Disclaimer: I don't own the right to any of the characters in the story except Enigma, Sakura (my version), DarkAngel, Lina (again, my version), and ChaosB1ade and even then it was names my friends picked out. All others I'm borrowing, so don't sue me over anything.
A/N: I went on a writing spree after I posted my last two chaps. Don't get pissed just bc this chap is incredably long. I didn't plan to make it this long but it just happened. Enjoy.
Chapter 21: Hollow Victories
At 2:50, another annoucement came telling all participants to enter the arena right away. As soon as everyone had entered the arena a man in green and tan robes had entered with a smilair colored hat on. His face was rough and as he spoke the voice matched his face, "Greetings players. I, Lios, would like to welcome you to this tournament celebrating the re-opening of the Lambda server. We at CCcorp. and Altimit would like to thank you, the players for continuing to play even with these rumors of comtose players, and the closing down of many of the servers. We will be re-opening the servers as time passes and we resolve the situaton. On that note, I shall now explain the rules for this tournament. Before you enter your first match, each of you will scanned for any illegally modified equipment or character data. Exceptions are appearance mods. If you are caught with illegal equipment, then you will be ejected from the tournament and your team will have to do without you. Next, the rumors of handicaps are true. Before every match begins, one handicap will be chosen out of this," A bingo ball dropper appeared next to him, "There are many handicaps in this cage, some good, some bad. You will have to adjust your strategy for each match. Matches end when each player from one team is dead, there will be no surrendering, not that any of you would surrender, and once dead a team member can only be revived by Rip Mean. Finally, all the shops are closed like the announcement said earlier. You will not be allowed to buy any more items than what you are carrying, nor can you go to the Elf's Haven and switch weapons and armour. If you forgot to bring something along with you, then tough. Now on to the reason why you all entered this tournament, the rewards for winning: First shall recieve a preview to our new expansion set and a weapon creator. Second shall recieve a Golden Grunty, and third shall recieve a random rare item. If there are no questions, then let the tournament begin," a large display of fireworks appeared behind him annoucing the tournament was underway.
Jon sat near the grunty ranch and was feeding his new baby grunty some Mandragoras, and White Cherries. He was inturrpted when one of the speakers called out, "Team Konoha, and Team Mandy please report to the arena. Your match will begin in 5 minutes, and if any member of your team is late, then your team will go without. That is all."
"Finally. I be back little grunty with some more food for you," he walked to the gateway to the arena and meet with Jasmine and Kelly, "You ladies ready?"
"As we'll ever be," they told him nervously.
As they began to walk through the gate, they were stopped by two of the Cobalt Knights, "We must scan to make sure you are not using any illegal equipment. This will only take a few seconds," their bodies were enveloped in a green light that lasted for a few seconds then faded, "Players Sakura, Enigma, and DarkAngel are cleared to fight. Please proceed into the arena and good luck."
"The worst is over. I thought they were going to get us for our bracelets," Jon whispered, "That scan made me feel violated too."
"If you were disqualified, then Lios couldn't have Balmung and Kamui take you out, and we're agents for him, so of course we were cleared," Kelly said.
"Let's get this match over with so we can get those prizes," Jasmine laughed as they entered the arena.
The gate on the other side opened revieling a female blademaster, and a male long arm. The blademaster had dark pink armour that covered her whole body except her head, and her hair was blonde and came to points that looked like horns. She looked pissed off at something and she glared at the long arm who seemed puzzled. He was completely bald, pale skinned, about six and a half feet, completely covered in a black cloak, and his spear looked more like a scythe.
"Grim, where's Billy," the blademaster said with an extremely angered voice.
"I have no idea where dat idiot ran off to Mandy. Maybe he got himself killed falling on his own axe or falling off da bridge near da chaos gate," the long arm then laughed evily for no reason.
"The match begins in two mintues and if he isn't here, heads will roll. Most likely yours and theirs," she pointed her sword toward Team Konoha.
Suddenly a strange sound of someone laughing came from the gate behind Team Mandy. A heavy axeman began to rush into the arena, but was stopped to be scanned and was eventually let in. He ran in still laughing as he stopped a few feet away from Mandy, "Hey there Mandy, did you do something with you hair," a obviously stupid voice came from the axeman. He had on a red helmet, that matched the red and white armour that covered his whole body, he was smaller than most heavy axeman, but was still about 6 feet.
