Choose your destiny! Flawless victory! [Inevitable Tournament Arc]

[meat_mooks]

No sooner did the Obs Deck descend to Arena Planet LXIII, and the crew allowed to disembark, than they were met by a veritable cloud swarm of cameras. Sleek, elegant things that might have been living, might have been machines, maybe were even magical... but were definitely nuisances as the swooped around to capture video of the crew at all conceivable angles, close up and far away. Their every move from this point on would be on camera.

In front of a small crowd of retainers stood what appeared to be a great circular orb whose only distinguishing features were a nose, and what appeared to be the most overblown mustache ever, which actually appeared to be supporting that two-foot-diameter orb at shoulder height to a tall man. Then the orb took a couple of steps forward,revealing that no, those were actually just really, really hairy legs. A seam cracked open on the creature, and in a voice loud enough to echo across the broad open plains without any need for amplification, it bellowed, "AND NOW! STRAIGHT FROM THE TRANSMIGRATION NINE VESSEL! OUR NEWEST COMPETITORS! FRESH TO THE STAGE OF BATTLE, BUT NO STRANGERS TO WAR--"

It went on like this for some time.

Under cover of this introduction, a small man that to all appearances seemed to be the love child of Richard Nixon and a particularly aggressive Furby stepped forward, and in a bored businesslike tone recited, "Welcome to the tournament. There will be one battle per day. The arena in which you battle will be determined by random draw. Our medical crew will perform all healing necessary and ensure no deaths so feel free to not hold back. Please refrain from accepting any bribes or favors from on-planet spectators--"

"--ARE YOU READY?!" the orb bellowed even louder than before, completely swamping the smaller man's recitation. "THEN STEP THIS WAY!"

And so saying, the orb and its procession began a clearly well-choreographed procession towards a large, medieval-looking fortress that hung dramatically just on the edge of clear vision. (Conveniently, this procession passed several large advertisements.)

Comments

[nize_hat]

Maxim was almost impressed. This guy was putting up a really good fight! Easily the best he'd had in a long time--but nothing as good as what he was expecting from future enemies. Enemies he had plans to be around to see.

"Not yet," he assured Saurfang. "But soon, sveethot!"

The Jaegermonster ducked out of Saurfang's way, letting the orc charge at the other wall--but making sure to pick up his battered hat before the death knight could hurt it any more. He clapped it on his head, leaping at the orc's back with intent to kick him face-first into the wall.

[meat_mooks]

Gashakura turned to catch that blow on one of the long armor plates that covered him from shoulder to waist, stepping back as he lifted his hand to bid Billy to stop.

"Your heart isn't in this. I can feel it in every move you make and every blow you land." He stepped closer, looking down at the Ranger from his superior height. "Why are you in this tournament?"

[zombiewolf]

Kyladriss could parry the blows from the front, but the blows from behind impacted - more than impacted, they hurt.

Something like that needed to stop. She had no idea how much of what he did was magic in any way, but she was getting tired of listening to him. "You talk too much," she growled, her back still stinging. She made a clenching motion with her hand, casting Strangulate. It didn't particularly matter to her whether or not it stopped him from from hitting her, but at least it would shut him up for a few seconds.

She charged her sword with death runes and retaliated, exhausting all of them with death strikes. She needed her blood shield. More than that, she needed to heal the damage he'd done to her.

[morphitudinous]

What?

It really was that pathetic, wasn't it. He did so (or appeared to), though he remained tense and ready to move, expecting it to be a trap.

"Why would you care? Just finish already!"

[meat_mooks]

"You bear the armor of a warrior. You chose to don it. Yet you have no love for fighting," Gashakura persisted. "So why?"

[splendid_roman]

He looked over his shoulder in time to see the hair coming. Did it never stop? He moved off her before it could do him too much damage, although kept a hand on her in case she decided to get up. "I'll stop if you will."

[dragonspooker]

WHOA OKAY yeah that's dangerous - time to put more distance between herself and this thing - and see what the old standbys do.

"FIREBAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL!"

With a fair amount of speed, a...well, ball of fire streaked toward the Leviathan.

[punchedoutdestiny]

"Can-do," Simon answered, shifting things around a bit so Lagann took a boxer-like stance. There's some regret weighing on him, but that's there to drive him, not hold him back.

[meat_mooks]

Saurfang spun, his axe describing a blue-shining arc in the air as he whirled it towards Maxim, even as the Jaeger's blow slammed him hard into the wall. Again, the death knight lit Maxim's blood on literal fire with but a thought, the coursing disease even more painful than before.

Still, Saurfang's movements were ragged -- not because he felt pain, but simply because his battered body could no longer move quite the way he wanted it to. Ragged, but no less powerful or deadly.

[meat_mooks]

Such was her foe's indignation on finding his breath no longer coming properly that she punched clean through his defenses at last, laying open a broad line on his cheek as he yanked his head back out of the way from more lethal consequence at the last moment. With the chains of ice adequately dissipated to allow it, Tsukishiro vaulted backwards, landing on the far edge of the platform. Or was it the edge? It was very visible beneath him.

His confident smirk had vanished, replaced with a sick, bloodthirsty glare as he yanked his sash free from his belt. "It isn't enough to just win now!" he sneered. "Now I need to make you suffer!"

