Narrowed eyes met narrowed eyes as the cheetahs faced off against each other. One was wearing an overconfident smirk, the other was wearing a look of complete, serious concentration.
"Come on Cat you can do it!" Misty cheered from the stands.
"Excellent! We came just in time to watch Cat get his ass kicked!" Zora exclaimed, punching his fist into a waiting palm. Vines crept up around him and a moment later the kitsune was bound to his seat. "Pulsar!?"
"Sorry, but I really can't have you intervening in another match. Do you know how far I had to walk to get down there?"
"It's not that far!" Then the vines crept around his muzzle and clamped it shut. Pulsar sighed in relief.
"That's much better."
"In one corner we have the legendary bow-woman Yue!"
"And in the other corner we have the really speedy cheetah Cat!"
"Fight!" Screamed the hosts in unison.
"Gosh I love saying that!"
"Nah I think we need something more unique..."
Cat smirked a little. From what he had seen of his opponent she wasn't anything to be too worried about. All she had done was get skunked in the last task, and had only managed to go through by drawing. This would be a piece of cake!
He charged directly towards her, but was slowed down in his assault by an arrow that narrowly missed his neck. To his surprise the arrow exploded, knocking him off balance and making his left ear ring. Before he could even get to his feet another arrow exploded to his right, and sharp bits of clay flew at him, opening a few cuts along the side of his face. He tried to get up again, but had to block the next arrow, and dodge the fourth.
"See I told you Area of Effect Attacks existed!"
"That's not area of effect-"
"But it affected an area-"
"Come on Cat don't underestimate her!" Misty called. How typical of him... In his rush to prove that he was an excellent fighter he had charged right into his opponent's ploy... typical Cat.
While he steadied himself, Yue was silently and methodically pressing her paw against the snow, hiding trap after trap under the frozen water, creating a field of deadly traps around her, invisible to the naked eye. She fixed another arrow to her longbow and watched her opponent get to his feet. As expected he was overconfident and brash- his only feat so far had been narrowly winning against a preteen...that said a lot.
Cat shook his head. He had severely underestimated her so far, but that didn't mean he had lost yet. On the contrary, she had just warned him to be more careful. He retreated backwards, and began performing his paw seals.
Yue released at exactly the right moment, her arrow sailing over towards him, and forcing him to deflect-thereby cutting him off mid-seal. Calmly, Yue put another arrow to her bow and drew it.
Growling in frustration, Cat cracked his knuckles. He didn't need any techniques anyway! From what he had seen she was pretty weak in close combat, that meant he only had to get close to her. He tore forwards, nimbly dodging her next arrow, before pouncing towards her. Yue spun on her heels, narrowly avoiding a knock-out blow.
Cat wasn't as lucky.
The bear-trap's teeth sunk deep into his leg, pinning him in place. He released a cry of pain, before lashing out in a roundhouse kick (bear-trap and all) that caught Yue on the side of the head and knocked her off her feet.
Pula inhaled sharply and placed a paw to his chest. For some reason his heart was beating very fast. Like he had just run a race.
"So far Cat has walked right into her waiting trap, but has also managed to land a direct hit!"
"Who will come out on top? Find out next time in Azam-A'waan Hour!"
"No find out now by watching the fight!"
"Mine was more catchy!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
Cat bent forwards and dug his claws into the side of the trap, before prizing it apart with brute strength alone and freeing his now-bleeding leg. Gods what was wrong with him? He should have expected something like that!
Yue was rising to her feet, but Cat didn't dare take any more chances. He brought his arms down with all the strength he could muster, and to his surprise Yue blocked.
"How!?" He exclaimed. "You shouldn't have been fast enough to block that!"
"Speed doesn't matter if I see your attack coming." She replied, before going in for a leg sweep. Cat hopped over it, and planted his bleeding leg square on her forehead, knocking her backwards. Mid-air Yue steadied herself and landed in a plank, her face an inch away from a bear-trap.
Pula gasped louder than anyone when the trap snapped shut with a loud clang. He found himself being stared at by everyone in the vicinity. Hell even the commentators had heard it!
"Hey wasn't she freaking out when he was fighting the horse?"
"Aw that's so sweet they're worried for each other!"
"Shall we ship them?"
Yue rolled away from Cat's next attack before slamming her fist into the side of his leg. She dived away and reclaimed her crossbow-only to be sent flying by an uppercut to the chin.
"Shall we call them Pue or Yula?"
"I prefer Yula. We can make it an abbreviation!"
"You Understand Love, Aaaaaaah?"
"That's perfect!"
