Chapter 27: Dire Deception; an Unexpected Outcome
Kara-Throwing in Kaiohdrahl 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.
"Character Select" - Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition OST. Scene 1 (First & Second Halves).
"Ill Treatment" - Yakuza III OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"Puzzling Truth" - Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Scene 3 (First Half).
"Material Delights" - Yakuza IV OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).
"Tusk" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 4 (First Half).
"Ultimate Road Rage" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 4 (Second Half).
After having saved the very country of Kaiohdrahl itself twice, they sign up for the Kaioh Bio, a national martial arts championship organised by the Prima World Tour, Link and his close friends opt once again to fight for a national title; not only does the winner stand to gain an absurd amount of rupees, they would also gain the title of 'Kaiohdrahl Champion'. A crown only precious few have gained including champions of other countries in Aurelia such as Raynard, Vassia and Lycidas.
In an incredible opening of the top eight qualifiers in the Kaioh Bio indeed, the beginning pairings have old companions Barkner and Alwyn clash together. Even more incredible is the result that no-one could have predicted; not only did the well-respected Alwyn find himself overwhelmed both in strength and speed, but also out-thought in almost every instance he tried. A shocking revelation indeed that leaves tremors through the screaming audience and the approving commentators, Tasty Seth and Mr. Marshall.
With that Alwyn is knocked out of the Kaioh Bio and watches on as Barkner advances to the semi-finals, leaving the tournament and its competitors to witness the next round, a confrontation between two relatively well-known pair; Raynard Van Garrick VS. Lyna Greene. While Raynard himself once won the Hylian Hyrax and was second runner up to the Palashian Premier, Lyna herself has taken part in five Aurelian tours; an impressive amount of battle experience alone that leaves the far-younger Raynard outmatched and mentally-overwhelmed.
Yet Raynard hopes desperately for more.
Having been denied championship in the Palashian Premier by its winner, princess Vassia herself, Raynard desires with great fervour to blaze through the Kaioh Bio in an attempt to face off with his short-gained rival Link; a sentiment shared with the over-exuberant young Hero of Time himself. Even with enough championship points to qualify for the World Championships that will eventually culminate in a few years time, the impetuous young Van Garrick longs to spread the reputation of his wiped out clan's name, having been the only remaining survivor of it.
Lyna, renowned for her aggressiveness and speed in her wealth of battle experience, is not only far older than Raynard but potentially more intelligent too; two advantages she carries with her well as she stoically progresses forward, choosing instead to merely socialise with no-one within the championship but Barkner himself. All eyes are now drawn to this similarly surprising pairing, a result that will leave not only shock but excitement.
Also signed up within the tournament are two new names that the heroes themselves do not quite recognise; Ragnar Romanov and Zayne Wyeford. Although almost little to absolutely nothing is known of the strange and elusive Zayne, the far-more stoically-composed Ragnar is instantly recognised by knight Shanaari of the group as a well-known martial artist outside of any popular tournament setting, allegedly having been mentored by an artisan that once also taught the world's greatest soldier himself.
An infamous Draerith warrior known only as 'Sun Hui'.
This information not only surprises the listening Link but excites him considerably; a near-opposite reaction to most of his other comrades. While the likes of Vassia and even Barkner look forward to the idea of trading fists with Ragnar, the more philosophic members such as Alwyn and Raynard remind the young Hylian of Ragnar's potential ability being higher than their own... and perhaps even leagues above at that.
Regardless however, as the heroes consider the possibilities of the ending to the Kaioh Bio, its genesis begins; round one takes root in the form of close companions of the group, Barkner the Goron and Alwyn the Zoran, both dear and devoted associates of the Hero of Time himself, having met them in his journey across Hyrule for the Spiritual Stones.
While Alwyn's initial offensive is a daunting one indeed, Barkner's superior defence manages to turn the tide quite quickly and leaves the Zoran at an unfortunate impasse. Thanks to his former intensive military training however, it proves little trouble to his pragmatic methods. Indeed, he not only utilises commonly-known knowledge of Goron tactics and anatomy but personal observations of Barkner himself; an impressive feat that echoes as ever back to his practical instruction.
Alwyn very unfortunately finds himself fighting uphill and against a solid rock wall and, most of the engagement's case, quite literally; Barkner proves to be no slouch himself even with little to no military training of his own. He uses his superior physical strength, his own surprising knowledge of fighting and of Alwyn himself and of course his unique race techniques to continually stump the former soldier into a corner; a concerning consequence that eventually results in a victory for the wily Goron.
Winner by ring out, is of course Barkner Elbrus in round one!
Still to come, and fast approaching the Kaioh Bio's round two, is a match-up not many in the Prima World Tour could have predicted; Raynard Van Garrick VS. Lyna Greene.
Many know within the Prima World Tour and in Link's travelling group that Raynard is easily one of the tournament's best contenders to have taken any tournament he's taken part in; indeed even in his very first, the Hylian Hyrax, he champions it though barely at that in having near-stolen it in a sudden-death with Link himself. Even within the Palashian Premier he came close in crowning, stopped only by its then-future champion herself, who would later go on to face Link in the grand finals; Vassia Palashia.
Lyna, in comparison to Raynard's far-younger age, has taken part in five Aurelian tours of the PWT; an intimidating factor for any competitor, let alone one so stoic and unsociable. Rather strangely the two are relatively akin to one another in their need for solitude and seclusion from others.
A trait that will no doubt come into play in their exciting and explosive showdown...
Scene 1
"Welcome one and all, once again and good morning! If you're just joining us we're broadcasting to your Gossip Stone live and all from the beautiful beachdom of Kaiohdrahl!"
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
The sound of Mr. Marshall's baritone was near drowned out from the incredible tremors that the listening audience gave out surrounding him, giving out small vibrations to the ground around them all.
"It's ya boy, Tasty Seth!" The younger man next to the older commentator cried out, an excited grin plastered across his impatient countenance.
"And it's your gentleman's gentleman, Mr. Marshall!" The more formal of the two called out in his own well-to-do smile, his baritone enhanced via the small Gossip Stone he spoke into. "Welcome back Aurelia, one and all! Today we return to our Kaiohdrahl national championship and its final stages; the top eight finals!"
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
"I tell ya Marsh I still can't believe it."
"And what can't you believe my young friend?"
"Our boy Bark!" Seth laughed out at last, shaking his head as he slapped a hand as if in display of his shock on the table below him. "Stealin' that set away from our man Al!"
Marshall pulled his brown-haired head back and laughed good-naturedly. "Ah but stealing is such a strong word!" He laughed on, entertained. "I prefer to think of it as... he liberated it!"
The listening audience all let out lightly-amused chuckles.
"It was definitely not the winner I was expectin'!" Seth grinned on. "All my rupees were on Alwyn!"
"Just another signature of the Prima World Tour my young friend!" Marshall nodded slyly. "Nothing pre-decided here; it's all real!"
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
"Coming up in our next round are two relatively well-known warriors for their experience by this point," Marshall continued on, smiling. "Stay tuned folks!"
"Man, you two were awesome!"
