"I'm not sure I'm ready for this, Father..." Pyrrha said, nervously eyeing the crowd in the stadium from the tunnel that lead to the arena floor. From there, the muffled, but still roaring, voices of thousands of people as one of the announcers continued to excite them with the details of the next fight could be clearly heard.
"Pyrrha, my dear, I don't see what you're so afraid of." Hephaestus said softly, stroking his beard. "You seemed so eager when you heard the tournament sign-ups were beginning. What's got you so scared all of a sudden?"
"It's not fear; it's nerves." she corrected. "I figured there wouldn't be so many people for a first round fight."
"Ah, stagefright." Hephaestus realized as his amber eyes met his daughter's emerals ones and put a hand on her shoulder. "As I've said, you have nothing to worry about. You never cried when you got your shots at the doctor's office. You killed your first Beowolf at age eight. You practically forged your weapon by yourself. If there's one thing I've learned watching you grow up, it's that you're a natural-born warrior like your old man. You can do this. I believe in you."
"You think so?" Pyrrha asked.
"I know so." Her father answered with a smirk. "Now get out there. Win or lose, you have already made us proud."
She nodded and left her father's company. From there on out, each step towards the opening to the arena caused the noise of the crowd grow louder. It was practically deafening by the time she made it to the mouth of the cave, the announcer's booming voice drowning out everything else for the moment.
"From the red corner, a first time competitor from a two time champion's bloodline and already ceded eleventh out of thirty two, give it up for Pyrrha Nikos!" he boomed, enthusiastically introducing the young redhead as she sheepishly gave a wave to the crowd cheering for her entry.
"And in the blue corner, last year's Mistralian Young Warriors Tournament champion..." Pyrrha gulped as the crowd cheered even louder for him. She was fighting the winner of last year's tournament? No wonder there were this many people. "Ceded first in the competition, Mister Remmington Irons!" The crowd erupted as a man just a few inches taller than Pyrrha entered from a gate adjacent to her. His alabaster skin seemed to glint with sweat from the summer heat, his spiked dark burgundy hair waving in a passing breeze. Pyrrha took a quick mental note of what she was up against. He didn't seem to have much muscle mass, but made up for it with a pair of metal arm guards and pauldrons , along with a dark red bulletproof vest with a couple pouches on his sides for ammo. His lower half seemed less protected, just a pair of brown denim pants and red work boots. What interested her most was his weapon. It looked like an anti-tank rifle with a sniper scope and a large stock. It didn't seem like the most practical of weapons to be using in a competition like this, but Pyrrha learned never to underestimate an opponent when sparring with her father and the training droids he was gifted by Atlas' military for practice.
Pyrrha let out an exasperated breath to shake off the last of her nerves. She replaced it with a deep one as an official decked out in protective padding that made him look like a hockey goalie without the massive kneepads motioned for the two to meet in the center of the arena. "Alright, you two, listen closely. I want you both to give the people of Mistral what they paid for, but I want it clean. No trash talking, no cheap shots, and make sure all blows are kept above lethal and, if you can, life threatening. Understood?" He looked between the two, each giving nods of confirmation to him. "Excellent. Good luck to both of you, now take ten steps apart from each other and come out fighting. Begin!"
He waved a hand between them, the returning champ giving a glance at his opponent before the two backed away, Pyrrha keeping her emerald eyes locked onto her opponent as she kept her focus locked onto Irons. The second both took their tenth step backwards in perfect synchronization, Pyrrha felt something graze her hip and tear through her cape before the rack of Irons' rifle even registered in her ears. She was completely taken aback how quickly he reacted before she even readied herself.
He seemed to pick up on her surprise and quickly re-cocked his rifle, firing off another shot. This time, Pyrrha was ready. She shifted her shield in front of her, blocking the shot from its original path that would have struck her breastplate. Following it up by charging forward, she got ready to make an upward slash against Irons' chest, only for him to shove the butt of his rifle in its path to block the strike. It knocked him slightly off balance, leaving him open for another attempt, yet Pyrrha wasn't expecting the rifle's stock to become an axe blade, and thanks to the length of the rifle barrel, enough to arc a strike that would directly connect with Pyrrha's neck. Luckily, this did not come to pass as Pyrrha ducked at the last possible second, shifting her unnamed weapon's figure as it unfolded into its javelin form. A battle between long-handled weapons began to take place, momentarily disrupted as Remy could show that his weapon was capeable of firing while still in its axe form, trying to throw off the rookie with a high velocity bullet at close range. As she was dodging another shot aimed high at her shoulder by ducking low and trying to go for a leg sweep, only for something heavy to bash against her shield. Looking up as she was forced backwards, she discovered her opponent's weapon had a third function, the barrel doubling its thickness and forming a large lance he could easily strike with one hand with. The hoplite girl hopped backwards out of his reach, trying to think of how to combat this.
