A young man dressed in a long black onmyoji robe with a red undergarment that slipped out from the suffocating and baggy robe around the trousers and the upper arm areas swung a massive pole weapon - a long obsidian staff decorated with golden frames and jewels in the center of each decorative pattern. The pole's end, unlike most polearms, was nearly half the length of the entire weapon and thicker than the man swinging the weapon. There was no subtlety in the weapon's blade. It was jagged, like a hacksaw.
Behind the back of the unsuspecting youth, a tall and gaunt-shaped man strut up to him. The sneaky specter wore a long crimson waistcoat and a triangular captain's hat decorated with a handful of fluffy red feathers that appeared perpetually stuck in a state of blazing yet, strangely enough, not burning up nor letting anything that came into contact with the feathers catch on fire either. The triangular hat betrayed this mysterious man to be a pirate captain, though he dressed much fancier than any other seamen, even Pirate Lords surpassing this one in unofficial rank.
"Mayhem Summoning: King's Fortune!" the crimson pirate chanted after slipping a tiny dagger and slashing the tip of his own thumb. A loud pop and a thick cloud of smoke surprised the young man with rebellious, spiky burgundy-colored hair, making him shoot his stare upward and witness the airborne wooden ship that was about to crash on his and plenty of other people's heads.
"Abyssal Dark Oversea!" sneering, the punk youth in onmyoji clothes swung his cleaving polearm, emitting crackles of black lightning with a crimson outline that converged into the gigantic shape of a black lightning megalodon. The surrounding combatants and the spectators alike twitched and covered their ears when the lightning construct let out an unexpected T-Rex roar and surfed the rich with static fields skies toward its target, blasting it to a rain of burning splinters while the magician swung his polearm about and slammed its other end to the ground beside him with a content smirk on his face.
What the rebellious onmyoji did not expect, however, was a big square wooden box slamming down from behind him, wielded by the same pirate who had summoned the ship to crash right on top of the polearm-wielding magician boy and his surrounding opponents. The pirate captain had a calm, an almost nonchalant expression on him, kicking the box to roll over while he caught a couple of boards falling from the sky and slammed them down on top of the box. With the aid of his long leather boots, the pirate captain stomped a handful of nails into the lid to seal the young man inside.
A maroon-colored X flashed with brighter red light onto the box's side just before a firm kick sent the box's side wall flying in chipped splinters and the young magician walked out with his massive cleaver polearm resting on his shoulder. The punk-haired youth in traditional onmyoji robes scratched his head with a baffled look on his face as he stared at the pirate captain, still working on stomping nails in his box.
"Can I help ya, old man?" the confused magician shouted, alerting the captain's attention that his captive had easily escaped a mere wooden box from a loaded ship.
"That weapon you've got… It looks lavish. I'm taking it with me," the slender and tall pirate captain straightened his back, pointing at the cleaving polearm with gold and gemstone decorations that rested on the youth's shoulder.
"What's this now outta the blue? I've got one for ya, old man, if you're worried about dough, might not wanna toss giant ships around just to get smashed. Ships cost a fortune too, ya know…" the magician in black onmyoji robes grumbled.
"I know, but when you've got 400 ships sealed away, you can spare one or two for something as fancy-looking as that polearm," the pirate captain took off his triangular hat and let go of it in mid-air only for it to rest on the corner of the box's top. By taking his hat off, the pirate captain revealed an oval-shaped head of short and slick black hair, lightly curved to the right side. Alongside with the complete lack of the pirate's facial hair, he made for one civilized-looking pirate.
"Yeah, well… Too bad for ya!" the rebellious magician snickered and flipped the tall and lean pirate the bird. "I need this polearm to focus my crazy raw strength into spells like a proper onmyoji. I've got crazy raw power and without a medium, it goes wild everywhere. I've already got enough trouble as it is focusing on controlling my power by restricting it to movies I've seen, so I'm not giving my medium away to you, piss off!"
"I see, well, I wasn't really asking…" the pirate captain pointed out with strange indifference to just being flipped off right in his face. He spoke as if the two weren't trash-talking to each other but legitimately discussing the price of the polearm. "Besides, you look like a lively fellow taking pride in your masculinity. A polearm is a girl's weapon, you know."
