Disclaimer: I do not own CardCaptors or anything to do with them
I am typing this author's note at school so it may not be accurate when I complete this chapter. Anyways, thanks to everyone who has reviewed… wait, did anyone review chapter 3? Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm just happy that I have some people who actually are interested in my work. Happy reading.
NOTE: if you see a number in parentheses (#), then that means that the word/s before it are the name of a new monster. The new monsters name will be underlined so it will not be difficult to miss. If you are curious about a monster with its named underlined then just have a quick peek at the bottom of the chapter and you will find a list of monsters. The number in parentheses tells you which number represents that monster. ALSO, there will be a new list, restarting at #1, in each chapter here after. If you don't understand any part of this then please PRIVATE MESSAGE me if you have any questions, the review is just for your opinion and how you think I can make it better.
With that, let's get on with the story.
Chapter 4:
An arena without restrictions, is nothing more than a Warfield.
Tournament Rules
Syaoran sighed as the Giant Rat (1) he just defeated dematerialized, leaving behind some copper coins. He looked around as he pocketed the coins, wondering where Sakura went. Abut two seconds later, the said girl came running at top speed, a terrified look on her face. Before he could ask what the problem was, the answer came rushing towards them. It was a flock of Large Avian (2), and they were very angry. "WHAT DID YOU DO," cried Syaoran as he ran away from the rampaging birds.
"I DON'T KNOW," replied Sakura frantically, "I WAS JUST SEARCHING THROUGH SOME BUSHES WHEN THEY ATTACKED ME!" Even though our two heroes ran as fast as they could, the Large Avian was gaining on them.
Just as the birds were about to catch up with Sakura and Syaoran, Lyall (remember him) jumped off a nearby cliff and cried out, "Stalagt-Ice!" A glowing, light blue orb formed in his mouth and then he shot a barrage of ice shards at the Large Avian. Before long, every bird had been defeated (enemies disintegrate when defeated, and leave behind items afterwards). Sakura and Syaoran sighed, and said, "Thanks Lyall."
Before Lyall could reply, a childish laughter broke out from somewhere above them. Surprised by the sudden sound, our trio looked up to find a young girl with long brown hair, laughing her eyes out while perched skillfully on a tree branch. Syaoran got mad at this and yelled, "WHAT'S SO FUNNY!"
Now it was the girls turn to be startled, because at the sudden outburst from Syaoran, she fell out of the tree.
After a few moments, the girl recovered long enough to say, "You are Syaoran."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY/HIS NAME," cried out Sakura and Syaoran in unison.
Lyall and the girl sweat dropped, and then the girl sad, "ok first of all, my name is Lisa, and second, I just looked at your character bio."
Sakura and Syaoran grinned sheepishly and said, "Oh, ok."
Lyall just rolled his eyes, turned to Lisa and asked, "Do you know if the town is nearby?"
Lisa grinned and replied, "Sure do, follow me." She then turned and started walking in the opposite direction. Having nothing better to do, Sakura, Syaoran and Lyall followed her.
On the way, Sakura decided to have a quick peek at Lisa's character bio.
Name: Lisa
Race: Halfling
Job: Thief
Age: 12
Height: 3' 4"
Weight: 67 lbs.
Hair Color: light brown
Eye Color: hazel
Experience Level: 7
Equipment:
Bronze Dagger
Cloth Tunic
Leather Boots
Small Travelers Cloak
Leather Gloves
Before long the four adventurers made there way to the town. Sakura and Syaoran were amazed at the amount of detail put into the town. The buildings were simple but every brick looked like it was handmade. There was a town square where several merchants had set up stalls to house their wares. Simply put, every detail, no matter how minor, was crafted to perfection.
"Well it was nice meeting you guys," Lisa suddenly said.
"Nice meeting you to," replied Sakura. With that, Lisa walked off towards a large building. Lyall turned to Sakura and Syaoran, and then said, "Well now that we are here, I think it is time to put your skills to the test. Lets head on over to the arena to earn some quick cash."
Sakura faltered at this but Syaoran eagerly agreed to this idea. So by majority rule, the three adventurers headed over to the arena.
The arena looked something like what you would find in Rome. The only major difference was that it was mounted on top of a large hill, with many smaller, square buildings at its base.
Lyall led Sakura and Syaoran over to what they assumed was they assumed was the registration booth, because there were many players swarming around it. Finally, Sakura and Syaoran made it to the front of the line. The registration officer, whom was a large, bulky, old man just glanced lazily down at them and asked, "I assume you two will want to register for the Beginner Tournament?"
