Round Two!
A Hole Lot of Problems!
Rosa took a deep breath as she was pacing nervously in the room. Enma was too busy tending to Zesiro's wounds and the three Fishman brothers were in the room with Zesiro talking to him. The Fishman brothers seemed to genuinely be interested in whatever it was that Zesiro did. They looked up to him like a brother, so they were adamantly discussing the story of the fight with him. Even worse Ridley and Melanie were both missing in action, so the only person left to comfort Rosa was...Sage...the incredibly depressed girl who had been wrapped up in her blanket ever since they landed.
"If I were to die I would like to be reborn as a mollusk," moaned Sage as she laid down. Rosa looked fearful over at Sage for just a brief second before flashing back over to the doors. The fight would be beginning soon, but she didn't want to leave Sage all alone in here. It would be just too cruel. Sage's arms reached out and grabbed one of the weapons that were laying around for the previous contestants to use. "I'll just commit Seppuku for my sins of breathing the same air as the rest of the world. I'm sorry everyone..."
"NO YOU DON'T!" shouted Rosa bringing her blade down on Sage's blade separating it from her grip. The blade was sent flying and across the room. "LILY!" called Rosa. The large tiger hunkered into the room. "Okay, since I gotta go out and beat some people up, I am going to entrust Sage to you, okay?" Lily nodded. Rosa went over to Sage and picked her up after a few minutes of fussing. Rosa managed to wrap the blanket up and around Lily's neck. With a couple of quick pats, Rosa confirmed that she wasn't going to come loose. "Go take her to Enma and see if he can do anything to make her even a little bit better, okay?" Lily let out a huff and ran out of the room.
"Next up! We have Rosa! Who is apparently also fighting on the side of the Infinity Pirates for the time being!" shouted the Longarm, "but why? What reason does she have for joining sides with the pirates! A Bounty Hunter and a pirate crew! That is the modern day's Romeo and Juliet! Let's see if she has any feelings about this upcoming match?"
Rosa shrugged it off and walked forward towards the ring. She had no worries about this fight. She was going to win it with ease. Zesiro was her last match and he had finished the fight up with an incredible flourish. His slashes cut the time it ordinarily takes to finish a fight down so quickly! As a fellow swordsman, she felt a certain rivalry between them. So, now her goal was to finish the fight in a matter of seconds and show Zesiro her strength. Not to mention the next fight would be between the two of them.
It was questionable about whether or not they should fight, after all they were both in this fight to accomplish the same thing, right? Why should they care who won the final round, Mikoto would saved either way! Only problem was...she didn't feel like that was the case. And more then likely Zesiro was the same way. While it was true that Mikoto was the ultimate goal, the steps they would take to get there were what mattered to the two of them. This was almost a completion between the crew. You were either the winner, who saved the captain...or someone who got beat up along the way. Everybody wanted to be the hero!
"First up, is a man who signed in shortly after the famous Infinity Pirates!" screamed the Longarm into the microphone system. Everybody in the audience remained quiet listening to the announcement, "he is a newcomer to this arena also one of the first dwarfs! He is Simon Dew!" The crowd went into an uproar as the man walked into the arena.
Rosa remained in her room, breathing heavily now that her turn was almost up. The anticipation was killing her, forget about the fight. Right now she was sitting in a room waiting to be marched into a room filled to the brim with pirates and other crazed people hoping to see her ripped limb from limb. She was starting to feel fear just sitting here. Her hands scrambled into her bag to pull out a book to read. Finally she heard her name, the rest of the Longarm's announcement disappeared into inconceivable babble. She got up and walked into the arena.
The sharp lights beamed downwards at her. She covered her eyes as she tried to adjust to the light. She looked up at the man who was in the arena. Her opponent, the man she was going to have to beat. The man was short. Rosa wasn't very tall herself, but the man was short even by short standards. She guessed that was probably what made him a dwarf. He stood probably at three feet. He had orange hair and rough white skin. He wore an miner's helmet. He had gray pants and suspenders, but one of the suspenders had been snapped clean off, probably due to another fight in the arena.
