Part 2
As Hal barreled at the guy in the sunglasses and black jacket, he couldn't be happier. His first match, and it was against someone with a serious ego problem. ITHere wasn't another type of person Hal liked to smash more.
Hal closed distance quickly, while Ray merely stood there, in a loose sideways stance, knees bent, arms held loosely out in front of him. With those sunglasses on, Hal couldn't even tell if Ray was even looking at him.
Turns out, he was. Hal charged in straight, punching directly for Ray's head. Ray moved deftly to the left, sweeping out a hand to knock Hal past him. Hal, being no slocu either, ducked, and managed to stop, pivot, and try charging and knocking the sunglass-ed ray over. Ray leapt backwards however, easily leaping out of Hal's charge, and landing lightly on his feet. He once again fell into an easy stance, not moving a millimeter once he fell into it.
Hal was getting annoyed. He rushed in again, aiming a knocking blow to Ray's stomach. Ray knocked it aside and swept out with his foot in a low kick. Hal hopped over it easily, and on his way down, tied punching straight down onto Ray's head. Ray turned away quickly, so that Hal missed As he went through his motion and landed in a low crosuh, his fist nearly touching the ground, Ray immediately turned and kicked hard for Hal's face. Hal threw his hands up, keeping his foot behind him. He managed to block Ray's kick, but it stung his hand, and he fell back a few steps.
Ray fell into his stance again, watching, as Hal sshook his hand loose, trying to get the sting out of it.
Damn. This guy was too fast for Hal. He'd prolly crush him to bits if he could just put a fist on him, but it didn't matter. It was time to get serious.
"Alright punk! It's time to end this, you ready?"
Ray nodded. "Yes you have wasted enough of my time. I already know the winner, once we both get serious, so let's finish it now. This match no longer interests me."
Hal stared at him. He couldn't believe he was such an ass.
"Ha! You cocky bastard! You're damn right this over. It's over right now!"
Hal took out his amulet and sped at Ray. He concentrated, like he had learned for the last month. He tried to remember how it felt that last time, when he had finally made it to Wizard's office. Wizard hadn't been surprised at all. He just smiled warmly, and gave Hal his new amulet. It was made of dark smooth glass, like sea-glass. Wizard had given his old amulet away. Hal imagined how it felt, when he walked in, almost like he had no weight, like he was just gliding over the ground. He had no weight. And now, now- Ray had no weight either. One punch, and he would fly for meters.
The amulet surged in his hand and Hal shouted, stamping the ground and punching Ray straight and hard, right in the chest. Ray put his hands down, blocking. He tumbled backwards, a look of surprise on his face. His feet left the ground and he wind-milled his arms. Hal stopped watching, and laughed hysterically, his voice echoing through the stadium. He heard it quickly echoed throughout the stands beyond. It was a roar of laughter.
Hal grinned. Apparently a lot of them didn't like Ray much either. It was great to see him off balance for a change, instead of just so damn sure of himself.
Ray finally stopped, as he flung a leg out behind him, and managed not to fall over.
Ray ignored the laughter. He simply smirked and said.
"Well then, is that all you have? And to think I was slightly worried. Now I know your little trick, let's end this. Let me show you how inevitable your loss is." Ray took off his glasses, and placed them in his jacket. He had dead-looking dark eyes. Presently he closed them, and flung both arms out in front of him, and did a complicated set of hand signals. He then passed his hands over his eyes. He opened them. They were now red.
Hal laughed. "Nice trick, retard. What's next? You gonna grow a big rubber nose?"
Ray ignored him. He put his hands I front of him again. A voice in the back of Hal's head nagged at him. It was Wizard's back when he was having trouble coping from the Gauntlet.
"Don't be too sure of yourself Hal. You are good, but take no chances. If you see someone doing something you don't understand, try and stop it. Trustt me as someone who knows, preemptive strikes are most effective." Wizard had smiled then, remembering something.
Wizard was right. Hal should take this punk seriously. He exploded forward, trying to break up the hand signs. For all he knew, that crap could blow up the arena.
Too late. Ray finished, and swept his hands in a sweeping gesture and-
Hal stopped, stumbled. Everything was black. He couldn't see a damn thing. FUCK.
He turned around, looking in all directions, up, down, left, right. He spun around looking everywhere. Nothing. He closed his eyes. There was no difference. There was no light anywhere. It was all gone. What had that punk done? What was the point of making everything dark? Cusz there was no way he could see either-
Then Hal rememberd the thing with the eyes. Fuck. Did he make it so he could see somehow?
He fingered the amulet on his hand. The silver chain tfused to the smooth glass. Gravity changes wouldn't help him here. THINK Hal, THINK you big dumb idiot! What could he do?
There had to be a weakness to this. It wasn't as if that kid could spread that thing EVERYWHERE. There had to be- That's IT. He COULD use his amulet. That trick of Ray's had to be tiring. Hal 's trick was. But if he could Jump out of it, he could see how far it was. He could orient himself. He could see how to get out. Ray couldn't attack him blind that way, like a little cowardly pussy.
Hal focused on the amulet and halved his own weight. He then flung himself upward, several feet in the air. He fell back down to the earth. Shit. Nothing. He had to get out of here before-
He heard a quiet voice behind him.
