Chapter 14: Augmentative Adaptation; A Clash of Two Champions
Pathos of the Palashian Premier Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "High Score Results ~{Taito Type X²}" - Ultra Street Fighter IV OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Factory City Zeiss" - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Character Select Theme" - Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition OST. Scene 2 (First Half).
"Ruined Castle Corridor" - Castlevania: Harmony of Despair OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"Two Dragons"; Lycidas' Theme - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 3 (First Half).
"Ultimate Road Rage" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).
In their run through the kingdom of Palashia, Link and his companions continue their adventure in the hopes of signing up for the next national championship in Prima's 'World Tour'; the 'Palashian Premier' itself. However, on the way, they are approached by a man living nearby by the name of 'Paul' working within the Greymont Mines whom makes a request of them, and a dire one at that; having been trapped within the nearby miners find themselves overwhelmed with a mysterious and sudden invasion of fiends.
Monsters such as Stalfos, Lizalfos and even herds of Wolfos; one such Wolfos is a gargantuan one at that and one that manages to injure and even kill some of the poor remaining miners trapped within. Previously having been sent to Palashia for a mercenary's contract, Raynard Van Garrick opts to engage with the beast alongside the heroes, joining in a swift rescue mission that inevitably ends in succession.
As the group manage to save the remaining miners and, indeed even the mayor of Palashia himself, they are awarded thusly; tickets and seats to only the best spots in the Palashian Premier so that they are given the best views possible.
A notion that the grateful Impa, Zelda and Malon all take without question.
As they sign up for the inevitable tournament itself however Link, Alwyn, Barkner and Raynard all find themselves fast progressing through the preliminaries; am achievement that even the stoic Raynard himself can appreciate. Having been placed within Block 'A' this time, however, the grinning Link can only speculate how the Palashian Premier will end as opposed to his sweat-filled endeavour within the Hylian Hyrax.
A conclusion that his former rival Raynard hopes to see similarly.
As Link and Alwyn both fight to their fiercest within their matches, both against fierce women at that, they both just barely manage to make the running for their block and progress through to the next seed. As they celebrate with one another, ever in their usually-contrasting sense, the nervous Barkner soon realises that his match-up is next.
Round three; Barkner Elbrus VS. 'Unknown'.
When pressed and questioned on the odd placement for his opponent's name the staff merely shrug the question off in stating it comes with wishes to the royal family of Palashia itself.
Barkner can only speculate.
He considers the merits of what the staff member says however. It is something that links up fairly well with the number one prize of the Palashian Premier tournament; not only the title as Palashia's national champion and trophy, but a marriage to their kingdom's princess itself.
The happy-go-lucky Goron attempts to make sense of this odd and strange picture...
Scene 1
"Good games."
The grunting young Katina rose up her auburn-haired head from the hard concrete she landed on, briefly surprised as she did; the source of the firm baritone came from directly above her, a man. He stood in the hardened business-like frown that everyone knew him for and the tournament match's winner; Alwyn himself.
She couldn't help but grow a lightly-satisfied grin of her own before nodding and raising up her fingerless-gloved hand to take his, standing back up with his assistance.
"Yeah...," the young Palashian woman answered him in a smiling nod as she stepped back up to the ring to join him. "Good games."
YEAAAAAAAAHHHH
In response to the two former enemies' commendable sportsmanship, the rapt audience all let out cheers of encouragement and excitement; approving the wholesome exchange.
"How do you like that folks?" The smiling Mr. Marshall began, ever positive from his co-commentating table with his younger companion. "They fought like they despised one another... and still! They find the respect and decency to gift one another with the sportsmanship the Prima World Tour is deserving of!"
"Gotta respect 'em for that Marsh, for sure." The ever-grinning Tasty Seth shot back in a light tilt of his brown-haired head, chuckling on in agreement.
"You were really strong."
The curious Zoran couldn't help but turn his eyebrows upward in display of his lightly-surprised frown. The young Katina turned her initial smile into a chuckling grin as she continued.
"Like, really strong," she chortled on, resting her callous hands across the other as she did. "I don't think I stood a chance."
Alwyn frowned back and shook his head-injured fin back at her in friendly but firm disagreement. "We always stand a chance," the former soldier shot back, re-folding his slim arms back at her. "You just got to be able to look for it... that's all." He finished, this time in a suggestive-looking half-smirk, tilting his head a little in the action. The listening Katina threw her head back in laughter as she nodded back, smiling.
"I can dig it."
"All right; that's cool!" The ever exuberant Link called out with in his narrow-eyed grin, fists clenched at his side as the frowning-faced Alwyn marched back into the competitor's box. "I just knew you'd win that!"
The frowning Zoran merely shrugged back at the blonde boy, arms ever folded as he did. "It's not that difficult once you start to adapt really; something you could do with learning."
