Chapter 29: Raging Winds and Tolling Bells

While Rosa and Maiale were still recovering, the next match started. Like the previous match, two girls were chosen to compete, but they were not from the same family. On one side was Cielo, holding two scrolls in one hand with a determined expression on her face. While Pallamano, who was still carrying the purple polka dot parasol, took up the other side of the arena. Beni Niro and Scar Face cheered Cielo on loudly, with Gelato covering his ears next to them. Voluta paid no attention to the cheers and watched Cielo with slight worry.

"What's wrong, Voluta, aren't you going to show support for your comrade?" Gelato asked.

Voluta scuffed. "An idiot like you wouldn't understand what it's like to watch a comrade enter a fight with a possible chance of losing."

This made Gelato cringe. "What makes you think she's going to lose?"

"That parasol the other girl is wielding," Voluta said, nodding to Pallamano. "She wouldn't bring that into the arena unless there was some combat-related purpose for it. I also sense that she is strong, and won't go down easily."

"Some comrade you are!"

When Imprevisto told the girls to start, Pallamano just placed the tip of her parasol on the ground like a cane, and stood there. This made Cielo attack first and throw her knives. But Pallamano just smiled and twisted her parasol side-to-side. A sudden breeze came in front of her and caused Cielo's knives to loose their trajectory and fall to the floor at Pallamano's feet. Cielo was surprised, and so were Beni Niro and Scar Face.

"I've never missed before," Cielo muttered.

"Well, there's a first time for everything," Pallamano replied, still smiling.

This made Cielo frown, and clench the two scrolls in her other hand. She took one of them, and placed both on the ground. Pallamano made no attempt to move as she watched Cielo perform a series of hand-signs and wave her hands over the scrolls. "Winged Serpents (Twin Rising Dragons)!" Cielo commanded.

Immediately, two puffs of smoke came from the scrolls as they shot skyward in the shape of two serpents intertwining with one another. As the smoke cleared, it was revealed that the two scrolls had unraveled with Latin writing on the inside and an alchemic circle on the outside as they twirled in mid-air. Cielo then sprung high into the air between the two strolls and started to grab a variety of weapons that suddenly appeared, ranging from knives to swords to spears to javelins. Then she took these weapons and threw them at Pallamano.

Pallamano snorted, and pointed her parasol at the oncoming weapons. "Looks like I'll have to use all three Disks (Moons) for this one."

Then she used her other hand to open the parasol up, which released a blast of wind as she did so. The weapons were immediately sent flying back at Cielo, who only flinched. In the overhead light, it turned out small steel strings were attached to the weapons, which connected with Cielo's fingers as she waved them away from herself and back at Pallamano. But Pallamano only twisted her parasol, saying, "War Birds' Dance* (Sickle Weasel Technique)!"

This sent a sideways whirlwind at the weapons, which were broken from their strings, and made Cielo fall to the ground. She fell flat on her back with her clothes and skin torn by the wind, but curled in fear as her weapons rained down. Luckily, most of them missed or fell close to her. When she uncurled, she saw Pallamano point the umbrella upwards and twirl it, which allowed Pallamano to float off the ground and glide towards her. Cielo groaned as she tried to get up, but was met by Pallamano's feet as she kicked Cielo back onto the ground and stood over her.

"If you surrender now, I won't kill you," Pallamano said, pointing the parasol's metal tip at Cielo's forehead.

"I…I surrender," Cielo muttered.

Then Imprevisto came over and raised Pallamano's hand into the air, which made her brothers grin, except for Tarma. Voluta closed his eyes in disappointment, while Gelato once again covered his ears as Beni Niro and Tarma cried in agony over Cielo's defeat. The Godfather frowned slightly, but regardless, he pulled the lever on the slot machine.

After the weapons were gathered and Cielo was taken to the corner where the medics were, Beni Niro and Scar Face immediately went to see her. As for Rosa and Maiale, they had recovered well enough to leave and immediately headed for the balcony. When the Godfather called out the next contenders, Maiale's eyes widened. It turned out one of them was her comrade, Capriolo Marche, but he just shrugged and reluctantly went down to the arena. The other was Oro Terra from Squad Seta, who stared at Capriolo with the determination to beat him as payback for her group's defeat in the Dead Man's Sewers.

After Capriolo and Oro had positioned themselves in front of each other, Imprevisto looked at them both. He asked them to remove their guns, which they did promptly, and raised his hand as the signal to begin their match. Capriolo immediately made the sign of the Crab and said, "Mocking of the Shade** (Shadow Imitation Technique)!"

