Ding! Ding! Ding!
No, this isn't an alarm clock but instead another chapter! Rejoice you Saturday morning people! It's really early for me! I need to fix my sleep schedule! Yay!
Ok, less crazy. I just needed to get it out. So, how about that new Fire Emblem game? Hype? I'll be getting it when it comes out… As soon as I come across a leprechaun's gold pot that'll solve all of my money problems.
Continuing to be distracted aside, I'll randomly respond to a couple reviews! Why? Because this is how I operate.
llat-2: First off thanks for reviewing. Onto your latest review your right. I'll probably work both of them in the ways you described. These things will be working off rules, but I'll let the story divulge that information instead.
SilverFlameHaze: For you a fun fact. My first playthrough of the game involved me getting Vaike killed in Chapter four. Not even three full chapters and I got the poor guy murdered because I wasn't paying attention. It definitely made me focus on keeping everyone else alive though, haha. Only ever got to experience Vaike during my second run of the game.
Thanks to everyone else for reviewing! I still greatly appreciate them and hope you leave me more!
Italics will be character's thoughts and /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ will indicate a scene change.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fire Emblem nor do I own anything else I may reference. I only own my OCs.
Tournament of Fighters
Things never seem to get any easier for me as of late. My days seem to get piled up with more and more responsibilities. They're being filled by the one thing I would like the least of.
I keep getting more and more things to do while my free time slowly dies in a fire. Things like: time consuming training that leaves me winded afterwards, missions tasked onto me because I'm a Shepherd, and not to mention I'm apparently a champion for one of the khans here in Regna Ferox; which by the way is today.
Yeah, after we got back with the moondrip flower we had roughly two solid days until the tournament. Two days isn't a whole lot of time when you think about it. It's not like we could've eighties montaged it and gotten through some epic special training in that amount of time. No, instead all of our extra time was spent doing basic training meant to increase endurance above all else. Monotonous pushups, running, sit ups, etc. have filled most of my time during the last two days. Nothing too impressive.
Also, there's the fact of the matter that I'm still in Regna Ferox. I'm still in Regna Ferox. A place that about a week ago only existed in a video game to me. Somewhere I shouldn't be at all.
It would seem the previous jumps in between this world and my own whenever I slept have been severed. I'm certain Janus has done it purposely. I can see his reasoning to do so. You never let a lab rat out of its cage when doing tests on it, right? Then again, I can't tell why he kept jumping me between the worlds in the first place if he was just going to cut me off when I got nosy. Hell, I'll probably never understand a power hungry god. He's probably just doing it for the kicks.
On the plus side, we've secured all of Miriel's ingredients thanks to Frederick's group bringing in the last one just yesterday. The entire antidote was concocted in a flash and Chrom was treated with it equally as fast. His fever increased over the time we took to gather up the supplies. Supposedly he got into a couple small conversations surprisingly while our groups were running around but now it seems like he does nothing but sleep. It's a race against time now according to Miriel. There's nothing more we can do.
Quite frankly, however, none of the Shepherds seem to want to leave it up to fate to decide. Despite Miriel informing them otherwise, almost all of the Shepherds have been in and out of the room taking care of their captain. The only two not to do any such thing would have to be me and Vaike. Vaike is deliberately kept out of the room simply because he tries waking Chrom up to fight him whenever he does go in. I personally keep myself away from the whole turmoil because adding to my list of responsibilities would be nerve wrecking. Also, I wouldn't have the first idea on what to do with a bed ridden person anyhow.
Back to the present, currently I was sitting in the extravagant dining hall inside the castle. In front of me was the yellow tome the bandit woman back in Donnel's hometown had. I was spending whatever free time I still had trying to understand what was written inside of it. Based on the fact it has similar lettering like the books I saw back in the Shepherd's HQ, I've come to conclude that those books were in fact magic tomes as well.
Holy crap, it's like I'm Sherlock Holmes. Alright, putting the joke book down.
I should've realized this much earlier when I noticed the display case for that old khan's axe had a plaque written in English unlike magic tomes. It only leads me to wonder why magical books are written in a seemingly different language in the first place. It just looks like a bunch of gibberish to me.
Maybe only inherently skilled magic users are able to decipher these. It would go hand in hand with how some characters back in the game could never be a magic user no matter what.
I'd ask Miriel if she could tell me what all this stuff meant, but she's been the priority caretaker for Chrom. I don't want to take her away from that. Still, a simple question couldn't take too much of her time, right? Arg! I should've been thinking about this stuff earlier! There's hardly even time to probably practice casting one spell! This sucks!
I slammed the book closed for possibly the fifth time this morning in a fit of rage. After settling out of some enraged hyperventilating, I rested my head on the table besides the book while placing both of my hands over my head.