The listening Barkner and Alwyn stifled their groans from their earlier exertion in their match as they turned their looks on the ever-smirking Link in the competitor's box's doorway, their own kinds of looks of entertainment; Barkner in his own humoured grin and Alwyn smirking away as he shut his ocean-teal eyes and shook his head.
"Well... it was an awesome match!" Barkner claimed, placing his rock-skinned arms on his hips as he did before soon re-facing his Zoran companion on his left. "I never thought I'd take that, quite honestly," he admitted. "You've always been so much quicker 'n I am."
Alwyn tilted his sea-shaded head as he regained his ever business-like frown, dusting himself off as he re-opened his mouth to respond. "The results speak for themselves," the former soldier began, frowning on as he folded his calloused arms. "You've gotten a hell of a lot stronger even since Hyrule; I'm proud of that effort you gave today."
Barkner's nervously-gained smile soon turned appreciative and he nodded as it did, pursing his lips just a little as if in half-surprise. "Thanks man...," he acknowledged in response. "Means a lot comin' from you."
"I guess we gotta square off then!"
Barkner swung his surprise-eyed frown 'round on the grinning-faced Link; he stood in a half-leant posture, his right clenched fist extended as if to be exchanged with. The young Goron's frown soon upturned into an amused smirk and he nodded skyward as he shot his own fist forward, bumping it affectionately with the Hylian hero.
"I don't think we ever did fight, did we?" The Goron asked curiously, eyebrow raising as he chuckled on. "It'd be a hell of a battle if we did."
Link's memories went back to their clash in the original timeline; not a pleasant recollection but one he could hardly divulge to the well-intentioned Goron.
Thank the Goddesses that never happened in this one, he thought gratefully.
"So I suppose that means that we'll eventually go up against one another, hm?"
The group swung their heads 'round to find the ever-frowning Raynard staring back at them, his bandaged arms folded as usual in his unsociable posture. Barkner couldn't help but let out a half-amused grin to spice his entertained chuckle with.
"Countin' your Cuccos before they even hatched yet kid!" The Goron claimed, shaking his rocky-bodied head in response. "Ain't good for your health!"
Raynard huffed, his own smirk soon morphing from the frown he liked to wear, as he lowered his spiky-haired head and shut his eyes.
"Hmph."
"Competitors Raynard Van Garrick and Lyna Greene, please approach the arena!"
The staff member's announcement, loud enough to carry through to the back of the room thanks to the small Gossip Stone she carried with her, brought the pair of warriors' heads up to meet it; they both leaned their bodies up to stand straight and began marching forward. Just as Lyna issued the smirking-faced Barkner a greeting low smile and a nod, Raynard instead opted to issue out a frown and an acknowledging nod to the ever-smirking and similarly-nodding Link; looks of respect and recognition with one another.
"Is he all right?"
The listening blonde boy, surprised by the young girl's soprano, could only rise up both eyebrows as he turned around only to find the frowning-faced Zelda, Impa and Malon all waiting for the group in likewise-curious frowns.
"How the hell'd you guys get in here?" The sociably young Hero of Time grinned back as he leaned forward to issue out a brotherly-like handshake with the frowning-faced Zelda and Malon, facing the folded-armed Impa as he did.
"Same way we got in Palashia's," the knowledgeable Sheikah merely shrugged back. "It's not difficult to exert some kind of control with the royal family."
"Well that's just cheating!"
Vassia's near-screeching soprano, quite a pained contrast to Zelda's comparatively pleasing tone, made the listening Link wince and even flinch as a result; behind him, she marched on to meet the group, joined by the smiling-faced Kaiohdrahlian knight Shanaari.
"Using your connections to the royal family to gain entry in here...," the Palashian princess began, smirking away as she rose up her gloved hand to rest upon her grinning face. "How uncouth!"
Although the listening Zelda chose to remain respectfully silent, a disappointed frown on her face, it was the annoyed Link that 'rounded his limp-eyed look on the violet-haired princess behind him.
"Comin' from you?" He spoke back, his tenor a humorously-low that went well with the banter he played with, drawing a snort of amusement from the smirking-faced Malon and an appreciatively-faced smile from Zelda. When he felt her pull at his left arm, very softly, he swung his genuinely surprised look on her and blinked only to find her mouthing a reply to him in silence.
'Thank you.'
His smirk re-grew and, as it did, he gave her a welcoming wink back in response.
"And what's that supposed to mean?!" Vassia angrily shot back, placing her gloved hands upon her dressed hips, glaring back at the former Kokiri as she did.
"It means you got a hell of a big ego baby," Link shot back, his own grin ever-enduring even as he swung it 'round to face the imperious princess. "I mean, I can dig it, so do I," the youth copped to his own weakness, grinning on knowingly as he shut his eyes and shrugged back at her exaggeratively. "But there's a difference."
One of Vassia's raven-black eyes narrowed at him quizzically, her hardened scowl still strong on her doll-like countenance. "And what's that mon amour?"
"I'm so good that it's justified on me."
The watching Barkner and Shanaari both swung their heads back and exploded with laughter, drawing sighing head-shakes from the disapproving Impa and Malon and even a silent-faced smile from the amused Zelda below the Sheikah. Alwyn, rather surprisingly, gave out a tiny smile of entertainment in their own rather modest display of merriment.
Although Vassia's initial reaction would be shoot back a fiery rage-filled speech of insults, she stopped herself very quickly even as she opened her mouth before slowly narrowing her eyes. She shut her mouth and curled it into an ominously-knowing smirk, her raven-black eyes tightening up to match the perilous perception she seemed to always carry with her; a fact that she normally took great pleasure in.
"Well then...," she began again slowly marching toward him gloved hands first at her side and then, soon risen up to fold as she stood uncomfortably close to him, leaning sideways into him as she did, eyes narrowed into his. He couldn't help but twitch as she grew close to him and re-opened her mouth to speak to him, her strong perfume assaulting his senses. "I suppose I'll just have to put you over my knee again... and spank you...," she smirked back at him in a superior sense of skill, referring to their last go-around in the grand finals of the Palashian Premier. "Won't I?"
Barkner couldn't help but let out an extremely amused snort and even the listening Malon cracked a small grin as she watched.
"Trust me, if anyone's gonna be doin' the spankin'...," the ever-overconfident Hero of Time began in retort, leaning his own blonde-haired head to the side as he narrowed his oceanic eyes back at her. "It's me."
Zelda could barely contain the giggle that escaped her amused lips, joined by the chuckling Shanaari behind the newly-annoyed Vassia.
"Hmph!" The offended Palashian princess responded with, rising up her violet-curled head indignantly. "We shall see!"
When Link pulled his head back to laugh, joined by Malon and Barkner behind him as well as the small smiles on Zelda and even Alwyn and Impa's faces, the insulted Vassia spluttered as she darted her eyes 'round on them all.
"What?! What's so funny?!"
"You're pretty strong Vass, I ain't gon' take that away from ya," the chuckling Link started in his own response, shaking his head as he chortled and wiped away at a tear of hilarity. "But you just ain't got the skill for any banter."
Vassia's brow furrowed, as if she were attempting and with great difficulty to follow what the youth was even saying; an amusing endeavour that left the group with enough laughs to fill the air with. Link grinned on as he nodded his pony-tailed head backward toward the ring behind him, and toward the presumingly-upcoming match.