"Then why do you want it?" the magician's face soured and his lips stretched into a long face.
"Because I don't tie my masculinity down to material possessions. I know who I am and what I want," the pirate captain pointed out.
"And what do you want, old geezer?" the spiky-haired magician defined by sharp contrasts of his expressive yet mean grimacing face and traditional garments squinted in deep-rooted suspicion.
"Everything I see. I'm a pirate. Pirates steal, that means I have to steal everything I see, and I saw your polearm," the curly-haired pirate stated in an extremely practical manner, almost as if he felt like an alien in his own skin, speaking stiffly with both his arms pressed to his sides.
"So you just steal everything that you see? Feels reckless, aren't you worried about crashing into an opponent that's too strong for you?" the spiky-haired magician teased the pirate captain with a cocky smirk.
"No," the captain answered very matter-of-factly. "I steal any ship I see. My summoning dimension contains a vault of stolen ships surpassing that of even the Pirate Lords, and I think that's kind of cool. Let me show you…"
The mouth of the onmyoji magician dragged across both sides of his face while he widened his eyes in surprise, ready to assure his opponent that he fully believed his complete lack of worry over what he was attacking and seeking to claim for himself as the slender pirate leaned down and dragged his bleeding thumb across the lid on top of the box, smearing traces of blood across it and making sealing glyphs extend in a webbed formation across the top of the wooden container.
"Mayhem Summoning: Queen's Rover, Swell Luck, Warden, Petite Warden…!" the pirate captain just kept on naming ships as the dust clouds over the arena circled in a troubling layer that popped off with a barrage of booms. An entire fleet of expensive warships began raining down from the sky, threatening to obliterate the entire ring or, at the very least, cover it in a wooden junkyard.
"Black Magical Wave Slash!" the onmyoji raised his polearm over his head, making it vibrate with black electricity that converged at the cleaver point, causing it to become a bright and hissing black star that sent crescent projectile waves in all directions. These energy waves didn't appear to be sharp, as instead of slicing the ships they collided with cleanly into several parts, they utterly obliterated them into sawdust-sized pieces with violent outbursts of energy.
The combatants that were involved in the massive group brawl with the onmyoji youth braced themselves as a raging wave of sawdust passed throughout the arena, settling down on the arena's tiles and making an even bigger mess of the tournament grounds. A handful of stray dark magic energy waves curved like boomerangs, returning and smashing into the wide open back of the pirate captain, wrecking the box he stood on and flattening him before his opponent, much to the amusement of the rebellious youth.
"Sorry, but if throwing ships at people is all you're good for, I suggest ya split. Ya've got no chance at taking my Devil Suiboku from me," the magician leaned down to the fallen pirate, gently placing the triangular hat on the back of the pirate's head with a sheepish smirk. The flashy fire feathers decorating the hat caught the magician's eye, making him pluck one out of curiosity and examine it. "Man… I'm getting all sorts of good vibrations off of these fluffs."
"Please leave them alone," the captain barked out after standing up and swiping it from the youth's hands. Even though his armada of crash-landing ghost ships was obliterated in an instant and he was just humbled by the dark onmyoji, the pirate spoke with the same nonchalant and practical tone without a hint of spite or aggravation of his need to steal the onmyoji's weapon in it. "These are genuine phoenix feathers and getting just these few was a real handful."
"Huh? These… Phoenix feathers? Really?" the onmyoji rolled the fluffy blazes in his hand, admiring their curious texture and look and warm feeling they inspired. Despite being bright and flashy, they reflected a dazzling, almost hypnotic flame off the onmyoji's jasmine-colored eyes. "Ya know they don't actually make you immortal right? Poor birds get chased around by dumbass hicks, thinking they can become immortal by just getting their hands on a single feather. Phoenixes can't die of natural causes, but ya won't turn immortal by eating one or whatever backward dirtbag cultists believe…"
"That's exactly why it's so difficult getting one's hands on some," the pirate confirmed with a raised index finger, almost like spouting out a fun trivia fact rather than arguing with an insufferable brat. "People aren't willing to give them away when they think it will make them immortal. Plenty more shut their loved ones in a coffin with one, thinking it'll bring them to life overnight, but they end up getting buried alongside the dead. Just getting a few for a cool hat decoration was a real pain, so I'd appreciate it if you gave them back."