Mandy walked up to him and punched him straight in the face, "You almost got here late Billy and then our decoy plan wouldn't have worked. Well maybe I could have replaced you with Grim, but it wouldn't have been the same."
"Sorry, I was running through town and I fell down and," Billy started to explain.
"You fell on your axe and killed yourself," Grim said eagerly.
"How did you know?"
"Enough chit-chat, Billy's here and that's all that matters. Lets kill these guys and get this match over with," Mandy yelled at her team mates.
Now to decide which handicap will be placed for this match," Lios pulled one the balls from the cage, "All strengthening and weakening skills will be sealed for this match," the arena distorted for a second then went back to normal, "Begin!"
"Billy, go after the wavemaster, Sakura. Other than that, Operation Wonder Battle," Mandy shouted as she charged at DarkAngel.
"Sakura, just avoid the axeman and we'll take care of him. Enigma, help me out with this control freak," Jasmine called out.
As Mandy reached DarkAngel she gave two quick stabs, but missed as DarkAngel simply jumped over her sword and flipped over her. She slashed with both her blades in an 'X' pattern but simply scratched the blademaster's armour. Mandy turned around with fire in her eyes and on her sword as she used her VAK REVOLVER attack to melt away part of DarkAngel's hand armour. She prepared to quickly use another VAK REVOLVER but was stopped as Enigma held back her sword with his own. He grinned at her as the two blades gave off a little steam from her attack. Enigma's sword started to glow a faint blue, but was distracted by Billy running into him, and accidently making a large wound with his axe.
"Sakura, freeze this dumbass before he causes any more trouble for us," Enigma yelled as he pulled the axe out of his leg. He looked at Billy, who was laughing as he stood up and apoligized for running into him. Snowflakes began to swirl at Billy's feet and Enigma chuckled at him, "I'm sorry that you had to die too quickly," Sakura's ORRUE ROM hit Billy with a tornado of ice which after the attack dissipated, left him in a near death condition. Enigma charged up his sword while the tornado was hitting Billy and unleashed his RUE SMASH attack which froze Billy completely.
"Cool. Look Grim, I'm a Billysicle," Billy laughed as his ghost laughed uncontrolably.
"Well Billy lasted longer than I thought he would. Grim are you just going to stand there while these guys kill me," Mandy yelled at her ally.
"Actually, yes. I'm going to sit here and watch as dese tree tear you limb from limb," the long arm laughed evily at his leader.
"You'll pay for this Grim," Mandy yelled as DarkAngel found a weak spot in her armour and killed her as she stabbed both her daggers into her sides. Mandy's ghost glared evily at Grim as Team Konoha looked puzzled.
"You let your teammate die," Sakura asked the long arm, "Why would you let that happen?"
"That little girl terrorizes me in da real world, so it was time I messed with her for a change," the long arm laughed evily at the ghost of his fallen comrade, "Now to finish you three off and advance to the next round," He gripped his scythe tighter and swung horizontally, slicing DarkAngel in half and killing her instantly.
"What the hell? Sakura, first aid," Enigma called out so that the wavemaster would revive DarkAngel.
"Dat won't do any good. The Reaper's Scythe has da power to kill in one swing," he laughed evily again as he swiped at Enigma trying to kill him as fast as he did DarkAngel. Sakura started he chant to revive the fallen twin blade and as she finished, a white light covered DarkAngel and she became whole and living again. The now revived DarkAngel became infuriated with the long arm, and her shoudlers sprouted shadows that formed into the shape of ghostly black wings and flew straight at the long arm. All the spectators watched in awe as they saw the twin blade deliver flying slashes at blazing speed that Grim couldn't counter. After leaving Grim in a defenceless position she stood over him and turned back to her teammates.
"The fight is to the death," Lios bellowed.
"We know that you pig-head," DarkAngel snapped, "We were just thinking of the flashiest way to finish him. Sakura, if you will."
Sakura's wand began to glow red as she started chanting her spell and suddenly four giant balls of fire appeared above Grim and swirled around him. The fireballs crashed down on the long arm, and ignited his body and killing him a few seconds later.
Lios stood from the chair he was sitting in, "The winner is Team Konoha," some of the spectators cheered as they walked out of the arena.