"Come on," he began. "We better not miss any of this."
When he turned to march toward the competitor's box entrance and exit, he felt the floor-facing Zelda run her left fingers over his in his passing; a soft and demure touch that left him twitching a little and his cheeks run red with embarrassment, and yet an odd kind of pleasant sensation that stayed with him in his chest.
It was a strange feeling and one he remembered from their time together in the original timeline.
It was only when he felt the fiery and rough-by-comparison Malon haul at his left arm that the sensation was ripped away from him. He turned his half-annoyed look on the grinning girl on his left, as if to dissuade her or at least send a silent message to her, but it did very little in the end; the fiery-haired farm girl merely replied with a knowing kind of wink, eliciting a rolling-eyed groan from him in response.
–
2
"Welcome back, one and all, to the Kaioh Bio!"
The listening audience, along with the sound of Mr. Marshall's authoritative baritone, filled the arena and indeed the very castle up with its deafening din; a mere footnote in the noise to come.
"Last we left the beautiful game we'd progressed past the first round of the final top eight qualifiers!" The commentator began again, smiling as always through the small Gossip Stone he spoke into. "In a daring and bold manoeuvre, Barkner Elbrus managed to beat the favourite to win; Alwyn Weirson!"
"Yo I love Bark and all man, but..."
Marshall's smile was lost to him, temporarily, as he swung his brown-haired head 'round to eye the younger man on his left. Tasty Seth sat next to him and clicked his tongue as if in disappointment, further displaying it with a shake of his head as he did.
"I had a lot of rupees on Al!" He called out lamentably, earning some amused chuckles and laughs in the audience.
"That's the wrong way to play my young friend!" Marshall chuckled along, lightly wagging a finger at the youth as if in disapproval before re-facing the audience. "Remember kids; gambling is a losing game!"
"Not if you win every time!"
The random man's voice in the surrounding crowd made even the listening Seth and Marshall rise up their eyebrows, drawing out even further hilarity from the congregation of spectators; laughs and cheer filled them up, infecting even the listening co-commentators together.
"I like this crowd!" The grinning Seth called out, pulling one more deafening cheer from them in response.
"A simpatico match-up I suppose!" Marshall chuckled, nodding his head in the pillars' direction toward the two sides of the competitor's box. "Much like today's!"
As if on the man's voiced cue, a pair of pictographs displayed up on the stone pillars, brought up by bigger Gossip Stones lying on the concrete ground below them. On the right was the hardened young woman herself, folded-armed and decorated with scars all across her face. A messy-haired head of teal-shaded hair sat upon her head, joined together in what seemed to be a hastily-drawn ponytail, similarly shaded to her hardened eyes.
Lyna Greene
Aggressiveness: A+
Agility: S
Grapple Countering: A
"Lyna's a young woman with a wealth of experience folks!" Marshall began out, this time in a frown of his own as if he were recounting from memory. "Hailing from Aurelia's capital in Hyrule Castletown she learned fast on how to survive; ever since the very first Prima World Tour she's been signed up. She has five tours under her belt!"
Some in the audience let out genuinely-surprised sounds, exchanging looks with one another.
"That's one hell of a handle Marsh!" Seth grinned on next to the older man. "But who's her next squeeze?"
"Funny you should ask Seth... because..."
In Marshall's low-chuckling baritone came the second pictograph up on the left stone pillar; the similarly folded-armed and glaring-faced Raynard himself. It was a fairly updated pictograph to match the subtle changes in his growing body and clothes; the bandages on his arms and the odd freckle or two were now present on him. However he still wore his old bandanna on his head, his tattered old cape and his likewise weathered grey-shaded tunic, his raven-shaded hair still as spiky and unruly as ever on his head.
Raynard Van Garrick
Combination Damage: A
Aggressiveness: A+
Agility: S
"Our boy Van Garrick may be the last of his clan but he's certainly not showing it! Not with how quickly and how boldly he's climbed the ladder of our esteemed and skilled martial artists!" Marshall called out with a smile, drawing out another cacophonous cheer from the listening audience. "Having already secured the Hylian championship a few months back and having came close in the Palashian one, he now hopes to extend his horizons by taking the Kaiohdrahl national championship!"
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
"I gotta tell ya Marsh," the ever-grinning Seth began again, shaking his head as he did. "That grand finals match with him and Fire Fist had me on my seat the whole time."
"You and thousands others my young friend!" Marshall chuckled in response. "We can only hope that our boy Van Garrick creates another exciting show for us today!"
Almost as soon as he was done speaking, the two warriors themselves at last marched out of the competitor's box, but not before they could be accosted by two members of the surrounding group; while the grinning Barkner merely issued the surprised-eyed Lyna with an acknowledging nod, receiving an appreciative smile from the young woman as she passed him, Raynard instead received something else. The similarly grinning-faced Link rose up one of his clenched fists at his raven-haired rival, leaning his straw-haired head to the side as he did, almost as if to instil a sense of enthusiasm within the normally stoic Van Garrick.
"Don't lose!" The young Hero of Time urged the black-haired boy, his left fist clenched and hanging in the air as he grinned back. "Not until we meet in the grand finals!"
Although the exchange appeared to be shaping up much like their previous, it was Link's turn to display full surprise as Raynard merely turned up his frown into a scowl at the blonde boy, almost as if he were disgusted somehow before soon turning 'round to leave. Perturbed by the Van Garrick's cold reception, Link could only blink on in silent-faced curiosity as his clenched fist slowly uncurled and hovered back down to his side.
"Is everything okay?"
It was only when he realised that the interruption of the contralto's voice belonged to his mentor that he managed to snap himself out of his shocked reverie and swivel himself 'round to face her and his group of female companions waiting for him.
"U-Um... yeah...," he merely answered back in a nervous laugh, a kind of zig-zag-like smile written across his face as he briefly eyed the suspiciously-watching Sheikah behind him before turning 'round to watch the back of his raven-haired rival march out the room, joined by the similarly-stoic Lyna. "I... think so..." He spoke again in an unsure smile; a foundation that very quickly found itself crumbling, even in its inception as his memories perhaps inevitably came rushing back to the recently-held conversation he had with him.
It was less of a conversation and more of an abrupt and sudden clash of ideals; something he honestly and genuinely should have seen coming.
"I guess things had been goin' so well in this era that I never thought to prepare myself for serious disagreements like that," the youth thought wisely, yet childishly, his frown tempering into a hardened glare as he furrowed his brow forward. "He hates Zel and the royal family...," he began again silently to himself, hanging his left arm snugly under his risen-up right's elbow, his right fingers cupping at his chin thoughtfully. "But why...?" He continued to ponder unsurely, oceanic eyes narrowing.
He never told me or Sheik anything in the time I came from, he thought.
So then what is it that has him so riled up? Why does he hate the royal family so much?
"Are you sure?"
Impa's voice made him blink out of his thoughts again and swirl 'round to meet her. His brow furrowed when he found the suspicious quality in her hardened ruby-like eye.
In there's the reason why, he thought.
