Round Robin

Ch. 3

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a wonderful start to the inaugural Round Robin thus far, and we still have several fights left to go on the first day. Rogue Cheney of Sabertooth and Mathias Cronqvist of Black Phoenix were the first to get on the scoreboard, and are tied at two points each!" Chapati said, his microphone carrying his voice through the arena as Yajima responded.

"Yes, both fights were interesting, though I believe we have yet to see anyone from Block A compete yet, correct?"

"Ah yes. However, the next three fights today will all be from Block A. Reve Volver vs Chelia Blendy, Orga Nanagear vs Bacchus, and Emerita Megido vs Minoru Kanemoto. What are your thoughts about these matchups, Yajima-san?"

"Hmm...once again, all of them seem interesting, though it seems to me Emerita vs Minoru is the only one without a clear favorite."

"We mentioned earlier that little is neither of them are very well known, so it should be exciting to see what they can do. Ah, here comes Mato-san, which means it's time to resume the tournament matches."

Mato now stood out in the center of the arena as he called out.

"Reve Volver of White Eclipe, and Chelia Blendy from Lamia Scale! Please step forward, kabo!"

White Eclipse's Guns Requip mage casually walked out to the center of the arena, with his hands in his pockets as he went. The young female God Slayer of Lamia Scale jogged out, waving to the crowd with a bright smile, before tripping and falling flat on her face halfway out. Reve just chuckled and shook his head at the sight.

"Really? /This/ is my opponent? What a joke."

"H-huh...?" Chelia blinked and looked at Reve with a confused expression as she stood up.

"I didn't stutter. God Slayer or not, you're just a kid. You should withdraw from the tournament before you get yourself hurt."

"Hey! Don't underestimate me! Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't fight!" she responded, pouting as she spoke.

"Whatever. Lets just get this over with." With that, he nodded toward Mato, signaling him to start the match.

"Chelia, are you ready too, kabo?" the mascot asked. She nodded, her expression turning to a more serious determined one, and Mato brought his hand down as the gong sounded.

"Begin!"

Somewhat to Chelia's surprise, Reve didn't immediately attack.

"It's White Eclipse tradition to allow the weaker opponent the first attack." he explained, irritating the young God Slayer.

"Fine! You asked for it!"

Chelia rapidly sprinted forward, and when she was close to Reve, she rotated her torso and extended her arms, summoning a strong, spiraling current of black wind.

"Sky God's Dance!"

She grinned as she watched the winds lift Reve high into the air, though it was still too early to know how much damage her attack had done.

While his body was descending, Reve turned in the air to face Chelia, having already requipped a pistol in his right hand. A small magic circle then appeared behind his hand, using his Quickdraw technique to rapidly propel it forward to aim at Chelia, then fired a blast of raw magic energy directly at her. Unable to react in time, she merely put her arms up in an attempt to shield herself, but was sent rolling after the blast connected with full force. Reve landed on his feet, twirling the pistol around his finger.

"Heh. Is that all?"

But to his surprise, Chelia smirked as she stood back up, with no visible injuries.

"Of course not! As long as I have the Sky God's Healing Spell, I can keep fighting back no matter what you do!"

"Is that right? We'll see about that."

His pistol disappeared as he then requipped a sawn off shotgun into each of his hands. He aimed one at Chelia and pulled the trigger, but this time she was ready for it, and used the wind to speed her movement as she glided around the large blast that approached her. Hoping she could move fast enough to catch him off guard, Chelia dashed around to his side. And for a moment it seemed as though she had succeeded, as Reve hadn't turned to aim at her again. Taking the opening, Chelia rushed forward and a was about to attack him from his blind side. But when she was close, her eyes widened she noticed the barrel of the second shotgun pointing at her from right under Reve's arm. But it was too late. Reve pulled the trigger, and the large blast launched Chelia back once again. And this time, it appeared the impact had instantly knocked her out.

As Mato ran over to check on her, Reve chuckled and walked away.

"Too easy. It's White Eclipse, or se-"

"REVE, LOOK OUT!" Luke Cloud, another White Eclipse mage shouted form the stands, cutting Reve off.