There's an important tournament soon and all I can do is swing around a sword. Lucina will probably have a team of fighters just as good as her! We're finished!
As I was mentally punishing myself, a hand tapped my shoulder. I turned my head to see the person and recognized them immediately as Donnel. Strangely enough, he was holding a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"Doin' some readin' there?" He asked with a puzzled look.
"Trying to read is a better way to put it. This whole thing is filled with nonesense!" I slammed my fist on the front cover of the magic tome out of frustration.
Donnel recoiled a bit when I let out my anger, but recovered with a goofy grin somehow, "Well, shucks. Readin' is a bit of a tough one. Sometimes I find out that I've been readin' a book upside down like a bat would hangin' in a cave!"
"Reading it upsides down?" I had to hold back my urge to laugh.
Donnel wasn't one to do the same, however, as he jollily laughed despite it being about himself, "Yup, dern sure was embarrassin' when folks saw me doin' it too. Hey, maybe you've done it too."
"I highly doubt it," I reached towards the book and opened it once again. This time I flipped it around to read it like Donnel had suggested. It was still just as unreadable as before.
"Gosh. This thing must be harder to crack than a pickle jar," Donnel had attempted to read the book as well, but stopped when he couldn't read the first few lines either.
"Yeah… Say, what're you doing with the bow and arrows?" I pointed to the bow and quiver full of arrows he had in possession.
"This stuff? Well, I asked that Virion fella yesterday if he could show me how to shoot it! Should come mighty in handy!" He quickly struck a pose drawing the bow back with an arrow ready to fire off. Except, he was holding the arrow backwards and was going to send it flying backwards.
"Uh, yeah. Hey, why don't you go find him before you go pointing that thing around, alright?" I slowly had him point the bow down before he stopped pulling back on the string of the bow.
He didn't look nearly as enthusiastic as he did just seconds ago, but he quickly bounced back with a quick salute. He was still trying to hold onto the arrow so it thudded against his pot helmet when he did so.
"Right! He oughta be round these parts somewhere! Gosh, this place sure is big. Hello?" Donnel's voice trailed off as he walked down one of the many hallways to the castle.
I couldn't hold it in any longer, I had to start laughing. Falling back into my chair, I let it all flow out. The dining room was quickly filled with nothing but my laughter and the echoes of it afterwards. Soon enough, I manage to catch myself. It took a bit but I do finally come to a halt in my fit of laughter. As I slowly catch my breath, I turn myself back to face the magic tome on the large dining table.
Man, when was the last time I laughed like that? Before all of this probably. It's nice to-
Suddenly, I heard something like footsteps. It sounded like someone hastily running away from the dining hall. When I looked to the source of the noise, a bright color caught my eyes. There was a pink color that took off running down one of the hallways that enters into the dining room. It moved so fast that it almost looked like a blur.
Pink thing running away from me? I'm not a betting man, but I could probably safely bet on who the pink blur was. Huh… Wonder what she was doing.
"Vincent, the tournament's starting soon. We are to go to the tournament grounds immediately," Frederick announced his presence loudly in his shining armor behind me.
"Ugh, no need to shout in my ear there, big guy," I clasped my hand over my left ear as I collected my belongings and stood up.
Frederick almost always looked at me with a scowl at this point so when he did it again I wasn't exactly fazed. Instead, we both kind of silently stood there. Him scowling at me and me blankly staring back.
Finally, Frederick was the one to break the silence as he audibly sighed, "Come now. We shouldn't keep the others waiting on us."
"I'll follow wherever your shadow goes," I took up in following behind him like I said I would and we made our way to the tournament.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
First of all, let me be the first to say that I was expecting a much smaller coliseum. Maybe it was just me hoping for it to be small or maybe I really just wasn't expecting Regna Ferox's coliseum to be this huge. Scratch that. It was too big for the kind of tournament we were having if you asked me! Either way, I was now on the inside of a completely packed coliseum waiting in agonizing pain.
The constant murmuring of people above me, the loud announcer that would shout out to the crowd and get them riled up, the anticipation for the important fights; all of it had me sitting off edge.
Judging by the way the rest of my "team" was looking at me, they could tell as well.
"You have problems being in front of a crowd, Vincent?" Robin was the first to ask.
"Being in front of it? No. Just… the waiting that leads to being in front of one… That's what's killing me!" I finally snapped and was having a hard time controlling both my breathing and heartbeats.
As I fell into a panic attack, someone's palm slapped the back of my head. Of course it was Sully that had done so.
She was scowling at me as I held my head from the stinging pain she delivered it, "Stop flipping out already! You're supposed to be the leader in this thing so get it together or I'll put you together!"
