Dangers of the Arena!
Rosa had to react fast, Simon was only mere centimeters from closing the hole again. She wasn't high enough. Her body might be safe, but her feet and legs were definitely going to get sealed up. She just needed to be a little bit higher. She brought her lower body up and into the air performing a back-flip, hopefully in doing so she'd be able to bring her lower body high enough to escape the filling in of the hole. The ground closed in underneath her in an instant. Rosa's body collided with the ground as she fell down.
She sat up in the arena and looked at her legs, praying that she had managed to avoid having them encased in stone. It was a hollow victory, her legs had managed to escape the stone imprisonment, but her shoes were not as lucky. It looked like they had just barely been captured by the stone, but nonetheless they were frozen in place. Rosa struggled free. She squeezed her feet out of the shoes. Her shoes were still stuck, but at least now she could move again.
Simon didn't let her recover and charged. He brought his pickaxe up above his head preparing for a downwards swing. Rosa brought her blade up to block it. A large hole appeared in the pickaxe. The hole was well-placed. Rosa's blade had no hope as it passed through the hole and had no effect on Simon's swing. His swing continued downwards smashing the tip of the pickaxe into her shoulder. Simon pulled the pickaxe out of her shoulder and once more took his distance. He quickly touched the pickaxe and filled in the missing hole.
Rosa muttered something under her breath as she stood back up. Her shoulder was bleeding heavily now and she was pretty sure that the pickaxe had damaged even the bone. Upon closer look it appeared that the pickaxe had a glittering edge to it, like it was a jewel. It had a diamond tip to it. Rosa grunted as he tried to take up her own fighting stance, but her sword weighed heavily on her damaged shoulder. She gritted her teeth and ignored the pain as she charged at Simon.
Simon once more dropped to the ground. "Diggy Diggy Hole!" the ground beneath him opened up and he disappeared into the hole. The ground immediately closed back up sealing Simon beneath the surface and away from any of Rosa's attacks. Rosa brought her sword upwards and prepared for a quick downwards slice. While the Diggy Diggy Hole may temporarily protect himself from any attacks, he still had to come up from the floor. He couldn't just magically appear in midair.
"Burrow!" shouted Simon as he exploded from the ground using a small hole. He came up in front of Rosa, but further away then she was expecting. He swung his pickaxe out and aimed it directly for her exposed heart. Rosa brought her sword up and struck at the head of the pickaxe. If she struck at anything else, he could just create a hole for her sword to pass through. She needed to deflect it at the most important part. Her sword rebounded off of the pickaxe, knocking them both away. Rosa was the first to recover and launched a desperate attack during those few seconds of luck...only problem was she used a thrust. She wasn't thinking straight. She was so caught up in the cheers of the crowd and the heat of the battle that she had forgotten about Simon's powers.
Simon noticed this and immediately created a hole in his body, where Rosa's sword would go. Her sword slipped right through him and into his chest. Simon had recovered by now and in an instant brought his pickaxe swinging down at Rosa's already damaged shoulder. With the power he put behind it along with the damage it had already taken, it would cleave her arm straight off. Rosa spun to the side, using her own momentum as well as her weight, to put power behind her sword and launch a slash from inside of Simon's chest. Simon couldn't react and felt the sword rip into his chest and pulled out of him, taking skin and blood as it went.
"That there hurt little lassie!" he grunted as he swung his pickaxe up and onto his shoulder. The attack had a lot of power behind it due to her also putting her weight onto the blade, but the real problem was the location. It wasn't cut up on the outside. Oh, no, the blade was inside him and cut him up from there. It would be nearly impossible for any doctor to get to to fix. He would just have to hope that it healed on itself. He couldn't quit this fight, he had to win! "Argh!" shouted Simon as he charged forward swinging his pickaxe wildly, but with incredibly speed and force behind it.
Rosa backed away, trying to make sure she wouldn't be caught off guard from one of those swings. She was trying to focus on the swings, but someone in the audience kept shouting at her, "give up already, girl! We all know you aren't meant to be in the arena! Go to the kitchen and cook us men up something real nice!" Even worse the entire arena was starting to get into it. They berated Zesiro cause of his race and now they were berating her because of gender. This arena was the home of pigs. Rosa couldn't focus on the swings because of the jeers and shouts.