"I don't know, I saw them, so why shouldn't I just take them?" the spiky-haired onmyoji flashed a teasing grin and stuffed the feathers under his robe. "See how obnoxious it is? How does it feel when someone does it to ya?"
"It's irritating. In this case, I'll just have to steal them back," the pirate captain with a now featherless hat stood up and dusted his coat off. Drawing a cutlass from a sheathe on his side, the tall captain took off in a straight dash toward his opponent, stunning the rebellious lad with his unexpected feat of aggression. With a perplexed and distressed look, the black onmyoji placed his polearm in front of him and blocked the straight swing.
The collision crackled with black lightning in a red outline, bolts shooting off in all directions while thunderous cracks ripped through the air. Even now, there didn't seem to be a hint of emotion in the pirate captain's look. Even when, by his own admission, he felt frustrated, he didn't show an ounce of wrath or spite toward his opponent, striking at him with the same look he had when the captain was explaining his way of life to the young man earlier.
The dandy pirate swung his cutlass around in a passionate dance, though his body language didn't quite match the cold-blooded look on his face. The raw skill and aggression of the pirate got even the rambunctious onmyoji on his back foot, stumbling back and answering each of his opponent's cuts and thrusts with a deflection or a block. Had the young man wielded a weapon less versatile than his polearm, he'd have succumbed to the swordplay of the daring buccaneer.
"Black Magical Wave Slash!" the young man barked out after yet another collision with the pirate's sword. The cleaving end of the pole weapon began shimmering with a concentrated black star that pulsed and expanded out of control, sending uncontrollable black waves in all directions. Because the pirate captain was so close to his opponent, the vibrating energy wave hit him right in the chest and stunned the pirate captain before dragging him away and exploding with a vicious rip.
"Ain't half bad, old timer…" the black onmyoji snickered. He wouldn't have minded killing his opponent too much, but the genuine reaction of the punk-looking youth relayed that he preferred keeping his opponents alive. "Mana is the fundamental energy of all creation, or so gramps says. It's rare that I can meet anyone that my attacks don't fully obliterate. Ya must have more mana in yer system than that measly attack to survive it, huh?"
"Mana? Wouldn't know what that is, can't see it, can't steal it…" the pirate dragged the tattered sleeve of his fancy coat across his dirty face, reeling from being hit by multiple vibrating crescent energy slash projectiles head-on. "In the pirate world, we measure the worth of a pirate in guts. Though a lot like your mana, can't seem to be able to steal guts either. Then again, I can't really see it, so I wouldn't know if I've stolen it even if I did."
"Heh… Yer one weird guy!" the maroon-haired man laughed out, pointing at the battered and bruised captain. To no surprise to anyone who knew the captain, the tall seaman didn't share his opponent's sentiment. Instead of sharing a laugh, the pirate dragged his hands across his cut-up chest, then extended his hands, raising his palms and revealing sealing glyphs drawn in the center of each palm. The blood from his wounds activated the sealing glyphs, making them split off in a web-like pattern, with different symbols spreading from the central glyph.
"Containment Summoning: Sold Men's Chest!" the captain exclaimed, causing a violent pop at the tip of his hands and a rushing dust storm that made his opponent brace so that the blowing air pressure didn't waft him away.
"Yer using some weird methods of invocation, old timer! Dropping them from the sky, summoning them in boxes…" the spiky-haired onmyoji said when the pressure stabilized and the intense draft from the summoning settled down. With the slow dispersal of the dust clouds, two rectangular wooden box containers revealed themselves. "When magicians use invocation, the familiars just appear from where we draw the runes. It's pretty hilarious to see that pretentious lot of old chaps getting murked by a beer-chugging seaman!"