"Right! Right! Just no more team hitting, alright?!" I tried to calm myself after Sully threatened me.
It didn't work too well, but it kept me from getting any more wallops from her.
"URGH! When is this thing starting?! The Vaike can't wait any longer!" Vaike was hoisting his axe over his head as he shouted directly up at the ceiling.
Oh, and he doesn't get hit!?
Without warning, Sully did, however, deliver a smack to the back of Vaike's head as well.
Well, I feel better now.
"Yeowch! Alright, fight on!" Vaike went into a fighting position when he realized Sully had struck him.
"You really want to do this, huh?" Sully was smirking as she reached for her lance she leaned against one of the walls in this room.
"Do not start this. We are to secure victory for milord and that's it," Frederick stepped in between the both of them.
"You want to go to, Fred? Ol' Teach accepts all challengers!" Vaike still wasn't backing down.
Frederick seemed heavily annoyed by being called anything but his full name. He gave Vaike the same scowl he gave me earlier when I didn't call him by his name.
Meanwhile, both Robin and I were standing on the other side of the room that this was all unfolding out in.
"Are you going to do something or should I?" I asked the tactician.
With a small sigh, Robin replied, "It might be best if they simply handle it."
Seconds before an all-out brawl broke out in our team, the gate entering into the center of the arena opened. A man stepped through it holding a feather, a bottle of ink, and a piece of paper. He entered with a confused look at what was occurring in front of him. More than half of the East Khan's team was going to knock each other out. Awkwardly, both Robin and I waved to the new man to grab his attention.
Surprisingly, the brawl that was about to occur stopped because it's partakers all looked at the new man.
"Um, do you have your lineup?" he asked us warily.
I looked to Robin expectantly. He informed me that he would have all the planning done and ready, but he never told me any of it.
"Yes, I figure we'll go with Frederick," he pointed towards Frederick and then towards Sully, "then Sully."
He pointed towards himself, "Then I, Robin," he followed it up by pointing towards Vaike, "after that is Vaike."
Vaike let out a loud shout of enjoyment even though I don't believe he realizes he's so close to last which apparently is me.
Robin finished by pointing at me, "Finally is the East Khan's champion Vincent."
The man that had just entered was carefully writing all of our name's down in order. When he was finished, he looked back at us and nodded in confirmation.
"Good! We'll be starting here shortly! Remember, to stick around for your round or else you could forfeit your match," he then exited back out the gate he entered in a hurry.
"So our hardest hitters are going first?" I asked Robin after the man had left.
"That they are. Don't worry. I've got it all worked out," he smugly smiled to me and the rest.
I returned a smile, "No, I'm not worried. I like the idea."
He kept me at the back! I definitely like this plan!
"And now, ladies and gentleman, it's time to get this tournament under way!" the same announcer's voice boomed into the crowd of the coliseum. This is in a world with no kind of noise enhancement devices or even magic. That guy has to have just a naturally booming voice to be able to get the entire crowd's attention.
At the signal of the start of the tourney, the entire crowd above erupted into applause and cheers.
"Starting things off will be two fierce competitors! Frederick fighting for the East Khan's champion and Roule fighting for the West Khan's champion!" the announcer stood in the direct center of the arena and made motions for people to open the respective gates of each fighter.
At the call of his name, Frederick grabbed a sword that was hanging inside of the room we were currently in and made his way out the gate. The gate closed behind him and the rest of our group crowded around it to watch the battle that was going to unfold.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
With sword in hand, Frederick approached the announcer in the center of the arena. His opponent, Roule, did the same.
Frederick's boots kicked up parts of the dirt floored arena as he marched through it. Eyeing around himself, he could see that the stadium was definitely packed to the brim with people like it sounded. The audience murmured in silence as he walked through the arena.
In the front row on opposite sides of each other were the two khans Basillo and Flavia. Basillo was a dark man with golden armor that looked fitting only for a ruler. Any Feroxian would instantly be able to pick him out of a crowd because of it. Around the neckline of the armor was a massive amount of fur that almost seemed to be more for show rather than temperature control. On his back he held his signature weapon the axe that he was known to have used in order to slice down more than his fair share of enemies. He also had an eye patch covering his left eye; whether it was from a battle wound or something else was unknown.
Both of the khans were leaning up against the railing as it seemed they wanted to be as close to the action as possible.
When both competitors reached the announcer they stopped and eyed each other.
They seemed to look almost like polar opposites. While Frederick was heavily armored and tried to look as respectable as humanly possible, his opponent Roule did not try the same. Roule had a scraggily brown beard and greased hair with no rhyme or reason for how it looked. He wore decent enough leather armor but it looked like it was incredibly battle damaged as there were cuts and tears all across it. Quite frankly, it was amazing that it was still altogether. In his hand was a sword equal in length to Frederick's but it seemed to be his personal one with bits of it chipped off of it.