"She's keeping something from me..."
He drove his firmly-held thoughts on with the usual fiery-determined drive he carried and at last swung his body 'round fully to face her, opting to confront her immediately.
"Maybe there is somethin' wrong... yeah," the pony-tailed youth began, eyes meeting Impa's fixed and hardened glare. "I gotta talk to ya about somethin'... Impa-sensei."
The listening Zelda and Malon, surprised by the oddly confrontational atmosphere hanging in the air, could only exchange looks between their blonde companion and their group's leader unsuccessfully.
Impa stared back at him for a second or two but it wasn't long before she nodded her silver-shaded head in the corner of the room. "Over there." The Sheikah ordered quietly, turning to march toward it. Link watched her go quietly, a suspicious-eyed stare in his own look and made to follow before he felt something paw and grasp at his left arm. He double-took to his left and regained his nervously-dispositioned chuckle, a small drop of sweat descending from his brow when he realised the pair of hands belonged to Malon and Zelda. It wasn't even difficult to tell the sensation apart; one was callous and rough whereas the other was light and near weightless to his skin.
"It's okay," he laughed back at the pair of Hylians, shaking his blonde-haired head dismissively as he did. When the two girls' own brows furrowed, a kind of suspicion in their own ocean-blue eyes, the determination in Link's grew stronger to match the calmer smile that graced his complexion. "I promise." He finished this time with, leaning his head to the side as he did.
Although the surprisingly-silent Malon took longer in dropping her hardy touch, the similarly-trusting smile that swept over Zelda's own face marked the quick yet soft descent of her own hand; a look of complete and near-infallible faith. Silently thankful for at least one of their conviction in him, Link turned to jog toward the empty corner of the Kaiohdrahl competitor's box, his sociable smile very quickly dissolving into the hardened frown he prepared himself earlier with.
"Red side, ready!"
Outside, the mezzo-soprano of the young referee's voice echoed on out, drawing all potential eyes to the pre-arranged battle before them. The ever-glaring Raynard stood on the right side of the arena, keeping his stature and his form high as he hung both arms horizontally over one another in a square-like stance, his right fist closed and his left palm hanging under it opened up.
"Blue side, ready!"
In response, the similarly frowning-faced Lyna nodded contrastingly to her younger opponent, hanging her own arms equally on both sides as she hopped up and down into a bladed-like stance. She stared back into Raynard's glaring and hateful-eyed chestnut with her own calm and careful teal, her muscles aching for the imminent announcement.
"Begin!"
Almost as quickly as the young woman's voice bounced off the walls of Tiverpool Arena did the wide-eyed Lyna leap forward in a beginning assault; the watching Raynard glared back as he met the older Hylian's quick jabs with his own, his scowl remaining ever-enduring on his similarly hardened expression even as he back-dashed in seeming comfortable defence. The pair moved like lightning across the newly-repaired white-tiled arena, smoke drawing up from their super-fast movement, leaving the watching audience yelling out in approval.
As Lyna grunted out and threw out a quick but telegraphed side-kick, the glaring-faced Raynard flipped backwards into a full series of somersaults as if to retreat; the watching Lyna followed almost immediately, teal-shaded eyes narrowing as she did. Having taken the fairly obvious bait that the young Van Garrick left for her, Raynard at last acted on his counter-attack; he used the tiled ground beneath him to push his light form off of and came vaulting back toward the fast-flying Lyna, eliciting a wide-eyed gasp from her in response.
She was far too late to respond.
CRACK
"Ngh...!"
As the young woman was sent careering back the way she came, she swung her body up into a backward somersault that left her skidding across the arena below her. She wiped at the side of her mouth hurriedly, as if to rid herself of the small drop of blood that collected as a result, before widening her teal-coloured eyes when she couldn't seem to locate her enemy.
"Where-?"
It was purely luck and a heightened sense of her surroundings that saved her; she gasped out as she ducked suddenly, just barely avoiding the grunting horizontal arm swipe that Raynard behind her abruptly issued her, before yelling out as she gave him a similar response. The glaring-eyed Van Garrick back-dashed up and away to avoid the counter before darting his body in and out of the further follow-up kicks that Lyna threw his way. The pair very quickly found themselves in another exchange of offensive and defensive blows, their skidding march drawing up white-shaded tiles and smoke, much to the chagrin of the poor Prima staff members.
At last one of them found a way through however. The wide-eyed Raynard grunted out as he managed to catch one of Lyna's quick-jabs and pulled it in; she gasped out and before she could even retort with her free remaining hand, he brutally broke the hand in place of his grip, chestnut-brown eyes narrowing back into hers as he did. She drew her messy-haired head to the sky as she screamed out in agony and he widened his eyes one last time in his last counter-attack; a savage double-handed downward axe-strike that saw the grunting young woman ricocheting painfully across the ground and the arena around them.
Some form of calm at last returned to the battle and to the arena as the audience all let out their inevitable cries of cheering, eliciting the hard-eyed Raynard to re-fold his arms stoically as he glared on after the fallen Lyna.
"What an opening to round two! Good lord!" The ever-smiling Marshall called out from his table next to the ring. "As always our current Hylian champion Van Garrick does not disappoint! Although Greene led with a particularly horrifying offensive, Van Garrick manages to not only meet it head-on but cancels it out completely!" He explained briefly, chuckling on as he shook his brown-haired head as if in disbelief. "Greene's certainly going to have trouble finding a way through that!"
"It ain't lookin' good for her Marsh, that's for sure!" Seth grinned on, his words and meaning as condensed as ever, drawing a half-annoyed look from the older man and some entertained chuckles in the audience.
–
3
"Aren't you supposed to be Hylian?"
The surprised Lyna turned her eye up from her earlier recovery, pushing herself up off the ground to stand to her feet slowly and deliberately, dusting herself off as she turned to spit out a small glob of blood, staining the pristine-white stadium below her.
"Yeah...," she merely answered with, her eyes watching the glaring Raynard carefully as they similarly narrowed. "What's it to you?"
"I guess it's no use comparing someone like you...," Raynard began in response, rising up his spiky-haired head at her haughtily. "To someone like me."
Lyna took a warning step forward, her brow furrowing ominously back at him. "And what's that supposed to mean?" She spat back, an insulted tone to her mezzo-soprano.
A corner of the listening Raynard's eternal scowl curled up into a half-amused smirk; an echo of the old personality the watching Link recalled from their original rivalry together.
"It means you're weak... and pathetic...," Raynard similarly spat in response to the young woman's angry call, his smirk carrying him on. "Compared to the legacy that I'm left with."
BOOOOOOOOOO
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
The audience were mixed in their reception to the overconfidence and lack of sportsmanship that the hardened young Van Garrick was displaying; a far cry from the worried looks in the heroes' group's eyes as they watched on in disapproval, some even in genuine and honest-to-goddess curiosity.
"Why is he so pissy?" Barkner posed forward, a single boulder-brown eye narrowing into the arena ahead from the competitor's box. He turned his Goron-shaped head to face his other companions, unsure. "I mean he was pretty rude when we met him, sure, but..."