"Be-Beginner," Syaoran stuttered.
"That's right Beginner," replied the registration officer, "you see, anyone who is just starting of in the game, or is level 1-10, must enter in the Beginner rounds, for safety reasons. However there are benefits for entering in these tournaments. One benefit would be that unlike other tournaments, you will gain experience from the battles fought. Second is that you will not be required to pay a fee to enter. Thirdly is that instead of cash prizes, like in the later tournaments, you will win items instead, which is good because most newbies end up spending all the money on equipment that they can't even use. So now you know why you have to enter the Beginner tournament."
Syaoran just stood there, still trying to take in that entire explanation, but Sakura quickly jumped in with a thank you. Then the registration officer said, "Now I will need you two to step onto this here panel," indicating a glowing spot on the ground, "So that your character info will be registered and be sent quickly up to the arena."
Sakura and Syaoran did as instructed, and in a flash of light, were sent up to the arena.
Name: Sakura
Race: Human
Job: Mage
Age: 13
Height: 4' 7" (I don't know her precise height so I'm estimating)
Weight: 90 lbs. (don't know her weight either sweatdrop)
Hair Color: Honey (what I'm trying to be creative)
Eye Color: Emerald
Experience Level: 7
Equipment:
Custom Staff- Maker-David
Cloth Tunic
Travel Sandals
Traveler's Cloak
Silken Gloves
Name: Syaoran
Race: Human
Job: Warrior
Age: 13
Height: 4' 9" (again I'm estimating)
Weight: 125 lbs. (I estimate to much sweatdrop)
Hair Color: Chocolate
Eye Color: Brown
Experience Level: 7
Equipment:
Custom Sword- Maker- David
Light Chain Mail
Leather Boots
Traveler's Cloak
Wood & Bronze Buckler
When Sakura opened her eyes she was standing in front of a portcullis (that is what they are called right), then suddenly a loud voice called out, "NEXT UP FOR THE PRELIMINARIES, WE HAVE SAKURA- THE HUMAN MAGE! VS. A SILK WORM (3)! WILL SAKURA PLEASE STEP FORWARD?"
The portcullis vanished, allowing Sakura to see the crowd of players and NPCs gathered in the stands. Sakura stepped forward only to find that the entranceway had disappeared behind her. On the other side of the stadium, her opponent, a silk worm, roared viciously at her. The battle had started.
Sakura vs. Silk worm
The silk worm started the battle off by spitting a stream of silk (what did you expect) at her, in an attempt to entangle her in it. However, Sakura just jumped to the side, effectively avoiding the attack. Then she fought back using her Spark spell. Spark is a spell that is true to its name, because it sends a small swarm of fire sparks flying towards a designated target. This effectively silenced the beast, thus giving Sakura an easy win.
Syaoran faced a similar battle but let's not get into details about that and head right into beginners finals. Now this is where Sakura really did not want to go, because now since both she and Syaoran are both finalists, they would naturally have to fight each other right? Well, let's just see.
Sakura walked through the entrance way expecting to see Syaoran on the other side, but instead found him walking out of a similar entrance way just a little bit off to the side of where she entered. This confused her and before anything else happened, a familiar voice cried out, "Hi Sakura! Hi Syaoran!"
Both combatants turned around to find a grinning Lisa, standing in front of a now fading entranceway. Before anyone could say anything else the announcer cried out, "ALRIGHT EVERYONE, WE ARE DOWN TO THE FINALS! THIS ROUND WILL BE A 3 ON 3 SO THIS MATCH WILL REQUIRE TEAMWORK! ENOUGH OF THAT AND ONTO THE TEAM LINE UPS! Over here in team A we have, Sakura, Lisa, and Syaoran! And over here in team B we have, Evellia, Falk, and Livio! Let's get this battle started."
Sakura quickly checked the opposing team's character bios:
Name: Evellia
Race: Elf
Job: Mage
Hair Color: Silver
Eye Color: Hazel
Experience Level: 5
Equipment:
Wooden Staff
Cloth Tunic
Travel Sandals
Traveler's Cloak
Name: Falk
Race: Angel
Job: Bowman
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Brown
Experience Level: 7
Equipment:
Custom Bow- Maker- ?
