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

[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.

[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.