"It's an attractive quality in a man I have to admit...," the watching Vassia smirked on as she folded her own silky-garbed arms and tilted her violet-curled head at the scene before her. "So long as he can back the claims he makes of course..." She finished in a half-amused giggle.
"I think he sounds like an idiot," Malon spoke up from the back, her own single eye narrowed in scrutiny and condemnation. "No-one likes a braggart after all."
"It is a strange change in him," Alwyn answered his Goron companion's query with, his ocean-blue arms folded as he stepped forward as if to get a better look into the ring. "Maybe he's found something out he didn't quite appreciate."
"Link...?"
The named youth himself, startled by his mentor's contralto calling him out, turned his slant-eyed surprise to swing 'round on the suspicious-eyed Sheikah standing overhead. Her armoured arms, always ever-folded, carried her intimidating aura rather well as she narrowed her ruby-red eyes down at him.
"Have you anything to add to this conversation?" She asked curiously, successfully managing to draw all eyes in the room toward his position. He inwardly cursed and winced as he turned away from her eyes, rubbing the back of his pony-tailed head nervously as he did.
"Um...," he began unsurely, eyes narrowing at the ground in thought to his conversation with Raynard not mere minutes ago.
"Better 'n just bein' bitter all my life."
He cringed again when he recalled the angry look he'd gotten from his raven-haired rival as a result of saying such a thing so suddenly and so quickly to him.
"Y-Yeah... I guess...," he began again, re-rising up his head to hover between each curious-faced member of the group. "Earlier, when Bark and Al were goin' at it..."
And he quickly explained the situation to his companions; of how, very suddenly and surprisingly, he found himself digging perhaps too deep into a freshly-laid wound within the young Van Garrick's questionable past. Although Link himself knew bits and pieces of his rival's history, he did not possess knowledge of the finer details; something he laid bare in his general understanding of the black-haired boy.
"I don't understand...," Vassia started curiously and impatiently, shaking her lavender-haired head as she frowned back at the blonde. "Why would he help this group if he hates the Hylian royal family so much?"
"I think it's out of respect for Link," Alwyn spoke up, drawing all eyes his way; the group watched on as he narrowed his own into the ring, staring intently and curiously at the back of the boy they were all referring to. "As far as I've been able to tell, besides this mysterious 'Scaverin' person he's travelling with...," the Zoran began again, turning his head 'round to face the frowning-faced Link. "You're the only one I've ever seen him showing any general admiration for."
The listening youth couldn't help but wince a third time, knowing of the unsociable Raynard's tendencies.
"Okay... so he hates the royal family...," Barkner added curiously, eyebrow raising upward as he tilted his head over to stare similarly at the far-off Raynard. "Any reason why, or...?"
It was the hard-eyed Link's turn to swing a determined look on the surprisingly-quiet Impa behind him; a kind of silent-faced look that said it all. Impa's own brow furrowed as she watched him intently and unsurely, as if attempting to work out his own ruminations.
"Impa...?"
The thus-far silent Zelda at last spoke up; a soft soprano call that made the rest of the group turn their eyes 'round to face the seemingly all-knowledgeable Sheikah. She hovered her fiery-red eyes between each member and, sensing no other potential course of action, sighed through her small nose and lowered her eyes. She re-rose them and re-opened her mouth to speak.
"Raynard hails from the 'Van Garrick' clan," Impa spoke with a light sigh spicing her words; a defeated tone of voice to her contralto. "The Van Garricks have, for a long time now, been largely extinct."
Alwyn nodded dutifully and knowledgeably in her direction, tearing his eyes from the battle behind him. "I remember the tales... if anything."
Impa nodded. "They were very talented in battle," she admitted. "In fact so talented that when they learned of king Daphnes' eventual succession to the throne, they took quite a large number of Hylian lives in their own attempt at an insurrection."
"But... why would they-?"
"They had hoped to instal someone within the royal court eventually, either via a far-off noble connection or otherwise," Impa answered the scrunched-up faced Malon's query almost as quickly as it came out of her mouth. "Why, we're not sure, but... when that failed... people's children within Hyrule Castletown eventually began to go missing."
Link's listening frown twitched as he kept his eyes focused on the ground below him, turning away in brief recollection to his memories in the original timeline.
"You're... joking..." Barkner whispered out disgustedly, his rocky-bodied face slowly cringing as his mind very quickly connected the dots. Malon, Vassia and even Zelda, all extremely curious, could only exchange their heads and eyes with each adult in the room unsurely.
"What?! What's she joking about?" Malon asked curiously.
"I demand you tell us!" Vassia impudently called out, drawing a quick but hardened look from the silently-glaring Link. It wasn't much but it was a forceful look enough from the patient young boy that managed to silence her.
"These children... were never found," Impa continued on, re-rising up her impassive and objective frown to face the group with. "And while no evidence of any abduction or otherwise was ever secured, there was no doubt within the peoples' minds who was at fault," the Sheikah recounted on, as if from sheer memory itself, a hardened quality to her frown. "They pressured and angrily petitioned the then young king Daphnes to turn his justice on the only remaining members of the Van Garrick clan, after their failed insurrection."
The listening Zelda's thin blonde eyebrows rose up and, though she remained respectfully silent, she appeared to have some inkling as to what was coming.
"When king Daphnes refused to give into violence...," Impa began again, re-opening her fiery-red eyes as her frown took on a firmer scowl. "The Hylian parents of the abducted children decided to take matters into their own hands."
"Oh no..." The wincing Barkner murmured back, cringing on as he listened.
"These people, enraged and blind, turned on the last remaining Van Garricks and lynched them both," Impa continued on, her arms still as dutifully folded as always. "Before king Daphnes could even get a unit down there to stop them, Raynard's parents were already both killed... and quite savagely at that."
"Good goddess..." Alwyn cursed out quietly, likewise grimacing his weathered complexion in response to the horrific words.
Impa sighed as she nodded her silvery-haired head up at the far-off Raynard, still standing in a folded-armed glare down at Lyna in the arena ahead of them. "Ever since then king Daphnes passed a royal decree that forbids any other contact with the deceased Van Garricks' surviving son, Raynard," she at last finished explaining, a tired frown adorned on her face, as if she were finally free of a terrible weight. "Only the children of Hyrule Castletown have ever spoke with that boy."
"B-But wait!" The listening Vassia began curiously, scrunching her doll-like face up in scrutinisation as she narrowed an eye forward. "Why did these Hylians turn on this clan to begin with? Where was the suspicion founded on that they stole their children?"
Impa swung her tired-faced frown down on the Palashian princess, re-opening her mouth to elaborate. "The Van Garricks always had a reputation for...," the Sheikah began again, re-rising her head up to wander up to stare at the back of the folded-armed Raynard himself. "Sinister... techniques."
"What do you mean?" Malon queried curiously, her fire-haired eyebrows lowering in likewise curiosity.
"These were rumours also and were never confirmed, but...," Impa started a second time, shaking her head in the farm girl's direction. "The Van Garricks reportedly had connections to the Forgotten Ones."
Link snapped his blonde-haired head up his mentor's way, instantly recognising the name-drop from his travels in Termina and even Hyrule.