Roule glared at Frederick like a mad dog. Sensing the already growing tension, the announcer tried going over the rules as fast as possible, "Alright, this isn't a death match. It's until you either surrender or can no longer fight. If we deem it necessary, we can stop the fight at any point and declare a winner. No attempts at your opponent's life, ok? You will be charged normally if you purposely murder the other fighter. Got it?"
The fighters nodded in understanding before holding their swords up ready for a fight.
"Then to the best go the spoils!" The announcer ran to the side of the arena and held up his hand.
"Ready? Begin!" He swung his hand down signaling the start of the match causing the crowd to go into an uproar.
Both fighters immediately started to circle each other. Roule was much more eager to get into combat than Frederick as he started to feign swings for him. Frederick, however, was no rookie when it came to swordplay. He didn't pursue the obvious feigns and instead kept his cool.
Grunting in frustration that Frederick wasn't falling for his tricks, Roule decided to be the first to go in for a strike. He kept his distance and went for an upward cross swing on the knight in front of him.
The swing, however, was hardly in a dangerous reach of Frederick. Instead of parrying off the blade, all he had to do was back pedal merely a foot in order to dodge.
With Frederick already opting to go on the retreat, Roule took a step forward in pursuit during his strike. At the end of his sword's swing he changed the trajectory of it and made a horizontal swipe for Frederick.
There was hardly the time to dodge the blow this time for the armored knight. This strike would have to be parried or at the very least blocked. In the blink of an eye, Frederick made his decision and parried off the blow. Using his blade he let Roule's sword slide along it and changed the path of the sword on his own. Roule's sword ended up going up and over Frederick rather than into.
Now with his opponent's sword and balance thrown off, Frederick wanted to make a move of his own. Taking the opportunity, he swung his sword for his opponent's shoulder knowing that he should avoid killing blows. Going for such an attack didn't lend any results, however. Had Frederick gone for a much more crippling attack he would've landed it, but since he went for the shoulder Roule had time to get out of the way.
The entire crowd roared in excitement at how the battle was still ongoing. The khans watched with glee as well from their front row spots.
Seeing on how precise Frederick was fighting, Roule had to think of a plan and fast. He wouldn't stand a chance if his opponent was the one dictating the flow of the battle.
The two opponents began circling each other once more similarly to how they began the battle. Both of them waited eagerly for the other to strike first.
Spinning his sword around in his hand a few times, Roule shot a small smirk to Frederick. Gripping his sword with both of his hands he charged into Frederick's guard. He made a swing for Frederick that was ready to be blocked. Rather than clash their blades together, their swords made very brief contact as Roule pulled his back to go for a swipe from a different side. Again Frederick was lightning fast to get his weapon in the way to defend himself. Their blades clash once more only for but a second.
Frederick was sent backpedaling as he was being forced to defend against the onslaught of swift blows being hailed at him. His calm and precise nature was being taken advantage of by rash attacks.
Still, the knight kept his cool even when the crowd had shifted to cheering for his opponent. He still had to win the battle. He would win it for Chrom, Lissa, Emmeryn, and even for the rest of the Shepherds. If he failed now, he wouldn't be able to continue calling himself a knight.
With his opponent nearing the end of his stamina, Frederick watched carefully for weak points. A stray swipe from Roule caught against Frederick's armor and nicked into his body drawing blood. Still, Frederick waited patiently for his counter attack. Another blow came raining down towards him too fast to block or dodge. It dived into the armor of his shoulder causing another small wound. The crowd was going wild. Still the great knight waited for an opening.
Another swing came blazing towards Frederick's side. This time he was certain that he could make his move. He intercepted Roule's sword with his own and deflected it upwards. Roule's sword went flying out of his hand and landed a couple of feet to his side. His lack of stamina coupled with how rashly he was fighting left him paying very little attention to his grip on his own weapon playing towards his downfall.
The crowd fell completely silent at the sudden turn in the battle.
Frederick then pointed his sword for Roule, "I do believe this is when you surrender."
Roule raised both of his hands slowly. When they were completely over his head, the announcer caught the surrender, "Then we have a winner! The first point goes to the East Khan's champion!"
At the signal of the battle's winner, the crowd erupted into applause and whistles. They were overly ecstatic for Frederick's win. Meanwhile, Flavia was grinning madly at how she had stolen the first point while Basillo didn't look nearly as pleased.
After politely bowing in acceptance to the crowd's applause, Frederick returned to the rest of his team.
"Way to go, Frederick!" Robin happily cheered for the knight as he entered back through the gate.