Reve quickly spun around, only for a vortex of black wind send him hurling back, slamming him into the wall just under where his guild mates were watching, leaving a large crater there. Back in the center of the arena, Chelia was panting, and barely able to stand, as Reve fell from the crater in the wall, landing unconscious on the ground. Mato immediately ran over to check on Reve, then held up a hand.

"Reve is down, kabo! Chelia Blendi wins!"

Stunned. Baffled. Shocked. None of these words could bring any justice to the reactions of everyone in the arena. Every mage and spectator's jaw had dropped, and for a while, no one could say a word. Even the announcers were speechless. Finally, the Lamia Scale mages erupted in cheers, which soon began to spread throughout the entire crowd. Chelia smiled, but then lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground. Lyon, Jura, Toby, and Yuuka all rushed out to help her and carried her off to the infirmary.

"Why's she so hurt? Shouldn't her healing spell have prevented this?" asked Yuuka.

"Normally, yes. I suppose the trauma to her head made it difficult for her to focus on healing herself. For her to continue fighting in spite of that is truly impressive." replied Jura.

"Just rest now, Chelia. You've earned it." Lyon said as they went.

Reve regained consciousness and stood up, and was seething in anger once he realized what had happened. As he made his way back over to the other guild members, no one said anything until the Vector Mage, Tayakata put her hand on his shoulder.

"Just forget about it. It was a fluke and everyone knows it."

"...You're right. Let her have her fifteen minutes of fame. It won't matter. White Eclipse is still gonna win this tournament." he said, seeming to calm down a bit. And the other members smiled confidently and nodded in agreement.

"Because it's White Eclipse..."

"Or second place!" they all responded in unison.

Back in the announcers' booth, Chapati finally commented on the situation.

"Wow! What a stunning upset! I don't think anyone here saw that coming! Before we move on to the next fight, lets take a look and see what exactly happened."

On the screen, a reply was shown of the Sky God's Bellow that Chelia had ambushed Reve with. And in slow motion, it showed that as Reve hit the wall, his head had snapped backward and slammed into it.

"Oh?! I can't say for sure, but it looks like it wasn't Chelia's spell that knocked him out, but the impact of his head whiplashing into the wall!"

"It does look that way." Yajima replied. "It's amazing to think that if his body had just turned at a slightly different angle when the attack hit, the outcome of the entire fight might've been different."

"It really is! But in the end, it's Chelia Blendi who takes the first two points in Block A. Now with two more fights to come, who else will be among the first to put up some points? Lets find out as we start our next match!"

Mato stood in the arena to bring out the next competitors.

"Orga Nanagear of Sabertooth, and Bacchus of Quatro Cerberus, please step forward!"

"Heh. Looks like I'm finally up." Bacchus said with a grin as he hopped over the wall and made his way out to the arena.

At the same time, the large, green-haired God Slayer from Sabertooth began to calmly walk out, stopping several feet away from Bacchus.

"Are both mages ready, kabo?" asked Mato, to which both responded with a silent nod, and the gong sounded.

"Begin now!"

Not wasting any time, Bacchus dashed straight at Orga, focusing his magic energy into the palms of his hands as he swung a flurry of palm strikes at the large man's head and torso. The suddenness caught Orga off guard, and he brought his arms up to parry as many of the strikes as possible, while also swaying out of the way of several. However, Bacchus eventually found an opening in the God Slayer's defense and brought his palm up, slamming it under Orga's chin and knocking him back several feet. Bacchus then grinned and crouched into his signature fighting stance.

"Wild..."

"FOUR!" the other Quatro Cerberus mages shouted out.

But Orga quickly stood back up and outstretched his arms toward Bacchus, with his right palm several inches above the left as a small ball of black lightning began to charge.

"120mm Black Lightning Canon!"

As he said this, the ball of lightning turned into more of a beam which rapidly approached Bacchus. The Drunken Falcon's eyes widened in surprise at seeing the attack, but managed to lean back just far enough for it to sail over him, crashing into the wall behind him instead as Bacchus stood straight again.

