For their first matches, they were each to fight a monster and its handler. This was Auj Oule, after all. Boring but predictable, Milla thought as she dispatched one of the bird-like creatures native to the area with an arte. Behind her, as she felt through their Link, Jude launched a triple-strike assault on the handler, knocking the man off the edge of the arena and into the safety net below.
The match was over.
"The returning champions certainly haven't worn out their edge," boomed the announcer. "I bet we'll be seeing this feisty duo all the way up to the finals!"
The crowd cheered, and Jude waved up at them with a half-smile, but Milla, who had been subject to worshipful adoration her entire life, didn't pay them any mind. "It's been some time since we fought with just the two of us," she said to Jude as they exited the ring.
He was about to reply when something small and soft barrelled into Milla, latching itself to her side, and she looked down in surprise to realize that it was Elize. "Milla, you were amazing," the girl said.
"We were watching. You guys are so cool!" said Teepo, hovering in the air.
"Thanks," said Jude, "but it wasn't really a difficult fight. I'm sure our later matches will be tougher."
"You bet," said another familiar voice. Alvin strode up to them, sword resting over his shoulder and gun draw. "Later on it'll be time to pit our little crew against each other."
"I must say that I'm excited to test my skills against yours and the others," said Milla, extracting herself from Elize's grip.
"Are you two fighting next?" Jude asked.
"Yup," said Teepo. "We're gonna beat the tar out of whoever stands in our way!"
A bell rang above the door to the arena. "That's our cue," said Alvin. "C'mon, Elize."
"We'll be watching from the stands," called Jude after them. "Oh, and good luck!"
"Thanks," Elize called back as she exited into the ring.
Jude turned to Milla. "Let's go get a seat."
"Certainly," she said, nodding.
It was fortunate that they were able to find an empty spot in the challenger's stands before the fight began. Milla sat patiently through the announcer's prattle, finding herself unexpectedly excited at the prospect of watching the fight. It wasn't often she got to observe her companions' battle skills from a distance, except perhaps for previous times they'd come to the Coliseum. But even then those fights were usually one-on-one or all as a group.
Alvin and Elize stood in the middle of the arena, waiting for their opponent to be revealed. Alvin's stance was relaxed, all of his weight placed on one foot, while Elize hugged Teepo tightly to her in anxiety. Finally, the opposite doors opened, and the other team stepped out.
Actually, only one creature stepped out, because the trainer was perched on the massive monster's back.
It was a wyvern.
Milla's seat was close enough to the ground that she heard Alvin's voice, loud and clear.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
The wyvern roared. Its rider leapt up onto its head and laughed. "How do you like that?! I'll show you how a true man fights," he yelled, in a disturbingly familiar voice. The curious sensation that Milla had learned to identify as annoyance caused the corners of her mouth to tighten.
"Is that...Ivar?" asked Jude from the seat next to her.
"I believe so," said Milla.
The fight began with a jet of fire shot from the wyvern's mighty maw, mixed with wind artes to concoct a deadly mix of flame that launched towards Alvin and Elize at an alarming speed. Alvin grabbed Elize around the middle and pulled her out of the way as the place they had been standing a second earlier went up in smoke, which proceeded to cloud up the surrounding area.
"Not a very good start," muttered Jude.
Milla folded her arms and sat back. "Hmm."
In the arena, Ivar was standing on his wyvern's back, hand on his hips and head thrown back in laughter. Then Alvin was suddenly there, materializing out of the smoke like a demon from hell, sword cloaked in fire and ready to strike. Ivar scrambled for his weapons while the wyvern raised its wings in preparation. Just before Alvin reached them one of Elize's artes did, hands of darkness reaching out of the earth to batter the wyvern's wings, knocking the creature off balance. Alvin's sword connected with its chest, causing its entire body to arch in pain, and Ivar leapt down to fight the mercenary off.
"They recovered nicely," said Milla.
"Yeah, this is getting pretty intense," Jude agreed.
Alvin and Ivar were duelling furiously in the middle of the ring now, Ivar's speed and erratic style clashing with Alvin's brute strength and combat experience. His gun bought him an advantage over the handmaid which he brought to bear with expert precision, driving Ivar back when he could and keeping him at arm's length.
Elize was hammering the wyvern with artes, alternating from strikes from the ground, its sides, and the sky to keep it disoriented.
