Hello everyone and welcome back to HellFall!
Well I've had a pretty uneventful week. Not that the week has really even started yet, but I'm more referring to last week. Watched a couple movies and that's about it. Still pretty good though, nice and relaxing.
Anyways, this chapter is yet another fight, and a somewhat important one at that. We're finally getting back to the tournament. So please, enjoy this week's chapter!
I had to run, just to make sure that I made it in time. Better to be thirty minutes early than five minutes late, although I knew that I wouldn't be there thirty minutes early.
When I made it there, I found Grizzly standing next to Ember, and Wintanweorth pacing back and forth, his scroll in hand.
"Hey, sorry I'm late." I said, stopping before them, "I had to deal with something first"
"What could be so important?" Wintanweorth asked, clearly frustrated.
"A home invasion perhaps?" I asked, a little annoyed. He had no way of knowing, but I was irritated nonetheless.
"Are you okay?" Grizzly asked, stepping forward, "What happened?"
"The guy, Rain Fall, from last night was inside my house when I got there"
"Did you beat him?" He asked, "Well, of course you did. You're here"
"No, I lost." I replied, "He let me go"
"You should probably report that" Wintanweorth said.
"I reported last night's attack already." I replied, "But I'll talk to Al again after the match"
"Al?" Grizzly asked.
"He's an officer I ran into at the police station." I replied, "He's the one I made the report to"
"Who did you say attacked you?" Wintanweorth asked.
"Rain Fall"
He scratched his white-haired head, "I recognize the name" He said, thinking.
"Cinder Fall" Grizzly reminded him.
Wintanweorth shook his head, "No, he said Rain Fall"
"I mean the last name" Grizzly said.
"I don't know who Cinder Fall is either." Wintanweorth said, "But I recognize Rain Fall a little"
"Could Team WRGE please report to the arena?" Came a rather annoyed voice over the intercom.
Wintanweorth shrugged, "We'll figure it out later" He finally said, turning and heading towards the double doors leading to the battle arena. We all followed.
"UP NEXT…" started the announcer as we opened the doors, "WE HAVE TEAM WRGE, WHO HAS MANAGED TO PULL ITSELF THROUGH TWO CLOSE VICTORIES! AND ON THE OTHER SIDE, TEAM VAIN, WHO HAS MANAGED TO BREEZE THROUGH EVERY MATCH!"
I saw that among our opponents was Grizzly's caretaker, Nicole Rozovyy. She wore the same bright pink dress she had earlier, and her hair was tied up into two ponytails on either side of her head. She held a massive silver pole in her hand. On one end was a thick one-edged blade, and on the other was a lance-blade.
The other three members I did not recognize.
"Who're the others?" I asked Grizzly. I assumed he'd know, considering he knew Nicole.
He pointed at each one, "I believe that's the leader, Veil Fairfax. Then there's Anchor Franco and Barnabas Ito"
The one he'd called Veil Fairfax wore a tight, white, sleeveless, zippered shirt and similar pants. Both had a purple trim going down the sides of the legs, around the arm-holes, and on either side of the zipper. She wore white wrist covers and white boots, both with purple trim. Her skin was pale, and freckles dotted her face. She had pink eyes and pale white-purple short hair. Her bangs were parted and some strands of hair were tucked behind her ears. It still hung out in front of her cheeks though. She had massive white wings protruding from her back, covered in feathers. In her hand she held a blue rapier. I couldn't quite make out the details of the blade from where I stood on the other side of the arena.
Anchor Franco wore a grey jacket over his bare chest, and a big dark yellow scarf around his neck. It was somewhat hard to tell that he was even shirtless. He wore jet black jeans and steel-toed brown boots. He had a dark red eye patch wrapped around his head, covering his left eye. A scuba mask covered his mouth. We're on land, what do you need that for? I wondered. He had shaggy grey hair, and curving goat horns sticking out of his head. He held a chain with a massive grey anchor at the end over his shoulder, as if it was nothing. To him it probably was. His name certainly suits him, I thought.
Barnabas Ito wore a brown muscle shirt and a sandy-brown jacket over top. It appeared to hang off his shoulders. His legs were covered by brown cargo pants, covered with pockets. He wore a crimson colored bandana around his forehead. A black spiked collar was wrapped around his neck. His skin was tanned brown, but not nearly as dark as Wintanweorth's. His hair was just a little bit darker than his skin. It reached down to his lower neck and was shaggy in the back. In the front his bangs hung out over his bandana in the middle, but the rest of it was pushed aside. His eyes were narrow and dark orange. He held an axe in his hand, with an orange shaft and triangular blades on either side.
The two males in the team were rather intimidating, but the females just had bright and distracting clothing. Nicole's weapon was pretty intimidating too though.
We both stood on opposite ends of the arena, waiting for the battle to start.
"AND…" the announced started, "BEGIN!"
Our team charged, but VAIN started walking casually. This threw me off for a second, but by the time we reached them I'd forgotten all about it.
I reached Barnabas Ito first. He swung out his axe in an uppercut. Spinning and dodging at the same time, I swung out ShoGun. He blocked the blow as if it were nothing.
I felt a sharp kick to my back and stumbled forward. Barnabas brought up his knee, hitting me hard in the chin. I fell to the ground and lay there for a moment. These guys had taken me out immediately without even breaking a sweat.
