Disclaimer: I own my characters. But there are some other characters that appear here that I don't own. How did they get here!?-;
So I made it to Round 1 of Rapidfyrez's OC Tournament. My opponent was none other than Ultimate10! So I just want to say that I tried my best to do justice to his character, and I hope that he can enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it. With that said, let's get into this piece!
This story may also contain some spoilers for my future adventures involving the Guardians of Dimensions. Still, I hope they at least draw the right attention and give you an entertaining collection of words to read. Is this any good? Maybe, maybe not! At the very least, I hope you enjoy it for what it is. Now let's get this show on the road!
The Calling-Enter Kulalu
Round 1: Tempered in Lava (Or Weasels Burn My Flesh!)
It had been a good long while of strolling through the halls, but it had finally gotten to him. Kulalu was bored. He was also worried, and had good reason to be. The halls of the station were aged and dark, and the feeling of the place was only more unsettling due to the signs of gothic architecture here and there. Yet he had not encountered so much as a spider in this time he spent wandering about.
"Boy, I could sure use a map right about now." Kulalu sighed aloud as he continued to twirl his umbrella while walking. "Maybe even a snack, or something at least to pass the time."
Such complaints may seem trivial, but for Kulalu, they were his way of coping with the situation he was trapped in. At the same time, his mind was still occupied with attempts to identify the one and how to deal with being without his usual powers and resources.
The problem wasn't that Kulalu never prepared for such an occurrence, or at least not entirely. No, the issue came from the fact that this mysterious being was so thorough in ringing him here and ensuring he had no help. His kidnapping took place during a time where he wouldn't be prepared to fight, because for the most part no one could even be aware of the S.T.A.R.L.I.G.H.T.'s existence and whereabouts when it traveled through the rifts. Thus, this antagonist must not only be extremely powerful, but also had to possess a great deal of knowledge about the world traveler on a personal level.
"Every enemy I could think of just doesn't match up to the crime." Kulalu pondered. "Any world conqueror I've ticked off in our encounters would have rather tried to kill me off in the void, not send me here to die. It can't be Ulala, she and I were on more civilized terms last time we encountered one another. Could it be the Unsung? Maybe some kind of leader in their numbers? Another one of Paradox's mistakes? Errr! I just don't know!"
His musings were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps echoing in the halls. The masked traveler immediately jumped at the chance to meet, whoever this was. Be they friend, or foe at least they would be someone to talk to in this empty place. Hopefully they would more than likely be the former so that way there could be a better chance of getting off this station alive.
Eventually, after much more walking through the desolate hallways, he finally came across the source of the footsteps: It was another person!
He was dressed in a reddish-orange long coat with orange highlights, black pants, black leather boots, and a black tricorne hat. He was standing tall at a good height with his body being semi-muscular and rather lanky. His facial features included a long and sharp chin, and eyes of a charcoal gray hue. With all that said, what seemed to be the tipping point of his appearance was his long, black hair with bangs that are tipped with red dye. That and he kept one hand constantly on the sword that was sheathed and hanging from his back.
"Hello! How do you do? My name is Kulalu!" He tipped his hat. "What's your name, sir?"
The man turned to face him as if waiting for something to occur. When nothing happened, he seemed to decide that the only way to proceed from here was to respond to this strange masked gentleman.
"Humph, I suppose I can grant you the courtesy of knowing my name." The orange garbed man replied curtly. "I am Joe Magtartus. Master of the Rabid Weasels."
Kulalu wasn't familiar with anything in that sentence. So of course, he had to ask questions, starting out with the thing that stuck out the most.
"Rabid Weasels?" Kulalu asked with honest curiosity. "Is that like a band, or are you really the leader of a group of furry animals?"
An annoyed tic mark appeared on Joe's forehead at the question. "What?"
Immediately, the crazy count's hands went up in defense. "Hey, I mean no offense, just want to clarify it. In my experience, both are actually plausible answers, believe it or not!"