"Not to bad for our first win. They could have been harder, or at least an actual team," Kelly laughed.
"I know, they were only fighting with each other and using each other," Jasmine said.
"If all our battles are this easy then we'll the proud owners of a new weapon creation kit," Jon shouted.
"I wouldn't be celebrating to early," a woman's voice said from out of nowhere.
They all turned to see Kamui and Balmung, "We can finally have that rematch I've wanted Enigma," the blademaster said calmly.
"Just don't die in the early rounds, or we would feel cheated," Jon chuckled. He then turned his attention to Kamui and looked her over, "So, you're the leader of the Cobalt Knights?"
"And what about it," Kamui snapped back.
"It's just that you don't look too impressive."
She almost charged him and would have killed him that second but Balmung held her back, "Control yourself Kamui. It's not yet time, and we can't attack anyone outside the arena. Let's go," he saw Kamui had not taken her eyes off Enigma, "NOW!!."
"Your head will be mine Enigma," Kamui proclaimed as she started walking away.
"That's what Balmung said," he yelled back to her.
Jon and his team watched some of the others matches including Lan and David's which they won because they were facing two heavyblades and blademaster and the handicap was that weapons were unusable so David just beat his opponents down with dark skills. The tournament went on for another hour before it had reached the quarter finals and each of the teams still in, had gone through 4 matches already. The remaining teams were: .Hackers, Konoha, Slayers, Nitemare, Balmung and Kamui, Defect, Piros, and Syck.
Lios stood in front of the remaining teams, "As a token of good faith, the Elf's Haven will be re-opened for only 10 minutes. Get whatever equipment you need because it won't open again till the tournament's over. The next match between Team .Hackers and Team Konoha will begin in 15 minutes."
"I hear that's Kite's team," Kelly said cheerfully.
"Wonder if Blackrose has gotten any stronger since the last time I fought her," Jasmine thought aloud.
"She helped me and Kite beat Skieth so I would say yeah, but any of their team could have picked up new weapons and armour," Jon said to them with his head down.
"Something bothering you mister gloomy," Kelly trying to see his face.
He lifted his head only to have a large smile, "Just keeping my focus. We have to keep winning so that we can win those prizes. Plus, wouldn't be cool if we faced Balmung and Kamui in the finals, or David and Lan?"
"Is that even possible?"
"I looked at the brackets and when we get to the finals, we'll either face Balmung or David."
"Don't you mean 'if' we make it to the finals," Jasmine playfully laughed.
He gave her a death glare, "Never 'if', only when."
"I'm going to get a few staves so I have spells of every element ready," Kelly said as she headed away from the stadium toward the elf's haven.
Jon had gotten back into the position he was in and Jasmine noticed his hands were shaking uncontrollably, "Get a hold of yourself man. It's only a tournament."
"For you it's only a tournament to see who the best. For me, it's a fight for my very existance every day. That and I haven't felt more alone then living in this god forsaken hell hole of a game. If I could end it, then I would, but I can't so I do what I can to keep myself alive and hope that you guys can find some why to help me out of this," tears rolled down his face as he said this.
"If there's anything I can do then let me know," Jasmine walked up a grabbed his hand.
"Answer me one question then. How am I doing back in reality, and give me the truth."
She pondered whether to tell him everything but as she saw how depressed he looked she knew she had to, "Well it seems that the docs at your hospital are going to take you off life support in a little more than a week. They don't expect your body to live much longer after that, day tops."
"Those bastards. Why though?"
"Your insurance said they ain't paying anymore and your mom can't so they have no alternative."
His face went from depressed to a mixture of rage and depression then relief, "Thanks Jas."
"Team .Hackers and Team Konoha report to the arena now. Your match will begin in five minutes," the speaker next to them announced.
"We better get going and meet up with Sakura," Jasmine said as they headed for the stadium.
As they entered they noticed their opponents, Kite, Blackrose and Mistral were already there waiting. Blackrose was looking at Kite and seemed frustrated while the twin blade chuckled nervously and Mistral had a large smile on her face.
"I'll be back. I need to ask them a few things," Jon told his friend as he started heading for their adversaries.
"Yo Kite, BRose. Any word on what the giant monster that appeared after Skieth died," Jon asked the unlikely pair.
"Hey Enigma," the red twin blade was the first to answer, "We were wondering what happened to you after we got blasted by that thing."
