: “Indeed it is Nash, the guys running this affair really know how to keep us on the edge of our seats, we could be in for some real upsets.”
Nasha: “Do you have any idea how annoying this is going to get champ? You could have at least given Ethan some knowledge on breaking the 4th wall... what is this? Just some way to try and get a few cheap laughs out of the reader?”
Mr. E: “Nasha, do you hear a voice?”
Nasha: “No Ethan, I do not. Never mind about that, you’ll look like you’re going mad! However, I’m almost out of things to say at this point, which is a complete shock to me, so I’ll let you tease the next fight. Don’t forget to be dickish about it!”
Mr. E: *laughs* “Very well, Nash. It’s not going to be anywhere near as one-sided as the last fight; it might actually end up being a fun one to watch. I’m not going to spoil things too much for you, but I can tell you that all participants are human! We’ll see how intense this next fight gets shortly, don’t go anywhere, there’s far much more to come.”