"Yeah, yeah; don't start gettin' a big head on us now!" Link teased the older man with, grinning as sociably as he playfully knocked his legs in front of him, drawing a lightly-amused chuckle from him in response. "I guess now that round three's comin' up it's Barkner's turn to-"
Almost as if the man in question himself was listening to the young Hylian's very words, the wincing Goron began marching back in a few minutes after his Zoran companion, shambling toward them in an injured state. The frowning Link and Alwyn both swung their heads in his direction, surprised, before quickly exchanging their looks with one another almost as if to confirm the surprise was a mutually shared one. As the poor injured Goron advanced on in a slow and pained march, his ever-constant companions stepped over to join him.
"Yo what the hell happened to you?" Link crudely shot over as he scampered forward to join the taller and larger-bodied man. "Ooh...," he winced out, raising his own small and calloused hands to hover over the man's beaten and broken body. "Who the hell did this?"
"Argh... that damn opponent of mine...," Barkner at last spoke, drawing wincing gasps of his own as he did. "Whoever it was... he was strong..."
Alwyn narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and suspiciously back at him. "You've already played your match?"
"Y-Yeah," the Goron grunted back in another cringe, nodding. "Th-They took me aside and made me fight in a separate building..."
"W-What?!" Link shrieked back, oceanic eyes widened in legitimate shock. The listening Alwyn winced and turned his blue-shaded head, eyes narrowed to peek over his shoulder; sure enough the odd person turned their heads their way but only one was marching toward them in curiosity.
Raynard.
The Zoran winced in realisation that they wouldn't be able to hide anything from the inquisitive and firm-willed boy. Just as he had feared the young mercenary marched up to join the party of three, casting a curious-eyed frown on them all.
"What's all the noise about?" He pressed them, eyebrow rising up. Link double-took in the youth's direction and rose his hay-shaded eyebrows upward before re-opening his mouth to respond. The frowning Barkner exchanged an unsure look with the similarly-silent Alwyn; the Zoran merely nodded his head in response, a kind of reluctant look in his eye.
"Barkner's already had his match!" The boy called out, drawing another annoyed look from the frowning-faced Alwyn. Realising he was being too loud, Link chuckled in the Zoran's direction apologetically before regaining his old frown. "But I mean it just-"
"Isn't possible...," Raynard finished for his blonde-haired rival, chestnut eyes narrowing slowly forward in his folded-armed frown. "Unless..."
"Yeah I was just explainin'...," Barkner murmured out, cricking and cracking his rocky-bodied head from side to side as he did as if to restore feeling to it. "They didn't give me much option; I ain't to tell anyone who I fought against or even where I fought. It's ridiculous!" The man chuckled out, shaking his head.
"Wonder why they're bein' so secretive?" Link posed forward, eyebrow rising up as he turned to face his other two far more stoic companions.
"Didn't the staff member say to us when we signed up that the competitor's name was kept quiet as 'wishes of the royal family' of Palashia?" Alwyn responded, eyes lightly narrowing as he spoke. The frowning-faced Link blinked in curiosity before he widened his own eyes in realisation; memory served him and he snapped his fingers resoundingly.
"Oh yeah!" He exclaimed out abruptly. "I remember that; she did say that!"
"So that could only mean that it's one of the royal family, surely?" The hard-scowling Raynard offered into the conversation carefully, turning his frown up to face the quiet-eyed Zoran next to the two Hylian boys. Alwyn shut his eyes briefly and re-folded his own slim blue arms, almost as if in thought before he soon re-opened his mouth to respond.
"Not necessarily," the older man responded with brusquely. "The royal family of Palashia themselves may have just sent a stand in to go fight Barkner. For all we know it may just be a testing ground for them."
"But why the hell would they do that?" Link asked crudely, making a face as if in some form of unsure curiosity. "I mean if you're gonna fight do it yourself!"
"Hmph...," Alwyn muttered back through his throat, his frown swiftly upturning into an amused smirk as he re-opened his ocean-teal eyes to re-face the blonde boy beneath him. "Not everyone has your... direct... way of thinking."
Raynard found his own frown switching briefly into an amused smirk of his own as he listened to the subtly-placed insult, leaving the frowning Link merely to roll his eyes as he absent-mindedly ran his right pinky through his small and pointed ear.
"Is there anything you can tell us about the person you fought with Barkner?" Raynard spoke up in a curious-faced frown. "How did they fight, did you recognise them?"
"Well... I ain't supposed to say any of this, but...," the listening Goron began, craning his head back the way he came and surrounding them, almost as if to look for any prying eyes or ears. "Whoever it was seemed to be male."
"What the hell does that mean?" Link batted back in a half-grin, rising up a curious straw-haired eyebrow of his own. "I mean you actually fought 'em right?"
Barkner rolled his eyes impatiently. "Well, yeah but they were wearin' a goddess-damned jumpsuit so it was kinda hard to tell," the Goron shot back, this time in his own entertained grin, drawing a light chuckle from the young Hylian. "Whoever it was he did fight with feminine moves though. That was odd."