"He's not quick on his feet, but quick on that trigger." she thought, dodging another stab her way. "I can't get in close without having to dodge his strikes either in lance or axe form..." she continued before an idea struck her like a freight train. She wasn't sure it was ready for it, as she had never tested her weapon's final feature, but now seemed as good of a time as any. She cartwheeled backwards as he tried to run her through with his lance, looking up in surprise to watch her spear turn into a bolt-action rifle, firing off a trio of shots, none of which Irons could block as they struck his weapon, shoulder and ripped a strap of his bulletproof vest.
As she landed a few more successful hits on Irons, a thought came over her. "This was the skill of last year's champion?" she thought. It wasn't as bad as she first imagined this fight going. All in all, the highest difficulty setting on her father's practice droids were tougher than him, albiet by a small fraction. She could end this now easily as her gaze shifted to the scoreboard at the back of the arena, just above her exit from the preparation tunnels. The late summer sun gave a blinding glint off it's edge, she noticed she was doing much better than she had anticipated. Her Aura level was on the borderline of green and yellow, while his was one strong hit away from reaching the point the official would have to stop the match.
Her thoughts had shifted from that to seeing that Irons had caught on and knocked her weapon out of her hands with his boarding axe hooking around the barrel and yanking it away, then quickly swinging it back towards her. Instinct willed her to lift her shield to block the swing, but her weapon was too far away to get to without him still in range. Desperately, she dived under the the axe blade and made a reach for her weapon, all her focus on retrieving it. Almost surprising herself, the rifle seemed to fly into her hand, shifting its shape into its sword form. Not having time to react to the sudden phenomenon, she swung backwards, slashing Irons across his knee and bringing the older teen down to one knee. Still trying to bring his weapon back to vainly hit her, Pyrrha quickly bashed her shield against his face, knocking him back to the ground and his Aura level into the red.
"That's the match!" The referee suddenly shouted out, running up between them from the outskirts of their range. Looking around at the crowd, Pyrrha looked nervously at the stunned faces of the dumbfounded crowd after pulling off what could easily be called the greatest upset in the tournament. It almost shocked her when her crowd suddenly erupted into genuine cheering and applause.
"Well, folks, give a big congratulations to this match's winner, Pyrrha Nikos!" the announcer cheered, the winner of the match picking her family out of the crowd, her father cheering on while her mother was trying to get her toddling twin siblings to wave to her. She gave a wave back before someone clearing their throat behind her grabbed her attention.
"Oh, um, sorry for ending your tourney as champion..." Pyrrha apologized, turning to face Remy as he stood behind her.
"No need for that." Remy countered. "You outclassed me and beat me fair and square. Too bad I couldn't keep it before heading to Beacon Academy." He looked down in disappointment of himself for a moment before finishing. "But, hey, I'm bound to take the Vytal Festival title anyway while I'm over there. It's time for somebody new to take this one, and I'd feel better knowing the one who beat me holds it."
Pyrrha's face lit up with a feeling of triumph as her arm was lifted into the air by Irons as a sign of sportsmanship and triumph. She no longer felt nervous with fighting in her first tournament. Now she felt that this was the first win of many.
And that's another one down. This has been sitting in my iPod's note section since late May with just the conversation between Pyrrha and Hephaestus written. I honestly was starting to think about abandoning it, but I'm glad I decided against it. This ended up coming out better than I expected it to.
For those of you who follow me and were expecting the next thing for me to put out was the final chapter to Stolen Innocence, sorry for the disappointment. Still I hope you enjoyed it. As for SI's finale, I'm almost finished with it. I'm taking a flight tomorrow to California, so I should have plenty of time to work on it between Boston and San Fransisco. Other then that, the next two weeks might be slow for me to get stories and one-shots out to you guys and girls to enjoy. Until next time, I'll see you lads and lasses around.