Sorry it's been a while. Classes were harder than I thought, and it doesn't help that the instructor seems to be giving only a half-hearted effort just because he isn't teaching the same thing next year...
B.R. - GET KUROUSAGI DOWN FROM HERE! GET KUROUSAGI DOWN FROM HERE!
*Throws knife and cuts rope suspending Kurousagi*
B.R. - AAAHHHHHH!
*Kurousagi falls to the ground while tied up*
Anyways, here's the next chapter...
"Excuse me…"
Ryo tapped the shoulder of the one known as "Odysseus".
"Yes?"
The figure had his arms crossed while giving a look of respect to the young man. The young woman, "Circe", was wrapping her arms around man's in a seductive way. However, the man did not seem to care in the slightest.
"I wanted to make sure…you're supposed to be Odysseus, right?"
Yo caught up as her partner was about to receive a reply.
"Perhaps, who may I ask is wondering?"
"I'm Ryo Natsobe, and this is Kasukabe Yo. We're also participants for this unusual game…"
"I see. Well I choose to neither confirm nor deny your suspicions at this moment. You seem like a nice person, but I still don't know much about you so there's little reason for me to cooperate…"
"Fair enough…" Ryo shrugged as he backed away slowly with his hands held up. "But I'm sure we all agree that we want to get out of this place…" he holds a hand up parallel to the ground. "So, can I ask you do just lose?"
"Surely you jest," Odysseus laughed. "Why would I surrender just because someone asked?"
"Well it was worth a try… Yo!"
Yo nodded as she dashed towards Circe without hesitation. The young-looking goddess leapt out of the way while performing a flip. Yo quickly crouched then pushed away from the ground to shoot into the air like a bullet.
Circe looked down and spun away to avoid a direct hit. However, her hair was suddenly yanked and she found herself getting pulled up higher towards the sky. Glancing up as best as she could, she saw Yo holding on her hair.
Yo and Circe both seemed to be slowing down after a bit of time, but Yo suddenly started pulling on the hair by her left and spun around before using her strength to throw the goddess straight into the ground. The young girl's body started soaring down like a missle, causing the air to howl slightly as she fell further down.
At the ground, Ryo and Odysseus watched as the figure's shape grew larger by the second.
"Haaa…." Ryo sighed as he covered his eyes from the sunlight. "I did want her to deal with Circe, but it just seems a bit too reckless, even for a goddesss…"
"Don't worry, that's not enough to knock her down…"
Just as he said that, Odysseus pointed at Circe, who held her hands out towards the ground. Suddenly, vines and plants started growing from the ground directly below her, and combined to form a make-shift landing pad. She landed on the vines, causing a small cloud of dust to form around her and covering everyone's view. When everything settled, Circe's body was completely unharmed. She dusted herself off and lightly brushed her hair, acting as if nothing happened.
Another figure was soaring towards the ground at an incredible rate. It was Yo, lunging at Circe with her foot pointed directly at the young-looking goddess. However, the flashy figure leapt back to avoid the attack, which apparently resulted in a large crack in the surrounding area, knocking some of the other participants slightly off-balance. As the air settled, Yo gave a small sigh as she stared curiously into her opponent's eyes.
"For such a frail-looking girl, you have quite a lot of strength hidden away…" Circe spoke with an interested tone in her voice. "Is that your [Gift] perhaps?"
"Elephant…" Yo replied simply. "Comes in handy at times like these…"
Odysseus and Ryo were simply watching as the fight between their partners continued. Each of the young girls would trade blows. Circe using plants, while Yo would rely on direct confrontation. Neither seemed to be letting up, but neither seemed close to winning either.
"Don't you think you should try to help out?" Ryo asked the man with the leather vest, who sheepishly shrugged.
"I could ask the same to you. Your friend doesn't seem like she'll never get any closer to Circe like that…"
"Well if she needed help, I don't think she would be stupid enough to forget to ask…" Ryo paused. "…actually, she might…" he sighed while shaking his head as the other man laughed.
"Well I suppose we could start fighting ourselves… or maybe we could settle this in another way?"
"What do you have in mind?"
Odysseus smiled. "A game of wits. You seem like the kind who thinks things through, and this way, we wouldn't need to worry about physical violence between us…"
Ryo pondered for a moment. The idea seemed interesting enough, and he did like using his brain. However…
"I'm going to pass on that…" he held his hands up as he replied. "Assuming you really are Odysseus, I'm pretty sure you'd find a way to outwit me without me knowing until it's too late."
"Oh? Are you that unsure of yourself?"
"Well…this is kinda my festival here since I got to [Little Garden], so I'd rather try to start things off with a bang…" He took up a fighting stance while smiling evilly at the young man, who was also smiling while taking out his strangely-shaped bow from his back.
"I see. Then I suppose it would be rude to force you to leave quietly."
Ryo instantly pushed his feet off the ground, running towards Odysseus as fast as he could. Odysseus had took out an arrow from his quiver and swiftly aimed at Ryo without any hesitation. However something suddenly pushed itself into his side, knocking him off-balance and preventing him from moving.