"Kite was the only one caring. You could have died for all I cared," Blackrose huffed at him.
"Come one Blackrose," Mistral jumped on her back, "You don't have to be that mean to him."
"She's just pissed about how I beat her in the last tournament we were in," Jon chuckled, "I got my Tidal Sword by beating her."
"Well, then it's no surprise why she's angry with you," Kite laughed, "We haven't heard anything about that huge beast though."
"But it does seem that the coma cases have stopped growing," Mistral piped in.
Jon looked back to his partner and saw that his other teammate had returned, "Well I just wanted to ask and wish you guys good luck," he put his sword on his shoulder, "You're going to need it."
"Teams, come meet me in the center of the arena," Lios barked, "There are some addtional rules that are being added for the rest of the tournament."
"More rules," DarkAngel sighed with disgust.
"If you don't like it then for forfeit and your team will do without you. The new rules are: 1. No reviving with Rip Mean anymore, 2. A second handicap will be added to every match from now on, 3. Any skill that be considered illegal shall not be used, that includes your modified wings DarkAngel, and if you use these kinds of skills, you will be disqualified, and 4. The losers must give up their most valuable items to the winners. Don't bother trying to give up something that isn't your best because we when we scanned you at the beginning of the tournament, we found out what was your best equipment was and you're all probably still carrying it. When your team loses, you WILL give up that item. If there are no questions, then return to your side of the arena and await my signal," everyone had left except Enigma, "Is there something you wish to say to me Enigma?"
"Stacking up the odds against me is pretty low Lios. First you want to kill me, then take away my prized sword? That's low," he had a smirk across his face and an arrogant voice.
"When you die, you won't need that peice of junk anyway," Lios returned to his seat, "And now the handicaps for this match will be," two of the little balls fell and Lios grinned as he saw them, "all healing skills and all items will be sealed."
"Shit, no way to heal then," Enigma growled at the administrator.
"Not exactly," Sakura giggled, "We still have Rig Seam, which is technically a strengthening skill."
"Sweet. Blackrose will want to fight with me and I want to take her alone if you two don't mind," he gave them a playful smile.
"Not at all," DarkAngel laughed slightly, "then Sakura and I will take Kite and Mistral. Just keep my health up as much as possible and attack Mistral with all you got, kay Sakura?"
"Alright. No one can beat my fire and ice spells, and since Mistral will most likely use wood spells I brought some armour for each of us."
"Thanks, but I'll stick with my current armour, and I doubt Enigma wants to change his either."
"You read my mind. So we each fight our respective character class then?"
"Begin," Lios shouted.
"Enigma's mine and don't you guys help me. I want to beat him myself," Blackrose ordered as she charged at the heavy blade.
"Mistral attack whenever you can, and I'll take Sakura," Kite rushed after tell rose clad wavemaster.
"Ap Juks," Sakura shouted as each of her teammates gained a transparent green shield and then began a longer chant as her wand glew a pale green, "Rig Seam," a small orb appeared above Enigma's head she jumped over her small victory.
"How the hell did she use a healing spell on him, they're supposed to be sealed," Lios yelled in shock.
"For an administrator, you don't know a lot about this game," Balmung said who was sitting next to him, "Rig Geam and Rig Seam are considered strengthening tech so they are usable, even with your handicap."
As Kite got withing skill range of Sakura, he was stopped by the ebony dagger of DarkAngel, "Your fight is with me Kite. Let the wavemasters have a magic duel while you and I settle who's the qucikest," Kite cross slashed horizontally but missed as she back flipped away and thrust forward with her white dagger. Kite countered but DarkAngel parried and used the momentum and slahed diagonally across his chest. As Kite recovered from the blow he noticed that DarkAngel had whatseemed like an evil grin across her face, "Come on Kite. I know you're more powerful than this if you beat Skieth."
A little angered by her remarks Kite charged his daggers but as soon as he had done that, DarkAngel had as well. He launched his TWIN DRAGONS attack anyway, but was counter by her TWIN DARKNESS. Kite slashed away, but every attack was parried by her own technique. As both attacks finished, DarkAngel thought it was about time to finish her little game that she was playing with Kite. She kicked out one his legs, which made him start to lose his balance, then, in a spinning motion, slashed his neck and upper arm. As she got behind him, she jabbed her white dagger into the center of his back, then spun one more time and stabbed the other in the center of his stomach. Kite was unable to move, And DarkAngel kicked the end of her black dagger, making both daggers go through him and fall on the arena floor. Kite's body dropped to the floor, lifeless and pale.