Yue rose with a massive frown on her face. She had just started talking to her lazy, constantly-bored roommate and now she was getting shipped with him. Then again there was more to him than being lazy and constantly bored...
Cat was upon her before she could give Pula more thought, and Yue was forced to narrowly weave through his punches. She hated close combat! She just needed.. positioning.
"Come on skunky! Don't let your girlfriend get harassed by that guy!"
"Yeah! Don't let her get stolen by someone of her species! Interbreeding for life!"
Mrs Tamod bit her lip. Interbreeding... gosh no wonder these people were poor.
Pula sunk low in his chair. He had spoken like three times to the loud, bossy, disciplined feline that was his roommate! And he was now being shipped with her in public!? Then again... there was more to her than being loud and bossy...
Yue dodged a swing that would have knocked her out on the spot and took a step backwards. She ducked under a kick, and stepped backwards. One more attack, another step backwards. And then...
As expected Cat came in with a right hook. He overstepped, and landed on her trap.
An ugly, four foot iron spike, with multiple smaller barbs on it, exploded out of the ground and flew upwards into it's target. Which happened to be Cat's posterior. The cheetah was launched into the air with a scream of pain, and Yue regretted having lost her bow. He was such an easy target...Cat landed on his front, groaning in agony.
"That is both really cool and really gross. I mean like it's gory... and right in the ass and why the hell are you looking at it?"
"It's our job to observe!"
"Yeah but we're not getting payed to observe that!"
"In case it's not obvious guys Yue has just won the match through um... really clever usage of... well you know."
Pula let out a sigh of relief, for a moment there he had been worried. Several of his swings had only just missed her... Worried? He hadn't been worried! He was only sweating because... well it was hot wasn't it?
"Yes! I'm so glad he got beaten! Take that pussy cat!" Zora then began cackling maniacally.
Pulsar rolled his eyes. "This is why after ten years we're still friendly acquaintances."
Misty rushed off of the stands to her injured student. She frowned. "I told you not to underestimate her!" She scolded angrily. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Can you scold me when I'm not in immense pain?" Cat pleaded.
Misty sighed. "When we get back to the Palace I am going to teach you to not underestimate people!"
"Misty!" He moaned.
"Fine! Just a minute."
Meanwhile Yue was receiving her score.
"That was very good!" Master Flying Rhino praised. "In fact I think I'll give you ten out of ten for not using a 'supernatural' crutch." There was much cheering for this statement. "Or anything that is particular to your species. I expected some high-speed action and while you did deliver on that you were more focused on winning than showing off! Congratulations!"
"Yeah you were pretty cool."
"I love the way you seemed like you could almost predict where he was going to go next!"
Yue wanted to facepalm. She had been able to predict where he was going next. Hence her victory.
"Eight out of ten!"
Mrs Tamod pursed her lips. On the one hand Yue was a far better candidate than the other victors. A mercenary that was too small, an arrogant cheetah, a stinky skunk... but she was a girl and Mrs Tamod would never let her daughter marry in that way. She almost shuddered. It would forever shame their name. "Six out of ten."
"That puts Yue on the same level as Qian! Congratulations the pair of you are both in the lead with a total of twenty four!"
"I think you should lighten up with the points." Flying Rhino said, turning to the old cat. "I mean a six seems kind of low."
Mrs Tamod wanted to roll her eyes. This rhino had no idea...
"You did good." Pula said in dull monotone by way of congratulation.
"Thank you." Yue replied curtly, taking the seat next to him.
Neither spoke of the shipping.
"Next up is a dooooooooooooooooozy!"
"You don't know the meaning of that word."
"Viccori vs-"
The porcupine bolted upright, and fixed Kuufu with a stare that showed a hint of cruel hunger. He was going to enjoy this!
"Misty!"
He didn't let the disappointment show. He would get Kuufu in the next match then...
"So we're just gonna wait for Misty to fix her boyfriend's butt... and then we can watch these guys fight!"
Footnote: I think Cat would have won if this had been his first match-but because he scored so little in his first match, and promptly saw everyone else getting more points than him he acted without thinking, and as a result lost his match. Hope you are satisfied with the match. The next one was suggested a while back (back when I recieved all the competitors to begin with) and I think it's probably the most fair match-up, except perhaps Duyao vs Misty or Duyao vs Viccori- especially for two characters that BY COMPARISON TO MOST OTHERS are VERY STRONG (OP is a word that is thrown around way too much in my opinion). That isn't necessarily a bad thing it's just that coming up with match-ups are harder since most end up stomp matches (see Misty vs Jian, Viccori vs Mr Wo, Viccori vs Zora and Pulsar). But the next one won't be, I assure you.