Suddenly, Capriolo's shadow grew longer and headed towards Oro, who dodged it after remembering what happened to Ecc. But she quickly retaliated by throwing metal-tipped darts (senbon) at Capriolo. However, he dodged them easily as they were pinned to the wall behind him. Then, he heard a sound behind him, and turned to see what it was, which gave Oro the opportunity to throw more darts at him, and he was unable to dodge two of them. But a quick glance at the wall made him realize that some of the darts had small silver bells attached.

"So you're using darts with bells in order to distract me from the regular ones," Capriolo said as he pulled one of the darts out.

Oro smirked. "You caught onto my Silent Darts (Shadow Senbon) pretty quick. Then let's see how you deal with noise."

She then pulled an invisible set of strings in her hand, which made the bells on the opposite wall ring. Capriolo fought the urge to look back, knowing what they were, but noticed his vision suddenly grew blurry and his body started to stiffen. As the bells continued to toll, his ears were ringing and he found himself grabbing the sides of his head in agony as he saw multiple Oros appear in front of him.

"What's the matter? Too much sound for you to handle?" said the multiple Oros. "Apart from distracting you, the bells also emit a strong vibration that travels directly into the brain, which causes paralysis and then hallucination, making you an easy target!"

As she threw three more darts at Capriolo, which to him looked like thirty, he couldn't move as every one of them penetrated his body. Maiale and Palermo were concerned, while Ecc's eyes glowed with joy at the sight. This bothered Gelato, as he encouraged Rosa to cheer for Capriolo, even though he wasn't in their Squad. But after a couple more rounds of darts, Capriolo couldn't stand anymore and knelt on the floor, making a quick Crab sign before letting his hands fall limp at his sides.

"Given up already?" Oro asked, reaching for five darts, but found that her arm was too stiff for some reason. She tried to ring the bell-strings again, but even that arm couldn't move. "W-What's going on?"

Capriolo chuckled, and stood up wearily. "You were so focused on killing me that you unintentionally stepped within my shadow."

"Your shadow? I thought I dodged it." Oro looked around, and then noticed her bell-strings' shadow as it grew larger and surrounded her feet, stretching all the way back to Capriolo's feet. Her eyes widened when she realized, "That Crab sign you made when you fell to the floor…you were sending the shadow you had already cast along the shadows the bell-strings made to get to mine."

"Yep, but that's not all this spell does," Capriolo said, moving his hand to his pants-pocket. Then strangely, Oro was doing the same thing, except reaching into her purse filled with darts and knives instead of her dress.

"I don't see the point in doing this," Oro said, trying to resist. "What does making your opponent mimic you accomplish?"

"You'll see," Capriolo replied, taking out a fold-up pocketknife. At the same time, Oro took out a knife as well.

Both of them flipped theirs open and threw them at each other. Then as Capriolo leaned back and successfully dodged Oro's knife, Oro did the same to Capriolo's knife, but knocked her head against the tin wall of the hanger behind her instead. As she slumped down on the floor unconscious, the shadow that possessed her retreated back to Capriolo, who straightened himself out and wobbled slightly as Imprevisto held Capriolo's hand up for everyone on the balcony to see. Maiale, Palermo, Gelato, and Rosa cheered while Ecc glared at Oro disapprovingly, and then noticed the man with the black suit and purple tie standing next to him. Capriolo grinned and then fell into Imprevisto as the medical personnel took him to the corner to remove the darts from his body.

"Father Typhonragazzo," Ecc muttered in surprise. "How long have you been standing there?"

The man, Typhonragazzo but with a different face, smiled in turn. "Since the match between one of Casco's men and the puppet boy."

Unsettled by Typhonragazzo's smile, Ecc avoided his gaze. "I'm sorry my group hasn't been doing well in this challenge, Father. Zach shamefully lost both his arms in his match, so I hoped Oro would do better, but as you can see, her opponent proved to be smarter. When it's my turn…I promise I'll win!"

"You had better, because I would hate to regret choosing you three for my 'special mission'."

End of Chapter 29

*One of the twelve labors Heracles had to perform required him to get rid of the Stymphalian Birds, which had bronze beaks and could throw their metallic feathers as projectiles, and were Ares' pets, who was the Greek god of war

**A Shade is the spirit of a dead person in the Greek/Roman afterlife, which is covered in shadow