Riko Ford:

Height: 182 cm

Weapon: Greatsword

Monster: N/A

Age: 28

Place of origin: Jumbo Village

Hair colour: Brown

Eye colour: Black

Trivia: Knows that cornobble is a word that exists.

Sean and Alicia moved through the trees, perfectly silent.

A few minutes ago they had run into they had run into each other and Alicia began to gloat about how she would win this one and prove her superiority. Sean then immediately followed this up by telling her that if she helped him out he'd go on a date with her, she joined his team before he could even finish the sentence.

They then saw a medal, but also noticed an old man guarding it. He had appeared before, but since neither of them had been paying any attention at all, they had no idea who he was. They still noticed a sword around his waist, so he was probably associated with that group from earlier. They waited in silence for a few minutes, before Alicia stepped forwards some more.

"I'll take him out." She quietly informed Sean.

She stopped walking forwards and raised her gun, studying her opponent's movements closely. He still appeared unaware of them, but perhaps that was all a part of his plan, so she remained cautious. After about a minute of being cautious, she got bored and just fired a tranq at his head. It connected, knocking him out instantly.

Alicia was somewhat stunned by this, then realising it was possible that despite seeming intimidating he was just a normal old man. She waited a second before stepping forwards, only to hear a loud cry of "UGO!" from a few metres away and quickly backed off, as bullets hit where she was just standing, a man with dreads emerging.

"Damn," the man continued, without any regard for the opponent in front of him "They took out Ugo, tenth of the ten blades and user of the ancient style! Luckily, as the sixth and user of the silence style, I, Cassim, shall not be defeated!"

"Wait, how can ya be a member of the ten blades if ya use a gun?"

Cassim stared at her in shock.

"Ya didn't realise?" She asked, before being cut off by Cassim's continued yelling.

"They've discovered my weakness of yelling everything I think when nervous! Well, I should be fine so long as I just don't think about it!" He took a second to realise what was still happening "DAMNIT!"

He then raised his gun and started firing at her, while finally talking to Alicia "Forget everything you just heard!"

Sean waited nearby, thinking to himself silently. "Well, this could be a problem..."

He then listened in again and noticed Cassim yell out where he was aiming every shot before he took it.

"Never mind. Now to just keep an eye out for the right time to strike..."

He then heard Cassim yell out "Gotta reload!" and moved out of cover, firing a single shot which took him out instantly.

Sean walked towards the medal and looked over at Alicia, who then took the hint and knocked herself out with a tranq.

He then picked it up and went back to move onto the next round.

Zach wandered around aimlessly, realising this round was mainly just luck.

He finally spotted one, before hearing the loud noises of a suit of armour quickly approaching.

He tried to hurry up and grab the medal but was too late, his opponent staring him down.

The swordsman moved between Zach and the medal and pulled his greatsword off his back, slamming it into the ground to appear intimidating.

"My name is Mikhail, the second of the ten blades, user of the armoured style." The armoured man informed him, followed by a "Nice to meet you."

Zach didn't reply, instead trying to get around.

"Stop." Mikhail instructed him to no effect, moving to block him from getting past.

Zach eventually gave up and attacked Mikhail, only to have his gunlance deflected. He tried repeatedly, to no effect.

"Hey, cut it out, I already said I used the armoured style." Mikhail reminded him "It's kind of impossible to break through. That makes it worth how heavy it is, making it insanely difficult to move in."

"I see then…" Zach finally said something "What about this!?" He fired a bullet, which was then deflected. Zach was silently frustrated and shot Mikhail some more, still doing nothing.

"Are you done yet?" The seemingly immovable object asked him.

"Yeah sure..." Zach mumbled, before dramatically raising his voice "After this!"

He stabbed forwards with his gunlance, about to use a wyvern's fire.

Mikhail was pushed back by this explosion, not because of the force itself but rather Zach surprising him had caused him to fail to properly prepare himself.

He continued being pushed backwards, before noticing he was quickly approaching a nearby lake. Zach also hadn't noticed this, becoming alarmed and running forwards to make some attempt to stop him. The armoured man was unable to stop, flying straight off the edge and into the water. The one who had caused this waited in stunned silence, before turning around and walking back towards the medal, just planning to pretend that didn't happen due to lack of anything he could do about it.

However, in the depths of this lake, a new power emerged. To escape this situation Mikhail finally emerged from his armour, for the first time in years.

"Now… I have evolved" He stated, despite no one being able to hear him. "Before, I used my armour constantly, learning to move at the same speed I did before. As a result of that, my speed is now double that of a regular person. My new title is… Mikhail of the unarmoured style!" Unable to realise how boring that name was, he charged towards Zach, who hadn't yet seen him.

Zach reached down to grab the medal, with his shield unknowingly facing the oncoming attack.