She means the Dark Interlopers, he thought to himself, his memories soon recalling his exploration of their ruins within Rockvale and its fiend-infested dungeon.
"In the time I came from...," Link eventually spoke, breaking the short-won silence with similar stony-faced scorn. "Ray was workin' with Zel and me in the civil rebellion," he revealed quietly, drawing all eyes his way. Although the listening Alwyn, Zelda and Impa all remained in their calm states, the same could not be said of anyone else's curious-eyed stares. "It didn't take long before that Scaverin guy got to recruit him somehow and have him turn on us at the Water Temple." He spat out, his frown taking on a twitching-faced scowl as he stared back into the arena.
The young Hero of Time's memories returning to his fateful fight with the Van Garrick in Lake Hylia's Water Temple and of his regretful killing of the young man, seemingly always at Kage's demonic hands.
"Lookin' back...," he commenced again, his tenor taking on a softer tone of voice as he slowly and deliberately shook his blonde-haired head forward. "With Scaverin's connections... he probably already knew about Ray's parents' histories and used it to turn him traitor on us."
"I-Isn't he working with this Scaverin person now?!" Barkner called out unwisely and worriedly; he widened his boulder-brown eyes and winced an apologetic look at the half-annoyed Impa as he did, swiftly growing silent afterward.
"Yeah...," Link answered, his brow furrowing suspiciously back into the white-tiled ring before him, sighing through his nose. "That's the problem."
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
Raynard's earlier superior-faced smirk very quickly found itself faltering in response to the odd light tremors that began to surround him and the very arena himself; his chestnut eyes narrowed forward at his opponent, finding her filled in what seemed to be a brightly-crimson red aura of Aegir.
"What the...?"
FWIP
The young woman, both fists clenched at her side, widened her teal eyes as she re-faced the Van Garrick before extending forward an open palm. The bright red aura that filled her briefly vanished and, as it did, Raynard's eyebrows lifted up in recognition; he grunted out as he leapt high into the air, turning his spiky-haired head downward to watch the ground he once stood on blow apart in a sudden fiery wreckage. He swung his eyes up to stare back at her, genuinely surprised at what she had just done; an invisible projectile, almost as quick as the speed of sound itself.
FWIP
The watching youth's brow furrowed when the similarly glaring-eyed Lyna's very form itself also vanished; he darted his eyes around in swift search for her as he slowly descended back down to earth but, by the time he had even heard the sound of her rapidly-approaching his undefended side, it was too late.
CRACCCCK
"Hrngh...!"
Time slowed down for the roaring audience as they watched the wide-eyed Raynard float backward through the air, reeling in shock and agony from the ferocity of the fiery-aura form of his enemy, assaulting him in a simple but painful-looking swipe across the cheek. It wasn't much but it was enough to open him up further; Lyna yelled out in effort as she erupted her super-fast form into a series of strikes and combinations that left the gasping and wide-eyed Raynard coughing small drops of blood. She finished up in a savage and brutal haymaker that sent him careering and grunting diagonally across the sky.
CRASSSH
Raynard let loose a pained and agonised yell of suffering as his form rebounded so harshly against the tiled arena below him that it left a small crater in his wake; a cruel but effective assault that saw the black-haired mercenary grunt out in effort as he used his left arm to back-flip up into the air as a recovery, scowling back at his fast-flying enemy above him, small drops of blood collecting at the side of his mouth.
FWIP
The careering form of Lyna widened her eyes when she caught her own enemy's figure suddenly and abruptly dematerialise, leading her to land back onto the ground in a rough and horrific drift that kicked up further debris and wreckage in her assault attempt.
CRACCCK
"Agh...!"
Before Lyna could even react, Raynard's small form re-appeared as quickly as it had vanished in mid-air ahead of her, issuing out a sudden and defence-breaking upward kick that sent her reeling a few steps backward. As she teetered aimlessly back a few steps, Raynard leant his spiky-haired head to the side as he glared back at her, chestnut-brown eyes narrowing.
"How dare you...," he whispered out angrily. "You're just a commoner... a bourgeois, even if you are Hylian like me," he continued on in a hardened, quiet whisper, eyes soon widening as he thrust a finger to his immediate left. "The only one in this tournament that even stands a chance against me is him!"
Shocked he was being pointed out and even referred to by his raven-haired rival, the watching Link could only rise both eyebrows up to convey his surprise, still standing within the confines of the competitor's box in his spectating.
Raynard slowly, and very deliberately, dropped down his left arm as he re-leant his head to the side in his hard-eyed glower. "And even then...," he began again, tree-shaded eyes very gradually hovering 'round to glare back at the surprise-eyed Link. "It's a match that'll end just like before..."
This time the listening Hero of Time found himself regaining his own hardened frown as he glared back at the mercenary, disapproving and half-curious as he recognised the grand finals set his rival was referring to. Although entertained regardless, the watching audience all let out roaring cheers that were elucidated by the listening commentators.
"An interesting insight into our current Hylian champion's mindset!" The watching Marshall claimed, grinning on as he leant back into his chair, lightly flicking the quill pen he carried in his left hand to rest under his left ear. "It would appear that, just as our tournament results would suggest, Van Garrick voices his belief that only one within our ranks can stop him."
"Ol' Fire Fist Firbrand!" The ever-excitable Seth called out in his wider toothy-faced grin, perhaps inevitably drawing out a similarly passionate morale-raised roar from the audience surrounding him. "That's a match-up I can't wait to see again Marsh, I tell ya!"
Marshall smiled on well-naturedly as he tilted his brown-haired head in response, eyes focused on the battlefield before him. "It was the first sudden death we ever had in over ten years," he admitted in a chuckle, his left arm hanging on the back of his chair as if in recollection. "I'd love to see that match-up happen again myself Seth... but you're forgetting..."
Seth blinked, his grin dissolving into a curious-faced frown. "Huh?"
"Of this fight right here!" Marshall finished, a grin gracing his older complexion as he briefly eyed the young commentator.
–
4
As if sensing the men's words, Raynard's small form vanished from sheer sense of speed; the audience all gasped out in surprise as he disappeared from common view before swiftly re-appearing in the wide-eyed Lyna's face.
WHACK
"Ngh...!"
Lyna grunted out as she was sent careering into the air from the sheer sudden strength that her younger opponent seemed to command, shut-eyed and scrunch-faced. She snapped her teal-shaded eyes open to find him abruptly materialising high above her.
SMASH
Raynard grunted out in effort as he smashed his elbow directly into the young woman's lower stomach, pulling out a coughing and wide-eyed cry from her in response as time slowed to match their movements. The Hylian woman grunted out as she flipped her body backward through the air, drifting harshly across the ground below her with her legs and utilising her left hand as she did, her right clenched at her side in case her opponent pursued her further.
CRACK
"Argh!"
Lyna's back was struck and with incredible ferocity; having been unable to follow the surprisingly quick Raynard's form, she was sent flying again and growled as she flipped her body up into yet another recovery, this time somersaulting forward to land gracefully enough on her feet.
"REPPUKEN!"