The listening Alwyn and Raynard both exchanged unsure looks with one another, curious as before.
"How... were you able to determine they were-"
"Oh I could tell," the Goron bounced back before the Zoran could even finish his inquisitive sentence. "His build looked somethin' like yours, actually."
"It may have been a stand in for whoever they're really going to use," Raynard translated, ever in his folded-armed scowl. "It would make sense."
"Hey that ain't legal!" Link accused with some degree of annoyance, thrusting a finger at the frowning Raynard. "Is it...?"
Although Raynard re-opened his mouth, the similarly-faced Alwyn re-opened his own to answer the blonde's query. "Not for us," he began in his own frown. "But if the competitor's someone from the royal family... or sanctioned by the royal family... then there's nothing we can do about it."
"Say what?!" Link shrieked out angrily, oceanic eyes widened. "Special treatment?!"
Barkner sighed in a dejected, agreeing nod, drawing another similarly shut-eyed nod from the frowning Raynard.
"I know it isn't ideal Link, but-"
"'Ideal(!)" The listening youth interrupted, an angry tone to his normally calm tenor. "I got half a mind to complain about this!"
"Don't," Alwyn advised in his own folded-armed frown. "It's a bad idea. You'd likely be disqualified just for objecting."
"That's a little harsh ain't it?" Barkner asked in a light wince. The similar-faced Raynard shook his raven-haired head.
"He's right," the young mercenary agreed alongside his older comrade. "Letting madness rule the day is often the prerogative of nobility," he explained briefly, a likewise look around his stoic form. "Unless you're secretly a lord of some kind... I'm afraid you, I or anyone else here have any hope of defying their ruling."
"Urgh...!" Link growled out in frustration swiping his right fist in a noisy horizontal click of his fingers; a display of his growing irritation. "I hate that!" He hissed out quietly, at last opting to respect the desires of his companions.
"Oh...," Alwyn murmured out in sudden realisation, blinking as he did. He turned his Zoran-bodied head to face the Goron he was about to direct his next sentence to. "Forgot to ask... I take it you didn't win your match, given by your wounds?"
"Gee, ya think?" Barkner snapped back in a quiet-voiced frown of his own, this time drawing a half-amused chuckle from the listening Link. Even the stoic Raynard lowered his shut-eyed black-haired head and grinned alongside the Hylian boy, merely uttering a low grunt in response as he usually did.
"It looks as if I'm up next then," the black-haired youth spoke out as he re-adopted his usual firm frown, turning his head back up to face the group as he did. "I wonder how they're going to sell the idea of not displaying Barkner's match to the public." He wondered aloud, eyes briefly wandering in thought.
The Goron snorted in response, annoyed enough as it was. "Wouldn't surprise me...," he responded bitterly. "Honestly it wouldn't have bothered me if they told me this ahead of time... I'd have been totally fine with it!"
"I wouldn't have," Link shot back in his own annoyed frown as he re-swung his look on his Goron companion on his left, edging his right thumb up to his face as if for emphasis. Barkner couldn't help but grow a small smile of gratitude in response, chuckling lightly. "I'm gonna beat that joker for ya Bark! No-one gets special treatment on my watch!"
The listening Goron shook his head in response as he chortled in amusement, his mood soon lifted by the exuberance the raucous boy displayed. He rubbed his straw-haired head, making it even messier than it normally was, drawing a half-annoyed exclamation from the youth in response.
"Thanks... pipsqueak."
–
2
"Welcome back ladies and gentlemen! If you're just joining us we're sparring the morning away here in lovely Palashia Palace!" The smiling Mr. Marshall began again from his table near the tournament arena, ever the sociable one. "And we're already four rounds in! Can you believe it?"
"But what's that I hear Marsh? Four rounds? How's that possible?!" The young 'Tasty' Seth exclaimed out in mock exaggeration next to the older man, almost as if to convey the wishes of the watching and cheering crowd of people in the audience. "We've only seen three so far after all!"
"That's true Seth...," Marshall started in reply, nodding in confirmation before he continued on. "But I've just gotten word internally from the Prima staff that Barkner Elbrus has successfully completed his match off record!" He finished, ever in his sociable smile. "That's right! A match held outside this arena!"
"But how could that be so Marsh?" Seth batted back curiously. "Who was his opponent again?"
"It was a mysterious competitor... signed up under the name 'Unknown'!" Marshall responded with in a suggestive wink. "These, unfortunately for us my friends... are the wishes of the royal family of Palashia itself!"
BOOOOOOOOO
In response to the man's statements the listening Aurelian audience gave out annoyed boos and heckles, as if dissatisfied with the announcement.
"I know, I know... for what it's worth I agree my friends!" The chuckling Marshall nodded alongside the booing crowd. "But when the royal family of Palashia speak... we can only but oblige..."
"Does that mean what I think means Marsh?!" Seth exclaimed out, eyes widened in his suddenly excited grin.
