It's been a while, been super busy with other fics, so heres a bone for you all. This idea came from a person titled; ' almost stupid ' . N-joy.

The Belated Champion.

A name from a person that existed long before, when Remnant was known by another name. His background was as cloudy as the era of his time, their secrets preserved as age diminished traces of them ever being alive. The era's archives were large and protected, but it's guardians had become mindless things, controlled by the darkness that ended the age. There were those who had come to challenge the Champion, falling under the belief that he would be the same as their first encounter.

But as his weapon spun in the air, and ended at his thigh, the Unkindled ones were met with an unrelenting force, a change in mood, and death. These warriors had expected some strange physical transformation, in the form of a dark sludge, but the Champion ground them into and ashes again and again. He didn't appear differently, rather, losing the infectious parasite that had sprouted on his back, instead, his mind had shifted from that of a resting man to the person who had so righteously attained the epithet of 'Champion'.

Eventually, the ashes had grown in number, overpowering the once-royal heir, turning him into dust for the wind to scatter.

Time could do as it will, but Gundyr's weapon would not wither into nothing, nor erode into rust. Instead, the halberd would become one of the few things from that once-legendary age of fire to persist through the demands of time.

Found by some humans, the weapon weighed heavy on their arms, even when two-handed. Those who could lift the halberd found that they could only it in an abnormally slow fashion, and so the weapon was regarded as a mystery, found before technology's leaps, yet more advanced and decorated than any hero's blade. It was left to the new land to unravel it's mysteries. But the item was lost to the wilds once more, found by a stray man years later by chance.

The logic of existence is strange, and the awkward situations found throughout Remnant today could lend credit to this. It is because of this nature of the world, that the Belated Champion appears again in the land.

A person waited in a great arena, surrounded by the people he did not know. They cheered, seeing who would be fighting. A girl who was incredibly talented for her age, trained without end to be the strongest she could be in the city's grandest tournaments. He waited silently, with his cast-iron halberd that lay on the metal floor of the center. Black eyes darted to a bright figure that had appeared on the elevated arena, it was obnoxious, the way the people's cries exploded at her appearance growing higher in tone, then falling back, afraid that their voices would become too strained.

The person who waited, his name was old and ancient. Wearing something that had once become part of the wind by way of ash, he waited silently for the announcer's 'begin!' before he would start to move. This person was covered in armor, everywhere on himself, save for a blue cloth that was meant to symbolise something, but now resembled worn fabric, filled with perforations and scratch marks. This armor looked heavier than most sets found within the land, defeated only by the platings of a faithful knight who encased himself in stone. Finally, Nikos arrives in the center, as if the roaring crowd had been phased from existence, looking focused and concentrated.

"Let's have a good match, shall we?" With a voice so welcoming and friendly, it was a wonder how the resting champion was able to keep himself from conversing.

In fact, the lady was musing about it herself. She looked down on him, how he looked down at the tiles of the center, just like she used to do. He must be like her, different and alone. Her new friends had been able to climb over the walls that had been built around her. The same could happen with anyone. Hoping to ease what she believed to be a burdened mind, Pyrhha found delicate patterns on the weapon that lay flat in front of him. The lady stumbled for her words.

"Th-thats a nic-"

"PYRHHAA! Wait for us!" From behind her, an unnaturally high voice cut through her own words. An end came to her speech, twirling around, the lesser champion was met with a bolt of orange and white that appeared just short of her. The person grinned brightly, a green and black figure took it's place beside her. This person leaned, looking past Pyrhha at the opponent.

"Hmm, looks focused, but with the four of us, I don't think this will give us too much difficulty." Ren, a member in one of the teams at Beacon, assessed the armor's pose, if he was confused, their opponent certainly wasn't showing it. Pyrhha had some knowledge about this participant, she was willing to share it. As soon as their final member had arrived.

Speaking of him. Here he was now, with his jolly face and jollier jog.

"Sorry guys, something happened, don't worry about it." Jaune, he was considered to be the weakest of them all, the weakest and most undeserving of his position as a student of the hunter's academy. While still a weak link, he closed the gap of combat compatibility fairly quickly. Strange. One day the boy's ability with a sword was similar to that of a panicked civilian, then suddenly, his blows drew greater breathes, and his swings forced a draft of wind along with it.

Still quite petty when put against most students, but the gap that identified him as an outlier had started shrinking at a snail's pace.

Finally, the champion of Mistral inhaled; "Our opponent today is someone who's beaten teams of hunters and huntresses of four, we could easily be the next." With a calm tone, she continued past Jaune's distressed cry; "He's here as a hunter, and I don't think he'll go easy on us just because we're students. From what Ruby's told me, he's relentless, deceptively quick, and much more." She describes the Belated Champion, who currently wonders what could have happened if he had only arrived at Firelink Shrine sooner. If only he had been awakened, sooner.

Then the voices of the announcers turned the speakers alive with noise. The iron Champion was lost, sifting through what could have been, unable to hear the monologue of the professors. The team of hunters finally turned to face their opponent, staring in some expression as he leaned to grab his weapon.

The holographic displays in the arena flashed by, there was only two of the panels, one for each side.