Green Tunic
Leather Boots
Feather Cap
Iron Sheathe Knife
Name: Livio
Race: Dragoon
Job: Warrior
Hair Color: Crimson Red
Eye Color: Green
Experience Level: 10
Equipment:
Bronze Battleaxe
Leather Cuirass
Character/exp. Level
Sakura/7
Syaoran/7
Lisa/7
Vs.
Evellia/5
Falk/7
Livio/10
Our three heroes decided it best if they each went after one person separately, so it ended up like this:
Sakura vs. Evellia
Lisa vs. Falk
&
Syaoran vs. Livio
Sakura vs. Evellia
Sakura took the first attack by using Gust spell, knowing that it would have a more likely chance of connecting with Evellia, whom was an elf, who are known for there speed. Somehow it did hit, taking a decent chunk out of the enemy's HP. Evellia retaliated, but not with a spell. Instead she used a Special Ability or a skill that draws upon internal strength instead of magic (example: a mage requires magic to make fire but a dragon can do it naturally). The Special ability she used was Elvin Song, an ability that allows an elf to manipulate inanimate objects. Anyways, Evellia used this ability to cause several boulders that were scattered around the arena, to hurl themselves at Sakura.
Sakura barely managed to evade this attack, which was not a good thing, because if the boulders had collide with her then she would have been killed, which was not something she could let happen, or else she would also die in the real world.
Lisa vs. Falk
Unlike Sakura's battle, Lisa's started off pretty much evenly. Neither she nor Falk could land a solid blow on the other player. Then Falk turned the battle around by nocking 2 arrows in his bow, then taking precise aim so that when he shot the arrows at Lisa, she would dodge the first arrow only to be met with the second. Now the battle had turned in Falk's favor as he dashed forward so would be within pointblank range. Lisa was in trouble.
Syaoran vs. Livio
Now Syaoran's battle was the complete opposite of what Sakura's was like. He wasn't just losing, he was being thrown around like some sort of rag doll (ouch XX). Syaoran might have had a slight advantage because he was smaller, but the fact that Dragoons can fly doesn't exactly help. Things looked grim for our favorite swordsman.
Somewhere above the stadium, sitting on a cloud, we find the dark haired teen that everyone hates and despises (I think), looking leisurely down upon the battle below. Gora grinned as he saw our three heroes getting their asses kicked. Then suddenly he grimaced and said, "I must be out of my mind," as he conjured a spell book. "Hmm… level up, level up…," he muttered as he flipped through the pages, "Ah Ha! Here we go!"
He then stood up, held out his hand so it was peeking over the cloud's edge, then he chanted, "May those who are weak, find their true strength. HIDDEN POWER!"
With that, a bright flash flared and down below, our three heroes suddenly felt a strange sensation.
Sakura vs. Evellia
We find Sakura dodging boulders left and right, desperately trying to think of some way to turn this battle around. Suddenly she tripped and fell to the ground with a thud. "This is the end," she thought as a particularly large boulder came flying towards her. But somehow it never collided. She opened her eyes to find that the boulder had somehow shattered in mid air, and her clothing was now slightly different. Instead of a pink robe, it now had dark blue patterns on it. Then the announcer cried out, "Will you look at that everyone! Sakura has somehow just skyrocketed from Level 7, all the way up to Level 10. Not only that, but her job now changed to that of Sorceress. This doesn't look good for Evellia!" No it didn't, because not only did Sakura become a sorceress, but the staff that David had given her had changed from a plane old wooden one, to a green painted one thus increasing in magical power.
Without even knowing that she was doing it, Sakura stood up, pointed her staff at Evellia, and cried out, "Howling Wind!" Any remaining boulders that happened to be in the air went flying back towards Evellia, thus dropping her HP to 0. Sakura blinked, wondering what had just happened.
Lisa vs. Falk
Lisa, if you shall recall, was just about to be skewered by an arrow. Well just as Falk was about to let his arrow fly, Lisa somehow managed to twist her body around so that the projectile whizzed by her harmlessly. If you think that was strange, just wait till you hear what happened next.
Lisa looked down at her dagger, which had started to glow, and gasped when it revealed itself as a long, thin, sword, or in other words, a rapier. Again, we find the announcer's voice ringing throughout the stadium, "Yet again we find ourselves looking at what might be a miracle folks! Now it seems that Lisa has gone from level 7 to level 10! Not only that but she has also become a Fencer!"
Lisa grinned, turned to face Falk, and said, "Your are so dead."