"It certainly does my young friend!" Marshall chose to grin back as he tilted his head back in his satisfied look before soon re-facing the audience. "In spite of their secretive manoeuvres the royal family has something planned for us later!"
"Yo they better not take too long though," Seth spoke up in a calmer grin as he leant back into his chair. "I like my surprises quick 'n easy."
As the chuckling Marshall had half-expected the male side of the audience gave out light laughs of amusement, resulting in rolling eyes from the listening female side.
"In any case... now that rounds one, two and three have all been completed... we come to the final round of this beginning of Palashia's top eight! Round four!" Marshall continued once more, his morale regrown. "I hearken you all back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Hylian Hyrax and its champion!"
"Oh Marsh you don't mean-" The grinning Seth began in an enthusiastically wide-eyed grin.
"You bet I do!" The older man shot back in a deft nod of his head.
Just like magic a display of a pictograph depicting the hard-scowling Raynard's face shot up on the tournament's white pristine walls along with a card below it; his statistics.
Raynard Van Garrick
Combination Damage: B
Aggressiveness: A
Agility: S
"Having won the Hylian championship, Raynard's turned his cold eye toward the spire-like metropolis of Palashia!" Marshall began in introduction. "He's a competitor that needs no introduction; although he may be young he's no less fierce and talented than the rest of our line-up!"
"Yooo I can't wait to watch this kid in action!" Seth grinned on in excitement before soon re-gaining his curious-faced frown, blinking as he did. "Ah but who's his...?"
Almost as soon as the man finished another display prompted up by the ever-reliable Gossip Stone technology that the Prima World Tour utilised; a pictograph depicting a man older than his opponent took Raynard's place. He wore his long purple-shaded hair in a braid style that seemed to be a common design of Palashian fashion.
Rather surprisingly however he chose instead to wear almost nothing at all, sporting a bare chest as if to display his incredible muscle mass to the public. Golden-shaded bracelets adorned his wrists, fitting well with the tattered black belt resting across his waist; seemingly an old keepsake. Similarly worn trousers sat along his legs in a fading diamond-green, finalising in what seemed to be a golden-shaded pair of boots.
All in all, he looked fairly intimidating.
Lycidas Marino
Aggressiveness: A
Agility: S
Grapple Countering: A
"I know this guy!" The grinning Seth began in his own enthusiastic introduction. "He's into the 'God-Fist'! A style of martial arts that only select few in Palashia have ever gotten a chance at mastering!"
"That sounds impressive indeed!" Marshall smiled on next to the younger man anxiously. "Can we safely suspect him to be Palashia's best, well and truly?"
"It'd be a hell of a call Marsh but I'd bet on it for sure," Seth grinned on as he nodded to confirm the man's claims. "Lycidas is a former Palashian champion in the past; three years running! He's came close a few times in the World Championships but he's just never found his groove there. Here, though... here he's king."
"Poor little Raynard...," Marshall chortled on good-naturedly, shaking his brown-haired head as he did. "He's really riding up-hill this time!"
In response to the riding morale the announcers gave out, the listening audience all let loose cries of approval, their calls all bouncing off the walls of Palashia Palace. As the pair of warriors at last stepped out from the competitor's box, however, only the hard-frowning Raynard was stopped mid-march behind his much-taller opponent and by one whom he did not expect.
The grinning Link nodded his blonde-haired head back up at him in greeting before opening up his mouth as if to voice his thoughts.
"Don't lose!"
The raven-haired rival of the boy stared back at him in a half-examining, narrow-eyed frown before swiftly shutting his eyes and lowering his head in a low-faced smirk.
"Hmph."
As he huffed ever stoically and swished his form to walk away back toward the ring, both competitors stood on opposite ends of the arena, as per the norm. As they affixed themselves into their battle stances, so too did the staff member step closer to the nearby gong.
"Red side, ready!"
The hard-faced Raynard glared on as he always liked to, angling his body to hang his left arm to his top left and his right to hang lowly. Although it appeared fairly lax it was suitably tight posture for the young boy.
"Blue side, ready!"
The similarly-faced Lycidas set his clenched fists horizontally; one resting next to his bare chest and the other outstretched forward, his legs sitting comfortably far apart.
"Begin!"
Raynard wasted no time at all; almost as soon as the words left the referee's mouth that he shot his clenched fists to his two sides next to him. Chestnut-brown eyes widened in what seemed to be concentration, he opened up his mouth to let loose the dogs of war.
KERRRRASSSHHHH-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As he lowered his raven-haired head to scream down at the white-tiled floor beneath him in a heightened sense of morale, so too did the massive razor-wind aura of Aegir billow out from his form, causing a huge ripple in the air that made the nearby watching audience recoil in gasps and distressed yells. The firmly-frowning figure of Lycidas, seemingly unperturbed by the display, merely stared back in stony silence, unimpressed and unresponsive.
CRACK-KRSH...