Just as Ryo planned, [Doppleganger] was able to help out in this situation. As he kept Odysseus' attention on his real self, his doppelganger would launch a sneak attack from elsewhere, giving him time to reach him and bring out another copy. Of course, the first was a rush job, so he lost more energy than intended, but he didn't want to think too much on that for now.
"Sorry, but I don't plan on letting you fight back so easily!"
He brought out another doppelganger, a power-focused one, from the sky directly above Odysseus. The power copy landed a punch just as he was landing on the body. But Odysseus held his hand with the metal wristband out, causing several monstrous heads to appear and bite the doppelganger.
The copy groaned in pain as he ended up falling on his side as the heads would continue to bite him. Ryo frowned as he made a single wiping movement with his hand, causing the copy to vanish into thin air, along with the heads. Ryo crossed his arms as he glared at Odysseus, who gave an arrogant smile.
"That was [Scylla], wasn't it?"
[Scylla], the name of a hideous 6-headed creature from the story of "The Odyssey". Along with Charybdis, the two were supposedly able to end nearly every traveler that would pass by their territory. Odysseus was only able to survive by sacrificing 6 of his men to Scylla, who would be unable to attack while devouring the men.
"Believe me when I say I'm very reluctant to use these…" the man sadly replied. "After all, these demons are the ones that killed my men…"
"These", so there must be more than one [Gift] based on his story. Ryo gave some thought as to how he could deal with this situation.
While he could try making a doppelganger for each situation, that would take too long and it would use up nearly all his energy. And there were no guarantees that he would be able to have him use each [Gift] once. No, the only problem was the simplest one. How he can win this battle against a great hero.
"Now then," Ryo thought to himself. "How shall I go about this?"
Yo and Circe continued to fight on their own as well. While Yo continued to use the help of her "friends" to increase her physical capabilities, Circe would skillfully use plants to set traps and keep a good distance between them.
However, Circe would have the upper hand since, aside from keeping most of the danger away from herself, she was still classified as a goddess figure, so she had natural "divinity" which would give a natural boost to the wielder's body.
Yo had learned from experience the troubles that a god and demon lord can cause, so she knew that she still needed to be cautious about her approach. She recalled Ryo giving her a brief overview on Circe at some point before the fight.
Circe was supposed to be a goddess of magic who was known for her knowledge on potions and herbs. She was also the one responsible for keeping Odysseus around her for one year before letting him leave.
The herbs would explain her ability over plants, but she hadn't noticed any hints about potions so far, and she couldn't recall anything else that Circe would be known for that could help in distinguishing any powers. Well, there was the part where Circe would transform Odysseus' men into animals, but it still remains to be seen whether it was a separate [Gift], or whether it was a result of her potions, is another matter entirely.
"Then…"
She pushed her foot against the ground, dashing at the goddess with a fair amount of momentum. Crossing her arms, she planned on ramming into her target and hopefully stun her long enough to trap her using the elephant's incredible strength. That way, even if she can't think up some kind of plan, she can probably hold her down long enough for Ryo to finish up with Odysseus.
Upon contact, Circe flew backwards into the wall. Yo called upon the power of the wolves to increase her speed in the moment that she was momentarily recoiling from the clash. She quickly dashed over to Circe's location, ignoring the slight strain on her body from constant movement without rest.
Circe was still pressed against the wall, and hadn't moved from that spot yet. Yo gave a small smirk as she quickly closed the distance between them. But just as she was about to reach her…
Circe had suddenly vanished.
This happened at the last minute, so Yo couldn't stop herself from hitting the wall. Thankfully, the wolf's speed meant she had to lose some "weight", so there wasn't enough force to cause anything more than a small injury. However, she was bothered by the fact that Circe had suddenly disappeared like that.
Glancing around, she looked for the goddess, who was only a few steps away from her left. She turned and started running, but she disappeared once again. Each time, Yo would turn around to find Circe about a few feet away, but every time she gave chase, the goddess would disappear, and then reappear in a new location.
"What's going on?" Yo thought to herself as she glanced around every few seconds. If she was going to beat this [Gift Game], she will need to find the secret to this trick soon…
Well I've started another fanfiction story, but I don't think it'll change much on my update timing. Actually, I think I might be able to get things just a LITTLE bit quicker, assuming I've gotten the next couple of weeks sorted out.
B.R. - Thank Goodness. Now Kurousagi won't need to be tortured again...
Oh right, I've just remembered that I invited another character over...
*Door swings open to reveal Shiroyasha*
Shiroyasha - Hello everyone! What's going on here?
*Shiroyasha glances around*
Shiroyasha - Kurousagi! Long time no see!
B.R. - Ehhh?
*Shiroyasha shoots herself into Kurousagi, sending both several miles away*
Meh, I'm pretty sure that they'll be fine.
Anyways, sorry if this seems shorter than the other chapter, but I'm trying to seperate these fights so that they'll last for at least 2 chapters or so each. Some may be longer than others, but I'm not trying to be lazy here.
So questions or comments, feel free. Reviews can be helpful, especially if it's about something I can improve on, but they aren't exactly required. PM me if you want. I'm gonna be working on the other two fanfics now, but hopefully we can get a couple more chapters in this one before another 30 days or so...
