Hey look, a veteran! she thought, perking a little in surprise.
He was much older than her, some grey showing around his temples and had three long parallel scars running down the right side of his face from cheekbone to jaw. For all of that, he was still quite handsome, with a wry sort of kindness to his face and very intelligent eyes. His weapon of choice was a mighty double-ended sword-staff.
"Round ten, Rikku and Gelnin Steelwind... commence!"
Gelnin Steelwind? She'd heard of him! He was the famous warrior from Steelwind Clan; the one that single-handedly beat back a swarm of fiends in a level three sand storm! He was a living legend among their people.
They both bowed respectfully at each other. Around them the crowd was going wild. Most of the spectators were chanting "Steelwind! Steelwind! Steelwind!" for that was his title among the Al Bhed. Her four Guardian friends staunchly cheered for her and she waved back at them a little. She couldn't blame the stands for cheering for him, the man was a legend after all.
"Are you... um," Rikku started hesitantly as they both weighed and measured each other with their eyes. "Are you sure you want to be doing this? I mean, you do have to get married at the end if you win, y'know?"
Steelwind grinned a little and said
"I've been fighting battles since before you were in diapers, I figured that it's time I retired and found myself a cute wife. I got a good look at you fighting one day and I think we'll suit."
She blushed a little, flattered that such a famous warrior found her cute, but...
"Well, sir, I'm afraid that retiring just isn't anywhere on my agenda. I don't want to settle down just yet, or ever, perhaps."
"That's alright," he said. "I'm not much for staying in one place, truth be known. We can travel on your airship."
Rikku had to admit that the proposition didn't sound too bad, but she still wasn't certain she wanted to marry a stranger (much less an older man) no matter how famous he was among her people.
"You have to win the fight first," she pointed out, with her usual cheerful attitude. He nodded at her and they began the fight in earnest.
Steelwind was a true veteran, which meant that he knew exactly how to start out a battle the right way. He immediately tossed out a lunar curtain for Protect and then a chocobo feather for Haste. Rikku smiled, the first moves were made. She wasn't going to soil the man's dignity by stealing from him, that would communicate something of a slap in the face; like saying "I don't take you seriously enough to attack or prepare while I have the chance" and that was fine for those fresh-faced greenhorns, but not for a warrior of his caliber.
"How about a round of Rikku surprise?" she suggested, splicing a grenade and an antidote together in weak mix for a simple blaster mine. He might be a veteran, but she still didn't want to go overkill on him. She wouldn't be able to face Auron on the Farplane if she sent the old man in ahead of his time for just wanting a cute wife.
The curtain took most of the damage and her Sensor told her that he still had plenty of fight left in him. She smiled, a real fight at last!
Steelwind moved next, trying Threaten on her to see if he could paralyze her with fear. No dice, she was immune.
"Nice try though," she encouraged with a smile.
Steelwind smiled a little in return. This was less like a fight, and more like a conversation between two old battle comrades that had both seen much and were meeting one another in the back of a bar for drinks and to share stories about battles passed and feinds fought.
He attacked in earnest. Rikku brought her claw up to block a swing from one of his blades in passing. She wasn't quite fast enough to dart out of the way of his back-swing however and took a hit from the blade on the other end. Rikku easily dodged and weaved in the patterns of the Whispering Sands dance when he tried an overhead strike and he responded just as easily with the counter from the Blast Winds dance. Her counter-hit didn't land. Impasse.
He actually landed a hit on me, Rikku thought, rubbing the back of her head as they separated for another pass. He was pretty spry for an older guy.
They rushed at each other, claws and blades flashing in the rising heat of the sun. The blade and part of the shaft of the staff weapon grated along her claw when he thrust in, going for a middle strike, and she dodged and blocked. She spun, dancing along the shaft of his weapon to bring herself in close then whipped around to nail him in the back of the neck with her claw. She was careful not to use too much strength, just enough to bring him down.
But she'd forgotten about the Protect.
He rolled out of her reach (still conscious), casting out a megapotion in the process, and faced her again, fully healed. Rikku paused to mix up a firegem and a soft for a firestorm. It did some damage, but every hit seemed to energize him in some way, too late Rikku realized her mistake... now he had access to his signature attack, the Blade Flurry.
His blade-staff was held out before him and Rikku sensed a gathering of some kind of force. Abruptly, his weapon began to spin furiously in his grip, sparks and power flew upwards, then abruptly paused and crashed downwards and out, crescendo-ing over her in a wave of force. Her own life-force abruptly dipped. It hadn't been enough to bring her to her knees or anything but certainly enough to advise her to quit playing around.
Rikku reconsidered her strategy. They still weren't evenly matched; Rikku was by far the stronger of the two, but he was a canny fighter and she really didn't want to have to hurt him seriously. That put her at something of a disadvantage because she had to carefully horde her strength and he could attack with impunity. So. Something else, then.