Raynard's small form shot forward with alarming speed; so much so that his burning ambience of Quintessence scorched and laid a crater in his wake. If the frowning Lycidas could react in time to Raynard's abrupt advance he didn't make it known to the watching audience; even when the young mercenary's wide-eyed scowling form drew disturbingly close to deliver a devastating wallop he remained unmoving.
SMASH
The audience all gasped on in shock as they watched the shut-eyed Lycidas race backward in the path of one of the stands however, before he could even reach the cut-off point for the ring itself, Raynard's super-fast form quickly vanished and re-appeared directly behind the sailing Palashian.
"HYA!"
CRASSSSSSHHH
In a two-handed vertical swing Raynard sent the silent-voiced Lycidas ricocheting agonisingly and horrifyingly against the tiled arena beneath them both, drawing up debris and smoke clouds in the rush-down. Like the racquet that served the ball, Raynard utilised his agility and wind-elemental Aegir to vault himself high into the air; tree-shaded eyes widened he grunted with great effort as he began to descend downward with great speed in an aerial somersault.
WHHHHIIIIIIIINNNNE...
Like a bomb dropped from a disturbingly high height, Raynard's inevitable drop-kick was a savage one indeed; this time both martial artists yelled out, one in sheer enormous effort and the other in wide-eyed and shocked pain. Another crater, huge in size with the considerable effort utilised to cause it formed beneath the pair and Raynard pressed on his momentum; by reaching down with his two calloused hands he gripped the older man's golden boots and began to aggressively spin his hardened form 'round endlessly, before at last letting go to fire the former champion careering toward the tournament wall.
CRASSSSHHHH...
The audience all called out in shock as another burst cloud of smoke materialised around the wall and though it at least remained standing, all spectators were left unsure on the poor man's fate.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
The people all turned their eyes to the ring only to find the glaring-faced Raynard, both legs set far apart from one another and a single arm held backward, almost as if he were preparing for something. Just as within his very first assault, a powerful surge of Aegir and Quintessence surrounded his small form; an unnatural kind of razor-like wind began to form around his right hand and he widened his dark-brown eyes as he pulled it back a little before at last tossing it forward.
A wind-charged projectile.
"Final REPPUKEN!"
The spectating Link, his earlier excited grin having been dropped in recognition, could only stare in wide-eyed silence.
I know that technique, he thought, as he watched the super-fast projectile snake along the ground before reaching the wall itself. As it shot up with incredible zeal and ferocity the watching Hero of Time's senses hardened in recognition a second time.
"The only person I know who can use the 'Reppuken' technique... is long-gone," the young blonde pondered on silently, turning his cerulean-eyed gaze suspiciously on the recovering Raynard as opposed to watching his opponent's current condition. "So who the hell taught him that?"
WRRRRRRR-CRRRRRASSSSSSSHHHH...
The 'Final Reppuken' made its mark; as it clashed with the dust cloud where Lycidas was presumably still stuck through it blew apart in a second massive explosion, razor-like winds dotting the area as it did.
"What a go-around to begin this set!" The commentating Marshall grinned on lowly as he watched. "Perhaps in an effort to end the fight almost as quickly as it begins, Raynard hopes to clinch it with this brutal offensive that he's successfully managed to land!" The man continued on, shaking his brown-haired head in a well-natured laugh as he did. "I can't speak for Marino but if he hit me with that? Ooh... I wouldn't be able to walk anymore."
Seth pulled his long-haired head back and laughed similarly cheerily alongside the older man. "Catch me in a hospital bed Marsh!"
After the listening audience let out appreciative chuckles in the commentator's anecdotes a kind of awkward and biting silence descended upon the arena; a valuable fact for the still-recovering form of Raynard. He gasped as he pulled his arm back, having sent almost everything within his Aegir to propel his last assault, and narrowed his chestnut eyes over at the wreckage he had singularly committed.
Finally, however, the seemingly passive Lycidas chose to react.
DROOOOM-CRASSSSH
If the tournament's left-facing wall wasn't already completely annihilated, the force coming from Lycidas' Aegir did the job; a third smoke cloud, this one even larger than the last, enveloped the area in which he was embedded. As it finally dissipated all eyes rested on the far-off form of Lycidas himself, his arms and legs both set to hang horizontally far from one another, standing atop what remained of the tournament wall. A small but relatively visible aura of golden Aegir surrounded him and as the audience watched on, he was not without visible wounds; beads of blood dropped from numerous places atop his head, mouth as well as his torso.
Even his torn clothes, the trousers he sported so well, were cut up a little from the encounter.
"Incredible!" The watching Marshall exclaimed out through his Gossip Stone in a passionate-filled shout. "Even in the face of such a heart-wrenching bale of assaults, our former Palashian champion simply just braves through it!" He called out, clenching his free left fist in excitement at his side. "You can't get this kind of fight anywhere else folks!"
