Act 4-4: The Semifinals

Ahem….. sorry about the whole wait thing. I mentioned in The Rant Fallout 4, which I blame for some of it, the other laziness.

Also, I got a guest review, which aside from being irritating (but inevitable) because I have to approve it, I respond to every review. If it's a guest review, I can't do that. Since I don't want The Rant to be longer than the chapter itself, I respond to reviews to explain/clarify/retaliate. I appreciate that you leave reviews, but do it with an actual account. Guest reviews will not be considered.

The semi finals were coming up, with Shade and Atlas completely out of the running, it was only Beacon and Haven in the last fights. The question was, who would fight who?

"100 rings Jawsome gets that Strife guy." Sonic said.

"No, he's getting that Mercury dude, and I'll raise you a hundred." Knuckles countered.

"400 total. It's a bet." Blue hedgehog and red echidna shook as a red and black hedgehog attempted to use his pyrokinesis to immolate them with a glare. While he and Sonic began bickering, the roulette spun, pairing….

"Jawsome of Beacon and Mercury of Haven!"

"Damn." Sonic snapped his fingers, handing a stack of rings to Knuckles, who was grinning a manner more befitting a wolf. Sighing, Jawsome leapt onto the combat field, surprised when his opponent did the same. Both settled into ready stances.

"Begin!"

Jawsome lashed out with the Pyrobuster, which Mercury dodged. Snapping Ecliptical Rose into scythe form, the red hedgehog slammed the point into the ground where Mercury was, having jumped back again. Jawsome smirked, pulling the trigger/ loading mechanism he'd installed after the battle against Penny. A bolt of fire blasted out, striking Mercury at the speed of light. The hit growled, and fired his shotgun greaves at the hitter, who wrenched Ecliptical Rose out of the ground, retracting the scythe into sword form, and flipping the Pyrobuster into reverse grip, coming in with a whirlwind of slashes, which were mostly blocked or negated. A frustrated Mercury retreated from the blades, pausing as Jawsome paused as well. Neither bothered to banter with the other. Mercury began to spin around in breakdance, firing his greaves as he did so, creating a tornado of shots. Jawsome summoned a Shield, protecting him from the bullets, and quickly struck Mercury with a barrage of flares, both fired from Ecliptical Rose and thrown. Bringing both blades into an x-shape, he swung. The bell tolled.

"- Strife of Haven!"

"This should be good." Sonic mused as he leaned on his hand. Ruby snorted.

"Of course it will be. Pyrrha's in it, you know?"

"Who knows."

Both warriors stood on the battlefield, Pyrrha adjusting her grip on her spear, the blonde combatant from Haven, Strife, holding onto the handle of a ridiculous sword hanging off his back. Jawsome immediately protested the style, before being notified that, no, he's not the only one doing it, shut up. As it always did, the bell struck to signal the match beginning.

Strife, in a surprising show of agility, made the first move, dashing towards Pyrrha at a high speed. While nowhere near as fast as the Mobians, the four-time Mistral regional tournament champ was still caught off guard. She brought her shield up only a second before Strife's large blade slammed into it. Pushing with her arm, she brought her spear around to swipe at her opponent, only to find it blocked in another impressive display of agility. Bringing his blade around, he thrust at her open left, but Pyrrha dodged quickly. Switching her spear to it's rifle mode, she fired a few shots at Strife, then switched back to spear mode while throwing her shield like a discus. Strife easily blocked them all, but Pyrrha's shield returned with almost no thought from the four time Mistralian champion. Neither opponent seemed surprised at the shows of skill by their competition. Tossing her shield, Pyrrha opened fire, since either the rounds or the shield would hit Strife. Maneuvering his blade with deceptive speed, Strife deflected the rounds and smacked the shield aside. Or he would have, had it not twitched out of the way, boomeranging around to whack him in the back of the head on it's way back to Pyrrha, who was already charging to take advantage of the opening. However, Strife was not defenceless, as his sword split down the middle. He easily blocked both of his opponent's attacks, and reversed the momentum of the battle. Only Pyrrha's shield and near misses saved her from a nasty hit.

"Dude, his sword splits! That's awesome!" Sonic observed, eagerly chowing down on popcorn he'd gotten…. Somewhere.

"Dude, I dual-wield what most people consider two handed weapons." Jawsome retorted.

"Yeah, but do they combine into one?"

"Up yours."

"C'mon Pyrrha! You've got this!" Nora shouted.

"Show him what yer made of!" Yang called, pumping her fist in the air.

On the battlefield, Strife had disengaged, leaving the two to circle opposite the other, studying. Pyrrha had the advantage at range, but only in terms of distance. Strife, despite not having any non-melee capabilities, could easily block Pyrrha's ranged attacks and close distance, plus with a separating sword, he could change his style on the fly.

"Are you done yet?"

"Oh, was that out loud? I'm fucking sorry." Jawsome snarled.

Suddenly, both combatants moved. Attacks blurred faster than a chipmunk ODing on Red Bull and Monster's unholy lovechild, spark were flying from what looked like nothing, and Sonic was suddenly wanting to strangle something. Then, the two fighters appeared, on opposite sides of the battlefield from where they'd started, facing away from each other. Audible silence hung over the stadium like a cloud.

Strife's Aura meter beeped.

There was a pure explosion of sound as the crowd roared, Pyrrha replacing her weapons and helping the swordsman up. The second he was on his feet, he walked off.

"The final match of the tournament is tonight! Be sure to tune in for the astonishing conclusion!"

The Rant

FUCK. ME. RUNNING. I HATE FIGHT SCENES.

So I finally finished up this chapter. My excuses are as follows and I quote: Laziness, school, being more fucked up than I have any right to be, getting lost in a field of plot bunnies, none of which pertain to this, getting a year older, signing up for the waitlist to get an AO3 account, and raging against the dumbassess currently running the country I live in. Three guesses, first two don't count.

But worry not, all two of you still paying attention to this story! The next chapter will be full of awesome, as much as I can write it, and Act 4 will conclude with the next one, which I will leave you on a ridiculous cliffhanger for about 3 years.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- yeah, no.

Oh, and by the way? I need to get a new monitor, I just broke the one I'm using because the word processor I use is being an ass. No, I don't.

Regards,

The Pyro of Jawsome (Who can't be assed to snark right now)