Large platforms that made up the fighting ring receded into the colosseum, leaving only the participants in the middle unaffected.

One half returned, in the forms of a stone ruin, riddled with ponds, on the side was a large tree, growing on what could resemble the empty coffin of a giant. This platform appeared behind the resting armor.

When the other half resurfaced, it's environment was that of an open field, devoid of distinguishing features, save for an oak tree on the top of a hill.

Screens appeared in the battlegrounds, two to be precise, on opposite sides, behind the single Champion and the students, displaying the faces of each. But for the armored warrior, only the helmet was displayed, a ghostly blank expression. Under the mugshots read this:

TEAM
JNPR
OF BEACON

And:

GUNDYR

There was no description of him. He appeared out of nowhere, with his name already in the participant's list for the 'True Champion's Tournament', where hunters of any kind were allowed to participate. Students or approved. You could sign on as a a single combatant up to a team of four, but there was none who would battle without the full four.

But Gundyr defeated them all. With a smash of his eternal halberd, delivered by a grip of steel, teams of three were easily smashed out of bounds. Ganks of four were kicked by the spirit of Bruce Lee, knocking them over easily. The hunters were met with a fraction of the power that had forced so many of the chosen ash back to their bonfires. Not once was there a need to twirl the halberd, and shift into the more aggressive fighting.

The men in the announcer's box droned their countdowns, willing Gundyr to reach for his relic of a weapon. The younger fighters readied theirselves, sword and all. The ancient boss gripped the length of his iron halberd, and thrust the sharp tip into the tiles of the center, pushing himself up, letting an extended grunt free in the process.

Team JNPR looked in shock for a moment at his size. People always did look shorter than they would be standing up, if they were sitting down in some way.

There was the big man's 'begin!'.

Gundyr, now standing tall above the four, slowly stepped for them.

"Get to the meadows!" Jaune raised his sword, running back to the green field together with his team after he did. After a moment or two, they treaded grass, and all four of them turned backwards, firing on Gundyr with a rifle and a grenade launcher. Easy, armor was made to resist slashing attacks, bullets against his iron would be as effective as a nail on stone. Blows with weight behind their impact however, were a different story. For a moment, the Boss thought about blocking with his weapon.

But then, he lowered himself, preparing a leap and evading the large grenades as he did so. Soaring through the air, the iron weapon was held at his side, ready to be smashed into the grass. Each of the four pushed their shock away and escaped the blast of his halberd. Pyrhha and Ren stepped to their safe sides, Jaune and Nora followed their successors in their actions. With a heavy foot on the soil, Gundyr slowly twists his entire body to the left, and swung his large weapon back, slicing what had remained in it's path.

Jaune considered himself a front-line fighter, but this time, he actually thought about the situation. Pyrhha had said that this person was able to defeat teams of four without end until he was the victor, meaning that it would be near impossible to defeat the opponent the way he is, 'mano a Boss'. He freed himself from the Boss' range, but kept his shield up, in case he tried something.

It was a good thing he did. Once Gundyr released the force in his arms, the halberd sliced against his family's shield, and Jaune's back foot dug into the grass behind him, to save himself from being bowled over completely. Apparently, his weapon had a longer reach than previously thought. The rest of his team had put some extra distance between themselves and the Boss, leaving Jaune's shield to be the only thing to make contact. It looked like the bigger fighter had not finished, when the iron blade cleared it's cone-like reach, it was brought up in the air, behind Gundyr, who leaned backwards, a strong leg supporting his stance.

The halberd in line, was about to smash into Jaune, who warily takes his steps backwards.

From Jaune's vision, Pyrhha glided through the air towards the giant of a man. The girl slashed at his armor repeatedly using her special sword. As if nothing had happened, Gundyr let his arm fly overhead, smashing only the grass. Jaune moved forwards, seeing if he and Pyrhha can't perform one of their patented combos on the Boss.

Inexperienced one. The Belated Champion forced his halberd from the grips of the grass, and directly struck the young blonde with both the blade, and a fairly large uplifted stone that had been hidden underground. Some in the audience expressed their amazement at the show of strength, smacking their hands together a number of times. They would have never thought about something as amazing as that by themselves!

Gundyr himself lunged his stance backwards, and bashed his left fist at Pyrhha, who had only an instant to raise her smaller shield. But something small like that could never hope to fully block a strike as heavy as an iron fist from the ancient Champion. She should not have been distracted by what happened to Jaune. Now she was out of balance. The Boss tucked his fist in and launched himself at her, shoulder first.

As a result, Pyrhha was knocked to the ground.

From behind, the whistling of something in the air was heard. Nora screamed wildly, and fired off her explosives at the giant of a man. A final boom, and Ren came from the dust that resulted. He'd use the blades on his pistols to quickly slice the Boss, quickly sidestepping when Gundyr lifted his left foot, and avoiding what had cheesed every Unkindled from the dying age of fire.

That kick would send all but the quickest and strongest sprawling.

Hellooo.

Champion is really hard to fight on your first try, but he gets ez when you know how to ~pari~ him.

What'd you want me to write next? Hit me with a review and I'll see if i can't type it.

Next time

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