"Yo just look at him Marsh," the grinning Seth nodded forward, directing the older man to turn his eyes to the young Van Garrick's opponent. "He's gettin' ready to lay loose! I do not wanna be Raynard right now." He laughed on, shaking his head as he did.
Just as the more rambunctious of the two had claimed the area around the destroyed wall gave another light explosion, this one invisible, the standing Lycidas' firm-green eyes widened. The watching Raynard lifted a half-curious eyebrow up, before they similarly shot straight to his temple in shock when he clocked the glaring-faced Lycidas' form suddenly barrelling ahead in an aerially-advancing knee-kick.
–
3
CRACK
"Gurgh...!"
The gasp of agony that escaped Raynard's young lips carried him careering far back through the air and a small drop of blood flew from it as he flipped his form backward in mid-air. As he recovered, he drew both arms to rake roughly and desperately against the tiled ground, as if to slow his rapid movement.
SKRRRRRR
With a burst of Aegir and physical energy he vaulted his form forward in a deft leap, his figure coated in the bright-white razor-like wind that filled him so well. He widened his hardened brown-shaded eyes as he yelled out in effort, drawing a wide haymaker to the similarly scowling Lycidas' raised knee.
SMASSSHHH
White and gold clashed together gloriously as the wide-eyed Raynard and narrow-eyed Lycidas began to shoot their arms 'round one another in swift attempts to knock the other out. Although Raynard's assaults were near lightning-quick, the glaring Lycidas appeared faster still; able to reflex his muscles in reaction to the boy's limbs with his own in defensive swings. At last, however, as the frowning-faced Lycidas grabbed one of Van Garrick's small arms to pull him in, the older man grunted as he shot a knee directly into his lower stomach, effectively winding him.
"Argh...!"
Lycidas spun his form 'round the destroyed arena expertly and grunted out in effort as he twisted both his muscled arms as if they were spinning tops. Raynard yelped as he was struck with the full force of them, sending him ricocheting and tumbling across the ring. He widened his blood-stained eyes as he briefly caught the sight of the glowering Lycidas rushing for him and reacted accordingly; in a pained grunt of his own he pulled his limbs closer to his body before vaulting himself in a recovering back-flip.
Lycidas, of course, pursued; as he slammed an Aegir-filled fist on the ground that which his young opponent once stood on, he drew up yet more tiles that stained the arena around them.
CRASSSH
The ground cried up in despair from the ferocity of the pairs' powers even as the unreadable Lycidas gave chase again; Raynard reacted again and grunted a second time as he pulled back his right arm. Building up wind-elemental Aegir within it he widened his tree-shaded eyes as he yelled out and tossed it forward, forming a projectile much like his original if on the weaker side.
"Reppuken!"
As the wind-charged projectile snaked along the ground after its intended target Lycidas' eyes narrowed and, in quick realisation that altering his course now would only lessen his speed, opted instead to raise up both his muscled arms in a defensive cross as he advanced. Raynard gasped as he watched, unable to believe it.
Sure enough, surprising all in the roaring audience, the stoically-silent Lycidas' huge and intimidating form easily tanked through the Reppuken; his hardened glare through the dissipating wind made the watching Raynard gasp out in horror. Even as he fast-approached the boy, Raynard drastically yelled out as he swung a desperate roundhouse kick for him; unfortunately, however, it appeared oddly to pass through his form as if he weren't even there to begin with.
Raynard could only blink.
"What the-?"
His inward questions were soon answered when he felt the man's presence abruptly appear behind him; before he could even react he felt the older man grunt out in effort as he stomped down with one of his golden-coloured boots, savagely sending him sailing underground.
CRASSSSHHHH...
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As the firmly-frowning form of Lycidas stood imposingly over the small hole of savagery and of his own creation, the audience all let out approving yells and roars of entertainment; Lycidas merely narrowed his emerald-shaded eyes firmly down into the small dark pit below him, as if looking for the missing Raynard.
"That's gotta hurt!" The watching Seth at last commented on as he winced. "I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy let alone a kid!"
"An unbelievable exchange ladies and gentlemen!" The contrastingly smiling Marshall nodded along in agreement. "Marino has left almost no avenue for Van Garrick to respond! Even going so far as to knock the poor boy senseless and careering down a hole underground!" The man explained thusly, chuckling on in an entertained shake of his head. "Who knows if he's even alive anymore?"
"Yo these fights though... they are off the hook!" Seth grinned on in cheery agreement.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
Almost as if to respond to the pair's commentary, the ground began to vibrate and at an alarming rate; the listening audience's cheers all soon became worrying clamours and cries of agitation. The only one remaining in his reserve was the former Palashian champion himself; he furrowed his brow as if concentration, his emerald-green eyes darting 'round the ground almost as if he were searching for something.
His eyes widened, however, as they shot down suddenly and abruptly to his immediate position.
All too late.
CRASSSSH-SMASH
"RGH!"