"Oi, that was clo-"

He was cut off when Orga's fist crashed into his face, knocking him back in a manner similar to the way Bacchus had done to Orga a moment ago. And just like Orga, Bacchus quickly got to his feet, not giving his opponent a chance to press his attack. The two stared each other down for a moment, then charged forward. Bacchus threw another intense series of magic infused palm strikes, while Orga covered his fists and legs with lightning, throwing strong punches and kicks. Despite both taking several big hits, neither seemed to gain an advantage, nor did either let up on their assault. Finally, one of Bacchus' palm strikes connected with a lightning-covered punch from Orga, and the collision of magic energy resulted in an explosion that sent both men flying backwards. Each were now gasping for air as they struggled to their feet, when out of the corner of his eye, Bacchus noticed his gourd lying on the ground, and realized he must've dropped it at some point during that last exchange of attacks. He grinned, knowing that drinking from it would give him the advantage, and ran to pick up the gourd. But Orga had noticed this too, and wasn't about to let that happen. Bringing an arm forward, Orga shouted.

"Black Lightning Sphere!"

Right as Bacchus was reaching for the gourd, a large sphere of black lightning appeared around him, and an agonized shout could be heard from within the sphere as Bacchus was electrocuted. When the attack died down, Bacchus was seen lying motionless next to his now-destroyed gourd. Mato went to check on Bacchus, then held a hand up to signal the end of the fight.

"Bacchus is down! Orga wins!"

The Sabertooth fans erupted out of their seats as they cheered for the God Slayer, who grinned as he tried to catch his breath.

"Oi...Give me a microphone."

"Eh?...O-of course, kabo!" Mato rushed off, and quickly returned with a microphone, handing it to Orga. Everyone in the crowd listened intently, knowing what what was coming next. Orga cleared his throat, then began to sing.

"Sabertooth is number one!~"

The crowd cheered as he sang, though most of the mages were annoyed by it. When he was finally done, he handed the microphone back and limped back to Sabertooth's area in the stands.

Having regained consciousness, Bacchus grinned as he made his way back over to Quatro Cerberus' section, despite having lost the fight.

"You seem to be taking this rather well, Bacchus." said Master Goldmine, who was standing with the other members.

"Ya win some, ya lose some. It was a wild fight though. Oi, any chance you could get me another gourd before my next fight?"

"Way ahead of you." Goldmine chuckled and tossed a new gourd over to Bacchus. "Figured having some extras might come in handy."

"Heh. Wild!"

"FOUR!" the rest shouted in unison.

Again Mato stood in the center of the arena.

"Our next fight is Emerita Megido from Black Phoenix vs Radioactive Decay's Minoru Kanemoto! Both mages please enter the arena now!"

The two mages walked out and stood toe to toe, and the crowd began to talk among itself as everyone noticed the obvious size difference between them, as Minoru stood nearly a foot taller than her. Looking down at her, the S-Class mage from Radioactive Decay wore his usual serious expression.

"Good luck, Emerita."

"Just 'Rita' is fine, and keep your 'luck' for yourself. I'll do just fine without it."

"Hmph."

As the two backed up to create some distance between them, the announcers spoke again.
"Before this next one starts, lets talk about these two mages really quick. Emerita, or Rita, is a former professor who uses Scroll Magic. And as we said before, despite her small build, she is rather powerful, and has fought on par with S-Class mages before."

"Hm, and lets not forget about her opponent. We don't know much about Minoru other than that he's one of his guild's S-Class mages and uses a variation of Solid Script magic. So it will be interesting to see the full extent of his power in this tournament as well."

"Are both mages ready, kabo?" Mato asked.

"Of course I am." Rita answered confidently, while Minoru gave a silent nod.

"Very well. Begin!" Mato shouted as the gong rang.

The second the match began, Rita took off in a sprint toward Minoru. But the Solid Script mage was quick to react, kneeling and writing the word "water" on the ground with his index finger. His magic then turned the word into a large puddle of water in front of him, which caused Rita to slip and fall as she ran through it. The crowd laughed, and Rita's expression quickly turned to a very irritated one as she looked up at Minoru.

"You think this is some kind of joke?"

"You don't see me laughing do you?" In fact, Minoru's expression hadn't changed at all since he'd walked out to the arena. And now, he was writing the words "Lightning Storm" in the air with his index finger. Sensing the danger she was in, Rita quickly sprang away from the puddle of water, just as a magic circle opened in front of Minoru, releasing several bolts of lightning where she had just been.