Trying to think of a strategy, I leapt back to my feet, transforming ShoGun into a gun. Grizzly was being tossed around like he was a toy by Anchor, and Wintanweorth and Ember were back-to-back, facing Nicole and Veil. Barnabas had already turned around, as if he thought I was defeated.
I charged towards Barnabas again, firing off three blasts. The first hit him in the back of his head. He stumbled forward, but ducked and turned quickly, avoiding the other two shots. He charged towards me, axe in two hands. The blades retracted into the staff, and he gripped it where they had once been. The tip opened up, and he cocked a fore-end that I hadn't seen initially. I heard the click of a trigger as he fired off a bullet. Quickly returning ShoGun to its blade state, I dodged to the side, knowing that the bullet would explode and spray, making it impossible to block with a blade.
Barnabas altered his charge just as I swung out my blade, catching his ankles and sending him face-first into the stone ground.
He stood, weapon returned to its axe state. I approached him and swung. He swung back, and we exchanged a flurry of quick, powerful strikes. Neither of us were getting hit. Activating the vibrating blade of ShoGun, I managed to gain the upper hand. He was caught off guard, and I cut open his side. Blood spilled out, but he held on. He'd stopped long enough to glance at it. It wasn't bad, luckily. Still, he was weakened, and I managed to cut and hit him enough to send him to the ground.
Veil appeared suddenly, kicking me hard in the face. I fell backwards, but quickly recovered. I swung out ShoGun, and he stabbed her rapier forward. Sidestepping behind her, I avoided the blow and slammed my elbow into the back of her neck. She started to fall, but caught herself, swinging back up and slamming the back of her neck back into my elbow. It threw me off long enough for her to hit me with the hilt of her sword right in the gut. I lifted into the air for a second, but quickly recomposed myself.
As I straightened I found myself face to face with the tip of Veil's rapier. Looking down the blade, I saw that it was a shining dark grey. The whole weapon seemed to be made to resemble a blue dragonfly, where the blade was the tail, the wings were the guard, and the head was the pommel.
"Interesting weapon design" I said, dropping ShoGun and raising my hands in surrender.
"Thanks" she replied, pulling her weapon back to her side and turning to the rest of her team.
I saw that Ember and Wintanweorth were resting on the ground, panting. Grizzly was lying face-first on the ground.
Picking up and sheathing ShoGun, I walked over to the couple and joined them on the ground.
"Nice job Roy." Wintanweorth said between breaths, "Unfortunately you were the only one fighting in the end. Sorry"
"We all did our best." I replied, "Now we know the extent of our abilities, and can continue to improve"
"Heh," Wintanweorth gasped out a laugh, "How do you still have the breath to say that, or even to think of that?"
"I was outmatched," I replied, "but I still have energy to fight"
"Then why didn't you?"
"Because Veil had me beat." I replied, "Had it been a real fight, she'd have made a shish kabob out of my head. I knew I was beat"
"Right"
Grizzly dragged himself over to us, "Man, they're good" He panted.
"AND THE WINNER IS TEAM VAIN!" the announcer called, "WHAT AN ASTOUNDING BATTLE ON BOTH SIDES, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WRGE IS GOING TO HAVE TO THROW IN THE TOWEL THIS TIME!"
I turned and saw Team VAIN walking back to the other side of the arena, waving to the audience.
Grizzly picked himself up and walked over to the team as the audience cheered them on. He went and shook all their hands, congratulating them on their victory. We all stood and did the same.
"Good fight" I said, shaking Anchor's hand. He nodded, not saying a word.
Barnabas smiled and gripped my hand tightly, "Indeed, you were quite good"
Nicole just smiled and returned the gesture.
"You too," Veil said, "You're quite formidable, but you just need to take your time a bit more. Don't rush into the fight"
"Thanks" I replied, having no advice to offer back. Veil Fairfax was very talented, and probably didn't need it anyway.
They disappeared through the double doors on the other side, and we returned to our side.
Outside Wintanweorth heaved a sigh of relief.
"What is it?" Grizzly asked.
"I'm kind of glad that's over." He replied, "Now I can focus more on my new job"
"So this is it?" Grizzly asked, sounding a little disappointed.
The older man scratched the boy's shaggy head and opened his mouth to speak, but someone else took the words from him first.
"Not quite yet"
We turned, seeing a man with long crimson hair covering one side of his face and a heavy brown jacket.
So there you have it. WRGE didn't make it, but they were pitted against VAIN, so what can you expect? Also, a better introduction to Nicole's team! What do you guys think? Surprised that Nicole isn't the leader? Probably not, considering the team was introduced briefly a while ago. But either way I'm curious about what you guys think of them.
Also, someone at the end of the chapter. I'm sure ya'll know who he is. If you don't then you might have somewhat bad memory, sorry to say. No matter, though, you'll figure it out next week.
I've been writing a bit more in HellFall recently, and I realized that no one has died lately. I'm not trying to hint at anything, but it was just a thought that I had. Kind of an odd thing to think about, though, now that I think about it. Thinking about a thought, how interesting. It's like Inception, or Thinkception more like (not really).
Anyways, as usual, favorite, follow, review, tell your friends, tell your enemies, or don't if you don't want to, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!