Shockingly, the ground spat up in a glorious show of tiles and wreckage to reveal the screaming Raynard; seemingly having vaulted himself with outrageous velocity he smashed his water-charged fists deep into the wide-eyed Palashian's exposed chest, sending them both skyward. The spectating audience all let out war cries of authorisation even as the glaring-faced Lycidas' rapid ascent soon began to slow to a mere trickle; he reached down with his comparatively larger arms and grasped at the boy's small form.
Perhaps inevitably, he lifted the boy's shape easily overhead and turned his braided-haired head downward as the pair began to descend back down to earth. Raynard's spiky black-haired head shook madly from side-to-side as he screamed in horror, the ground itself very quickly tunnelling into vision.
KERRRASSSSHHHH...
A smoke cloud from the ruthless collision erected around them, preventing prying eyes from discovering the result of the agonising exchange. At last, however as it dissipated like all the others, the poor Raynard's form was found dug so deep under the arena's near-annihilated remains that his top half remained unseen, as if he were a crop in the ground. The firmly-frowning Lycidas reached down with his beefy right arm and grasped at the boy's boot before lifting him up from the wreckage below.
As his seemingly lifeless body was lifted up by the man's much firmer grip the audience all fell silent, as if horrified by the agonising look of torment on the youth's face as well as the numerously painful-looking wounds stuttered 'round his tattered body. The frowning-faced Lycidas narrowed his hardened green-shaded eyes and glared on back at the weakened look in the boy's blood-stained face, his bushy-purple eyebrow rising up in curiosity. At last the stoically-silent Lycidas opened up his mouth to speak; it was naught but a single grunt but it was enough to gauge his inward thoughts.
"Hmph."
Almost as if he were waiting for his opportunity, Raynard's bruised and battered eyes re-opened in sharp snaps, and he yelled out in sudden effort as he rose up his two arms to fire forward a pair of Aegir projectiles directly into the gasping Lycidas' face.
BANNNG
"Hrngh...!"
The gasping Palashian champion let out a pained cry as he was sent a few yards back from his standing position, his top head completely filled with the razor-like winds that Raynard sent into him. As he tumbled away in agony so too did the gasping Raynard flip back to normal in an anguished shut-eyed scowl; he gasped out for air and in rapidly-growing agony as he strained sheerly to stand. Sure enough, he could barely move, lying on the ground and covered head-to-toe in savage-looking wounds; with great effort he coughed out a small plume of blood as he shakily stood back to his tattered-clothed feet, his body sagging from the sheer strain it was under.
"Good goddess...," the watching Barkner murmured out under his breath, wincing in an unhealthy mixture of sympathy and nostalgia. "I ain't seen that happen in a long time; poor bastard."
"He's a lot stronger than even I suspected," the firmly-frowning form of Alwyn spoke up next to the Goron, folded-armed as he tilted his blue-shaded head over at the battle before them. "In fact they both are; my one mistake was underestimating the former Palashian champion."
"Yeah!" The wide-eyed Link nodded along in agreement between the pair. "He's so much stronger than I thought he'd be! This is like... a grand finals match and it's only in round four!"
"I gotta tell ya I don't like how things look for your friend Link," Barkner frowned in disapproval and disappointment as he shook his rocky-bodied head in emphasis. "I don't think even one of us would be able to fight through that."
"Just you wait!"
The surprised Zoran and Goron turned their raised eyebrows down on the grinning young Hylian, curious and all. Sure enough he stood in his knowing smirk; a kind of overly-confident look that the blonde was known for.
"He ain't beaten so easily!"
–
4
The watching audience all at last let out yells and cries of approval as the grunting Lycidas flipped back up to a low-crouching position, his green-shaded eyes glaring back at the continually-gasping form of his younger opponent. Raynard glared back at him voicelessly through the many wounds that stained his face and body, his body leant to the side as he did.
"Now that... was low," the glowering Lycidas at last spoke, breaking through the silence like Aegir through flesh. "Even for a Van Garrick..."
Raynard's scowl slowly switched to a slight smirk. "Any way...," he huffed out in effort. "In order to win the battle..."
"Hmph..."
The look on the bruised Lycidas' face was all the watching Raynard needed to gauge his thoughts; he shot the young black-haired mercenary a light appreciative grin of his own before re-opening his mouth to reply properly.
"I can get behind that."
CRASH
In a single movement the once-grinning Lycidas rocked the arena's floor with a powerful tremor, knocking the last-remaining tiles away; the watching Raynard widened his one useable eye open as he witnessed the glaring warrior knock both clenched fists against the ground beneath him, eyes narrowing.
"I knew from the outset that this would be difficult to take... but this is just deranged...!" The hard-scowling Raynard thought silently to himself, body leant to the side as he watched his older opponent, gasping away in the effort to stand as he did. "If this keeps up... I'm not sure I can hold out... not unless..."