This barely kept the man's temper from a boiling point. "For your information, it happens to be one of the most powerful mage guilds in all of Fiore."
'Ah! A Fiorian. This might not be a bad person to try to reason with.' Kulalu hoped. He didn't want to make enemies with the first person he met in this place. Perhaps playing to his accomplishments might make him easier to talk about some form of alliance here.
"Really? Wow! So that means you beat Fairy Tail, right?" A large fist of lava suddenly flew at his face. Years of honed reflexes allowed him to jump and roll out of the way. "WHOAH!"
The magical circle that fist came from faded as Magtartus lowered his hand and stood ready to draw his sword. "I will show you exactly why that guild is a paltry band of weaklings compared to me!"
Kulalu got up, and wiped the dust off his clothes. At least now he knew for certain that this guy was in fact a mage.
"Yeesh, what's your problem? You act like you are part of a…" He then figured it out. "Oh great, you're a dark guild member."
"Oh I more than just some mere dark guild member." He smiled with ill intent as he slowly drew out his blade from the sheath. "I'll be sure to show you that."
It was a sword that had a handle of steely black metal. The blade itself was curved and actually composed of molten rocks and magma. Searing flames and heat could be seen emanating from its edges, displaying its dangerous ability to not only cut, but to burn with ferocious intensity. The moment the magma it appeared to be composed of glowed brighter, the mage charged at his opponent with a mighty blow meant to slice him in half from shoulder to hip.
The blow never came though, thanks to Kulalu's umbrella. Instead of being sliced through, or even showing a hint of melting due to the contact of the magma blade, the umbrella stood strong and kept the blow meant to deliver a fiery death at bay. This startled Magtartus for a moment, but then it made him more enraged, and so he drew back before unleashing an outbreak of furious strikes against the masked man before him.
Despite not using an actual sword, the crazy count showed great skill in swordplay. Each blow that was made in an attempt to strike him down was blocked by this wondrous item that he held. No matter which way Joe struck, whether it be for a leg, or a shoulder, Kulalu was able to move in such a way to prevent each strike from touching him. Finally the two mashed their blades against the other in one big attempt to strike down the other where he stood. Kulalu could feel the heat that radiated off the molten blade, causing condensation to slowly glaze over his mask due to the proximity alone. The heat however did not appear to affect Magtartus in any way however.
"Hmmm, the leader of the Rabid Weasels. I SUPPOSE that makes you good enough to be my opponent." Kulalu quipped as he continued to press back against the incoming attack.
"And what are you implying with that?"
"Well, it's just that all I have here is this handy dandy, umbrella." He tilted his head toward where it crossed with the mage's sword. The smile on his masked appeared to grow wider as he continued with his point. "While I'm sure that sword is nice and toasty, it certainly is not tough enough to even scrape my weapon in hand."
"I'll show you who's the weak one!" he jumped back and began a series of faster strikes with his blade. It seemed to be now enshrouded in a larger tongue of flame, and the heat coming off of it was now leaving deep black plumes of smoke. Despite the increase in his opponets intensity towards the fight, Kulalu saw this as playing out as he planned it.
'Good, he's mad. Men who get mad make mistakes, and swordsmen get predictable.'
Suddenly, something large and glowing molten orange flew at him. Kulalu thrust propelled his umbrella forward, opening it, and crouching low so that he would not get hit. The sudden impact, and the searing heat that he could hear coming off of the fabric told him that it was something burning. The matter drip off of it like rainwater made him grateful for whatever trace of his power that remained in his umbrella.
'Of course, that also assumes you only use your sword to fight, and not just haphazardly spout something as dangerous as lava everywhere!'
"Do you finally see what a fool you are to challenge me?" Magtartus shouted maniacally as his blade's tongue of flames seemed to now drip with freshly heated drops of lava. "Now you can either surrender, or run! Either way ends with you as a charred corpse to be melted down into oblivion!"
'Only one thing I can do…Hide!'