"Yes, I've secured the first win for us. It was… slightly painful," Frederick grimaced at his few wounds and broken armor.
"Ah, right! I'll go grab Lissa for you!" Robin hurried off to find Lissa whom should be in attendance in the stands.
In the meantime, Vaike was busy punching a practice dummy, "Argh! When's it going to be my turn!?"
"And now for our next challengers!" the announcer was back to the middle of the arena.
Vaike perked up at this and was waiting eagerly to hear who was up next.
"It's not going to be you," Vincent was silently chuckling to himself on how Vaike was acting.
"Next up is Sully fighting for the East Khan and Imania fighting for the West Khan!" the crowd started applauding as the gates to both of the teams were opened.
Vaike grabbed Vincent by the shirt, "How did you know it wasn't me?! Are you a psychic!?"
"No! There was a list! A list" Vincent tried reasoning with the bull headed Vaike as he was shaken senseless.
"Finally, I've been waiting for my match for the past five days!" Sully cracked her neck as she hefted up her lance.
Similarly to before, both of the opponents approached the announcer and went over the very simple rules. When they acknowledged the rules, the announcer quickly made his way out of their way.
Sully stared down her opponent in front of her. Imania was a girl shorter than Sully with shoulder length blonde hair. She wore completely white robes and a black garb underneath them. In one of her hands seemed to be a red book with a flame on the cover of it.
"Well, here's to a good match," Sully extended her hand for a handshake.
Imania looked down to Sully's hand before returning her gaze back to the smirking Sully.
Imania extended her hand slowly towards Sully's, "Well, aren't you friendly?"
"Ah, to hell with friendliness! Fighters in a one on one battle should just show respect for each other, you know?" Sully grinned as she waited for Imania to shake her hand.
"Well, that's nice to hear," Imania stopped moving her hand towards Sully's and pulled it back. She then quickly formed a scowl across her face, "Because I hadn't planned on showing any friendliness or respect to filth."
Sully's grin quickly subsided, but she then smirked as she spun her lance around pointing it towards Imania, "Oh, I will so enjoy kicking your butt all across this stadium."
"I would LOVE to see an inferior being such as you even attempt that," Imania opened her book and started to form a ball of fire in her hand.
"Well, things are already getting heated! Let's stop wasting time! Ready? Begin!" The announcer didn't wait any longer to signal the start of the second match.
Imania wasted no time in firing off the fireball she had already formed straight for Sully's head. At practically point blank range there wasn't much time to do anything other than take the attack. So, Sully whirled around her lance as the fireball collided into it sending flames scattering off around her.
With her opponent relying only on magic, Sully went straight in to attack her. Imania, however, was quicker than she appeared. The mage dodged out of the way avoiding getting skewered by Sully's lance as she readied another spell. She held another ball of flame in her hand as she increased the distance between her and Sully.
Sully wasted no time in pursuing her enemy. She went into a full blown sprint after the retreating mage. With her lance ready, Sully swung for Imania during the chase. Imania ducked under the attack and let loose her second fireball. The flaming orb came crashing down next to Sully but only left scorch marks across her armor.
Keeping up with the chase, Sully aimed instead for her opponent's legs to try and trip her. Imania hopped over the lance and fired off a smaller fireball than her last two just to slow down Sully. The attack connected with Sully's leg causing her to halt in the chase. Imania smirked as she put more and more distance between Sully. Imania then prepared another spell. This time she intended to do some serious damage as she had plenty of time to concentrate.
Noticing the unusually large fireball in Imania's hand, Sully knew that it spelt bad news for her if she got struck by it.
"Proper filth like you should just be burnt," Imania sent a smile to Sully as the fire in her hand grew to an even larger size.
"Oh? Then are you gonna cast that spell on yourself later too?" Sully smirked as she loosened up her muscles to dodge the spell.
The spell in Imania's hand started to distort in form as she scowled ferociously at Sully's comment. Sparks of fire went scattering to her sides as she struggled to keep the overall spell in a solid shape.
"W-Why you-!? Burn!" Imania let go of the large fireball and sent it hurling straight at her opponent.
Sully surprised the audience in the crowd by going into a charge for the fireball as well. The size of the flaming orb was at least her entire body size maybe even bigger. Its speed was no joke either. Sully would have at least a few seconds to make a dodge, but she was cutting this time shorter by running straight for the attack. At this point she would only be able to dodge maybe just by a hair if she was lucky.
The entire stadium was full of gasps. Almost the entire audience was standing up to catch the full moment of what was going to occur.
As Sully got only a few feet away from the fireball, she had to make a choice. It was sink or swim time. The radiating heat of the attack could be felt as she neared it. Deciding now, Sully wanted to swim.