Rosa drew her blade and pointed it at the opponent. She was going to end this fast, so she was going to start strong. She charged. The man had a very determined look on his face. There was something else on his face, Rosa thought it was worry, but wasn't sure. It didn't matter, though. She was going to win and beat him. Rosa moved forward and she brought her sword forward with a powerful thrust.
The man didn't move instead he smiled as Rosa launched her thrust at his chest. The blade came close to his body and went right through it. However, it wasn't a thrust that guaranteed victory. Instead it only unsettled Rosa more about the fight. The man swung something off of his back and brought it down at Rosa. Rosa quickly recoiled and separated herself from the man.
She stared at the man's chest where she had driven her blade. There was a hole there, but she wasn't the one who inflicted it. It just opened up when she struck. When she got her blade close to him, the hole opened up on its own allowing her blade to just harmlessly pass through it. Then there was the matter of the man's weapon. It was a pickaxe. It was a weird weapon albeit, but not unheard of. Especially probably for this arena, where any weapon imaginable would be entered.
"Looks like Rosa is finding out the difficulties of fighting a man who ate a Devil Fruit!" shouted the Longarm. Rosa's ears perked up as she listened to the Longarm give the man's secrets to the entire audience. "You see Simon Dew ate the legendary Ana-Ana no mi* with that he became a Hole man! He can now create holes anywhere on his body or anything that his hand touches! It looks like this SMALL man has some BIG surprises!"
"Aye!" shouted Simon as he lifted his pickaxe into the air and waved it at the Longarm, "you best not be messing with us, Dwarfs, me laddie! We got a proud heritage and we won't be taking no insults from yer folk or anyone else! You gots that!" The Longarm flinched at the man shouting at him. His rough and heavy Irish accent only seemed to help accentuate the point he was trying to make. "Now it is time fer me to get back to business."
Rosa held her sword out at arm's length. A Devil Fruit spelled trouble no matter how strong you are. Even if the powers did seem a little bit weird it allowed the user to make unexpected advantages in a fight like this. Rosa looked over at the audience. She could hear their chant for blood and carnage. It only made her even more wary of her opponent. He may have been a newcomer to the island and the arena, but that didn't mean he was a newcomer to this kind of pressure nor did it mean he couldn't deliver.
"Diggy-Diggy Hole" declared Simon as he brought his hand down and touched the ground. The ground opened up revealing a hole as Simon jumped into it. Rosa stopped in her tracks as the hole closed back up over him, concealing him from the view. Did this count as a ring-out? The arena had rules for that after all if a fighter escaped the ring it drastically cut into the gore that would occur. "Diggy-Diggy Hole!"
Rosa didn't have time to think about the second burrow cause as soon as Simon said it the ground beneath her opened wide. Rosa fell down into it, but only for a brief second. Simon was waiting for her. With a mighty heave he brought his pickaxe around and into Rosa's back knocking her up into the air again with a huge wound in her shoulder. Rosa quickly caught herself as she adjusted her fall to the ground. She landed safely just as Simon was getting out of the hole.
Simon charged forward at Rosa. Rosa brought her sword forward. If she used a thrust, Simon would just open his body up with a hole and let it pass through him. It looked like she would have to rely on slashes. She brought her sword up and waited for Simon to get closer, but he didn't. Instead he stopped short and placed his hand on the ground. Rosa prepared her guard, he would probably just slink back into the ground and do the same trick as last time. "Burrow!" This time it was different. Rather then opening the ground up beneath him, he opened the ground up right beneath Rosa. Once more Rosa fell down into the hole.
"Shit!" cursed Rosa as she tried to regain her ground. Simon jumped in after he already lifting his pickaxe above his head and preparing for a powerful downwards swing. Rosa brought her sword up and parried the swing, but it cost her her already feeble footing. She fell to the ground.