In an unlikely battle between wavemasters, both Sakura and Mistral were face to face staves swinging back and forth, "It seems using spells on each other, will proved useless," Sakura giggled.
"Not useless but it could have been better than this," Mistral swung her staff horizontally, but Sakura ducked under it and countered by striking upward and smacking Mistral square in the face. They backed away from each other, and held their staves out and begin chanting spells. Sakura's was a faster chant but it was only a RUE DON that did next to no damage, and Mistral used all her SP to summon her best attack KRAKE PHA. The forest guardian roared and summoned many sharp branches to strike Sakura. Each branch hit the wavemaster and damaged her moderately but not enough to kill when the attack had subsided. Seeing her oppertunity Sakura began a long chant that consisted of a few hand seals. Mistral, having used up all of her current SP on the desperate Krake attack, could only hope that it naturally recharged in time to deal the final blow before her opponent could finish her chant. Even though she knew it was useless she tried openning her item bag but found she couldn't pry it open.
"May all the fools who stand before me perish, by the power that you and I possess," Sakura had finally finished her chant and set her staff to her side. A large blood red energy ball appeared in front of her, and as she grabbed it with both hands and lifted it above her head, it began to pulsate. She arched her back, and then threw her hands back in front of her, "DRAGON SLAVE," the energy ball shot forward in a beam that headed straight for Mistral.
"No way. The Dragon Slave attack that's only usable by having a Dragon's Master hand armour equipped. I have no problem dieing to such a rare attack," the beam hit her and a large red dome covered most of the area where the two wavemasters had fought. Mistral's body had been burned away by the extreme power of Sakura's attack. After the attack faded away, it left a large crater where Mistral had once been, only leaving her ghost, "I'm going to haunt you for killing me Sakura!!"
Blackrose charged like mad at her opponent but Enigma made no move as to avoid or block her attack. She swung her large sword at his chest, but he simply bat it away with his hand. She swung again but this time at his head, and it was blocked by his sword. He grinned at her, as he showed off his sword that he had won because he had beaten her in the past, which only infuriated her even more. She hacked wildly at his body and he wasn't able to keep up with all of her attacks. She had made deep wounds to his right thigh and left hip, and was starting to get the upper hand as Enigma constantly flinched from the pain of his wounds. He sliced at the ground and made a small wall of ice that Blackrose couldn't get past without going around it. He used this little delay to let the Rig Seam skill heal him bit by bit. His wounds closed up, but he still felt like crap and without healing he would be either be dead in minutes or wishing he were dead.
"Enigma, I know you have more power than this," Blackrose yelling at him with fury in her voice, "Stop messing around and fight me like I know you can," she used her KARIN attack to slice through the ice wall and charged after him, but found he was right behind and had his sword ready to attack. Before she could react, he slashed her legs and then leg swept her off her feet.
"Sheer power isn't my only strength you know," Enigma laughed. He lifted his sword over his head to deal the finishing blow but she rolled out of the way and stood battle ready, "But if you want me too I can give you brute strength. How about we let our best attacks settle this," he held his sword in front of his face and it began to glow a bright blue as Blackrose did the same but hers was red. They charged at each other and unleashed their attacks
GIRUE SMASH, KARIN
The entire arena shock as the two swords crossed each other for a second and the two heavy blades passed by each other. They turned and faced one another, and saw that Blackrose's lower body had been frozen while Enigma's hands seemed a little burned. They laughed at one another as Blackrose fell to floor, "Only because you have Rig Seam on you. That's the only reason you won."
"The winners are Team Konoha, they shall advance to the semi-finals versus either Piros or Team Syck," Lios bellowed to the crowd, "Those teams should meet in the arena in five minutes."
They left they arena area to the waiting area and Jon pulled open his item began as fast as he could and pulled out some healing drinks. He quickly pulled off the top, nearly breaking the bottle in the process and poured the healing liquid over his wounds. After he was done healing his wounds, he drank another so he wouldn't feel so fatigued.
"That was a lot harder than I thought it would be," Jon said sounding exhausted.