"That's not going to hold it for long," said Jude, frowning.
Mirroring Jude's thoughts, Ivar's voice could be heard over the sound of clashing swords. "Ha! You think you can keep this strategy up forever? You're just delaying your imminent demise!"
"Do you ever shut up?" growled Alvin, firing a couple of rounds at Ivar, which he nimbly dodged.
And then Elize cast Negative Gate on him.
"Whaaaaaat?" wailed Ivar as the gravitational vortex sucked him in. Alvin took the opportunity to slip past him and attack the still-confused wyvern directly, launching a powerful arte at one of its wings. The wyvern screeched, belching a stream of fire while whipping its long tail towards Alvin. He blocked the tail but was momentarily lost from view within the flames.
"Oh no," said Jude. Milla was too focused on the fight to respond.
"Alvin!" cried Elize, from the other side of the arena. Ivar caught sight of her as he picked himself off the ground and made a dash for her, weapons at the ready.
"Elize, look out!" came Alvin's voice as he re-appeared, scorched but still standing. He shot his gun at the wyvern to keep it on the defensive as he moved out of its range, then swiftly switched his aim to Ivar and fired. Ivar dodged, still on course for Elize.
"Not on my watch, you don't!" roared Teepo, blindsiding Ivar just as he was about to reach Elize and latching onto his head. Milla could still hear his muffled yelling, and she marvelled at how very loud Ivar was capable of being.
Elize whacked him in the knees with her wand, sending him toppling over on the ground, still struggling to get Teepo off his head. She fired a quick healing spell Alvin's way, and they both took the chance to launch a joint assault on the wyvern while Ivar was distracted.
Milla nodded in approval.
"Wow, they're doing great, now," said Jude.
After being beaten with a combination arte that resembled a giant toy hammer, shot with a laser beam made of darkness, and pummelled from above by a shower of bullets, the wyvern gave in, letting its long neck collapse to the ground like a winding rope.
Elize quickly healed Alvin, and both of them converged on Ivar, who finally managed to detach Teepo just as they reached him. Alvin's sword was already at his throat.
A hush fell over the crowd. "You wanna surrender?" Alvin asked.
"Surrendering is for cowards!" said Ivar. "You still haven't seen everything me and my wyvern can do—"
"We beat up your dumb wyvern already," said Teepo.
Ivar stiffened. "You—you what? That's impossible!"
"Nope. True as the day is long," said Alvin.
"Fine! I...I'm making a tactical retreat for now," said Ivar.
Alvin pressed down with his sword, grinning wickedly. "Come on, you have to say it right or we can't end the match. Tournament rules."
"Grrr...I—I give up," Ivar snapped, and the audience erupted into cheers.
"And this harrowing match is over, ladies and gentlemen...who'd have thought we would see such an amazing fight in the Prelims?"
The announcer went on, but Milla tuned him out in favour of watching as Ivar sprang up and fled the arena as soon as Alvin's sword was gone. She wondered if she should find him and try to talk to him, but dismissed the thought. He would undoubtedly leave the city immediately after this humiliating defeat, and the more she thought about it, the less she felt like actually putting up with his absurd antics. Instead, she looked to Jude.
"I don't think I ever realized how well those two work together," he said, watching Alvin and Elize leave the arena.
"Yes, Linking with Lillium orbs certainly does wonders," replied Milla.
"I don't think that's entirely it, though," said Jude. "To really work with someone well, you have to know them, their patterns, and habits, and thoughts."
Milla hadn't really thought about that until now. She thought back over her experience with Linking with her different companions, and found that indeed, the longer she had travelled with them the easier Linking effectively had become. "And the two of us have been travelling together the longest out of everybody in our group," she said aloud.
Jude looked at her in surprise. "Yeah, I guess we have."
"Then we should make a formidable pair," said Milla, smiling.
"I hope so," said Jude.
Rowen and Leia had been watching from the stands as well.
"Wow, that was really something," said Leia. "I can't believe Ivar came all the way out here."
"He is a very tenacious young man," said Rowen. "Although the fact that he can command a wyvern is impressive in its own right."
"Yeah, too bad it doesn't stop him from being crazy!"
Rowen laughed in appreciation of Leia's honest nature. "Very true."