Simon jumped back up into the air and out of the hole. He could just close the hole up and win the fight that way. But he couldn't help but hesitate. If he closed the hole then she could forget about everything. She would immediately be surrounded by rocks. She would lose the space necessary to move and even breathe. If he did so, she would be buried alive in an instant. She would die shortly after. His hand hesitated as he brought it to the ground, he didn't want to become a killer...but he had to.
Rosa's sword came flying across the pit and into Simon's head knocking him back. She recognized what he was trying to do, but he had to put his hand on the hole in order to close it back up. As long as he didn't put his hand there, he couldn't close it and he couldn't kill her. Rosa quickly scrambled back up to the top of the hole. She was at least free for the time being, but with this guy's Devil Fruit it was probably only a matter of time till he trapped her again.
Rosa remained calm as she recovered her sword. She had to finish him off before he trapped her again, so she had to finish him off soon. Of course, with a sword it should be fairly easy to deliver a finishing blow. She dashed off at Simon already preparing her sword for a final slash across his body. Simon reached out and tapped onto Rosa's head. "Burrow Punch!" Simon created a single hole in Rosa's head with his Devil Fruit power, just straight through the middle also through where her brain should be, but Rosa didn't feel anything. She was still living and thinking. She guessed it was because it wasn't destroyed or anything, it was just removed temporarily. She guessed that as Simon's Devil Fruit couldn't just destroy things. In which case she didn't have to worry about getting close to him.
Rosa was about to swing her sword when Simon put his hand into the hole in her head. Rosa didn't pause at all, she immediately backed up. Simon undid his Devil Fruit power refilling the hole in Rosa's head and returning it to normal. Rosa paused for a moment as she tried to figure out what happened. She was breathing heavily as slowly put it together. If he created a hole it would just be removed temporarily, but if he stuck his hand into her body and then filled said hole with his powers...it would destroy whatever should've been brought into since there was no room for it! In other words, he would've destroyed her brain with that move.
Rosa didn't like to admit it, but this man just might outclass her. At close range he could create a hole in her and destroy it with that hole punch. At mid-range he had that trap where he would just imprison Rosa in the ground. That just left far-range, but that means he'd just use the Diggy-Diggy Hole and attack her from below. It appeared that this man dominated whatever distance they were at. In that case she would just have to get into her favored distance and hope that she just managed enough to defeat him. Close-range it is. She charged forward towards Simon.
Simon stepped back avoiding her first swing, then he quickly brought his pickaxe up to block the second. Now that her weapon was out of the way, he'd take advantage of the moment. "Burrow Heart." Simon put his hand up against Rosa's body. Immediately a hole appeared in the body, except it stopped halfway through exposing Rosa's heart to anyone who looked. Rosa jumped back and examined the newly formed hole in her body. It was frightening. No matter where he attacked, he created an opening with that pesky Devil Fruit.
Simon dropped to the ground and created a large hole in the ground once more. There was no space for Rosa to jump to, the hole was just too big. Rosa was already falling into the hole, he would seal it up instantly. Rosa needed to force him back just enough to buy her time to get out. She landed on the ground and jumped up into the air immediately as her feet touched the ground. It didn't seem like it would be enough as Simon put his hand back over the empty hole about to fill it up again. She was going too slow!
Dangers in the Arena!
...I'm so afraid I messed this chapter up...that I accidentally said something that would...would insinuate and create the wrong visual image as apparently I have done that before (if you see what I mean please tell me so I can correct it). The new character for this chapter, Simon, was designed by Labyrinth-Designer. This fight will continued into the next chapter, so I hope you are all super excited!
On a side note...BLAST THIS FRICKIN' HEAT! Its too hot to do anything! 90 degree weather all last week and 100 degree weather all this week...I DEMAND 60 DEGREE WEATHER!