"It wasn't that hard but it did have it's close spots," Kelly said lightly.
"Yeah, what the hell was that attack you used though, Ms. Kelly," Jasmine saying surprised.
"A secret attack I was saving for the final round, but I had to use it if I wanted to keep it," she giggled and stuck out her tounge.
"It a lot of SP, if not all of yours doesn't it? No attack that powerful comes without using a lot of SP," Jon questioned.
"Yeah, it uses whatever SP I have and it takes a long time to chant, the more SP, the more damage," the wavemaster whined.
Lios walked up behind them, "Sakura," he yelled.
"Ahh. What's with the yelling?"
"I've come to tell you for using an illegal skill during your match, you will not be able to participate in the next round, or the finals should your team should make it there."
"What illegal skill did she use," Jon fired at him.
"From what I've heard from other players, the Dragon Slave is legal, just very hard to find and use," Jasmine backing up her friend.
"This isn't about the Dragon Slave, this is about that Rig Seam spell you used in the beginning of the match on Enigma," Lios stated, "Rig Seam is a healing spell and since they were sealed, per the handicap set, you shouldn't have been able to use it. For using a spell that violates the handicap, you have been removed from your team's roster. Any prize that your team wins however, you shall still recieve it."
"Rig Seam is a strengthening skill so it was usable, so I used it. Nothing is wrong with that," she protested.
"But it still healed Enigma when that could have been a deciding factor in the match. You will no longer be able to enter the arena with your team, but may still watch from the stands."
"This is just you using your administrator power to stack the odds against me and my team yet again," Jon yelled.
"I am only making this tournament fair for everyone who entered it," he made a small gesture to Jasmine, "By the way, here are your winnings by beating Team .Hackers," he walked away.
"He's only doing this so that it will easier to kill me later."
"That's obvious, but it looks like we'll just have to win without you Kelly," Jasmine sighed.
"It's alright. I'll cheer for you two the entire time and I can tell you guys some hints about Balmung and Kamui by watching their matches," Kelly said happily.
"Nothing really get you down, huh?"
"And the winner, is the long shot, Piros," a loud string of boos came afterward.
"How the hell did that loser win against two wavemasters and a long arm," Jon yelled surprised at the sight of the young faced axeman had won another match.
"One of the handicaps was that all Magic skills were sealed so the wavemasters were useless," a calm voice said.
"Oh, hey you. You two are up next aren't you," Jasmine asked Lan and David.
"Yeah, and against that Nitemare guy Jon and I fought a while back so that we got the weapons we use right now," Lan sighed.
"Too bad you won't have me there to freeze him like last time," Jon laughed.
"Well we got to go to our match, see you guys later," both of them walked off into the arena. They returned ten minutes later with a look of relief on their faces, "We barely beat him thanks to the fact Rig Geam was one of the handicaps," David sighed.
"Your prize for winning is this sword," the NPC who had followed them handed Lan Nitemare's Soul Edge sword. She dropped it at first as she saw the eye in the sword blink at her. She gave it to Enigma and hoped she would never have to ever see such a disgusting looking weapon again.
"We can relax a little before the semi-finals," David sighed as he leaned against the waiting hall walls," just then a roaring cheer came from the arena.
"That must be the beginning of Balmung and Kamui's fight," Lan said depressed.
"I hear that the members Team Defect are all veteren players and they should at the very least, give them a run for their money," Jasmine stated.
Another roar came from the stadium, "Your winners are Balmung and Kamui," all of them snapped their heads to the speaker.
"They won that quickly," David yelled.
"Laannnn," Kelly came running from the seats, "I see you guyts heard. They finished each of the members of Team Defect in only two attack each."
"What character classes were Team Defect," Jon asked returning to his normal sitting position.
"A heavy blade, a heavy axewoman, and a blademaster."
"Great, the three classes with the highest defense stats," Lan sobbed.
"Attention, there will be a five minute recess. Team Konoha and Piros report for your match in ten minutes," the speaker near them announced.
"It seems we're going to be Balmung and Kamui's first victims and then you two," David sighed, "At least Kelly gets out of this."
"But I don't want to give up my axe to that bitch," Lan yelled.
"I don't want your junk anyway," a deep voice came from behind her, "It may be the best for heavy axes, but if it is, then you should be able to defeat me Lina.