Falk gulped, and started to run away but, Lisa beet him to it. "Swift Strike," cried Lisa, as she lunged forward. With a flash and slight groan, Falk collapsed into a heap, with an HP of 0. "I wonder how Syaoran is doing," muttered Lisa as she looked over where the said warrior was fighting.
Syaoran Vs. Livio
Not much was different about Syaoran's battle. It was still all one sided. "Prepare to die," exclaimed Livio as he raised his battle axe high above his head, then let come swinging down with deadly accuracy and force. With nothing else he could do, Syaoran took the blow, his HP dropping to 0… what, were you expecting something else to happen?
Sakura's POV
Sakura looked on in horror as the axe blade connected with Syaoran. Her eyes filled with tears, seeing the life leave his eyes. "No," she murmured, not believing what had just happened. Then from somewhere behind her, someone said, "Odd, that wasn't supposed to happen." Sakura turned around, only to find…
Normal POV:
And there HE was, just standing there with a slightly confused look on his face. "How can you be so calm about this," cried Sakura. Gora just ignored her as he stepped towards the fallen warrior, spell book in hand. "Hey what do you think you are doing," yelled Livio, "Cant you see that this is an official match here?"
Gora just eyed him casually and said, "Yes I can see that. I can also see that I should be in Hell right now instead walking around; as good of health as I was 2,000 years ago. Not to mention the fact that you have no right to complain, after all, the only thing I am doing is using the loophole found under Section 67, Rule 492C, Paragraph 5, of the Official Judges Handbook. Look it up wise guy."
Everybody in the stadium just stood there gawking at this sudden and very long explanation, while the announcer hurriedly flipped to the said rule to verify what he had just said. Gora on the other hand, continued walking over to Syaoran. Sakura did not quite understand what was going on here, but she did know that this mysterious stranger was walking towards Syaoran, with a dark spell book. Plus she had no idea what loophole he was talking about. However, before she could do anything, Gora had already started flipping through the pages of his book.
"Hmm… Let's see here," he muttered lazily, "Ah here we go! Revival spell for a death blow from a bronze battle axe, wielded by a Level 1-10 Dragoon, directed towards a Level 1-10 human."
The spell book vanished, only to have a deadly looking scythe that looked like it had recently spilled blood and a lot of it, replace it. Gora held the blade over Syaoran and chanted, "May the deceased rise again, so that all unfinished tasks may be fulfilled. REAPER'S REVIVAL!"
Suddenly the stadium darkened as Syaoran was encased within a black cocoon. About 5 or so seconds later, Gora plunged his scythe into the cocoon, using it like a hook he pulled out all the insides, leaving nothing but a dark veiled figure standing there. "May I introduce to you, the new and improved Syaoran Li," Gora exclaimed as he swung his scythe down one more time, lifting the veil on Syaoran revealing that he had indeed changed.
Name: Syaoran
Race: Human
Job: Knight
Age: 13
Height: 4' 9"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Hair Color: Chocolate
Eye Color: Brown
Experience Level: 10
Equipment:
Custom Long Sword- Maker- ? (Really Gora but our heroes don't know his name yet)
Silver Chain Mail
Silver Boots
Hero's Cape
Silver Kite Shield
Shadow Medallion
Syaoran vs. Livio
Gora vanished as Syaoran stepped towards Livio, looking like he was ready to kill. Livio gulped and started backing away but Syaoran just decided to try something that he didn't even know why he would bother. He took his new sword and plunged it into a nearby boulder while crying out, "CLEAVE!" His sword blade glowed and then a cross shaped wave of energy came soaring out of the other end (think of it what you see when looking straight into a Philips head screwdriver), growing as he flew farther along its course. Livio cried out in pain as the wave of energy coursed through him, dropping his HP instantly to 0.
Normal POV:
The crowd just sat there stunned for a moment, and then slowly, one by one, everyone started cheering. Sakura rushed over to Syaoran as he dropped to the ground from exhaustion. As he fell into Sakura's arms he simply said, "Well, we won." Then he blacked out.
So what do you think? I know it is a little late on the update but I have been really busy. If you have any questions, please just have a look at my forum 'CardCaptor Journeys'. You can find it easily by just heading on over to my author bio, then clicking on 'my forums'. I would really appreciate if everyone would please have a look at this forum every once in a while because I will be posting character requests, Monster ideas, and a whole bunch of other things. I want this story to be just like a role playing game… ok not exactly like one but I would like to see that it is affected just as much by outside influence (readers) as the inside influence (me). So please have a quick look at it if you can. Thanks.