Kulalu threw his open umbrella at the lava mage's face. While not a lethal blow by any stretch of the imagination, it did its job of momentarily blinding him. As he knocked it away, he came to discover that the masked man that he was fighting was no longer in front of him.
"So you decided to run. HA! Just like a coward and a fool to do when in the face of their superior!" He bellowed as he began his search for him. "Now where are you?"
The masked man was actually hiding behind debris in the opposite direction of Joe was heading. He knew he didn't have long to come up with anything to counteract him before he was caught. Different facts rushed through his head as he tried to come up with something that would give him a chance to win.
'Ok, let's go over everything we know. This guy shoots magical lava. That means: a) he's able to melt you with a direct hit. b) he is probably the type who wouldn't bat an eye at being set on fire himself; so close range combat is a no. c) he is currently melting the walls, floor, and ceiling and making them SUPER HOT!'
"YEOUCH!" Kulalu backed away from the cover as he hurried to find another spot. The lava was spreading farther into the room. It was all thanks to the lava's mage's blade which was now expelling slashes of lava that superheated the wall, ceiling and floor of the hallway into a melting state. Their surfaces were not only hot, but also dripped molten slag like leaks from the rain. The area was much more dangerous to be in to say the least.
The mage seemed to have no problem walking on the melting floor. He almost lazily dragged his blade along and ignored all the lava that seemed to puddle out below his feet.
"Are you going to come out quietly, or do I have to melt this place down on top of us?" He shouted out. "Either way, I win!"
'That idiot!' Kulalu shouted in his mind, staring out as he hid in another hiding spot. While he wasn't sure the mage knew the ultimate result of his actions if he continued to heat up the hallway, the masked man could guess them pretty well. Even if he melted the entire place down and survived the searing heat of the molten metal, he would send them both into the void of space, more likely to die of decompression. Kulalu was in no mood to test if he could survive being in space, but he couldn't come up with any alternative options…except one.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the evoker. The mysterious voice had yet to speak to him again, but his words still rang heavily in his mind. This was going to be painful, but there was no other way to get out of this mess.
He slowly stepped out of his hiding spot and walked slowly to Magtartus. The mage turned to face him as he came into his view ready to strike him with a searing slash of lava. He stopped however when he saw Kulalu raise the apparent pistol to his head, ready to fire.
"Well, it looks like you can't take the heat after all." The mage laughed. "Fine, I suppose I can allow you to go out on your own terms."
Kulalu said nothing in retort. He stood stock still like a statue. However, his hand was shaking.
'When was the last time you felt this fear?' The voice seemed to echo again in his mind. Whether it was really speaking or not was something the masked man was not currently concerned with. 'Was it when you faced down the Unsung the first time? The day you could no longer face the one who wanted to be yours? Or was it when you realized that Ace's fate is inevitable? '
Kulalu ignored the tirade and everything else around him. He was more concerned with if this would really work or if it was just part of a ruse to make him die while thinking he had hope.
"I just put it to my head…and pull the trigger…no chickening out…"
"Then do it then!" Joe shouted. "Just get it over with you fool!"
"I told you. My name is Ku-"
"-la-"
"-lu!"
-Bang!-
It only took a bit of pressure from his finger as he exhaled. The gun fired and for a moment, Kulalu felt nothing. Then the pain kicked in.
The pain was dense as if it was pulling out marbles from the inside of his skull. It was as if his body was in confusion of how he could be alive when he just took a killing blow. There was now a debate on what he should be preserving within not just his physical form, but his mental state as well. He felt like he was dying but he wasn't; it was a painful sense of limbo that nearly drove him to his knees.
He called out for the first person he could think of. Someone who always seemed to be ready to defend him after all they had been through.
"Klank! Defend me!"
Before the mage could figure out what was happening and how this masked man didn't die from a shot directly to the head, glowing shards of what appeared to be glass flew from the nonexistent wound with enough force to knock off the top hat. The shards spiraled around, until they appeared to morph into the physical manifestation of a robot that appeared to be made of clockwork and gears. The newly summoned robotic butler ran up to Joe and delivered an uppercut that knocked him back.