Mikhail raised his sword and got ready to attack, but with his new speed he arrived at the target far quicker than expected, now unable to stop himself from slamming face-first into his shield.

Zach felt this impact and then looked back to see the unconscious man who had appeared on the ground while he wasn't looking.

After two seconds of observation, he screamed "IT'S A GHOST!" and ran off to pass to the next round.

Natasha walked around looking for a medal, before seeing someone off in the distance.

A figure with a coat that covered most of their body, Alexandra only able to see the top half of their face.

"What do you want?" Natasha asked, receiving no answer.

She waited a few seconds, then repeatedly asked the same question, to no effect.

The person then suddenly turned to her and quickly raised their hand.

Natasha looked closer and noticed a sock puppet on the end of it, holding up a sword.

The puppet's mouth then started to move up and down.

"The name's Roman," the puppet spoke pridefully "the eighth of the ten blades, user of the dual style! Prepare to meet your end!" The puppet raised its swords into the air and the user charged forwards.

Natasha was stunned by this, before finally yelling "That puppet can talk!" (note: Natasha's interpretation of this may not be completely accurate)

She raised her shield to block the puppet's first strike before stabbing at it herself, only to find her strike deflected by the second sword. The two clashed for a short while, this tiny puppet inexplicably matching her strength. Roman then pulled backwards before lunging with both swords at once, Natasha barely managing to dodge around this. She then switched her weapon into axe mode and swung straight for Roman, another attack that was narrowly dodged, but damaged the person's coat.

They stepped back and Roman began to gloat, "That was a close one, but you completely missed!" before the person realised Natasha could see their mouth.

Natasha realised this at around the same time, gasping "They can speak at the same time!" (note: Natasha's interpretation of this may not be completely accurate)

The person then spun around, hiding their face, Roman continued speaking "Now, let us continue."

The two clashed some more, but compared to before Roman's strikes seemed less accurate.

The person was still facing backwards as this was occurring. Eventually Natasha saw an opening and bashed at the puppet with her shield, knocking it off. Roman went flying through the air before landing a short distance away.

The person took this in, before quickly running away.

"Finally…" Natasha thought "They've been freed from that thing's mind control." (note: Natasha's interpretation of this may not be completely accurate)

She then looked over to see that a medal had been there the entire time, which was pretty convenient.

Riko made his way into a clearing, finally finding a medal. He also saw Anthony appear at the same time. Then, Alexandra appeared.

"This is… a problem." Anthony began.

"Well, two of us can just look for another one." Alexandra suggested.

"Yeah, but who wants to?" Riko replied.

Alexandra remained silent with a troubled expression.

"Well, we gotta settle this somehow." Riko continued, before drawing his weapon "I suggest fighting."
"Wait, that's way too fast." Anthony observed.

"Yeah," Alexandra added "We shouldn't just fight, we're meant to be teammates. The way we should settle this is with arm wrestling."
"Hell no." Riko and Anthony protested in unison.

"Why?" Alexandra asked back, receiving only looks of remembering past trauma in response.

They then heard movements surrounding them, about three.

"Well, before that, we should probably deal with this." Riko pointed out.

"So, should we try to take them as a team?" Anthony asked, before seeing the others had run off.

He tried to work out where he should go, before he heard the sound of a sword tapping the ground and footsteps moving closer.

A neutral looking, fairly tall man with a blindfold and hair that reached his back stepped forwards.

"So, two have disappeared, meaning that the one in front of me must be the last, right?"

He was facing slightly off, to which Anthony went "Uh like… over here."

"Oh, sorry, I am blind after all." The man replied before turning towards him "Anyways, I am Leon, the ninth of the ten blades. Let us commence this duel, user of the blind style."

Anthony was going to move, but Leon continued speaking.

"Have you ever fought a Khezu? I have. While being blind. But yeah, Khezu are also blind. Like me. They rely on smell to make up for this, which I also do. But I also use sound too, some touch and maybe in some scenarios taste. Mostly just sound. Because I'm blind. You see, when you're blind like I am the other senses get stronger to compensate, I know this from being blind by the way. But the moment you step forwards, I'll be ready for everything you do. Despite being blind. This area is my area, none can pass through, for I am blind. Do you know what it's like to be blind, I do so I can tell you, it's like garhghvhfahohhhh."

Leon collapsed to the ground, with the hammer that Anthony had flung at his face landing nearby.

"I… did not expect that to work." He thought, having figured that the logic of not stepping forwards wouldn't set off his opponent's defences wasn't perfectly sound but the best shot he had.

Riko stepped forwards to see a man with a ponytail with his eyes closed, sitting atop a massive bag. The man noticed him and jumped down, resting his hand atop his sword.

"My name is Taka, the third of the ten blades, and the strongest definitely. I use the quickdraw style, unparalleled under Heaven."