"Tch. Looks like close combat isn't an option just yet. But at least he gave me something to work with." she said to herself as she took our her scroll and began to recite one of it's spells.

"Grant them thy undefiled purity, Splash!"

Using the water from Minoru's previous spell, Rita's caused the water to erupt and toss Minoru into the air. The water then formed around him, and rushed back down, slamming him into the ground, leaving a crater from the impact of the fall. A small grin formed on Rita's lips, but soon disappeared when Minoru pulled himself back to his feet with seemingly little effort. He leaned his head back and forth from left to right, popping his neck. And if anything had changed about him as a result of Rita's attack, it's that he was annoyed now. Rita could tell by this point that basic spells likely wouldn't be strong enough to win this battle, and decided to try a more powerful one, knowing it would use more magic energy in the process, hoping it would either do some serious damage or give her an opening to try something else. So again she recited from the scroll.

"Come forth, O sparks of the skies! Bring judgement down on thy sinners! Lightning Reign!"

In a manner similar to Minoru's lightning-based spell, bolts of lightning began raining down toward him from the sky. Realizing what was about to happen a moment before the spell activated, Minoru sprinted away as each bolt of lightning landed close behind him, leading him right toward Rita. The Scroll mage grinned, seeing a chance to perhaps catch him off guard, and ran toward him. When she was close, she leapt in the air and spun her body around, swinging a round house kick at his head. But to her surprise, Minoru caught her leg in his hands, then turned and through her in the direction of the lightning created by her own spell. Luckily for her however, the spell had finished right as he threw her, and she was able to flip in the air and land on her feet, springing back toward him once again. But once again, Minoru knelt down as she charged and wrote in the ground. Seeing this, Rita stopped a few feet from him.

"Oh no. I'm not falling for that again."

But instead of what she was expecting, a wall made of the dirt and stones in the ground rose between them, and she backed up for a moment to rethink her strategy, unsure of what Minoru was planning. On the other side of the wall, Minoru wrote the word "boulder" on the wall with his index finger, then balled his hand into a fist and punched the wall, causing a large section of it to form into a boulder and launch at Rita. Too surprised to react in time, it crashed right into her, launching her backward. While she was still down, Minoru decided to press the attack, writing "War Hammer" in the air with his finger. His magic transformed the word into a large, two-sided hammer, the handle being almost as tall as Minoru. Lunging toward her, he shouted as he brought the hammer down, looking to end the fight.

However, at the last moment, Rita looked up and saw what was coming, and just barely managed to roll out of the way. The hammer hit the ground, missing her, but creating a massive shockwave from the impact which also destroyed much of the ground around him.

Rita saw an opening, and jumped onto Minoru's back, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight sleeper hold, and locking her legs around his waist to keep from falling off. The hammer slipped out of his hands as he stumbled backward, and tried to pry her arms off his neck, but to no avail. Due to the lack of oxygen his vision was starting to go black, and he started to lose his balance as he eventually fell to a knee.

His body started to go limp, on the verge of passing out, when suddenly he stood back up, with her still on his back. Gritting his teeth as he fought to stay conscious, he reached both his hands back, each grabbing a fistful of Rita's hair. Then in one quick movement, he shouted out and flipped her over his back, slamming her into the ground as hard as he could. Minoru staggered back before falling to a knee again, placing a hand over his neck as he coughed violently, trying to catch his breath.

While Minoru was recovering, Mato went over to check on Rita, who hadn't moved since being thrown into the ground. And just as he was about to end the fight, Rita reached out and grabbed Mato's ankle.

"D-don't even...think about it."

Minoru's eyes widened in borderline shock as she slowly began to pull herself up. The crowd rose to its feet and applauded both mages, knowing they were seeing an instant classic, despite most having never seen either mage before today.

Both mages were deep in thought as they tried to plan out their next move. For Minoru, it was an internal debate as to whether to use his strongest technique now, or wait and use it in one of the later fights. If he used it now, he was certain he'd get the win, but the element of surprise would be lost if he ever wanted to use it later on. For Rita, it was a question of whether she should use a healing spell she knew, or try going for the win now. Healing herself could potentially give her an advantage, but she knew by now they must be close to reaching the time limit, and it seemed unlikely Minoru would just et her use the spell anyway.