WHOOSH
Lyna, and the audience with her, all issued out a shocked wide-eyed gasp as they swung their heads and eyes 'round to the sky only to find the hovering Raynard tossing down a wind-charged projectile made of Aegir, slowly descending back down to the ground as he did, having seemingly leapt horizontally through the sky to do so. Lyna re-narrowed her teal-coloured eyes and, as her slim body began to glow fiery-red once more, so too did she leave a trail in her brash and sudden movement.
FWIP
VRRRR-KERRRASSSH
As Raynard's earlier Reppuken technique clashed with the tiled ground where his foe once stood, he shot his raven-haired head up in a wide-eyed scowl of his own, quickly following his opponent's swift movement to evade. He charged up a second Reppuken within his free left arm and, as Lyna flew directly vertically through the air, his scowl cracked the smallest of grins as he at last fired forward the second.
"REPPUKEN!"
WHOOSH-RRRRIP
Lyna widened her eyes again as she had to jerk her body to the side in her flight just to avoid the high-flying wind-charged projectile; a feat that saw the audience crying away in approval and entertainment. Although she managed to just barely avoid direct contact with the projectile, it managed to graze her right side, eating away at the olive-green rags she wore to reveal the underclothes she wore and the newly-gained burn mark that formed on the side of her lower abdomen. Some of the watching audience all let loose with laughter at the sight, including the younger Seth himself whereas the older more mature side all remained respectfully silent.
"Yo, can't say she ain't dressed for the occasion Marsh!" Seth laughed out. "She's well-put together!"
The nervously-dispositioned Marshall exchanged a quick look with the head-shaking referee, almost as if for permission itself to commentate on the rather awkward situation.
"Ain't nothing the Sainted Three gave her my young friend!" Marshall at last quipped back in his own light grin, drawing an appreciative laugh from his brown-haired companion and the listening audience around them.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
Again, as the ground began to rock with small tremors, the glaring-faced Raynard narrowed his tree-shaded eyes at her as he landed in a brief skid; the shut-eyed Lyna held both clenched fists to her sides as the fiery aura that once encapsulated her soon intensified greatly and rapidly, soon filling her full form with its harsh crimson. The already present yet under-toned muscles on her body very quickly grew in response to the odd ritual she endured herself with; a phenomenon that saw even the sitting audience all murmuring and head-turning in curiosity.
"The hell is she doin' Marsh?" Seth called out curiously, single eye narrowing in scrutiny as he even tilted his head at her display.
"I'm not entirely sure, but...," the frowning-faced Marshall began, brow furrowing forward in concern. "It looks like a supplementary technique to me."
"Supple-what?"
Marshall chuckled at his younger companion's lack of knowledge before re-facing him. "A supplemental technique!" He reiterated before re-opening his mouth to elaborate further. "A craft that enhances and sometimes increases one's own natural and latent abilities."
Although the frowning look on Seth's face clued the sighing Marshall in on his inability to grasp the concept, he chose not to elaborate ever further, enduring the audience's next entertained chuckle.
CRACCCCCK-KERASSSSH
The ground below the wide-eyed Raynard very slowly began to give way purely from the incredible force behind the shut-eyed Lyna's growth of Aegir; he near-lost his footing in the surprising turn of events, swinging his eyes downward as he did down the small crater below him before widening them both again as he darted them up above. Somehow she had managed to move so quickly in her new-found speed that he was unable to completely follow it; a fact that made the hairs resting on the back of his neck stand on end.
As Lyna hung in the air, a very momentary millisecond that seemed to last forever for the pair, she turned her diagonally-held glare down on him as her body burned a brightly-held red like fire itself.
SMASH
"Gurgh...!"
Raynard's wide-eyed scowl switched to a scrunch-shut one as he was sent careering from the incredible force that Lyna put into her lightning-quick strike.
WHIIIIINE...
Her very form gave off a notable echo as she took off in quick pursuit, unrelenting and consistent, altering her arc so she came directly under the poor mercenary's falling figure.
CRACCCCCK
"ARRRRRRGH!"
Angered this time more than anything in his reaction to the back body-blow that Lyna visited on his defenceless form, Raynard scowled on hatefully as he flipped backward up into the air to recover, bringing up both arms to defend himself from her inevitable second assault. As he very slowly descended back down to earth, utilising his own Aegir-control to hover in the air, he widened his eyes when he could barely catch the red light that was Lyna suddenly feint toward him before darting 'round him.
"REPPUKEN!"
WHOOSH
This time his wind-charged projectile met nothing but air; Lyna's speed was just too far too high for the youth for she re-appeared suddenly and inexplicably in his face with a grunting dive-kick, sending him grunting in bloody-faced hatred.
VWEEEE...
CRASSSSH-CRASH
As his form rag-dolled horrifically against the tiled arena below him and he rebounded agonisingly to his front, he raked one arm and then two into the ground below him to slow his drifting path, casting his bleeding-faced glower back at his enemy and re-opening his chestnut eyes as he did.
"Come on!" He called forward as he at last managed to halt his skidding glide, the smoke and debris still hanging in his wake. "Try it agai-"
FWIP
SMASH
In an incredible sight indeed, as the narrow-eyed Lyna's form touched the ground beneath her and she began to rapidly-approach the glaring-eyed Raynard, she suddenly disappeared again. Very quickly, she re-appeared behind the wide-eyed Van Garrick and slammed her leg into his back, sending him grunting and yelling out in anger.
"FUCK!"
In that one noisy profanity of hatred and rage, he used his right hand to acrobatically flip forward in a recovering somersault and, as he landed, very quickly swung his form 'round to bound back toward her, eyes widened and set on his prey. He held back his right fist, pulsating with wind-elemental Aegir; it gave off an echo to it as he dove at her, the wind-like magic enhancing his assault whining out noisily. Sure enough however, the glaring-faced Lyna easily swerved her messy-haired head out of the way before responding with her own counter-assault; a merciless body-blow that stopped the wide-eyed Raynard directly in his tracks.
CRACCCCCCCK
He trembled in her grip and, as they stood in their positions together, even the listening audience grew respectably silent as they watched the grunting Van Garrick suddenly and abruptly cough out a surprising plume of blood onto the similarly-scowling Lyna's face. She allowed him to stagger off backward from his attempted attack, gripping at his injured lower abdomen and staining the ground in savage red life-juices that left the watching audience in mixtures of horror and excitement.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH
"Incredible! Truly incredible!" The watching Marshall yelled out in a likewise enthused baritone, clenching an eager free fist at his side as he spoke into the Gossip Stone on his right. "Greene manages to not only outspeed our current Hylian champion Van Garrick, but in this supplemental enhancement of her own strength, outstrips his own!" He began in his brief explanation, shaking his head. "The more I watch this, the more I can't help but think it's Greene that deserves the title of 'Hylian champion'!"
"She is hype!" Seth called back, grinning on contrastingly as he nodded alongside the older man's words. "I've never seen anyone move that fast before! She was like the sun! One quick star!"
Finding himself wandering toward the other end of the arena, Raynard's chestnut-brown eyes widened in shock ever further when he caught the fast form of his opponent rushing at him a third time. He rose up both arms and managed to be caught within her own hands' grip she extended his way, beginning an agonisingly long and violent struggle for survival; the pair growled together, their billowing auras of Aegir and power making mockeries of the poor tiled arena beneath them, rumbling and renting the earth with small tremors.