"It is over" said Ray.
Hal felt a sharp pain in his head and he drifted toward unconsciousness, the world got dizzy and he saw spots. He hit the hard floor, and managed to recover quickly, He staggered off in a random direction trying to find his way out of the darkness.
He stopped. Wait, something was-
"You rely too much on your trinkets" said a voice, to his left and behind him. He whirled towards the sound. His amulet. That bastard had his-
"You give that back to me yoou pussy coward! Why don't you fight me out in the light like a MAN? You little girl!"
There was a loud crashing sound, and then the tinkling sound of broken glass.
Hal froze, his stomach sickening. His amulet. He had broken his amulet. He had worked for a month to get that.
"Oh that is IT. YOU FUCKING PUSSY, NOT EVEN THE DARK WILL HIDE YOU NOW YOU SKULKING COWARD!"
Hal bellowed and ran straight at the sound of the breaking Glass. He dropped his shoulder and charged, ready to plow into anything, anything at all to ruin this guy, to tear his freaking guts out of his-
There was a scuffling footsteps, and then a CRACK on Hal's head, Pain and then nothing.
Collin was getting impatient. And he sensed the rest of the arena was too. He spotted a people in the crowd on the other side of the arena wearing black robes. They looked perfectly calm. Collin was getting nervous. There was something about that Ray guy, that wasn't quite right.
Hal turned to look at Rich. He looked concerned. He was clutching his hockey stick in one hand, and his knuckles were turning white. It looked like he was going to break the thing. "Hey man, relax. I'm sure Hal hasn't under control. He's prolly playing catch with that other guy's head right now."
Rich looked at him. His face was tense. It was clearly a struggle, but he relaxed a little.
He smiled, chuckling lightly. "Yeah man, I guess your right."
Collin returned his attention to the Big Black sphere in the middle of the arena. It covered practically the whole thing. It looked like someone had spilled ink in large amounts down there. Collin couldn't see anything. It was so-
Suddenly it disappeared.
Instantly, Collin and Rich were on their feet.
Collin looked down at the scene below them. Shit.
Hal was on the ground passed out. Ray was calmly walking away from him, his eyeglasses still on, not a hair out of place, his jacket in the same position he went in.
Collin was speechless. Rich sat back down, stunned.
There was a roar from the crowd, and it was impossible to tell whether it was positive or not. Some of it probably was. Suddenly Collin felt a wave of fear. Were they way over their heads here?
Collin had trouble focusing on the next match, though Jeremy told him that he should, since he could fight against one of them eventually. Jeremiah didn't add "IF" Collin made it. Hal was probably the best of all of them, and that Ray kid had beaten him without breaking a sweat. How did he make all that darkness/ What had happened in there?
If Jeremiah knew, he wasn't telling Collin. Jeremy had gone down to help bring Hal to the med wind underneath the stadium, and had assured Collin and Rich that Hal would be fine, just a mild concussion apparently. Collin sensed something in his peripheral vision and turned.
Gah! It was Jeremiah. Man that due was hard to look at when the lights from around the stadium were reflecting off him. All that white. It was amazing his angel prostitutes ever approached him.
Collin giggled. It never got old, EVER.
Jeremy was pointing with his pimp-cane at the arena. Oh right.
Collin watched, feeling mostly bored, but his nervousness gradually grew. The people at this tournament were GOOD, really good. The match at the arena was Rita versus Marianne. That's what the giant score-board said anyway. Marianne apparently did something with Wind. Jeremy told him that in Hermes they called her a "weather witch" since she was obviously changing the force of weather. Her foci was a giant fan. Unnaturally powerful gusts came from it Jeremy had told him during the time between matches that Marianne probably uses the fan to start the wind, and then increases the weather condition from that into great gusts to knock her opponents over. Sort of like the way Collin controlled and made fire grow. She could even fly a little, it was scary. Collin briefly wondered if she had wings. Angel maybe? He looked back at Jeremiah, he was into the fight. Hmmm, perhaps a little TOO interested in this Marianne girl.
The other one, Rita, had scrolls that made knives come from thin air. She danced and jumped around the arena, avoiding gusts and throwing knives conjured from thin air. It was over pretty fast though. Marianne kept reflecting Rita's daggers back at her.
After Marianne had been declared the winner and Rita was taken off the field., the scoreboard with all the names on it started blinking again. Collin tried not to show how nervous he was, what if he got someone like Ray? What if-
The noises stopped. Collin looked up. The names were gone now, and a simple sentence replaced them.
RICH VERSUS NATE.
Collin looked over at Rich. Rich stood up, and lifted his hockey stick so it rested on his shoulder. He turned and locked eyes with collin.
"I won't lose." He said. But Collin could tell he was shaken after Hal. Neither of them would say that out loud though. They both knew the other was thinking it.
"And I'm expecting that you don't either."
Collin sniffed. "Squidy does NOT lose." He said, making his voice sound offended
Rich grinned, and his body seemed to relax a little. "Good, it's settled then. Well, I'll see you after."
And with that, he turned and climbed back down the ladder from the bleachers into the arena.