"So it's our turn next, huh?" said Leia.
"Indeed," Rowen replied, watching the next contestants enter the ring. He mentally measured them up, deciding that the woman with the harpy companion was the likely winner. Next to him, Leia fidgeted. This wasn't unusual in its own right, but the way her hands twisted on her staff suggested something more than mere impatience. Rowen waited for her to speak. It didn't take long.
"We're definitely not going to lose!" she burst out, apparently unable to hold it in anymore. "We're absolutely, definitely, totally gonna make it to the top! We're even going to kick Jude and Milla's butts!"
The determination blazing in her eyes fully matched the bravado in her voice, a far cry from her hesitation last night. Rowen smiled to himself, nodding in agreement to Leia's impassioned cry. "Indeed we shall, Miss Leia," he said.
In the arena, the Harpy turned a somersault in the air, letting out a cry of victory as its opponents lay beaten in the arena's dirt floor. A decisive victory.
Lunchtime during Coliseum tournaments was always somewhat of an ordeal for the group, considering what had happened the first time they had participated, thanks to Exodus. The only one who didn't seem to care was Milla, who barely waited for the food to be set down in front of her before she started wolfing it down.
Jude took a small bite and waited five minutes, just to be on the safe side.
Each of the pairs in their group had handily won their matches, Rowen and Leia having dispatched a boar and its rider shortly before lunch. Leia's skill would have done her mother proud, Jude thought, and sighed. He'd been on the receiving end of that staff one time too many in his childhood. He kind of almost felt sorry for her opponents.
"Jude. Are you not going to eat that?" Milla asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. She was pointing at his as-yet untouched bowl of soup.
"What? Oh, no. Er, I mean, yes. I'm going to eat it." He picked up his spoon.
Across the table, Leia was recounting her fight with the boar to Elize. "So it was charging at me, full tilt, so close I could see all of its gross nose-hairs. But then Rowen's spirit arte hit it from below and it flew waaaaay up," she said, waving around a breadstick demonstratively. "Then I just went whoosh! Bam! and it went right off the edge! Didja see it?"
"Yeah! You were so cool, Leia," said Elize, eyes shining.
"Well, what I saw was you freaking out and then practically tripping over your staff when you went to attack," said Alvin, grinning lazily and tipping back his chair onto its hind legs. He still hadn't touched his food, Jude noticed. And he still hadn't told Jude the real reason he wanted to join this tournament. Jude supposed he'd have to ask him directly later.
"What?! That's totally not what happened at all! Everything was 100% on purpose," Leia said indignantly, snapping Jude out of his thoughts as she pounded the table.
"Oh, I see. So you meant to get your shirt caught on that thing's tusks and nearly get dragged over with it."
"Now, now," interrupted Rowen, delicately placing his fork aside. "It is only thanks to Miss Leia's support that an old geezer such as me is able to fight in such an event. I won't have you mock her efforts," he said, though his eyes were twinkling with mirth.
Jude watched them with amusement. Leia and Alvin bickered some more, resulting in Leia chucking the breadstick at him, which caused him to lose his balance and go crashing to the floor, chair and all. Elize giggled from behind a roll she had clutched squirrel-like in both hands as Teepo hovered over Alvin, taunting him relentlessly. Rowen chuckled and pretended to be very interested in his meal as an irate Alvin rose from the floor, cursing colorfully. Milla, ignoring all else, continued to eat.
It was nice, just to see everyone together like this. Like nothing would ever change.
A/N: All right, here we go. I don't usually write fight scenes, so much of this fic is a big writing exercise for me! I've actually written quite a bit ahead, but I'm banking on feedback I get to carry me through to the finish, because I kind of need the motivation. On a side note, the second-last and final scene of this chapter were the first new things I wrote since I picked this up from a year ago. I did re-edit it, though.
Looking back on it, not much actually happened except for the fight against Ivar, and I wasn't even intending for that to happen. I remember going, "Hmm, what should they fight?" then, "Oh, it should be something ridiculous. A wyvern, maybe?" and then, "How about Ivar's wyvern?"
I actually really like Ivar. The amount of effort and energy he puts into things despite being an idiot and kind of insane is incredible.
Anyways, talk to me, people! Many thanks to Nameless Knight and others, but if you're reading this don't think for a second that I don't want to hear what you have to say.