"Kamui," Jon said, and saw Balmung walk up behind her, "Balmung."
"Enigma, if you don't shape up, then I will destroy you whenit comes time for our fight. I know you're better than that, so stop playing around," Balmung calmly stated, but also irritated, "Kamui if you've done enough scouting, then let's get going."
"Very well Lord Balmung," the heavy blade turned and placed her ax against her shoulder and left along with her teammate.
The next five minutes crawled along incredably slowly as each of them thought if they could possibly beat Balmung and Kamui. They were startled when the speaker came to life, "Team Konoha, Piros report to the arena now."
"Better get this over with," Jon said as he grabbed his sword and sheathed it on his back.
"Hark, he of glowing eyes, and she of dark wings," a very annoying voice came from behind them which made Jon's skin crawl as he heard the voice. They turned to see the heavy axeman, Piros was running after them, "May fortune come to all of us in the coming fight."
"You know that either you or us will die, so how will fortune come to all of us," Jasmine sighed frustrated.
"Ahh," he seemed shocked at the response, "Then allow me say good luck to you."
"Psycho," Jasmine whispered to Jon.
"Tell me about it," he sighed back.
"I would like to bring to everyone's attention that Sakura has been removed from Team Konoha due to breaking the handicap set during her match against Team .Hackers. Know that breaking any of the handicaps from now on will result in an automatic for your team. The handicaps for this battle will be...," Lios seemed taken back by the handicap ball he was staring at. He started to read it aloud, "The stupid, retarded, naive, axeman, Piros losses automatically," he sounded confused at the handicap he was looking at.
"Your word is law around here, isn't it Lios," a blademaster out of the crowd shouted.
"That's right," a rumbling sound came from Piros.
"What's going on with my armor," Piros looked at himself puzzled, "Wait, this is that armour that that cat-modeled blademaster gave me. Damn you Mia for tricking me again," his armour glew brightly, then turned his entire body a bright orange, and finally exploded.
"Hahaha, that fool will never learn, but at least I get to mess with him every so often," the same blademaster said.
She walked down to the exit of the arena with a azure clad wavemaster following closely behind her, "Mia," Jon said surprised, "Did you do that to Piros?"
"What, I was only having a little fun with him."
"No. Actually, I was going to thank you cause I hate that guy."
"Uhhh, do we just win automatically being our opponent is no longer living, or do we just wait till he gets back here," Jasmine asked Lios.
Still having a puzzled look on his face, "Umm, Team Konoha wins by default."
The entire arena remained as silent as when Piros' armour self-destructed, and Jasmine and Jon walked away slowly. The next match against Lina and Chaosb1ade against Balmung and Kamui was like a repeat of the match against Team Defect, only that they lasted maybe one more minute than the earlier match. Lina had single-handedly tried to hold off both of them while ChaosB1ade prepared a WRYNECK RF. Balmung jumped above Lan and cut down Chaosb1ade before he could even start preparibg the summon. He then charged back at Lina and was stopped by Lina's axe. She saw that the two had surrounded her and was able to fend them off for only half a minute with her ANI TORNADO, but as soon as she finished the attack. Kamui dug her axe into Lina's chest while Balmung impladed her on his sword. She then collapsed on the floor and the entire crowd cheered as Balmung raised his hand in victory. An NPC tried to hand them Lina's axe and Chaosb1ade's staff, but they refused to take their weapons from them.
"Attention players," Lios stood and faced the crowd, "The final match will be between Team Konoha consisting of Enigma and DarkAngel, versus Balmung of the Azure Sky and the leader of The Cobalt Knights, Kamui. The final match will have different rules from the rest of the tournament all together. There will be no randomly drawn handicap for this match, and it will be a no-rules fight to the death. To make this match even more exciting, all players will be required to remove all pieces of armour and only have their weapon equipped. The final match will begin in a half an hour."
"Damn, he's making this match so one-sided by making us remove all our armour," Jon said to Jasmine.
"Without my armour, I won't be able to use my wings," Jamsine thinking aloud, "I won't have the flight advantage over Kamui, and you won't have the elemental defence advantage against Balmung."