Without humoring the excited young man with a response, the pirate captain tapped the rear ends of each box, causing them to croak and squeak just before the walls detached and fell to the sides, liberating what lurked inside. The spiky-haired onmyoji exclaimed in shock after seeing forty wooden people built out of simple logs nailed to one another, each sprouting a lively and green clover from the stump growing on the top of the head. Vivid flames burnt inside their eye sockets, though they didn't spread to encompass the entirety of the wooden people.
"And what's going on here!?" the announcer finally noticed the calamitous meeting between the pirate captain and the punk onmyoji. "It seems like pirate captain Bartholomew Black finally revealed his army of wood people! They may appear like mere puppets, but these have a dark secret, for each one of these wood-people hosts a single human soul enslaved by the cold-blooded pirate captain Bartholomew Black! It is said that he owns at least 80 wood-people so he may throw all of them against Amerigo Hangyaku, a powerhouse apprentice onmyoji from the magician team!"
"Wait… Is that true!?" Amerigo's eyes blanked out in horror. "There are souls of real people inside those wood-people?"
"That's right, you can release their souls to the afterlife by snapping these clovers growing from their heads. They have little value to me since I've taken their stuff already. Their stuff wasn't worth what I spent getting it, so I had to take their souls to compensate for what they owed me. Because of how worthless they are, I'm willing to sacrifice all of them to get your stuff…" Bartholomew stated, pointing his index finger at the apprentice onmyoji powerhouse, commanding the horde of wailing wood-people with burning lumps of coal for eyes to charge at Amerigo and throw themselves to form a body pile.
The wood people began stacking up, with each successive wooden puppet crawling on top of those beneath them. Meanwhile, Bartholomew pulled out a piece of flint and dragged his fingers across it, sparking cinders in the air. Clapping his hands together and breathing in deeply, he drew the cinders into his inflated chest and blew them out in a howling firestorm that set the body pile of wood people on fire. The resulting vivid maelstrom of flames licked the sky like a pillar of a booming heatwave. The wood people shrieked and howled in agony, some groaned and begged for either help or a quick death in unintelligible gibberish.
A swinging cleave split the fiery whirlpool into two separate masses, while Amerigo continued to twirl his polearm and extinguish the flames. With a stern look in his eyes, he blinked away, appearing behind Bartholomew Black in an instant. Surprised by the draft of rushing air, Bartholomew was about to glance behind him when he heard subtle wooden cracks and witnessed the sprouting clovers on each of the head stumps parting from the charred body of the tormented wood people. One by one, the liberated souls whisked away into the afterlife, abandoning the charred husks to collapse lifelessly on the ground.
"You want my polearm that badly? Then you can have it…" Amerigo muttered in a solemn tone, spinning his weapon around in his hands and switching between different handling arms before gently throwing the weapon at the emotionless pirate captain.
The moment that Bartholomew's hands wrapped around the decorated frame of the mana-conductive weapon, Amerigo snapped forward in an instant and drove his fist straight into Bartholomew's face, smashing it in like malleable dough before the overwhelmed captain blasted off across the pool of water outside the arena and slammed into the protective wall sprawled and stuck in the wall with a bloody mess of a caved-in face. Vicious rips of black and red lightning shot off in all directions and persisted like a constant static aura around the rebellious onmyoji who turned around and pounded his open hand while his hair spiked up by the magical static caused by the rampant field of his own unbound mana.
"Now look what you made me do… Got me so riled up that I dumped the only thing focusing and restraining my wild strength…" Amerigo punched an open palm without a bother to even glance at the man he crushed with his peerless physical strength amongst the magicians. Whereas the rest of the spellcasters from the magician team employed the fundamental creation and destruction energies that governed the universe and beyond, the same ones that other warrior breeds used as well, Amerigo Hangyaku used his prodigious and unmatched ability to channel a colossal amount of mana solely to augment his physical strength.
"Amerigo Hangyaku, the rebellious punk onmyoji of the magician team, eliminated the ruthless captain Bartholomew Black!" the announcer laid it out for the audience.
It was only with the aid of his mana-conductive polearm that he could restrain and focus his boundless power and weave spells like his mentors and now his opponent took it with them out of bounds so Amerigo won't be getting it back until the end of the round.
That worked just fine for him, and, in his current vexed state, he couldn't have cared less about if it worked for everyone else too.