She turned her head away from the pickaxe only briefly, "YOU WANNA COME INTO THIS RING AND FIGHT ME!" she screamed as the spectators. The entire arena calmed down in an instant. It wasn't uncommon for fighters to scream at the spectators, challenging them was more uncommon, but it still happened fairly often. However, coming from a woman in the middle of fight, rarely happened.
Simon grinned. The stupid girl looked away, it may not be very sportsman-like, but he didn't care. He had to win this fight and she just gave him the perfect opportunity to do so. With a mighty swing of his pickaxe, he brought it around and aimed straight for her head. The diamond-tip would make it go in one side and out the other with ease!
Rosa's head bobbed, barely causing the swing to miss. Simon was amazed, she still hadn't turned around to face him and yet she dodged his blow with such accuracy. While it may have been amazing, he wasn't about to stop. He quickly twisted his body and changed the swing of his pickaxe back around bringing it swinging in the other direction now. This time he would aim lower, he would strike her chest and pierce her heart from the side.
Rosa took a slight step forward. He felt his pickaxe graze her clothing, but nothing more. Did this woman have the luck of the devil? He brought the pickaxe forward in thrust, while a pickaxe had absolutely no sharp object to make a thrust deadly it still had plenty of power behind it. Rosa once more easily dodged to the side letting the pickaxe glide right past her.
Simon backed up and took his distance. He found it hard to believe that she was perfectly dodging each of his blows without even finding the need to pay attention to him. Stuff like that just wasn't possible! Even more surprising was the fact that she was actually doing a better job dodging them then she did before. Now she was using such minimalist movements to dodge his mighty swings, unlike last time when she was doing huge movements to dodge the swings.
Rosa finally tore her attention away from the audience and back to the fight, "Sorry about that I just wanted to put the audience in their place. I thank you for not attacking me while my back was turned to you. You are a true gentleman."
Simon's eyes twitched as he listened to her thank him, finally with a smile he opened his mouth and boasted, "of course! I am a gentleman! There is no way I would something as unsportsmanlike as attack a young lass from behind!"
Rosa took her stance up immediately. Simon had an unnatural sort of strength even beyond the Ana-Ana no mi. He had an incredible amount of sheer physical strength. Simon was also still creating new and new tricks and traps with his Devil Fruit, so Rosa had to keep her eyes focused on Simon's hands. Whatever he touched turned into trouble. Rosa's fingers went up to her heart, the missing chunk there was still her main reason for concern. Just because he didn't attack her while he back was turned didn't mean he wouldn't take advantage of her exposed heart.
Rosa let out a deep breath as she decided on what to do. She was going to end this fight as soon as possible. She lowered herself down and braced herself. As soon as she moved Simon would probably create a hole in front of her to trap her...unless she could cover the hole in a single jump there was no way she would be able to land a hit on Simon. However, luckily for her she had the perfect technique to cover the distance.
Sure enough just as Rosa planned, Simon crouched down to the ground placing his hand on the ground. "Burrow!" Before it had the chance to activate, Rosa quickly landed on the ground and launched her compressed body like a spring. The form was incredibly similar to McIntyre's Flash of Steel Lightning. It was actually based off of it, Rosa remembered the great distance it would cover in just a blink of the eye, so Rosa had decided to use it as a last ditch effort to strike down Simon.
The ground beneath Rosa opened up revealing a giant pitfall, but Rosa was already in the air sprinting towards Simon. The speed she had going for her allowed her to quickly close in on Simon. Simon lifted his pickaxe into the air, intending to parry with her with one hand and then landing a clean blow to her heart with the other. He brought the pickaxe down towards Rosa. Rosa struck out with her sword, sticking it into the ground, then she used her upper body strength and the sword to swing her out of Simon's path. She landed perfectly next to Simon, with his weapon already swinging down.