"Wait," Riko asked "Shouldn't the first be the strongest?"

Taka then suddenly completely changed from his calm demanour and quickly drew his sword, slashing straight for Riko and yelling "It doesn't!"

Riko blocked this and Taka pulled back, before throwing the sword away.

"What?" Riko asked.

Taka then walked towards his back and pulled out an identical sword.

"Any weapon is useless after it's been drawn the first time, my quickdraw style means I can only use a sword once. I have eighty eight more swords after that one!"

Riko considered this for a second "How are you guys the ten blades then?"

"It refers to the average number of blades between us."

"You can't confuse me with words I don't understand."

Taka then murmured something along the lines of "Scum" before drawing his weapon suddenly again, once again being blocked.

He quickly reached back, not giving Riko time to recover but found himself blocked again.

If Taka had just simply tried to strategise he might've been able to do anything, but as his frustration increased he ended up working his way through the entire bag of swords that he'd dragged this entire way in a matter of minutes, not doing any damage at all.

As a bunch of discarded swords lay scattered around them, Taka realiesd his normal tactics may have proven ineffective.

Switching back to the cool warrior act he casually reached down to grab one, pretending that nothing was happening, at which point Riko swung the flat side of his sword down towards his head, knocking him down instantly.

Alexandra stepped forwards, scanning her surroundings for any signs of movement.

Something quick darted around in the shadows, not staying in the same place for too long.

Finally, she heard something ring behind and quickly spun around, as a bike jumped out of the shadows.

She found this too stupid to believe for a few seconds, but still managed to block the attack, the bike bounced backwards and landed.

The man on its back, wearing a helmet and goggles, grinned smugly. "Agon, seventh of the ten blades. User of the speed style. Prepare yourself."

"No." Alexandra responded.

"What?"

"I just… can't do this. This is too stupid. I want to take this tournament seriously. Please take this seriously or get out."

"I am serious."

"You're riding a bike."

"So?"

"Don't do that, you can tell pretty easily what the problem is. Why are you a member of a group called the ten blades if you use a bike? Why are you fighting with a bike? That's not even a weapon."

"Anything can be a weapon with enough practice."

"Yeah sure but real weapons are infinitely more effective with way less practice."

"I don't think that you're in a position to judge how others fight. We all have our own differences." Agon replied.

"No don't try and make me look bad here, you're coming to a tournament using a bike to fight people, don't be surprised when everyone thinks you're joking. I'm pretty sure your entire group has weird gimmicks, even."

"Well I'll admit they can be sorta strange at times, but it doesn't matter that much. Prepare yourself."

Alexandra decided that protesting anymore would just yield the same result of her opponent having no self-awareness, so she raised her weapon.

Agon charged forwards, being blocked once again yet Alexandra was still pushed backwards.

She was now more invested in the fight than before and launched her first attack, striking the bike and causing it to break instantly.

Her motivation immediately dropped back below nothing as Agon fell to the ground and scampered away, never to be seen again.

The entire ten blades had been defeated, leaving her feeling hollow.

Alexandra walked back to where they were before, the other two waiting.

"So then," Anthony asked "How are we gonna settle this?"

Alexandra started for a few seconds, before knocking him out, followed immediately by Riko.

"Sorry, I'm just… not up for it."

Alexandra arrived back at the start, with six others now gathered.

Zach, Ben, Callum, Sean, Natasha and someone she didn't know.

"Doesn't this seem kind of dominated by our group?" She asked the ones she knew as she went up to them.

"I guess so, apart from Isaac over there." Zach explained "He doesn't talk much anyways… so yeah looks like this next round's gonna be just us."

"What about the last one to show up?"

"Well, it'll probably be one of us, right?"

They heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

Finally, the figure came into view.

"Yo, Isaac." Joshua said "Guess I was kinda late, sorry."

"It doesn't matter much." Isaac replied, as emotionless as before.

Alexandra turned back to Zach, but instead of appearing surprised she noted the expressions of pure joy on the faces of three of them.

"Joseph… will never hear the end of this… will he?" She thought.

Finally, Hitoiki teleported in front of the hunters once more.

"Now, eight hunters who have made it this far! The finals shall be… an endurance match! Against I don't even know how many monsters in a row?"

"Wait, seriously!?" Zach stammered.

"What is it?" Natasha asked.

"It's just… we're fighting monsters?" Zach explained.

"What's so weird about that? We do it normally." Sean pointed out.

"Yeah but… how many months has it been since we last did that?"

Sean shrugged uncaringly, as the group advanced onwards.

TO BE CONTINUED

And so ends this part of the tournament, which I'd also been unsurprisingly planning for way too long.

Devil May Cry V finally came out, which is amazing and probably the best video game that exists, everyone reading this should go buy it immediately I guess.