Jeff had relayed the decisions made by the team leaders to the two Witch of Hope and Bard of Void, and both were entirely up for their fight being sanctioned.
Mutosi and Risura had agreed to meet on neutral territory. Rather than fight on either of their lands, where they would be suspicious of their opponent having a home field advantage of some kind, they met on LoGaS, doubting that Jeff would for some reason rig things one way or the other; especially since neither of the fighters were on his team.
Dustine was nearby as well, though Jeff would be able to slow him to a stop with the Temporal Turnover ability so he didn't disrupt the fight; which could also be done if anything went wrong with the fights.
While not physically present, Aspico was watching as well, her literal heart eyes on them-or at least their souls-as they approached to begin fighting.
"Do either of you have anything to say to each other before you start?" Jeff asked as everyone arrived in one of the wider open sections of metallic land. Jeff had timed it more or less perfectly, so the shifting of the gears wouldn't happen for another few hours, and they'd be safe to conduct their fight here, "Maybe a confession of some kind, perhaps one lingering in the pitch quadrant?" The Heir of Time none-too-subtly nudged his friends.
The two glared at each other, the blackrom tension thick enough to cut with, well, a spade.
"Oh just say it. You both know it, we know, the freaking King Denizens know it by now I'd have to say." Jeff said tapping his foot.
After a few minutes, the femboy jade blood was the one to go for it, saying, "Mutosi.. You're a bitch. A sexy, sexy, highly driven bitch. Would you be my kismesis?" He asked.
Mutosi, with a shiver going up her spine, swallowed a single twinge of her pride and answered with, "And you're a strong, intelligent, piece of girly boy troll garbage, who I'll gladly join in a sharp, pitch black spade~"
Risura's arm surged out, grabbing Mutosi's arm and pulling her in close. Their bodies pressed together, their lips meeting heatedly as their tongues began to dance together.
Jeff sighed with an expression of, 'well it's about time.' As Dustine couldn't help but go, 'd'aww~' At the sight, though he blushed slightly at the sight of Mutosi's hand moving down and roughly grabbing Risura's feminine rump.
Before things could grow anymore heated, the Bard's knee shot up driving into Mutosi's gut and causing her to stumble back with the wind knocked out of her.
The fight was on.
Jeff was acting as an impromptu auspistice, and had set down a few ground rules for the two of them to follow, for this battle and for any battles they ever had in the future: Mutosi couldn't use her Test of Faith technique to alter Risura's beliefs, and Risura couldn't use his Rip technique to cause any permanent damage to Mutosi.
But this didn't limit either of them much. Mutosi swung her broom, the bladed fibers of it sending Risura back a few steps with a jade green lash across his cheek. He ducked under the following swing, driving his fist into her jaw and knocking her back further.
The fight was starting to look somewhat one-sided; until Mutosi caught her balance and used her Hope Bend ability, firing off a bolt of pure white hope power.
Risura was blasted off of his feet, thrown through the air before landing hard on the metal ground his shirt burnt off and burns across his chest. He sat up, yelping and having to roll out of the way of follow up hope bolts from Mutosi.
The brown blood lashed out rapid fire, knowing she couldn't allow him time to recover. If he did, he'd close the distance between them easily.
Unfortunately for her, while he couldn't use Rip on her, he could use it on other things, and drove his fist into one of the hope bolts, causing it to vanish into nothingness, cast into the void.
Panting, Risura got to his feet, and when Mutosi's next bolt hit him, it passed through harmlessly; his Forget Me Not power providing temporary intangibility.
He rushed forward, dodging and passing through bolts to get in close again for another up close attack; only stopped by Mutosi's brown blooded communion ability, causing a harpy winged shale imp with mole claws and a clown face to swoop down at him, tackling him and driving both pairs of claws into Risura's body.
Dustine reflexively started to move towards him to help him, but Jeff grabbed his hand to stop him and pulled him back.
He gave a pouting look and tapped his foot nervously as he watched the fight continue. The Rip technique wasn't even needed for the shale imp, Risura reducing it to grist in a single punch.
For the sake of the fight, Risura had deactivated his clothing's healing ability, and so no healing took place as spots of green began to spread from the puncture holes.
While he was distracted by this, another hard swing from Mutosi's broom connected with his chin and knocked him off his feet, his back hit hard with a Hope Bend again.
Grunting, Risura kicked out at his kismesis' legs, knocking her off of them rolling over on top of her, beginning to wail on her with all he had. Under normal circumstances, this would more or less have been victory for Risura, as his repeated punching was preventing Mutosi from counter attacking in any way.
But as Risura beat Mutosi near to death, hands stained bronze from her blood, his movements began to slow down. Not because he didn't want to fully kill her, he was pretty sure he could get a few solid punches in before that became a risk, was pretty sure Mutosi would actively enjoy him taking them, and very much wanted to as well.
No, his slowing down came from a sudden, powerful exhaustion and pain spreading through his body. The bladed fibers were not the most dangerous feature of Mutosi's broom; the venom lining every single blade was.
Both impacts she'd gotten on Risura had been the equivalent of a dozen different stings, and the physical movement of the fighting had only helped the venom spread through Risura's body. He collapsed on top of his kismesis, the battle a draw.
Dustine rushed over, picking Risura up, holding him princess style as he turned to get going.
"You've got exactly ten minutes before the poison kills him," Jeff said as he picked Mutosi up, "I've sent the map of his land to you." Dustine nodded, thanking him and flying off to the gate while Jeff did the same with Mutosi.
The two took the only non-god tier players to their lands, Jeff finding Mutosi's quest bed at the top of a massive sand dune that completely buried a massive library. He dropped her onto the bed, letting the blood loss and crushed bones do their job.
Once she'd died, Mutosi began to ride from her bed, wounds completely healed, and her clothing replaced with her new Witch of Hope outfit; an elegant gold dress with a lighter yellow for the torsu; the hope symbol on the chest, and the matching darker gold for the flowing twin tailed hood. Her legs were wrapped in yellow and white stockings, feet now in a pair of ruby red slippers.
She blinked, looking down at herself, then at the pair of long brown butterfly wings that had spread from her back, "Woah." Jeff nodded in approval, beginning to explain to her the new circumstances.
Meanwhile, Dustine was power charging through LoLaD with a minor Rage aura around him as he left a trail behind him. He rushed passed the dark patches of wilderness, powering directly through minor enemies without slowing.
He ran through the towns, completely ignoring the chortling and wicket cries, even slamming through one of their buildings like a human wrecking ball. He charged through and the thick grass and finally reached the mountain. Rather than go down the cave that Risura had explored, he kicked off the ground and began soaring directly up as fast as possible, finally reaching the quest bed at the top and placing Risura on top of it, the rage aura fading as he panted.
Shortly after setting him down, the venom finished him off, and he began to rise from the bed. His wounds, and presumably the venom, vanished from his body, the clothing swapped out his new outfit.
The shirt was a deep blue with the void symbol on it, long pants ending in shoes that curled up like an elf's. Little tassels of matching deep cloudy blue handing from the back like a tattered cape. Completing the outfit was a large bulky hat with three dots leading up it.
The outfit was a bit garish and over the top, but the sleek green wings were beautiful, and on Risura, Dustine could have found anything attractive.
By the by, was the use of ability names jarring at all? I've been keeping a list of them, but wasn't sure if I should use them or not.