CRRRRACCCCKKK
"ARRRRRGH!"
Raynard pulled his spiky-haired head to the sky in horrible agony as the young woman somehow managed to break his fingers within the painful grapple. Angered and filled with rage, the last Van Garrick's very aura of Aegir intensified; a signature of his rapidly-rising power and he suddenly somehow pulled the gasping Lyna a shocking distance forward. Gaining the advantage of spacing he needed, he used his small form to climb up her and rose up his now two free fists before ruthlessly dropping them down toward her head; she saw it coming however and scowled on back as she shot her hard-headed assault in a sky-rising headbutt.
SMASH
What followed afterward were a painful series of fire-filled strikes and pummels that saw Raynard screaming in further agony and suffering, all across the arena. When her endurance at last ran out, a surprising feat at that with all the assaults she laid upon him, she retreated backward into a gasping-faced frown, her brightly-crimson aura of Aegir slowly dissipating away as she did. What was left before her was simply a mound of rubble and broken tiles and, presumably, the form of her foe beneath it; a sight that left the watching audience cheering and yelling in approval.
It didn't take long for the fallen Raynard to react however; at first it was simply just a glint of light but eventually it overtook the very mound of wreckage itself, a huge explosion renting the arena to match the raging bellow that the scrunch-eyed shut Raynard let loose. When the wreckage had very quickly become vaporised in the ensuing chaos he initiated, the angered youth darted his gory-faced scowl back down to meet the contrastingly modest-frowning Lyna's, re-opening his mouth to voice his animosity and bitterness.
"You... made... me...," he began slowly and deliberately, taking anguished slow breaths as he ran his left wrist over his oozing mouth. "BLEED!" He screamed out hatefully this time, wide-eyed as he did. "I was going to take my time with you... nice and slow...," he began again, tree-shaded eyes slowly narrowing back at her calculatingly. "But no more," Raynard whispered ominously this time, adjusting his stance to stand simply and relaxed, the hateful-eyed scowl on his face never changing. "This is the end for you Lyna."
FWIP
In that one statement, and movement, the narrow-eyed Raynard's small form shot upward high into the sky, drawing all eyes on him. As he began to hover, just as before with use to his well-tempered use of the Aegir-control technique, he pulled back both hands this time and they charged aggressively with rapid-tempering Quintessence. A razor-like wind enhanced and encircled his very levitating figure itself, whipping up an unnatural powerful air that blew the distressed audience around; although it was a fairly mild after-effect of the boy's incredibly-rising power, it was enough to be a mild inconvenience for them.
Lyna pulled her own arms back to her sides in a similar pose as she remained squarely on the ground, eyes focused firmly on her hovering opponent high above her, the fire-red aura of her Aegir charging a clashing blue in the palms of her hands. Although she didn't have nearly a strong effect on the air, the ground itself began to rumble noisily and noticeably under the strain of the power she attempted to rapidly-blitz together. Eventually however, and soon as well, the wide-eyed Raynard had seemingly finished his preparations and widened his eyes in his grit-toothed scowl as he extended both side-facing palms forward, billowing with a powerful green-shaded Aegir.
"JAEI-KIN!"
FWOOOOOOHHH
As the gigantic beam of wave energy came barrelling down at a high position, Lyna at last met her foe's assault with one of her own; she widened her own teal-coloured eyes as she bent vertically upward to respond, both palms in a similar state to her enemy's. A beautiful-blue aura coated the sky-blue wave that came roaring out of her fingers to meet the fast-coming Jaei-Kin, drawing out an approving scream and cheer from the surrounding audience.
"KIKOSHO!"
The sitting Marshall, his face lit up in a mixture of green and blue from the sheer mirroring of the awesome attacks, could only cringe from the incredible tremor they both gave off.
"Good lord...!"
CRRRRASSSSSHHHH
FRRRRRRR-KRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Even the roars of the audience were not nearly enough to drown out the commanding clamour of the energy wave assaults, racking the castle's arena with small earthquakes as a testimony to both Hylians' incredible strength; a sight that no-one could have predicted.
"I... can barely keep hold Marsh...!" The grunting Seth gasped out, teeth grit in effort as he stopped himself from falling from his seat, though just barely. "That power... it's so much!"
"It's too much!" Marshall agreed on vehemently, single eye shut as he rose up one of his shirt's arms to block the incredible wind that blew his way, threatening to knock them all over. "Thank the Sainted Three for that Aegir blockade protecting the audience!"
Surprising the watching congregation even further, however, the fire-red aura of Aegir encircling Lyna's form that clashed with the colour of her energy wave appeared to intensify even further; a sudden but noticeable increase in power. She widened her eyes even further and gave vent to a blood-curdling scream that saw not only her aura, but the huge Kikosho wave she fired grow five times bigger.
Seth screamed to match her, as shocked as the rest of the watching Aurelians. "Oh my goddess!"
FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-KRRRRRRRRR
The hovering Raynard very slowly now found his form being forced backward through the air and his chestnut eyes widened up into worried-faced concern as he did.
"N-No..."
FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-KRRRRR
"N-No!"
FRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-KRR
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO-"
FWIP-FWOOSH...
In an instant, and an absurd one at that, Lyna's gigantic Kikosho wave overtook Raynard's once-thought overwhelming Jaei-Kin, sending him careering and screaming through the sky. His young tenor echoed out hauntingly as Lyna's Kikosho carried him flying and yelling into the city streets of Kaiohdrahl. The watching Aurelians in the stands remained in a shocked-silent trance-like gaze, their own eyes widened as they traced the now-muffled and far-off Raynard's screams before eventually settling back down into the ring below them; Lyna, her work at last complete, found herself gasping out her last breath rolling her eyes to her temple as she spun around and dropped to the arena flat on her back.
THUD
As expected, the once-fiery aura of Aegir that filled her dissipated with her.
It took a few seconds for even the members of the Prima World Tour staff to react but, when they did, it was the young referee herself that very tenderly and carefully stepped into the ruined and annihilated ring to ascertain the winner of the explosive match-up.
"Who-who the hell wins this one Marsh?!" Seth cried out suddenly, like a knife through butter. The listening Marshall winced but pulled himself up from the ground, having seemingly fallen in the ensuing chaos earlier. "Van Garrick's out of the ring but... Greene's unconscious!"
Sure enough, just as the young commentator suggested, even the watching Marshall had trouble ascertaining the results of the situation; he furrowed his brow forward and even rubbed his glasses with the shirt he wore as if to get a better look. When satisfied, he shook his brown-haired head as he pulled it back to lean in his seat again.
"Only the worthy staff may tell us... my young friend." He sighed back in response, drawing a half-annoyed groan from the youth.
The frowning-faced referee turned her head to face the far-off staff standing within the competitor's box. As they nodded in her direction, similar frowns adorned on their own expressions, she eventually turned to re-face the front and rose up the blue flag she carried; a signature for Lyna's earlier designated spot.
"Special conditional win! Although Lyna Greene has fallen unconscious, her opponent has successfully fallen out of bounds! Lyna Greene is the winner!"