She was reluctant to use Haste because she'd always felt that it gave her an unfair advantage, she was built for speed in the first place, but in this case she was willing to consider it a compliment to her opponent. She pulled out a chocobo feather and felt the power and energy rush through her. She whipped in and struck before he even seemed to note that she'd moved, he'd blocked most of her strike but some of it had landed and he knelt down, damaged.
"Sorry about this!" she called, and lobbed a simple grenade at him to finish him off. He evaded and countered. Wounded to critical condition, he, strangely, didn't bother to pull out another healing potion but instead held his staff weapon vertically before him. The sky abruptly darkened and the sands around them turned red.
Flaming orbs of brimstone shot down from the skies pummeling her like unruly bread dough. Rikku took some hits. It still wasn't enough to bring her to her knees but she was hurting.
Time to end this, she thought, regretfully.
Play time had been fun, but...
She darted in again landing a direct hit against his lowered guard. She compensated for the curtain but found, to her chagrin, that it had worn off. Still even with the extra strength she managed to avoid overkilling the older gentleman and he slumped forward and fell against the sands, defeated.
"Mediiic!" she called. She strolled over to Yuna for some healing while they toted Steelwind off the sands to the medics tent.
"Quite the fight," Lulu noted.
"I almost didn't want to beat him," Rikku confessed. At her cousin's strange look Rikku explained
"Not because I wanted to marry him or anything, but because he's an Al Bhed hero. Even I was raised on stories about the famous Gelnin Steelwind and his battles against the Yevonite (no offense to present company) raiding parties, and how he defended our people against fiend attacks. I didn't want everyone to see him fall or be defeated."
"Heroes are still simple flesh and blood," Yuna said gently as she deftly healed her cousin. "Just look at us. Besides, I'm sure that if he were to have anyone defeat him he'd probably want it to be you. You're an Al Bhed hero too, after all."
"Oh yeah," she said. "I forgot about that."
"Dey're callin' da next match, ya," Wakka informed her.
"Round eleven... Rikku and Westet... commence!" her father called out.
Rikku glanced at the next combabtabt and summed him up easily within that glance. Greenhorn. He looked clueless, what was a boy who barely seemed to know how to put on armor doing in the middle of a fighting tournament facing off against her? She sighed a little. Wakka had been right... sheer numbers. Her father must have rounded up every warm body of the male persuasion he could find just to wear her down.
One hit. Rikku forgot that the chocobo feather was still doing its work so she darted in there faster than he could see, let alone prepare for, and he was down and out with a blow to the temple.
The gong was struck to signal the end of the match, about a minute after it had been struck to signal the beginning of the match. There were some laughs, but mostly exclamations of surprise that it had been concluded so quickly. Rikku had to agree with the general sentiment that the poor boy hadn't had a chance. It wasn't bragging; she was just that good.
The next three matches went much the same as the one after Gelnin. Out of a sense of pity she'd let them have the first move so that they could at least attempt to prepare or get one hit in... but the battle was a forgone conclusion and she felt that they both knew it.
Let's see, what am I up to? Fifteen? she wondered to herself as the medics toted her latest combatant off the sands.
The sun was nearing the noon point, the hottest part of the day and the heat was begining to make her cranky. Plus she was getting hungry as well, not a good combination; she'd start making mistakes that way. Besides all of that, Al Bhed traditionally napped or rested at this part of the day.
Indeed, the spectators were already beginning to drift off in knots or ones and twos for their own lunch and rest in their nice, cooled houses.
"Hey pops!" Rikku called over. "Give it a rest, I'm starved!"
Cid looked over at the next contestant who nodded his head eagrely, possibly hungry but more probably eagre to delay his inevitable ass-kicking. Rikku could understand that; no-one wanted to lose face by chickening out, but it was okay that she was going to defeat them because like Yuna said she was an Al Bhed hero. It was okay to loose against a hero, but no man worth his salt wanted to be known as a coward.
Rikku was trying to go easy on them, but she knew she'd scared some of the poor young men when she'd accidentally nearly killed that one guy and then promptly taken out a a living legend of the Al Bhed directly after.
Pops sure isn't doing me any favors, she thought to herself.
If she couldn't find her nice, only-slightly-epic romance that she was looking for and decided she wanted to look among her own people for a likely match, she was going to have a heck of a time finding one! If the boys she fought in the tournament didn't hold a grudge in one form or another she'd be very surprised, and even of the ones she wouldn't be fighting, Rikku had the feeling that the tales of her fighting prowess were going to grow exponentialy the farther they traveled across the sands. It would be difficult to find a young man willing to date a legend.
Definitely not doing me any favors! she thought shaking her head a little as she strolled off the fighting sands and headed with her friends back to her airship for lunch.
This is not the last we shall see of Gelnin Steelwind. Gippal's back in the next chapter (which happens to be one of my favorites) I figure the boy could use some competition for a change (is it just me or does it always seem like Rikku's the one who gets jealous and insecure?). So look forward to a few laughs. Please review.