She took her lance and stabed the end of its blade into the dirt of the arena. As her pole started to line up parallel with her body, she leaped up and pushed off her weapon. She pole vaulted up and over the fireball as it connected with her lance she left behind. The resulting explosion of the spell caused Sully to fly maybe a bit too much further than she intended but she landed into a roll just a few feet away from Imania.
Recovering from her jump, Sully got up and sent a high kick for Imania. For a few seconds, Imania was shocked. She shook herself from the momentary weakness and ducked under Sully's kick just in the nick of time.
"You're a nimble one aren't ya?" Sully raised both of her fists up in front of her face.
"And you a stubborn one," Imania grunted as she dodged one of Sully's straight jabs.
Imania spotted Sully going for a gut punch and went to block. She, however, didn't realize she was holding her tome in front of her. Sully saw the opening and pulled back her punch and kicked Imania's tome up and out of her hands sending it flying away from the both of them.
Now being unarmed as well, Imania raised her fists to continue fighting, "To think I'd be forced into such barbarianism."
Sully laughed as she went for an uppercut that Imania dodged, "Barbarianism?! Listen, missy, a good fist fight might teach you to be more respectful."
Imania huffed in anger and grabbed one of Sully's straight jabs. She then shot a right hook for Sully that connected on her head.
Sully recoiled from the attack, but managed to keep it together and sent a knee into Imania's gut knocking the air out of her. The mage latched onto Sully's leg before she could pull it away, however, and started to lift it up to throw her off her feet. Catching onto the idea, Sully focused on keeping her balance while trying to free her leg.
When Sully started to struggle, Imania let go of her leg to ensure that she would throw herself off balance. The plan worked slightly as Sully barely managed to catch herself before she fell. When she looked back to where Imania had been, she saw that the mage was making a run for her spell book.
Sully pursued close behind Imania and tackled her to the ground just a couple of feet before the book. She got off of Imania and back into a fighting stance. The red haired knight stood in between Imania and her spell book before kicking it further away.
Waving her hand a few times she beckoned for Imania to get up, "Come on. A fight shouldn't be fought on the ground."
Imania got up slowly with a burning anger in her eyes as she raised her fists again, "You simpleton. I'll teach you not to disgrace me with your pity."
Both of the fighters sounded like they were running on fumes. The next good hit could end the fight for either of them.
A stray jab came flying for Imania that she weakly dodged. The mage tried to return the attack, but Sully narrowly dodged as well. Imania then sent a kick into Sully's rib cage that forced her to stumble. Recovering from the shock, Sully hit Imania with a quick gut punch staggering her.
The crowd couldn't believe what they were seeing. This was the kind of fight they had hoped for. An all-out struggle between two fighters that would truly show who was the strongest of the two. Needless to say, the crowd was losing their minds.
Feeling the exhaustion weighing them down, both fighters went for a heavy hit on the other. Sully sent a right hook for Imania's head while the mage sent her left leg for a high kick on Sully's head.
Neither of them cared or had the energy to dodge the other's attack. Both strikes connected and sent each of the competitors stumbling away. Their vision had gotten blurry from the blows they both received and they struggled to even stay focused.
The officials of the battle watched intensely as they were waiting to see who would be the first to fall. Whoever fell first would be the loser while the other would be the winner.
Stumbling back and forth, Sully felt her legs and eyesight giving out on her. She tried to focus all of her attention on standing. As her vision faded she caught Imania falling. Then she saw nothing but darkness.
Just seconds before Imania fell completely, she caught herself barely by throwing out both of her hands in front of her. Sully, on the other hand, tumbled backwards and crashed flat against the ground out cold.
"There's the second winner everyone! It's Imania! Second point goes to the West Khan! Score: 1-1!" The announcer ran to Imania's side and supported her to show off the second match's winner.
Meanwhile, Sully had to be placed onto a makeshift stretcher and hauled immediately out and into the infirmary. Her team wasn't feeling the same joy the crowd was.
Imania was placed onto a makeshift stretcher as well and taken out the same way as Sully.
Back with the East Khan's team, the four remaining were surprisingly quiet after Sully's declared loss. Robin and Vincent had taken to sitting down on a wooden bench while Frederick sat across from them.
The great knight removed all of his armor and was only wearing his suit he always kept on underneath. He looked to be heavily inspecting the cracks in his armor probably thinking of repairs for it later.
Vaike continued to beat on the poor practice dummy that was almost completely broken. His practice fighting seemed like it was wearing him out or maybe he was simply breathing heavily on purpose.
Lissa was down in the waiting area as well as Donnel whom followed her down when Robin grabbed her. The two of them seemed to feel the serious tension filling the air around the others.