"Klank!" Kulalu shouted in hope at seeing his friend. Maybe this power could provide a way to escape after all.
The robotic butler seemed to turn before disappearing. The masked man sighed in disappointment as he began to reach down for his hat.
'So, it really is just a figment-'
At the sight of the glowing circle on the ground, he jumped back to avoid the incoming pillar of lava. His hat was knocked back by the blast with singes clearly visible upon it.
"So, you're some king of suicidal celestial mage, I take it?"
Joe got back up on his feet, massaging his jaw a bit after taking the hit from the imaginary robot.
"Something like that." Kulalu straightened himself out. "I can see that you're not the type to hold back."
"Why hold back? I got places to be." He declared with his sword pointed at the masked man's direction. "And you're in my way of getting to them."
"I suppose I can agree with you there." Kulalu pointed the evoker once again at his head, ready to fire. "I too have places to be and you being in MY way is certainly not helping me get to them faster!"
"Then let's fix that!" he spun his sword, forming a large magical circle. "Lava Blast!"
"Po: Inner Peace!"
-Bang!-
From the shards of his mind, an anthropomorphic panda in golden, but stitched up shorts appeared in front of Kulalu. With slow and steady movement the panda grabbed onto the incoming comet of lava, and reversed its direction back to the castor. It was a direct hit. The only problem was that it was as effective as throwing a snow cone at a regular person.
"I can swim in this stuff!" Joe Magtartus jeered. "Did you really think I couldn't take a measly hit from it?"
"For a moment, I was really hoping." Kulalu sighed. So much for the old reversal strategy. He needed to come up with another plan and fast. The pain of using the evoker, while not too bad now, would undoubtedly become too unbearable to withstand the longer this fight was prolonged. Add in the factors of the intense heat and the fatigue bearing down on him, and Kulalu knew that his window of opportunity was dwindling down. He needed to hurry if he wanted to end this quickly.
'Maybe if I could move fast enough, I could avoid getting burned while hiting him? Worth a shot!'
"Sonic: Spindash!"
-Bang!-
A blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with red shoes appeared before Kulalu. However, instead of attacking Magtartus, it seemed to envelop the masked man, before he himself crouched into a ball, spun into a blurring motion, and then leapt at the lava mage.
"What in the name of-" Joe was knocked back into a wall before he could finish. The black ball bounced off, and into a spot on the wall across that was not melted. It bounced right off, and started coming for Magtartus for another hit. The mage hurried to his feet and readied his sowrd to deter the ball back, only finding that his strike only bounced it back to the wall without bursting into flames. It seemed to high speed that Kulalu was spinning prevented him from getting burned so long as the contact was minimal. He constantly bounced off the wall, and back at the mage. Joe could only get a few hits with his blade at the spinning black ball, but that only would cause it to bounce back onto another wall and gain another chance to slam into him again.
This went on for a while, before it seemed that Kulalu could spin no more, and so he fell from midair, and landed on the ground next to a wall. He slowly picked himself up, ignoring the pain from the wall's heat due to the pain in his head becoming less bearable in comparison.
"Oh! I'm making a note, to never do that again, especially with such a headache!" He groaned, feeling the room spin. Before he could stand up straight, he was knocked against the wall, with his neck being burned by the scalding touch of Magtartus's left hand covered in some form of molten armor. In his right, ready to deal the finishing blow was his magma blade, emitting flames that burned by their heat alone.
"Any last words?" He asked the masked man, while ready to launch a strike point blank, tightening his hold on Kulalu against the wall.
"Y-y-yeah." Kulalu struggled to get out. The heat was unbearable. The burning grip on his neck was intolerable. Add in the pain gnawing at his head and it was all an insufferable formula that gave him only one thing left to do.
He then revealed his evoker was in fact still in his hand. He pointed it to under his jaw, causing Magtartus's eyes to widen. He didn't hesitate to fire, knowing that despite the pain, he got the lava spewing mage right where he wanted him.
"Let It Go!"