Rosa yanked her blade out of the stone floor and swung. The blade cut into Simon and drew blood. Simon backed up, letting go of his pickaxe for a brief second. He tumbled onto the ground defenseless and startled by Rosa's attack. "Is this the end?" shouted the Longarm announcer. "This fight that has raged on up until now is there anything else left for the two combatants to do other then have Rosa plunge her mighty blade down into Simon's throat herself! EEK! Whoo, there...I scared myself."
Rosa smiled as she sheathed her sword and reached down to help Simon up. "I dislike unsportsmanlike behavior like striking an unarmed man." Simon pulled his helmet down over his eyes as he accepted the hand of his opponent. He surrendered.
(-in the audience: Left Side of the Stadium-)
"Cah ah hah hah!" laughed a large man in the stadium. He was incredibly well-dressed in a suit and tie, fitting for the occasion. He wasn't here as a fighter, but merely as a spectator for the time being. He was rolling a gold coin between his thumb and forefinger. "I'm starting to like these Infinity Pirate fellows. The captain's insane dreams, that Fishman's courageous attack on Trevor, and now this girl...making a mockery of the entire Underground Rally Arena by showing pity to her opponent. They are my kind of crew!"
The man was none other then Armani Dove. He was considered a Golden Boy amongst the rest of the Underground Rally Arena, he was a rising star here and in the outside world. His bounty already exceeded 60 million belies. However, he didn't come to this island cause he wanted some time off. Oh, no, he believed he had visions of the future randomly inflicted upon his own dreams. And those visions led him here...he had a strong feeling that this was where the current world would be taken for a spin and flipped on its top. And he was beginning to believe that the Infinity Pirates were the reason for it. "I love that crew!" he shouted once more reiterating his thoughts.
"SHUT UP!" shouted a nearby woman who shoved her finger into his face, "can't you see you are disturbing my captain!" She pointed at a nearby man, whose attention was still focused on the ring rather then the spectacle occurring besides him. "He just wants to focus before his fight later today, so if you don't mind shut your loud trap!"
She turned around and returned her attention to the other man. Just like the way she was facing, her personality took a complete 180. "SHANE! I'm so glad we could come here together and have some fun! I just hope you didn't mind that obnoxious pirate next to us."
The man just grumbled something under his breath and kept focused on the fights. The fights weren't done, yet. There were two more fights for this tournament and then a bunch of single fights, which he was participating in. He was a large man, nearing 6' 4". Most of his body was hidden beneath a cloak, but Armani could still make out the goatee on his face as well as his hat.
Armani smiled as he leaned back and shut up. He wasn't too happy about being told to shut up by someone, but it was well worth it. The person sitting next to him was the 'Dark Knight' Shane. Another person with a huge bounty. He was getting excited. With his 60 million bounty, Shane's 90 million bounty and the 'Kid Coyote' Mikoto's 38 million bounty this was truly a treasure trove of powerful fighters. His vision was without a doubt going to be correct again!
However, with just these three big shots that he saw sitting next to him, it made Armani wonder exactly how many of them were present in this arena at this very moment.
The Staff of the URA!
A Special Request!
More OC's! Just like I promised. Okay, 'Dark Knight' Shane was submitted by Shadow40000 and Armani Dove was submitted by Broken Bow Fan. Also, I was asked about the dealings of the URA a couple of times, so here is a basic rundown of it.
-There is always an ongoing tournament running. There is a big cash prize for the winner. The Infinity Pirates are currently enrolled in an eighteen combatant tournament. The fighting days alternate to ensure that no one fights two days in a row and are always in top shape.
-Then there is a series of one-on-one fights. Small cash prizes, but less commitment. They can also enter as many as they want.
-Then there is a chain fight. Where one person fights multiple people and they keep going until they lose. The more fights you win the more money you make.
-Finally if time permits the URA do a special fight. A staff member from the URA (possibly even Trevor) steps in and fights any and all takers from the crowd. Based on which staff member enters there may be a large cash prize. Since Trevor joined the URA staff members currently hold an impressive record of 94 wins, 17 draws, and just three loses.
Other then that they may also do halftime shows and the like to help people who don't care for blood gore. And of course, there is round the clock betting going on. All of this, however, is overlooked by the Marines. (Please keep this in mind as I will be mentioning this again).