"Care to stop?" Vincent shifted his gaze over to Vaike who had just punched the head off of the dummy he was mercilessly beating.
For a second Vaike considered hitting the dummy again, but instead huffed in anger and leaned against a wall. He slid down the wall until he was in a seated position with his arms crossed.
"You're up next, right?" Vaike turned his head to look at Robin.
"Yeah… I was just… thinking," Robin held both of his hands together in front of his face. He looked like he was in deep thought.
"Come on, guys! There's still three more matches! We'll win this!" Lissa had gotten up and put on her best cheerful face.
Donnel grinned as well when Lissa turned the pep on. The others in the room gazed at the both of them for a second before returning back to a more serious atmosphere.
Lissa pouted and wanted to start whacking each and every one of them with her staff, but Donnel managed to hold her back.
"H-Hey, why not try readin' that book, Vince? That'll clear your head!" Donnel grabbed a yellow thunder tome and held it in front of Vincent.
Vincent eyed it for a brief second before taking it out of Donnel's hands. He opened it and noticed the first few pages of the book were blank. He shook his head before handing it back to Donnel, "This isn't my book, Donny."
"Sorry, I think that's mine. Here, I think this one was yours, right?" Robin had gotten up to trade the yellow tome he was holding in his possession.
"Now, for the third match of the day! Everybody give a big round of applause for our next combatants! On the East Khan's side is Robin!" the announcer was doing a phenomenal job at pumping up the crowd around him.
A slow cog in Vincent's mind had started to turn while he slowly traded books with Robin.
"W-Wait, he's a mage," Vincent thought to himself as he came to the sudden realization watching Robin take the book from his hands.
"You can read this stuff, right?" Vincent's eyes looked like they were ready to fall out of his head.
"Huh? Of course. How else would I be able to cast the spells?" Robin was heading towards the gate when he stopped momentarily to regard Vincent.
"T-Then can you teach me the language? Just tell me one line before you go out there!" Vincent had gotten up from his seat to catch up to Robin.
"Well, I mean it's another language so…," Robin turned his head as he heard the gate being slowly opened.
"And on the West Khan's side is the old no longer undefeated champion, Lon'qu!" the gates to both the teams finished opening as the announcer gave out the last name.
"Just tell me what does this say," Vincent traced under a line in the book with his finger.
Robin laughed and walked backwards out the gate, "You're first problem is you're reading it backwards. I'll teach you it afterwards if you'd like."
The gates closed in between the two of them and Robin turned around to head towards the announcer. With book still open in hand, Vincent stood perplexed at what Robin had informed him.
"I'm reading it… backwards?" Vincent's eyes fell down towards the book in his hands while the third match was about to begin.
Marching towards each other, both Robin and Lon'qu met with the announcer of the arena standing between them. Lon'qu had slightly spiked black hair and always held a katana on his side. His clothing was starkly different than other Feroxians and yet still seemed fit for the cold nipping weather. He wore a long blue coat that fell down to heels on his backside. The coat had short sleeves with fur cuffs to help with the frosty climate. He had two red straps wrapped around his gut and his boots also had fur cuffs around the top of them while his pants were white.
The rules passed into both of the contestants heads and they silently agreed to them. With the announcer no longer in between them, Robin extended his hand to Lon'qu in a similar fashion that Sully did to Imania.
"To a fair match," Robin smiled as he held his hand to Lon'qu.
Eyeing Robin's hand for a few seconds Lon'qu finally accepted it, "Respectable. I will try to make this a quick loss for you."
A small bead of sweat fell down Robin's forehead as he awkwardly retracted his hand from Lon'qu.
"Now it's time for the third match of the day! Ready? Fight!" a loud explosion of energy surged forward from the crowd as they got pumped to see another fight.
Both contestants slowly drew their weapons with excellent precision. Lon'qu drew his katana, and Robin, his sword and magic tome in either hand. They fell into combative stances and stared at each other for what felt like minutes.
Inevitably, an attack was fired off from Robin. He shot a bolt of electricity for Lon'qu to gauge his abilities. Anticipating the attack before it was even launched, Lon'qu had already guessed he should dodge to his left which was towards Robin's sword hand.
Robin winced after watching how fast Lon'qu dodged his attack. He knew he would be fast, but not that fast!
"Ok, ok. Think of a plan. Thinking of a plan… Wishing I was still playing chess… Oh, gods!" Robin barely managed to bring his sword up in order to defend himself from Lon'qu's incoming katana.
The katana wielder wasted no time in making a hasty retreat after failing his first strike. He already had his strategy down pat in his head. Get in for a strike. If you miss, fall back and wait. When you see an opening, head in for another strike. Rinse and repeat.