With that, he drew the sash around himself. For a moment, his crescent blade shone like another moon in the sky... and then disappeared along with its wielder, swathed by the cloak's power of invisibility.

[meat_mooks]

The Leviathan was too powerful to be taken down by one mere blow! As fire washed over it, the main cannon unleashed a massive column of energy at the poor innocent sorceress.

[meat_mooks]

"I can't stop," she murmured, though the hair simply twisted in midair, not striking again. "This is what -- this is what I have to do."

[meat_mooks]

With grace and speed that bespoke incredible skill, the man dove forward. One blade rose preemptively to intercept and lift one of Lagann's arms, opening up its body for a strike from the other blade.

[nize_hat]

"Dis iz how hyu serve hyour master? Vorthless! Veak! Hy--"

That was about when the blood boil hit, literally making his blood boil and driving the angry monster even further into battle lust. Maxim didn't feel anything when Saurfang's blow connected, cleaving his left foot clean off and sending it skittering across the floor.

He'd been about to draw his rapier, but that plan was discarded. Instead, he thrust the knee of his bad leg into the death knight's chest, even as he palmed the orc's face with his prosthetic hand and beat it against the wall like it was a basketball.

[meat_mooks]

Being smashed into the wall for the third time finally proved the charm. As the orc's head bounced wetly off the wall, his final blow guttered out as the axe dropped from nerveless hands. The death knight slumped against the wall, sliding down it slowly in a smear of icy blood.

A moment later, a massive eruption of fireworks filled the sky to celebrate Maxim's victory.

[splendid_roman]

He kept an eye on her hair, but as long as it wasn't attacking him, he stayed where he was. "You don't," he said. "You can surrender."

[moves_like_jaeger]

Not that Maxim precisely registered the fireworks or their meaning, at the moment. He'd fallen to his hands and knees, but managed to take a seated position. Now was spent trying to calm himself down, lest he be a danger to the staff.

No need to give Jaegers a bad name across the universe, right? Unless someone else had done that first.

He scooted across the floor and grabbed his foot. He didn't have much hope for it, but maybe they could find him a nice prosthesis like his hand. Even a peg would work...

[zombiewolf]

Stealth, was it? Kyladriss had a few tricks to deal with that.

She couldn't drop Death and Decay again for the moment; she'd used all her death runes building up her absorption shield. Blood runes, though - those she still had.

She knew better than to get near that edge, so she stood near the center and called a blood rune, sending it boiling out across the platform. If that didn't find him... well, she always had another one.

[meat_mooks]

A wise strategy! An excellent strategy! And if it failed, it was only because Tsukishiro had chosen to launch his attack from air.

The sash billowed out from around him as he appeared behind and above her, almost perfectly silent as the massive crescent blade descended for her.

awesome

[moms_temperment]

There was a small thud noise as a fiercely spiked shoulder guard that resembled the head of a demon suddenly appeared to stop the fingers.

Hana smirked, it only took him a moment of instinct to Oversoul and Amidamaru had done the rest, protecting his master.

"Alright. Bring it on." With that, the teen swung an impossibly long but deadly sharp sword toward his opponent.

[meat_mooks]

By the time the sword drew closer, Kurei was nowhere near where he had been standing as that blow had started. With incredible speed he twisted around Hana, striking again for a spot that newly-conjured armor didn't cover.

[ruffntumblenut]

That gave Ruffnut encouragement, and a burst of energy to try clawing her way back up his back to try blowing his head off again.

"What's the matter big guy? Am I too much work too?" She mocked as her body surged with lightning filling the air with the scent of burning flesh and the scent of ozone.

[meat_mooks]

No sooner did Ruffnut step closer to him than Sloth charged.

At a speed faster than the naked eye could track.

Funny thing is, Sloth is the fastest homunculus.

So fast, in fact, that there was no technique or even attack behind the charge than Sloth simply hurling its raw weight at the Viking girl and trusting mass times velocity to do all the damage it needed to.

[changelingdude]

And as the slow smash came down Beastboy seemed to shrink away from it in fear...

And then he continued to shrink.

And shrink some more.

A tiny green housefly shot like a rocket to the underside of the fist before shrinking even further into ant form.

The rocky skin was like a tower of cracked stones to the little green ant who raced up his opponent's arm.

Once upon a time Beastboy had asked Cyborg, Raven and Robin (The three smartest people he knew at the time) where all his extra bodyparts went when he got small. Between the three of them they had come up with some kind of theory involving the space that people traveled through when using boom tube technology and big words that Beastboy couldn't follow.

All he had come up with was that he was awesome and awesome needed no explanation.

Hoping that he was somewhere dangerous and being unable to tell (Antvision was nearly useless for that sort of thing) he slipped into one of the seams where the stones met...and began to grow as big and fast as he could. A mighty elephant!

[meat_mooks]

Stone burst and shrapnel flew as the teen became a titanic creature. Sekiou, who had made a furious grab for the housefly that was doomed to fail, collapsed underneath his weight with an anguished cry. Where the rock had exploded from his form, bones crunched audibly beneath Beastboy's pachydermal legs.

But he didn't seem quite out yet, for the rock armor was already attempting to reform around the wound...