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
The earth-shaking beneath his wobbly legs made him gasp out of his silent pondering and he darted his one opened eye around him, as if to search for the source of the inevitable incoming assault. It was only when he felt it coming still from the kneeling form of his older opponent that he swung his wide-eyed shock 'round and came to a horrified realisation.
He's going to end this with some kind of an energy wave, he thought.
He knows I can barely move like this.
"Looks like I have no choice..."
His near-whispered words filled the tiny void that was inevitably drowned out by the earth-shattering quaking around them; the black-haired boy glared forward and forced his right eye open as he pulled off the remains of his tattered tunic and cloak. His own blue-shaded Aegir filled and surrounded his form in a similar sense to his enemy, leaving the watching audience on baited breath as to the eventual results.
"Here we go ladies and gentlemen; the end of this round is going to happen right here, right now!" The excited Marshall yelled out, fist clenched in display as he spoke.
"Marsh this is a World Championship-level quality match right here! And we're in a nationals and it's not even the grand finals!" Seth laughed on next to the older man, near unable to believe it.
"Yet more reason to believe in the powers of a former Palashian champion! And the last remaining Van Garrick!" Marshall nodded along in his inspired grin.
As the static electricity surrounding Lycidas' buffed up muscle eventually dissipated, he widened his emerald-green eyes and stood back to a full-standing position; he shot up his bruised and battered arms to hang horizontally over his shoulders, hands clenched into fists. From the hugely-dense aura of Quintessence he seemed to charge came a slow sphere of energy; clearly the energy wave he was readying himself for.
"Vanishing DRAGON!"
Almost as quickly as he bellowed out the words did the sphere of Aegir take form; a massive dragon of impressive wind-elemental power took shape from the Aegir before at last being fired forward. As it flew toward the wide-eyed Raynard, dotting his horrified look with a flash of its powerful green, the watching audience of Aurelians surrounding them all let out similarly scared shouts and cries in mixed reactions. Sure enough, the recently-erected barrier of Aegir shot up behind the young Raynard, effectively preventing the Vanishing Dragon attack to move past it and assault the audience and the stands around them. However, in watching it simply pass through the boy, the watching spectators all soon came to a stark realisation.
The massive dragon made of Quintessence had somehow passed through him.
It was then that the watching Lycidas realised that the boy's form was merely an after-image; he darted his firm-haired head to his left, his braid of purple-shaded hair whipping with him as he met the air-dashing Raynard's abrupt assault. The black-haired boy smashed his Aegir-filled elbow into the grunting Lycidas' defensively-risen up arms.
SKRRRRRRRRRRR
As the already annihilated ring below them cried up from the strain the two world-class warriors put it under, the growling older man thrust up with his arms to push the gasping boy off him before yelling out in effort as he swung a roundhouse kick at Raynard's exposed body. When his leg met with a plume of smoke, however, his green-shaded eyes widened in further shock even as his Vanishing Dragon exploded from having made contact with the invisible wall of Aegir around them.
His face lit up in a dazzling show of green to compliment his hardened eyes as he darted them 'round in horrified searching.
SMASH
"Gurgh...!"
The former Palashian champion gasped out as he was abruptly struck by the super-fast Raynard's re-appearance in an unsubtle but buffed up water-elemental haymaker; having shot in from the man's sharp-right he just barely managed to strike him across the face, sending the poor Palashian tailspinning across the air and passing through the invisible barrier intended for blasts of Aegir. Time slowed down, not just for the wide-eyed Raynard but for everyone else watching; they all dropped their voices silent as the shut-eyed and scowling Lycidas reached his palm for the edge of the ring in vain, one eye shut amidst his other many wounds.
Eventually, however, he hit the hard concrete laying below the ring and the audience, grunting in defeat as he did.
"Ring out!"
The woman's words, obviously the referee, managed to wake up the shocked audience and spectators.
"This set's winner is... Raynard Van Garrick!"
YEAAAAAAAAHHHH
"Incredible! I've never seen such a fine ending to an unexpected fracas!" The ever-smiling Marshall called out excitably, fist clenched again to display his elation, his voice barely reaching above the din of the watching audience around them. "Pure raw power and battle experience versus budding young, strategic talent! Truly a match for the ages! The only downside of this match was... it wasn't even in the grand finals!" Marshall finished, drawing his brown-haired head back to execute a jolly-held laugh, joined by his younger companion next to him.
"Easily one of the best matches this nationals has ever seen Marsh," the grinning-faced Seth agreed along with the older man in a light-faced nod. "Who would have guessed that the little Van Garrick kid would have beaten the former Palashian champion?"
"Ah I think we can all safely say we're in shock from it my young friend!" Marshall smiled in response, clicking his fingers as he faced him. "But can you believe we're merely in round four of the opening top eight?"
"Say it ain't so Marsh!"
"It is so my young friend," the older man chuckled good-naturedly. "With matches this high quality there's legitimately no-where else to turn to! The Prima World Tour is in full flow ladies and gentlemen! Stay tuned and we'll have round five in your eyes before you can even blink!"