Both mages decided on a course of action, but Rita was the first to act.

"Second Origin, activate." she muttered under her breath, unlocking a second core of magic energy in her, before reciting the incantation for her strongest spell.

"O' power that lies in the root of all creation, o' memory inscribed in ages past, hear my call and arise before me..."

Neither Minoru, nor anyone else in the arena had heard her activating her Second Origin, though Minoru had a gut feeling this spell would be as strong as, if not stronger than, any spell she'd used to this point. So he waited until right before the spell would be activated before writing "hole" in the ground with his finger. His magic then opened a hole about ten feet deep, and he fell in, landing on his feet. Sighing in relief, he looked up, expecting to see Rita's spell pass over the hole. But he was shocked when instead, he saw Rita her self in the air right above the hole, scroll in hand.

"ANCIENT CATASTROPHE!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. Seven large orbs, each made of a different element, were launched down toward Minoru, who had no path of retreat, and no effective defense at this point. All he could do is hold his arms up to shield himself as the orbs converged on him, resulting in a massive explosion.

Rita landed next to the hole in the ground, falling to her hands and knees, panting as she looked on to see if her attack had been enough. Mato stood at the edge as well, looking on to see if the fight was over. When the smoke cleared, Minoru was seen lying unconscious at the bottom of the hole, and Mato held his hand up.

"Minoru is down, kabo! Rita wins!"

Again the crowd, and the other mages from Black Phoenix erupted into thunderous cheers for both mages for putting on an amazing fight, as the announcers discussed the fight.

"Amazing! We knew this would be an interesting bout, but who would've guessed it would turn out like this?!"

"Indeed." Yajima replied. "Both mages demonstrated tremendous power, but it came down to a chess match, and Rita's strategy proved to be the more effective."

"Yes, it seems Minoru sealed his defeat when he went into that hole, and boxed himself in. But Rita-san is clearly very intelligent to have seen through Minoru's strategy. It'll be exciting to see them as they continue to compete in the Round Robin!"

Rita smiled, though she was still tired and in pain from the fight, while at the bottom of the hole, Minoru groaned and rubbed his head as he sat up.

"Deciding to hold your last resort technique back until later, huh? Not that I'm complaining. I'll gladly take the points." Rita said, grinning down at the Solid Script mage.

"Tch. Whatever. One loss won't kill my chances." he responded as he climbed up out of the hole.

"It could if you're not careful. Either way, good fight, Minoru."

Once he was out of the hole, she extended her right hand toward him, and the crows applauded them once again as he shook her hand.

"A good display of sportsmanship after an excellent contest." Yajima said from the announcers'. "I doubt we'll see a lot of moments like this throughout the tournament, so it's good to see some respect between two mages from opposing guilds."

The two then limped back to their guilds' respective areas. The guild master of Radioactive Decay as well as Minoru's girlfriend, Avani Moton, ran over to him and embraced him in a tight hug before lightly kissing his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Minoru-kun. But I'm sure you'll win the next one."

"I'll do my best, Avani." he replied with a slight smile.

Rita had almost made it back to her guildmates, when her exhaustion and injuries finally became too much, and she collapsed on the ground, drawing a lot of worried gasps from the crowd. Lucina, another Black Phoenix mage as well a former student of Rita's, ran out to help her.

"Are you alright?!"

Rita's eyes opened slightly, and she grinned despite her obvious pain.

"Of course. Nothing I can't handle. But still, you wouldn't mind helping me to the infirmary, would you?"

"Lucina smiled and nodded before putting Rita's arm over her shoulders, supporting her as she helped her former teacher stand and walk back to the infirmary."

"Now lets take a moment to look at the updated scoreboard. In Block B, Rogue Cheney and Mathias Cronqvist each won their fights, and are currently tied at two points each. And now, after three matches from Block A, Chelia Blendy, Orga Nanagear, and Emerita Megido lead the block, each with two points. However, with three more fights to go in Day 1, it'll be interesting to see what the score looks like after our last fight."