-Bang!-
Kulalu's head flew back against the wall while expelling a flurry of luminescent shards from his head. They flew out and formed in the center of the hallway into a woman adorned in icy blue royal garments, and possessing a pale blonde head of hair and complexion that reflected the feeling of ice and snow.
Before Joe Magtartus could even do so much as to ready his sword to strike the woman, she spread her arms, and conjured a blizzard that could have turned an entire mountainside into a winter wonderland.
A explosion of ice and snow filled the hallway. As the seconds flew by a sheet of watery crystal glazed itself over every debris and surface. The ultimate result when it finally ceased with the woman's disappearance was frosty to say the least. Just looking at the scenery was enough to give a person the cold shivers. It was further amplified by the silence of it all. Not a sound or sign of movement could be seen from anywhere. It was as if time itself had frozen over.
There was one thing standing out in this frozen diorama of a space station's hallway in winter. When everything icy and motionless, there was still the barely surviving Kulalu. Although he struggled to remain up on his feet do to the strain of the evoker's shots and the battle bearing down on his body, he seemed unharmed by the cold.
"It seems you were right, Elsa." He joked as he twitched slightly due to the pain. "The cold never bothered you after all!"
He gave a short giggle, but found it his body too aching to continue it. Besides, he didn't want to strain himself more with this next crazy action he planned on doing. He reached for the now chilled remains of his hat and placed it back upon his head with as much dignity as he could muster.
"Let's see if this will work." He slowly lifted the evoker to his head, hoping that this wouldn't be the shot that ended him. "Fix-It Felix Jr.: Fix me up!"
-Bang!-
A short cartoony looking handyman appeared before the crazy count. The aptly named Fix-It Felix Jr. took out a golden hammer and gently tapped Kulalu wears he seemed to be injured and his clothing seemed to be damaged. However, instead of dealing damage, each hit repaired his clothing and treated his wounds good as new! By the time he disappeared, Kulalu was back to his formal and well groomed self with a swing in his step once again.
"Well, it didn't make my headache go away, but at least that healed everything else!" At this declaration, Kulau took off his top hat and tossed it into the air, having it land back in place on his head where it belonged. "Even my hat is fixed! HA! Now that's a lucky break!"
However, he noted there was one thing missing from his person: his umbrella. He looked around the frozen debris for it. It didn't take him long to find it, for it was near the now frozen lava mage, probably due to being swept up in the blizzard.
Joe Magtartus, lava mage and Leader of the Rabid Weasels guild was now in an icy cocoon, unable to move. He was posed as if he was blocking a strike at his face, while his sword found itself stabbed in the ground next to him made inert be the artic coating encompassing it. His powers over heat and lava seemed to be negated by the cold. However, it was probably because of them that he was still alive, albeit trapped in this glacial prison.
"Don't worry, I'll chip you out. A fire guy like you won't get frostbite." Kulalu snickered, feeling a bit better at knowing the fight was now over due to his opponent being for all intenat and purposes incapacitated. "Although, I think you might take this time to cool off for a while!"
If the lava mage could roll his eyes to the bad pun, he would've.
"By the way, want to know a secret?" Kulalu looked around suspiciously before moving towards the mage's ear and whispered into it. "Surrender or run are not the only options I have against guys like you. Just keep that between us, ok?"
He gave the frozen Joe Magtartus, a good natured pat on the shoulder before walking away. Suddenly, he turned and ran right up to him, jumped up, and kicked him with enough force to knock him back and onto the ground. The ice cracked around his form, as steam seemed to emit from it. Yet, it still wasn't enough to free the mage or grant him the ability to speak, only sufficient to provide him with air to prevent suffocating.
"Ooops! Looks like he didn't shatter!" Kulalu shouted dramatically while comically shrugging his shoulders. "Guess I must suck at dishing out fatalities. Oh well, it looks like he'll just have to live with the fact that he lost to a crazy powerless guy like me!"