Robin, on the other hand, was still busy formulating one. He could certainly play the ranged game, but his opponent has already proven capable of dealing with that. He also wasn't much of a person to "judge a book by its cover", but he could bet Lon'qu outmatched him in swordplay.
Such is the woes for a tactician when you have too many options and not enough solutions. He fired off another bolt from his tome. The trajectory and power was exactly the same as the last and Lon'qu followed by dodging in the same manner as before. Lon'qu then started to charge for Robin.
Already remembering that a katana was going to be swung at him, Robin waited in anticipation. He dodged to the side as Lon'qu brought his katana up to swipe across his chest. Then, the tactician blocked an incoming horizontal swipe with his sword. As Lon'qu retracted his blade he noticed Robin charging a spell from his tome in his other hand.
Dodging back, Lon'qu kept his eyes fixated on the magical book radiating with sparks. A much larger bolt of energy shot towards Lon'qu. Once again, he dodged towards Robin's right but only barely. He moved into Robin's guard not wanting to let him get off another spell like the last.
As Lon'qu approached with his katana overhead, Robin raised his sword to defend himself. The attack turned out to be a fake as Lon'qu quickly shifted his attack to a horizontal swipe. Robin barely managed to step back in time as the katana cut through part of his clothing. Not letting up in his assault, the former champion lunged forward with his katana. Robin managed to get his sword to force Lon'qu's off path even if just a little. The katana meant for Robin's gut grazed past his side leaving an incision as it went past.
Not enjoying his odds being this close to his opponent, Robin fired off a quickly charged spell in between the two of them. The spell kicked up a poof of dirt that momentarily covered both of their eyesight.
Using the opportunity he provided himself, Robin in the opposite direction of his foe.
"Just a little more… I've almost got it!" Robin grunted in pain from his wound as he turned back around to see Lon'qu starting in pursuit of him.
Taking in a deep breath, he charged another spell. Not wasting a second, he shot the attack for Lon'qu who dodged to the side he always did. Unlike all the other times, however, another spell was being shot for him after he dodged. Noticing the path of the second spell, Lon'qu stopped in his tracks to avoid getting struck by lightning as it were. The spell crashed into the ground a couple of feet in front of Lon'qu causing a poof of dirt to fly up in front of him again blinding his sight of Robin.
Trying to quickly wave away the cloud of dust, Lon'qu was eager to be able to see again. With a couple of quick waves, he parted some of the cloud just in time to see Robin a few feet away from him charging towards him. Startled by the change in the battle, Lon'qu got ready to block. It was a second too late though. Robin impaled his sword through Lon'qu's lower abdomen and quickly retracted it.
Breathing heavily from exhaustion, Robin dropped his sword and tome to support the falling Lon'qu. He slung Lon'qu's arm over his shoulder to keep him from falling.
The announcer wasted no time in performing his job, "There you have it! Robin is the third match's winner!"
A long drawn out applause came out from the crowd. Possibly even more than the last two winners since Robin was helping an injured Feroxian.
As Lon'qu clutched his wound, his eyebrows furrowed, "I lost… again?"
Noticing Lon'qu's disappointment, Robin interjected as he carried him towards a team of medics, "Uh… Just… try not to stick to the same pattern. It was easy to guess you would run to my right after a bit."
Lon'qu stared at the white haired man that was supporting him across the arena, "Hmph… Perhaps."
"Things are getting heated aren't they?! The score stands 2-1 with the East Khan in the lead! We'll be taking a short break so please enjoy the halftime entertainment!" the halftime of the tournament was starting. A short break was being given in between the fights to let the crowd unwind after watching back to back fights.
In the meantime, a certain person was discovering how deceptively simple a "different" language was, "Ow! Son of a-! It's like a million needles running down your arm!"
Done and done.
Fights, fights, and more fights! I can't begin to explain how long I spent thinking about these fights. I had set goals in mind, but some things change when you start actually writing out things. Original scripting dictated Robin would lose, but going into the fight I remembered he's a clever little bugger that would more than likely win even though Lon'qu probably outmatches him in terms of skill (Literally).
Funny thing involving the tomes. I actually wanted ALL writing to look differently than English. It's another dimension and all that jazz. Although they may speak English, an a could've looked like a 2. However, past me a couple months ago screwed up with that damn axe in the display case. Past me wanted to sprinkle a teensy tiny bit of history and ended up screwing everything up. I'm not about to rewrite that small bit either nor this simply because of it. I'll instead go along with my mistake. So now, I am going with a different approach of the writing in the tomes.
Anyways, I'm far too tired for this. Leave a review for what you liked/disliked or if I made some sort of error. Also send over a PM if you have any ideas/questions.