"Well think about it," Jon looking at the bright side of things, "Without our armour we lose a lot of things, but so do they. Their defence goes down just like ours, and if anything, you would be able to move faster without your armour," he paused for a second then faced Jasmine with a very serious expresion on his face, "Are you absolutely sure you can go through with this Jasmine? Are you sure you can watch Balmung die and can you save me if he looks like he will kill me? I need to know now and look at me in the face."
"I told you already that I would do what I have to," she yelled at him, "Don't you think I would save you if had to?"
"Love makes you do crazy things, and make you betray close friends just to make the person you love happy. I want you to say straight to my face you will kill Balmung if it has to come to that," he grabbed her made her face him, "Say it so I know that I can trust you with my life, my very existance."
She struggled to free herself, "I...I...can't," tears formed in her eyes, "I can't promise you that I will kill Balmung if you're in danger. He and I are in love and he's offered to move me to Japan after school gets out. I can't betray his trust."
"And yet you can betray mine? We've been friends for years yet you throw that away for this guy that you've never meet in person," he yelled at the top of his voice. His voice was filled with anger and his face showed fury. He then let her go and turned his back to her, "I just wanted to confirm that, I now know that I can't trust you with my life and I won't expect it of you. If I die today, I hope that you have a nice life with your boyfriend," he walked off and left her crying on the ground. He walked along with his head down when Kelly came running up to him, "Oh hey Kelly," he thought of something he needed done, "Kelly, I need either you, Lan, or David to do something for me before the match starts."
"What do you need? I have nothing to do except watch the match which I care not to do," the cheery wavemaster said.
"It may be a longshot, but I want you to grab your laptop and another one and hook my body up to it. My password is sakura okay?"
"Huh, why do you want me to do that and why use my screen name as your password?"
"I said it's a longshot and I don't know what will really happen, but I know something will. As for the password," he stopped to catch his breath, "You know I like Sakura from Naruto just you like Naruto," he chuckled and ran off before she could respond.
(0)
Jasmine wanted to go after Jon and try to explain herself but she knew that was useless. After a few minutes she walked around Carmina Gadelica when she spotted Balmung near the recorder.
"How are you doing Angel, you seem really down about something," he lifted her chin, "Is this about our upcoming fight?"
Her eyes became watery, "Isn't there someway where you don't have to kill him. Forfeit the match, get someone else to take your place, something?"
"Why do you protect him with the same passion you have with me Angel? There is something about him that has you troubled and that won't allow you to see him in pain, and I don't know what that is. If you could tell me then maybe I could think of a way to end this without bloodshed."
She remembered one thing that Jon had told them when he regained his memories, "I don't want anyone knowing that I'm here and body in a coma. I could be hunted down for research and then I'll never get out of here."
"I can't do that," she whined, "It would be betraying his trust more than I already have."
"You sound like you know him personally and not just as a aquaintance in the world. He really isn't an AI like I was lead to believe is he?"
"No, he's just a player who somehow got on Lios' bad side. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's only acted in self-defence and to protect others."
"He knows about us as well?"
"Yeah, when Lios and Helba injured you, I brought you to his field that he had created. That and when I saved you both in that dungeon a couple days ago. He just put those things together and knows about us."
"I suppose he knew that having you fight me wouldn't be an option either?"
"Yeah," tears began to flow down her cheeks, "I told him that there was no way I could harm you even if he were about to die."
"Tell what is so different about him that makes you fell this way. I swear whatever you tell me will never be discussed again with anyone."
She confessed everything about their incident with Skieth and showed him the video that Helba had recorded, "Could you kill him knowing what you do now?"
"I don't belive this. He has a bracelet just like that Kite character? That and for some reason, he is in a coma yet still in the world? No wonder he seems in so much pain when he fights."
"Can you do something, anything?"
"I can't promise anything, and the match will still have to go on. If you have to protect him, then by all means do so. If he dies, then there's no telling what will happen to him, and it's unknown if his character can be revived in case he does. If Lios knew this then he would surely delete him without question so we have to keep him in the dark. I will however not hold back from him. He and I have a score to settle."
"That's fine with me," she had started to look a little happier, "By the way, are you really serious about me coming out to Japan to meet you?"
"It's almost time for the match, we'll discuss that more after we're done here."
Chapter 21 End
A/N: HAHAHA. I love making Piros look like a complete moron and everyone else hating the bastard. I know other people who hate him as well so whatever. Hope this writing spree continues so I can finish this fic soon.