He then walked away from the frozen hallway, singing a tune about ice and snow and how there is some miser who is all about the stuff. Despite that last bout of silliness, he knew he got his point across to those he knew where watching him throughout the entire fight.
"I'll play the game, but don't expect me to play it like some assassin getting free thrills, cause that's not who I am!"
O
This message, while unspoken, was made clear to the being watching the fight since its beginning. Normally he would have sent more things their way to make the fight more interesting. This time however, he decided not too for the chance that it could have ended things too quickly. If there was one thing that could be boring in a fight, it was when things ended too quickly…as well as painlessly, but the chances for that were slim.
Still, this transgression against his idea of fun would not be ignored.
"So you decided to not lay the finishing blow after all, huh?" The Caretaker sneered. "Well, I hate to give the impression that I don't punish those who would dare disrupt the way the tournament is meant to play out."
He motioned for a series of buttons on his control panel that would unleash a number of 'security safeguards' that would be unleashed upon the masked count and the opponent who lost to him. While the one named Kulalu might have a chance to confront them, the same could not be said for the lava mage from Fiore. Before he could push them however, he was stopped by the sound of static coming up from one of his screens.
"You should probably let him go."
The multi-limbed overseer of S-6-S seemed to almost frown at the intrusion of the voice. "Oh, and you think you can tell me what to do?"
"Oh, no, it's not that at all." The voice emitting from the static countered. The static screen then focused on the frozen Magtartus, zooming in on his face, showing a frozen expression that was more akin to despair than anger. "See, death is too quick and painless for that one. Sure he will probably emit the absolute sense of despair were his life to end at this moment knowing he lost, but it will be too quick to properly enjoy."
The screen then once again became the static.
"No, if you let him live, knowing that he gave it his all, was given a weakened opponent, and still lost in such an embarrassing fashion while seeing his opponent not even finding him worth finishing off, that self-loathing will fester, bringing him more suffering. And with more suffering, it becomes even more hilarious to watch!"
The screen then focused on Kulalu, who was walking through the halls, and appeared to have come across some form of med-kit in the debris and remains of past fighters. He could be seen taking some pills, probably to treat his lingering headache from using the evoker.
"As for Kulalu. He may have won this round, but not without cost. He's learned that his power now comes with a price. Even more so, it is one he can avoid if he goes straight for the killing blow, which he may be more inclined to do seeing how his first opponent was one who sought power, not an 'alliance'."
The way the voice said that word further radiated the disdain it apparently had for Kulalu's inclination to form bonds with others.
"Rest assured, if anything, Kulalu realizes that he hasn't won. He's only been spared…for now!"
The Caretaker's manic grin seemed to widen even more deviously than usual at that reasoning.
"Well, now, that changes everything!" The Caretaker clapped his hands at this chance for more things to amuse him. "Very well then. I suppose killing the mage of now would spoil the chance to see him suffer with the loss…as well as what will occur when that master he now follows arrives to pick up the newest failure in that new pack of underlings he has! HeeHEE!"
Oh yes, The Caretaker would be sure to watch out for when that happened. The so called villains of the universe tended to come up with some of the most entertaining punishments to condemn their underling to for their failures.
"I suppose I could let the Cosmic Clown further explore the marvels of my wonderland!" Oh how he looked forward to showing them to him and everyone else in the second round. "Still, you realize his luck cannot hold out for much longer."
"Of course. Still, we cannot help but to admire him for his delusions that he has a chance. He still has another round to go before even facing the worst that your station has to offer."
The Caretaker cackled in agreement as the voice seemed to take this opportunity to leave. Before the static faded, a symbol appeared briefly on the screen. It looked like a squarish spiral that was barbed. It was almost like the emblem of the Unsung.
To be continued…?
Can Kulalu keep up his now earned winning streak?
What will happen in Round 2?
What will become of Joe Magtartus?
Who will Kulalu face next and will they be another enemy, or a friend willing to help him out?
And who is this mysterious stranger that has dragged him into this situation in the first place and what is the connection to their emblem?
Find out all this and more, next time on The Calling!